Run & Hide by Beatrix Hollow
3
Two days later we were five hours west, the sun just starting to lighten the sky after a night of driving. Finally, the first day of my trip was here.
Caspian had fallen asleep within the first hour on the road. I looked over at him and shook my head in annoyance to see his peaceful state. He looked like a painting—long eyelashes on his cheeks, a little smirk on his mouth, and his long black locks cascading around him.
Of course, he looked like Dorian Gray despite sleeping with a crooked neck in the car. Did he have to look so good? I had to stop ogling him but I hadn’t been able to stop since the night at the haunted mansion. Who was I kidding? I hadn’t been able to stop since the first moment I’d seen him again.
Caspian had always been attractive but for some reason, it had never affected me like this when we were younger. Probably because that wouldn't have been appropriate.
Now it was overwhelming and made my body tighten in places it shouldn’t. I’d argued with myself about which was more cliche, lusting after my former stepbrother, or lusting after a rockstar.
A harsh ringing blasted through the speakers, startling me. Caspian jumped awake, bleary eyes swiveling around in a panic. He jerked over to me and put his arm in front of my chest as if protecting me from an oncoming crash. Quickly, I pressed the answer button on the car’s screen before either one of us had to listen to the loud noise again.
“Ava!” My mom’s voice came through like a shrill cry. I winced and began mashing the volume button on the steering wheel so we wouldn’t go deaf. Caspian collapsed in a sigh, finally accepting we weren’t about to crash.
“Hey, we’re nearly there,” I said, happy to have something to do for the final drag of the ride. My energy reserves were running empty after staying up all night.
“Please tell me you didn’t do things with your stepbrother while in high school?” She asked in anger. My eyes bulged and I darted my gaze to said previous stepbrother, sitting right next to me. My face flamed as he looked at me with his own wide eyes of shock. Wait, why did he look guilty? He shouldn’t look guilty! Also, there was something very attractive about a guilty-looking rock star.
“Mom,” I gasped, mortified. “No. Just, oh my god,” I whined wishing I could cover my face but I had to make sure I didn’t run us off the road.
“Well that isn’t what everyone else is saying,” she snapped. I groaned. That picture taken of us beside the mansion two days ago was blowing up on social media. I was shocked. Sure, maybe it looked a little suspicious but we weren’t actually doing anything so who cared?
Everyone, apparently.
I hadn’t known this before but, Caspian was well known to have no known lovers and not date. We didn’t talk about those types of things. The one time I mentioned dating life he’d hung up and I was so surprised by his reaction I never broached the topic again.
Apparently, his love life was a huge thing to certain fans. A great mystery that left devotees clinging to every potential scrap of information. So much so that no one was even talking about the girl who killed herself at his concert.
The media had also found out we were ex step siblings. The stupid picture of us was a huge deal. A talk show even argued about it.
And me? I’d been receiving death threats via social media.
My mom decided on a different tactic, to my horror.
“Honey, it’s okay to tell me. Caspian was a very attractive boy and—”
“Please, mom. Stop,” I ground out, My eyes slid to Caspian who was smiling at me like the cat who got the cream while he pulled his dark hair into a bun.
“I don’t want to believe it but you cried so much when he left—”
“Mom,” I snapped. “Shut up.” My teeth ground together and I squeezed the wheel. My eyes slid to Caspian. He had a pained expression on his face. Great, just great. He was uncomfortable but was he really that surprised? One day he was everywhere, the next he was gone. I’d thought we were best friends. Then he just left and never came back.
He cleared his throat while my mom was berating me about my tone. She stopped mid-word.
“Oh,” she said, realizing he was in the car with me and heard everything.
“Oh,” I said back sarcastically before sighing.
“Hello Caspian,” my mother said awkwardly. He started to talk but I spoke louder.
“I’ll call later,” I rushed out before smashing the end call button. Then I sagged in embarrassment.
My eyes slid to the truck beside me and the truck driver was looking directly at me. His mouth was spread in a jeering smile. I tapped the brake. I’d rather go slow than play sex eyes with him.
He drove away and unfortunately the car behind him sped up to my side. I could see movement from the car and sighed, looking over to see the guitarist and drummer of Caspian’s band waving at me.
They hated me. Even from here, I could see the sharp, unfriendly angle of their flat smiles and their cool eyes glaring.
They were here to mess things up and get Caspian to come back as soon as possible. I hadn’t expected so much drama this year. It was supposed to be photography and camping. You couldn’t get more laid back than that. Except now I had the whole world, including my mom, talking about Caspian and me having sex. Then I had his band breathing down my neck in anger for something I couldn’t control.
“Maybe we should have just told her,” Caspian said and I jerked my head to him.
“Told her what?” I asked, my voice a little too high-pitched. He winked and remained silent.
