Chapter 15: Stranded

Smoke billows out of the hood of the compact-car-that-could, now having gotten away from its pursuers and things seemed to be winding down. A sickening scraping sound rolled through the car every few seconds as the steering wheel got less and less responsive. The long stretch of still closed road didn’t have much on it, but as Luna drove, a small abandoned gas station appeared, covered in snow nobody cared to move.

Luna steers the car in towards the gas station, the crunching of fresh snow being the only noise that permeated the air outside of the noisy car. All three passengers wince as the car finally gave way with a sudden *WHUMPF!* as two of the wheels on one side simply pop off. They roll to the side uselessly, the leap from earlier taking a great deal of stress out on the undercarriage of the vehicle.

Luna sighs, the tension from earlier flowing out of her body as she reclines back into the seat. She turns to look towards Miguel and Sakura sitting in the back seat, both of them looking relieved and tired. Miguel sits in his seat and looks out of the window, lost in thought, though every now and again, he’d check the shattered back window. Sakura, on the other hand, looked far more relaxed and tired, the vampire propping both of her feet over the empty passenger seat. As soon as the tires popped off, she blinks herself back into full awareness, patting the she rested on.

“That’ll do, car. That’ll do.”

Luna completely deflates, pointing her muzzle in the air and sliding down in her seat as far as she could go. “I think I’ll just go back to leading a boring life now.”

Sakura leans up, pulling her feet to the floor and leaning her head on the passenger’s backrest. “So as far as car chases go, on a scale of one to ten, and trust me, I’ve been in a lot of them, I’d give this one…”

Miguel smiles and places a hand on Luna’s sagging shoulders. “...You did great kid. You got us out of a close one.”

Luna’s tail thaps silently against her seat, with Sakura rolling her eyes at the affection. “Okay yeah-yeah-yeah. Great-kid out of ten. You still crashed the car.”

Luna turns her head towards the vampire in retaliation. “Hey-hey! I did not crash the car! It got here in one piece!”

Another massive crunch pushes the car closer to the ground as another tire slides out from under the vehicle, rolling into the snow a few feet. Luna watches this and runs a hand over the side of her face.

“...Okay, multiple pieces. Still in close proximity. But I didn’t hit anything!”

Sakura crosses her arms underneath her head. “True, but this car isn’t moving without a whole lot of help. So in my book…”

Luna interjects quickly. “Half-crashed. Not completely crashed. Besides, it’s my first time. What were you expecting me to be?"

Sakura grins and playfully punches Luna in the shoulder. “Fine, fine, fine Speed Racer. I’ll just count this one as a half crash then.”

Miguel slides his gun back into his holster and brushes some of the glass off onto the floor, spreading out a little bit and getting comfortable. “Everyone okay? Nobody got hurt in that, right?”

Luna shakes her head with Sakura thumbing one of her cheekbones.

“My pride a little bit. I didn’t think she was THAT good at hand to hand.” Sakura says lowly, rubbing her shoulder.

Miguel snickers. “Okay, nothing I have to worry about trying to fix at least. Not that I have any tools or anything out here.”

Luna speaks up next. “...What’s about the car?”

“What about it?” Miguel responds.

“Well, we kinda stole it and got it wrecked and-”

Sakura chortles. “HAH!”

Luna rolls her eyes.“-HALF wrecked, and now we’re kind of stuck out here. Where are we anyway?”

Miguel looks over towards the gas station and shrugs a little bit. “...Quite a while out of town at least. Your point?”

“My point is…” Luna says, sounding a little more distressed. “...that was all illegal, and somebody is likely going to report the car missing and a bunch of stuff. Shouldn’t we like, ditch it or something?”

Miguel speaks matter-of-factly. “Luna...let’s look at this for a moment. Some crazy vampire bitch- no offense...”

“I am what I am.” Sakura says proudly.

