The Desert Road
Night was descending slowly and oppressively over the desert, tracing dark lines across the mountains as if spectral shapes lurked there.
Behind the wheel sat Susan, her eyes fixed on the asphalt road that stretched ahead like a black snake snaking between the dunes. Beside her, Detective Mohammed stared silently at the horizon, the hum of the engine and the whistle of the wind the only sounds breaking the heavy silence.
The road narrowed little by little until it ended abruptly in a rough dirt track strewn with scattered stones, too treacherous for the car to cross. Susan eased the car off the road; the chassis shuddered with the engine's last gasp, and the world fell silent—as if everything behind them had receded, leaving only the desert and the darkness.
Susan turne
