The morning birds chirped just outside the window and I knew the sun would be coming soon.
James slept soundly at my side with his arm over my stomach. His dark hair had fallen into his face making him look innocent, but I knew better.
He wasn’t innocent.
He was good at deception.
Without waking him, I picked up his arm and placed it on the mattress between us. Then I lay there for a while, waiting to see if he would wake.
Once I was sure he wasn’t going to wake up, I slipped from the bed and dressed. With one of the duffle bags we had brought to the cabin in my hand, I stepped quietly around the room and stuffed it with my clothes.
When I felt like I had all I needed from out of the room I had slept in, I moved into the hallway.
The cabin was eerily quiet, which I had never realized before. The placed seem hollow and creepy, and I knew it was only because things were had changed.
As I stood in the darkened cabin, I looked around. The cabin no longer felt like my safe haven.
It no longer felt like home.
James had tainted the only place I had ever felt comfortable and loved and at that moment, I hated him for even showing me the possibilities life had.
I peeked out the back door at our garden and tears rushed down my cheeks.
We were supposed to make it happen.
A life.
Happiness.
The real deal.
But that had been a one-sided dream, and I was stupid for even considering it.
Turning away from the back door, I went to the front door and opened it as softly as I could. I wasn’t worried that James would come out right away. Sometimes I went outside during the day to check the garden, so it wasn’t too unusual for me to be awake and outside at this time.
I had been up for over an hour already, packing the rest of the food for me into bags, but now everything was packed, and it was time to load it up and get going.
I had never driven a car in my life, but I was taking his car.
It was the only way I would make it far enough before he woke.
It was the only way I could transport all the things I would need to continue my survival.
I had no idea where I was going to go, but I knew I couldn’t stay there.
I blinked against the sun once I stepped outside with my bags in hand, and then I opened the back of the car and put everything inside. I felt as though I was stealing from him, but technically he had stolen from me first. With lies, he had stolen my heart and now he was breaking it.
I knew I wasn’t exactly stranding him in the middle of nowhere. James was able to get along faster on foot than I could, but I had one thing on my side, and it was the bright ball of light in the sky.
The sun.
I welcomed its heat, hoping it would warm the coldness I felt inside as I opened the driver’s side door and climbed into the seat. I felt overwhelmed as I looked around the inside of the car at all the buttons and gadgets. I had never driven a car before, but I had watched James do it and it didn’t seem very hard.
I slipped the key into the slot on the side of the wheel like James had before, and then I turned it until the engine came to life. My heart thumped, and I looked over at the front door of the house, hoping and praying James wouldn’t open the door.
Sliding the stick into place, the car jerked, and I pushed on the long skinny pedal until the car was moving. The quick movement scared me, and I slammed on the brakes, stopped abruptly. My heart was like a hammer in my chest, beating so hard I felt as though it was taking my breath away.
What the hell was I doing?
Then I remembered the words James had said on the phone and I knew I had to push past my fear and keep going.
So, I did.
I pulled away from the cabin and started through the woods. Looking back in the mirror, I watched the cabin slowly become smaller until the front door was no longer visible.
I would never see James again.
I was sure of it.
Even after I had driven hours away from him, my eyes kept flickering to the mirror above me, wondering if I would see him behind me.
My chest felt hollow with hurt.
I had left behind more than the only man I had ever loved.
More than the only real home I had ever had.
I left behind my dreams.
My future.
I left behind my heart.
The sun baked the side of my face, and I could tell by its placement in the sky that I had been driving for quite a long while. I could feel the distance between me and James, but I wasn’t sure if it was enough to outrun him.
I could only hope.
I had no idea where I was going, but I was determined to keep driving until I couldn’t anymore.
My eyes flashed to the mirror yet again, and even though there was no one behind me, my stomach still jumped.
When my eyes found the road in front of me again it was just in time to see him standing in the middle of the road.
I screamed and jerked the wheel to the right, sending me off the road and into the tree-lined forest. I lurched forward when the front of the car slammed into a large tree and then I was knocked back into the seat when something exploded out of the steering wheel.
Everything went black and when the light came into view again the world was fuzzy and blurred. My lungs screamed in pain as I tried to pull in as much air as I could, and my head spun as the edges of my vision switched between darkness and light.
A voice sounded from my side, but I couldn’t make out the words. Then suddenly the driver’s side door flew open and I was being pulled from the car.
“Oh my God! I’m so fucking sorry. I thought… fuck! Hey, can you hear me? Are you okay?
I nodded, my head feeling like it weighed entirely too much for my neck muscles. The world around me spun a few times and I held on to the stranger like my life depended on it.
“I can hear you,” I said.
My words were slurred and distant.
I blinked away the blur and my eyes moved to him. His outline came into focus and I was met with tanned skin that was muscled and defined. His large arms tightened around my tiny frame and I moved my eyes up his chest and over his neck. Finally, his face came into view and I was met with a set of emerald green eyes.
It wasn’t James.
The stranger’s large frame blocked out the sun, casting me in the shadows of his hulking body, and then everything cleared, and I realized what and who I was looking at.
“Oh my God,” I gasped. My hands flew to his chest and his warmth heated my cold fingers. “You’re human.”