6.30am, Downstairs:

   Someone pulled out a chair quietly and sat down at the table. Tapping the lamp a few times, the unstable light eventually settled. Still, what little light there was didn’t show much of the mysterious person except for small feminine hands - one in which had an expensive looking diamond ring. They slid the gun towards them, scratching the table before placing it inside their coat pocket.

The person’s eyes briefly scanned the typewritten text on the documents that sat on the calendar. Attempting to slide the calendar out, the weight of the papers collapsed onto the floor with a thump. The intruder panicked and sat there silent for a moment, then picked them up swift before placing them back roughly where they were before. Whoever this was, then took a map from the table and replaced it with another. It was during this moment that a bang from upstairs suddenly clambered, as if something had been knocked over. The intruder stood and looked up, before silently walking away. Taking a last look at the desk and glancing up the stairs, they left out the front door with an unintentional slam caused by the wind.

   In the garden a large dog lay in his kennel, but fast asleep and unaware of the stranger passing him by. The street outside was dark, lit up only by a single working street lamp lain with cobwebs and fluttering moths. The figure of a person walked towards the light, which slowly revealed them. Long brunette hair, large blue eyes and luscious lips gazed up at the bedroom window of the house she’d just left. A beautiful woman she was indeed but her look of deep thought made her somewhat unnerving. She wore black jeans and her upper part was the same in shade but for the white tank top she had underneath the coat. The woman smiled before swooning towards a maroon car, looking back up at the house as she got in. The old banger drove off with no headlights down the street in the total darkness.


6.30am, Upstairs:

“Did you hear that, hun?”
“I’m asleep.”
“David, I heard a bump downstairs. I think we’ve got a burglar…”
“I’ll do it in the morning…”

   Naked, the woman slowly got out of bed as quiet as she could manage but knocked over her glass of water making a thump. She looked towards the man she’d been in bed with anxiously before creeping towards the door and peering out to the hallway. A door downstairs had been slammed, and she squealed, in turn closing the bedroom door.

“What’s wrong with you, Angie?” David groaned. “I start my new job in the morning. Miles and miles of driving...”
“Someone was in our house….”
“Who cares it's empty! We have to leave at 6-a-fucking clock to meet Joey or he'll leave without us. So I need sleep. Stop being paranoid.”
She looked at the clock next to him. “It’s gone 6.30, hun.”

The man sat up as fast as he had ever in his life. He looked around at the clock and slammed it off the bedside.

   Through the bedroom window, Angie watched curiously as David rushed to leave, packing the car up with a few boxes. As the first shine of light started to light up through the window, Angie slowly went downstairs. Walking through the dining room and into the kitchen, nothing was really missing. She would have surely noticed for they only had those few boxes and a little furniture left.

“I’m going to miss this place…” she sighed.

A startling familiar bang behind her caused her to squeal again. Looking behind, she saw her Weimaraner had knocked over the papers on the desk in the dining room. It walked over to her panting with wide friendly eyes.

"Maybe it was the dog that was banging around this morning and there wasn’t an 'intruder'" she shouted out. "Maybe it was... hey we're taking the dog with us, aren't we?"

   The couple got in the car and started to headed onto the main road, which took at least an hour itself. There were only a few houses and farms. They lived far away from any other social contact, so there were miles between houses. There was little work in this forgotten town, so any job offer David got within the county was a blessing.

'Will do me good to be out of that place' he thought.
"Where is your new job, hun?" Angie asked, breaking the silence. The dog yelped in the back in frustration.
"Some weird place called Fay..” He looked at the dog quickly. “Fat… Fat… Fatuus, that's it. Quite a shit hole I'm guessing as everyone shunned me when I even mentioned it."
"People, hun? Who?"
"People around town did.. after this traveller that came through offered me and Joey a job there. It's only across some highway. Bit creepy that guy... he refused to take his hood off… especially in this heat! But we need the money so I can’t be picky."
"Are you serious? Are you sure this is a good idea?" Angie asked anxiously as she opened the back window for their pet as David slowed down for train lights. "I mean you've never met this person before as from then and now you're just taking an apparent job from them?"
"It's not that much of a hassle." David said blankly staring at the red flashing lights. "We agreed that any job offers, we take them! I'm not stupid! I mean Joey's a good friend of mine, he's going up there too! So you and I aren't alone with some weirdo! There's a new drugs company opened, and..."
"Dave,” she interrupted. “We will be ok won't we?" She kissed him then leaned her head against his shoulder.
He leant his head on top of hers. "We will, we will..."

   They both watched the train pass until the barrier rose. A sign on the other side of the tracks read Road To Highway 66 Ahead shook in the wind as they drove past.

Continue...
   Next we’re in an empty house, in an empty room. A pistol lay under the flickering maize light of a lamp on a polished mahogany table. Outside of the bulb's ever fainting light, half hidden under a pile of disorganised paperwork, lay a calendar featuring ‘desert life’. Open on January this month it seemed to be an image of a cactus. On each day’s box it was written roughly ‘this one represents one of you - run!’ over and over in red ink before it had ran out.
HIGHWAY 66
Chapter II: Intruder