This is our secret place~
I sat ridged in the seat furthest away from the driver, three rows back. The feeling of complete wrongness still persisted on beating away at my insides, and my nerves were wearing raw. I didn’t understand why though. We’d taken the only logical choice we had at the time, and really one human was hardly a threat to any of us. Was I just over reacting? Trying to get a grip, I took in my bearings for the umpteenth time.
The faded blue van, with which had provided us our initial escape, was far from being an ideal means of transportation. It was old, that much was obvious, from the horrible rattling emanating from the hunk of metal and the rust eating away at everything where the upholstery had been torn out. Besides being ancient, the interior of the vehicle was absolutely disgusting and I very much doubted the thing had seen a very thorough cleaning in the last decade. I tried hard not to look too closely at anything. I knew it would take very little for me to lose whatever I had leftover in my stomach from last night, and was not keen on discovering what that was.
Finishing my scrutinizing, the conclusion was, between the fact that our ride was over used, and under appreciated, Josh had much higher priorities than the well being or status of his car.
Succeeding in slightly calming my nerves, I shifted my attention to a slightly more pleasant topic, and surveyed the other passengers.
Three of my four companions sat before me in shocked silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Lion and Pixie were sitting stiffly next to each other on the seat in front of me, rather ragged and messy looking, since they’d had no time to clean up prior to our not so great escape. I was almost glad I couldn’t see the expressions on their faces, especially Lions. Who sat next to Pixie, his wheel chair currently folded up and stored under the seat. He looked little better then the others, and seemed to be a slight green color. Pixie and Who’s hands were tightly clasped and he seemed quite out of it. If we’d been in any less dire circumstances, I might’ve teased him, remembering back to a life time before when roles had been switched. I couldn’t blame him though really, Josh’s reckless driving was hardly a great confidence builder, and Who’s stomach wasn’t the only one he was upsetting.
Finally, my eyes wandered to the front seat. Chess sat in the passenger’s seat seemingly the most at ease out of all of us. He knew Josh and the two seemed to be talking back and forth. About what, I hadn’t a clue. I couldn’t hear a thing above the roar of the engine, and the immense rattling of the vehicle, that gave off the sensation that at any second the piece of metal would just fall apart.
As I studied him, I realized Chess actually seemed to be relaxed, and almost happy, as he, surprise, smiled at what Josh was explaining to him and then started laughing. I was more then a little amazed by this behavior, and jealously pricked at me. Why couldn’t he be like that around his own family? Chess was the bitter recluse, remember? Or was that just a persona he put on while around us? Questions filtered dangerously fast through my mind, but the most persistent one was, why couldn’t I make him happy like that? Shaking my head, I tried to dislodge the mess entangled there, and I did my best to push any and all thoughts of Chess to a dark corner in the back of my mind and lock the door. Why should I care how Chess acted.
At last I turned my full attention to our unlikely hero. Josh. He sat relaxed in the driver’s seat, one hand on the steering wheel the other flying through the air in peculiar motions as he explained something to Chess. He had short cropped brown hair, and confirming my recollection in the rear view mirror, blue eyes.
The first time I’d seen him at the coffee shop, was when I was bored and decided to go with Chess while he surfed the web. Josh had been at the counter ringing up the other human’s orders, and as I people watched, I thought he was actually quite handsome for a human, but that was just it, he was a human.
After a few weeks of my intermittent visits, I’d been secretly surprised and more than a little confused when Josh started paying attention to me. But after I’d educated myself a little better with the ways of the humans and realized that he was hitting on me, I’d stopped going to the coffee shop all together.
So now, here I was, paying the price for running away instead of confronting my problems. I was stuck in this predicament, and it was no one’s fault but my own. After obviously avoiding the someone who had rescued us, I was sure there were bound to be awkward encounters with said someone, and that was something I definitely wasn’t looking forward too.
Josh caught my glance in the rearview mirror and smiled at me. I dropped my gaze immediately, confused to find my face flushed and a peculiar sensation filling my stomach. That mixed with the feelings of fear and wrongness swirling around inside just about pushed me over the edge, and I nearly hurled. Nearly, but not quite. Why was I reacting this way?
Frustration filled me. I was so pathetic, the only thing it seemed I could do was sit around asking questions.
