Love That Never Fail

n the other cars on this road, almost like it wasn't in the same hurry as everyone else – or like it was looking for a stray hitch hiker. O

. He just wanted to give me a little scare, then he'd come back and get me. I walked around the store for a while, then went outside to wait, and then I came back inside to get out of the rain. After three hours, the store clerk was terrified I was there to rob her. She was giving me a look that said, Get out or I'm calling the

teeth were chattering by then, and what had started out as a slow drizzle had formed into a full-blown lightning sto

rom where I had grown up, and then I realized, I'd been in this forest before. It had been what, five years? I actually had to

u: how if you got three steps ahead of each other, it was hard to make out the other person in the dense foliage. The sun set early behind the tree tops, and I think that most of all, he enjoyed the peaceful thunder of birds' choruses and crickets' chirpings. I enjoyed none of those things. And I was the most creeped out when I could hear the thick leaves rustling to my left and

thday, I offered my dad no explanation why. I could tell he was hurt,

his the Hallowed Forest, and it still terrified me. You couldn't see more than two trees deep into the expanse, but it felt like there was a presence following you;

lling me. I'd had a shallow voice my whole life. Not like a girl's high-pitched waiver; just softer

he long hours he worked. I rubbed my wrist, right where the scar was etched in my skin. It gnawed at me as if it was a reminder of that day: the day I had g

It was a feeling I hadn't been able to shake since I was 16. It stayed with me, omnipresent, even after I stopped going on the camping trips. And it even haunts me now as an adult who no longer lives in the suburbs with my parents. But even more so, since my father kicked

obs here and there, looking for money, and

the highway's shoulder. I could see nothing but its red tail lights and the silhouette of a man with long, dark hair sitting behind the wheel. He didn't step out of his truck, or even lo

enly, a long stab of lightning illuminated his harsh silhouette. I hoped that he hadn't noticed the

ason told me not to, but something drew me inside: a magnetism that I couldn't explain. The rain was coming down like a thunderous stampede

ide. I'm not sure, but I think I saw a sliver of a wicked smile across his lips. By

ing from the review mirror. The wood was carved into a wolf's head; its mouth pulled back in a terrifying snarl. That's the first time I got a decent look at him. He had long dark hair, salt and peppered, and a closely trimmed light beard. His skin was olive c

lace to give away any kind of preferences. His long sleeved shirt was red checkered flannel, at least it seemed to be in this lighting, and the sleeves were rolled up to just above his elbows, like a working man would do. I couldn't help but notice a few scars acro