Page 74

eight

America

The drive is quiet, I expect to follow Runa in my Mazda but she ends up hitching my car to the back of her truck instead so I can ride with her and Chewie.

I get to sit pressed against her, opting to lift up the middle console and use its seat in the cabin so I can be as close as humanly possible.

I drift off around the third hour of the trip, it’s only when she pulls into a gas station to fuel up that I wake, the rising sun coming up behind us in the rearview mirror.

“We’re close,” Runa tells me, a big smile on her face.

“Pick out whatever snacks you want for the next day or so, we’ll come back into town once we’ve cleared out the overgrown nightshades around the property.

“Probably best to keep them,” I tell her.

“We can learn to coexist with them, it’s the intruders who should be wary.”

Her smile reaches all the way up to her eyes, “That’s what Vewra would say, my mentor.” She explains with a sad shrug.

“Seems like she cared about you a lot, to leave it to you.” I squeeze her hand before we exit the car together.

“Hmm,” Runa hums, staring out into the road.

Picking out road trip snacks is the most normal thing we could be doing right now, even though I know there’s likely already a small but quiet search team trying to find me.

He’ll give up once he realizes I’m too far to chase and will gladly stay quiet for the sake of my freedom, but he’ll still try and find me at first.

So I pretend for now that snacks are all that matter, realizing how much you can learn about someone just from their taste preferences.

Runa loves ranch flavored sunflower seeds but she doesn’t actually like the seeds themselves, she just likes sucking on the shells and spitting them out.

It’s adorably gross, but when I think about the environmental impact of her spitting the little seeds out the window as we drive, planting sunflowers on the side of the road like a bird, I almost wonder if this is what love feels like.

I’m sure this must be it.

She squeezes my hand back, like she knows I need the reminder that she’s here, to take me out of all the worries in my head.

It’s only a forty minute drive from town until we get to the darkest corner of the state, at least twenty miles from the last known street light.

It’s been ages since we’ve passed another car, but Runa shows no sign of being lost, confidently tapping her fingers against the wheel and humming to the song on the radio.

She slows down once we get to a spot where a tree grows tall with no branches, three more pass on our right, identically carved like the previous one before Runa takes a right turn into the forest.

There was a path once here, now overgrown by thick grass, bushes and fallen branches.

“It was my full-time home until she died, it was too painful to come back alone. When I found the space to rent and start The Portal I started using the storage room as a bedroom. I planned to spend my summers here once upon a time, but the employees I had eventually left for college, new witches never applied and I had no time for vacations anymore. I thought about living here full time again, but the drive was just too long for a daily commute.” She explains, being careful of the turns she takes with my car still towing behind hers.

“What will happen to The Portal now?” I ask, a wave of sadness hitting me, as if I’m feeling Runa’s own emotions.

She gives me an awkward shrug, “The landlord will list it again in a few weeks when I don’t pay the rent at the end of the month. Life will go on.”

I can’t hide my frown, “That doesn’t feel like the right thing.”

“It is,” She takes my hand in hers again to reassure me.

“I was miserable, burning at both ends and still not coming up with enough to survive, all for the sake of honoring someone else’s dream. It wasn’t even my own, Vewra wanted it. I don’t know what’s next for me, but this feels right, with you.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” I ask, feeling the weight of the statement myself.

The forest begins to clear the deeper we drive into it, a secluded area opening up where a small cottage is covered by overgrown datura vines.

“It’s perfect.” I gasp, realizing that just days ago I had wished for this.

Did I manifest that?

“I think I’m a witch too.” I say to Runa just as she puts the car in park.

She laughs, and at first I think she’s making fun of my outrageous claim.

I can’t believe I just told a real witch that I think I’m a witch too.

“Of course you are.” She breaks her laughter to say, “We all have it in us, some hear the calling, some ignore it, but I truly believe at some point in our lives we all get an invitation from the universe.” Runa makes a funny face like she’s thinking about what she’s just said, “Well, maybe not all of us.”

I laugh, the idea that Williams or my father would be taking calls from the universe seeming like a punchline on its own.

“Either way,” She continues, raking her fingers through my hair as she pulls me in for an embrace, “Like attracts like, witches attract other witches, or something of the sort.”

“Or something of the sort.” I lift an eyebrow, staring deeply into her eyes.

She bites her lip, “We have so much to do.”

I sigh, defeated, but knowing she’s right.

I at least got a small nap in, she’s been packing all night long and then she drove.

“Why don’t you rest for a little and I’ll start?”

She stares unblinking, a suspicious look on her face.

