Sunny Creek Welcomes You

Part 1

They say that your heart "flutters like butterflies" when you are scared, but that would be an inaccurate description. I'd describe it as crows. Hundreds of huge, black crows flapping around in your stomach, chest and throat, trying to burst out of you and fly free into the clouds. 

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My breath came out of me in one huff as the car slid around the curve at a ridiculous speed. Absentmindedly, I keep pulling on my seat belt to make sure it was still latched. I couldn't think of anything else to do. I looked over at my uncle and his tall form was leaning completely forward, straining to see as far ahead as possible, his knuckles turning white with his tight grip on the steering wheel. I opened my mouth to say something, to ask him what was going on, but logic kicked-in and I snapped it shut without a sound. I let my eyes flicker back to the passenger-side mirror. The headlights were still there. They were honest-to-goodness still there, like two cat's eyes, reflecting the light of a full moon. They were gaining on us. They were only about three car lengths behind now. It wouldn't take long for them to catch us, if we couldn't find somewhere to lose them. 

"Hold on!", Uncle Ige shouted to me. 

 I gripped the door and the console with a tight grip as he maneuvered the car around a particularly curvy patch of road. I hadn't seen a house for miles, but then again, it was late and the people inside had probably gone to bed already, extinguishing any lights that would shine out and let us know they were there. 

"Who are they, Ige? Why are they following us?", I yelled at him when I couldn't control the fear any longer. It was bubbling up and out of me like the liquid from a shaken can of soda. 

Of course, he didn't answer and I saw his eyes darting back and forth between the road and the rear-view mirror. A bead of sweat had started working it's way down his temple and behind the thick black glasses that went over his ear. He was just as nervous as I was and that terrified me even more.