Red Death 2

We were driving.
Kansas was pretty here. I had always liked looking at the scenery outside the window as we rushed past. I didn’t really care what it looked like but I loved watching things as we rushed by, the speed felt so good.
It was one of the reasons I loved to run.
Of course I wasn’t really seeing it now as we drove by, my mind on other matters.
I shuddered, not wanting to cry.
I hadn’t said a word in the last several hours as I dwelled on things I should never dwell on
I didn’t really know why I trusted this man as we drove, but I felt no fear even though what I had done was insane. I had gone with a man I didn’t know for no discernable reason besides the fact that he seemed to be able to read my mind or something.
Maybe he was a telepath?
If you are a telepath sorry for being so gloomy, it must be hard to hear something like this, but screw you I am going to dwell on it.
If he had heard me he showed no response and I went back to brooding.

It was night by now, it had been hours since it had happened, I was getting tired and I hadn’t spoken since I got in the van, neither had Michael.
I wondered what we would do when he got tired and couldn’t drive anymore, but it didn’t seem worth it to ask, I fell asleep in the seat.
When I woke up it was morning again and we were still driving. Had we stopped while I slept or had we never stopped at all?
I didn’t know, or really care much.
It was easier just to sit and brood.
Ten hours later I was pretty sure that whatever Michael was he didn’t need to stop for gas, and he probably didn’t need to sleep.
And I was finally starting to care that I hadn’t eaten in 24 hours.
I wondered if he would notice or not, this seemed like a good test of his telepathic powers.
15 minutes later I realized if he knew I was hungry he wasn’t going to say anything.
“I’m hungry.” I said.
“Then we shall eat.” He responded
I kept quiet as we pulled through a drive through and got two burgers, he also fed but I did doubt he actually needed to eat.
Unless he was just a guy who didn’t want to stop to eat?
Maybe we were in some kind of hurry?
But still that didn’t explain the lack of a need for gas.
To my surprise it turned out we did need gas, so either he was fooling me by driving in or we had gotten gas last night.
I went to the bathroom, and I wondered why I hadn’t done it earlier, I had never gone that long before.
I went back to brooding when we left the gas station.

We had traveled for days, making our way across the country in much the same way as before, mostly silent. Rarely eating and stopping for gas, somehow able to keep going on longer than we should have.
I was left to brood as I wished, Michael did almost nothing besides drive.
And I was slowly piecing myself back together, at least to realize what I had done was stupid beyond words.
I had left my little brother behind to go with a strange man because he had guessed what a young boy would name an old farming tool he found. I was stupid.
But still something strange was going on, I could feel it as we drove, there was simply nothing to justify my own behavior, but his was inexplicable.
Why would anyone fake knowing about a boy he never met and drive for thousands of miles without sexually assaulting him?
I just couldn’t explain what was going on, but I tried, brooding turned to worrying as we drove in silence and the days stretched on and on.