Unicorn Death Drive
Chapter 2
Welcome back for another chapter of Unicorn Death Drive!
If you missed chapter 1, you can find it here!
If you are encountering Unicorn Death Drive for the first time, thanks for stopping in. And prepare yourself for action-packed pages of man-eating unicorns!
Here we go!
Chapter 2
Nat kicked as hard as she could, sending the woman in the yellow jacket leaping backwards. But the man with her -- he was much bigger. A hulking mass of dude-brawn stuffed into a smiley face t-shirt. He grabbed Nat in a headlock, twisting her arms behind her head.
"Get your hands off of me!" she screeched, as if that could stop it all now.
The woman in the yellow jacket held open the door to the backseat of the SUV, and dude-brawn shoved Nat inside as if she weighed less than a paper doll. She whirled on him, reaching out to grab the door as it slammed closed, bending back her wrist. Frantically, she pried the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. Locked.
Nat screamed, a massive furious rush of volume that scraped her throat raw so that she thought it might bleed. She buried her fists in her black hair, wondering for a moment if she should start ripping it out by the root. She'd look insane. They'd have to let her out if she was having a mental breakdown, right?
A knock on the window - Mom.
"I love you, honey," her voice muffled through the tinted glass.
Nat punched the window. "I hate you for this!"
Her mother cried, while Don the Douche wrapped an arm around her, doing his best not to smile. He'd been waiting for this moment for a long time, Nat knew. Waiting for the moment when Nat messed up beyond all forgiveness and her mother was forced to send her away, at long last.
Don the Douche got his wish a week and a half ago when Nat took his precious Audi roadster out for a joy ride and crashed it into a bus shelter. Yes, it was stupid. But she'd apologized and promised to work to help pay for the damages. And anyway, it wasn't like it was all her idea. Parker had dared her to do it.
Nat slammed her feet into the seat in front of her. God damnit, Parker!
"Knock it off," growled dude-brawn, glaring at her through the grate partition that separated the front and back seats.
The woman in the yellow coat sat behind the steering wheel. "It's a long way to Second Chance," she said. "Don't make this harder on yourself than it already is."
Nat sat back, her head dropping against the seat as she swallowed down the lump forming in her throat. The engine grumbled to life, and through tears, she watched her sobbing mother wave goodbye as the car pulled out of the driveway.
All of this was Parker's fault. It was bad enough her deadbeat boyfriend convinced her to steal Don's car in the first place, but when they crashed and Nat was barely conscious, the sorry asshole bolted from the car, leaving her to face the cops by herself. Of course she told them she'd done all this alone--but that was before she found out Parker had left behind a sandwich baggie of weed and pills.
When Don was informed about the drugs, he looked ecstatic--Nat could see his thin chapped lips spreading into that crocodile grin. There was no way Nat's mom could protect her from such egregious charges. But she did the best she could. She hired a top notch lawyer and instead of going to juvie the judge agreed to send Nat for "rehabilitation." At Second Chance Ranch.
Nat hadn't seen Parker since she watched him through the cracks of the Audi's windshield, disappearing into the night. Even now, with everything she'd been through, the memory of him leaving was the thing that upset her the most. How could he just leave her like that? Why hadn't he called? Did he even know she was leaving for six months? That it was his fault she'd have to do therapy everyday and play at buckaroo while a bunch of shrinks tried to make her into a 'good girl'?
You're bad news. Her stomach clenched remembering the first thing Parker ever said to her. Nat had agreed to follow a friend to some senior's house party a year ago, where she got wasted on the bottle of Jack she'd stolen from Don's liquor cabinet. She'd been lying on the trampoline in the backyard when Parker walked up, tall and broad in a way that the other boys at school were still years off from being. An older guy with shaggy hair and mischievous grin. He'd offered her a cigarette. She didn't smoke, but his eyes glinted with trouble as he waited for her to take it, and the pounding in her heart convinced her to overlook the stink this one time. Her fingers brushed his as she reached -- they felt warm and tough and dangerous in the best way. Do I scare you? she'd teased, infinitely cooler and more mature than she'd felt. He grinned, his tongue teasing the smoke between his teeth. You cant be worse news than me.
Well shit, had he ever been right.
She let her head rest against the window, watching as city gave way to suburbs and eventually to endless dusty fields of livestock and crops. The cattle chewing their cud looked as miserable as she felt. They passed one field with three dead cows, bloody and rotting in the blazing sun. At least their suffering is over, she thought miserably.
When the SUV finally slowed, she found herself in the middle of the country, the vehicle approaching a large sign that read Second Chance Ranch. Nat wiped a tear from her cheek. Six months trapped in the middle of nowhere. No friends. No TV. No internet. And worst of all, no Parker.
She stared at her new prison, horses twitching their tails by the fence posts. They watched her with narrowed eyes--even the horses were against her.
The buildings were all honey coloured log houses with red roofs, like something straight out of the old West. Yellow jacket lady pulled into a parking spot beside the largest one. Welcome Center read the sign dangling over the porch. Dude-brawn climbed out and opened Nat's door. "Let's go."
This was really happening. She was actually going to be stuck here. And there was nothing she could do about it.
For now, anyway.
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