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Chapter One
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Nova
I’m out in the middle of bumfucked nowhere with a temperamental car, a suitcase, and a pissed-off attitude. I just passed a penitentiary about a mile back, it’s dark and oh yeah…it’s Friday the thirteenth. The only thing I don’t have is the dark and stormy night god damn it. Right as I think it, I hear a peal of thunder overhead and the sky lights up with a fork of lightning bright enough to blind me.
That’s it…I’m cursed. It’s official. I’m not sure what I did to whoever it is that cursed me, but it must have been something really bad because, damn, this has been nothing but a nightmare since I opened my eyes this morning.
I woke up late even though I thought I set not only the alarm to wake up but also several backup alarms…and none of them went off. When I finally got to work I found my boss waiting for me. My heart sank as he looked me up and down with that sneer on his face. I was aware he hated me for a myriad of different reasons, not the least being the fact I turned him down when he asked me out, I just didn’t know how badly or how deeply he felt it. That is until he opened his mouth.
“We need a feel-good piece for this Halloween. There’s a town about a day’s drive from here that claims to have a witch who can control everything from the weather to the bloody economy. Go there, find the witch, write the article, and don’t come back until you have something good for the paper or else, you’re fired.”
“What? Wait…”
He basically hands me a sticky note with the general direction of the town on it before turning and walking away. He neglected to tell me it was on a fucking island, and the only way to even get to the town is to go on the ferry. And now I have thirty minutes to make it to the damned boat before I have to spend the night in my car. Something I desperately do not want to do considering how close to the penitentiary I am. It would just be my luck a freakin' prison riot will break out and I will be easy prey for the inmates who escape.
I go just a little faster even though it is so dark I can’t see much outside the beam of my piece of shit headlights. I barely make it and then have the horrifying experience of trying to drive my car onto the boat. This isn’t a modern three-tiered ferry. The cars are not underneath anything and they barely have a place to sit and wait while you’re on it. There are just two other cars on the boat, and one belongs to a couple that could care less if other people are around them. The other passenger is a surely-looking older man who keeps looking over at me and mumbling curse words under his breath.
I spend the hour-long trip playing games on my phone and fighting the urge to vomit. I didn’t have time to take the motion sick pills I have in my purse before I got on, damn it. By the time I come off the fucking ferry I’m sick, sad, and so very tired I can barely hold my head up. I need to find the little inn I booked a room in and hit a bed to sleep away the rest of this day.
I spend half an hour searching for this inn only to get turned around and lost. By the time I realize I am heading into the less inhabited part of the island, I’ve gone deep into the forest that was on one side of the map I printed out. I had to use it because my phone died. I used the last bit of battery playing games on the boat like an idiot.
When my car sputters to a stop and won’t start again no matter how hard I turn the key, all I can do is lay my head on the wheel and try not to cry. I’m so fucked. I guess I should be glad the escaped prisoners from my imaginary demise can’t swim over to the island and kill me. No, instead of escaped convicts I am far more likely to die at the hands…er, paws of a bear or wild cat.
I take a deep breath and try to get my bearings. Maybe a good cry is exactly what I need but, for right now, I need to keep my head. I can wait to have my crying jag once I'm settled in at the inn. I pull myself together and take a fortifying breath as I reach for the door. Before I can open it, however, a feeling comes over me and stops me. I peer at the shadows standing around the sides of the road and fight with my imagination.
There is nothing here. I’m being too much of a ninny and spooking myself. I’m getting all caught up in the creepiness of the woods and the dark…and the day. But even as I talk to myself, I see something moving in the woods up ahead. Something white and almost gauzy looking. It almost looks like…a woman. It’s so quick though and over before I can even be sure. It has to be my imagination. Right?
But when I turn my gaze back to the side of the road, a shadow moves in the darkness, and it looks like it is coming right towards me. My heart thumps so hard I can feel it in my temples, and it looks like the bears and prisoners are going to both take a back seat to whatever boogie man is coming for me now. I should have told Justin to get fucked when he told me I had to do this. I should have been looking for another job months ago. I should have written a last will and testament before I left so my sister could get my NSYNC collection before our mom tosses everything after I’m dead.
A flash of lightning slices through the sky and backlights the silhouette of something large and tall standing across the road. By the time another bolt offers any illumination - the thing, which is fucking huge, is gone from the other side of the road. It’s now just outside my car window!
All I can do is scream and hope someone on this god-forsaken island hears me before it’s too late! It might already be too late considering how close the thing is to my car. And how big it looked from across the fucking road. I came to do a story for Halloween, now I’m going to be the story when they find my dead mangled corpse. At least this day will finally be over.
Chapter Two
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Nova
When there is a knock on my window, I can’t stop myself from jumping and yelling out in fear again as everything I’m scared of takes shape in form the of … a very…hot man?
“Sorry to scare you.” Okay, this man is more model than monster - even if he is huge. “I was just wanted to find out if you needed any help.”
Oh, sweet cheese and crackers. I take a moment to say a prayer of thanks as I cautiously open the door to step out. Hopefully, I’m not stepping out into the arms of a serial killer. I’m smart enough to know they look like everyone else so you can’t necessarily tell.
It takes me a couple of seconds to realize he’s got a flashlight in his hand. Would a killer use a flashlight? It’s not very atmospheric. The lightning does a better job of shifting the mood toward creepy and scary.
“I…um, I can’t get my car started.” Way to play the dumb first victim, loser. Can you be any more of a ninny?
It’s just, the man standing in front of me has the most beautiful eyes. If he’s a killer I might just not mind being a victim…no, seriously please don’t be a serial killer. My luck is already bad enough, I do not need to add victim to my long list of shitty jobs and extensive bad luck.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?”
I hesitate, wondering what the right thing to say is. Will it make me easier to kill and get rid of if I tell him yes? Should I try to slip back into the car?
He isn’t put off by my lack of social graces and a smile breaks across his face and he holds his hand out for me to take. “I’m Nathanial Magnus -the town mayor.”
