The Road

The long and winding road was a solemn solace from the world I've grown to despise. Open in every sense of the word, and not a car nor living being insight. Just the road and I, on a journey into self discovery and most importantly hiatus. 

I drove down the road, in a rented car so I wouldn't be found, hoping to find something that didn't remind me of the something once found that manifested itself into something I wanted to lose. 

The air was thick with fog and even though the heat was on full blast I felt a chill that enveloped my spin and stuck there, like a blood red wax seal. 

As I tried to let my mind wander innocently, I passed what looked to be the outskirts of a small town. All I could see were the faint outline of some houses and maybe a few buildings. Cozy, maybe I would settle down there some day. Buy a small cottage, go into main street for tea and that night's dinner. Appreciate the mild flora and fauna from my rain drenched screen porch. Yes, I thought, that would be something. 

Slowly the town disappeared and it was me and the open road again. I didn't know where I was going, I was hoping the road would just end somewhere. I was hoping at the end there would be a beginning, I've had too many endings already. 

The fog was thicker over here; more cloudy and lumpy.

My eyes must've been playing tricks on me for I swore I saw the town again, the same exact distance away as before. Was I going around in circles?

I turned my head abruptly just as a shadow cast over me and a darkened object appeared in front of the hood of my car. 

I cried out and swerved off.

In this fog I couldn't tell if I hit anything, but I kept going, out of fear. Out of nonchalance. 

I drove for a few more hours but they felt like minutes. My hands were shaking, knuckles sown onto the cheap leather of the steering wheel. They were bone white like cheap couch pleather or the show of exposed teeth on a corpse that's had it's mouth sliced wide open into a cruelly curved smile. 

The fog was even thicker up here but the road hadn't changed. Still going in the same direction. Still no cars or signs of life other than my ticking time bomb of a heart. 

My brain kept whispering that I should be somewhere by now but every other part of my body screamed it wasn't ready. Who is?

I looked around one more time, and this time I went limp. The town was back, looking that same as ever. I whipped my head around again to watch like a deer in headlights as many figures materialized in the fog outside my windshield. I let out a silent scream and flung the wheel, careening into a foggy, deserted ditch on the side of the road. 

It seemed like every part of my body was bleeding and heaving. Very painstakingly I looked up and was greeted with empty fog. 

A while later when the fog cleared up, police descended upon the scene. A standard car wreck. With this fog it was only a matter of time. Driver probably didn't even realize they were a half mile from town. 

One body in the driver's seat. One in the trunk.