:Kidnapped: And all he say's is 'Sorry'?

Part 9

The road was starting to blur, every time I blinked there was suddenly four road lines. The drive wasn’t that long, but in the eight-hour journey so far, we’d only made one stop. Paranoia was starting to hit. Every time there was another car on the road, my nerves would bunch.

The glare of another car’s lights on my mirror flashed into my eyes constantly. I wasn’t sure when the car had gotten there, or where in the journey so far, the car had ended up behind us. The dark outside the car kept shifting and everywhere I looked I could see the endless shadows, haunting me, watching me. My brain was too scattered and over-tired to be coherent. Any semblance of a rational thought was instantly clouded over in a stress-induced stupor.

My brain was overloading. Running wild. It kept jumping from the road, that car, to Ryan, right back to Scott. And what he was thinking right now. I hadn’t called him yet, but Scott had rung me at least six times, and I’d rejected all of them – hoping he would just think I busy. The web of lies and guilt was overwhelming, and in this state, there was no telling how long I could hold it all together.

The car behind us had been following for a while, in my sleepy state I couldn’t piece together quite how long, but it had been a while.

Ryan’s head was lolling about in his sleep, the bliss of his sound mind made me jealous. The stress of the car behind was mounting, whether it was my own mind playing tricks, I had to be sure. I indicated off to the side of the road, and pulled off. The silver car behind whizzed past, a smudge in the night, the force of the wind from its speed rocked the car. Relief washed over me and I breathed deeply trying to calm my stressed nerves. I was just overreacting. Typical.

I really wanted Ryan awake with me, just to keep me company, but I knew this was probably the most sleep he’d had in a while and against my better judgment, I left him sleeping. He couldn’t drive anyway.

Lights flashed in my eyes. Was I being paranoid or was that the same car as last time? Something wasn’t right. At this time of night, there normally wouldn’t be this many cars on the road, especially not two of the same car.

Something was definitely not right. Ryan was still conked out of it, and on an impulse I took the next right turn. I had no idea where I was going, but in sheer panic, I knew that I had to get rid of that car. The next left, the next right, then the next left before I was in the middle of a quiet suburb street. A long street. It would take less than ten seconds for the driver of that other car to follow and there weren’t any more turns along this road to buy time for another half a mile.

No choice; I gunned it to the end of the road, and turned left, seeing the lights of the other car turn onto the road as I reached the end. It was essentially a dead end. A long driveway, lined with all hedges led to a house at the end of the block. Less than ten seconds.

The chance had to be taken, the car following was no longer a coincidence. Lights off. The suburban streets were a labyrinth there was no escape. It was now or never, I pulled the car up the driveway, hiding was the only chance. Seconds passed, the slow hum of the engine crept along the road, sweeping the driveways. Ryan spluttered awake at the sudden stop.

“What are we doing?” He croaked, voice thick with sleep.

“Get your head down!” I pulled his head below the dash, watching as their headlights lit flashed by.

Ryan looked at me under the dash, a smile playing on his lips. “I never knew you were so good at these things.” I threw him a sidelong look, my adrenaline pumping.

Second ticked by in silence, Ryan just watched me, not saying anything. Time passed and it was all I could bear, retracing my steps with the lights off, we finally found the highway again. Ryan chuckled in the seat next to me.