“Maybe it’s like… a sign?” Sarah said. Maybe it was. But I didn’t really believe in signs like Sarah did. “It’s just a wrong turn.” Blake sighed, rolling their eyes. Apparently- they weren’t on board with the signs thing either.

“It’s not just the wrong turn though. There hasn’t been service this entire trip. There was that weird radio station playing an hour long segment from the 1970s. I swear- next thing you know, we’ll be on one of those ‘they never found them or their car’ unsolved mysteries episodes.”

Those didn’t really sound like signs, but maybe Sarah had a point. This trip really sucked so far. It was supposed to be something special. I had never been on a friends trip before- hell, not even a family trip. I don’t think I’d ever ventured more than thirty minutes outside of our tiny little town. Suddenly, I was wondering if Sarah was right.

“What…what episodes exactly?” my voice shook.

“You haven’t seen them?! They have like a town that someone is driving through, and then their car breaks down, and they call their parents and describe something that isn’t there but it was a long time ago, and then they call them again but the message is all static-y and then *poof* they’re gone. Like they went through a time warp.”

“Oh come on.” Blake was rolling their eyes so hard they might fall out. “You’re just scaring her with that load of gibberish.”

“It’s true!” Sarah was kind of irritating when she got defensive.

And then the car shuttered to a stop.

Blake made eye contact with me as best they could in the fading light. “Stay calm. This isn’t what it seems like.”

Blake had already hopped out of the driver’s seat and popped the hood open.

“See anything?” Sarah called.

“Nah.” Blake slammed the hood- either the problem beyond their knowledge or the supernatural truly had come for us.

They looked around. “I don’t see any businesses up ahead but I think we passed a restaurant a little bit back.”

Sarah’s face went white. “That’s exactly the story I saw Blake. You can’t go back there.”

“Well, even if we are in a time warp,” there went those eyes, “we can’t just sit here. Maybe the restaurant knows how to unwarp us.” They wiggled their eyebrows and their hands. They never took Sarah seriously.

Sarah looked at me, pleading. My anxiety was through the roof, but I gave a half-hearted shrug. “It’s just a tv show, Sarah.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. With help.” Blake took off in the direction we had just driven from. There wasn’t any arguing with Blake. Sarah and I watched in silence until they disappeared into the darkness.

“I have to be honest.” Sarah whispered.

“About what?” A million things ran through my mind.

“I had a bad feeling about this trip before we started. But I was worried if I didn’t go, you two would still go. I thought if I was here- I could help. But I guess I’m just useless.”

“You’re not useless.”

“You’re right. I’m great at scaring the shit out of you.” Sarah put her head in her hands.

“I’m glad you’re here. I mean- I’m not glad we’re in this situation or in a time warp or whatever but… well… you know…” I wasn’t particularly eloquent.

“I know.” Sarah let me and my awkwardness off the hook.

The night was long and cold and mostly sleepless. But exhaustion slipped in every once in a while and one of us would doze off for a moment only to be startled by a sudden noise or beginnings of a nightmare.

Just as dawn was breaking, a long, loud horn jostled both of us wide eyed.

Confident as ever, Blake was sitting shotgun in a tow truck.

“Sorry it took me so long!” They shouted as they bounded out. “I had to journey through a time warp.”