Prologue:
An owl screeched in the distance. It was the only sound Simone could hear over her own heartbeat and her struggled breathing. Rupert was gone. The path ahead snaked violently, nearly lost in the faint moonlight. Simone kept running, not certain where it would lead her, only certain that she wanted to get far away. Just seconds ago Rupert was holding her hand, guiding their escape. Before she had even noticed, he'd disappeared somewhere along the shadowy path. She ran, desperately hoping to catch up. She held her wand firmly ahead to stave off whatever horrors she imagined might be stalking her.
A hungry, metallic roar came from somewhere in the darkness, and two lights like eyes gleamed at Simone from beyond the edge of the forest. She froze in place, for a moment unconcerned with what might be chasing her. She stared, paralyzed, at the glowing eyes.
“Simone! Simone, where are you?” Rupert's voice broke her stupor, and she realized he was somehow causing the lights.
“Ru...Rupert?” She drew closer to the lights, following the now illuminated trail. Not looking back, she escaped the forest, then stared out disbelievingly at what she saw.
“Get in the car, Simone!” Rupert shouted. The Buick's frantic revving drowned out the surrounding chaos.
Simone stood unmoving in protest. Her tears made snaking trails on her cheeks that shone in the headlights. “Are you crazy, Rupert? You don't know how to drive that thing. You don't even know who it belongs to.”
Rupert cursed silently and slammed his fist on the steering wheel, missing the horn by half an inch. “Damn it, Simone, we don't have time!” Palms quivering at the wheel, he did his best to calm himself. “Look, we can talk about this when we're far away, but right now we need to run. Come on, Simone. Just trust me on thi-.” He bit his tongue, remembering those were the same words that got them into this mess. “Please, just come with me. I can't leave you here.”
Reluctantly Simone forced herself toward the car. She looked back one last time at the broken forest trail where they made their escape and recoiled at the vivid memories it brought. Still sobbing, she hopped into the passenger's seat and leaned her head against Rupert's shoulder.
“It'll be alright,” he said, stroking her bright red hair, “I'm sorry I yelled at you. I just got a little scared.”
“I know,” she replied, closing her eyes.
Rupert swung the car around in a wide and rapid arc. He floored the accelerator and made for the nearest road. Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Rupert kept his eyes on the dashboard, figuring out bit by bit what all the buttons and symbols meant. Simone sat back half-asleep, startled back to awareness every few minutes by Rupert's reckless driving. Neither wanted to acknowledge the night's misadventure, or their current predicament, but it seemed insulting to talk about anything else. In a half-whispered, weary tone Simone eventually broke the silence. “We can't go back now, can we?”
Rupert paused, caught slightly off-guard. “What, go back to that forest, to that old house? Hell no, not in a mil-” He stopped himself mid-breath. It struck him suddenly that she wasn't talking about the old house they had escaped from. “No, I'm afraid we can't go back,” he answered, “We can't undo what we did tonight, but we can sure as hell outrun it.”
“So we're outlaws then.”
Rupert sighed. “I guess so.”
Simone had stopped crying but her eyes were still glazed and bloodshot. She was too dazed and too tired to fully comprehend the situation. “So where will we go?” she asked, half-asleep again.
“I don't know, Simone,” Rupert answered, “Some place where our kind won't find us. It's a big country. We'll find our place.” He pulled a small, oaken wand out of his pocket and tapped her head gently with it, whispering a brief incantation. She fell instantly into a dreamless sleep.
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