LATER.. as in.. a few DAYS ……..
Both Marian and Glyn put in for vacation time at work, and when Glyn found out she couldn't get any, she quit instead. Glyn's mother sent her two thousand dollars because some was 'birthday money' and the rest was just bribery or something. By the way, it's ALMOST Christmas. (Say, December 22nd)
"Damn this thing! IT WON'T START!!" Glyn banged on the dashboard of the olive green 1963 Vanagon that Owen had so kindly allowed them to borrow.
"Let me do it. You aren't used to a stick.." Marian took over the driver's seat and turned the key. The engine trembled, coughed, and grudgingly started running loudly. "I got it!"
"What?" Glyn yelled over the sound of the engine.
"THE CAR IS ON!" Marian yelled back.
"Oh OKAY!" Glyn threw one last suitcase into the back of the van and hopped into the front passenger's seat.
Later that DAY, damnit- like maybe sometime that night.
"Marian, you look tired," Glyn informed her, forcing herself to stop looking paranoidly * which might not be a word * at the rearview mirror.
"Well Glyn, I don't want you to drive and you know that, but…" Marian smiled tiredly. "I'm really sleepy and I think we have a better chance with you driving than me driving and sleeping at the same time."
"Probably…"
"There's a rest area. I'll park here and we can get some bad coffee from one of those machines and switch places and stuff." Marian pulled into the parking lot and parked. Glyn shuddered. "Glyn! What's wrong?"
"That car has been following us for… I don't know. Since I noticed it a few hours ago. But it's probably nothing. It's probably that I just happen to see a lot of little black cars with really darkly tinted windows. There are lots of those, right?"
"Um. Sure… Right," Marian said nervously. She couldn't think of anyone who had a little black car with really darkly tinted windows. "I dunno if I want coffee." She got out of the car and looked around for a few seconds. Glyn crawled into the driver's seat.
"C'mon Mari! It's nothing to worry about. You know how stupid I am." Glyn tried to look cheerful as Marian got in the passenger's seat.
"You're not stupid, Glyn."
"Am too."
"Are not."
"Am too." Glyn started driving. "Damnit! It's that little black car!" Marian and Glyn looked in the rearview mirror at a black Nissan Pathfinder.
"Glyn, that car isn't so little."
"Sure it is. You're tired, remember?"
"Whatever. I'm going to sleep." 42 Miles Later
The engine shuddered again. Glyn looked at the steering wheel nervously, which was shaking in her hands. "Marian! Wake up before this piece of shit disintegrates!"
"What??" Marian sat up. "Oh no. It's shaking."
"Bet it's gonna blow up." Glyn was about to stop the motor but it died abruptly on its own. "Damnit!!! I'm not staying in this stupid … thing any longer!" She opened her door and jumped out. Marian got out of her side and neither noticed the black Pathfinder coming down the road at them.
"Look Glyn! It's smoking!! RUN AWAY!!!" Marian yelled and they ran into the woods by the road. "Is that that car?!"
"It is! Oh no. It's only ten more miles to the cabin, we could run to it and we might get there before the mad stalker.."
"Glyn! Don't be morbid!" Marian smacked her. "Someone's getting out of the car.."
"Shit!! I'm so not standing here anymore!" Glyn started running blindly in the dark away from the road.
"This was YOUR idea, you genius." AJ glared at Brian.
"No it wasn't! YOU were the one who wanted to surprise them in Vermont."
"But YOU wanted to follow them!"
"Well how else were we going to find out how to get there? Hmm?" Brian walked over to the smoking van and looked inside. No one was there.
"Where are they?" AJ wondered. He heard some crashing in the woods and it sounded like someone was yelling.
"Maybe that's them." Brian stated. "Maybe they ran into a bear or something."
"Glyn? Where are you?" Marian called.
"Umm.. over here." Glyn said helpfully. She had run into a creek and fallen on the rocks, so now she was sitting in some nasty slimy water and her ankle hurt like hell. "I'm in the fucking creek."
"Do you hear something?" Marian thought she heard twigs snapping nearby.
"NO!" Glyn started picking up rocks and throwing them in random directions, hoping she wouldn't hit Marian. "It's like that movie.. The Blair Witch Project! Ooo I wonder if there's little man signs made out of twigs hanging over our heads."
"Glyn shut up! I don't need to hear that now." Marian walked into a tree.
"Sorry. I'll just sit here and play in the water, waiting for my murderer to storm along and-"
"GLYN!!!!" Marian sat down somewhere and heard something moving nearby. "Glyn, sit still! I'm listening."
"I am being still. I'm not moving." Glyn could hear something, too. "Are you moving?"
"No…." Neither of them spoke and whatever it was stopped moving.
"They're listening to us!!!" AJ whispered.
"Shut up. They're going to be so pissed at us…" Brian said regretfully.
"Remember, it was your idea."
"It was NOT!" Brian stepped forward and something heavy landed on his foot. "SHIT!!!!!" Someone screamed.
"GLYN! What's going on?" Marian yelled.
"Something stepped on me!" Glyn said indignantly, hurling more rocks in random directions since she couldn't find any more really heavy ones. Marian started to stand up and ran into something.
"It's the things from the black car!!!!" she yelled, pushing the thing that had almost run into her away with both hands.
