My butt was aching from sitting for so long. The van kept bumping over imperfections in the road so I couldn’t lean my head on the window or I would hit it over and over again. My eyes felt so droopy. It was raining outside, the scenery outside somehow made the rain seem magical. The van’s headligts made certain things sparkle in the foggy dusk.

Sam’s head dropped onto my left shoulder. _He was snoring so loud. _I nudged him off and he woke up with a start. He opened his eyes for no more than two seconds, then his head flopped over to the other side, on Tara’s shoulder. She shoved him off without ripping her gaze away from the window. Sam didn’t even open his eyes this time and just flopped forward.

It was really the perfect condition for falling asleep except for the bumpy road. The soft hum of the car engine, the rhythmic pit a pat of the rain on the windows, the absence of sunlight and the dusk setting in… I was feeling quite drowsy myself. But not in a good calm sleepy kind of way. I didn’t want to sleep.

My overgrown brown bangs tickled my face so hard my hand shot up with the speed of light to push it out of my eyes, but I jabbed my eye instead. Sam flopped onto my shoulder again, breathing the deepest sleepy breath into my face. Then we hit a particularly deep ditch, sending my head into the window so hard I yelped.

I very suddenly sat up and straightened my back, letting Sam fall back in to Tara, who finally exploded: “STOP BREATHING IN MY FACE!!!

In the front passenger seat Caleb was humming something and scribbling into his notebook, unfazed my Tara’s yelling. And Frank, our super-reliable driver, was staring at the road with the emptiest look you could fathom. Sam was now rubbing his eyes looking bewildered. Overall, the vibe in the van was _tired_.

“Why don’t we play a game?” I asked the occupants of the van abruptly.

Sam slowly looked toward me with dazed eyes, his face showing no signs of enthusiasm.

“Sure.” Caleb responded rather cheerfully, closing his notebook.

“Great,” I said, “let’s play 20 questions!”

Tara groaned. “We’ve played that too many times already.” She slumped forward in her seat, dramatically dropping her hands to the floor.

“Well I’m not hearing any better ideas.” I crossed my arms.

“I have a better game,” Caleb said. “I’ll start a story, and then we’ll go in a circle adding on to it.” He turned around in his seat to face us in the back.

“Sounds fun!” I was so bored, anything sounded fun.

“Sure, I’ll have a go at it,” Frank said this in a yawning kind of way, “I’m starting to see doubles.”

“Tara? Sam?” I looked at them.

“Nughmgm.” Sam mumbled.

“Fiiiine.” Tara’s voice was muffled due to her face being stuffed into her lap.

“Great! Now lemme think…” Caleb tapped his pen to his chin. “Ah! Okay, once upon a time, there was a forlorn, depressed, lonely man,” Caleb was making dramatic hand motions and facial expressions, “He lived in a hut at the edge of a dark wood. He had lost his family years ago to a vicious monster in that same forest. He lived there because that’s where he felt closest to them. No one ever heard him speak, so naturally due to his circumstances, rumors went around about his strange behavior. Then one day…” He looked at Frank.

“Frank it’s your turn.” I whispered.

“Oh, me? Erm okay… hmmm…” Frank’s brows furrowed. “One day, he came to town. Everyone was avoiding him because of all the rumors. He walked into the grocery store and then… and then… uhm,” Frank glanced at Tara through the mirror.

“And then he bought some food, and left, back to his shack next to the forest. And resumed his regular life doing whatever it is he does in that creepy place all alone.” Tara didn’t even lift her head.

Sam was folded forward on himself snoring again. Tara shoved him with her elbow.

“Huh!” He shot up. “What?”

“It’s your turn!” Tara mumbled.

“Oh. Uhhh…” He rubbed his face and shook his head. His voice was tired. “The man’s family was at a party next door. They had a dog named spot and he got lost in the forest. The man and his family went out to look for the dog, and then… ok I’m done. Next.”

“That’s not…” Tara began, but gave up and resumed staring out the window. Caleb was holding back his laughter. Frank just looked tired.

“Alright, my turn.” I said. “The man lives in his house, but he went crazy since his family died, so he started imagining they were still there with him. His dog, Spot, is very old. This old dog went out exploring one day and didn’t come back the whole day. The man decided to go look for him thinking Spot was in trouble. But in reality he was alone, and there was no dog named Spot, cuz he was really just imagining him.”

Frank took a turn and we rumbled onto a foggy bridge.

