A/N
My beloved readers... I'm above embarrassed of not having updated this story in what obviously seems like centuries. Well, truth be told, I got lost and I've been having a hard time getting the next chapter finished for a while but I'm back on track. But, while on the process of trying to find my muse for this story again, I reread all the chapters and fixed a couple of typos here and there. Anyhow, yes, this is getting SOMEWHERE someday! If you're kind enough to forgive me and await until I post the rest of the chapters you've already read and the long expected Ch. 6, there won't be words enough to express my gratitude.

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DESTINATION UNKNOWN

CH. I THE THUNDER ROLLS

"Three thirty in the morning
Not a soul in sight.
The city's lookin' like a ghost town
On a moonless summer night.
Raindrops on the windshield
There's a storm movin' in.
He's heading back from somewhere
That he never should have been
And the thunder rolls."
From THE THUNDER ROLLS by Garth Brooks

. . .

South Florida housed thousands of tourists during summer, but for lifelong residents Stella Franco and Mae Marshall, the Sunshine State's summers were just pure hell. The heat was asphyxiating, afternoon thunderstorms were absolutely unbearable, and the obnoxious incoming tourists who thought of Florida as a big whole set of Disney World and Mickey Mouse were arriving by the masses and taking over everything on their way.

Oh well, at least they're helping our economy. Stella shrugged her previous thought as she took off her UNO apron and threw it over her shoulder, balancing a bag of carry-out pasta while she counted her night's tips. Scrap that! To hell with the economy! They're killing me slowly! Bringing a hint of drama into it, just as her best friend would do.

Stella slipped some loose bucks into her jean pockets and hurried over to her old pickup truck. Sure, it was louder than a trembling washing machine with tennis shoes spinning inside at full speed, but at least it was paid off. Her cell phone, stuck in her rear pocket, started vibrating frantically, again. It had been buzzing for what seemed like the hundredth time already, but she had been juggling too many things at once to pick it up. She plopped down into the driver's seat completely exhausted, stowing her carry-out on the passenger's seat. As she started her truck –at least three tries before the motor started roaring- she waved at her fellow colleagues for the night.

As she made her way into the road, she took out her phone and shook her head in disbelief. 'M&M's: 12 missed calls', a little box blinked on her bright home screen. What on Earth are you getting yourself into now?

Stella rolled her eyes trying to imagine just what Mae could've done now, making her desperately call 12 times in a row. Mae was always trying to sneak out, running away from home and dragging her down into all kinds of complicated situations imaginable. Back in high school, at least, Stella hadn't minded this for it brought a spark of entertainment into her rather monotonous and predictable life. Plus, there was also the fact that, if Mae was to get herself into such a mess, she'd preferred she was counted in instead of casted out. They had been best friends since they were little girls, spending their time playing with Polly Pockets (the original, really tiny dolls that would only bend waist down and had a rounded base for feet) and getting dead scared together, watching Are You Afraid of the Dark, when either stayed over at the other's house.

Not only were they best friends, but after all they had been together, the fact of how they could read each other so well, they were really more like sisters. Mae had been there through thick and thin. She came from a very wealthy and privileged family, and to be honest, the Marshall's were very snobbish people, but somehow Mae had skipped those genes. She didn't quite fit in her "picture perfect" family, but just because that's exactly the opposite of whom they truly were.

Before Stella could press the Reply button, her phone started buzzing hysterically again, a picture of Mae piggyback riding her twin brother Mike, their almost identical faces plastered with maroon and gold paint, ready for a game, blinking on the screen.

"WHY WEREN'T YOU PICKING UP MY CALLS, S!" Mae shouted in desperation as soon as Stella had picked up, not even giving her a chance to say hello.

"Mae, what's going on now?" Stella frowned at her friend's alarmed high pitched voice, minding the road in sight.

"I can't stand this any longer, S… I just needed to get away from that house immediately, far away from those horrible people…" She went silent and Stella didn't say anything, all her friend needed right now was to vent out everything she had inside. Mae groaned loudly. "….and God knows we can think of a being or two having more human emotions than my parents ever had!"

