I don’t dare look back, the feeling that something terrible is behind me is too much to take.
I gasp with relief when I see my car, finally.
It’s not where I thought it would be, and I’m even more relieved to see it when I find it unlocked and the keys still inside.
Faithfully, the old bug chugs to life and I feel my hands shaking on the wheel, my voice stammering out loud as a panicked sound chatters from my freezing lips.
I don’t even know what I’m so afraid of, I just know I can’t go back, only forward. My plan to come down to the car for some clothes and then go back to Sean has failed.
I don’t know what I’m thinking by the time I feel the car starting to move forward. I have the idea that I can drive the car back toward the cottage, that way I don’t have to walk through the camp again, but the rain starts to come down so hard, so fast that I can hardly see, let alone make out which way I’m going.
In a panic, I punch the accelerator and lean forward, peering out into the sheets of white needles slashing against my car.
I’m sorry Sean…
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sean
I can’t see if she’s alone, or if it's even really Tessa in her car as it pulls away, but there’s no other sign of her anywhere and I’m not about to sit around and wait to find out if it’s her or not.
I sprint to my truck and find my phone on the passenger seat, lit up with messages, I also notice my laptop I’ve faithfully ignored all day.
I just know it will have a ton of emails and the weather reports and warnings waiting for me when I finally do get around to opening it, but I don’t need a weatherman to tell me trouble is coming.
I don’t need a genius to tell me Tessa’s taken off either, and she’s my only focus now. The same focus that made me forget about everything else I should’ve done yesterday, but she’s the only thing I care about now. The only thing that’s important to me.
I rev the truck which throws up mud and I take off after those two, tiny pinpoints of red light which quickly blur into the distance and round the bend in the track.
I can’t see the sky through this stormy darkness, but I can feel the air. It’s getting dry and cold too and even as I drive I let the window down and can feel as well as see the wind suddenly dying down.
The calm before the real storm…
I don’t have the radar map in front of me, but my instincts tell me that we’re both moving in the right direction, away from the camp.
Did Tessa know there was a twister coming?
She might have woken me to tell me…
It’s something else. Something else has her, and when I get hold of it… I swear I’ll make it pay.
Her bug can move that’s for sure. I have to take the corners carefully with a lot of the soft edges of the track washed away already. I grip the wheel tighter, leaning forward in my seat, urging myself forward to get to Tessa, willing her to be safe. Wishing she’d just stop so I can get us both out of here.
Rounding the biggest bend in the track, I feel my stomach lurch as I see the bug’s headlights pointing up at a sickening angle. The car’s spun around and come to rest in a ditch.
Skidding to a halt, I leap from the truck, furious at myself for even letting Tess out of my sight for a second.
In a single movement I lift open the driver side door and breathe a sigh of relief. She’s there.
She’s alright. Unhurt.
She’s hysterical, but she’s not hurt.
She’s crying and whimpering something, and when I reach into the car to scoop her up she fights my hands away, but only for a second. Only until I tell her it’s me.
“Tessa!” I growl firmly, “It’s Sean, it’s me! I’m here now.”
As soon as I touch her, as soon as my arms get under her and lift her up, I feel her arms going around my neck and her sobs are muted as she presses her face into the only place she belongs. Right there in my arms.
I ask her if she’s hurt, but she looks fine. She only shakes her head, crying uncontrollably, murmuring something about the camp, about those girls.
I fear she might’ve hit her head but there’s no time to hang around. There’s an eerie dark green glow in the sky behind us, right over the camp and I know in a second that we can’t go back there.
There isn’t time. We have to get out of here before that storm cell hits.
Grabbing the bag she has on her passenger seat as I scoop her up, I bundle Tessa back to my truck, sliding her into the passenger seat and take my jacket off to cover her with it. She clings to it like a life raft, smelling it and looking up, she finally realizes where she is.
“You’re safe now, Tess. I got you… but we have to go,” I tell her, buckling her in and stopping only to plant a deep kiss on her lips as I hold her face in both my hands,
“I’m never gonna let you go again,” I tell her. And I won’t. Not ever. I swear it to myself and to her.
“I’m sorry Sean…” She whimpers. “I just got so scared… I just…”
I don’t let her finish. I can’t. None of it matters now that I have her again, we just need to keep moving.
The wind’s died down and there’s an eerie silence, with only the rain making
