An Unexpected Travel Partner

Would it have been smarter to just buy a plane ticket to get where they wanted to go? Perhaps yes. But that costed money, and doing a road trip was cheaper in the long run.

Emer had been napping on and off in the backseat while her flower had been driving. She’d promised to do the night shift, so to speak, and needed to rest up as much as she could if she were going to be coherent for that promised shift.

It was nearing sundown when they made the switch, her love looking exhausted, eyes heavy for want of sleep.

“Get in the back, love,” Emer said, kissing her forehead. “Try and get some sleep, I got this.”

There were no complaints as she crawled into the backseat, dragging a blanket with her as she went. Once she was properly secured, Emer closed the door behind her and got into the drivers seat. Once she made a quick pit stop at a nearby gas station, she’d be ready to go.

She’d never been the biggest fan of energy drinks. They all had a sort of metallic after-taste that liked to linger in her mouth, no matter what flavour or brand. But the caffeine helped keep her alert and able to drive. A miserable, but necessary evil. But an evil none the less.

Glancing up at the rear-view mirror, she checked on her darling, who was fast asleep in the backseat, her nose buried in the old blanket they kept folded up in the trunk. Emer could only smile as she softly snored, the sound almost like a gentle purring.

“Just gotta keep going. We’ll get there soon,” She muttered to herself, taking a sip of her energy drink and cringing at the metallic taste. “God, you’d think they’d make these damn things would taste better.”

The car interior was quiet, save for the soft snores coming from the backseat, and the audio book playing at a low volume in the front. It was a story Emer was well familiar with, but it was a comforting favourite, and good company on the narrow, winding road.

What wasn’t good company was that sound.

At first, she’d thought it was from radio. A faulty connection from her phone or something, causing a high-pitched, whirring sort of sound. But pausing the book didn’t stop it.

It was distant, maybe a couple of kilometres away or something. But it was an unsettling sound to hear in the middle of a forest road in the middle of the night.

Playing it safe, Emer pulled off to the side and stopped the car, straining her ears for the sound in the hopes she could figure out what it was, or where it was specifically coming from. But it was silent. At least for a moment.

Then-

EeEEeeeEeee!

The best way Emer could think to describe it was that it sounded like a mix between nails on a chalkboard and someone playing a vinyl too fast. A high pitched sort of whirring sound, unpleasant to listen to and unnerving to hear.

It was... disturbing.

Taking a deep breath, Emer started the car up again and pulled away, giving herself a good shake as she got back on track. A quick glance at the rear-view showed her flower hadn’t even so much as twitched. Which made some sense. Once she’d fallen asleep, her love would sleep through a roaring train going through their living room.

Besides, it was probably nothing.

The high pitched noise wasn’t the only odd sound Emer heard as she drove.

It took a minute for her to register just what it was, but she could’ve sworn she was hearing... wings. Giant, flapping wings, like a massive bird trying to take off. Which didn’t make much sense. Sure, maybe it was an owl, but even a large owl wouldn’t sound like that, right?

Were it not for how familiar she was with the audio book, Emer might’ve written it off as an ambient sound to help set the mood. But it wasn’t. They weren’t even at the part where such a sound might make sense, and the audio book didn’t have any ambient sounds to begin with.

“Probably just my mind playing tricks,” Emer muttered to herself. “I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.”

The next stop was by the roadside. Another downside of the energy drinks.

Emer squatted by the roadside, muttering under her breath. This was perhaps the only time where she wished she could just whip it out and go. Unfortunately, to do so would require her to have an actual penis, and that wasn’t in the cards for her.

Instead, she had to drop trow, squat in an awkward manner to try and avoid accidentally pissing on her clothes, and go.

Not the most convenient situation one can find herself in.

Once she was finished, pulling up her trousers with a sigh of relief, Emer was about to get back to the car and use the hand sanitizer they kept in the glove box when she noticed something.

It was... quiet.

Like, eerily quiet.

She couldn’t hear any birds or insects, and normal sounds one might associate with the forest at night. It was just... silence.

Had it not been for the fact that she really had to piss, she might’ve noticed it sooner, but... well, she noticed it now.