"Where are you now? The court?" Stella lowered her eyes as she let out a somber sigh at the memory of the place. She was used to doing this, rescuing Mae. Even if she thought it was still immature and unnecessary for a college student to be running away from home every time she had a fit with her folks, she didn't mind at all.

The bubbly brunette smiled at her best friend's on spot guess and her previous hysteric voice switched to an impossibly gleeful chime in a second. "Could you pretty, pretty, pretty pleaaase come pick me up?" Stella didn't get a chance to answer; her best friend knew that whatever direction she had been driving to, she was turning the wheel and heading her way right away. "Oh, and speed it up please. You know I'm really not that into the whole rape and murder scene… No interest whatsoever of being the inspiration for an SVU episode." She flashed a smile staring at the broken basketball net barely hanging at the ring before hanging up.

. . .

The old basketball court was Mae's go-to place. She went there whenever she had a hard time, needed to think or just wanted some peace of mind. It had been here where she had spent so many afternoons with her deceased twin brother back in the days. He used to go there and practice and she always tagged alone; they found comfort in each other, having absent parents. They were more than close, so to speak, and when Mike was diagnosed with Leukemia, Mae was completely devastated –although this could be an understatement. It had been here where Stella found her one late afternoon when she had skipped school and no one knew of her whereabouts.

[ FLASHBACK ]

Stella parked her recently acquired rumbling truck carelessly as she ran out toward the silhouette of her best friend, sitting right in the middle of the basketball court, hunched shoulders and trembling figure. Mae never looked up to see her approaching, and she didn't know exactly what she could say that would make her friend feel any better. Mike passed away early in the morning; her parents had been trying to get a hold of her but failed. Stella had been driving around like crazy, just about to give up, when she remembered the court.

She knelt in front of her friend, wrapping her with the sweater she had been wearing, and bringing her head towards her chest. Mae's face was completely moist with long dried tears and new ones falling down, making new shiny paths on her cold cheeks. Her bright gray hazel eyes were swollen and rimmed in a red line, and she could tell her friend was having a hard time breathing.

After a few very long minutes, Mae started to calm down and Stella released her. That's when she noticed how hard she was clutching her fists. When Stella opened her fingers, Mike's last state championship ring came to view. She couldn't stop her own tears from falling now helplessly.

"Oh God, M… I'm so, so sorry…" She wanted to say more, something that could make her friend feel better, but she couldn't find the right words to say.

"You lost your mom, S. How did you deal with that?" Mae tried very hard to let out her words, her voice crisp and rough from crying.

"I cried... and then cried some more." Stella said looking straight into her friend's eyes, managing a soft smile. "But you were there with me and heard me all the while without complain. You helped me, and I'll try my hardest…" Stella held her broken friend in a very strong hug, binding what she had promised Mike the last time she had been able to see him at the hospital, his only plead for her to watch over his sister.

"I'm here for you, and I'll do exactly what you did for me. You're a sister to me, and I'm never leaving you alone."

They stood there, crying together God knows for how long.

[ END OF FLASHBACK ]

. . .

As Mae climbed into the passenger's seat, Stella noticed she carried a stuffed duffel bag wearing their High School colors –maroon and gold– with an embroidered Viking's hat and 'MIKE MARSHALL' on the sides. She chuckled soundlessly at the sight, remembering her deceased friend and his good sense of humor and hyperactive personality, a male version of her best friend, no doubt.

"What's with all the baggage?" Stella pointed the bag with her chin as they headed to her place. Whenever Mae had ran away before, she only carried a backpack with clothes for two or three days tops; this bag looked like it had clothes to last months! Only the fact that Mae was carrying Michael's bag around shocked her; she held Mike's belongings as if they were national treasures, his Championship ring safely tucked under her blouse, hanging from a golden chain that had also belonged to the young athlete.

"We're going on that road trip we talked about…" Duh! Mae shook her head as she informed her friend of her plans, a little annoyed by how she couldn't keep up with them.

"Mae! No…" She was gasping in disbelief. Where did you get the idea we were going on a road trip anyway! "I work for the rest of the week, and I double shift tomorrow! I can't just pack my bags and leave like you!"

"Oh, but you promised!" Mae pouted. "You promised we'd go catch a Mavs game at the Finals. The Finals don't last forever, ya' know?"

