Firebolt(3)

A man appeared in the middle of the road. The rain made it hard for me to see him, but the headlights of the truck outlined his figure. I squinted to see him clearer. He was tall, with long black hair, wet strands, clung to his face. He wore a pair of pants, no T-shirt, and it looked like no shoes either. He stared at the pickup for a couple of minutes, and it made my heart pound faster. He began to walk slowly towards us.

“Daaaaad?” I slapped his shoulder, trying to expel the fear from my body.

“Elena.” He grabbed my wrist. “I'll be fine. You need to go. Now. And, Bear, I'm so sorry. Whatever happens, don't stop for anything.”

“Dad?” My lower lip quivered like mad. He kissed me one more time on my forehead and wiped away my tears gently with his thumbs.

“I'll meet you there.” He climbed out of the truck and slammed the door in my face. My gaze switched back at macho loon making his way towards Dad, who stood right next to the pickup. I quickly moved into the driver’s seat, took a deep breath, and buckled up.

With my hands trembling on the steering wheel, I took another deep breath.

You can do this, the voice in my head rambled a couple of times. The key sat lazily in the ignition, and I jerked it to the right. The pickup sputtered and died. The guy disappeared into the darkness, and a new set of fear pumped through my veins.

“No, no, no, no! Please don't die on me now,” I mumbled as I tried to restart the engine. The man appeared again by the faint glow of the headlights. He was getting closer.

“Start you stupid piece of crap!” I yelled over the roar of the blood pumping in my ears.

The engine came to life and I screamed as the man's figure leaped toward the pickup. Dad jumped from the asphalt and tackled him in mid-air. “Go, Elena!” he shouted over the pounding rain.

I floored the gas pedal, and the pickup's tires screeched as I drove past Dad, who'd wrestled the guy onto the road. Tears blurred my sight.

I can't just leave him back there. I struggled to come to terms with what the hell was going on.

My father and the other man quickly disappeared into the horizon of my rearview mirror. I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand and lowered the mirror so that I could see Dad, but they had vanished into the night.

Don't stop for anything, Dad's voice replayed inside my head.

My hands trembled on the shift as I found the third gear. A strong force hit the pickup on the passenger’s side. The impact of the blow jolted through my body as the truck rolled a couple of times, and came to a halt on its roof, leaving me suspended in the air. My head and body throbbed with pain, and warm blood ran down my skull. I began to slip into darkness.

Lightning struck, and the road engulfed in flames, leaving me wide-awake. Something to the left grabbed my attention as the fire slowly began to creep toward the overturned truck. The aching inside my head blurred my vision and I couldn't see the figure properly, but when it lifted up the truck, righting it on the asphalt once again, a shrill sound left my lips.

The belly of a huge blue beast on four legs the size of tree stumps stood in front of the pickup. The sight left me breathless and my entire body froze. Dragons don’t exist.

A part of his head popped in front of me. Huge horns on the top of his nose lingered inches from the windshield, leaving a foggy condensation on the glass as he breathed. One of his frilly ears lay flat against his head, like a cat’s when sensing danger.

He climbed on top of the hood with one of his front legs, and my body trembled as the truck started to crumble. A part of his wing came into sight. It appeared to be shredded, with a sharp talon located at the end. Oval-shaped blue scales fanned over its entire body glistened in the flames on the side of the road. Maybe it only looked that way through the tears blinding my sight. Beady eyes, sunken deeply into its skull locked with mine. The picture in front of me just became my number-one worst nightmare. I shrieked as the dragon’s weight shifted, forcing the pickup to crumble even more.

Another dragon’s sank his jaws into the one in front of me. Two huge copper horns laid flat on top of its copper head. The blue dragon growled, and snapped with gaping jaws at the copper one attacking him. With powerful force the dragon was dragged off the pickup’s hood and thankfully away from me. The truck shook slightly and groaned as if a huge weight had been dispelled; my heart pounded as if I'd just run a hundred meters.

A bolt of fire came from the sky and lit up the entire scene in front of me.

More dragons landed with a thud in the middle of the road. One seemed to be green with a long neck and a fin-like mane running from the top of his head to his tail. A cloud of dark fog emerged slightly from its nostrils. The other dragon was red and oddly beautiful, but something evil derived from his aura. They attacked the copper dragon with startling savagery.