Miguel continues. “...just set my brand damn new apartment on fire, along with the entire building full of people, chased us down with crazy fireballs, nuked at least one cop car, and nearly nuked a bridge just to get us. Considering the alternative was burn to death, burn to death or burn to death, I think we’re fine. They’ve probably got an alert going sure, but they aren’t going to find us out here. There’s a good chance that the person who owns this car died tonight.”

Miguel stretches his feet through the center gap between the two front seats. “And if they didn’t, they’ve probably got bigger problems. Like having all their shit burn down.”

Luna considers this, crossing her arms over herself. It might be justifiable. It wasn’t like she wanted to get tangled up in all of this and they were merely trying not to die. Still though, the sight of having a second home burn right in front of her was not one that was going to go away soon. Her thoughts slowly drift back to the Oswald home and the idea that maybe..just maybe...Percy and Mrs. Oswald got away. Or maybe they didn’t? The flames were plenty large that night, and the house visibly collapsed before she left it. Miguel speaking again forces her to return to the world at large before Luna’s brain could delve too deeply.

“And besides all of that, we’re sort of stranded out here like you said, so just relax, and breathe. We got out of that tough one and none of us got hurt. That’s enough for right now.”

Sakura stifles a yawn as she looks out of the car’s window, noting that the hues were getting bright and that sunset was imminent. She looks over towards Miguel and taps him with a foot. Miguel turns his attention to her.

“What?”

Sakura bites her lip for a moment before rubbing the back of her head. “Soooo...for what it’s worth, sorry about all of this.”

“...This?”

“You know...this. With Scar, with Vanille, with...me. But I kind of want to make it up to you.”

Miguel raises an eyebrow. “Continue.”

“...Well you know when I said that I didn’t know where Scar lived?”

Miguel leans forward a little bit, frowning at the vampire. “You lied.”

Sakura shakes her head profusely. “No-no-no-no!” She paused briefly, tapping her fingers on her lap while contemplating how to word her next sentence. “Kind of. I was truthful, in saying I don’t know where he sleeps. That’s kind of a big deal for a vampire and all of that but! I do know where he works.”

Miguel frowns at her. “Why in the hell didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Sakura shrugs towards him. “Three solid reasons, Mr. Policeguy. Reason one, you asked me the wrong question. Reason two is that you would have gone out there all willy-bombing-nilly and gotten yourself and Luna hurt. And you guys would have went when I was still injured, so I wouldn’t have been able to back you up. And reason number three is that an assassin never reveals all of her tools. You’d be surprised how many times just having something up your sleeve can save your life.”

Luna watches Miguel as he appears to want to get mad at her, his body tensing up as he prepared to talk...but eventually accepts it, leaning back against the seat. “Goddamnit. Fine. You win. So where is he?”

Sakura yawns again and shakes her head. “I’ll tell you what. It’s late and that sun is about to rise. So here’s how this happens. Keep me safe today and when I wake up, we can figure out how to get back in town and make him pay. You think that place is safe?” She jerks a thumb towards the boarded up windows of the gas station.

Miguel shakes his head. “Uh….that place has probably been closed for decades. It probably reeks and if anything food wise is still in there...well...let’s just say it’s probably got some vermin problems.”

Sakura visibly tightens and cringes. “Ugh. How about not? But I need some place that isn’t in the sun and we’re running out of options here.”

Luna turns in her seat to face Sakura. “How about the trunk? You are pretty small so you might...fit? Maybe?”

Sakura runs a hand over her chin, nodding. “Yeah, that could work I guess. Dark enough. Just make sure to not open it at all until nightfall...and first thing’s first. When I get up, I have GOT to get me something to eat. I am starving…”

The vampire gets up out of the car and gestures for the werewolf to follow. Luna slides out of the vehicle, stretching her legs though wincing slightly at her bare feet hitting the snow. When the two girls make it to the back of the car, they find it to be suitably mashed together.. The repeated rammings from the SUV broke all of the turning lights and dented the trunk severely. Still though, no metal appeared to be smashed into the trunk in a way that made it unusable, luckily enough.

