***
Kelsey’s father turned on the radio, letting the music play gently in the background as he drove slowly down the icy mountain. The small car settled into a rhythm that made a sort of music of its own when combined with the sound of the tire chains crunching a new path in the thick snow. Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and could almost believe Kelsey was my own and we were visiting her parents to ask for their blessing, that she would introduce me as the one she loved, the one she couldn’t live without.
Instead, she caught my attention when she spoke about school with her mother. She seemed shy in answering her mother’s questions, and I wondered if it was the subject material or if it was my presence that made her nervous. Maddie had just turned her attention to me and was asking if I was visiting or if I’d moved to Oregon when Joshua adjusted his mirror and glanced behind us.
“What is it?” his wife asked.
I heard a car and looked out the back window. The revving of its engine was accompanied by uproarious laughter. Kelsey jumped when the driver blew the horn several times.
“Crazy kids,” Joshua said. “They’re probably drunk.”
“We have several miles left of mountain road. Just wave them ahead,” Maddie suggested.
Joshua rolled down his window and waved his arm, but the honking continued. Whoever was driving the vehicle behind us fishtailed back and forth in the thick snow and ice covering the road. They bounced the back of their car into a tall fir tree, and the impact sent a snow shower down onto their car. Instead of having a sobering effect, the boys in the car hooted victoriously as if they’d just won a great battle. They accelerated dangerously close to our vehicle. Kelsey cried out.
“It will be okay,” I reassured her. She nodded trustingly, but then the driver behind us flicked his brights on and off. Kelsey sunk down in her seat so her head could no longer be seen, wrapped her arms around her torso, and played nervously with one of her braids.
Seeing her frightened caused my fists to tighten in anger. I wanted to burst through the back window in my tiger form. Imagining landing heavily on the hood of their vehicle and raking my claws across their windshield as I roared and they whimpered gave me a measure of satisfaction, but I doubted that was the reason I was here.
Why am I here? To save Kelsey. But from what? From these boys? What do they want with her? As soon as I began to speculate, my mind filled with nefarious possibilities, ones that would cause me to rip out the throat of any boy who dared think it. Is that the reason I’m here? To prevent these boys from hurting Kelsey and her parents?
So far they’d limited themselves to being annoying. There was no reason to rip throats. At least not yet. Kelsey and her parents were safe for now.
The car weaved behind us, the headlights creating shadows in our car that lengthened and shrunk with each turn. I could see the strain in Joshua Hayes’ eyes, but to his credit, he was as calm as if he were reading a book.
He did his best to soothe his wife and daughter and refused to hurry down the dangerous mountain despite the pressure of the young idiots riding his tail. To distract them, he began talking about where they should go on their vacation next year, suggesting the beach or some other warm place, and asked them where they would like to go.
“Kelsey?” he asked, “what about you?”
She shrugged and when he asked again, she spoke quietly. “I chose this year. Maybe Mom can choose the next.”
“Perhaps you’re right.” Her father smiled in the rearview mirror. “Maddie? Where would you like to go?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said nervously. “Kishan? Perhaps you could tell us a bit about India,” she suggested.
I’d just opened my mouth to answer her when the car rammed into us and pushed us several feet to the left before Kelsey’s father regained control.
“Now that’s just going too far!” Mr. Hayes said sternly. He maneuvered back into his lane with the intention of stopping the car, but the drunken boys behind us hit us again, this time shoving us straight ahead. The right side of the car scraped against the mountainside. As sparks flew up between the windows and the mountain, Kelsey screamed and grabbed my hand. I squeezed it, trying to reassure her.
When the other car backed away, I leaned forward. “We need to get out of the car, Mr. Hayes. I can handle them,” I said.
“But you have a broken ankle,” Mrs. Hayes said anxiously. “Besides, it’s better to get away from bullies and report them to the authorities than to fight.”
“Running from bullies just isn’t my style, ma’am. No offense.”
She gave me a look. “No. I can’t imagine you running from anything.”
Kelsey watched me wide-eyed and pale-faced. “You’re not going out there, are you?” she asked nervously.
“If your dad can safely stop the car, I will.”
Joshua Hayes nodded in the mirror and managed to bring the car to a stop, angling the front wheels to the left a bit so that when my door opened I’d be facing the troublemakers, but instead of stopping their car, they accelerated.
“Joshua! Watch out!”
I’d just undone my seat belt when they hit us and the door on my side of the car folded inward, the glass breaking. Kelsey cried out and grabbed on to my arm in an attempt to pull me closer to her side so I wouldn’t be injured. Our car slid several feet down a hill so icy that even the chains on the tires couldn’t find purchase. We were pushed into the other lane and beyond it, where we hit a boulder.
Before I realized what was happening, my body became weightless and I slammed against the other side of the car, hitting something soft, which I soon recognized was Kelsey. We held each other and tumbled together as the car rolled once, twice, three times. I tried to shield her with my body as best I could, but the torn vehicle swerved to the edge of the road, and I heard the crunch of metal as we hit a post. Then my stomach dropped as the car spilled over the side of the mountain in free fall headed toward the tops of the trees in the forest far below.
Grabbing Kelsey close to my chest, I used the power of the Damon Amulet to whisk her away before the plummeting car struck a tree and the windshield shattered. There was nothing else I could do to prevent the horrifying accident that not only claimed the lives of Kelsey’s beloved family but would change her forever, impacting the woman she would become.
Chapter 3
Enlightenment
We rematerialized on the mountain road just as the car hit the jutting edge of the mountain. With a shriek of twisting metal, it spun and crashed below, the body of the car crumpling into a mass of steel. The white world around us quieted as the engine died. I heard a ticking sound and then turned away as the underside of the vehicle that now faced the sky burst into flame.
I staggered back and collapsed to one knee, still cradling Kelsey in my arms. She cried out as one of her legs hit the ground. Quickly scooping her up again, I asked. “Where does it hurt?”
“My…my leg,” she groaned. “Something’s wrong with my knee.”
Her eyes were unfocused and blood dripped from a cut on her temple. I needed to check her head injury. A large lump was forming.
“What happened?” she asked. “Where are my parents?”
Swallowing, I said, “There was an accident.”
She nodded but I wasn’t sure if she understood. Trembling delicately, she said, “I’m so cold.”
“I know, bilauta.” I snuggled her close to my chest and felt the trickle of icy tears run down my cheek.