Okay, so Stella did remember now she had agreed with her friend that if her beloved Dallas Mavericks did actually went to the Finals, they'd go to at least one game, but as Stella didn't really followed sports at all, she had no idea they were in the Finals right now. She groaned at herself knowing Mae was right. "I knooow… I really can't go now though, I didn't ask the days off and I'm packed with shifts this week, M. It's not like you ever gave me the heads up!"

"Stella Marie Franco… you hate waiting tourists during summer, and it's not like you couldn't get another job as a waitress when we get back! Heck, they probably won't even fire you with that luck of yours!"

Stella chuckled at her childish friend's logic. "I can't! I have bills to pay. I really can't go this week."

They rode in silence all the way to Stella's apartment. Mae looked exactly like a stubborn child who had been denied that candy bar as they left the grocery store: crossed arms around her chest, frowning her thin, fair brows and making huffing noises as if she was about to cry. Stella shook her head in disapproval; Mae had always been a bit too melodramatic but she wasn't going to let fall for it this time.

They divided the carry-out pasta and ate in silence, throwing glances at each another, waiting to see who'd speak first. It was true Stella couldn't stand her job, but it helped pay the bills. Her father did help her with rent and he did get her that paid off truck; he also paid what her financial aid didn't cover at college, but she still had bills to pay. There was cable TV and internet service, her cell phone bill, gas, books and groceries; she also needed clothes and shoes to wear, oil and filter changes, and any other expenses you could think of… and taking the truck's age in consideration, she knew it could break at any moment and you had to have something saved up just in case of an emergency repair, new breaks, transmission or something.

"Alright…" Stella blurted halfway through her pasta. Mae blinked at her, confused. "Alright, we'll go to Dallas!" Maybe she wasn't thinking. Maybe it was a spur of the moment. Maybe she just spoke before actually thinking about it and she knew she was going to regret it. Soon. Very soon.

Mae suddenly jumped off the stool and looked straight at Stella's alerted eyes before starting her happy dance as she circled her friend. Stella smiled at the sight of her celebrating friend. Oh well, she shrugged in her mind, here goes to nothing.

THEY WERE GOING TO DALLAS.

. . .

They had been on the road for almost half a day, only stopping for gas, snacks, and the occasional need of a restroom. Stella had finally taken a break from the wheel and Mae took over. They had their route outlined on a map they got at their first gas station.

Somewhere in between crossing state lines, they had driven right into one pretty bad thunderstorm. Mae slowed down, having a hard time trying to make out what was ahead on the road. She took an exit off I-10 somewhere in Shreveport, so she could park on a rest stop and wait safely until the thunderstorm drifted away.

The truck shook frantically. The windshield was now fully covered in mist and heavy raindrops, making it almost impossible for her to keep on driving. Mae had absolutely no idea where she was now; she tried to make sense of the map in her hands, but frustration won her over and she bundled it up in a ball and threw it towards the front dash on an intent of being as violent as she could manage.

A lightning seemed to strike right beside them on the street, clearing the whole sky white and hitting a tree that quickly started to fall towards the middle of the road. A loud thunder immediately followed, making Stella jump awake in place. "Holy Shit!" She couldn't help but staring straight into the road and seeing a huge trunk blocking their way. Mae seemed to have her fists nailed into the wheel, for she had the hardest grip on it, white knuckles and all. She felt fear starting to build inside her, her chin trembling, and a small shriek making its way through her throat about to get out.

The heavy rain kept thumping all through the truck's outsides, making a horrendous sound, almost as if they were trying to penetrate its insides.

The girls' eyes locked. Stella couldn't help but feel the need to reassure her freaked out friend that everything was going to be okay, even if she wasn't so sure about it herself. Just when she was about to improvise on a all's perfectly fine soothing speech, the truck suddenly started blowing smoke through the air conducts and then it shook for a final time before going completely silent, every bulb inside intermittently going on and off.

That made it for Mae, she had been keeping it inside for too long now, but that scream building up finally found its way out and it instantly transferred into Stella as well. For minutes they were helplessly crying out for anyone to hear and trying to get their cell phones to find some signal but failing at every little remote corner from inside the truck.

"All right, all right… let's think, M…" Stella was trying to somehow take back the reigns, being the first one to somewhat calm down. "Where are we? What was the last sign you recognized?"