“Fuck that,” She muttered, hurrying into the car and locking the door behind her. She’d seen enough horror movies to know something was up. What, she couldn’t say, but she wasn’t about to find out.

Tired of the audio book, she switched over to a playlist she’d saved on her phone, quietly listening to music as she continued down the ever windy road. It helped to pep her up, tapping along to the beat on the steering wheel. That and the coffee she grabbed at a small 24 hour convenience store she’d stopped at when they were driving through a tiny little town. It wasn’t very good, but it tasted much better than the energy drinks did, and she was drinking it more for the caffeine anyway.

But as much as she tried to lose herself in the music and the drive, there was something niggling at the back of her mind. A feeling that she couldn’t quite describe. Not at first.

It felt like... like there was someone or something watching her, just... a pair of eyes, staring. More than once, she’d checked the rear-view mirror, thinking that her darling had woken up at some point. But every time, her eyes were closed, leaving Emer alone with the feeling of eyes watching her. Just... just staring

She wanted to chalk it up to her mind playing tricks on her, her imagination growing bored and running wild. But there was just something... real about it all. It didn’t feel like her imagination. And that thought was not a pleasant one.

Emer was proud to say she didn’t scare easily. It took a lot to unnerve her. But this drive, oh, it was doing the trick.

Honestly, now more than ever, she just wanted to get out of this forest road and get to their planned destination. But checking the map, she still had a ways to go, and that knowledge left a metallic, sour taste in her mouth. A taste she was fairly certain wasn’t from the energy drinks.

“Pull yourself together, girl,” She muttered, slapping her cheeks a bit in an attempt to bring about some sense. “Just a little creeped out by the woods, that’s all.”

She continued driving down the windy road, despite desperately wanting to just... just go. Driving fast down a dark, unfamiliar road was a terrible idea though, and the near constant twists and turns forced her to go slow anyway. As creeped out as she was, Emer was carrying precious cargo in the backseat, and she wasn’t about to threaten that.

Maybe if she had her flower in the front with her, she wouldn’t feel so unnerved. But she wasn’t about to wake her love and make her come to the front just to try and put herself at ease. She’d driven for eight hours straight, and more than earned her rest. And Emer would rather be damned than wake her right then.

All the same, she found herself loathing the fact that she had to piss again (why did the coffee and energy drinks have to through her like they did?), and pulled off to the side once more.

Taking a deep breath, she got out of the car, this time with a knife in hand for a bit of peace of mind, and dropped trow to piss.

She tried to relax herself, her tensed nerves making her slow to start, but she was able to finish quickly, thank god.

Pulling up her trousers and buttoning them up, she heard the high pitched sound again, accompanied by the flapping of massive wings and the sound of a solid thump.

Knife gripped tightly in hand, Emer whipped around to see... holy shit.

It was big. No, it was huge, with red eyes that shown like lamps. It was a solid, black... thing, and Emer wasn’t sure she could make out any real details, even if it wasn’t dark.

The red eyes watched her, the head cocking to the side like a dog, as though curious or confused. Emer didn’t do anything. She was just frozen in place.

The... creature (because Emer didn’t know what else to call it) just watched her. She wasn’t sure for how long, or why it was just watching. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it blinked, spreading it’s massive wings and lifting off the car with nothing more than a thudding sound as it took off. Leaving Emer alone in a dazed silence with her knife.

It took a moment for her brain to connect with her legs again. It took another moment to force herself to walk back to the car, and all her willpower to stop them from shaking.

It... didn’t work like she’d hoped.

She slid back into the car, slumped into the driver’s seat, her hands shaking in her lap.

“What the fuck was that?” She whispered. It felt wrong to speak any louder. Like it might hear her or something.

She glanced at the rear-view mirror, half expecting to see the wide eyes of her love staring back at her, to hear her flower’s voice asking what the fuck they’d just seen.

But no. She was still fast asleep in the backseat, dead to all the world. She hadn’t even flinched, despite the car shifting when the creature landed.

“I’ve never envied you so much before,” Emer muttered, giving her love a wry smile before taking a deep breath. “Let’s just... let’s just get out of here.”

Putting the car in gear, she pulled away from the roadside and continued on, silently praying to whatever god that would listen that she wouldn’t see that... that thing again.