“I’ll start with the bathroom so you can take a bath? Where are the cleaning supplies? Let’s unload Chewie first and then we can figure out where to plant her after your bath.” I’m going a million miles an hour now.

I’m hit with a strong second wind, suddenly reenergized by the need to care for Runa.

It surges through me like caffeine in an overwhelming desire to take the weight off her shoulders.

She’s barely unloaded three bags from the truck, sluggishly moving through her exhaustion while I’ve already bleached, dusted, wiped and restocked the entire bathroom.

I’m filling up the tub, sprinkling fresh lavender petals growing from a tree right outside the window into the hot water when she finally gives up.

It feels like a small but mighty victory, getting her to relax and let me take over.

The cabin itself is not as bad as she made it out to be, nothing like in the movies where it’s some abandoned dusty shack covered in cobwebs.

It just needed a good wipe, some sweeping and love.

We’ll keep the windows open for the next day or so to air it out and it should be good as new.

It’s perfect and it’s going to be home.

With her.

I find clean blankets and towels packed away in a vacuum sealed bag under the bed, a delightful surprise when everything still has the remnants of dryer sheet smell to them.

She’s out of the tub by the time I’ve finished changing the bedding and lit some candles.

A breeze blows in from the open window, the fragrance of fresh linen and wildflowers soothes my nervous system like welcome allies, attempting to dull the growing anxiety.

With my phone left behind it feels like I’m in the dark, waiting for a confrontation that may honestly never happen.

Will he come after me?

Her hair is still damp when it falls over my shoulders, her body pressing up against me from behind as she nuzzles into my neck.

“Hmm,” She hums, giving me a squeeze.

“This is perfect.”

I can’t help but agree, it hasn’t even been an hour, but just being here, with her…

this is freedom.

I’m sure of it.

“Help me unload Chewie from the truck?” Runa’s already got gardening gloves on and she’s dressed in denim overalls.

I follow her lead, undeniably distracted by how good she looks in them.

“Are we planting her?”

“Yes!” She chirps, swinging open the tailgate.

“I think the universe is asking for it, don’t you?”

Her smile is brilliant, it’s warm and so full of joy and hope that it eases every tightness still remaining in my chest.

I’m enamored with the way she sees things as signs and how her interpretation of those very things determine her day to day actions.

She’s intoxicating to be around.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get enough.

“I do.” I whisper my reply, but she’s already on the other side of the truck bed, squatting to grab the edges of the pot.

Scrambling to catch up before she hurts herself by trying to do it alone, I climb the truck and help her.

Chewie looks bigger than she did just a few days prior, there’s no way she’s grown in such a short time, but I don’t recall having to tilt my neck up so much to look at her before.

“It’s a good thing, probably.” I wheeze, stepping down little by little, the struggle on both our faces borderline amusing as we try to lift and move this plant.

“If we waited any longer she was just gonna have to stay up there.

Chewbacca makes her gurgling noise, as if protesting my joke to the fullest degree.

Runa laughs, “You’re lucky she’s not a Wookie or she’d tear your arm off for that one,” She comes back to a stand, wiping glistening beads of sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm.

“Where do you think?”

I do a full 360 degree spin on my heels, slow, taking my time to scope out the landscape.

“I think right here,” walking only a few feet toward the Southeast corner of the house, I point to the spot in front of the window.

“She’ll get tons of full, direct, sunlight, she has space to expand her roots and we can still see her from our front window.”

Runa nods, “Plus her trap can still reach the front door, and if anything, that’s a built in security system on its own.”

I laugh harder than I can control, tilting my head back and making a fool of myself.

An awkward embarrassment lingers.

Runa notices my discomfort with myself, the way my composure stands and I suddenly want to run away, go home, forget I’ve done any of this.

“Hey,” Her voice is a low hush, “I like you as is. Don’t be anything you’re not around me.” Her fingers rake against my throat, her hold becoming firm as she grips the back of my neck to force my gaze up to her, “Okay?”

I can’t blink, can’t look away from her, so I simply rasp out, “Okay.”

A slow clapping sound breaks the bubble of intimacy around us, a vile, sinister, laughter that’s too familiar for me to not know from deep in my bones.

Williams steps out from a covering of trees, that wretched look on his face like he’s just won again.

“Wow.”

I’m suddenly paralyzed, every possible fear coming to fruition just hours into our plan, the proof of what I’ve been told my entire life presented in front of me; I will never escape my family.

“H-how?” Runa manages to choke out, the look on her face surely identical to mine.

“You think the senator doesn’t keep a tracker in his daughter’s car?” He looks at us like we’re idiots, taking one confident step after another as he gets closer to us.

I’m trying to ask where he came from, for the details, but I only manage one single word before I realize that none of it matters if he’s here to take it all away from me.

