I woke to what sounded like a shriek in the distance.
“What was that noise?” I groggily asked, trying to hide that I had dozed off.
“An animal.” My boyfriend replied.
We had met about three months ago at the hospital where I worked as a nurse. He had been brought in with a broken leg that needed surgery, broken ribs, and a punctured lung after a nasty fall while hiking. I had laughed off his flirtatious words when I tended to him. All the female staff was used to the male patients being over friendly towards us. Especially in our small, northern city of Prince George where everyone knows everyone.
But after he was discharged, he returned to the unit with flowers and asked me to dinner. We went out that weekend to a fancy little place. I learned he was in finance but after the sudden loss of both his parents, he had taken a leave of absence to travel. Then to top it off he had been restricted to Canada because of the pandemic.
“I’m not complaining though, our country is beautiful,” he smiled at me, his sparkling blue eyes gazing into my earth brown ones, “almost as beautiful as you.”
The line was cheesy, but I blushed anyway. Things had moved quickly between us. We were both in our late twenties, had a lot of the same interests, and even though we only knew each other for a few months, we felt like old friends. And we both knew our time was limited; I had a life here and he still wanted to continue traveling. So, when he asked if I wanted to go on a road trip with him to the coast for a short vacation, I said yes.
I hadn’t been on a road trip since I was a child. I couldn’t help but bounce out to the car with my suitcase and sunhat, my face breaking into a grin as I saw him standing by the open trunk of his SUV.
“I can’t wait to be stuck in a car with you for eight hours.” He laughed, looking down at me as he ran his fingers through my long dark hair.
It was evening by the time we hit the road. We had left as soon as my shift was over, determined to make the most of my few days off from work. We talked and listened to music, taking a detour to visit a hot spring and sleepily ate dinner afterwards. Finally, we pulled onto Highway 16, the sky turning red with the sunset. I barely finished twisting my damp hair into two long braids before I started drifting off, even though I had promised to stay awake with him.
I don’t know how much time had passed by when I woke up.
“Maybe it was a fox or a coyote.” I yawned as I sat up, peering out at the night whipping by.
That was when I felt a prickle on the back of my neck and saw something unnerving out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turned and almost jumped when I locked eyes with my boyfriend who was staring at me with a blank expression, his head twisted to the side and his face eerily lit by the blue light from the dashboard.
“Shouldn’t you be watching the road?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice steady as his unblinking eyes bore into mine, but a deep primal fear was creeping up my spine.
He didn’t answer me. He just kept staring with empty eyes that looked black in the shadows cast on his vacant face. The car suddenly felt very small and very dangerous.
I flicked my eyes to the clock on the dash. It was 5am. We had started the second leg of the road trip around 9pm and we were supposed to have arrived at our hotel on the coast already. Three hours ago, to be exact. My mind started racing and it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually known this man for that long. His lone traveler story was convenient and I hadn’t thought to question it. That primal fear gripped my throat now.
“Where are we?” I stuttered out.
A minute went by, his head still turned to me, his hands gripping the steering wheel, the car barreling into the darkness, before I tore my eyes away. I couldn’t stand to look at him but I was afraid to completely turn away from him. I slowly pulled out my phone and partially turned, holding the device down between my leg and the door. I tried dialing 911 but the call kept dropping. I half expected him to rip the phone from my hands and throw it out the window but he didn’t move a muscle. So, I tried calling down my contact list, texting my parents and friends, anyone. But nothing went through.
When I realized my futile efforts and the gravity of the situation I was trapped in, I turned back to him and shakily demanded, “What do you want? Who are you?”
Tears welled in my eyes as he remained motionless and silent, his unsettling stare remained fixed on me. This person beside me wasn’t the charming, care- free, loving, man I spent the last few months with. This person didn’t even look human at all. I thought about punching him but I didn’t want to touch him. I didn’t want to grab the wheel either and cause a crash. We were going too fast for me to jump out of the car.
