Page 109 of Veiled in Brick

James was only able to begin to ask, “What’s that noi—” by the time that the car behind us rammed the bumper.

A slurry of profanities left our mouths, and the vehicle spun beneath us all.

Claire screamed. The tires screeched. I grabbed onto the door handle to my right. Liam grunted, “Fuck-shit-fuck,” as he rapidly spun the wheel in an attempt to stop the drift, but it was no use. We skidded off of the highway with little to no traction, only stopping when the driver’s side of my car smacked into a sturdy tree.

The crunch of metal was scarcely louder than the ringing in my ears. My neck pulled, whiplash the worst effect of the crash for me. The airbags appeared to have been faulty as none of them had deployed, and I could hear Luke and Claire nervously confirming to each other that they were fine in rapid, panicked tones. My head swam, I looked to Liam, and all I could focus on was where his head rested. Up against the now-cracked window, his blonde head was leading to a smear of red.

I shrieked at the sight, began to unbuckle my seatbelt as quickly as I could, and Liam groaned. I wailed a relieved noise in hearing his voice alone and as I struggled to pull the buckle from the latch, Liam shifted in his seat with a pained pinch to his face.

“Oh my God,” I muttered, clambering my way over the center console and reaching to touch his head—his hair that was quickly becoming matted with blood. “Are you okay? Your head—”

He gritted out, “Fuck—fine, ’m’fine.”

Liam blinked a few times as if he were seeing stars and James called to us in a muffled voice from somewhere under the driver’s seat, but his words were cut off completely when a loud, resounding bang rang out from in front of us.

Our screams combined in a hellish cacophony as we all reacted to what was, clearly, the sound of a gunshot. There was no telling where the bullet went—all that was apparent was that it hadn’t struck the car. Luke laid on top of Claire in the back seat, having thrown himself on top of her to guard her from whatever line of fire there could have been. Liam pushed me toward his lap, slinking his body down as far as it could go. We all huffed strangled breaths, I heard rather than saw another gunshot that made contact with the mirror on the passenger side of the car, and our bodies collectively jumped upon the impact and resulting ricochet of metal. Claire shrieked profanities from under Luke’s body, and Luke yelled in a grating tone:

“DRIVE!”

Liam shoved me back in my seat, and his foot hit the floor. The frame screeched against the bark of the tree, the wheels spun out in mud for a beat that felt like an eternity, and, miraculously, we were off. My arms over my head and still hunched down, I felt the right side of the car hit something with a loud clunk, and we were on the highway once more.

All that was heard was tires humming against pavement and our collective hyperventilation until I slowly began to unfurl my body and Luke and Claire were pushing themselves to sit upright. Luke was having quiet, serious words with her as she nodded back to him. She patted at his body as if to check if he were still whole, and her entire being sagged in relief.

“What—” I attempted to slow my breath. “What did we hit?”

“I tried to hit him,” Liam sneered, “he jumped out of the way; think I caught a rock or something.” He glanced at me, his eyes wide yet somehow unfocused. “Are you okay?”

“Fine—”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!” James’ voice was clear enough for us to hear him now, and though it was obvious that he was shrieking into the speaker, the volume of it was still obscured.

“Shit,” Luke exhaled loudly and stretched down to find my phone from under the driver’s seat. He spoke into it, holding the speaker away from his face, “Jay—”

“Are you all alive?” he interjected.

Luke replied, “Yeah, yeah—”

“Good—then turn that fucking phone off,” James chastised all of us in a growl. “Or chuck it out the window, either way. And for the love of God, call me back.”

The line clicked off, and Luke reached forward to hand my phone to me. I snatched it from him, the reminder that it could potentially have been tracked ripe in my mind, and I made quick way to turn it off, watching the screen turn black. Liam veered off of the highway onto a frontage road, wincing, “Ah!” as he turned his head to look behind us. We all did a double take with him, saw nothing but empty road, and Liam pointedly turned the headlights off. A tone chimed in the air signifying Luke calling James once more, it was cut off in the middle of the first ring, and James was back.

“Hi Jay,” Luke greeted James before he could speak.

“Hi Jay?!” James yelled incredulously in return. “WHAT HAPPENED?”

Our description of the events that had just unfurled was jumbled. All of us rapidly took turns blurting out our own point of view from the incident, but what was said was ever-clear: it was him. He rammed his car into mine from behind, my vehicle spun approximately one and a half times, and when we smacked the tree, we were facing in the opposite direction. He was straight ahead of us then, pulled out a gun and shot at us—twice—and Liam slammed on the gas. My car, by the grace of whatever deity was looking down upon us, was still able to run, we tore our way back onto the highway, and here we were:

Driving with no headlights on, turning down the third backroad that Liam had found in a clear attempt to ensure that the man was lost.

“Fuck,” James nearly spat out the expletive. “Okay—okay. Where are you guys now?”

“Like twenty minutes out,” I answered.

“Don’t come here, obviously,” James said, and I could hear him walking about the apartment. What sounded like keys clinked in the background. “Meet me, ah, north of town somewhere, I guess? More remote. We can ditch your car and hop in mine; grab a motel or something until we can talk with the police.”

“If we pass the college and hop over Highway 81, there’s a gas station up there,” Liam suggested. “It’s small; out of the way of the city.”

“Yeah, yeah-yeah,” James agreed, the sound of a door closing emanating through the speaker. “Up by Hanging Rock—I know the one.”

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