Chapter Five
The road stretched out in front of them, long, quiet and flat, the sky already beginning to soften into late afternoon blues and golds. Anabelle kept both hands tight on the steering wheel, Layla’s car humming smoothly beneath her, as the town shrank in the rear-view mirror.
She didn’t look back.
Emmett sat in the passenger seat, feet swinging just above the floor, his dinosaur clutched in both hands. He’d stopped crying somewhere between the second red light and the highway sign, exhaustion smoothing the sharp edges of fear into something quieter, heavier.
“You okay, buddy?” she asked softly.
He nodded, pressing his face against the window. “Where we going?”
“Just… away for a bit,” she said. “Somewhere new. Just us.”
That seemed to satisfy him. For now.
The air in the car felt… different. Not bad. Just quieter, like the noise of the world had been turned down a notch. Even the engine sounded steadier. She chalked it up to adrenaline fading.
Her phone buzzed once on the console. She ignored it.
She needed distance. Space. Miles between whatever that had been and the fragile normal she’d built with her brother since the accident. The sound she’d heard earlier replayed in her head no matter how hard she tried to shove it away: deep, animal, wrong.
Feral.
Her fingers tightened again. She drove until the houses thinned out and the fields opened wide, until her shoulders finally dropped an inch and her breathing came easier.
Only then did she notice how hungry Emmett looked, the way his head drooped as the road lulled him.
“Hey,” she said gently. “How about food?”
His head popped up. “Waffles?”
She smiled despite herself. “If they have them.”
The diner appeared at the edge of town almost too perfectly: like it had been waiting for them. The low and squat neon sign buzzing faintly, parking lot dotted with a few trucks and a single dusty sedan. The kind of place where no one asked questions as long as you paid.
Perfect.
As she pulled in, a gust of wind kicked up dust from the gravel, then settled abruptly, like it had been cupped and smoothed away. Weird, she thought.
She shook it off and parked near the window, scanned the lot once more, then unbuckled Emmett and took his hand.
Inside, the air in the diner smelled like coffee and grease and something comforting she hadn’t realized she’d been craving.
The hum of voices softened as they walked in, conversations dipping for half a second before resuming.
She looked around, and noted the vinyl booths that lined the walls, the jukebox that hummed quietly in the corner, and the woman behind the counter that looked up with a tired but kind smile.
“Seat yourselves,” she called.
Anabelle chose a booth near the back, one with a clear view of the door. Old habit. One she hadn’t questioned in years.
Emmett climbed in across from her, swinging his legs again. “Can I get chocolate milk?”
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Absolutely.”
She ordered waffles for him, eggs and toast for herself, then added two burgers and fries to go. Maybe more than they needed...but she didn’t know when they’d stop again, and she wasn’t planning on rushing back to a grocery store anytime soon.
As the waitress scribbled it down, a flicker of irritation crossed her face...then immediately smoothed out, replaced by another smile that looked almost relieved.
“Coming right up,” she said.
Anabelle frowned faintly. That had been… fast.
As they waited, Emmett leaned over the table. “That man was scary.”
Her stomach tightened, the air around her seeming to thicken for a heartbeat before easing again.
“I know,” she said carefully, calmly, even though her pulse had spiked. “But we’re okay now.”
“The car growled,” Emmett whispered.
She reached across the table covering his small hand with hers. The clatter of dishes around them dulled instantly, like someone had wrapped the diner in cotton.
“Sometimes,” she said gently “noises sound scarier than they are.”
She didn’t believe that. Not really. As soon as she thought it, she felt a subtle pressure behind her palms, warm and steady. It faded the moment she noticed it.
The food arrived quickly. Emmett attacked his waffles with renewed energy, syrup dripping down his fingers, and chocolate milk leaving a faint mustache on his upper lip.
Anabelle watched him eat, relief loosening something in her chest she hadn’t realized was clenched so tight, the world around her felt pleasantly... muted.
She sipped her coffee and tried not to think about how easily that man had unsettled her.
At first, strikingly handsome, black hair, light blues eyes, fixed on her with a quiet intensity that threw her completely off guard. The birthmark in her thigh had begun to itch, and then...
It shifted to how quickly fear had taken over. How instinct had screamed run before her mind could catch up. She had trusted her instincts before. They’d kept her alive.
She paid the bill in cash and the waitress waved off the tip she tried to leave.
“Don’t worry about it,” the woman said. “You look like you’ve had a long day.”
She paused, then nodded, returning her smile with a tight-lipped one. Then, she grabbed the to-go bags, and guided Emmett back to the car.
Outside, the air felt cooler than it should have been. The neon sign flickered once, then steadied as they passed beneath it. As she buckled him in, she scanned the lot again, out of habit more than panic now.
Nothing. Good.
As she started the engine, the knot in her stomach loosened another notch, like the road itself was smoothing ahead of her. They pulled back onto the road, the diner’s lights fading behind them.
Emmett yawned, eyelids drooping as he hugged his dinosaur close. “Wake me up when we’re there,” he mumbled.
Anabelle smiled softly, and promised. “I will.”
She drove on, the lines of the road blurring softly, the world around them bending just enough to let them pass unnoticed. And she didn’t see it. But the diner’s radio crackled as they left. A loose menu fluttered, then stilled.
She just kept driving, the horizon wide and open ahead of them.
Away from growls. Away from strangers.
Away from questions she wasn’t ready to answer.
For now, it was just her and Emmett. And the road.