“Hey Mr. Morales! Pop the trunk!”

Miguel begrudgingly moves, pulling himself out of the car and sliding into the front seat. After an appropriate *TUNK*, the trunk pops open slowly. It wasn’t flowing as smoothly as it probably once had, but the trunk door still moved properly. The inside of it looked to be quite barren. There didn’t seem to be much of anything in there, minus a spare tire, an empty gas tank, and an old wool blanket. Sakura grumbles sarcastically.

“Comfortable.”

Luna turns to her. “Is this going to work for you?”

Sakura starts to climb into the trunk, it being just large enough for her to curl into without hitting either end of the space. “Yeah. It’s nice and dark and soft, and I guess I could use the tire as a pillow or something.”

Luna spots the blanket and points towards it. “What about that?”

Sakura reaches behind herself and grabs the blanket and regards it fondly for a moment before holding it out towards the werewolf. “Here. Give it to Miguel. He’ll get cold up there.”

Luna nods and takes it, slinging it over an arm. “Yeah...that’s a good idea. The last thing we need to happen is him catching a cold.”

“So, do me a favor?” Sakura says, pointing towards the door. “Close this thing down tight for me, will you?”

Luna nods and grabs the trunk door, resting her hands upon it. “Sure. Uhm…Thanks for saving us back there with the windy thing.”

Sakura turns around, waving the werewolf away. “Uh huh. Anytime. See you tonight.”

Left without much else to say, Luna slams the trunk closed, walking around to get into the backseat. Now out of the snow, the werewolf sweeps off the rest of the shattered windshield glass off of the seat and sits down, pushing the blanket up to Miguel. Once more, he had another far away expression on his face, though he grabs the presented cover and wraps it around himself, guarding against the cold.

“Thanks kid. You sure you don’t need it?”

Luna shakes her head. Nah. I’ve got my hoodie and fur. And before you ask, Sakura’s going to be fine in the trunk. You need it the most right now.”

Miguel starts to complain but shakes his head, muttering something so low under his breath that the werewolf could only barely make it out.

“Damnit...kids taking care of me now.”

“What was that?”

Miguel dismissively shakes his head. “Nothing.”

Luna anxiously taps her fingers against one another. “So...what do we do now?”

“Hopefully? Get some sleep. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Are you hungry at all?”

Luna runs a hand over her stomach. “...Uhm...yeah. You didn’t have any food in the kitchen. That’s why me and Sakura came in and...that happened.”

Miguel sighs. “Sorry about that. It’s...I’ve been...very focused on all of this, that’s all. When we wake up, we’ll handle the food issue. Sound good to you kiddo?”

“Sure.” Luna replied contentedly.

“Excellent. Goodnight Luna.”

“Uhm...goodnight.”

Miguel reclines the seat, laying down completely. Luna slides herself to lay on her back, not particularly minding the quiet wind that blew in. The sun finally peeks over the top of the picturesque mountains and floods the coastal area with a brilliant orange light, signaling the start of a brand new day. The relative peace gave Luna time to think, but to be honest, her brain was still putting together the night’s events.

One the one hand, the general sadness of knowing that some people died this evening because of something she had a part in weighed heavily on her. It felt pointless. A loss of life that could have been avoided. On the other hand, these were bad people. Not even people. They were vampires. And Vanille showed that she didn’t give a damn how many innocent people she had to hurt to get to them. And who knew how long they’d been at this? Were there other building fires that could be attributed to her handiwork? She didn’t read local news often, but it seemed like there were fires often featured in them.

Miguel’s light snoring soon interrupted her inner thoughts, the half-metal man sleeping on his side, only his head and metallic arm coming to rest above the blanket. Luna smiles at him when she sees it and slowly drifts off to sleep herself, the sun already cresting the mountains. She curls up into the fetal position and pulls her tail in close, hugging herself to help keep some warmth.

