The crisp autumn wind whips through my jacket and I cling onto Ryan a bit tighter. His helmet is too big for my head, probably doing very little to protect my noggin if we crash, and absolutely nothing to protect his, but he insisted I wear it until we can stop and buy me one that fits. I guess on a road trip like this, nothing will ever be exactly perfect. Honestly the helmet thing is the least of our worries for today after getting this trip started by tying up Wolfe.

The trees glide by us in a streak. When I was a kid, I hated the way they looked this time of year with all their leaves dropped off. Like the snarled hands of giant monsters we long forgot we buried that are bursting free from their shallow graves to haunt us again. A shudder runs through me. Not from the imaginary beasts I feared as a child. No, I know all too well that the real monsters do exist and once you’ve met one, with their unmistakable dead stare and lust for blood, it makes the most frightening stories you can dream up look like Disney fairy tales.

My mind drifts to how Wolfe’s limp limbs revived as Ryan was finishing his last knot. He thrashed around on my apartment floor like a shark would on the sandy shore of a beach. And just like that shark, even though he couldn’t do anything to hurt us, he still made my body stiff with fear. And just like that shark, he snarled his teeth at me and stared me down with his dark eyes that promised my death.

When Ryan hogtied him, I stuffed one of my socks in his mouth. I didn’t intentionally grab a dirty one, but I don’t regret the choice either. I thought it would buy us some time from him just yelling above the bar until someone decided to free him. However, it wasn’t like the movies when the person tied up can’t manage to squeak out a word around whatever gets shoved in their face. Instead, he slowly and deliberately talked around it.

“Just so you know, Red, I will find you.” His voice was eerily calm. “And when I do, I’m going to take my time killing you.”

I froze, his words paralyzing me. Even though I had quickly grabbed everything I could shove into my backpack and purse, even though I was only a couple steps from the door, something about how calmly he spoke made me feel the truth in what he said.

“Let’s go,” Ryan hissed, breaking the spell over me.

I managed to find my feet again, to bring myself back down from where I was floating over my body and follow him out the door. Still, even after more than half the day on the road, those words nip at my heels, reminding me that wherever I go in this world, Wolfe will hunt me down.

I tighten my grip on Ryan, but I know the icy shiver overtaking me has nothing to do with the wind. Pushing the thoughts free from my mind, I notice for the first time how the sky is quickly being overtaken by fat, black clouds. In the distance I hear a rumble of thunder over the motorcycle engine.

Ryan tilts his head and yells over his shoulder at me, “We’ll have to pull over soon!”

I nod, not that he can see me, but I know there’s no use in yelling through a helmet at him. His bike revs high as we speed up, quaking between my thighs and igniting my desires with the vibrations. I grind in closer to Ryan, holding him tight as my heartbeat thuds faster. I’m not sure why he’s driving so fast with rain closing in on us. I can only guess it’s because he has the same sinking feeling that I do about Wolfe. That our head start on the open road will be short-lived and that we need to put as much distance between us and him as we possibly can.

Suddenly lightning streaks across the horizon in an orange blaze of electric heat. A snap of thunder gives us a second of warning before the clouds open up and pour torrential rain onto us. It falls so heavily I can’t see more than ten feet up the empty back road. Ryan slows down and carefully pulls over to the side before planting his feet down and scanning the land for some kind of reprieve.

“What are we gonna do?” I tug my helmet off and have to yell over the intense rainfall as the water drenches us mercilessly.

“Gimme a sec,” he yells back, his eyes traveling the distance from left to right like he can somehow laser in on a secret landscape that’s invisible to me.

“Sure.” I shrug. At least Ryan put my electronics in his waterproof saddlebag. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time he’s had to battle the elements since he’s taken this crazy road trip.

“There!” He waves a pointed finger in the distance. I squint but don’t see anything. “I see an old barn that way.” He jerks his head and I try to see what he’s talking about. Wiping the rain from my eyes, I do see a rickety looking aging barn a few hundred feet to the east of us. How he ever managed to spot the old structure with its graying cedar shingles, hiding behind drab, leafless trees in this dreary soupy rain, I’ll never know.

“I see it!”

“We’ll pull in there. It’ll give us a place to dry out while we figure out what to do next.” He holds the bike steady as he jumps off it and holds out his hand for me to keep my balance while I join him on the side of the road.

“Sounds good,” I agree, sloshing down through the wet ditch and up a steep embankment as Ryan drags his bike with us.

I don’t know about how good it sounds, but we aren’t exactly overwhelmed with choices right now. And I’d much rather be safe inside with Ryan than sitting on the side of the road like a sitting duck waiting for Wolfe to hunt us.