“Key, you ok?”
I looked up from staring at the white cat face on the comforter I held clutched to my chest, to find Pixie looking worriedly at me.
I gave her a faint smile and shrugged, at least I wasn’t really was lying.
“How ‘bout you?” I offered, noting her pale face and subdued behavior.
She returned the gesture and turned back to face forward.
“Don’t worry, we’re almost there.” Josh raised his voice above the noise of the van, as he observed Pixie’s and my word swap in the mirror, and I pointedly ignored him.
Where was there even? For all we knew this human could be leading us straight to our doom. I sighed and tried not to think about it. We would just have to deal with it when the time came and at least we were no longer running from a mob of star-struck idiots. That was definitely a plus, or at least I hoped it was.
Glancing out the window, I hurriedly looked away. The blurring of the scenery as it rushed past my eyes did nothing for my upset stomach and I couldn’t make head nor tail out of what I was looking at anyhow, so there really wasn’t any point, just a need to know that wouldn’t be satisfied.
Suddenly I heard a horrible screeching as Josh stepped on the breaks, and without warning I flew to the opposite side of the van, hitting the window hard. The result of Josh’s erratic driving, as he took a sharp turn off of the asphalt road we’d been on for the past hour, onto a miserable path that could barley qualify as even that.
Immediately, before I had a chance to give our champion driver a piece of my mind, the ride turned from an unpleasant situation, to plain treacherous and in my case, life threatening. I was jostled up and down and back and forth so violently it felt as it I was in a freaking, coke can that someone was shaking as hard as they possibly could, intent on my demise.
Hitting the window for the tenth time, as we shot around a hairpin turn, I reconsidered putting on the disgusting safety belt I’d opted not to wear for the vary fact that there could have easily been something on that germ infested piece of fabric, that would have killed me anyhow. I shuttered, and stuck with my original verdict, no way was I touching that thing.
Why was the stupid human even driving like an insane lunatic in the first place, I distractedly wondered to myself as I landed back on the seat and braced myself for the next installment of bodily insults I knew were milliseconds from advancing. It’s not like we had a time constraint, and as far as I could tell no one had been following us since we’d made our ever so hasty departure. Hitting my head on the ceiling again I silently swore to myself, if I ever got out of this alive, I was going to kill him.
What idiot in his right mind had ever issued our gallant charioteer his driver’s license? I’d never been behind the wheel of any human craft before, not that I’d want to mind you, but I’d be willing to wager I could do a heck of a lot better job then was currently being performed.
Dark thoughts filtered through my mind, did Josh even have a driver license? It hit home then, that we really had no idea just who we were dealing with, yes he was young, but that didn’t disqualify him from being capable of being a serial killer or creep along that line. Maybe he was a whacked out nut job, obsessed with aliens or something, my insides squirmed.
But in the next second all capability of thought left me as the screeching of breaks re-ensued. Before I had the chance to procure an anchor of any sorts, I was sent flying straight over the seat in front of me. I continued my hectic flight, right between Pixie and Lion, who, yes had their stupid belts on, and on into the front seats. I would have continued unhindered into the dashboard and out the windshield had Chess not grabbed my waist halting my mad flight, and I clattered gracelessly to the floor.
Gasping in relief I took a deep breathe and felt Chess relax his grip on me. Looking up, I found I was wedged awkwardly in the space between the two front seats. My feet were sticking out at a 90∘ angel towards the driver’s seat, where Josh was smirking down at me with obvious amusement. It took every ounce of self control I had, not to straighten my leg fast and hard, straight into that obnoxious face of his. I was sure he wouldn’t be so amused if he were gushing blood from a broken nose.
Accepting satisfaction from the mental picture, I struggled to rise from my humiliating predicament and I gratefully accepted his help as Chess wrapped his arms around me and hauled me into a kneeling position.
“Well, that was fun.”
I glowered as Josh spoke, insolent jerk, now he was just mocking me. I wanted to return with a harsh reply, but held my tongue, knowing it would only humor him more.
“Key are you alright?” I looked up, finding Lion surveying me with worry. Pixie and Who, also looked concerned, and I felt a wave gratitude towards them, at least someone cared how I fared. I snuck a glance at Chess, but found him looking out the front window, focused on something outside the vehicle, and my heart sank.