I gazed out of the windshield, watching the white lines passing by in an infinite blur, his shadowy face in my peripheral, as I scrambled to think of a coherent escape plan. My hands began shaking as another realization dawned on me. The sun should have been rising by now but it was still pitch-black outside. Maybe this was some awful dream, maybe if I could fall back asleep somehow then it would be morning and my boyfriend would be back to normal. I slowly let out a breath as I laid the seat all the way back, the things head slowly turning to follow me until his neck should have been broken, his face now completely darkened by the shadows.
“Where are you taking me?!” I raised my voice at him, tears streaking down my cheeks as he continued to stare blankly at me, “Where are we going?!”
I put the seat back up, his head swiveling to follow my every move as I glared at him, sickened and scared of his inhuman, vacant face.
I turned my back to him and curled up against the door as I opened up the map and zoomed in on my location. The little blue dot was still on Highway 16 but it wasn’t moving anywhere. Odd. I also realized that his location showed he was kilometers behind me, somewhere way off the road. Even more odd. If he was out there, who was in here, sitting right beside me? Terror settled into my bones as I slowly looked back over my shoulder.
I screamed and recoiled when I saw his face was inches from mine, his eyes impossibly wide, his mouth stretched even wider in a silent cry. Blood turned black in the shadows dripped from his gaping mouth and from his matted down hair. One hand was still on the steering wheel but the other was reaching out to grab me. I hadn’t even finished screaming when the car lurched to a sudden halt and I was thrown forward, my seatbelt locking.
He didn’t move but his widened eyes followed me as I scrambled to undo my seatbelt and fell backwards out the door when I managed to open it, gravel digging into my skin as I kicked my heels to move away from the car. I got to my feet and started running away from the road, only glancing back once. He was standing outside of the car, his face still twisted into a grotesque expression of pure terror, one hand still reaching out to me.
I ran blindly into the darkness, aiming for the tree line, when I tripped and skidded along the ground, the wind knocked out of me. I immediately sat up, trying to catch my breath, when I heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.
Suddenly my head was yanked backwards as someone dragged me by my braids through the dirt and into the darkness of the forest. I screamed as loud as I could, scratching at the hands and arms of whoever’s fist was gripping my hair, twisting and flailing my body but it was no use.
“Let me go, please!” I shrieked through the tears, fear cracking in my voice, “Why are you doing this to me?!”
When he finally released me, I tried to get up and run but it was too dark to see anything. I stumbled straight into the chest of someone else who laughed low and menacingly as he shoved me back down to the ground. Towering, shadowy figures closed in around me, their teeth and eyes glistening in the night.
I don’t know how many assailants there were or what they looked like.
I wish I could say I survived.
I wish I could say it was over quickly.
But they tore at my body, violating it, abusing it, for hours, until it was nothing but blood and broken bones.
They left me to die there, their receding footsteps barely audible over the sounds of my own wet, labored breathing as I slowly drowned in my own blood. All of my limbs had been shattered to ensure I couldn’t drag myself to find help.
I cried silently as the life left my body.
The darkness finally retreated then, beaten back by the warmth of the light. Through the eye that wasn’t swollen shut, I could see the golden rays of the sunrise drip down from the canopy of leaves above me. It was so beautiful. I tried to smile in those last moments but loose teeth filled one cheek and the other half of my face was completely numb.
“Marie?” a soft, familiar voice said.
I turned and saw my boyfriend looking at me, his handsome face full of sorrow, but his blue eyes alight with love. I slowly sat up, taking his outstretched hand, reuniting with him once more. Surrounding us were many other faces of all ages, mostly women who resembled me in some way. Or perhaps I resembled them.
“You are free now, daughter.” They said in unison and I felt the rumble of their great, ancient voices in my chest, in my soul.
My boyfriend smiled at me as we both stood up to join them.
We turned our backs to the fading darkness and walked into the rising sun.