Henry hadn't noticed that the sky had gone dark. He wonders how long he's been out since he left David and Mary Margaret's loft, and how long he'd been wandering the streets of the small town since he'd found out about his dad. He flexes the muscles in his hands at the thought. He'd been imagining meeting the man that had helped bring him into the world for as long as he can remember--as soon as he started wondering why he didn't have a dad in his family like the rest of his friends when he was very young. He'd thought it out a thousand different ways--dramatic situations that ended in heartbroken hugs and promises of starting over. He'd made up good, understandable reasons that ended his overwhelming questionings of why his dad had never come back for him, why he wasn't good enough. Then there was always the idea that he'd died. Maybe, he'd thought back then, staring at the glow-in-the-dark star stickers peeling up at their edges on his bedroom ceiling as a preteen, maybe he'd died a heroic death saving a ton of lives. Maybe he was a solider, or a firefighter.....

He'd never expected the encounter to go anything like this one had, after years of wondering, finally meeting his father, waiting to hear the explanations he'd carefully thought out. He'd been sorely, devastatingly disappointed as he'd stood before him--because the worst part of it all, is the fact that there was no explanation at all. All he'd gotten was an "I'm sorry," that felt much more like a slap in the face than anything.

He curses himself for the pricks of wetness he feels at the back of his eyes. He runs a hand roughly over his eyes, and casts them upwards into the cloudless sky. He's momentarily blown away by the number of stars he's met with, and realizes that in New York, there's never much of an opportunity to see stars. He's not sure how long he stands there, head turned towards the heavens, eyes lost in the sprinkling of sparkles across the stretch of black, velvet sky, grazed only by a few particularly tall trees. It's a level of comfort he hadn't thought possible just from looking at the sky, and his tense shoulders relax as he breathes deeply through his nose, while he ponders a whole other world so high above himself. All of the sudden, his problems don't seem so impossibly large in perspective.

He's brought back to earth by the sound of a rumbling engine of a car beside him. He finally looks down and to his left, where he finds Iris's car moving down the street. He smiles a little, raising his hand to flag her down. She must not have seen, because she doesn't stop as she continues down the road, eventually pulling into the gas station on the right. He shoves his hands in his pockets, lazily following her to the station because he can't think of anything better to do. He's sure his spirits will be easily lifted by a little banter, and maybe some flirting. Maybe a couple of kisses.

The idea doesn't sound half bad, and he picks up his pace slightly. He squints against the bright lifts of the gas station as he moves towards the pump that she's selecting her type of gas.

"Hey, Iris. Glad I ran into you, you wouldn't believe the type of day I've had. What are you doing getting gas this time of day?" He rambles off, squeezing the bridge of his nose tightly, the slight headache in his skull increasing its intensity. When it's been a few seconds and he realizes he hasn't gotten an answer, he opens his eyes, peering at her.

Her eyes are bugging out of her skull, disbelief and confusion etched deep into the planes of her face. Her hand is shaking beneath her hip.

Henry's brow furrows, looking on in bewilderment. "Iris?"

She takes a slow backwards step towards the gas pump before answering in a tone he has to strain to hear. "How...do you know my name?"

"What are you talking about?" Henry frowns deeply, taking another few steps closer to close the distance. He doesn't fail to notice her retreating further. "Is this some kind of joke?" He's not sure what kind of sense of humor someone would have to act like this, and he sure as hell hadn't seen her act this way before. Despite his mind fumbling anxiously to come up with a reasonable explanation, his heart rate steadily increases.

"I don't know what your problem is with me or how you know my name, but I was just leaving." Iris narrows her widened eyes slightly, detaching the gas pump from her car and re-holstering it with a shaking hand, giving away her nerves.

"Iris. What the hell is going on with you? It's Henry, for god's sake!" Henry demands in an urging tone, waiting for the revolution of a sick joke that's sure to come, waiting for her to break out in a smile and call him 'gullible,' making him look like an idiot. But, god, he'd rather look like an idiot than to see the way she stares right through him with with not a trace of recognition. And although she could lie all she wants and trick him somehow, her deep chocolate irises don't show any hint of dishonesty. His blood turns to ice.