“W-where?”

“Where what?” He frowns, looking back from the way he came.

“My car? It’s parked on the road, I wanted to make sure you two didn’t sneak off and hide when you heard me pull up.”

His sneer is more venomous than the baneful vines surrounding us, full of contempt, as if this is somehow so much more personal to him.

“Why do you even care?” I manage to complete a full thought when I feel Runa’s hand close around mine, the simple gesture syphons her strength directly into me.

At least, it feels like it.

“At first I thought I’d drag you home by the hair, kicking and screaming while I delivered you to your dad like a present. I daydreamed the entire drive here about how he’d thank me, what he’d offer in exchange for my willingness to still put up with you and this little…” He looks at Runa for only a split second, “Interruption of our plans.”

“I’m not going.” I declare, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You might as well kill me if you want to take me home, I’m staying.”

He laughs, a condescending type that unnerves me to the bone.

“Yeah, you can stay here.” His eyes haven’t managed to look my way once yet, for the most part they’ve been locked in one direction only.

Chewie’s.

The plant whines, like she feels the anxious energy and can’t help but be affected by it.

“Then what do you want?” Runa’s voice takes a more assertive tone, her fists balling at her side.

“I want the alien you’re trying to hide behind you. The same one you were trying to cover up with that blanket the other night.” He laughs.

“I figured it was drugs or something illegal but…”

“Alien?” I whisper, confused.

He shakes his head, amusement still clear on his face as he pulls his phone out.

“Now I get to be the guy who brought in an ET. Your dad and I are gonna be getting the highest clearance at area 51. Hell, maybe I’ll bypass him altogether and go directly to the president with this thing.”

I’m so disoriented from his dumb conclusion that I don’t have the appropriate response, Runa bursts out in a fit of laughter, no longer caring to present as intimidating.

“Alien?” She cackles, “You fucking idiot, that’s a plant.”

“Nice try,” His chuckle is insulting to our intelligence, he approaches confidently, unafraid of either of us.

“Now, the question is, do I want to call in the cavalry for transport, or do this quietly?” Williams lifts up the phone like he’s gonna take a picture but I lunge, reaching for it and slapping it down to the ground.

Rage burns from his eyes, his features twisting, as the vein on his forehead threatens to explode.

He shoves me with a powerful push, my back colliding against the wooden exterior of the cabin.

I scream, pain throbbing through my body, Runa’s grunts of struggle the only thing that forces my eyes to stay open and fight.

He will not take everything from us.

I’m able to come to a stand but just then Runa is pushed onto me.

I catch her before she can fall to the ground, but by the time we’ve recovered Williams is already in front of the plant.

I move to stop him but Runa grips my arm, showing me the shattered phone in her hand.

Chewie makes a warning sound that reminds me of a rattlesnake’s tail, the minute Williams’ lifts to touch a leaf the trap opens with a hiss.

Still, he moves closer, nothing but wonder in his eyes as he reaches for the carnivorous plant.

“Where did you come from?” He asks incredulously.

The trap begins to tilt, it shifts from pointing toward the sky until the opening is but inches from Williams’ face.

He stands there stupefied, frozen from shock and possibly fear as Chewbacca’s rumbling grows from a low hum to a full on growl.

We watch in silence, the anticipation is nerve wracking but it can only be comparable to watching a child fall into the gorilla enclosure.

A moronic, ugly child you don’t care about, and a gorilla with teeth bigger than hands who has a hunger for live meat.

Runa’s grip on me softens, her hand moving down from my wrist, fingers interlacing with mine.

A crow caws in the distance, both our heads whipping in the direction for a single split second.

It’s then that Williams’ scream fills the forest, a blood curdling sound that loses itself in the trees, but pulls our attention back to him.

His hand is gone, Chewie’s crunching loud and obnoxious as she works to digest the snack unbothered.

He shrieks, collapsing to the ground and flopping like a fish out of water trying to survive.

Blood sprays and spatters, almost obnoxiously, something like a high-budget Quentin Tarantino film and all I can wonder is if he’ll stop screaming before it fully drains out of him.

“She doesn’t like men.” Runa shakes her head slowly stepping toward Williams like the warning was held on the tip of her tongue the entire time.

“You fucking bitch!” He wails, swinging his nubby bloody stump as he kicks out with his legs.

But every movement of his becomes weaker the more blood he loses, his strength dwindling down as he reserves it for his one remaining hand to try to contain the bleeding.

It’s then that I realize he is dying.

Because of me.

I take a deep inhale, wondering if with the exhale will come the feeling of guilt.

But it never happens.

And that’s quite alright.