"So, who are we waiting for, again?" Colette – a lanky, short-haired redhead – said as she stuffed her bag in the back of Kaitlyn's father's black Toyota Landcruiser.
Kaitlyn sighed as she watched her phone. "For Caleb. He should've been here by now. We need to catch the boat."
"You do realize that this guy is pussy-whipped, right? Like, BDSM style to the extreme." Colette slammed the trunk close.
"By Mallory?"
"Mmm," Colette nodded.
"That girl is such a bitch!" Kaitlyn's face churned in disgust. "What does he sees in her anyway?"
"Well-formed boobs, ass, a pretty face. You know, the usual ingredients that turn most guys into obedient puppies."
"He's such a do-gooder." Kaitlyn tied her wavy straw-hued hair in a ponytail – accentuating her healthy bosom as her shirt pulled tight. "He deserves a person with more, you know… like depth or something."
"Like you?" Colette gave her a sly glare.
"No!" Kaitlyn fumed, pointing a finger at her lifelong friend. "Just, no!"
Both girls looked up when a burst of laughter echoed from around the corner of a barn, a feminine laughter. They watched the end of the pathway – to see who would round the bend.
"Oh… my god," Colette's lower jaw sank deep as her eyes fell on a slutty-dressed Mallory prancing with high-heeled boots. Her slender arm was hooked with Caleb's muscular arm, who was telling her something funny, apparently – as they saw her reacting with an exaggerated peal of laughter.
"You invited her too?!" Colette said.
"Of course not!"
"Well, what is she doing here then?"
"You're asking the wrong person!" Kaitlyn glared back at her friend.
Colette shifted her gaze back to the couple walking up to them – narrowing her eyes. "I'm so not going to sit in one car with that… that…"
"Haaaai!" Mallory – the raven-haired beauty – waved her hand exuberantly. Caleb followed suit and rose his hand as a wave, curtly, accompanied by a gentle smile.
As Mallory leaned in closer to Caleb, wrapping her arm even tighter around his waist, Colette recognized a flare of envy in Kaitlyn's eyes.
Both girls waved back in return, greeting them with as much courtesy they could muster.
"What's up, Kait?" Caleb walked up to his childhood friend and greeted her with a hug – which ignited a flare of envy from Mallory this time.
"Great. Great, Cal." Kaitlyn clapped him on the back. "So nice that you could come."
"Colette, right?" Caleb turned to face Colette. "Colette Glover?"
"The one and only," Colette smiled back, making a short curtsy.
"No way! Is that your dad's Landcruiser?" Caleb drools over the car.
Kaitlyn nodded proudly.
"And you have permission to use it for our road trip?"
Kaitlyn nodded again, prouder than the first time.
"Raaaad! Fuckin rad, Kait! This trip is going to be epic!" Caleb grinned broadly as he scrutinized the Landcruiser from different angles.
"Ahum," Mallory cleared her throat as a subtle reminder that she was also still standing there.
"Mallory! Yes, of course. You're also here," Kaitlyn smiled sheepishly as her eyes shifted from Mallory to Caleb – with a look that begged for an explanation.
"Yes, I am," Mallory's black leather knee-high boots clattered towards Caleb. She wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a long kiss on the lips – which he answered greedily. As the couple made out unblushingly, Kaitlyn saw Caleb's hand slithering downwards – along Mallory's half-naked back, towards one of her abundantly present but awfully perfect curved buttocks. Caleb's meaty hand started to knead it with a firm grasp.
Now it was Kaitlyn's turn to clear her throat.
Kaitlyn looked with disgust as Caleb wiped his mouth clean of residual saliva.
"Sorry girls," Caleb looked at both girls, guilt-ridden. "that was not very civilized of me. I cannot help it, though. I'm sooo addicted to this girl." He gave Mallory an amorous look – who smiled back at him before granting Kaitlyn a bitchy glare with those perfectly, piercing radiant blue eyes of hers. "Is it okay if she comes along? Please?"
