WIP Wednesday

Presented today is the last scene in the first chapter of my, as of yet, untitled work in progress. Alexis is leaving Ellijay, wondering, for the first time in her life, if she'll ever return. She loves the town. She loves her family. It is Leonidas, she cannot take.

Leo, along with her own family, still hold to old-fashioned beliefs that she sees as gender-biased, and unfair. After all, she's been to college. She knows how the current society functions, and she firmly believes she could safely live among regular humans. Who knows, she might even be able to carve out a normal life.

Alexis looked out the window of the taxi, more to hide her face then look at scenery. She wondered if Leo had left a mark on her throat, and tried to look at her reflection in the glass. She only saw the North Georgia Medical Center as the taxi sped along Main Street. She turned to look out the left window as they drove past the Gilmer County fairgrounds, her anger and hurt still making her cheeks burn, as she remembered the first time Leo had shown his true nature. She was just eight years old and at the county fair with her parents. She remembered it as a time when everything was true and innocent, a time when she still enjoyed her secret identity, and felt like she was a kind of superhero, hiding her powers from the normal, unassuming humans. That was, until Leo found her waiting in a line at the fairgrounds, threw her to the ground, and took the money her parents gave her for ice cream. He beat her up on many more occasions as they grew up, and there were rumors he did much worse to some of the other girls in the pack.

Alexis finally began to relax as the taxi crossed the bridge over the Coosawattee river, where Main Street turned into state road five, and the little town of Ellijay gave way to the great expanse of farmland and wilderness. The sun hovered low in the sky, harsh light coming through the front windshield forcing the taxi driver to flip his visor down, and Alexis to look blindly out her window into the blur of trees and fields. She wasn't sure where she was going to go, or when, if ever, she would return to Ellijay, but just getting away was good enough for now.

By the time Alexis saw the sign announcing she had reached the Resaca city limit, the sun had disappeared below the horizon. The meter attached to the dash of the taxi was already above ninety dollars as the taxi driver made a right turn onto Dixie road, leaving Resaca behind for more fields and wilderness.

"Looks like you're in luck," the taxi driver said as he turned the car left into the parking lot of a Pilot Travel Center truck stop, seemingly grown out of nowhere. He pointed in the general direction of a large McDonald's parking lot. A few cars stood silent in the parking lot, along with a big Greyhound bus.

"Is that the bus to Atlanta?" Alexis said.

"Gotta be," the driver said. "It’s the only bus leaves out of here. It only runs twice a week, from here to Atlanta."

Alexis shoved her credit card forward before the taxi even made a complete stop; worried the bus might pull away any second. She didn’t care how much the ride cost. At this point, she was willing to max out her parent's credit card to get away from the oppression of Ellijay, her pack, and Leo. She looked over at the bus and saw a line of passengers forming by the door. She snatched the card out of the driver's hand, tossed a twenty-dollar bill to the front with a quick thank you, and was on her way to the bus by the time the doors opened, allowing the customers to board. The driver was standing outside the doors checking passengers for tickets. She pushed through the twelve or so passengers to ask the driver where she could buy a ticket.

"Go to that big building behind the McDonald's," he said, as he pointed to a building that looked like a garage in the middle of the huge dirt parking lot.

"Thanks," Alexis said, as she turned on her heel and ran toward the building. She was careful not to run too fast. The last thing she needed was some stranger taking notice of someone running at an unnatural speed, and making a stink about it.

"Hurry up, though. I can't hold the bus very long," the driver yelled to her, as she ran toward the building, waving her credit card at the man in the window.

Alexis made it onto the bus and showed her ticket to the driver with a weak smile. She found a seat near the back of the bus and looked out the window into the darkness as the bus pulled onto the road, and almost immediately onto the on ramp of interstate seventy-five. She smiled to herself as the bus merged into traffic, and felt a weight slipping off her shoulders as she mentally left her old life behind. She had no idea what the future would bring, but it had to be better than the past. The darkness and the movement of the bus relaxed her, and she felt suddenly tired. She scooted down in her seat and let the swaying motion sooth her, until her eyes closed, and she drifted into sleep.

Hope you enjoyed this little excerpt. In the next chapter (posted here throughout the next several weeks) several new characters will be introduced, and more trouble will begin. As always, please feel free to post your comments, suggestions, bitches, or complaints. For your reading pleasure-enjoy.