AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What did it say?”
“He said to be careful.”
“Should we skip the ice cream? It’s getting dark.”
“It is getting dark.”
“Always darkest before the dawn,” Saber said.
“No,” Lozen said, her voice quiet. “It’s always darkest before it goes completely black.”
Saber sat with her hands on the steering wheel for a moment. She imagined it might be Ansel following, keeping watch over them.
“No,” she said. “It’s still technically light out. Fuck them. I want ice cream. But let’s just go to that convenience store.”
Lozen breathed out.
“I want ice cream too,” she said, and Saber put her foot on the gas and drove.
“You get in the driver’s seat in case we need to make a quick getaway. I’ll be fast. Wehaveto get this ice cream.”
They were both giggling, but Saber felt real anxiety.
She jumped from the car and looked around. There were a few cars in the parking lot of the gas station, which shared its building with an Italian restaurant that was closed that evening. There were a few streetlights in the parking lot, too, but Saber couldn’t see another living soul. She strode purposefully into the gas station, opened the freezer cabinet near the front, and grabbed a handful of ice-cream sandwiches with the chocolate wafers and tossed them onto the counter. There was no attendant, and the only sound was the electric buzz of the overhead lights. Saber looked around before calling out.
“Hello?”
She looked into the ice-cream case again and pulled out a pint of cookie dough, putting that on the counter too. She heard a thud coming from the back room.
“Hello?” she called again.
She heard movement coming from the back room and looked over just as the door began to creak open. The hair on the back of her neck and arms stood up and she froze. Then, the blaring sound of the car horn exploded in the parking lot.
Saber nearly jumped out of her skin, grabbed the ice cream, and ran. She felt her whole body flood with adrenaline, like she could almost lift off from the ground and fly. She didn’t know why she grabbed the ice cream, except that in that moment it felt really important. The door to the back room of the convenience store slammed open the rest of the way, she heard it connect with the wall, but she didn’t see who came out of it, she was moving so fast.
Everything was a blur.
“Run!” Lozen screamed from the car, her voice breaking. Saber saw a man’s shape stalking across the parking lot toward her.
She didn’t stop to look, she was running so fast, until he seemed, in an instant, to be in between her and her SUV, its lights blinding and beckoning in the dark.
“Oh fuck,” Saber whimpered, still cradling the ice cream, as she recognized Derek’s white face, his smile huge and threatening. Gone were all the trappings of humanity now. He shone with menace.
For a moment he was backlit by the SUV lights, and Saber heard a sound, the engine revving wildly, before, with a shrieking and a thud, she saw Derek crumple like he was made of paper as Lozen ran him over.
Whatever he was expecting, it hadn’t been that.
He was laid out with a crushing sound, and Lozen kept driving over him, pulling right up to Saber, who stood, gasping, in the middle of the parking lot.
Then she heard a scream and saw that whatever was inside of the convenience store was coming out, and quickly, not running,gliding.
“Get thefuckin the car!”
Lozen threw open the door and Saber ducked in so fast that she hit her head on the door frame and slammed it closed behind her. Lozen threw the shifter into reverse and hit the gas, reversing over Derek’s body with a sickening thump as she swung in a wide arc through the parking lot.
“What thefuck!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “What the fuck!”
“Drive,” Saber yelled, “fuckingdrive, Lozen!”
