Ironically enough, my escape chariot ended up being Charlie’s truck. I got it fired up and drove up to Aunt Charlene’s house in the mountains of West Virginia. Dealing with Charlene’s cooking where she thought every recipe needed two cans of cream of mushroom soup, questions about my dating life, and Twilight fan-fiction was better than whatever was waiting for me back in Howeville.

It took a few days for my sanity to come back to me. Eventually I settled into my pink day bed in Charlene’s guest room and after a few weeks, I even felt like I might feel better taking up Charlene on her offer to let me live there permanently.

There’s only one thing making me question if that is a good idea. A few nights ago, I heard a familiar sound off in the distance from the dark and lonely highway which wound a corner at the bottom of Charlene’s property. I may have been imagining it, but I swore I heard a rattling sound buzzing its way up towards the driveway and it sounded like the exact noise of the exhaust of my old Geo Metro.