Tonight I walk alone. Entirely confused and full of remorse. This past year has been eventful to say the least. I have left the only family I know, traveled alone in the world, met ‘unsavory’ characters, and joined an elite force know only as The Watchers.

Eight months ago I left my home in southern Texas. Much to my family’s disapproval, I wanted to see the world and experience new things. Had I known then that I would be hunted and caught; left to die beside a freezing lake a week later, I might have chosen to stay. All the regrets lay heavily in my heart now. I remember seeing my gentle mother’s face for the last time, telling me to not forget her. My father’s stern face and large hands dismissing me without a word. My sweet, innocent bother’s eyes, filled with fear for his only sister.

A grew up in a small, everybody knows everybody’s business type of town. No one got away with anything without everyone knowing about it within the hour. So when I graduated high school and made my choice to leave home, naturally the whole town had called my parents before I had even gotten home from work. I never got the chance to break it to them gently, or coax a blessing from them. The townsfolk had gotten my mother all riled up, and father was furious that he was included in my plans. Before that night, I had on no account previously made a choice without consulting my father’s wisdom first.

Regardless of the hurt and disappointment I had received, I packed two bags and tore off in my beat up ‘56 Chevy pickup.

Three miserable days later and six states across my faithful truck broke down. There I was, leaning against the hood, when a silver sedan came out of no where. It stopped several feet in front of me and rolled down the passenger door’s window. I threw my last cigarette to the ground and briskly walked over to peer inside the car.

A tall, heavy set man with glasses and a hint of a beard sat in the driver’s seat. He cocked an overly large eyebrow and said, “Truck broke down girl?” I couldn’t help be a little sarcastic and replied, “ Nah, just thought I’d pull over and let her sleep some.” The pudgy man didn’t even crake a smile at the obvious joke. Instead he reached over and lifted the door handle for me to get in. He patted the seat next to him and told me he would give me a lift to the next town to find a garage. I most definitely didn’t trust him, but what choice did I have?

I ran back to my truck and grabbed my two bags, not knowing how long it would take to fix my truck. I threw them into the back seat of the sedan and climbed up front. Not ten miles down the road, he started getting exceedingly friendly. At first he reached over and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear with the excuse that I had “something” in my hair. I shifted my weight more towards the door and farther away from him.

Moments later he slowed the car and reached over my lap to check if my seatbelt was secure. That had my nerves tingling. His fingers flexed out much further than reasonable and his touch lingered more than necessary. I didn’t through a fit though because I figured we couldn’t be much away from the town by now.

The next thing he did I will never forget. Clouds started to roll in and the sky got dark. Light specks of rain splattered on the windshield and the wind began to gently rock the car. The driver slowed the car down ever further. Eventually he stopped in the middle of the road and rested both hands in his lap.

It took me a few seconds before I began to silently inch my fingers to release the seatbelt to make my escape. Just as my thumb pressed the button, he swung his head wildly towards me and grabbed both my shoulders. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t do anything but stare into his round eyes. They were a gentle shade of blue before, but just as the storm had blown in only minutes before; his eyes drastically changed. Now narrower, darker and almost a lightning yellow. They shocked my senses and got me finally moving.

I blindly grabbed the door handle and swung the door out. His grip on my shoulders was beginning to burn with effort. He never said anything as I kicked and wiggled my body backwards out the door.

I rolled along pavement and scrambled to my feet. Sweat and rain mixed together and poured down my face. My hair clung to my neck and slapped my eyes, stinging them with pain. I ran backwards for several yards, cautiously watching the silver sedan, before I turned on a heel and ran into a field.

I leaped a aged and sagging barbed-wire fence and sprinted like I did back home when I was on the track field in school.

He never got out of the car, never yelled a word after me. I thought I was safe.

I ran until my legs would no longer move and fell to the rain soaked earth beside a willow tree. I laid there and tried to control my breathing for several minutes when I finally heard the grass crunching beneath deep footsteps. I shifted and sat up, my back to the tree, and strained my eyes to focus. I couldn’t see anything approaching, but I knew he had come. I rose up to a low crouch, ready to bolt. The wind picked up and howled across the land. It caressed my face and whispered a silent word through my thoughts. Demon.