“Not until you calm down and listen to me. You trying to get yourself killed?”
“Let me go!” I squirm again, but to no avail. Kieron’s arms are locked around me like a vise. With as much strength as I can muster, I stomp down on one of his feet. He doesn’t budge, and lets out a small chuckle.
“Liora, stop. I’m really sorry; I didn’t mean to scare you. Look, I’ll let you go if you promise not to run out and become road kill.”
“I promise, now let me go,” I say through clenched teeth.
He gradually loosens his grip and I take several steps back, eyeing him warily.
Kieron sighs, his blue eyes sad and frustrated…pleading. “Liora, I’m sorry. Honest. I shouldn’t have done that without asking you first. I...I thought you’d want to talk… about… everything that’s going on. I misread your concern…I thought we could go somewhere away from the craziness and just, I dunno, be real with one another for a minute.” He looks down and aimlessly kicks at a pebble on the ground.
And now I feel like a huge idiot. What am I worried about? Do I really think he’s some sort of crazed murderer? Of course not. And so what if he’s hungry? He’s a growing boy. And we’ve all woken up not looking or feeling our best. If it wasn’t for Tatiana’s magical potion this morning, I’d be looking like something someone scraped up off the side of a ditch. Who am I to judge? I lower my eyes, ashamed at my paranoid overreaction.
“Sorry,” I mumble. “I didn’t mean to be a spaz…it’s just with everything that’s happened…I don’t know what to think right now.” I run my hands up the side of my head and clench some hair.
He takes a step closer to me. “Is it okay if we go somewhere to talk? Or do you really want me to take you home. I’m fine with whatever you want. I’ll even call you a taxi if you don’t want to be around me anymore.”
I think it over for a few moments. “How’s your foot?”
He grins. “I have another one.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” I mumble, and give him a tentative smile. “I guess it’s cool if we go somewhere for a while.”
Without saying a word he heads to the side of the truck and opens the door for me as I climb in. As he starts up the engine again, I look out the window and pray I’m not making a huge mistake.
******
Once again, Kieron takes me on an unfamiliar road. Instead of to the cemetery—we both agreed we didn’t want to be there now—he’s driving us up a mountain, a winding back-county road flanked by patches of trees and wide open fields.
“Where are we going?” I ask, feeling a sense of déjà vu. He just moved here; how is it he knows about all these places I don’t?
“Just somewhere I think you’ll like,” he says. His profile looks hard and tired at the same time.
“Yeah, well you said that yesterday, and you took me to an abandoned cemetery.”
“But you liked it, right?” He looks at me from the corner of his eye.
“Yeah,” I admit with a sigh, and look out the window. Our conversation has been stilted and awkward ever since I tried to run away. But I can’t bring myself to relax; there are just too many things bothering me…not the least of which is the fact that here I am driving off into the middle of nowhere with a guy I hardly know, and who is making my Spidey-Sense tingle warnings under my skin.
From out of nowhere, a large black crow flies up alongside my window. Great. Of course Tatiana’s checking up on me. For someone who is blind, she sees way too much sometimes. I casually glance over to Kieron, hoping he doesn’t notice our new companion. Thankfully, his attention is focused on the curvy road. The bird keeps pace with us for a few more miles, then abruptly flies off in the opposite direction. No doubt heading back to tell Tatiana what it saw.
“You doing okay?” Kieron looks over at me and smiles for the first time all morning. We’re near the top of the mountain now, and the town seems far away.
I nod. “It’s so pretty here…I’ve never been out this way before.”
“Really?” He raises his eyebrows. “That’s weird. I just assumed…”
“What?”
He pauses. “Nothing…”
The higher up the mountain we climb, the more colorful the scenery becomes. Autumn has transformed ordinary trees into a magical array of reds, golds, and greens. The sun, peeking through some ominous clouds, dances on the valley floor below us. It looks like a picture from a postcard.
“How do you even know about this place, wherever it is we’re going? Haven’t you only been here for a few weeks?” I ask.