What the hell?

"Leave me alone!!" Iris yells, and without thinking, Henry moves forward to calm her down.

"Iris, come on--" he's practically begging now, begging for the light to return to her eyes or for him to wake up from something that feels like such a vivid nightmare. He places his firm hand on her wrist before he can stop himself, and from the physical contact, Iris quakes and shrinks under his touch, yanking her wrist away from him in a panic.

"Let me go!!" She shouts, looking terrified now, and he draws his hand away, as if burned.

"What's going on?" Henry breathes out, mostly to himself, searching the wildness of her eyes. His head is buzzing, heartbeat pulsing in his ears, and he feels ready to vomit.

Iris just looks at him, and god, he thinks she's terrified, of him, and then she's flinging open her car door and scrambling inside, struggling to start her engine in her state. Before he knows it, she's tearing off down the road, and all he can feel is worry for her, and absolute helplessness and bewilderment. 

Before he can think, he's running across the street toward his mom's parked Bug, and scrambling to fit his long legs in the tight space. As soon as he slams the door shut and digs the key in the ignition, he's speeding across the slick pavement after her, with a speed that far outgoes the conservative limit for the town.

He's unsure of where Iris is going, unsure of how long he plans to follow her, but he just wants to talk. Surely there's something in this mess he's missing; surely, because this isn't possible. Right?

His fingers, underneath stark white knuckles having bled from all color, grip the wheel so tightly he briefly forgets how to let go, and his right foot just mindlessly pushes the gas pedal down, down, down.

It can't be more than a few seconds before he spots two blinding tail lights in front of him, and he breaths a quick breath out of his nose. "Iris," he whispers, peering through the dark at her car.

She barely breaks her speed to make a sudden left, and he struggles to screech the Bug to a more manageable speed to turn after her. The moment he does, she seems to realize fully that he intends on following her, and her speed climbs further. His lips purse together as he urges the stupid, rickety Bug to match the pace, eyes flicking over the speedometer briefly before making an even more difficult left than the last one.

This next turn leads them out into a deserted road, where buildings grow sparse and the trees thicken. So, we're leaving town. Henry accepts, fingers relaxing then gripping the wheel harder. If I could just get her to pull over so we could talk....

More quickly than he expects, they leave the houses behind and creep forward, deeper into the vast amount of pine trees sandwiching the narrowing road. His head is pounding, thinking only of how the hell this is happening, what caused it, or am I dreaming?

The clouds part and the full moon shines down on the road brighter than before, illuminating the painted town line they're quickly approaching.

He thinks he hears a wolf howling, but maybe he's more than a nut job than he already knows he is.

But large, dangerous dogs are far from the first thing on the forefront of his mind, as he focuses on Iris's car in front of him. She's there, she's there, she's there, she's crossing the town line, and then she's fucking not.

Henry's eyes bug out from his head, staring at the empty, open road in sheer panic at the place where Iris's car was only a split-second before. Is he a fucking lunatic?! Because he knows that he'd just seen a car vanish into thin air right before his damned eyes. But that's not possible, and he knows that none of this is, and then a moment too late he realizes that he's lost control.

As his head had whipped over to stare at the vanishing act, he'd jerked the wheel the opposite direction and his foot had frozen on the gas. He curses.

He sees only a cluster of trees coming terrifyingly closer and closer, and then---

--and then collides. First, the sound of crunching metal and splintering wood and the sound of the horn as his chest is pressed up against it is deafening. And then, it's far too quiet and all Henry can hear is a ear-splitting ringing deep within his eardrums, and the horrifying sound of somebody screaming. He realizes much too late that it's himself.

All he can feel is pain, and oh god, the unbearable pain, and he thinks that he either forgets how to breathe or it hurts far too much to. All he can smell is fumes, and gas, and the stench of blood---

And then, everything goes dark and he can't feel at all.

---

TBC...
;)