CHAPTER TEN

MISSING

Ruby drove faster than usual; everything seemed so out of place. She wished none of this ever happened; what she experienced was something that can make an average person insane.

She held the steering wheel tighter; all this would pass, very soon and, she'd be back to her everyday life again, she thought; a relief of hope ran through her body and calmed her down a little. It was nothing to fuss about, she said to herself.

Living on Alaska's outskirts, it took longer to get to the main city; she'd missed the first period, no doubt about that. The road was scanty, no cars, just hers, moving at high speed.

The trees on the side of the road were swaying from side to side, bowing down their heads. Ruby stared at the woods; something felt strange. She glanced at her rearview mirror; her heart almost came out of her mouth. She stepped on the brakes, immediately bringing the car to a full stop.

Her heart was beating very fast; she peeped at the rearview mirror again; there was nothing there. What was happening? Ruby knew she just saw something similar to the creature in the beyond. She peeped one more time to confirm; the road was empty, nothing, and nobody was there; as she turned to start her truck, she gasped.

Someone was standing right in front of her truck; he was as white as snow with a bald head, wearing an overall black jacket that reached his feet, looked at Ruby with his cold blooded eyes, and had no black or coloured pupils; his eyes were entirely white.

Ruby's heart started beating faster than before. Did she have a psychological disorder from her experience? Or she saw things; she bit herself hard, the pain ran down her spine, this is not a hallucination, she thought.

Another man with the same outfit as the first came out of the woods; he was outrightly identical to the first man standing in front of Ruby's truck, wore the same outfit, and had the same face also as white as snow.

They walked slowly to Ruby's truck because they had no pupils; Ruby didn't know if they were looking at her or not.

Without a rethink, she started the truck and sped off; she was so surprised when the truck passed through the body of the one in front of her truck, she had intended to knock him out. Who were these people, and why are they coming after her? Ruby thought as she drove at the highest speed her truck could go.

She stared at the review mirror; the two of them were gone without a trace; she sighed and concentrated on her driving.

Moments later, she saw someone standing in front of the road far away, as she got closer, Ruby was surprised to see the same man standing in front of the road, she didn't stop the car, since she could go through him, there was no need to stop.

She increased the truck's speed and made to zoom through the man's body; the white-skinned man stopped the car with his hands, damaging the entire front engine and the lights; he looked up at the frightened Ruby and smiled horribly.

Ruby was taken aback by shock; this would probably affect her mental health; all these new development were too much for her; she closed her eyes and began to scream. She was in the middle of an empty road in the outskirts of Alaska; nobody would hear her, she thought. She quickly took out her cell phone from her pocket and started typing in the Alaska police emergency line when she heard a voice behind her;

"Don't, or you'd be dead before they get here."

The voice was profound and rough; Ruby's heartbeat was now three times faster than before; she could shut down any moment; she knew that herself.

What was surprising was that these men's presence brought maximum fear than the presence of those creatures.

She could feel the darkness and bloodlust emanating from the one sitting in the back seat of her truck. She peeped into her front view mirror that showed who sat at the back; the man was smiling horribly.

The one outside that stopped her car was also there smiling horribly; Ruby summoned the courage to speak, with a shaky voice, she asked.

"Who... Who are you? And what do you want from me."

The man behind didn't say a word; he brought a pack of cigarettes from his innerpocket of his black leather jacket. He took one out of the box and put it in his mouth; he then placed his pinky on the mouth of the cigarette; a flame came out of his pinky and lit the cigarette. Ruby was dumbfounded as she stared into the front mirror in awe.

After puffing several rounds of smoke into the air, he spoke with his thick rough voice;

"Ruby Garfield, we need you; we won't hurt you if you cooperate, but if you resist, we may be forced to kill you."

Ruby felt adrenaline rush down her spine; her hands were trembling as she fought to hold them still. He knows her name, not even her name but her full name. This was starting to get real complicated; if it's got any worse, she will lose consciousness, and it won't be good at all.

"What do you want from me? I'm just a college student," Ruby clarified, trying to sound clearer than earlier.

"A normal college student doesn't go to the beyond fighting monsters Ruby; we're here to help you; we don't have much time to explain anything here; come with us, and we'll teach you everything you need to know about what has been happening in your life lately. You don't have a choice Ruby Garfield; if you resist, the answer is death" The man said the last word with a threatening tone as he puffed out smoke from his nostrils.

He knew about the beyond; it seems what Stokes was trying to say was right; there was more to the beyond than meets the eye.

One moment she was an ordinary college student, and the next, she's fighting monsters in her dream and real life.

"This isn't happening; wake up from your sleep RUBY!!!!"

Ruby yelled, hitting the steering wheel with her two hands.

The man outside in front of Ruby's truck finally spoke; he talked to the other one that was seated at the back of the truck.

"We don't have much time Grindle, I'm moving the vehicle too to erase traces," he yelled so the other could hear from the back of the truck.

He then put his two hands on the truck, in a second everything disappeared, him, the truck and two people in it all disappeared.

However, they were broken glasses and particles left on the road from the crash when he stopped Ruby's car earlier.

Stokes had taken his father's BMW and was driving at high speed; the speed limit was two times faster than Ruby's truck.

"Hang in there, Ruby, don't give in," he whispered.

TO BE CONTINUED....