The Man in the Box (The Box book 1) Read online

  Chapter Four

  My eyes flutter open as my brain tries to remember where I am. I’m in a car. The car is stopping. Okay, I can deal with that. Wait, why am I in a car again? And then I remember. Every. Tiny. Detail. I glance down at my chest and instantly have to look away to keep myself from squirming. He still kind of reminds me of a spider.

  It’s then I notice we’re in the middle of nowhere. It’s also completely dark. There’s hardly any other traffic on the road and the only thing in sight are trees.

  “Why are we stopping?” I ask, unable to completely hold back the panic in my voice. It’s not like I’m afraid of the dark, but I do usually leave my ballerina nightlight on, just in case.

  “Pit stop.”

  “Why here?” I look out the window, trying to see through the shadows to find the bears and coyotes and whatever else is out there waiting to eat us. “Can’t you wait for a proper rest stop? There’s got to be a gas station coming up.”

  “You want to go inside a public place carrying him?” She pulls off her seatbelt before I have a chance to answer, and climbs out the door. “You’d better squat now. I’m not stopping again, and there’s still a couple more hours left at least.”

  It’s not only the darkness keeping me in the car as Cindy clambers down into the ditch. We’re on a main road. Anyone could drive by and see. However, now she’s mentioned it, I can’t help but cross my legs. I groan and climb out of the car to follow Cindy.

  The grass down to the ditch is wet and the slope is steeper than I originally thought. I end up sliding part of the way down on my butt, completely ruining my good jeans. I dust off my backside as much as I can while picking my way past Cindy and into the tree line.

  “What are you doing?” she says. “Just go here.”

  “No way. If I have to go in the woods, at least let me be in the woods and away from perverts driving by.”

  “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when an axe murderer comes out of the shadows and kills you while I easily run away.”

  I stare at her with wide eyes as she completely ignores me and climbs back up to the car. “I hate you,” I shout.

  Nothing to it. I can do this. A little bit farther and no one will be able to see a thing. If someone or something tries to attack me, I can fight them off. I’ve been taking Taekwondo for over a year after all. No problem.

  There’s a problem. I can’t go here. Not with someone attached to me.

  “You can set me down, if you like,” Al says as though reading my mind. “I could use some relief myself.”

  I gently unlatch the chain and while using my cell for light, I set the whole thing on a mossy bit of ground. I hope he’s safe in this spot.

  “You’re going to have to talk to me,” I say. “So I won’t lose you.”

  “Of course.” He’s silent for a minute. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Anything,” I tell him as I step behind a tree. “Tell me about your family. Have any sisters? Are they as awful as mine?”

  “One sister,” he admits, but doesn’t say any more.

  “Oh.”

  I can’t think of anything else to ask and he doesn’t volunteer any information, so I finish up in silence.

  “You done?” I ask.

  “Yes.”

  I sweep the light of my cell over the moss a couple of times before I find him. After a few seconds of struggling with the latch of my necklace while holding my phone in my mouth, I start toward the car.

  “Is magic common where you come from?” I ask both out of curiosity and also to fill the awkward silence.

  “Yes,” he answers simply. “Did you hear something?”

  I start to tell him I hadn’t, when a grinding sound startles me. No, it’s not grinding exactly. It’s more like a whine or growl with a bit of a clucking undertone. And it’s coming from the direction of the car. When I look up, I notice two things at once. There’s an old, beat up red truck parked behind Cindy’s car, and there’s something like a cross between a lion, a snake and a goat pacing and sniffing around the passenger side.

  I think I make a squeaking sound, though it might be a full out scream. Either way, the thing hears me and turns its heads—because one head isn’t bad enough—and looks directly at me. All of those lessons kick in and I react without thinking, pirouetting on my right foot and bolting as fast as I can into the darkness of the trees.

  “Bad bad bad,” I say as I run.

  “What?” Al’s voice is tight with fright. “What is it? What’s happening?”

  “Creature.” I gasp. “Bad.”

  It’s gaining on me. I can practically feel the heat of its breath. A glance over my shoulder and I see it’s not breath I feel. The bloody thing is shooting fire. From one of its mouths. I am so dead.

  As I’m turning to face forward again so I can pick up speed, I notice at the last second the creature’s muscles are tensing. It’s preparing to leap. I stop and spin around to the side, my arms guiding the huge beast past me as I’ve done a hundred times during normal human attacks in practice. The difference is, most people don’t have teeth and claws to rip at your skin as they pass. With the creature facing the wrong way, I run back in the direction of the car. The size of the thing, I should have a decent head start before it can turn all the way around. Plus, I should be helping Cindy. I guess.

  I’m wrong. It’s fast. Faster than anything its size has the right to be. This time when I turn to meet the attack, I do a spinning kick my master would be proud of. My foot lands hard on one of the heads, knocking it back for a second. The problem is the kick only seems to surprise the creature rather than hurt it. When I kick again, it easily dodges out of the way and sweeps its snake tail around to whip the back of my legs.

  I fall to the ground and attempt to scramble away, but it’s no good. Holding the lipstick container hard against my chest, I wait for the inevitable pain and death.

  “Sorry Al,” is the last thing I say.

  It doesn’t bite.

  No scratching either. It freezes. With my eyes closed, I wouldn’t have known it was still there if it weren’t for its hot, stinking breath and deep growls.

  I force myself to inhale. And out. Then another. Why isn’t it killing me?

  “Why isn’t it killing me?” I ask Al. Good thing he’s inside the container or else he’d be long since crushed in my sweaty palm.

  “It was sent to find you, not kill you,” he tells me. “Not many can control a chimera. Those who can aren’t people you want to meet alone in the woods.”

  “Great. Thanks.”