“Told her what!” I repeated. We hadn’t slept together. Well I mean, we hadn’t had sex. Technically we had slept together—a lot actually—since I was sneaking into his bed most nights. My face flamed and I hunched down in my chair, barely seeing over the driver’s wheel. Caspian just chuckled, a smooth sound that tickled my senses.
I just wanted to get used to being around Caspian again, push all this awkwardness in the past, and get over this stupid crush. Lately, his teasing felt almost cruel. As if he were flaunting his sexual appeal knowing full well what it was doing to me.
“That picture has been so annoying,” I grumbled about the snapshot that started all this drama.
“The picture was something though,” Caspian said, opening his phone. I grimaced. Did he have to admit it so casually? I'd looked at it more than once. It was a bit odd to see, like different people. His long fingers gripping my face, our bodies crushed together, our eyes burning into each other, our mouths cracked open and merely inches apart.
Had we really been that close? Had we really looked like that?
The two people in the picture looked a moment away from sex. The girl looked like she could barely stand—clinging, desperate, wanting. The man looked solely focused, completely consumed.
That wasn’t us.
Videos from the concert had surfaced too, him stopping the song to call me forward, him crawling on the stage toward me.
Everyone was completely convinced we were having sex and had been since we were teens, living in the same house as step siblings. That tasty scandal was being eaten up by every hungry mouth wanting a bite of something juicy.
It was also making me even more aware of Caspian. All the while he was completely unaffected. He thought it was funny people said we were sleeping together. Funny.
He stretched his arms and his shirt lifted a little, showing off deep, cut hip muscles and a flat lower stomach. Caspian was a rare type of creature. Almost too sensual and yet it didn’t seem an effort at all.
“Tell me, step sis,” Caspian started while still eyeing his phone. I rolled my eyes. He was calling me that to be annoying. “How was last night?” He asked with a slight purr to his words.
“I was up all night because of you,” I grumbled. He bit his lip, his body racking with laughs. He was acting weird.
“See, nothing strange going on here,” he said, lifting his phone. I saw he was recording a video and my mouth dropped open. “Me and my dear stepsister are completely platonic.”
“Caspian,” I said in desperation. “Stop.” He hummed and tapped his chin.
“That wasn’t what you were saying last night,” he said with a chipper smile. “You said, we aren’t stopping till morning.”
“I— I wasn’t…” I fumbled for words. I had said that exact thing but I was talking about driving. “This better not be some live feed,” I practically growled.
“Do you want to go live? Show the world what’s really going on?” He asked with a dangerously sexy smirk. He lowered his phone and leaned in close, his mouth near my ear.
“There’s one way to get them to stop asking if we’re fucking, Ava.” His voice was smooth. I felt my heart rate quicken.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Say we are,” he commented. He pulled his phone back up and I watched on the recording screen as he licked up the side of my neck. Goosebumps broke out over my skin, a shiver rolled up my neck, and my nipples hardened to tingling needy points.
“Gross.” Which would have been more convincing if I hadn't moaned it. I inhaled sharply as he sucked my earlobe into his mouth, rolling it over his tongue. My head swam as I tried to look at the road instead of the phone’s screen, recording Caspian and me.
He reached out to grip my thigh. His fingers dug in as he ran his hand a few inches higher, his pinky coming dangerously close to the juncture between my legs. I squeaked in shock. The wheel jerked and I nearly rammed into his bandmates’ car. They swerved while honking angrily at me. Great, another reason for them to dislike me.
“You're going to get us killed,” I said as he pulled back with a look of satisfaction on his face. He clicked around on his phone.
“You better not post that,” I said shakily, trying to recover from what he’d just done. Had that really just happened? I could still feel where his mouth had been on my body. It was making me feel lightheaded. I was wet, I realized, feeling the dampness between my thighs. I wanted to groan in dismay but swallowed it up, trying to act nonchalant while my panties soaked through.
“What’s so wrong with everyone thinking we’re together,” Caspian said with a sigh, looking out the window. “Is it that big of a deal?” He didn’t care. Why would he? It was a big deal to me though, but how was I supposed to relay that to him without giving myself away?
Ten minutes later the sun had fully crested the little mountains and we were riding the off-ramp towards New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia.
This was the start of something big, life-altering. Sasquatch Inc. was paying me to travel around the country to different national and state parks for an entire year. They wanted me to take product photos of their outdoor gear while running a travel blog. Mostly they sold coolers, insulated cups, and things like that.
I may not have been some famous ghost chaser or an acclaimed horror writer but I was chasing my dream of photography for once, leaving behind that horrible desk job that nearly killed me the past two years.
I steered the 4Runner on a one-lane road. Trees were packed tightly on both sides of us. I clicked the window down as exhaustion began to take its toll. The cool, wet air of morning spilled in from the window and breezed over my face.
