The Weird Travels of Aimee Schmidt: The Curse of the Gifted (26 page)

Chels started her interrogation. “So, are you going to keep me in suspense? I’ve waited all day for you to give me the scoop.”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

Chelsea persisted with her inquisition. “Oh come on, Aimee. I’m your best friend. Aren’t you gonna share with me how your first time was? Was Dylan everything you expected, you know, the big fireworks?”

“Chelsea,” Aimee began and looked over at her friend, “that’s personal! And not that
it’s anyone’s business, even my
best friend
, nothing has happened between us. I’m sad to say I’m still a
virgin
.”

“Nothing’s happened?!”
Chelsea shrieked, and then giggled. “That’s like
so
hard to believe. My
God, Aimee, he can’t keep his hands off of you, and we’re talking about Dylan, you know, like the most popular dude at East Medford.” Aimee rolled her eyes as she looked at Chelsea, whose face was
scrunched up with disbelief. After a few seconds she continued, “So what
is
going on with the two of
you?”

Aimee took a deep breath and thought about what details she would share. “Well, it’s not that we both don’t want it to happen, it’s just…well…we’re waiting for the right time.”

Chelsea laughed. “The right time? How cliché, but sweet. I didn’t know he was such a gentleman. I mean, he and Brandi used to go after it like freakin’ bunnies. He must really love you to have waited this long without the two of you having sex.” She smiled sweetly, then added nonchalantly, “Or he’s getting some on the side to keep him satisfied until you finally give in.”

Aimee's mouth dropped. She reached across the console and popped Chelsea on her arm, then
hissed, “Ouch, Chels.
So
not nice!”

Chelsea briefly rubbed her arm, then grinned. “You know I’m just teasing. The word is he is insanely in love with you. It’s really pissing off some of his friends because he doesn’t want to hang out and act like a heathen anymore. He’s always with you, and they can’t get used to it. Quite honestly, I think it’s totally awesome. He deserves a good person like you. After the bitch he just had, he would be crazy to do anything to screw this up. He won’t ever find someone more perfect.”

Aimee smiled at Chelsea, then looked back at the road as they pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. “I think I’m the lucky one. I know he loves me, as much as he puts up with. And I feel
things will change soon. I’m ready, and he knows how I feel. I think he wants it to be
so
perfect my
first time, and our first time together.”

The drive home was quiet except for Chelsea’s dozen phone calls to Jana, Ashley, Courtney, and even Matt, updating them on their prom finds. Dylan called a couple times checking in to see where they were, and Dad sent a text to let Aimee know he and Dr. Morris had made it safely to Reedsport. Aimee dropped Chelsea off at her house around ten thirty, then drove home. On the kitchen table she found a note and some money from Dad requesting she get a few groceries and his mail. Aimee decided to head back out to do the errands so she wouldn’t forget. She would swing by the post office after shopping, then call Dylan, as promised, when she got home.

She didn’t think anything about the huge, white pickup with a black guardrail parked along the curb several houses down the street when she backed out of the driveway. And she didn’t notice when it stealthily followed her to the store and turned into the parking lot, then waited on the other side of the lot while Aimee shopped.

The car’s clock read eleven ten when Aimee eased out of the store’s parking lot. She failed to notice the same white truck turn into the lane behind her until it was riding her tail. Its bright lights blinded her. Aimee flipped the rearview mirror up to divert the glare. “Jackass,” she growled and slowed down, hoping it would encourage the jerk to go around. But the truck slowed, too. For several blocks it hugged her every move, no more than a few yards away from her bumper. She finally realized this wasn’t just some jackass.

This was a hunter and Aimee must be his prey!

Sweat dewed on her face and her brain kicked out all rational thoughts. Instead of pulling into some place safe with people hanging around, Aimee stomped down on the accelerator and careened in and out of the lanes trying to lose him. He kept his truck right on her bumper.

