Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Zack sat up. “What the hell are you doing?”
“That was my boss. I’ve got to get to San Francisco pronto!”
“Oh, God, not again.” Finally getting up, he snatched at his clothes with angry movements, and began to dress.
“I’m really sorry, Zack, but this could mean my job.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Only a few days, as far as I know.”
“Dana—hell, this job of yours is driving me crazy. We never have any time together anymore.”
“Now is not the time, Zack,” she called out before she stepped into a steaming shower.
“It’s my own damned fault,” he muttered, “I never should have got myself mixed up with a brainy female. From now on, it’s empty heads and big boobs.”
2
I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!
The words from her favorite fairytale screamed through her head as her car skidded and rocked down the road. Glancing away from the oncoming cars to catch her image in her rearview mirror, she smacked her lips together and fluffed her naturally red hair to dry it. Looking at it, she remembered Zack’s words.
To hell with lipstick rings. I’m hungry for some red-headed cunt.
Damp like it was, the color was muted and dark, but when the sun shone on it, she had been told it gleamed as if it were on fire. She patted it with approval and smiled at the reflection in the mirror. Sure, she knew it wasn’t fun having a rendezvous suddenly interrupted, but Zack would have to understand she had certain responsibilities. It seemed funny, though. For years women were the ones left alone and lonely. Thank God times had changed, and women could give the men in their lives a great big taste of their own medicine.
Now, looking around in the dark, she happened to notice a lonely, vacant road that she knew to be a direct shot to the airport, and turned into it at the last moment. She didn’t see how she had any choice. It was getting close to two now, and she had no time to waste. To make her boss happy, she’d scrambled around like a crazy person, and after throwing a few essentials into her bag, she hurried out to her car with no makeup on, and her hair wet from a shower. Looking ahead, the vacant road looked endless, so she thought it safe enough to take a quick look into her mirror once again while fluffing her hair to hurry the drying process. When her gaze shifted back to the road ahead, her eyes widened in fright.
The sky was lit up with what looked like a sizzling bolt of lightning dropping from the sky and stabbing the road in front of her. She pumped on her brakes but couldn’t stop until she found herself enclosed in the brilliance, and her car falling forward into what felt like a deep hole. She bounced around like a rubber ball, her seatbelt the only thing keeping her from being thrown from the car. The last thing she remembered before darkness overcame her was the hiss and sizzle of a dying fire.
* * * *
She lay quietly in darkness, a mysterious hush hanging heavy in the night, a soft, withering wind soughing hauntingly through the treetops. The sound was high and lonely—out of tune.
It was calling her, urging her to follow it out of the darkness. She tried to resist, but like a ringing phone, it was insistent, and she found herself reaching for it. The pain was raw, unmerciful. It settled there, hitting again and again like a fisted hand. Her lashes began a soft flutter, and she slowly moved to lift her head.
She didn’t know how badly she was hurt, but it seemed every move she made brought a new ache to life. She moved slowly until she managed to work herself free of the mangled car where she was faced with spinning wheels, a smoking engine, and darkness. As near as she could tell, she had landed in a hole the lightning had made in the road. She moved to grab her bag from her car and winced at the aches and pains of a badly bruised body.
Pulling her cell phone from a dark corner of her bag, she began dialing Zack’s number. Her fingers did a swift click, click, click, only to realize she wasn’t getting a signal. She shook, pounded, and glared at the phone until she realized the batteries had picked this precise moment to run out of juice.And if that wasn’t enough, the excruciating pain in her shoulder had spread and turned into one gigantic headache. She was still looking the damage over when she happened to glance at the floor of hercar’s front seat and saw where her romance novel had landed.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone