Cannibal Red

Adrienne peered through her black sunglasses at me like I was a small insignificant animal.

“Lee, I really am sorry.”

I lean back into the car seat more, my stomach fluttering. “Just get me out of here.”

Hector was sitting next to me in the back seat of the car; he had both a hood and a hat pulled over his face, sunglasses, a long dark jacket, long pants, gloves, and large boots.
The man could probably walk into a store and get arrested just for looking like he was going to rob the place.

Hector twitched a lot as Adrienne drove. I knew his eyes were screwed tightly shut, because his pale forehead was furrowed in concentration. I felt kind of sorry for him, being dragged out of the only place he could stay for ten odd years and into the bright sunlight.
I scowled at the brilliant weather we were having.

We were quite silent; Adrienne driving, not daring to speak a word to me after she’d realized I was going to ignore her. Hector didn’t want to talk, he just sat there, looking down at his lap and twitching at the rays of sunshine pillowing through the window. He’d put some black shirt of Adrienne’s to stop the sun from getting through, but it only stopped it a little. Every so often he would mutter “too warm,” and glance quickly at me or Adrienne.
I was sort of happy he wasn’t speaking, the guy freaked me out.

I looked up when I felt the car slowing down; to my horror we had stopped at Tyler’s. He was sitting nervously on the front porch, wearing a long black shirt and jeans. His hair was drooped; flat and clean against his face as he scampered over to the car, swinging the door open and shoving a few bags under the dashboard. The car door slammed shut and I pressed my face against the glass, until a croaky voice spoke from next to me.

“He smells like blueberries.”

I return my gaze to Hector, who was glaring through his sunglasses at Tyler, who looked absoloutley horrified.
He’d obviously just realized that a mass-cannibalistic-murderer was sitting behind him. I felt the car moving again.

“You brought him with you?!” Tyler shrieked, unbuckling his seatbelt and pressing himself against the dashboard so that his back was facing the front window.

Adrienne gave Tyler a tired look. “He needed somewhere to stay; Verat probably knows that he’s associated with me by now.”

“You’re insane.”

Hector hisses gruffly at Tyler from next to me. “I am here blueberry boy.”

“Oh, wow, fabulous.”

I realized that there was no point in listening anymore. My right cheek resumed its place back against the window.
Tyler hadn’t even acknowledged me, hadn’t tried to apologize, sort things out, and give me time to be shitty at him. No, he didn’t care. It was his job to make me like him. Love him.

The car rolled through a creepy looking abandoned town three and a half hours later, all the houses an old wood, nobody outside, trees grown everywhere, adding to the eeriness.
Adrienne stopped the car half way through a forest at the end of the town, I un-pressed myself against the glass and sighed, looking around at the small clearing covered in bushes we were in.
I guess this is what hiding is.
Hector, unmoved, turned to me and smiled. “Thanks, daddy did great.”

My heart lurched, my brain fizzed, and I felt myself jumping onto the older man and trying to punch him.
Right in the back, of a car.

“Lee!” Tyler yells, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me into the front seat, kicking the door open and pushing me and him outside. He was too strong for me to fight back, but I still scratched and screamed as he pulled me as far away from the car as possible.

“Stop it!” He yells, letting me down but still holding a firm grip on my arms.

I glare at him. “That mother fucker insulted my dad Tyler! My dad!”

Tyler sends me a look that told me that he thought I was pathetic. “Do you realize how much we all have to go through because of this? You’re not the only one running here!”

I push him away, glaring into his gorgeous eyes. “You lied to me.”

“Lee…”

“You lied, you kissed me! I thought you liked me!”

“I do like you!”

I laugh. “Do? Then how come you lied the fuck out of yourself?”

“Oh Lee…stop being ridiculous.”

Then he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me in; I thought by the look on his face that he was going to hit me, but as soon as our lips crashed together I knew he wasn’t going to go and hit me anytime soon.
I kissed him back, as stupid as I am.
Finally, after what felt like ages, he let go of me, looking deeply into my eyes and breathing heavily.

“Is that enough to convince you that I love you?”

I blink, staring back at him. My lips were throbbing. “You…love me?”

“I love you.”

“Oh god…”

The puke came out faster than I knew it was happening, I was suddenly leaning over a bush, hurling my guts into it. I felt Tyler’s hand on my back, I knew he was nervous about it, but he did it anyway until I knew there was nothing left in my stomach to hurl and pushed him out of the way, walking in a direction that I didn’t know nor care about anymore.
After about ten minutes of walking, I came to a cliff. It was steep, and looked over the small houses we had seen on our way. I climbed up near the edge and leaned myself against one of the trees, sighing and breathing in the fresh cool air of the forest.
It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how alone I needed to be, I’d dragged all these people with me when all Verat wanted was me. Not Adrienne, not Hector, not Tyler. Me, just me.

There was no way that I could get out of this; it wasn’t something I could turn on or off or take away and leave somewhere else, it was in my veins, something that would stay with me until I was dead.

Dead.

I’d either die, or keep running forever.