Excerpt: Untitled - it's a sequel to last year's "Ormalia"

“Go, Joselyn, she’s in!” shouted Joseph.

Instead of going forward as expected, Joselyn slammed the vehicle into reverse. Mrs. Emmitt went rolling onto the ground in front of us. Apparently, I’d missed her and she’d kept coming toward us. The force of her forward motion made her do a face plant when the vehicle moved out of her way.

I turned my attention to my seatbelt. I’d been a passenger when Joselyn was driving on a normal day. There was no telling what kind of moves she’d come up with on the road during a getaway. That almost frightened me as much as the hoard coming at us. The backward motion suddenly came to a stop as she swung the front of the vehicle around with a screech of the tires.

The move made me feel a little quesy and a little nervous. I looked up and out my side window in time to meet Charlie’s eyes. It was as if everything had slowed down. Time had stopped. He looked like he wanted to kill us all. How could I have ever been attracted to this person? He was horrible. He wanted to hurt Kali. He wanted to take her from me, and he disgusted me. It’s obvious that dream was ridiculous.

Suddenly, fear hit my heart because it looked like Charlie and the others with him would close on us before we could get away. His angry look turned to a grin as he too seemed to realize that he would be upon us at any moment. He looked like the Cheshire Cat. He’d caught his canary and couldn’t wait to eat it. I felt a lump in my throat.

Then, we were off. Joselyn had worked her magic. She had slammed the gears into first and taken us out of there before a single person or creature or whatever they were had caught up with us. All three of us in the backseat turned in our seats to look out the back window. We were quickly losing sight of the group behind us. They still seemed to be running but there was no way they could keep up.

We all turned back toward the front and gave a collective sigh of relief. I looked to Kali who smiled at me. I smiled back.

“Well, that was exciting, wasn’t it,” Joseph said. I looked up at him and he was smiling at the two of us.

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, little brother,” Joselyn said as she suddenly gave the car a little more gas that sent us careening through a red light. I could hear the cars honking in our wake. Her eyes were on the rearview mirror.

“Damn!”

We all looked back again. There was a dark sedan behind us and closing in fast. It seemed oblivious of any other car on the road and was just slamming through vehicles, sending drivers out of control and into oncoming traffic. I swear I saw the driver grin as he sent one vehicle spinning.

“No counting going on here,” Joseph said as he turned back toward the front again. I said a little pray that Joselyn’s driving was as good as we’d all hoped. We’d placed our bets on her and she couldn’t just place or show. She had to win this race. I was afraid to even think about what it would mean if she didn’t.

She took a sudden left, pressing us into each other, well everyone into me. I let out an “oomph.” Thank goodness we had our seatbelts on or we each would have been against or through the window.

Joselyn didn’t let up on the accelerator as she took the turn. I saw the black sedan continue forward on the road we’d been on just a second or two before. She immediately shot up onto an on-ramp of the highway and kept going, weaving through traffic to get to the lane on the farthest, left hand side. We continued for a few moments. She slowed slightly as if she was looking for something. She saw what she wanted and took another sharp left hand turn, sending the vehicle onto a section of the divide that was grassy. The vehicle jostled us as she went over the grassy area and then headed onto the highway going the opposite direction. Again, honking and screeching tires of other cars stopping or slowing down punctuated the move.

Joselyn ignored it all and kept going. She accelerated and continued forward. We moved at what seemed like blinding speeds and she continued to go faster, weaving around cars when they were in the way, taking the shoulder when it was necessary. She didn’t let up as she got of the four lane highway we were on moved onto a smaller freeway that seemed to be taking us east. She was still moving fast but seemed to be trying to blend in a bit more than she was before.

As the miles ticked away, no one spoke. We all seemed afraid to break her concentration. About half an hour later, she took an exit, went to her right and headed through a little town, taking it slow, minding the speed limit signs. She continued on like this, through two more towns, before she pulled of what seemed like a main road and took a smaller side road for about another 20 minutes. Then, she pulled into an area that was surrounded by trees and stopped.

Matthew got out and fiddled with something in front of the vehicle, then waved Joselyn through. She pulled passed Matthew. That’s when I saw he had moved what I think was a fence out of the way. It was covered in vines and ivy. It would definitely blend in as part of the landscape. You couldn’t even see that there was a dirt road here. He closed it behind us and locked it. Then, he ran back to the vehicle and got inside.

We all stayed quiet as she took us down a road that didn’t seem like a road. It was all overgrown with ivy and trees. She clicked the four wheel drive into gear as the way ahead began to have a slope. We headed up and up for about five minutes before she pulled off again to an area that didn’t look like it even had a road. Another five minutes went by as we moved slowly through the ivy forest and we were coming up on a house that seemed like it was built into the hillside. All you could see was the front door and a window. It was hard to tell if it was big or small.

This must be one of the sanctuaries they’d been working on making for us. Joselyn hit something on her sun shade and the hillside to the left of the house seemed to slide away and reveal an opening. Joselyn drove the vehicle into the opening and parked. It closed behind us and was dark for a moment before lights came on inside.

We all sat there for a moment in silence, the fear from before still palatable inside each of us. Joselyn let out a long sigh and then undid her seatbelt. She turned in her seat and looked back at Kali. She smiled.

“Well, hello. I’m Joselyn,” she said. “I'm so happy to meet you.”