Dark Rider

“That—“A.J. bit his tongue as he grunted under his breath, he slowed some now that he seen he was just behind her a few feet. “She said she quit cussing.”

“Uh,” Rider began to nervously chuckle, deeply in his chest as he slowed down beside the fuming twelve year old deprived of obscenities he so desperately wanted to express. “Oops.”

“Oops my ass—“he stopped and glared at Rider, begging him internally to just scold him once and he would lay into him for it.

Rider stopped finally, ignoring any of A.J.’s comments and placed a hand on Kassie’s back, “You know you could have just said Look guys, a highway! or something instead of running off like a crazy chick. I don’t like running and you made me, run!” out of breath and slightly irritated, Rider stood dominantly over the small, frail frame of Kassandra and frowned.

Kassie frowned back and looked at the cars racing by at speeds topping seventy or more. She searched her mind looking for a way to make one of the runaway cars to stop and take them anywhere but where they were, which happened to be somewhere between nowheresville and the hills have eyes. When the idea hit her, Kassie began pulling at her black slacks, letting them ride low, she pulled her jacket off, flinging it at A.J. while she pulled her top down to show some cleavage, not too much though and pushed the bottom of the tank up to show some skin. “Well,” she paused and pulled her hair down from the up-do she was styling with her fashionable clothing, which seemed to not even matter anymore. “Why don’t you guys help me look presentable and stop pissing around? A.J. please zone in for a minute instead of out, I’m not stripping down I’m only hookering up.”

A.J. looked away awkwardly towards the dark woods. “Like its any better there, Kass. Stripping down is only a bit worse than hookering up.”

Rider glanced down at A.J.’s shorter frame before rushing to Kassie’s side, “I don’t know what your deal is little man, but I don’t mind a bit, here Kassie, let me help you honey.” Rider pulled Kassie’s dark hair to the front, letting it cascade down in waves past her chest.

Kassie rolled her eyes and pushed away from Rider’s chest, which was close enough that it nearly touched hers, and walked to the side of the road. Placing her thumb up in the old fashion hitchhiking pose, Kassie stared at each car as it passed. Only a few more passed before one car, an old brown and white station wagon pulled over a few feet away from her. Turning around, Kassie flashed her own surprised expression to match Rider and A.J.’s. “I guess,’ she started slowly and paused at the end. “It worked.”

“Of course it worked!” Rider shouted after a good long moment of silence. He grabbed hold of A.J.’s shoulder and guided him towards the station wagon, Kassie followed in a slight daze state after the ecstatically jumping Rider and A.J. who seemed more than a little embarrassed.

As Kassie opened the passenger door, she poked her head in for a peek at the driver. Satisfied with the fact that the driver smiled and waved her on in, she sat down in the seat and smiled. “Hi,” she greeted the pale blond driver. “I’m Kassie.”

“Jeffry Davids, where are you guys heading to?” he questioned with a semi calm tone that seemed relaxing to Kassie after her long night and matching extended day.

“To be completely honest with you, Jeffry, myself, my cousin and—“she paused and glanced back at Rider, who tilted his head in confusion as to where she was going with her words and why she stopped so suddenly, “—husband just need to go anywhere, where are you heading?”

Caught off guard, A.J. made a chocking sound in the back of his throat; Rider seemed stunned for a quick second before slapping A.J.’s back with a soft chuckle rising in his throat. “We’re—well we were vacationing in our RV until it conked out on us a few miles down the road there,” Rider paused and leaned forward in between Kassie and the sketchy Jeffry character. “Now were just going with the flow.”

Starting the car with a grunt, Jeffry nodded in understanding. “I’m heading to Reno, would that be an okay place to drop you guys off at?”

Kassie smiled in relief as she felt the tension turn away from her, the bad thing was it shifted to poor Rider but he didn’t seem to mind a bit. “That would be perfect!” Kassie answered as she moved around awkwardly in her seat. “Thank you for taking us.”

Jeffry nodded his welcome as Rider leaned in forward until he was close enough to Kassie to touch his lips to her ears. “He starts anything; I want you to jump out.”

Scoffing, Kassie shook her head in detest, she wouldn’t jump out of a moving car. She wasn’t stupid, stubborn yes but stupid was a definite no. A good few minutes went by before talking started up again. “How long have you two been married?” Jeffry asked in a manner that radiated suspicion.

