"This is bullshit," King said, picking on his shortly trimmed nails. He hissed in pain when he accidentally scraped deeper than he should have.

"Mouth please," Pandora pointed out, face indifferent as she steered the wheel.

"I mean, why do we even have to go back just to attend a birthday party?" King knitted his brows.

"It's Axel"s promotion."

"And a birthday party," King fought.

"Uh-huh."

King gave up. He faked a sob and threw his head back on the headrest.

"Stop whining. We'll only be there for a week, thanks to you."

"Hey, it's not my fault. That jerk of a customer had a bad attitude. He should be grateful I was considerate enough to give him gravy as a wig for that bald head of his."

"You pulled his wig and spilled gravy on him."

King huffed. "Damn right, I did."

Pandora shook her head. "You're still an employee. You need to control yourself or you'll end up fired every single time."

"Doesn't give them the right to badly treat an employee."

Pandora sighed and let it be. A wordless stance ate up half of their minute. Memories and records unintentionally flowed like an electric current inside Pandora's mind. Until the wire was cut off, and the current stopped.

Pandora gently inhaled through her nose. "King, are you..."

"Hm?"

"... Are you planning on seeing her?"

King spared her a questioning glance. A few ticks of the clock was what he needed for him to know that she was talking about his mother.

He turned his head back to the window. "I don't have to. It's not like we have anything to talk about."

Pandora remained silent.

King rested his knuckles underneath his chin while his bum ached. It's so green, he thought as he watched the tall rows of trees rolled by like an old film. He opened the window and let the rush of the fresh breeze whisper across his face. Everything was all familiar to him, but distant at the same time. He got used to the city, where towers rocketed towards the sky and the honks of cars and sirens that circuited wherever he went. The coffee shop he worked part-time and the cheap apartment they lived in were abundant in colors but not as rich and brilliant as the nature in Romania. This was refreshing.

King placed his head back against the headrest. He watched from the corners of his eyes as the girl on the driver's seat picked up her thermos bottle of espresso.

"You should cut some slack on the caffeine," he pointed out, looking neutral.

"I feel sleepy when I drive," Pandora replied, flinging a strand of her copper-colored braids out of her face.

"... That's your third one."

"Uh-huh," Pandora responded, not even taking what he said into account.

King's eyes slightly stretched up when an abrupt loud snore rumbled from the back seat. He turned his head over the shoulder of his chair and stared at Bryce, his younger cousin. Despite being seventeen, Bryce's frame almost took the entire backseat. His rust-colored hair flew in a messy whirl, spreading out just like a bird's nest.

Pandora knitted her brows when King started singing loud. Bryce groaned, more like a whine, while he sleepily shifted on his position. That didn't stop King. He was getting his revenge from when the latter jolted him awake by screaming yesterday. His lips curled up as his tone heightened.

Bryce's head perked up, staring at them confusedly before his face creased into a scowl. "King! Shut up!" he snapped, kicking the back of King's seat before he whined back to sleep.

King sang some more, pitch so out of range and annoying that the latter had bolted up for real. Bryce coiled his arm around his neck from behind, slightly knocking the air inside his chest.

"Ack- hey!" King flailed on his seat.

"That's how you wanna play, huh?" Bryce held him in place and started knuckling his mousy curls.

"What the- don't mess with the hair, you dork!"

Bryce proceeded, evilly snickering as he struggled against his grip. Pandora's knuckles went white against the steering wheel while they tussled inside the car, shouting, grappling at each other, and bumping against her in the process. It was one of their endless nonsense again.

"Quit it, you two-" Pandora's voice was thrown back in her throat.

A huge silhouette suddenly crossed on the road, barely a few yards in front of their car. And suddenly, there was a white flash that swept along the jaw-rattling boom and the earsplitting noise of shattering glass. King clenched his teeth as pain started to bite his body like a mad dog. The world spun so many times that he had semi-drifted out of consciousness, tasting blood on his mouth as he felt like a weightless rag doll.

Then for a moment, everything stopped, the world gone into a blur. King felt numb. At times, his eyelids fluttered, and he thought he must be dreaming. Or more like having a nightmare. He recollected the events. Tierra Madre, he thought. Yes, they were heading back to their pride to stay for two weeks before Axel's twenty-first birthday.

Then the pain crashed in on his inside, twisting his guts and bringing him back to reality. He panted and started heaving for air, scenting the small trail of blood that dripped down his nose. He was still belted in the seat of the tipped-off rented Toyota; his body curled to an uncomfortable position.

King dazedly turned his neck to his side, hoping his cousins would get less than his nose job. He watched Pandora, who unbuckled her belt, and fell with a grunt, rattling the squeaking car.

"Bryce?" King forced out of his burning throat, his voice barely reduced to a whisper.

Bryce patted his forehead, grimacing as he did and soaking the tips of his fingers with a print of fresh blood. "I-I'm... okay?" he answered, sort of like a question rather than an answer. King and Pandora were relieved even so.

King then began to fumble with his belt. He pressed the clutch, and his lower body slid down, losing its support. He grunted at the burning sensation on the left side of his pelvis. Better, he thought. At least, he wasn't dead.

"G-get out," Pandora hissed. "We have to get-"

Her voice faltered.

There was a low, raspy growl that blended under the whispers of the air, and they all froze, straining their ears at the sound that neared in. Then Bryce and Pandora's eyes widened as they stared at King... no, behind him.

King slowly turned his neck, mentally uttering charms and nonsense as he sought what was behind him that got his two cousins into their wordless disposition. When he did, a massive chain of chill slithered its way into his body.

Through the narrow gap on the dirt-splattered side, a bent-over creature of leathery grey skin was staring at him, lips curled into a smile as it flashed its rows of shark-like teeth.
© Psychobott