As she slumbered, Luna’s mind wanders, eventually finding herself back on that island she had found herself on a week or two ago. She awakens face down in the familiar translucent sand and stands up, looking around quickly. The small forest on the island appeared to be completely intact, along with the flowing purple beacon that rose into the skies. There were a few changes however. The last time she was here, the sky was clear, beautifully but oddly so. Now, there were so many stars in the sky that she couldn’t even begin to count them. A few of them twinkled every now and again, but they were overwhelmingly pretty to look at.

Recalling what happened last time, the werewolf runs a hand over her chest and looks down; the hole from the stag appeared to be gone, with no trace of it ever having been there. She scans the small thicket of trees ahead of her, but there didn’t seem to be any sign of the stag, which made sense. The other forest she was in before was different from this one. At ease now, Luna makes her way towards one of the trees and leans against it, watching the innumerable stars for what felt like weeks. Unlike the previous two she knew, this place really felt like home, and no fire could take that away.

A car door slamming catches startles Luna awake almost instantly, forcing her back to reality. She opens her eyes and takes a moment to clear them with the back of her hand. It was cold still, but twilight was upon her judging by the light purple haze of the sky. A quick glance around the car's cabin disproved the theory that Miguel had been the source of the car door closing, as he was in the same spot she left him in, fast asleep.

Luna stretches out with a minor yawn before turning on her stomach and leaning her head up to peek into the window. Flashing red and blue lights catch her attention first, as a police car had pulled up onto the road just outside of the abandoned gas station and a policeman looked to be talking inside of his car while rummaging around the glove compartment. Luna’s ears shoot up in alarm.

“Mr. Morales!” Luna whispers, elbowing his seat a few times. Miguel didn’t move.

“C’mon! C’mon! Mr. Morales, wake up!” Luna whispers a little louder, reaching forward to shake his seat. Miguel jostles around violently, but he remains peacefully snoring as he had earlier. Luna peeks up into the window. The police officer stepped out of his car and starts to click on his flashlight, trudging through the snow towards the totaled car. The officer looked to be a fairly average pale-skinned, middle-aged man, with short black hair and a thin frame.

Running out of polite ideas to wake up Miguel, the werewolf stumbles across a new, insidious one. She leans over and places her nose snugly on his forehead. It took a few seconds, but Miguel wakes up with a jolt, pulling back from Luna’s head and looking both confused and annoyed. Before Miguel could speak, Luna holds up a finger in front of her muzzle and points outside. The cone of light from the officer breaches into the dark interior of their vehicle.

Miguel sleepily looks up towards the approaching police officer and winces, running his metallic hand through his hair. He speaks out of the side of his mouth.

“Of course the one damn time they are thorough, it’s gotta involve me. Get down on the ground and do not move. Act dead. Let me handle this.”

Luna nods and follows his suggestion, sliding down onto the floor and lying face down. She draws her hoodie up over her head and draws her fingers into her sleeves. She couldn’t do much about her feet or her tail so this would have to suffice.

Upon seeing Miguel lean up into view, the police officer stops immediately and speaks with authority. “Sir...step out of your vehicle. Now.”

Miguel complies, stepping outside and tossing off his blanket back. “Yes, sir.”

The officer looks over the wreckage of the car and then back to Miguel’s unassuming face with deep suspicion. “You mind telling me what you are doing out on a closed road tonight with a car that looks like it’s been through hell and back?”

Miguel peers down at the nametag on the man in the dimming light. It read ‘Styles.' Miguel speaks plainly. “I got into a car accident a little while ago. Messed up my phone and I wanted to get off the highway, so I drove down here. Must have missed the closed road sign, sorry.”

The officer raises his brow towards the story. “Did you report the accident?”

Miguel shakes his head.

The officer still doesn’t look convinced as he speaks again. “I see. License and Registration please.”

Miguel hisses in social pain. “I don’t have it officer. I...left it at home.”