"I have the necessary stuff with me too!" Mallory said while holding her bag up for everyone to see. "I heard we're going to visit Carmore Isle. How about I pay for the ship's fare, mmm?" she looked at both Colette and Kaitlyn with the most friendly face a vixen like her could muster.
"Uuuuh…" Colette brought out, looking at Kaitlyn.
"Pretty pleeeease, Kait! I really, REALLY want to go on this road trip with you guys, but I cannot survive separation from my girl." Caleb went down on one knee, acting all theatrical.
"Aaaw, you're so sweet!" Mallory gave Caleb a kiss on the cheek with her luscious lips.
Everyone looked at Kaitlyn, waiting for her response.
"You know what? Fuck it, welcome on board, Mallory!" Kaitlyn smiled.
While Caleb and Mallory celebrated with a shameless long kiss. Colette looked at Kaitlyn, forming with her lips the words' great, just great.'
"Oh my god, Caleb. This is our song!" Mallory called out from the backseat as the group of college kids kicked off their road trip. "Would you please be so kind as to turn it up, Kait?"
Kaitlin looked askance at Colette, sitting next to her on the front passenger seat. Colette merely shrugged, so Kaitlin pumped up the volume. The whole car vibrated heavily, bouncing on every beat blasting out all of the car's many speakers. Kaitlin glanced through the rearview mirror and saw Mallory singing along, oscillating her body on the beat. It was an awful song – both Kaitlyn and Colette hated it to the core. The only saving grace was that they did not have to listen to Mallory singing due to the high volume. Not that she had an awful voice – no, on the contrary even. Heck, the girl already looked so insufferable perfect, it was merely reasonable that God gifted her also with an angelic voice, right?
Kaitlyn looked away with distaste when Mallory mounted on top of Caleb, wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him in a most vulgar manner. As Kaitlyn focused on keeping her eyes on the road, she could not restrain herself from peeking at them from time to time. The scenery displaying itself in the rearview mirror was like watching some erroneous soft porn movie. Mallory's tight ass came in full display as Caleb's hands had their way with it – rubbing her firm buttocks, shoving her mini skirt to the side so that the girl's bright red g-string became partly visible.
"WATCH OUT!" Colette screeched as some illuminated spectacle shot down from the sky, crashing right in front of them in the road. Kaitlyn yanked the steering wheel to the side. The car screeched as it was barely able to evade the crater in the road. All four college kids screamed their lungs out as a large oak tree came into display in front of them, becoming larger and larger. The car screeched to a stop – right in time, roughly three inches away from the oak tree.
"Everyone alright?" Kaitlin's voice still shivered from the shock.
"I think I have to… yeah, I have to barf," Colette said and shot out of the vehicle.
"Baby? Hey, baby? You okay?" Caleb checked his girlfriend, who lay still draped over him on the backseat, sitting on his lap.
Mallory said nothing. She merely nodded meekly.
Kaitlin got out of the car and inhaled deeply through her nose, almost tasting the fresh, moisty cold air of the night.
"The heck is that?" Colette moseyed over from behind a tree, wiping her mouth with her forearm. Her finger was pointing at the hole in the road further behind them. Something luminous was lying in there, bursting its ray of lights outwards like some supercharged sky beam – lighting up the branches and leaves of the oak trees standing adjacent to the road.
"Wanna check it out?" Kaitlyn asked.
Colette shrugged, "Sure thing."
A faint humming was heard, becoming increasingly louder the closer the girls came.
"Its so bright!" Kaitlyn complained.
"You've got shades?"
"Uhuh," Kaitlin acknowledged.
"Well, I'll be…" Colette gawked – with a pair of shades resting on her nose – as she could not find the right words to finish the sentence.
Following her friend's example, Kaitlin fished out a pair of sunnies of her own and gawked at a most breathtaking spectacle buried an arm length deep in the ground.
