??????
Nellie & Sunny don’t like him (?)
Located in woods near school.
“Eccentric” “loner.”
THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE
Dom hit me with her car in the middle of the woods, and Travis turned us both. Is it so wild to think I might be able to find him through the power of sheer will and determination and staking out the forest like a stalker?
Sturbridge Forest—About twenty-five square miles just across the highway from Sturbridge U and the tiny town of Sturbridge itself. One stoplight in the whole town. Paths for biking and hiking all through the woods.
The bridge is three miles southwest of Pike’s Point.
The bridge, though? Isn’t on any map. Google Earth glitches out in the forest, and the roads on Maps only show the major hiking trails. And the bridge is down a side road.
I guess, for the sake of research, it might be important to note that thebridge is also where I attempted suicide. I never knew who found me, assumed it was some hiker, but. I don’t know.
What matters is that someone (Dom?) hit me, and someone else (Travis?) turned me. And Travis might be able to fill in those gaps, so I have to talk to him. Whether Sunny and Nellie want me to or not.
Stakeout
11/02 nothing
11/03 a pair of bicyclers, no cars
11/04 nothing
11/05 nothing
11/06
The sound of tires on dirt cut through the forest like a knife and Brennan jolted out of his reading haze. He was sitting on the bridge, at the peak of its arch, leaning back against its stone rails with his legs outstretched in front of him and readingEclipse.
His stakeout had been less than successful thus far. Except for a pair of bikers who looked like they’d gotten lost, Brennan hadn’t seen any trace of activity. The paths that led here were all narrow and shrouded by trees, the whole area hidden in plain sight.
But an engine grumbled, and tires kicked up dirt, and Brennan leapt to hide himself from view on the other side of the bridge, hidden by trees.
The car rolled into view, and Brennan stilled.
There was a flash of light from the headlights, and it was so reminiscent of the night he was hit that for a moment he was back there, standing in the dirt, seeing the flash and thinking, in slow motion,Well, shit,before impact.
His heart was racing and he couldn’t breathe. Because after the light flickered over his eyes, he sawthecar. The one that hit him. Dom’s.
The car crossed the narrow bridge and came to a stop on the other side, right before the thick overgrowth blocking the path. The engine stopped, and the headlights turned off. It was starting to get dark, especially in the shadows of the forest.
The driver’s door opened. An inky black bob emerged, attached toa short, round frame. Brennan peered around the tree that hid him, the rough bark pressing into his palms.
Dom, wearing all black but definitely, undeniablyDom,slammed the door closed and walked toward the overgrowth. She checked over her shoulder as she locked her car, turned back to the overgrowth, and lifted a hand as if to knock.
But Brennan, shifting a half step to the right to get a better view, stepped on an uneven spot and thecracking snap of a branch burst through the air like a firework. Dom whipped toward the sound like a predator hearing its dinner, and Brennan couldn’t even stumble back into hiding before she was looking right at him.
“Brennan,” she said, not quite surprised. She turned away from the dead end and hovered near the door of her car. “Why are you creeping around the woods? You look like a stalker.”
Brennan could ask the same thing, but anger and confusion and anxiety bubbled up in his stomach until what came out was “Why are you still driving the car that killed me?”
Dom had the nerve to roll her eyes. “What was I supposed to do, get rid of it over a dent?” she asked. “Besides, you’re not dead.”
