Upon our first stop, just a few hours short of the campgrounds, nearing the evening hours, we decided to fill up the tank with gas. Will and I stood outside by the pump to stretch our legs while Jo and Minnie sat in the front two seats. Jo had the driver’s side window rolled down, while Minnie had headphones on and a map unfolded in her lap as she twirled a pencil, occasionally marking something, but other times sticking it through the bun at the back of her head while she traced lines with her fingers.

Lynn and Jane went in the building for the bathroom and snacks.

“This is crazy. You guys know that, right?” Will asked us, his eye on the scrolling numbers for the gas and the bill.

Jo leaned out the window, nodding.

“Oh, for sure. This is stupid crazy.”

I looked between them silently for a moment. I had my own thoughts about this trip. It may have been bad to worry about unrelated things… but most of my focus remained on Jane. I wasn’t sure I liked her coming with. Of course, there was no stopping her once she made up her mind, but I knew how much progress she’d been making. I knew how hard it was going to be if this made her take a step back in her healing and mental recovery. She’d been getting better, so much better.

There were things she hadn’t told me yet. It wasn’t a secret to me. I couldn’t read her mind and I wasn’t going to push her to unlock things she wasn’t ready to open. I knew she’d been speaking with Noah over text, talking about things that happened on that beach, with those people, but she never brought any of it up.

It was fine, but I was hoping this trip wouldn’t break open those slowly healing wounds. Even if she acted as though she was fine most days, she still had nightmares, she still had moments where she would freak out about things on her hands. There was once that we were walking through the trees and something made a noise off to the side and she was immediately down on the dirt, shaking.

If she was ready to try and brave this, I wouldn’t stop her. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her be alone if anything did go wrong.

Minnie made a noise, drawing our attention to her as she poked the paper with a finger.

“There. It’s got to be there.”

“Minnie?”

She turned her head toward us and pulled the headphones off, letting them hang around the back of her neck.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Are you good?”

She stared at each of us, not blinking, for several long moments. Then she grinned.

“I’m good!” came out of her mouth just a little too cheerfully. She cleared her throat and toned the energy down before she fiddled with the map in her hands. She turned it toward us. “I found the location of the cave.”

The other two nodded while examining the terrain on the map. My gaze drifted to the top corner, only to freeze. That was…

As I opened my mouth to ask her where she’d managed to get that particular map, a man ran out of the convenience store, the door slamming against the wall. He looked back as he fled, a bag in his hand.

“What’s his – oh…”

We all caught of whiff of him at the same time. Considering his pants were dry, it was clear the pee had dried. But that smell. It was urine. And it wasn’t a good thing to our noses.

He raced toward a vehicle, wearing a backpack flipped around to the front.

“Them Vamps, they’re after me!” he yelled. “I seen what I shouldn’t have! Forgive me! I don’t want to die!”

Not even thirty seconds later, the tires on his vehicle screeched horribly as he sped out of the parking lot.

We stared in silent contemplation for a while.

“Well, he doesn’t take care of his vehicle very well, does he?” Jo commented dryly.

“What the heck is a Vamp?”

It wasn’t just me. Minnie made a face and then shook her head, putting her headphones back on and cranking up the volume enough for it to be heard. Jo blinked blankly for a moment. I met her eyes.

“What?” she finally uttered.

I winced, even having to clarify it for him, it made me feel weird. “It’s vampires, man.”

Jo and I both looked at Will in utter disappointment.

He didn’t know the slang for vampires?

His gaze flipped between us both, his eyes slightly wider, silently asking if we were serious.

“Oh, Will. Get it together.” Jo shook her head before smacking a palm to her forehead.

“What?” He put his hand on his hips, his brows furrowing. “It’s not like they exist in reality.”

“Yeah, and ordinary humans don’t think we exist either.” Jo snapped back at him quickly. “We’re practically as mythical as centaurs and dragons and chimeras.”

She wasn’t wrong. Just because we blended in with regular humans, it didn’t make us the same as them. But we weren’t strange to our own eyes. We felt like we were people too.

“But those are like cool mythical beings.” Will shrugged. “Vampires – don’t they have like garlic and sunlight problems?”

“And mirrors,” I added as an afterthought.

“Right. Mirrors. And you have to stake them in the heart to kill them, I think.”

So he knew all this lore and he didn’t know the alternate names for vampires? But he got me thinking about all the shows I’d seen, all the stories I’d read. Mythological creatures were totally cool on paper. I’d hate to meet them in reality, but they were pretty awesome nonetheless.

“Yeah. A chimera would be so much cooler.”

“Totally. Shape shifting for the win, fangs for the lose.”

I high-fived Will as the pump shut off.

Jo sighed heavily and started to roll up the window, muttering, “Oh, boys. You didn’t need to go that far.”

Will and I laughed.