"What is it?" Kaitlin gaped at an apple-sized rock firmly fastened among a mishmash of half molten asphalt and dirt.
Colette shook her head, "Haven't the foggiest."
"Its beautiful!" Kaitlin's eyes scrutinized the rainbow-like glow radiating from it.
"It definitely is," Colette acknowledged.
"Let's grab it. Maybe it's worth a ton!" Kaitlyn crouched down and was already reaching her hand out until someone grabbed her wrist.
"We don't know what it is," Colette looked at her all earnest. "or where it came from. For all we know, this thing might give you cancer when touching it. Or worse, explode in your face."
Kaitlin backed down, touched by the wise advice of her friend. Still though, there was something about this rock. She needed to touch it. An inner voice begged her to do it.
"Be a darling and score me a loose, please?"
Both Kaitlin and Colette turned their heads by the sudden sound of Mallory's voice in the distance. They saw Caleb lighting up a cigarette for Mallory. The couple came ambling up to them.
"Wooow! What the hell?" Mallory rose her arm in front of her narrowed eyes as she was nearly blinded by the rock's brightness. Observing the other girls wearing sunglasses, she turned to Caleb. "Got a pair of sunnies?" she asked, blowing out a puff of smoke in the midnight air.
From behind his arms, shading his eyes, he nodded. "Only one, though. Shall we take turns?"
Mallory did not answer his question. She merely held her hand out. Caleb placed the sunnies in her awaiting hand and decided to just turn around, for now, not wanting to be blinded. He was unable to see what was lying in the crater anyway.
Mallory put the shades on and walked up to the crater, crouching down in front of it next to Kaitlyn.
"So beautiful!" Mallory said in deep awe while looking at the magical stone.
"I know, right? Like it's calling for you to take it," Kaitlyn said.
"It's calling for you too?" Mallory asked.
Kaitlyn nodded.
"Well, what's it doing there still then?"
Kaitlyn gestured towards her friend, Colette.
"We don't know what it is," Collete said. "I suggest we call the authorities to let them investigate it."
Both Kaitlyn and Colette flinched when Mallory burst out a peal of scornful laughter, cutting through the peaceful night. "Fraidy cats."
Kaitlin watched as Mallory sank down deeper – sitting on all fours – as she reached her hand out. The inner voice in Kaitlyn's head became stronger now, screaming for her to stop Mallory – to be the first one of touching it.
Kaitlyn did nothing, though. She merely gaped breathless as Mallory's fingers closed in on the stone, making contact with it.
A high-pitched shriek followed, coming from Mallory's mouth as she flew backward like some strong force heaved her away. She lost consciousness when the back of her head slammed hard against the asphalt.
"I still don't get it. I really don't," Colette watched over her shoulder where she saw Mallory singing and oscillating her upper body while glaring out of the window. "How on earth can you all act so casual after all what happened?"
"Want a Twinkie?" Caleb's meaty hand emerged from the backseat in front of Colette's eyes. "They are really tasty." he beamed.
Colette's face churned with revulsion. She shook her head.
"You?" He asked Kaitlin. Who shrugged and grabbed the Twinkie while sitting in the driver's seat.
"Are you sure you're okay back there, Mallory?" Colette glared over her shoulder, looking at the raven-haired beauty who acted like she spent time in some downtown discotheque.
Mallory nodded with a smile. "Never felt better."
"You're not experiencing a splitting headache?"
"Nope,"
"Or feelings of dizziness or the need to vomit?"
"Nope,"
"Or feeling groggy? Or sluggish? Or confused in some way?"
"Nope, nope, and…. well now that you're mentioning it," Mallory turned her head and leered at Caleb's eyes. "I do get lost for words sometimes every time I melt in those big brown twinkles of my baby-bunny."
Caleb returned the smile and the couple started smooching passionately.
Disgusted, Colette quickly averted her eyes and sank back into her seat again, sighing.
