Abigail

I squeezed my eyes shut. Annette’s hand found mine and I grabbed it so hard I felt her knuckles grind together.

The roar of the trailer filled my ears covering everything around us. The ground vibrated under the car, the headlights bled through the windshield and just when I was sure the trailer would hit us, nothing happened.

The roar reduced to a deep, growling rumble just outside the car window. My heart was hammered so hard against my ribs I could feel it in my throat and forehead.

My fingers locked tighter around Annette’s hand, every muscle in my body tensed with fear.

Slowly, I opened my eyes.

The trailer that almost hit us, sat inches from the driver’s side door.

Mere fucking inches.

It was so close to our car that I could see the rust and grime along the bottom panel of the trailer.

The window of the trailer on the driver’s side rolled down and a man peeked out, his face half hidden under a black cap. All I could see was a shit-eating grin on his face as if almost hitting us with a freaking trailer was a joke.

Annette wheezed next to me, her free hand flying to her mouth. "Oh my God. Oh my God we’re alive!"

"Abigail Kellerman." The jackass in the trailer called, pointing a gun finger at me. "This is your final warning. Live your life and let sleeping dogs lie."

"It would be a waste to kill you, honey. This is the last and final warning you’ll be getting. Keep sticking your nose in our business, and it won’t be pretty."

The window rolled back up and the trailer pulled away. Annette screamed, grabbing something from the dashboard and hurling it at the retreating trailer.

"You absolute BASTARDS!" she screamed through the windscreen. "YOU COWARDS. COME BACK HERE AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE,"

"Annie." My voice sounded strange even to me. Hell, it felt like I had floated out of my body and was watching the whole thing play out in horror.

We almost died!

Breathing heavily, Annette turned to look at me.

Then we grabbed each other at the same time, her arms wrapping around me and mine around her. Her face pressed into my shoulder and mine buried in the crook of her neck.

Her whole body was trembling with raw, dazing fear. Mine was too, I realized. A full body tremor ran through both of us.

"We almost died," I forced out, blood rushing loudly through my ears.

"We’re okay," she whispered against my shoulder.

We stayed like that a few minutes, my head replaying the trailer barrelling towards us over and over.

Annette pulled back first, wiping her face roughly with the back of her hand.

"Let’s get out of here," Her fingers trembled as she turned on the ignition.

We didn’t say a word on the drive back home. I watched the streets move past the window, stunned to my bones.

This was different from Gavin stalking Anette or trying to choke me at the fucking bathroom. At least I could do something about those things.

I couldn’t do shit when that trailer approached us. Annie would have died because of me I could have died.

We rushed into our apartment and immediately huddled in the bedroom, holding each other with shaky hands. Then the numbness and shock wore off slowly

"Who the actual fuck," I whispered softly, "do they think they are?"

The shock rapidly turned to anger and I repeated louder to the room. "Who the fuck do they think they are?"

"I know right!" Annette hissed. "Girl, we almost died today."

"I know." I murmured. "I’m so sorry, Annie."

"So maybe." She turned her head to look at me as she lay down on the pillow. "Yeah, we will have to stop going at this head-on"

"You’re right..." I trailed off when I saw a smug look on her face.

"Why do you have that look?"

A sly, mischievous smile coated my bestfriend’s face and she cracked her knuckles in glee. Annette was up to something.

"Go on. Ask me what I did."

I tilted my head to look at her properly, crosse my arms over my chest and questioned her. "What did you do?"

"I may or may not have thrown my phone at the trailer as the shit-bag drove away. You know how my phone has a tracker on it?"

"No way," I whispered in awe and she shrugged.

"We can find out exactly where that trailer goes."

I sat up and grabbed her face in both hands, kissing her hard on the cheek.

"You genius." I pulled back. "You freaking genius."

"I know," she grinned. "We have to be careful though. Like, so careful we’re almost boring. The police is a no go apparently."

"Yeah," My head tipped in a nod.

"Yes." I meant it. "We will act like it worked, like they scared us off. Whoever is watching us needs to think we’ve stopped."

"And then we find out where that trailer went," Annette said.

"And then we find out where that trailer went," I agreed.

She flopped back against the pillow, exhaling. "Oh thank God. Oh, thank the sweet Lord and all the saints. We didn’t die." She turned to look at me.

"Your birthday is in a few days,Abby. Can you imagine? Dying just before your birthday? Meemaw and Pawpaw would have been crushed to pieces,"

It felt like someone had grabbed my heart and squeezed at it until it exploded. Was this why they had refused to investigate? Did they threaten my grandparents like this?

I can’t imagine Meemaw and Pawpaw, who had already buried their child, who had rebuilt their whole lives and poured every single bit of their love into me, getting a call that I was dead.

This was real. I had to make sure it never happened again.

I had to be smarter.

I pulled the covers up higher. They could threaten me all they wanted, it would not change a single thing.

If they thought this was the end, then they were wrong. I was just getting started and I would uncover all their secrets.