"NO! It's the Blair Witch!" Glyn remembered that this shouldn't be funny and shut up. She kept throwing rocks. Now all the big rocks had been thrown, but she could still find pebbles.
"Stop assaulting us!" AJ grumbled. "It's just me and Bri." He said the last part quietly.
"What the fuck?!?!" Glyn shouted.
"Stop throwing rocks!" another voice begged. "And get that one off my foot."
"Glyn I think we died," Marian SAID.
"GOD SAYS STOP THROWING ROCKS!" AJ bellowed. There was silence. "This is pretty cool. I like being God."
"…You bastard!" Glyn SAID SAID SAID after a few minutes. "What the hell is going on?!"
"My foot!!!!" Brian repeated. "You're killing me."
"I WILL kill you if you don't tell me why you're here!" Glyn said indignantly.
"Why were you going to go to Vermont and not tell us?" Brian wondered.
"How the hell did you find out?" Glyn found a nice, smooth rock and was prepared to throw it if no one answered her question.
"Umm.. Ash. She called and-" Brian tried to explain.
"There will be bloodshed when we go back!" Glyn stated.
"Get the rock off Brian's foot, Glyn." Marian commanded.
"FINE!" Glyn found the offending rock and dragged it off of Brian's foot.
"Why don't we go back to the cars and go to the cabin and THEN we can talk, okay?" AJ suggested.
"Where is the car?" Glyn wondered.
"Umm.. on the road?" Marian said helpfully.
"Jee, thanks, Mari, I never would have figured that one out." Glyn snapped and tried to stand up. "Glyn has a problem."
"What??" Marian sighed.
"Glyn can't walk." Glyn said in a sing-song cheerful voice. "Glyn hurt her ankle when she was running away from mad stalkers in the dark."
"Does anyone have a light?" Marian asked hopefully.
"I do." Brian turned on a flashlight.
"Why the hell do you have a flashlight?" AJ demanded.
"I dunno. I thought we might need it." Brian shrugged. He swung the light around the area where they all were, Marian was sitting by a tree, AJ was near her, Glyn was sitting half in and half out of a creek in a somewhat twisted-looking position, and he was a couple feet away from her.
"It's damn cold and damn wet." Glyn muttered.
"If you hadn't run into that creek you wouldn't be wet." Marian pointed out.
"If some people hadn't been STALKING us I wouldn't have been running and-"
"Let's go back to the car." AJ repeated. "GOD SAYS WE'RE GOING TO THE CAR."
"Okay. YOU guys can go back to the car and I can just sit here in the creek all night." Glyn SAID.
"Are you SURE you can't walk, Glyn?" Marian inquired.
"I shall give you a demonstration." Glyn started to stand up and couldn't put any weight on her left foot, so she fell back into the creek with a splash. "Yes, Mari, I'm sure I can't walk."
"I'm going to slaughter Ash and hang her head outside our door," Marian declared, walking over to the creek and offering Glyn a hand. "Shit! It's slippery!" She clutched at Brian's arm and fell onto her knees anyway. Brian happily pulled Marian to her feet. Glyn stared at them mockingly for a moment then wondered what would have happened if the Vanagon had blown up.
"That car isn't safe," she said thoughtfully.
"Which one?" AJ asked.
"Well, either one I guess. But I was referring to the Pukemobile. I dunno about YOUR car either."
"That thing isn't mine," AJ stated. "But it is safe. And it's damn cold out here."
"Try sitting in a damn creek and see how much colder it is," Glyn muttered. "Oh shit. Did anyone notice that-"
"It's snowing!!!" Marian cheered.
"Very nice. Snow is just what we need" Glyn grumbled. "Oh shit… SHIT! What's that smell?!"
"Uhh….. smoke?" Brian checked to make sure the flashlight wasn't about to go up in flames. "Gasoline? …Burning rubber! That's it!"
"DAMNIT!!" Marian wondered where the road was. "We didn't go THAT far!!!"
"I HATE you Owen" Glyn muttered. "He should have let us drive the Jetta. But no. We aren't GOOD enough to drive his stupid Jetta! So we got the PUKEMOBILE!" She shivered. "Someone help me up," she begged but AJ was already pulling her up. They ran off in search of the car (even though Glyn couldn't really run).
"Oh shit. Shit shit…" Marian SAID, a few steps ahead of Glyn and AJ. The Vanagon was a smoking mass of blackened metal.
"Was it the Blair Witch???" Glyn called.
"It was Owen and his damn stupid piece of shit car!" she replied.
"How's our stuff?" Glyn asked before she was able to see what the Pukemobile had become.
"Uhm…. Well…. " Marian couldn't bring herself to say it.
"The thing burned," Brian said for her. "It's all … dead."
"My CAMERA!" Glyn wailed. "My child! My FILM!! RUINED! Damn Owen." She let go of AJ's arm and sank none too gracefully to her knees on the side of the road.
"It's okay Glyn. You can get a new one.." Marian said helpfully. Glyn laughed.
"I've had that thing since I was thirteen! Do you know how much it cost?! That was my college money." Glyn muttered, almost to herself.
"Glyn it's okay. Calm down." AJ SAID GGDI. "Come on, we'll go to the cabin." He pulled her up and they all got in the black Pathfinder.
"How do we get there?" Brian asked. He was driving.
"I'll give you directions.." Marian offered.
Back to June and Fiona's Stories