An Immortal Love

A gust of wind slammed against the old SUV and nearly wrenched the wheel from Elaina’s hands.

“Damn.” She muttered. With an effort she kept the vehicle steady on the long road. Night was thick and black and the keening wail of the wind kept Elaina’s senses on high alert.

She glanced down at the crown of the brunette angel snuggled up next to the window. She was younger than her by 2 years, but she was so fragile that she felt she had to protect her at all costs.

She wanted to hold her sister but she needed both hands to wrangle this miserable old SUV down the lonely highway.

They were running away, running away together. It scared Elaina, yet thrilled her at the same time. She saw her sister slide a hand over her protruding belly and it made her feel warm inside because this was to be her first niece or nephew. Something they have been looking forward to.

Elaina kept glancing through her back mirror, making sure they weren’t being followed, but it was hard to tell since it was so dark. She knew they didn’t approve of her sister’s pregnancy since Heather was too young and wasn‘t married. They called her baby a bastard child, someone unworthy to carry their last name and not worthy to be born alive!

Elaina knew they just had to hurry and get away, move far, far, away where nobody will know to look for them. Heather had told her once that she always wanted to go to the west coast, up north like Alaska. But, Elaina didn’t think Alaska was a good place to give birth and raise a child in the cold weather. So she figured they could go to a town called Forks, Washington. Something she found odd because who in their right mind names a town after a kitchen utensil?

Heather started to stir as the warm air hit her body, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she glanced towards her sister sleepily while she yawned and murmured ,” What time is it sister?”
Elaina glanced at her cell phone and noticed it was barely just shy of 3am. She then told her sister they would have to hurry and reach a rest stop to take a restroom break before they found them and do something terrible. But there will always be danger lurking around every corner.

Heather stayed silent as they passed an endless group of trees, a sign approaching them as she read it carefully.

-Forks Washington: 350 miles
-Portland Oregon: 10 miles

Heather hummed quietly as they bounced and shake down the road. Elaina hope to hell the rough road wouldn’t hurt the baby. They we’re going for a new start, a new life. Damn! It felt good too!

Elaina gazed through the inky blackness and saw tree limbs bend towards the vehicle as it passed, as if they were trying to stop them from going through. Nothing could stop them. She wouldn’t let it.

They drove on for awhile. The crying wind rose to a shriek as they passed through the mountains. The Coast Range...

Elaina did not have a clue what they would do when they reached the small town, but she knew they would be alright as long as they would find a place to shelter. They passed by a rest stop, one lonely light shining through the cold night air. Elaina grimaced as she knew her sister really had to use the restroom, so she turned around and headed back to the rest area.

“What are you doing?” she demanded sharply.

“I know you have to use the restroom honey. Don’t try to deny it, because you haven’t used the restroom yet in a few hours!”

“They’re coming.” She said with worried voice.

“I know.” Elaina sighed deeply as she dared to touch her sister’s silken honey hair, comforting her. But she was tense and her green eyes were shadowed and haunted as they looked up at her.
Elaina drove into the parking lot and parked into the handicap area, seeing as it was right next to the restrooms.

The men’s and women’s signs were visible under the yellow light by the doors. She opened and closed her door then she ran to her sister’s side and helped her out, knowing she wouldn’t make it within five steps without tripping over her feet or something since her stomach was way out there.

“Hurry Heather, we don’t have much time before they catch up to us, we have to be quick!” Elaina said as she glanced behind her, scanning the area before she closed the restroom door behind them and locked it.

“I know Elaina, I am trying but my feet hurt and I am getting a migraine. Just keep a watch out, I’ll be quick as I can.”

Elaina sighed as she knew she shouldn’t really rush her pregnant sister because she has to carry an extra load of weight, more than usual. But, she was fearful of the idea that if they were to get caught, what they would do to her baby sister?

She was all she had to depend on because everyone else turned their back on them. Elaina gave her sister a kiss on her pale forehead as she went outside to get the SUV warmed up, knowing her sister will be freezing from the cold wind.

Minutes passed. Eternities, it seemed.

Heather left the back way of the restroom, but she noticed there was nothing but a field of tall parched grass, she got confused for a second and went further into the grass, but when her feet hit the muddy field grass, she slipped and went down on one knee. She glanced around anxiously but there was no one, nothing. But the shriek of the wind, rattling limbs and wet slap of water that flew off the nearby branches.

She opened her mouth. “Elaina” she called softly, sliding one clenched hand inside her coat pocket. “Elaina?”

The knife came swiftly, slicing down on her. Cutting through her coat and piercing the skin at her left shoulder. Heather screamed. Shocked...

It pulled back and stabbed again and she stumbled as she tried to crawl away from her attacker.
“Elaina!” she screamed and heard a soft moan.

Then her attacker was on her and she was rolling with them in the mud. Rolling, rolling and fighting. The last thing Heather remembered was the knife blade held high above her, glistening in the yellow light.

Kevin had to take a whiz really bad. Damn, mother fucking coffee went through him like he had pipes. He pulled into the rest stop as the faintest of daylight, more like just a little less of darkness started moving over the hills.

He pulled his rig into a spot designed for RV’s and big semis and leaped from the cab, race walking into the men’s room. He was peeing by the time he got the damn zipper down and he let out a huge sigh of relief.

Finished, he looked at his reflection and ran a hand through his thick hair. “Fucking A” he said to his receding hairline. Making a face at his craggy mug, he headed back outside. A little lighter...A little better.

He was just about back to his rig when he heard something sounding like a groan. He glanced around. There was an old looking SUV in the lot and he realized its passenger door was ajar.

“Hey,” he called but there was no answer.

Squinting at his watch he went to the door and pulled it wider. No one there, the groan was louder.

Coming from behind the vehicle he then circled the vehicle, he checked the field opposite. Something there, movements of some sorts...

“Hey,” he called again as he walked cautiously toward it. Wouldn’t do to be some kind of wild animal looking for scrapes to eat. He figured he could do without that encounter.

There was something on the ground...

It was something with clothes on…

And then it rose to its feet, a bloodied figure, towering over the prone body on the ground.
Kevin’s heart nearly exploded from his chest as he saw the sight before him.

“Holy Shit”

“The baby,” the figure said, clutching its chest.

Kevin stepped back; he couldn’t help himself as the figure before him staggered toward him then fell to its knees. A girl, who was now turning to once again bend over the limp mound on the ground “Hey, hey, girl,” he said, reaching out a feebly hand.

The mound on the muddy grass was a young pregnant woman with her belly exposed like a white mound with black marks across its crest. Bloody marks, from knife wounds scored across the skin.

“Oh, Jesus” Kevin pushed the girl away who fell over without resistance, her eyes staring up at the sky, blood dampening her chest.

Kevin dragged his eyes back to the young woman. She was breathing shallowly, alive, but barely, and the baby? Whoever had tried to cut the poor things out had not succeeded.

Sending a prayer to the man upstairs, he ran for his truck and cell phone, hoping to god that the police would get there fast and get the two injured girls to safety.