Chapter 5

Early the next morning, she checked out and put her new suitcase in her car and drove away. She got on the coast highway and started poking her nose into all the little towns that she passed. They were lovely, quaint and touristy but none of them had what she was looking for, so she kept going. Another two days up the coast highway and she had to swing out from the coast, something about a rockslide detour. It was getting late anyway, and she should probably stop for the night.

But there was nothing around, just huge coastal redwoods that seemed to stretch into forever. She kept going, she'd just filled her tank and this detour couldn't last forever. The sun was completely down when the edge of her headlights caught the reflective part of a green sign, the kind that announced a town. It was completely overgrown by some sort of vine, which was totally weird considering that the only foliage she'd seen today were the massive trees and the ferns that grew under them.

Siana parked her car at the side of the road and walked to the sign, brushing the vines away to read what it said. The sign read Winter Haven and something about the words was simultaneously repelling and drew her onward. It was late and she was tired so she'd go visit Winter Haven and maybe they would have what she was looking for. And a bed, she could really use a bed.

The wind picked up, carrying redwood needles and the smell of lightning and rain. Siana hurried back to her car as the first drops fell, big fat raindrops that stained the highway a darker shade of black. She drove into the thickening dark as the black clouds rolled in. In the direction of Winter Haven and was suddenly pummeled with wind and rain and lightning arching across the clouds in a multi forked electrical dance.

Then a bolt cracked down and half of one of the massive redwood trees came crashing towards her car. She sped up, but the trunk of the tree clipped the back of her car hard enough to almost spin her out on the rain drenched road. Siana pulled to a stop at the side of the road to take several deep shaky breaths. That was really freaky, almost like the forest was coming for her but that was ridiculous. She wasn't anywhere important enough that she was going to have a forest after her, and forests didn't go after people, that implied a degree of sentience that tees just didn't have. That was ridiculous, she was being ridiculous.

She drove forward again. Going as slow as humanly possible because her windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the amount of rain coming from the sky. They just sloshed the water around until it was almost better to turn them off and creep forward without them. The lightning cracked again, almost simultaneously with the thunder that vibrated her car The whole vehicle jumped, wheels leaving the ground before the engine spluttered and died. Had her car just been struck by lightning? Ok, whoever was in charge of this stretch of road clearly didn't want her getting to Winter Haven, but unluckily for them she was just about done with the universe doing things to her.

She was going to Winter Haven, and it didn't matter that the universe was conspiring against her. She was tired of being controlled. She wasn't going to listen to whatever force was trying to keep her from going. Siana tried to turn the engine of her car over and wasn't surprised that nothing happened. The lightning had probably fried the circuits or something.

Siana got out of the car and started walking, lashed by rain. Was this the brightest idea? Not in the slightest, but she seemed to be doing unwise things today. Strangely enough, as soon as she left the car, the rain and the lightning started to slack off. The lightning faded to distant rumbles and the rain was no longer a dark driving force that blotted out everything around her. As the rain slacked, she started being able to make things out along the sides of the road. The verge of the road was thick with the vines that had obscured the sign, they crossed into the road like snakes and wound across it like no one had driven this way in forever.

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw a wisp like figure pacing her through the trees as she walked through what had become a light, though soaking drizzle. When she turned her head, there was nothing there. Which she should have been expecting. Of course, there was nothing there, but there was something about this forest. She felt like she was being watched. Well, if she was going to be watched, then she was going to make a respectable first impression.

Siana tucked her short hair behind her ears, straightened her back, and kept walking on through the dark and the rain. At least it wasn't cold, the air was cool, and it smelled of salt, but it wasn't cold. Eventually there were lights in the distance, then closer, then she was on the outskirts of a medium size town. The houses were all Victorian, all painted a different bright color, and they were all brightly lit.

It looked cheery but made Siana feel incredibly lonely and sad. Everyone in this town had warmth, somewhere to go and belong, she didn't even belong in this town. The universe had tried everything right up to trying to kill her with a tree to keep her out. She hadn't listened and maybe she should have but there was no going back now. She was here and her car was out of commission until she could get it taken somewhere to be looked at.