It took Mae a while to finally calm down enough to be able to speak. She reached out for the scrunched up ball she had made the map into and, flattening it as best as possible, pointed Stella the last routes she remembered taking. "I think I got us off I-10, that's where I was aiming for anyhow. The rain was impossible and I just wanted to reach the rest stop and park…" Stella was nodding at her every word. Mae was biting nervously at a corner of her lower lip, a normal trait of the giddy girl. "I really, really, really don't know where we are right now, though."

Just then, another lightening struck, clearing up the sky above them, enabling them to notice a street sign a few feet away on the road. The girls looked at each other knowing what they were going to have to do now. Mae tried starting the truck again anyways, but all it did was make a sound very much like a lion's roar being cut by a fit of sneezes.

"It's helpless, one of us will have to walk there and bring back the name of the street we're on so we can localize us on this darn map."

"Well, it's your idea. You go!" Mae quickly spit out at her brilliant friend's idea. Stella resigned; she wasn't going to win this. If she wanted to know the street's name, she was going to have to jump out into this Noah's Ark flood-like weather and get it.

The attacking raindrops soaked her as soon as she opened the truck's door, making her cold on contact. She walked around the trunk in the middle of the road, touching everything she could on her way, to make out the path. She held her cell phone up as a flashlight; its weak back-light helping her read the sign. Industrial Dr. it read.

Mae opened the door for Stella as she made out her silhouette approaching the truck. "Industrial Drive, it says… let's see where the nearest spot of civilization is around here." The girl's brilliant red hair now a dark mess dripping wet, her thin delicate rosy lips completely colorless.

Shivering, Stella let Mae take over the map reader role. She saw her friend struggling through lines and numbers in the paper, but she was too busy trying not to die of hypothermia to take the map out of her hands and do it herself. After what seemed ages to Stella –but were really a minute or less– Mae finally poked the map victoriously on a spot, her face hopeful for a change.

"There's a Bar & Club sign here! 444 Industrial Drive…" Mae's proud smile quickly vanishing as soon as she glanced at her soaked friend on the passenger's seat, worry taking its place.

"How far is it?" Stella stuttered.

"Hmm…" Mae looked back into the map, and then looked up the road in front. "Probably not that far from here... I know we haven't passed anything like it yet, but a bunch of trees and plains." She lingered at the end of the sentence. What were they supposed to do now?

"Well, let's go!"

"Let's go where? Look at yourself! And that's after just one minute out there! Have you gone mad? We're not going out there!"

"What would you suggest then, Mae?" Stella snapped, fighting her chattering teeth, trying to make a point. "We're not staying here, we have nothing! No signal. Hell, my phone's probably shutting off soon enough after getting all wet a minute ago. We might as well find people that can help us at least get a hold of a working phone so we can call a cab to take us to the nearest hotel... or back home for what matters!"

Mae bit her tongue knowing her friend had every right to be furious, muttering a protest in silence.

. . .

Mae tried holding her brother's huge duffel bag atop her head to prevent getting too wet on their walk, but it didn't help as much as she would've liked. Stella held one backpack on each of her shoulders, and walked with her head facing down, as if it made any difference. They walked in a slow pace even if they both wished they could run to the place to get out of the rain.

At last, they made out some shiny red signs ahead, even though the place seemed mostly deserted for except a couple of cars parked out front. A light underneath a red carpet was flashing inconsistently and they hurried to the door before it would be too late. Stella held Mae's shoulders in reassurance, more for herself than for her friend, really, but she knew Mae was freaking out.

From inside the door they heard a man shout. Pam! Pam! The voice grew annoyed. Pam! Get the door! Still no one answered back. The voice now sounded absolutely pissed off, but much closer to the door. We're closed, damn it. Who is it now! It hissed.

They heard the door unlock.

On a squared window next to the door, Mae caught the sight of a red cursive neon sign: Fangtasia. It was the same as what read on top of the post up front, but she hadn't really noticed what it said. Mae snorted, trying to hold in laughter. Well, that's a pretty stupid name… she thought to herself, suddenly being brought out of her thoughts when a tall man appeared in front of them. Stella's hold on her tightened.

. . .

. . .