by Jamie Ott
~~~
She didn’t make it to another town until sunup. Yes, she could have flown, but she didn’t know where she wanted or needed to be. Walking was just something to do, for the moment, while she tried to figure it all out.
The town was a dusty old place where the people all wore dirty overalls. Many of them appeared to have never learned about teeth brushing while others didn’t care for shoes.
She must have been a sight to see, too, for they stared, hard, at her.
Still unsure of what to do, she continued until she reached the other end of town, where she sat on a dusty bench and watched the river ripples.
A dirty blue truck caught her attention as it blew up dust and rattled its way to a red wooden restaurant some hundred feet to her right.
The sun reflected off a silver metal box, next to the entrance door: it was a pay phone.
Eagerly, she went to make a phone call, but as she lifted the hand piece, she realized she didn’t know any numbers; she always relied on her cell phone for that. Whenever she got new ones, she’d enter the numbers into her memory card and never think of them again.
Damn! she cursed.
She looked at the phone’s address which was printed beneath a piece of plastic above the numbers; it said Red River, LA.
Just then, the door to the restaurant opened, and out came a man with a cigarette in his hand.
“You gonna use the phone?” asked the man.
Starr shook her head and moved aside.
Coming from the restaurant, the whispering and thoughts of so many people was a bear. More than anything, she wished she could silence them.
When the man sparked a match, the fire caught Starr’s eye, for some reason.
She stared at the little orange flame, feeling, again, like she needed to be somewhere, and then like water breaking down a dam, memories flooded her mind.
“Oh my!” she gasped, and sank to her knees.
She was talking to Bielz when the landing, they stood on, collapsed, and they were buried under the crumbling fiery cabin.
Covered in rubble, and her neck reinjured, she couldn’t move. She thought she was going to die, but was rescued by Credenza, who was the leader of a world vampire police organization. Flying into the night was the last lucid thing she remembered.
She felt another twinge in her neck which she rubbed. Lucenzo beheaded her, a few weeks ago, and, up until being rescued by Credenza, she was in recovery, and had only begun to move on her own, when the fire had been set.
Credenza must have done something to heal her. But, what? And why bring her to Louisiana?
Oh well, she said to herself.
It didn’t matter because she needed to find the others and make sure they were okay. Anything else would just have to wait.
With that thought, she took off into the air to find them.
Next Door Over