The streets were unusually empty for a Saturday night. She pressed the accelerator to the floorboard and flew up the interstate’s entrance ramp. Aimee tried to make out the identity of her pursuer, but his lights were blinding. At one point she felt a slight bump from behind, and her fear immediately turned to rage. “Damn idiot is gonna cause me to wreck!” screamed Aimee. Her foot pressed down again on the accelerator and the non-sporty Prius soared like a rocket along the dark highway. A short distance north of Medford Aimee abruptly exited the interstate hoping to lose her assailant. The idiot hung tight and soon was back on her tail while she raced down a dark road, completely desolate of traffic except for the two of them. The adrenaline coursed through her body and she drove the Prius like a maniac. But after a fast minute of trying to outrun him, rational thoughts started to return. She had made a mistake, a very foolish mistake, but she couldn’t turn around. Aimee had led them away from town. So she soared down the lonely road hoping to stay ahead of the truck until she could get back to another town.

Suddenly it felt like someone hit her head with a hammer. Aimee tasted acid in her throat, and
she gagged. “God help me!
Please
not now!” she bawled. She scanned the road in front of her, then the
rearview mirror, back and forth trying to keep the car on the black asphalt. The speedometer read eighty-five as the car lurched out of a curve and hit a straightaway.

Seconds passed and she made the fatal error the idiot had been hoping for - Aimee swerved from the middle of the road back into her lane when they careened around an inside curve. The truck immediately shot around her into the outside lane, picked up speed, and jutted up alongside the driver’s door. The road was too dark, so Aimee didn’t dare tear her eyes from straight ahead.

And then
it
happened!

The truck veered into her lane. Without thinking, she reacted. Her hands reflexively jerked the wheel to the right instantly jumping her new car off the shoulder, then into the ditch. Out-of-control, the car ripped through the tall grasses. The truck continued soaring down the road.

In slow motion Aimee watched the trees overtake the car. Branches razed the sides, the front hood and the top. In a second, faces of people she loved - Dylan, Dad, James, Sacha, Chelsea, Aunt Lauren, and even her mother - flashed through Aimee's mind, and then flickered away. The last thing she remembered seeing was the buck as he darted in front of her path. Its big, round, black eyes were blinded by her high beams. With no time to escape, the young deer met her hood, then jutted up and over into the windshield. A leg came through the glass on the passenger side, and crystal shards splattered the dash. Everything else immediately faded away. Darkness completely swallowed her, and all life vanished in less than a second...the deer’s…and maybe hers.

Am I dead?

Aimee couldn’t tell. But she knew she was no longer in her safe, little Prius. Her car disap
peared and her body was trapped inside a black hole. This darkness wasn’t strange. The air around hung thick as cane syrup, and the chill instantly penetrated her pores.

Am I stuck in a dream, a sick nightmare?

Within seconds of flying through the black emptiness, Aimee knew exactly where she was.

She was
traveling
!

The all too familiar torture of the tunnel overtook her body, and pain shot through her. As
Aimee usually did, she begged for death.
How much more can I stand? Some freakin’ jerk just tried to kill me, and now this?
But Aimee knew death wouldn’t come now no matter how much she pleaded so
she closed her eyes and prayed for time to fly by so she could exit the tunnel and get on with the mission. Pain pounded across her torso. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she felt consciousness slipping away. Just before Aimee surrendered completely to the darkness, the bright light burned through and hit her face. Her eyes snapped back into focus, and abruptly the ground stopped her fall.

Dazed and in shock she laid there motionless. Her chest throbbed unmercifully on the right side, and breathing was painful. After several minutes the brain fog started to lift and Aimee slowly sat up. Wetness trickled down her cheek. She wiped it, and a dark liquid stained her fingers. Her brow stung, but the cut didn’t feel too big. A rebroken rib, maybe, and a small gash…it could have been worse.

She squinted and searched the darkness for signs of other life. Despite hurting like hell, Aimee knew she needed to get moving and find who she was sent to help. She remembered being forced into the ditch by the diabolical white truck, but nowhere around her was her car. She had left the deserted road, her car, and the dead buck. She didn’t know if she was in the future or the past,
but she was definitely no longer around home;
her
home - Medford, Oregon.