  Ok, maybe I should have been more grateful for the information, but what I really wish he would tell me is a way out.

  “You should run,” he says as though once again reading my thoughts.

  Not as helpful as I was hoping.

  “Tried. Didn’t work.”

  “You have to understand,” Al persists. “This thing can only kill you. The people who sent it will do far worse.”

  “Far worse how?”

  I feel my heart rise in my throat. Al sounds scared. He didn’t sound nearly as afraid when he first fell onto my shirt. Somehow this creature has him shaking like a leaf. His fear makes me terrified.

  “Trust me. Run.”

  Before I can move, crunching footsteps warn me of the arrival of someone else.

  “Good girl, Farah,” a man says to the monster like a normal person would say to their pet dog. “And she’s still alive. Very good work.”

  I swear, if he starts scratching it behind the ear...

  “Lou?” Cindy asks.

  She sounds fine, though maybe a bit grumpy. I manage to peek around the two-headed creature—Had Al called it a chimera?—and find Cindy with her arm gripped tight by a man wearing a long dark leather trench coat and brown cowboy hat. His face is scruffy like he hasn’t shaved in a few days, and there doesn’t look to be a piece of him not covered in filth.

  I answer her question with a whim
pering sound. I think she gets the message.

  “Try running again and Farah here’ll rip you apart,” the man warns. “I don’t get paid if you’re dead, so I’d prefer if you don’t run.”

  “Yeah, she gets it,” Cindy says in her most unimpressed voice. “Who’s this boss of yours anyway? What does he want with us?”

  “Shut it.”

  He pushes the creature off me and lifts me to my feet with his empty hand. His grip digs into my skin, leaving bruises. Still, the pain he inflicts is nothing compared to the feeling of revulsion left where he touches my skin. He drags us back to the car. With a warning look, he lets go of my arm in order to open the passenger door and flick the seat switch causing it to flip forward, allowing people into the back. He moves aside and whistles. The chimera bounds into the car, happy as can be to go for a drive.

  “Oh, no. Dude. So not cool.” Cindy gives the car a despairing look. “There goes the upholstery.”

  “Farah’ll ride with you. Decide not to follow or lose sight of me, and she’ll kill you. Got it?” He sounds bored as he threatens our lives.

  “But does the thing have to destroy my car?” Cindy asks.

  “Move.”

  He grips her arm so hard it turns her skin white and forces her to take a step forward.

  I want to help her, or do anything but get into a car with a killer beast, but the guy doesn’t give me much of a choice when he tosses me inside. Cindy wrenches her arm away and climbs into the driver’s seat with a little more dignity. She waits for the truck to pull out and follows him. We drive in complete silence. Other than her music, of course.

  After only a couple of minutes of driving, I notice a noise coming from the back seat that isn’t part of the song. I glance over my shoulder while doing my best not to move fast enough to spook the creature. Its teeth on both heads are bared, and I can tell the sound it makes is a warning.

  “I think it wants you to turn down your music,” I say.

  “Well, it can bite me.” She sounds more annoyed than worried, which makes me even more afraid. She’s not taking any of this seriously.

  “Pretty sure that’s the plan,” Al replies.

  Instantly Cindy perks up. “Oh hey, little guy. How you doing’ in there? Still in one piece?”

  “So far.”

  “Don’t worry, this is a minor setback. We’ll be back on track to getting you all normalified in no time.”

  Her smile shows all of her teeth, as though she hasn’t got a care in the world.

  “Minor setback?” I force myself not to start hitting her. As made as she makes me, the creature breathing down my neck scares me more. “Do you know what’s going on? Who is this guy? What is the thing behind us? Why is someone looking for us?”

  “Chill,” Cindy says. “You’ll give yourself an aneurism. I’m guessing it has something to do with the box. Gran warned me there are people always on the search for magic and if we use any, they’ll come after us.”

  “Oh, well then. I guess everything’s okay.” I attempt to mock her relaxed attitude, but I fail pitifully as my voice cracks.

  “Wow, your sarcasm needs some work, Lou.”

  I glower at her, though the effect is probably lost because I keep glancing back at the creature in case it decides to eat us.

  “Did Gran at least tell you who these people might be?”

  Cindy shrugs. “Just ‘bad people.’ You know Gran.”

  “No, apparently I don’t.”

  An unexpected surge of guilt builds in me. It’s not like it’s my fault Gran kept secrets. Still, I can’t help feeling as though there was something more I should have done. Why hadn’t she trusted and confided in me the same way she had Cindy?

  “Wizards,” Al says. “They’re the only ones who can control a chimera this way.”

  “As in old men with white beards and funny hats?” A nervous giggle escapes my lips. “This is all a weird dream, isn’t it? I’m going to wake up in my room and have a good laugh about my crazy nightmare.”

  “Wizards are men who suck the magic out of sorceresses, leaving them in a state worse than death.”

  I look down at my necklace and I can see Cindy is doing the same out of the corner of my eye.

  “Do I detect some firsthand resentment there?” she asks.

  He doesn’t say anything, which I take to be a yes.

  “When you say suck...” I start, but am unable to finish, shuddering instead.

  “The trap you’re cheerfully walking into isn’t one either of you will come out of.”

  “What do you suggest we do?” Cindy asks. “Not like we can escape Farah here.”

  “Better if you die now then have wizards capture you.”

  Cindy makes the sound of a buzzer from a game show. “Wrong answer. Sorry. I don’t do dying. Besides, once these guys realize we have no magic, they’ll let us go.”

  “Unlikely.”

  “Well then, we’ll escape. I’ve dealt with guys like this before, it’s no biggy.”

  I stare at her for a few seconds in horror. “Oh yeah. We’re going to die.”