Flight to Freedom: A Short Jaunt Behind the Veil Read online

worse, but I couldn’t deny the fact that I was frightened. What if whoever picked me up was worse than the situation that I had just gotten out of.

  It didn’t matter. I needed help, and I just had to hope for a Good Samaritan to arrive and help me get to safety and call the police. That wasn’t destined to happen, and even to this day I’m not sure how I feel about what happened.

  They stopped for me, the taillights about a hundred feet ahead of me. I hung back, unsure of what I was going to do about this. For some reason I worried that he had pulled himself to consciousness and had driven to catch me. I hung back until I heard the voice calling to me. It wasn’t him, in fact it was a woman who was shouting out of the vehicle. “Hey, are you doing ok?”

  “Thank God!” I rushed in her direction. My feet were already scraped and raw from walking barefoot in the desert and the rough asphalt didn’t help. There was pain with every step, but it didn’t matter. I felt like a hero had just galloped up to save me on a horse.

  I could see the shock on her face as I crossed into her direct line of sight. “What happened to you?”

  I didn’t even know how to explain it. “He attacked me.” I looked down and for the first time I realized that I had ripped my dress. I sighed a little, frustrated, cold, and scared.

  She didn’t ask anything else. “Get in.” She unlocked the car door. “Do you need to call someone?” She turned in her seat and examined me a little closer. Her eyes narrowed as they moved from my neck to the arm that was cradling. “What exactly did he do to you?”

  “He bit me.” I didn’t know what else to say about it. “I’m bleeding in your car. I’m so sorry, I normally don’t bleed all over the cars of people I just met.”

  “It’s fine.” She looked over into the passenger seat, a slightly amused smile starting to form on her face. It was only then that I realized what I had said and I felt embarrassed. “Do you think that’s him?”

  I hadn’t even noticed the man in the other seat. He was dark haired with brilliant green eyes that seemed to glow in the low light in the vehicle. His olive skin was blending into the dark shadows. “I think so.” His voice was a harsh whisper and I found myself shuddering from the violence that seemed so natural to him. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did. It was the thought that crossed my mind and suddenly I wondered if I had just gotten into a vehicle with two people that were more dangerous than the man that had tried to kill me.

  She looked at me. “Look, I know this sounds a little strange.” She showed me a badge. It was a quick practiced motion, but for some reason it made me feel a lot better. “We’re looking for a man around here.”

  “Is his name Derek?” I asked, hoping that I hadn’t just been in the car with a serial murderer or something worse.

  “That would be it.” The growling man stated. “Do you know where he is?”

  “I stabbed him.” I started to shake as the realization sunk in. “He tried to kill me, so I stabbed him with a screwdriver.” My hands shuddered as I began to realize exactly what had happened. “I could have died. I had to defend myself.” My voice was starting to numb and I was starting to realize exactly how much pain I was in. “He bit me.” I fought the inclination to shut down and started to tell my story, at least the parts of it that I could remember.

  “Do you remember where he was?” The girl asked me, slipping the vehicle into drive.”

  “Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?” The man asked, his intense eyes capturing the driver’s eyes.

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry. Tell me where he is while we take you to the hospital.”

  I shook my head. “No, we have to stop him before he hurts someone else.” I knew that I had to help them. “I can wait. Let’s stop him.”

  “Call it in.” The man indicated. “I’ll drive.” They switched seats. “You might want to buckle up.” His voice was matter of fact, not really agitated or excited by the problems that I was having. He didn’t have any pity for me.

  “What are you going to do to him?”

  “We’re going to smile.” She smiled at me. “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Sophie, well actually, Sophia.”

  “That’s a pretty name, I’m Aydan, and this is Dev.” She was trying to make me feel a little more comfortable, and it was actually starting to work.

  “Are you cops?”

  “Basically.” She didn’t elaborate. “It’s kind of hard to explain what we do, but we’re here to help.”

  “Are you really looking for him?”

  “Yep, you aren’t the first woman he’s targeted.” Aydan told me.

  Dev spoke up, and I could imagine his dark eyes glitter with amusement. “You are the first one to survive though.”

  That was a sobering thought. I buckled my seat belt as he started the engine. He drove like a professional combat driver and it was the second most terrifying experience that I had ever been in. This night was turning out to be the strangest night that I had ever gone through and I had a feeling that it wasn’t over yet. I gave the directions as well as I could while he sailed over the blacktop, making the car run faster than it should have on the curvy roads that seemed to dominate the foothills of the Organ Mountains.

  “We were near the tree line.” I was trying to focus, but unconsciousness was starting to set in. I saw him pull up behind the vehicle, but my blood loss was catching up to me. My injuries started to ache and I found myself unable to keep my eyes open.

  She turned to me as the door creaked open. “Don’t worry, it will all be ok.” I remember that the words brought a strange sort of comfort. It was the tone in her voice, a professionalism that told me that it wasn’t the first time that she had dealt with something like this.

  As I drifted out of the realm of consciousness I could hear him start to speak. “I wonder how she managed to survive.”

  “She’s something special.” It was her voice that lead me into oblivion.

  When I woke up in the hospital the young woman was sitting by my bed. “I know this is going to be hard to believe.”

  The story she told me seemed to have come straight out of the movies. I was brought into a world that wasn’t supposed to exist. A world that was surrounded by magical creatures that preyed on humans. I didn’t know what to do about it, but it brought me into the world that I live in now. A world where I hunt the hunters. My life changed that day, and while sometimes I miss my ignorance, most of the time I find myself pleased that my eyes were opened, my heart unveiled and my blindness banished. I am a hunter, I protect people who can’t protect themselves and there is nothing that I could be doing that would be nobler than that.

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