Snot drains from her nose as she sobs. “Tessa, please slow down and watch the road.”
“Watch the road? Watch the fucking road? Fuck you, Maureen!” Her eyes widen as I swerve the car in the direction of the guardrail. The sudden impact crumples the front end of the vehicle, and the sound, like that of cracking thunder, pierces my eardrums, making them ring as my head flies forward and then back. The air bag strikes me in the face, breaking my nose with an audible crunch.
For a few confusing moments, there is no audible sound other than the throbbing and ringing in my ears. As the ringing grows quiet, the sound of metal popping and a strange hissing noise takes its place.
A stabbing pain sears through my thigh, and something warm and wet drips down my face. Spots float before my eyes as I twist my neck and cry out. Maureen’s head is embedded partially in the windshield, her face unrecognizable, her arms twitching. Moisture seeps into my pants, and I gaze down at a piece of metal lodged in my leg, blood squirting around it.
Smoke rises from beneath the hood, and my legs heat up as a small fire ignites. I cover the hole in my leg with my fingers the best I can to slow the bleeding, but it’s coming so fast. I glance left and realize I’m staring partly at the sky.
What the heck?
I turn my head right and look around Maureen’s dangling body. The creek rages below, the water white and foamy as it speeds under the bridge. We’re dangling sideways over the edge, a part of the car hung up on something, keeping us from falling.
Metal crunches and grinds, and we shift down slightly. I grab the roof with trembling hands, tears streaming down my face as the fire under the hood grows. Sweat beads on every inch of my body as the car becomes an oven. Maureen’s arm twitches again, followed by her hand, then nothing. She stops moving—stops twitching.
My throat clenches, and a violent cough escapes me. The smoke thickens around us, and I can’t stop coughing, the air growing thin and unbreathable.
A flame rises beside Maureen’s open doorway. It moves in rhythm, and I wonder if I’m hallucinating as I sit trapped between the airbag and the steering wheel, suffocating and bleeding.
Dying.
Without warning, the flame forms into a human-like entity that dives into Maureen’s body. Her head shifts side to side, fracturing the rest of the windshield before sitting back in her seat. My bottom lip quivers as I reach for her and touch her hand. “Maureen?”
Her mangled face rotates toward me, and I flinch away as flames rise in her eyes and her bloody mouth opens wide.
“Siiiiiinnnner,” a voice roars from deep within.
I thrash in my seat, trying frantically to get away from her as her face melts slowly before her entire body falls in slow motion from the car, plunging into the fast-moving water below.
The flaming entity curls into the seat and manifests into a half-man, half-creature. His upper body is fit with rippled abs and a devious smile on playful lips. The wavy black hair on his head is as smooth as silk, and his sharp features make him handsome in a cruel sort of way.
Black irises pierce into my soul beneath long lashes. The lower part of him is completely naked and on fire. His cock is long, thick, and swollen beneath the inferno, and his legs are hairy,too hairy, as if they belong to a goat. Instead of feet, he has charred hooves.
Flames lick at my toes, burning them. I stomp my feet, trying to put the fire out as I cry out. “Please,” I shout out of the window beside me, my voice hoarse and dry. “Help me!”
“Still a virgin, my Little Sinner,” the creature beside me says with a sadistic cackle.
How could he know that? How could he know something I’ve only told Jayce and Maureen?
“I can read your thoughts,” it says as I turn to face it.
He looks different now, more man than creature. His clawed hand reaches for me and touches my cheek with a sharp nail that drags gently down to my chin, before tearing the airbag away from the steering wheel, making me gasp.
“Little Sinner, do you want me to save you?”
Fire swoops into the car’s cabin, filtering through every nook and cranny. I shriek and nod my head, saying anything to stop the burning. “Yes!” I shout, coughing hard as smoke chokes its way into my lungs, burning them. “Save me.” A burnt-hair smell fills my nostrils as the hair on my arm singes. I glance at the man now sitting beside me and wheeze. “Please. I’ll do anything.”
His hand wraps around my throat, and his long tongue glides over my face before traveling down between my legs, stopping just inside my upper thigh before returning to his mouth.
“Anything?” he asks as his tail lashes back the flames crowding my legs, sending them back under the hood.
The car stops moving, and the smoke vacates the cabin, suddenly swirling on the hood like a tornado, waiting for the creature’s command to reenter.
A smoldering piece of paper, blackened around its edges, floats into the car. He snatches it and places it in front of my fluttering eyes, weakness overwhelming me. “Sign it in blood.”
“What does it say?” I whisper, staring at the unfamiliar language, my mind growing foggy.
“Does it matter if it saves your life?” he asks.
