Rain pounded against the car windows, blurring the world outside into streaks of silver and shadow. Amelia Karen pressed her forehead to the cold glass, watching headlights slash through the storm like fleeting ghosts.
She hated storms.
They always felt like warnings.
“Sweetheart,” her mother murmured from the front seat, twisting to smile at her, though her eyes didn’t quite reach it. “We’re almost home.”
Amelia forced a smile, but unease knotted her stomach. “I’m fine, Mom. Just tired.”
Her father chuckled, the deep warmth in his voice a fragile comfort against the storm. “You said that yesterday… and the day before. End-of-semester stress?”
“Maybe.” Amelia shrugged, but her mind churned.
Something felt wrong.
It had been wrong for weeks.
Her father’s company, Karen Group, was under pressure, competitors circling, reporters digging, board members whispering. He’d brushed it off, insisting she focus on school. But the more he told her not to worry, the heavier the pit in her stomach grew.
A crack of thunder made her jump. Her mother laughed gently. “Still afraid of storms at nineteen?”
“It’s not the storm,” Amelia whispered.
It was the way her father kept glancing at the rearview mirror.
The way her mother’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Then her father stiffened.
Amelia felt it immediately, his shoulders tense, knuckles whitening on the steering wheel. Her heartbeat stumbled.
“Dad?”
No answer.
A car behind them surged forward, headlights blazing too close, too deliberate.
Her mother’s confusion morphed into fear. “Henry said he’d call if anything changed. Why haven’t we heard from him?”
Henry?
Amelia’s throat went dry. Who was Henry?
The car behind them weaved violently, swerving left… then right… back into their lane. This wasn’t driving. This was hunting.
“Dad,” she whispered, voice trembling. “What’s happening?”
Her father’s eyes never left the road. “Amelia… no matter what happens, remember this: I love you. Your mother loves you. And you must…”
The pursuing car slammed into their rear bumper.
Amelia screamed as the world lurched violently, her body flung sideways. Her mother grabbed the dashboard; her father fought the wheel, knuckles white.
“Hold on!” he shouted.
Another impact. Harder.
Glass shattered. Metal screamed.
“Why… why are they doing this?” Amelia sobbed, gripping her seatbelt.
Her father didn’t answer. She saw the truth in his eyes:
He knew.
He knew exactly who was after them.
And he knew they wouldn’t stop.
The attacking car struck again, this time square on Amelia’s side. Pain shot through her shoulder; the seatbelt pressed into her ribs.
“James!” her mother cried. “They’ll kill us!”
“Not if I can help it,” her father’s voice broke.
He jerked the wheel sharply. The world tilted.
Headlights of an oncoming truck filled Amelia’s vision.
“Dad!”
A deafening crash swallowed her scream.
Metal crumpled. Glass exploded. The world spun, flipped…
And then, darkness.
Amelia’s body was thrown forward, pressed hard against the dashboard. Blood trickled down her temple. The taste of iron filled her mouth. Rain and glass sprayed into the car. Screams cut through the storm, her mother’s desperate voice mingling with her own terror.
Her father groaned, fighting the twisted metal, reaching for the seatbelt release. “Amelia!” he yelled. “Hold on!”
Her vision swam. Shadows merged with the storm. The smell of smoke and rain was suffocating. And then… a jolt of pain, sharp and explosive, as the car skidded across the slick asphalt. Amelia’s head struck the roof. Stars danced behind her eyelids.
The world seemed to stretch and slow. She heard a whisper, her father’s voice, steady and commanding despite the chaos. “I love you, Amelia. Whatever happens, stay strong.”
And then, silence.
The storm roared outside, but inside… nothing.
A soft, eerie drip of water was the first sound that broke the quiet. Amelia’s eyelids fluttered open. Everything hurt. Her shoulder throbbed. Her ribs burned. She tried to move but couldn’t. Panic clawed at her chest.
Her mother was barely conscious, crumpled against the shattered passenger seat. Blood streaked across her cheek. “Amelia…” her mother’s whisper trembled with fear and love.
Her father was still trying to stabilize the car, every muscle straining, every breath shallow. The storm had become a distant roar, replaced by the gnawing terror of realization: they weren’t safe. Not yet.
The pursuing car had vanished. Only the aftermath remained, the twisted metal, shattered glass, and the knowledge that someone had tried to kill them.
Amelia pressed her hand to her chest, heart racing, mind spinning. Who would want to hurt her family? Why? And… why had her father said Henry?
Questions twisted in her head as fear curled around her like a living thing. Her body trembled uncontrollably. She wanted to cry, scream, run, but there was nowhere to go. The storm outside had become a mirror of the chaos within.
Her father’s hand brushed hers. Gentle. Warm. “Stay with me,” he murmured. “We’ll get through this. I promise.”
Amelia clung to him, to the one thread of stability she had left in a world gone violently wrong. The night stretched on endlessly. Every distant roar of thunder made her flinch, every flicker of lightning etched shadows on the broken car interior.
She understood then what her father hadn’t said aloud. They had been hunted. They had been targeted. And the moment had arrived their lives, the future of the Karen family, was about to be ripped apart forever.
And just as she closed her eyes, bracing for the pain and the dark unknown.
A sudden, sharp screech of metal on metal cut through the night. Someone, or something, was coming back.
Amelia’s breath caught. Her heart thudded like a drum. And in that heartbeat, she knew with bone, deep certainty, this storm… this night, would change everything.
Everything.