“The man wanders through the forest alone, talking to himself the entire night.” I continued. “He started following a light that guided him through the feral forest. It whispers things to him, pleasant things, until eventually the things it was saying started becoming more gruesome. The man started to get kinda worried, and started running away from the hovering light. But now the light was following him, and it wasn’t whispering anymore, it was wailing and screaming, bringing a cold terror to everything it’s light touched.”

Celeb looked delighted, and everyone else looked to be more interested now.

I glanced out the window. We were still driving across the bridge, the end of it not visible because of the fog.

“And then the man made it out of the forest onto a long, foggy bridge.” I continued. “He started running across the bridge, but the screaming thing was still following him, and just as he thought the light would catch up to him…” I looked at Caleb to continue the story.

“The screaming stopped, and he—“

Caleb was cut off mid sentence as Frank hit the brakes so hard the van skidded on the wet bridge and almost hit the rail on the left side. Me and Caleb, who were not buckled at the moment, were flung forward— me into the back of Caleb’s seat, and him into the dashboard.

“Frank what the heck!”

We all looked out onto the road in front of us.

“What the—” Tara breathed.

In the middle of the road in front of us stood a man. He was wearing a fancy suit, and he was standing 2 feet away from the van. We were literally _this close _to running him over.

“Why’s he staring at me?” Sam was looking at the man with wide eyes. He was wearing sunglasses, so it was kind of hard to tell if he was actually staring at Sam.

The man was just standing there, being rained on, wearing a fancy suit and sunglasses. If he didn’t look so life-like, I would’ve assumed he was a statue.

But why was he there? It was a little bit strange.

I pulled the handle on the door next to me and opened it a crack.

“Excuse me sir, would you care to step aside so we don’t run you over?” I yelled into the crack of the door I’d opened.

The man didn’t even flinch, or show any sign of hearing me.

Frank rolled down his window, “Sir, are you alright? Do you need help?”

Once again the man didn’t show any signs of hearing us.

“Should I just try to drive around..?” Frank mumbled.

He turned the wheel and attempted to go around the guy on the right. He didn’t make it two seconds before the man moved for the first time we had seen him and blocked our path once again. He stood in the same stance again, except this time he was wearing a crude smile on his face.

“Uhmmm…” Frank looked nervous. Sam looked terrified. Tara was super stiff and looked kinda uncomfy. I couldn’t really see Caleb because he was in front of me, but I could see his hand gripping the arm rest super tight.

My palms were getting kind of sweaty. I was getting chills all over. Time slowed down. And then, a cold, grating voice emerged into all the parts of my brain: “Daniel, get out of THE CAR.”

My hand moved without my wanting to. I pushed the car door open and jumped out.

“Daniel what are you doing?!” Alarmed voices floated from the car, but I was already strutting up to the man. I was strangely not as terrified as I should have been in a situation where I wasn’t controlling my own body. I walked around the van and faced the man in the suit. He grinned, but it looked forced. I could see that his lips were turning blue from the cold. His clothes were soaked.

Frank was yelling at me, then he jumped out of the car and stood a few feet away. “Dude, get back in the car!”

I looked over at him. He looked terrified. The man in front of me put his hand on my shoulder. I turned to face him again, and I was surprised when I saw he wasn’t wearing his glasses anymore. I could see his eyes. They were wide and terrified. They were also red and puffy. It was like he was staring into my soul — real unsettling.

I stumbled backwards, but bumped into the van right behind me. The man put his other hand on my other shoulder. He was grinning, but his eyes were not. His grip was crushing my shoulders and it felt like he was pushing me into the ground. I couldn’t look away from his bloodshot eyes. For some reason I couldn’t even tell what color they were…

Why was I thinking about the color of his eyes? _I needed to get away. _

_ _ So I twisted away and ran like the wind. I didn’t know where to run — I just ran — and I didn’t look back. Finally the weird trance I was in left me and a terror filled me up. I felt like a wild animal looking for anywhere to hide. I leaped over fallen trees and brushed passed wet branches, getting dirt and wetness all over me. I finally plopped down behind a tree and sat there in my crazed senses, trying to calm down.

I was all alone in a dark wet forest.

_Great._

__

I started to think what to do next, when a hand clamped down on my shoulder.

I was too stunned and horrified to move. I froze. And I waited. It felt like an eternity. My eyes were wide, and I was too scared to look up, and see who was holding my shoulder. I finally inched my face around, and I burst out laughing from relief.

I don’t think I’d ever been happier to see Frank’s face in my life.