What an asshole!

A very heated Leah sat behind her steering wheel, speedometer rushing further and further to its limits. The engine growled, the concrete below hummed as her tires rotated over it and the low bellow of the wind whipped over her roof like a tornado.

A storm was inside her mind, whooshing around the thoughts and memories causing a mess of her state of mind. She was speeding which she never did and in no particular direction. The first road she saw she hopped on and took it for as long as it lasted.

Fortunately for her paranoid side that feared being pulled over, especially since she was doing 85 in a 40mph zone; the road she was on was a country road that traveled beside the highway. In between trees she could see shadows and each time they were noticed it made her foot shiver on the gas pedal. 

Whatever was going on needed to stop. If she could make it all come to an end as easy as hitting the brakes on her car, it would be perfect.

But she'd be hitting them for another reason and much sooner than she expected. In a flustered non focused zoom, Leah didn't notice the deer jump in front of her headlights until it was too late.

Beady eyes and long legs were all she saw before a loud thump hit the grill of her car, smashing it like a soda can. Hitting the brakes did nothing but swerve her car around. Glass crackled and the sound of rubber sliding screeched. 

All she could do was scream. Circling like a carnival ride, her body slammed from the door to her seat despite wearing a seatbelt. Even her head was banged up leaving her poor brain bruised.

In a matter of seconds, it was over. Her car sat in a cloud of smoke and dust, beaten up on the side of the road. As for her, she sat still and in shock. Her heart hammered nearly coming out of her chest. The uprise of dust, dirt and smoke clouded up the air around her car, engulfing her in a dusky bubble.

With hands shaking, Leah felt herself for any injuries. Luckily nothing seemed to bleed, but her body ached terribly. She leaned back enough to unbuckle her seat belt and tried to see if there was any sign of life outside, but every window was still clouded up.

"Oh shit," She closed her eyes, leaned on her steering wheel and tried to catch her breath. "You're alive," she whispered, "It was just a deer."

As the rhythm in breathing began to slow, her ears perked to a strange sound. A hissing through the air made her stomach sink and jerk her head away from the unit. To her surprise, she didn't assume it was more black magic snakes approaching.

Leah's eyes scanned the pit of her car, gauges and all. Her lights were still on but her car had stopped running. One of the service lights was on, the airbag symbol blinking like a Vegas street sign. The painful bag of safety hadn't deployed.

Her eyes widened. She would be damned if it went off far too long after the initial accident. She had seen it happen before and it did some real damage even if it were supposed to save lives. The hissing, it had to be the fluke spiraling back into business. It was going to explode soon.

Snatching her purse from where it had fallen on the floor, she tried to open her door. To her dismay, it wouldn't give. She cursed under her breath jiggling the handle, hitting the unlock button and trying it again. Nothing. She pushed herself over the console and tried the passenger door and when it didn't give in either, Leah found herself trying both back doors as well. What kind of damage...?

The hissing grew louder. At least in the back seat of the car the air bag couldn't destroy her head. She could at least wait and then try to figure something out. A light bulb flicked on. She could call for help and by the time they arrived, the damned doors would be open.

One last lean over the drivers seat and she hit her hazard lights, turned her keys and yanked them from the ignition. She would be hard to miss. And at least if she couldn't get out, nobody could get in.

Her hand jingled in her purse searching for her phone. Through the packs of gum, receipts, odds and ends, she finally felt her phone. As she yanked it out in a hurry, multiple contents of her bag oozed out onto the floor in an avalanche.

"Crap!" She folded her body and attempted to scoop it all in one swipe, but her effort just led to her phone joining the crowd. Her clumsiness had no place in the car at that moment. A groan purred from her vocals as she grabbed things by twos until her purse was once again- a mess.

Phone in hand, she tried to activate it. The screen didn't light up as usual and that gave Leah a fright she didn't know if she could handle on top of everything else. Her fingers pushed and slid, hitting every button possible but still, nothing. Jolts from inside her body hurt like stab wounds. She tried to stay calm but it seemed too far to obtain. And just when she tried to give herself a push in the bravery department, a thump sounded.

She looked around expecting to see the deer possibly coming back for more, or maybe even another one. But as the cloud around her car dwindled down, all she could see were shadows of the night. Somewhere beyond a rather large collection of trees the headlights of traffic zoomed by.

Another thump made her flinch.

Panic was just a moment away. Nobody was around to help and even though she always charged her phone before she left home, it appeared to be dead.

Leah tossed it back in her purse and began to dig for something else as another loud bang sounded. Her eyes looked all around, hoping to God a monster of the night wasn't hanging out beside her car.

"Come on, come on," she pleaded into the unorganized clutter. Her hands were now both seeking and right when an even louder noise decided to rattle her ear drums, they found it.

She balled her hand around an old knife she'd had since she was a teenager and pulled it onto her lap. Peering out the windows, she saw her reflection. A fearful twist had grown on her face and it increased in size when the thumps grew into what could only be described as the knocking of a monster.

It continued long enough for Leah to notice it was coming from her roof. Maybe she should have gotten a car with a sun roof. Or maybe it was a good thing she couldn't see whatever was up there. A flooding topic of dark magic came back into her mind causing her to grow more paranoid. She squeezed the handle of the knife, scooting to the middle of the back seat. The knocking persisted throwing her into a terrible hole of fear. This can't be happening.

She shivered and gulped before getting the courage to punch at her roof, "Go away! Leave me the hell alone!" She continued to punch and yell, until the knocking finally stopped. But in the silence she began to hear another invasion of sound. Hissing. And it wasn't coming from the airbag. It was more familiar.