“Shh,” Rider whispered in Kassie’s ear as he covered it by pretending to sweetly press a kiss upon her unsuspecting face, when he leaned back up he smiled at Jeffry. “We have been married since her eighteenth birthday.”

Jeffry nodded and waited in silence to continue his questioning when everyone was off in their own little world. “When did you start dating?”

“Well,” Rider seemed oddly prepared for each question as he leaned against the armrest nonchalantly. “Unknown to her father, since she was sixteen, he actually thinks three months before we married. But we met when she was fifteen in this place called Bounty, Texas,” he continued and took a break with a pause, leaving Kassie slightly confused with his short and sweet story. She didn’t even know if there was such a thing as a Bounty, Texas. She doubted there was, since he was making it up so quickly. “It was love at first sight, she was as beautiful as an angel but she was living in hell. I saved her, married her and protected her ever since.”

Kassie smiled at Jeffry to help Rider’s tall tale pass as a fairytale life story. Like a modern day Romeo and Juliet but without the suicidal lovers part. “We’re here,” Jeffry announced almost all too quickly as he drove through the large archway into the shining bright lights. The biggest little city in the world. It seemed like the next best thing to heaven at the moment, especially to Kassie. “It was nice meeting you, have fun, hope to see y’all soon.”

Rider stepped out of the car and quickly helped Kassie out of the front seat, sticking his head in while leaning his arm against the roof to prop, he spoke with a friendly smile that soon turned into a smirk when A.J. exited the car safely. “I have a feeling I’ll be seeing you quite soon, my friend.”

As the car drove off down the road, Kassie stood up and looked down the strip at all the people carrying on with their life so peacefully, adjusting her clothing to make herself look descent and less like a hooker she turned to Rider. “What now, Rider?” she asked with genuine innocence lacing each word, she looked down at her shirt and began to play with the hem. “I’m scared…are we stuck on the street now?”

“No, no, no,” he quickly guided her fears away, sweeping them under a rug to keep her from looking at him so pitiful. “Christ spoke to me about twenty minutes ago through our little connection; he said he would send miracles out in random places across the world to throw off our scent to your father. He set us up in a hotel room but we have to leave early in the morning, it’s the best he could do. Thankfully, he was able to but it can only last a little while.”

Kassie nodded as Rider pulled her into a warm hug, trying to make her feel more comforted that she was feeling so hopeless, hopefully the small help they received from God would be good enough, it wasn’t much he agreed but they would take anything he could give them. They were thankful for what they were gifted with. “Let’s go to the hotel then, I’m sleepy and I need to stop my brain from thinking so much.”

Taking up to an hour to reach their flea infested hotel room, or at least that’s what A.J. kept repeated just to get Kassie to grimace and flinch, she hated insects. They scared her; creeped her out was more like it. And having A.J. say she would be sleeping in a room infested by them only sent her nerves closer to the edge. Rider didn’t find it all that funny, he had watched Kassie carefully the whole time they looked for the hotel, and she wasn’t herself. He could tell that she was thinking entirely too much to be considered healthy. He wanted to just pull her into a hug and tell her that everything would be okay, that he would make sure of it; she just looked so helpless that he pitied her. But the problem that he fought against was the fact that even though she had allowed him to hug her and confide in throughout the night, he didn’t want to push her into completely detesting him for being too protective. So he let sleeping dogs lie until he finally got fed up enough with A.J.’s immature joking, it would have been fine given difference circumstances but now was not the time and it was defiantly not the place to act like a two year old on a sugar high. “A.J. that’s enough,” he snapped as he walked into the boringly plain white walled bedroom that held two queen size beds, one round table with two chairs pushed into it. The counter in the bathroom held one sink and a couple bars of soap and bottles of sample shampoo. The kitchen area was ridiculously sad with its sink and mini-fridge that turned dull yellow over the years it’d been used. After the look around, Kassie whined and furrowed her eyebrows. She wanted to give up then, not only because she figured if they had to stay in a hotel like this once, she’d have to again for the rest of her time being followed but because she was tired and drained from the days’ events. “Kassie, come lay down. A.J. are you sleeping in the bed with her?”

“Well I’m not leaving you to sleep in the same bed with her, that’s for sure,” A.J. snapped back, though annoyed and over the edge of completely furious with the outcome of everything, Rider kept his lips sealed and pretended he hadn’t heard the pre-teens snappy comment.