"Baby-bunny? Serious!" Kaitlin mouthed inaudibly while looking at Colette with bulged eyes. She stuck her finger in her mouth and acted like she was barfing up.
"Leave it," Kaitlin placed her hand reassuringly on Colette's leg when she saw that her friend's face was still taut like a guitar string.
"Things don't add up here, Kait. I'm telling ya! The girl should at least have some sort of brain damage after such a smack."
"Well, she hasn't. She just looks like her plain old self. Insufferable and snarky."
"And that's exactly what worries me! I've read about mood swings occurring in people after a concussion. One moment they laugh. The next, they cry. And she's awfully giddy right, don't you think?"
"She's always awfully giddy, Colette. There's nothing unusual about that. Especially not with her. And I definitely don't feel like dealing with a crying Mallory right now. Thank you very much."
"I can hear everything you guys saaaay!" Mallory sang from the backseat in glee.
Both Colette and Kaitlin blushed hard. They shifted and crawled away in their seats in vain attempts to make themselves invisible.
While driving through the night, the hair on the back of Kaitlin's neck prickled when she heard Mallory and Caleb kissing each other. It was like they did their best to be heard, as a sort of reprisal for the ill-talk a little while ago.
Kaitlin took a sneaky peek through the rearview mirror and regretted it immediately, for she was once again treated at the sight of Mallory's tight derriere wiggling on Caleb's lap. She couldn't take it anymore. It was not even an hour ago since that meteorite thing happened and this Mallory chick was already working on Kaitlin's nerves with her trampy behavior. She ensured that Colette wasn't looking her way and rummaged about in her pocket with her hand. A small and dull-looking rock rested in her palm. The same one that shone blindingly bright before Mallory had touched it. Whatever force-field was residing in that thing was gone now. The stone appeared dead. The voice she heard earlier, the one that was calling her, was also gone – or so it seemed. However, sometimes it did seem like Kaitlin was hearing its voice still, only very faint – like a cry coming from some faraway place at the horizon.
Kaitlin was the only one who had seen that Mallory's eyes were bursting with the same intensity of light for a split second the moment Mallory touched that thing. She was pretty sure that whatever was residing in that rock was now living inside Mallory's body and it definitely had something to do with Mallory's unnatural recovery after her head had hit the asphalt with pretty hard force. Even though the rock seemed death, Kaitlin took it anyway and stuffed it in her pocket, unbeknownst to the others.
"That's the wrong way!"
Kaitlin frowned when Mallory's voice spoke right after her brain had just decided to take a turn to the right when they were nearing a T-junction. She hadn't activated the turn light yet, and she wasn't using any navigation either. Kaitlin knew her way in this area. She had been here before during vacations in her childhood. The shortest route to the ferry was to turn to the right. Mallory could not know that because she had told them that she had never been here in this side of the country. But here she was, correcting Kaitlin's planned route – which she had dotted out in her head only and hadn't said out loud.
"I'm going to take a turn to the right here," Kaitlin said.
"Yes, I know. And that's the wrong way," Mallory said.
"How did you know I was going to do that?" Kaitlin looked at her friend, Colette.
Mallory did not answer the question. "Come on! Go left here, trust me!" she urged.
"You've never been here in this area, right?" Colette asked.
"No, I haven't," Mallory said.
"Well, Kaitlin knows this place like the back of her hand. So why don't you let her do the driving, huh?"
Mallory shrugged. "suit yourself." And after that, she mounted on top of Caleb again and continued kissing.
Kaitlin started to question her own decision. Mallory sounded so convinced of herself. She took a turn to the right anyway, just like she planned in the first place.
Screw that wiseass! Kaitlin thought as the tires screeched in the night.
"Things are going to take a dark turn from here," Mallory said after Kaitlin had taken the curve.
"Okay, stop it! You're starting to sound creepy now!" Colette fumed while watching over her shoulder. Mallory did not say anything back. She merely continued treating Caleb on the touch of her ass and lips.
