Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner (free romance novels .TXT) 📗

these structures would be entirely dark, and she’d only get a basic impression of their forms as she drove by. Other times, they’d be lit somehow, giving her a clear look at them. At one point, she passed what looked like a gas station cast in the glow of fluorescent lights, except instead of fuel pumps, strange insectile creatures were bound to metal poles by strips of leather, rubber hoses protruding from their mouths. Another time she passed something that resembled a greenhouse – all glass and bright light. It was huge, nearly a mile long, and the plants inside, large-leafed things with thick stalks covered with long black thorns, swayed slowly as if in time to music she couldn’t hear.

She passed other vehicles as well. Not many, but enough to let her know that she wasn’t alone out here. She couldn’t decide if that knowledge was comforting or terrifying. Maybe a little of both. One of the vehicles – if that’s what it was – was a silver sphere about twice the size of her car. It was comprised of segmented plates, and it made her think of the way an armadillo rolled itself up into a ball when threatened. There was no obvious way for an operator to see out – no windows of any kind – but the sphere maintained a steady course as it rolled along, so its driver had to have some kind of method for navigating. Another vehicle she passed was of more familiar design, but no less alien for that. It was a covered wagon, like something out of the Old West, drawn by a team of four horses. But the wagon was constructed entirely from bone, its covering stitched-together patches of dried skin, and the horses – large, thick-bodied things – were wreathed in orange flame. There was no sign of a driver, and she wondered what sort of passengers rode within the wagon. She was glad the occupants weren’t visible to her, though. She had a strong suspicion that if she could see them, she’d wished she hadn’t.

Each time a vehicle passed her, she held her breath, fearing that it might be driven by one of the Cabal, out searching for her. She didn’t relax until the vehicle was in her rearview and dwindling fast.

She wondered where the air in this world came from. She had no trouble breathing, although the air felt flat and stale. But this place didn’t appear to have anything close to a natural ecosystem, so how was there oxygen? Wherever it came from, she was glad for it. It wasn’t like her car was an airtight spaceship with its own air supply.

She’d started driving because she hadn’t known what else to do, and while she didn’t know how long she’d been on the road – her car’s digital clock kept flashing 00:00, as if time had no meaning here – it seemed as if she’d been driving for a while. Was she getting anywhere? Was there anywhere to get to? She’d hoped that after some time, she’d snap back to the real world, as she’d done before, but it hadn’t happened yet, and she was beginning to fear that it might not. She could end up stuck here, a permanent resident of this awful non-place. She wondered what Reeny would think about her disappearance, what their parents, Larry, and Justin would think. She realized she’d thought of Justin last, as if he was an afterthought, and wasn’t that a sad commentary on their relationship?

She tried turning on the radio, but all that came out was a chorus of half-audible voices chanting words in a language she didn’t recognize – the same as what she’d heard on the Driver’s radio when she first appeared on the Nightway – and she turned it off.

She kept feeling something scratching at the back of her mind, something trying to get her attention. She suspected it had to do with her visit to Aashrita’s grave, or more precisely, why Aashrita had died so young. But thinking about Aashrita made her head hurt, so she turned her thoughts away from the subject whenever her mind began drifting toward it. There would be time for her to remember later, after she found a way to return home. She knew she was lying to herself, that deep down she didn’t want to remember, was scared to fucking death of what would happen if she allowed herself to remember. But she didn’t care. She’d lie to herself a thousand times over if it would protect her from the pain the memory of Aashrita’s death would surely bring.

It was during one of these moments, when she was purposely turning her mind away from thoughts of her dead friend, that something dashed out into the road in front of her. She had an impression of a multi-limbed thing that was formed of pale white flesh, but before she could make out any further details, she slammed into the creature head on. She heard the dull thud of the impact, and she was thrown forward the same instant the airbag deployed. She felt the bag envelop her as the car spun and skidded, tires making almost no sound as she slid across the Nightway’s slick surface. She had no time to think, no time to react, could only let the car’s momentum do with her what it would.

Chapter Ten

The motion stopped, and she sat there as the airbag began deflating. When it pulled away from her face, she drew in a gasping breath. Her nerves jangled with adrenaline, and she felt her pulse pounding throughout her entire body.

I hit something, she thought. Oh my god, I hit something.

Her car had come to a stop with its front end pointing almost ninety degrees away from the thing she’d struck, so she could see it. The car’s engine had died, one of the headlights was out, and the other seemed dimmer than it had only a few seconds ago. The