20. Katrina

CHAPTER 20

KATRINA

EVERYTHING WAS TINGED IN GREEN.

T he light from the streetlights overhead, the lines painted on the road, and even the little halo around Santo’s head had an undeniable coloring. It was as if we were in a movie, and someone dunked the raw film into a vat of green dye. It should’ve been off-putting, but for some reason, the color relaxed me.

My vision was blurry as I looked around at the rickety old truck in which I was riding shotgun. It was nighttime, but the air outside was still warm and sticky from the rain that fell most of the day. My window was down, and I rested my head against the door, breathing in the familiar smells of wet foliage and stale cigarettes. Santos wasn’t a smoker, but his brothers all were, and this was the family car. I was oddly content, even though, on some level, I knew this would be the last time I rode in Santos’s truck. This might even be the last time I rode in any car. There was an unmistakably foreboding in the air I was breathing.

He hit a pothole, and the wheels jerked underneath us. It took him a second to right the truck, then he turned to look at me and apologized. “Sorry. It’s hard to see those in the dark.” He was speaking English, but his accent was still heavy.

I smiled. “Where are you taking me?”

“You said you wanted to leave, so I’m taking you wherever you want to go.”

“I don’t… I don’t know where I want to go.”

“Sure you do.” His face suddenly fell. He turned his head back to the road, but even from his profile, I could tell he was disappointed about something. “You want to go back to him.”

“Who?”

“The man you love.”

“But I don’t ? —”

He hit another pothole. This time, I gasped. I wasn’t expecting the truck to shudder so much, and for a moment, it felt like Santos and I were going to run completely off the road. Eventually, he got the vehicle back on track, and we continued on our way. The two of us fell silent for a while. After some time, I started to feel a needling sensation in my chest. I looked down, and there was a spot of blood on my shirt, right underneath my breasts. It was growing.

“Santos,” I said. “I think I’ve been shot.”

He nodded. “Yeah, sorry about that. My abuela didn’t mean to hit you with the curse. She wasn’t trying to curse anyone, actually, but these things are not an exact science. Still, I never should’ve taken you there. This is my fault. The bleeding should stop soon, but what comes next is far worse. I—I hate that I’ve done this to you. I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Don’t say that. You couldn’t have known. You just didn’t want me to be walking alone at night. You were doing the right thing.”

He smirked. “The good news is now you don’t have to be worried about that kind of thing. Walking alone at night is only something regular women need to be afraid of. You are no longer a regular woman, though, are you?”

“I suppose not… But I’m still afraid.”

“Of what?”

“So many things.” I laughed softly. “Too many things to count. I know I may put on this brave face and that I have this tough exterior, but really, I’m just as scared by life as everyone else. Even the wolf inside me is scared—like a puppy that’s lost its pack.”

Santos said nothing, and we drove the rest of the way in silence. When we got to our destination, it was the bus station. There was only one bus sitting in the lot, and nobody had boarded yet. Santos put the car in park, and I got out without saying goodbye. He waved from the driver’s seat, and when I glanced in his direction one last time, he looked older—as if the time that passed during our journey was years instead of minutes.

The bus driver was standing by the door, wearing matching blue pants and a shirt. He had a captain’s hat on like he was preparing to pilot a ship.

“Have a nice trip,” he said. “It might take a while, but you’ll get where you’re going eventually.”

The wound in my chest was gone, but it left behind an aching sensation that was now radiating throughout my entire body. I was on my way back to the man I love, just like Santos said. I could hardly contain my excitement. I jumped onto the bus and settled in the seat nearest the door so I wouldn’t have to waste any time getting off once we reached my destination. The bus driver got on after me, shut the door, and took a seat behind the wheel. He put the keys in the ignition and ? —

The ear-splitting sound of tires screeching ripped me out of my dream for a moment. My eyes didn’t even open, and the lids felt like they were made of iron. I couldn’t discern where I was or what was happening, but I was awake for a brief moment. I was conscious. I heard voices, but they were muffled, and the surface underneath me was rumbling. I tried to move, but there was too much working against me. A few seconds ticked by, but nothing else came back online, and before I could so much as scream, everything slipped away from me again, and I fell back into my dream.