While driving, Kaitlin kept peeking from time to time through the rearview mirror. The scenery she saw stayed the same, with Caleb and Mallory licking each other's faces – accompanied by many unsavory sounds.
The road they were driving on meandered away from a small village into a more remote area and packed with long, pointy trees on both sides. Every fifty meters or so stood a street light, illuminating the road with a faint orange hue in the dark night.
"The hell is that?" Caleb said as he gaped out of the window.
All three girls followed his stare. A car was stationed on a meadow near a forest. There was movement as they saw at least two black silhouettes strolling in the darkness.
"Drive slower. I want to see what they're up to," Caleb said as his eyes were glued against the window.
Colette groaned with frustration. "We're driving in the middle of the fucking night in the middle of freaking nowhere, so don't you think it's wiser to drive faster instead?"
"This should be fun," Mallory said as she leaned over Caleb's shoulder.
To the annoyance of Colette, Kaitlin reduced the car's speed almost to a walking pace.
"Is that a shovel he's holding in his hands?" Kaitlin squinted with her eyes.
"It looks like they are–"
"Oh my God! It's a body! They are burying a body!" Kaitlin clasped her hands against her cheeks.
"Rad. Fuckin rad," Caleb said.
"There's nothing rad about any of this!" Colette bristled. "Who knows what we stumbled upon. We should GET the hell out of here before w– uuuh, guys?"
Everyone followed Colette's finger pointing at the window on Kaitlin's side. A man was standing there with a gun in his hand.
Colette started whining, Caleb was speechless, and Mallory seemed like she had lost her mind, for the only thing she could do was chuckle uncontrollably.
The door swung open, and Kaitlin screeched as a firm hand grabbed her hair and yanked her out of the car.
"Out! All of you! You too, asshat!" the man called out, pointing his gun at Caleb. "and take that loony slut of yours with you!"
Caleb did his best to pull Mallory along with him as he got out of the car, but she just kept sitting there on the back seat – immersed in a burst of endless giggles.
The shady man lost his patience. "That's it. I'm going to end her life, right here right now." He cocked his gun and aimed it at Mallory.
"Noooooo!" Caleb screeched and stormed at the man like a raging bull. It ended in a wrestle. A shot was fired and both men stumbled and fell on the ground, rolling over each other. The man was able to grab his gun again and aimed it at Caleb's head with seething eyes. "I'm going to make you a cripple for the remaining three hours of your life and force you to watch me fuck your girlfriend fifty times in the arse before I let my pooch tear you all to pieces!" he spat, foaming at the mouth.
"No, you don't," Mallory showed up out of nowhere behind him - while she was sitting in the car just a second ago. She looked at the man dead serious. "The only thing you're going to do is becoming smaller and smaller and smaller." the man started shrinking rapidly, compelled by Mallory's words.
"Until you're small enough to fit under my boot."
CRUNCH! And the man was no more.
Two of his companions showed up, responding to all the ruckus.
"Business or play?" Mallory asked playfully at the two men who were rushing up to them.
Both men pulled out a gun.
Mallory smiled eagerly. "Nice! Play it is then."
Two shots were fired, aimed at Mallory. Both slugs dropped harmlessly to the ground after they could not penetrate Mallory's chest. Two bright red beams shot from Mallory's eyes, ending their lives, leaving behind two smoldering heaps of ash. A car engine started. Seemed like a fourth man was waiting in the car. He drove off with shrieking tires.
"Hey! I want my souvenir!" Mallory screamed. She brought her hand up, and at the same time, the car went airborne. It was pulled her way by some invisible force and shrunk down in size until it dwindled to the size of a dinky toy. Mallory smiled triumphantly when the car landed on the palm of her hand. She closed it into a fist and sauntered back into Kaitlin's car.
"You guys coming, or what?" she asked while looking around dumbfounded at her stationary friends.