Styles frowns at Miguel and rests his hands over the handcuffs jingling at the side of his hip. “So you are telling me you got into your car, without your license or registration, got into a car accident, didn’t report it, and then drove all the way out here? What? Do you think I was born yesterday? Hands on the car, wise guy.”

Miguel turns and places his hands over the top of the car, and as he does, Styles shines the light inside of the car, seeing all the busted glass and the odd figure laying on the floor of the backseat.

Styles eyes go wide as he sees this, pointing towards the back seat. “What..is that...is that a dead body?” The officer’s hands go to his handheld radio, threatening to speak into it. Miguel talks first.

“It’s an Android. You know, like the ones for advertisements and stuff? It slid into the backseat during the crash. Check it out if you want.”

Styles frowns again, reaching over to pat Miguel’s legs. The officer stops as soon as he reaches Miguel’s pockets, giving them a proper squeeze. Finding Miguel’s cell phone, he pulls it out of his pocket and inspects it. Despite all the action earlier, it looked quite pristine.

“And here I thought you had a broken cell phone. Hands behind your back, jackass.” Miguel sighs as he does just that and before long, a shiny pair of handcuffs go over his wrists. Satisfied with his police work, Styles turns back to the car and peers inside of it. Luna lays as still as she possibly can as the officer looks in, knowing the head was on and the likely freak out if he figured out what she was. Styles opens the car door and reaches down carefully to pull back the hoodie, inspecting Luna’s hair and her ears with a probing finger.

“Fur? Lifelike too. Fancy stuff you got here.” Styles says, reaching over to force Luna turn over. Miguel speaks up again quickly.

“Y-yeah. It’s a newer model, you know. Expensive? But it’s broken so don’t move it.”

Styles spends another moment looking at the werewolf before closing the door a mere inch or two away from Luna’s head, causing her wince subtly. Styles grows increasingly apprehensive as he moves up to the front and pops the trunk latch underneath the driver’s wheel. He steps around to the back and lifts the trunk door, shining his light down inside.

“And let’s see what we have inside of door number two here…”

He double takes as he sees Sakura curled up against a tire, asleep. Styles reaches over in earnest, grabbing the vampire by the shoulder and shaking her vigorously to wake her up. Sakura yawns slowly as her eyes open, looking back up towards the officer.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! Are you hurt!?”

Sakura looks at the officer and smiles wide, her fangs jutting out from her lips.

“Oh, I’m feeling much better now.”

Just before Styles could figure out what that meant, Sakura rips him violently into the trunk. The whole car bustles and shakes with struggle, with the officer calling for help several times before the jostling stops..and the man going silent. Luna snaps herself back up and opens the car door, spilling out onto the snow. Miguel leans up from the car and walks carefully, stepping over Luna and peeks in at what was going on.

Luna pulls herself up and opens the trunk up to see Sakura’s fangs buried deep into the policeman’s neck, drinking from him. Styles looked unresponsive, a new bruise forming on the side of his forehead. Her eyes shift over towards her concerned friends and the vampire finally relents, rolling her eyes.

“What!? I told you I was hungry! You think I’mma just look free food in the face and not sink my teeth into him?”

If it were at all anatomically possible, the color would drain from Luna’s face at the look of shock at just how much blood is flowing from the officer. Miguel looks similarly alarmed but sighs at her.

“Just...get the keys off of him and do your thing. Don’t kill him though.”

Sakura checks Styles’ waist and grabs his keyring, unclasping it and tossing it towards Miguel who utterly fails to catch it. Miguel’s eyebrows raise as he steps from around the frame, his arms still bound behind his back.

“Really?”

Sakura chortles as she leans back into her meal, continuing to drain him without saying a word. Luna scoops up the keys out of the snow and walks around Miguel, showing the keyring.

“Which one is it?”

Miguel looks between the dozen or so keys and tilts his head towards the odd-looking stick tool. “That one. Shove it in the hole on the side and it’ll pop open.”