The sounds of birds were all around, all different little chirps and songs. The canopy of trees parted and suddenly we were right next to the New River itself. Ironic name since it was one of the oldest rivers in the world, having spent millions of years slicing through the Appalachian mountains.
Caspian leaned forward to look at the water, his eyes animated as he swept them over the river. He loved water as much as he loved music. Although for some reason he hated the beach and ocean water. He’d joked that saltwater dried out his hair that I loved so much.
Quickly, I fumbled with my phone as I slowed. I bit back a smile as I found the song I wanted and clicked it on. The twangy tune came on and I sang out loudly with it. Caspian leaned his head back against his chair and smiled as he watched me.
“Almost heaven, West Virginia! Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River. Life is old here, older than the trees!” I continued belting out the song, disturbing the quiet wildlife. All the doubt and paranoia I let eat at me previous to now were cleansed as I took in deep lungfuls of the forest fresh air and sang. A smile spread over my face.
Caspian gave a quiet laugh, enjoying my show. A confidence I had yet to feel since starting this journey livened my body and I straightened my shoulders. I’d had so many naysayers pushing their opinions on me that it had clogged my mind down.
I’d persisted in this adventure, even if everyone else thought it was stupid or crazy. I’d been told I wouldn’t last camping. That the job was suspicious. That I was running away from my calling. That I was a disappointment.
I loved my family, but sometimes I didn’t always like them. Which sounded horrible but I pushed the guilt of that thought away to enjoy the view in front of me. This extended break from them couldn’t have been at a better time. Hopefully, they’d come to accept my decision. Hopefully, they could be as happy for me and my interests as I was for them.
Finally, we found the campground. It was sparse even though it was still the tail end of summer. Caspian and I eyed the small numbered placards labelling each campsite until we saw number twelve, the one I’d pre-booked online.
New River Gorge National Park was the first stop on our year-long journey and we were scheduled to stay here for a week. I remembered what my boss, Ben, at Sasquatch Inc. had said about frequent social media updates and grabbed my phone after parking. When we stepped out of the car I took a big deep breath of fresh air and smiled.
This was it!
A loud bang came from my car. I shrieked and spun around. The largest bird I’d ever seen up close was perched on the hood of my car, glaring at me as if it wanted to test its claws' sharpness on my skin.
“A vulture,” Caspian commented, his eyes taking in the massive bird. He rounded the front of the car and came to stand beside me. His arm slid easily over my shoulders and he tucked me into his side.
Its head was featherless, the red and black skin wrinkled. It spread its wings wide and flapped them once. It was only about five feet away from me with its beady black eyes. Suddenly another swooped in, landing on the very top of my car and then peering down at me. The high-pitched scratch of claws on my SUV’s paint made me wince.
Their eyes were fixated only on me, never wavering to Caspian. It felt like an omen—as if they sensed death and came swooping down to find it.
Frustration bubbled up in my mind. I was thinking like my family would. It was just birds, not an omen. I wanted to leave superstition back in Virginia along with haunted houses and all things ghostly that crept up on me in the night.
I swallowed, tugged out my phone, and snapped a picture of the vultures before backing away with Caspian.
I looked back over my shoulder to make sure they hadn’t decided they were violent predators instead of scavengers. They blinked at me, looking somehow cruel and judgemental despite having wide glossy eyes as non-expressive as a lizard’s. They watched me move, their attention nowhere else.
Goosebumps popped up over the back of my neck and I gave a sudden full-body shudder.
“Scared of some birds?” Caspian chuckled, his laugh smoothing over my skin. We walked around the campsite, surveying our home for the week. There was a wooden picnic table bolted to the ground, a rudimentary fire pit, and a nice stretch of flat ground at the back, next to the trees where we could place tents.
“They just surprised me,” I insisted. He looked down at me with an oddly serious expression. My eyes dragged over the hard lines of his face, angular but almost artistic.
“Would hate to see how you react to something bigger and stranger,” he said, voice deeper, eyes sucking me in. I frowned.
“Strange is not why I’m here. I’m here for normal.”
“Right, no strange. Scout’s honor,” he joked, giving a two-finger salute, his serious expression vanishing as quickly as it had arrived. It left me feeling off-balance, not understanding his strange shifting tone.
“Now, you take a nap in the car. I’m setting up camp,” Caspain said, pressing a quick kiss to my head. I bit my lip and averted my eyes from his, afraid he’d see something in my look that shouldn’t be there. I didn’t have to worry though because he darted away from me, running at the birds, waving his long arms around while he shouted. They scattered and I gave a huffed laugh.
“Thank you,” I sighed, shuffling back towards the car while my eyelids grew heavy. He closed the door behind me and smiled warmly through the window before leaving me alone to fall asleep.