Page 42 of Anathema Codex

Of course, the sun wins.

As night covers the car, I finally start to feel tired, and hungry. The bitch asked about food a while ago, but I haven't seen much of anything resembling actual civilization since before we even crossed the border into Texas. It's just a lot of flat, open land, and that's a lot less interesting when you can't see anything but what the headlights illuminate. When signs start popping up for Amarillo, I focus on getting there and finding a decent place to fill up on gas and grab something to eat.

Even driving eighty on the empty highway, it still takes almost an hour to reach the outer edges of Amarillo—but it takes longer than that for me to find a place I'm actually willing to stop my car. Everything here looks cheap, and I miss New York even more as I finally pull into a newer looking gas station.

"Um, Willa? Are you getting snacks?" Daphne asks and I take a deep breath so that I don't start screaming at her around complete strangers.

"Yes."

"Can you get me some stuff?"

Turning to look at her, I'm about to ask her why she thinks I'd buy her anything, but then I see a little wallet in her hands and I realize she actuallydoeshave cash. Rolling my eyes, I hold out my hand and take the wad of bills from her. "Fine. But you'll be happy with whatever the fuck I get."

"Yeah, sure." Daphne nods, smiling at me, and I ignore her, looking at Aftyn instead. He's got his phone in his hands, and then he looks up at me and raises an eyebrow.

"What, Willa?"

"Stop being an asshole and fill the car up while I'm inside." I slam the door on whatever bullshit Aftyn tries to say to me and head inside with Daphne's money in my pocket. I just want this trip to be over already, even though I have no idea what life is going to be like when we finally get back home.

It doesn't seem like anything will feel normal again after this.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Coordinates Received

AFTYN

I’m leaning against Willa’s truck, watching the meter run up the dollar signs. It amazes me that this thing takes so much fucking gas, but that means no more stops.

Once we’re back on the road, it’s straight to Lakyn’s place.

With a sigh, I fish my phone out of my pocket and pull up the message that my goddamn phantom sent with an address. Regardless of what Willa says, I’ll take over the driving from here.

I brush the tip of my finger along the address, copy it, and paste it into the navigation system app on my phone. I want to make sure that this isn’t some kind of—

Motherfucker,I growl internally.

I tap the screen and bring up the Earthy view of the map, grinding my teeth when I see that the address I received is to some burned out house. I highly doubt that Lakyn would live in such a shithole. Even though I don’t really know him at all, I have a feeling that he has more taste than that.

I look up at the meter when the pump makes aclicksound. I squeeze the last few cents into the tank before I pull it out and replace it.

Turning my eyes toward the smallSmart Shopa few feet away, I can see Willa in line. She’s watching me through narrowed eyes, and I know that it’s only a matter of time before she really does gun for my balls.

Bitch.

I lean into the truck and take the keys out of the ignition so that leaving me behind doesn’t become an option. If I had to walk to Arizona from here, I’d get there looking like shit and he’d probably laugh me out of the state.

I want to make an impression on him.

I can’t explain it, but I just want him to see me differently than Mom ever did.

I blow my breath out, impatiently waiting for Wills. I don’t want to leave Daphne alone with her, but I’d rather not leave her precious fucking truck unattended either.

While Daphne may be inside of it, that girl’s mind is as occupied as one’s can get.

As soon as I see Wills making her way out of the store looking as angry as when she first went in, I walk away from the truck, brush by her roughly, and go sit on the side of the building. I run a hand back through my hair, wondering if I should just try calling again, but I just have a feeling that this won’t go my way.

I decide against it.

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