Aimee started down an isolated road. Trees and hills surrounded her. She was somewhere out in the country, but she couldn’t tell much because of the darkness. Silver clouds hid a full moon and casted dull gray light across the road. The shadows thrown from the tall tree tops danced wildly across the asphalt. The endless roadway was completely surrounded by woods on both sides. After several minutes of creeping along, Aimee spotted a mailbox. A mailbox was promising. It meant life existed
somewhere in the near vicinity. In the dim moonlight, she barely made out a name,
The Sims.
The
mailbox sat on the edge of a gravel driveway which looked long, dark, and scary. But she started down it determined to find what she needed to find.

A hundred yards down the gravel path, Aimee heard muffled music filtering through the
woods.
Then the voices of boys and girls drifted up the road and seemed to be getting louder by the second. Headlights suddenly came around a bend and brightened the path, and she dove off the driveway, ducked behind a tree, and stifled a scream. A red Mustang convertible filled with teens, the stereo blasting a new song she recognized, sped by towards the main road. The sounds of a party from somewhere close still filled the night so Aimee continued walking towards the noise.

She finally came to the end of the road and stepped into a clearing. A rather large house sat in the middle with a few pine trees and cedars strategically left. All of the windows across the front of the house were dark. The porch was dark as well. Off to the side, but behind the house, Aimee made out another building, perhaps a garage. Flickering light reflected off the side of the partially hidden building, and she could distinguish about five or six parked cars. Voices floated to her from somewhere at the back of the house. Aimee ambled slowly towards the voices.

Out of the darkness a big yellow lab charged Aimee and jumped up on her side, knocking her to the ground. She squelched another scream. Excruciating pain ripped through her chest. The dog sniffed her face, then started licking the dried blood on her cheeks. She grabbed the dog’s collar, then whispered, “Shhhh! Stop! Don’t! Stop messing with me! You’re gonna give me away!” Fortunately, something caught the dog’s attention, and he ran off towards the woods.

Swiftly as possible, she got up and moved towards the house, but waited at the front corner to
assess the situation. This
had
to be the reason she traveled tonight. Surely there couldn’t be another
house or anyone else for miles around. Aimee lingered at the corner listening to the voices. They sounded young, her age maybe. She heard three or four girls, and a couple boys. Their voices were distorted occasionally by the sound of water splashing, like people in a swimming pool. Aimee heard bottles clanging on concrete. It had to be a party, but no one seemed in distress.

She continued slithering along the side of the house, stopping short of each dark window frame to peek in. No one appeared to be inside. About twenty feet before the end corner of the house, she paused again and glanced at the cars parked in front of the garage.

Her limbs instantly turned to rubber. The same white truck that ran her off the road was fifteen feet away! And on the other side of the truck was another familiar car…the infamous black Lexus!

Aimee's heart jumped into her throat and quit beating again. She felt dizzy, then sick to her stomach. After a few seconds a flutter finally rippled across her aching chest and a quick thump jumpstarted the heart. Sweat dripped profusely from her forehead. Her mouth felt so parched she was positive no sound would roll out if she tried.

A door slammed at the back, and voices disappeared into the house, but no lights came on. Aimee dropped and crawled against the side of the house. At the back, a glassed natatorium covered a pool. Tiki lamps casted flickering light around the edges of the pavement. Round pool lights illuminated the crystal clear water. It looked serene and inviting. At the other end of the pool steam escaped lightly from a raised hot tub.

She surveyed the pool area through the tinted glass door. No one was around. Rap music, loud laughing, and an occasional high pitched scream from one of the girls, filtered out from somewhere inside the house. The party was still going strong.

Aimee got to her feet, wrapped her shaky fingers around the handle, and turned it slowly. It squeaked. She immediately froze. From the direction of the pool, a female’s out-of-tune voice belted out the lyrics of a song. Her heart stopped beating again. The off-pitched wailing continued. Aimee pressed her face against the dark glass and peered in. She could faintly make out the back of a head inside the hot tub. Deep within the house a stereo belted out rap even louder.