Luna reaches around, taking the tool and working with it as told. It takes a little bit of searching in the dim light of the night, but she frees him, Miguel pulling his arms back around in front of himself.

Luna smiles as she’s successful, moving around to the side of the car and eager to not watch Sakura feed. Her stomach grumbles most distressingly.

Miguel pats his pockets a few times and snorts in aggravation. “God, what I wouldn’t give for some smokes right now.”

Luna holds a hand over her stomach as her ears lower against her head. “I’m still starving...I hope we find something soon.”

Sakura bursts from the trunk just then, looking completely rejuvenated. She takes a deep breath of the cold winter air and exhales, leaning over to lean on the car along with the others. She takes out a napkin from a pocket and dabs it over her mouth, rubbing away the excess blood on her lips.

“So...nnth..so tasty. What if I were to tell you that I can solve that problem right now?”

Miguel looks over towards her incredulously. “Friggen...how would you do that?”

Sakura produces one expertly plain black wallet with a wink. “So...officer guy had a wallet on him. And it’s got some money in it.”

Luna facepalms. “Jeez Sakura, you can’t just go stealing money from police officers! That’s like...well is there such thing as super stealing or something?”

Sakura waves the werewolf off dismissively. “Details, shmee-tails. Look. You are hungry. And I don’t know much about your type, but I’m sure you get angry when you get hungry. And nobody likes angry werewolves. I bet Mr. Morales is hungry too. We’re not going to go into a fight without getting something to eat. Fighting on an empty stomach is a defeat waiting to happen. And I’m willing to bet that, just as a hunch, you two didn’t really get the chance to pack a twenty in your purses. So...convenient dinner solution for me becomes convenient dinner solution for everyone.”

Miguel begrudgingly slumps his shoulders, shaking his head. “I don’t like it but... I guess. Fine. Just make sure you give back the rest of his wallet. Got it? We’re taking just enough to get out of this spot.”

Sakura glances at Miguel, peering closely at him. Miguel returns her gaze with a glare, looking between the wallet and the vampire. After a few moments of tense negotiation, Sakura rolls her eyes and reaches inside of her pocket, pulling out no less than three credit cards and shoving them back in the wallet. She pulls out two twenty dollar bills and slides them over towards Miguel.

“Here. Forty bucks. Everything is back where it needs to be.”

Miguel takes it and shoves it into his pocket. “How’s your...dinner guest?”

“Oh, you know. Quiet. The real shy type. He’ll be good to go in like...oh...a few days. He was very generous but, I remembered what you said about my diet. I AM going to need a second meal before we go in tonight. If I have to pull any tricks like I did yesterday, I’m going to run out of juice pretty quick.”

Miguel snorts. “Fine. But we’re taking him with us. Nobody will find him out here. Dump him off in town so he can be taken care of.”

Luna looks over towards the city of Ravenport in the distance. She’d never been out this far from town before. In fact, she’d never left town. It felt strange to be so far away, yet still close enough to make out every skyscraper that made up Ravenport’s skyline, even the Astro Spark tower. The city is a veritable hive of activity even at this hour, with the skyway traffic flying high over the top of the skyscrapers.

“So how are we going to get back to town?” Luna says, looking over towards the other two. Miguel shrugs sheepishly.

“Walking I guess?”

Sakura turns towards the empty police cruiser and beams happily. “And look at that, my dinner date brought us a ride! He’s so considerate, isn’t he?”

Luna practically withers, shaking her head profusely. “No-no-no-no! No! That is a stupid, stupid, stupid idea! What if someone catches us or worse, sees me and-”

Miguel leans up off of the car and shrugs. “I mean...we’re already criminals at this point. It’s not like we’re doing this because we want to.”

Sakura pouts. “Well, I want to!”

“Well, some of us want to. We’ll ditch it when we get into town and leave slumber man in there. Besides,” Miguel gloomily shuffles towards the car, jamming his hands into his pockets. “I’m tired of being cold.”