Near midnight, I was driving the three of us home. We had been at a music festival for the last five days, and now found ourselves on the deserted motorway. The orange hue on the bone dry asphalt reminded me of previous holidays. It was a guilty pleasure of mine.
Tom was in the passenger seat of my car. His seat was pushed away from the dashboard, almost as far back as Jen, who sat in the back.
‘’meet you all the way, Roseanna yeh!’’ Tom belted along to the radio. Jen joined in too.
I definitely remember chiming in.
‘’I didn’t expect Parkway Drive to be that good’’’ Jen said.
‘’you’re welcome, I’ve only been recommending them to you for about 9 years, it only took you seeing them live to believe me” I replied, feeling very smug.
‘’yeh, yeh, you were a fan before they were big, we know’’ Tom said sarcastically.
‘’I won’t tolerate this vicious attack on my character, good sir’’ I said in a fake posh accent. He summed me up in a nutshell.
We were having a great time, and were finishing up our journey together.
I then saw the service station.
I put my left indicator on and took the slip road off the motorway. We parked up at the services. It was a large building. Several restaurant logos were splashed up on the LED entry signs.
‘’right, piss now, or forever hold your peace’’ I said semi-solemnly too my friends.
Both Tom and Jen sprang out of their seats. Tom almost bumped his head on the way out of my little Vauxhall Corsa. He didn’t even undo the passenger latch, I undid it for Jen, and she sprang free from the prison that was the back seats of my three door.
We burst into the services foyer, and scanned for the bog-signs. Jen had eagle eyes, she spotted them near the casino, so we made a B line to them.
Myself and Tom came out of the toilets and went to the Burger King.
‘’Where’s Jen?’’ I said, finishing up my chips.
‘’ I dunno Ben, must be a hell of a queue for the bog’’ Tom said.
We waited a couple more minutes, and then got a text from Jen. She said she was by the car.
We headed out to find her. My car was all by itself under the flood-lit car park. The orange hue was now ominous-like.
Jen was not near the car. She was inside. Strange, I could have sworn I locked my car.
‘’You weren’t hungry?’’ I asked Jen. Normally, she was game for food.
‘’no’’ she said quietly. Her voice was neutral. It was now cold in the car, despite it being an evening in late June.
I put the heating on, and we set off from the services.
‘’sooner or later, God’ll cut you down’’ myself and Tom sing, to one of our favourite songs.
It was also one of Jen’s favourites. But she didn’t join in. She didn’t join in any of the other songs. I thought she might be asleep, so I checked on her in the mirror. But she was sat upright. The back seemed clouded with shadow. Her face was obscured by it.
I turned the sound down on the radio, and that’s when I heard the humming. It was a low hum, and mixed with a gurgle, guttural sound when she went too low.
That’s when Tom inched forward on his seat, cramping his legs in the smaller space. He didn’t say anything, which was strange.
A notification pinged on my phone, I dared to open it whilst driving. It was Tom.
‘’I don’t think that’s Jen in the back’’ Tom texted.
Cold blood rushed through my veins. Tom and I shared a quick glance at each other.
That’s when I put my indicator on.
I turned the car around after the slip road, and drove back in the direction of the services.
‘’I left my wallet behind’’ I lied.
We drove and parked back at the same services. ‘’Jen’’ didn’t want to get out of the car, so we left it in the car, and went into the station.
‘’fucking hell, what do we do?’’ I panicked.
‘’first, we find Jen, and then get far away from whatever the hell is on your back seat.’’ Tom said calmly. He was good in a crisis I realised.
We first searched the restaurants, then the bar, then the casino. No luck. We asked a lady to check if there was a Jen in the bathroom, she came back and said no-one was in there.
‘’if you check the car park, I’ll check the rest of the building’’ Tom said methodically. She couldn’t be far we realised.
There was a gentle warm breeze in the car park. I decided to check near the HGV lorries for my friend.
All I found were empty gaps between each lorry. The HGVs had their sleeper curtains drawn for the night.
I then got a call.
‘’I found her Ben. She was at the bar, tucked in a corner with a Gin and Tonic. She’s pissed off at us for leaving her though!’’ Tom explained with relief in his voice.
‘’That’s good to hear!’’ a wave of relief went over me.
‘’we’re in the car, come to us!’’ Tom said cheerfully.
‘’Okay, I’ll head over, see you in a sec’’.
I walked over to the car and saw there was no one in the passenger seat.
However, there were two people on the back seats.
Both passengers had plenty of room for their legs, despite the front seat being all the way back.
I couldn’t see their faces, both shadows were looking at me.
I got another phone call.
‘’Ben! What are you waiting for? Get on in! I bought some chocolate buttons, and even got you a coffee.’’ Tom said, almost too cheerfully.
‘’Hi Ben! How about you get in the car and drive us home? You left me, you owe me that at least!’’ Jen chimed in. She was not this positive normally.
I was about to grab the door handle, when all the hairs stood up on my neck. It was an animalistic instinct, all alarm bells were telling me to not open that door.
‘’I need to go for a piss, back in a minute’’ I said to my passengers. They both sighed, it felt like a guilt trip.
I then got into the services and called the police. They were reluctant to come out to me, they must have thought it was a hoax.
They did eventually come out and check the car. They found no trace of anyone or thing in the back of my car. They then gave me a warning for wasting police time. I was lucky to not get prosecuted.
I decided to leave my car there and get a taxi home.
I called my friends from the taxi, and it went straight to voicemail.
I went back the following day to get my car, but it had disappeared before I got there.
I didn’t hear from Tom or Jen after that.