Leah could have jumped from her skin when she saw two snake heads poking from her vents. With Balls of midnight looking right at her, they slid down to the front seat as two more followed.

She screamed, she actually screamed in a fit of rage and panic wrapped in one tantrum. Balled fists began pounding against her windows trying to break them with the shell of the knife. The hissing grew in intensity and distance, leading her to flip and see a not so pretty picture.

Dozens of them were only inches away, and some had even began to wiggle up her leg - and they were still coming. Shaking her leg and kicking them off, they crashed onto the floor but tried again with a vengeance. She turned around and started to bang on the rear window. Sure enough it began to crack, but the invaders were already on her again.

As she attacked the glass she couldn't help but think of him and his scarred face, dirty colored skin and evil eyes. It had to be him making such horrible things happen. He probably even sacrificed a deer to cause the accident. He was dangerous and had no limits.

"I'll kill him," she damaged the window cracking a hole in it, "I'll kill him I swear I will!" With One final blow the window shattered sending glass flying everywhere. Leah shook a snake off of her, grabbed her purse and climbed out of the car with urgency. The night air hit the sweat on her forehead as she ran far enough to escape the snakes but close enough to be out of the pitch black of the night. She bit her lip when she saw there was not a soul on top of her car. The snakes didn't even pour out her broken window, it was as if they just gave up.

No hissing could be heard from her point on the side of the road. She took a few steps until she could peek in.

No snakes. "What the..."

Thump, thump.

Footsteps cut her off. Loud footsteps, ones that were coming close enough that she probably could have reached out and touched them. Or they could touch her.

A hand heavy with a foreign touch sent over her shoulder causing her to cry out. It was him, it had to be. Without any hesitation, she swung her arm around and knocked the butt of the knife into their head.

They let out a groan.

Leah jerked around expecting to see him in pain and heading towards the ground. Her emerald eyes focused and grew wide, "Oh my God!"

But the Stanger wasn't who she was expecting. A man with skin darker than hers and lighter than his stood holding his forehead, glaring at her with a very shocked look on his muscular face. He winced before raising a brow, "What did you do that for?"

Immediately, Leah felt like a crazy woman high off of purple powder. Her stomach tightened as did her grip on the knife. She softened her face in guilt, "I am so sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"Well damn, I feel sorry for whoever pissed you off."

"Don't," she spoke out, "Who are you?"

"Daniel Moss," he didn't bother to put a hand out, most likely still upset at her attacking him, "I saw your hazards so I thought I would see if you needed help." He dropped his hand from his head and stared at her, "So do you need help? It looks like your car is pretty beaten up."

Leah looked back at what used yo be a silver sedan before she gawked over his shoulder to his headlights. Her gut was in knots so it couldn't give her any advice and her mind was too boggled to think. She nodded, "It was a deer."

"The area is full of them. You didnt See The caution sign back there?"

"I wasn't paying attention..." she looked at him hoping she would come off as normal, not crazy and he would help her get home. He seemed to be normal enough; clothed in a black shirt and some worn out jeans, even a pair of dusty brown work boots. Hopefully, he wasn't a figment of her nightmares. "I was Distracted."

"You should be more careful. You need to call someone? A tow truck?" He looked at her from the side of his eye, "Boyfriend?"

There was not time to think or respond to his accusation that she wasn't as single as a fish in a birds nest. She nodded, "I could use a tow truck. Do you know of any?"

"A friend of mine has a company and its not far from here. Best you'll find in Elk Village. I could give him a call if you want?"

"What did you say?" Leah perked her ears and felt her head begin to spin. Tapping her heel against the concrete she took in his appearance and words.

"I could call him?"

"No not that, where are we?"

"Elk Village."

If there was a gold medal for heart sinking, stomach wrenching, and spine tingling moments in less than a week, she could have taken it with no problem. Her heart swung down and clung to her lower abdomen, throbbing in anxiety.

She couldn't believe it. She had blindly drove further than she realized and to a place she hoped she'd never have to return to again. Her head shook in awe before she shot her eyes back to Daniel, "Yes I need a tow as soon as possible. It's a drive back but I'll pay extra if I need to."

"Where exactly are you coming from?"

"Channing."

"Wow, that's some drive."

"You think he'll mind?"

Daniel lowered his voice as if it weren't just the two of them standing in the night. "He loves money so I doubt it."

"Good."

Leah turned her back to him and put her knife in her pocket for safety, before she started to sift through her purse to make sure she had everything. Which she did, but still something inside of her wanted to have a look in her car.

A little voice told her to make sure nothing was in it. Hearing Daniel begin a phone call, she began ambling over slowly as if something could jump out. She peeked in the windows and tried the driver door. Of course, when she didn't need it to open to save her life, it opened without a problem. It swung wide with a squeak revealing what she kind of expected after two days of magic.

On her driver seat was a symbol burned into the material, the same one from before. A figure eight surrounded by a circle stared at her. Luckily it seemed as though the snakes disappeared into thin air. Her hand reached down and trailed the swirls. The interior smelled like gun powder and dirt, a strong scent rose up to her nose reminding her of the first time she'd ever smelled it. Quickly she pulled her hand back and frowned, closing her door quickly. "Why me?"

Daniel approached her with heavy footsteps as he'd done before, "Deer tend to be very random at this. You could have spooked it, who knows. At least you made it out alive."

"Barely," she whispered, "Is your friend on his way?"

"Like his life depended on it."

"Thank you."

"Do you need anything else? I have a first aid kit somewhere in the truck."

"No, I'm fine," she replied.

No I'm not. She thought.

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So what do you think of how this chapter ended? Do you have any predictions for what's to come next? Sound off in the comment section! Thanks --A