Scorched to Ash Beneath the Blazing Sun novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Mile Six

We were in the truck in four minutes.

Brice drove with one hand and held the radio in the other, giving the dispatcher mile markers in a voice with no feeling in it.

I pulled my boots on in the passenger seat.

"Where is he going?" I asked.

"The monitor says the old trailhead. The Tayhollow loop."

"Why would he go there?"

"Because somebody told him it's where his fate is waiting," Brice said. "And he thinks if he walks it, he beats it."

I thought of Mr. Lyle in Rhonda's kitchen with his coat over his knee.

"His father told him."

"I'd bet my badge."

We hit the washboard road at sixty.

The thermometer on the dash said ninety-eight.

It was not yet nine.

At mile marker six we saw him.

He was a small figure in the middle of the road, a white hotel-room T-shirt dark with sweat, and he was walking in a straight line without looking left or right.

Brice braked hard and the truck slid in the gravel.

"Lance!" he shouted through the window.

Lance didn't turn.

His arms hung at his sides and his steps were too even.

Brice was out of the truck before it stopped rocking.

He ran, and I ran after him.

"Lance Lyle! Stop where you are!"

Lance took three more steps.

Then his knees gave out, and he went down on his face in the road.

By the time I reached them, Brice had already rolled him onto his back.

His skin was dry.

That was the terrible part.

His shirt was soaked, but his face was dry and red and hot, and his lips had gone the color of ash.

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend