Free Sociopaths In Love by Andersen Prunty

to spend the
rest of your life with me?"
    He put his hand on her thigh and gently
rubbed it up and down over the blooming bruises. "I am. Just being
around you gives me a certain feeling. Something I've never felt
before."
    "But we don't really know anything about
each other."
    "What's to know? I'm just like every other
guy except for my gift."
    "You're supposed to want to know everything
about me."
    "I only know what you want to tell me.
You'll tell me what you think is important. Do you want to tell me
everything there is to know about you? Because that includes the
really dark, painful stuff too. If you want to know everything I've
ever done, I could tell you. I carry a record of it up here." He
pointed a finger at his temple. "What matters is now. Now and from
now on. Forward momentum."
    Erica didn't look at him. She stared at the
taillights of the car in front of them. The highway now felt dark
and claustrophobic. "Maybe later. I might want to talk about it
sometime. I just need to know you'll listen." It seemed like an
evasive response and she wasn't sure why she answered in exactly
that way except, when she tried to see her past as a series of
flashing vignettes and faces, she had trouble thinking of anything.
There was her. There was her dead mother. Her absent father. Her
sick and then dead Granny. But that was all just words. Sometimes
she thought of her memory as a photo left in the sun and, if she
didn't see a person nearly every second of every day, it was like
they just faded away.
    "I'll listen whenever you want me to. But,
if I were you, I wouldn't expect me to tell you anything.
Agreed?"
    She was still trying to grasp something,
anything from her own memory, and absently said, "If I ever ask,
you can just lie to me."
    They stopped at a gas station off the
highway. He told her he was going to fill the car up and asked if
she'd go in and grab some cigarettes. She almost said she didn't
have any money and remembered she didn't need it. A tired and
trashy woman with bleached hair hanging around a putty pink face
stood behind the counter watching a reality TV show.
    "A carton of Camel Lights," Erica said.
    The woman didn't acknowledge her.
    "Excuse me," Erica said.
    The woman turned around to give a quick scan
of the pumps. The only cars out there were Erica's and an even
shittier Dodge Neon. As the woman's gaze returned, she finally
noticed Erica. Erica recognized the now almost customary click of
surprise when the woman saw the lines on her face.
    "I'm sorry, hon," the woman said. "What can
I get you?"
    "Carton of Camel Lights." Erica kept her
eyes trained on the counter, like the cashier had some sort of
built in retinal scanner.
    The woman sat the carton on the counter
without asking for ID and gave her the total. Erica grabbed the
carton and said, "Thanks," before heading for the door and fighting
the urge to run.
    She wasn't sure what she expected. Maybe for
the woman to say, "Stop," or "Hey, you can't leave without paying,"
or "Those aren't free." Given the woman's size advantage, Erica
half-expected the woman to come after her, physically stop her from
leaving the store.
    But none of that happened.
    She stepped outside to see the Neon idling
just across the walk, Walt behind the wheel. It took her only a
second to realize what had happened. Next to the pump where the
Neon had been, a sloppily dressed man lay face down on the asphalt,
probably dead but possibly just severely injured. Beside the pump
they had pulled up to was Erica's car, engulfed in a mountain of
flame. Erica rushed to get into the car, feeling like the whole
parking lot could explode at any moment.
    "Got us a car," Walt said.
    "Got us some cigarettes," Erica said.
    He slowly pulled onto the road and they were
on the highway within minutes.
     
    "This car smells like ass," Walt said.
    "It's pretty foul."
    "Maybe we can get another one at the
hotel."
    "It's a shit car anyway."
    It was after midnight before Walt started
looking for someplace