Well at least he’d cared enough to not let me continue my destined path of doom, I thought bitterly, getting the rest of the way to my feet.
“Yeah, I’ll recover.” I answered, sending a hostile glare in Josh’s direction. He raised his hands in mock innocence.
“I told you to put the belt on,” he defended himself.
“I’d rather die,” I growled icily, heading for the door and realizing I had no clue how to open it.
“Well, you almost did,” Josh laughed, and I snapped. Flying around to strangle him, Chess’s hand shot out pushing me back. Taken by surprise at the interference, I glanced at Chess and registering the scorn etched on his face, I deflated. He hated me. In that second, I felt like shriveling into a little ball and crying my eyes out.
Chess seemed to realize he’d offended me and his expression softened.
“Key. . .” he leaned towards me and I jerked sharply away, mad at him for treating me like the enemy and mad at myself for even reacting.
Suddenly the feeling of being trapped in too tight of corridors, and the unnamed emotions raging inside of me became too much. I needed to get out. In one fluid movement, I twisted and letting my leg fly, brought my boot down with all my strength on the side window, imagining the whole time that it was Josh’s head. It shattered instantly, the window, not the head unfortunately, and Josh erupted with a volley of complaints. I ignored him, and easily jumped feet first out the narrow window. My feet landed on solid ground, and I relaxed slightly, reveling in the open air around me.
Taking a deep breath of the freshest air I’d breathed in months, I realized Josh had brought us to a forest. Huge trees surrounded us, arching into the sky, where they were lost to view. Amazing. I could feel the natural life surging all around us, and I sighed in appreciation. It was obvious humans rarely visited here, and I felt a little less hateful towards the man-child who’d brought us here, almost letting the issue of Josh’s reckless driving drop. Almost, but not quite.
Feeling I had a little better grip on my emotions, I turned back to the rusted blue soda can, and found my family piling out of the vehicle, looking as thrilled as I felt as they took in their surroundings.
“Well, what do you think?” Josh’s asked, coming around the side of the van, as Lion helped Who into his wheel chair.
“It’s nice,” I said, gauging his reaction as he turned his gaze on me. “Not sure what you had in mind for shelter or other things along that line, though. Unless you thought we just live in the wild, like animals.”
Josh scoffed. “Please, I’m not that much of an insensitive bastard. You’re treating me like I’m the bad guy here and I’m not, so don’t make me out to be one.”
“Well, how are we supposed to know? We don’t know one thing about you,” Pixie stated, coming to stand beside me.
“Well, for starters, I just saved you life.” He sighed, crossing his arms.
“So you say; for all we know you could’ve kidnapped us and now you’re going to kill us here where no one will ever find our bodies,” I suggested, smugly taking in the look of exasperation that crossed his face.
“Unbelievable!” he threw up his hands and stalked off in the opposite direction.
Chess gave me an annoyed look and I glared at him as he followed after Josh. Jerk.
“If anybody else would care to come and look at where I brought you, feel free to leave the snide remarks where you stand,” Josh shouted, not looking behind him.
I glanced at Lion and he warily nodded. Whatever, if worst came to worst I would gladly take the human out and it would be easer then killing a fly. More fun too.
Curiosity overwhelming the fear that had been plaguing me since I’d first woke up, I placed myself behind Who, and started pushing him over the uneven ground, glad for the distraction. Falling in step with Lion and Pixie on either side, I speculated where on earth Josh might be taking us, just as he and Chess stopped at the top of the rise they’d climbed.
Joining them momentarily, I found myself looking down at a clearing in an impression at the bottom of the hill where we were currently standing. Smack dab in the middle of the miniature valley stood what appeared to be an abandoned building. It was an odd looking structure and, after closer inspection, I realized it was church.
“Well, what do you think?” Josh asked as he swept his arms over the valley, repeating his earlier question.
“Quaint,” was all I managed, still trying to take in just what I was seeing.
Josh smiled as I guess he took our silence as a good thing. Taking a step forward, and bowing low he gave me a quick smile that sent my insides dancing nervously.
“Well, all I can say is, welcome to your home away from home.”
And just like that, the dread I’d been feeling all morning, vanished as quickly as it’d come.
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