Burkheart Witch Saga Book 1: Red Snow

by Christine Sutton

After sleeping off her overactive imagination at the Sleep Tight Inn, Kingman, Kayla ate lunch at the local Denny's. She finished up her bacon cheeseburger and paid the check at the register. Tanisha took her credit card with a smile.

  "Was everything alright?"

  "Great! I'm stuffed." Kayla answered, patting her very full stomach.

  "Good! We aim to please." She smiled and handed her card back.

  "Well, bacon never disappoints."

  "Have a great day."

  "You, too."

  She walked outside and lit up a cigarette to settle her breakfast before continuing on her way. As she deposited the butt in the ashtray, she heard it. The now familiar rumble of the Impala's engine. She froze in her spot, unable to move as the shiny black beast pulled around and passed her. This time, the driver's side window was rolled down enough for her to catch a glimpse of the person behind the wheel. The man was surprisingly young, maybe in his late twenties. He had facial hair that was not thick enough to be called a beard, but not thin enough to be called fuzz. He turned to look at her and she saw that his eyes were like dark little pebbles surrounded by bushy eyebrows. His thick lips parted in a frightening smile, revealing teeth that were long and bright white. Kayla knew it was a trick of the sun, but it looked like a few of his teeth were actually pointed like little white spikes. The Impala pulled out of the parking lot and turned left onto the street. Kayla unfroze and got into her car. She left the parking lot and turned right onto the street. She didn't care if it was the wrong way, as long as it was the opposite way.

  There was more traffic through this stretch than there had been through the desert of California. Kayla felt better knowing that there may be a car every twenty or thirty minutes, instead of every twenty or thirty hours. She drove on, checking her cell phone occasionally for any message from David. He had not texted her once since she left Barstow. She had sent him several

  messages when she arrived in Arizona, but he had still not answered her. She was starting to get a little worried that something might be wrong. Blackberry in one hand, steering wheel in the other, she sent another text;

  ansr me david nd 2 hear ur vce lve u.

  She tossed the cell back onto the seat next to her and continued her drive. She almost jumped out of her skin when not five seconds later the phone beeped a text alert. She scrambled to pick it up, anxious to get the message from her fiancé. Again, fear took hold of her as she read the message flashing from her inbox.

  I see the moon,

  and the moon sees me

  "What the fuck?" She exclaimed as she was preparing to let David know what she thought of his nursery rhyme reply. As she got ready to type, she saw that the message had not come from David at all. It was coming from someone named "Lou". She texted back:

  Wrong number.

  Her phone beeped again.

  "Dude!" She yelled at the empty car as she picked the phone back up off the seat.

  The moon sees the somebody

  I'd like to see

  Not wrong, Kayla, I see you.

  As she instinctively looked around her, she saw the Impala parked at the side of the road just ahead of her. The late afternoon sun sparkled off of the chrome skull and blinded her for a second. As she advanced, she saw that the driver was leaning against the side of the car. He smiled his toothy smile at her and raised his hand in a slight wave, a hand that held a cell phone.

  "Leave me alone, you crazy fuck!" She yelled out the window as she sped past him. Dialing 911, she slipped the Bluetooth adapter over her ear. The familiar click of a connection on the line, and she began her story.

  "There's a creepy guy in a black Impala. He followed me from Barstow, California. I'm on highway forty, about fifty miles outside of Kingman, Arizona. Please help. I think he's crazy!"

  "Crazy seems like such a harsh word, Kayla." A voice growled gently on the other end of the line. "Maybe moonstruck is more appropriate."

  Kayla gasped as the smooth, almost sexy voice laughed heartily.

  "What do you want?"

  "A nice plump mouthful. That's all."

  "Who are you and how the hell do you know my name?"

  "All in good time, my dear." Lou replied and hung up.

  Kayla looked at the phone and started to feel a lump of panic in her throat. How is he doing this? She thought to herself. What did he mean by 'A nice, plump mouthful'? Where had she heard that phrase before? She was so freaked out she couldn't even think straight.

  She needed to get off of this highway and into the next town. She would talk to the police in person and get this sick fuck off of her tail.

  She pushed the accelerator almost all the way to the floor, reaching a speed of about one hundred. After a couple of miles, she started to think about the lecture again, and how she was going to lose her bonus if she wrecked this car. How would she explain it to her boss? Would everyone assume that she was drinking and driving? She didn't want to go through all of that again. All of the suspicious looks and gossipy whispers. Not to mention losing her job. If she lost her job at the auto dealership, she would be stuck with her awful mother forever. As all of this swirled in her head, she eased the car down to seventy-five, the actual speed limit.

