Panora {#Watty2016}

Chapter 4: Pan and Sam

For some reason low hums and repetitive rocking lull the mind and body into a state of sleep. Mothers rock and sing softly to their babies. Fathers take their children on long drives instantly put them to sleep. Perhaps it's the security of monotonous ease, the definite knowledge of its continuance and stability that calms the body into a state of unawareness.

Even now on this very bus it threatened to drag everyone down into a dreamless sleep. The persistent hum of the bus, the blurry visions of land that passed as the bus moved along. Many had already fallen for the false security and were snoring away. But as said before Pan is no ordinary person. She was wide awake. Not by choice really, or even because she was supposedly on the run she knew that the reptile would never find her where she was going so she could rest easy, so that wasn't it.

No, it was the woman with the child who sat across from her, she wouldn't stop staring. Every time Pan turned to look at the woman, she would hold Pan's gaze with a mixture of warmth, happiness, and approval in her eyes. What she approved of Pan did not know, she wasn't getting any evil vibes from her, quite the opposite. Pan stared at her with hidden wonder for the woman was the picture of an innocent beauty. Her hair the color as straw spun gold was braided into a single braid thrown over her shoulder. Her face was small, heart shaped and she wore a flower printed sundress with a brown belt, over the dress she wore a denim jacket. But the most unusual thing about the woman was her eyes. Pan had always known that her own eyes were a rare color but this woman's was something else. Her eyes were the exact color of a clear summer sky.

Aware that Pan was inspecting her she smiled impishly and looked down at the cooing bundle in her hand lovingly. As Pan sat and looked at the pair she could not help but get a feeling that she and the young mother were the same. She was also aware of something else, the young mother was hiding a small scar in the exact shape of an inverted crescent on her neck, the mark of the Undead. A bad sign. They were a cult of vampires. Rumor had it they would torture and kill without second thought. Alaska was their territory though, so it was more than strange to see one of them so far from home.

"Are your running too?" she surprised herself by asking shyly.

The mother's eyes crinkled with laughter as she answered in a voice soft and almost childlike, "We are all running my dear."

Pan found herself smiling back, something about this woman was so intriguing that she couldn't help but be drawn to her.

"I suppose we are," Pan answered.

Pan leaned back after the mother began to nurse her child. That Pack was far behind her and any threat of that pathetic man Deval was too. Red had called her before she got on the bus to tell her all was well. She was glad. He was the only one from that pack she liked. Alpha Cayden asked him some questions which Red had lied through his teeth like a pure criminal. He even hid actual bottles of moonshine in the shed they found him at.

She had to admit, she thought it would be harder to fool them, but it was quite easy. The plan to lure Cayden, Deval, and their best men away from the pack leaving her to make her getaway in peace had worked like a charm. Cayden would do anything to get Deval off of his back. Although she had played a risky move banking on Deval's sociopathic tendencies she had played it right, he went running like the biggest fool she had ever seen.

My instincts have never failed me, she thought as the bus pulled into a gas station.

"Ladies and gents, this here bus is stopping for 30 minutes, anyone who needs to use the bathroom or simply get a bite should do it now. If you're not here by the last call your butt is left," the bushy bus driver announced in a deep Oklahoman twang as he opened the doors.