  The black Impala rounded the curve behind her, going at least ninety. How did he catch up with her so fast?

  "Shit, shit, shit!" She was close to tears now, but she quickly socked them away. Breaking down like a sniveling baby won't help anything, she heard her mother saying inside of her head. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she sat up straighter in her seat.  

  "Think!" Kayla commanded herself. Her mother hijacked her inner voice one more time.

  "Are you gonna cry like a bitch, or roar like a beast?" Her inner mother asked her.

  "Roar like a beast!" She said aloud. She surveyed the terrain surrounding the road. A whole lot of nothing is what she saw. The Impala ran dangerously close to her bumper, and then backed off. He was toying with her like a cat with a bug.

  It was just starting to get dark out again. Looking at the dash clock, she saw it was just about six. Not that it matters, she thought. As she chastised herself for worrying about things that weren't important, her eyes caught a tiny little light in the distance off to her right. She tried to figure out what that light was coming from. 

  A house! Well, it actually looked like a shack, but if it had people inside who could help her, it was a palace. She jerked the wheel of the Stingray hard to the right and drove off into the Arizona desert. The Impala came to a halt and just sat idling on the road, watching her. There was no slowing down for her. She needed to reach the house and get help, that was all that mattered.

  In a flurry of dust devils, she stopped the sports car in front of the ramshackle home. Jumping out and running to the door, she prayed that someone was there and that they would have a phone that worked. Kayla knocked on the door like a bimbo in a horror movie.

  "Please help me, I need help!"

  "Just a minute, please." A sweet voice called from inside.

  She could hear the creak of a recliner and light footsteps across the floor. The door opened an inch and the eye of an old woman peered out at her, suspiciously.

  "Can I help you?" The elderly woman asked her.

  "Yes, please! Someone is chasing me. I need your help." Kayla pleaded.

  "Oh my gracious!"

  "May I please come in?"

  "Yes of course my dear. Why, you look like you've had quite a fright. Come in and sit down." The door opened all the way to reveal a surprisingly cozy little living room. The woman ushered her in and sat her down on the brown couch with a large afghan covering the back. She was dressed in a blue floral dress with a white sweater over her shoulders. Kayla had flashes of every Norman Rockwell painting she had ever seen. This lady was everyone's ideal Grandma.

  "Thank you, Ma'am."

  "Oh phooey, my name is Catherine." She waved her hand to dismiss Kayla's courtesy.

  "My name is Kayla.
Pleased to meet you"

  "Let me get you some tea, dear."

  "That's alright, Catherine, I just need to use your phone if that's alright."

  "Oh, no phone here. No use for one. Did you say that something was chasing you?" She asked as she set about making two cups of hot tea.

  "Not something, someone."

  "Oh my! Well, my Grandson should be here shortly. He checks up on me every night, you know." Catherine smiled with pride. "He'll help you, Sweetheart."

  Kayla took the cup of tea and sipped the hot liquid. It was surprisingly calming.

  "When does your grandson get here?"

  "He gets here when Wheel of Fortune starts at seven." Catherine smiled her sweet grandmotherly smile and sipped her own tea.

  Kayla sat bolt upright as she heard the rumble coming closer and closer to the cottage.

  "Oh my God!"

  "What is it, dear?"

  "It's him!"

  "Him, who?" As Catherine finished her question, the door burst open. Lou stood in the doorway, shoulders back, head held high. The collar of his black shirt had been unbuttoned to the waist, revealing a hairy chest.

  The old woman cowered in the large cream colored recliner as Lou approached her.

  "Leave her alone." Kayla said with less conviction than she would have liked.

  "How sweet. You went to grandma's house for protection." He snarled at her. His gravel toned voice stopped her cold. As he looked at her, his eyes appeared to have a dull yellowish tint. Lou reached down and grabbed the whimpering old woman by the throat and lifted her from the chair. As he threw her across the tiny room, Kayla heard the thud as she took off running outside. When she reached the Stingray, she realized that she had left the keys inside the house. She thought for a split second about going back in.

  "Fuck that!" She said out loud and took off running into the desert. The noises coming from the house did not bode well for the kindly old lady, but Kayla couldn't think of that right now. She just kept running with no real destination in mind. Her only goal was to get as far away from that monster as possible.

  When she felt the thump on the back of her head, she had no idea what had hit her. As she lost her footing and fell to the ground, she rolled over onto her back. The starry night sky and the full moon were suddenly blocked by Lou's seemingly enlarged head.

  "Hey there, Little Red Riding Hood!" He chuckled as his fist connected with her face and she lost consciousness.

  Chapter Three