The drive back is miserable. You’ve been on the road for 6 hours straight, and the only radio station available refuses to play anything other than sluggish acoustic music. To make things worse, you can almost feel your stomach collapsing inwards from hunger. You really should’ve eaten a meal before leaving, but you were busy with arranging your belongings and sending important last-minute emails. Even after arriving at the airport, you’ll only have an hour to spare before boarding your flight and returning to another stressful semester at university. Your frustrations continue building as the car speeds forward, until suddenly, everything comes to a halt.

A wrecked car is obstructing the road ahead, still giving out smoke. In such a desolate location, you seem to be the only one to have come across this accident scene.

You step out of your vehicle, into the harsh light from the setting sun. The wreck doesn’t appear to have hit anything, nor are there any passengers. Did emergency services already take care of the situation? Then why was the debris left behind? Either way, this situation was not your responsibility to deal with. You turn around to leave.

Suddenly, a bright light shines onto your path. It’s followed by car alarms blaring loudly behind you. You whirl back towards the wrecked car. Its spotlights have turned on, illuminating a shape crawling through the smoke. Your body remains frozen in fear, watching the writhing mass emerge. It appears to have multiple human body parts, all in a charred amalgamation of burnt corpses.

H̸̭͖̃́͘h̶̡̛̙͚h̷̦̠̲͐͘͠H̶͉͕̭̿͋͝H̶̼̠̽̓͘h̸͇̙͓̅̒͒Ã̵̗͗a̷̢̰̤̚á̵̦͚͉A̸̬͂͆A̵̲̪̜͠a̴̯̤͇̕Ḁ̶͙̉̈̀A̸͈̺͚͐̔̈ả̴͇͈̯̏h̶͈͍̎H̷͇̠̊h̸̳̗̊H̷͖̫͍̾̌̔H̴̡͖̒͝

They all gasp out in pain. One of its hands reaches around your right ankle. To your horror, you feel a burning sensation on your skin in contact with the creature. You panic and stumble out of its grasp, but a painful blistering wound is left on your foot. In the struggle, your shoe was pulled off by the creature, and it melts into the creature’s grip. You can only scoot further backwards. The air is filled with the smell of your burnt flesh and thick smoke strangling your lungs.

This is a monster. You have to get away before it kills you.

You pick up a rock and toss it at one of the creature’s heads. It recoils, giving you time to get up and limp back towards your car. Unfortunately, your eyes have begun filling with tears from the smoke, causing your vision to turn blurry. From the texture beneath your feet, you must’ve stumbled off course onto the grass. There’s no stopping now. Your only option is to keep running from the groaning noises close behind.

You sprint until your legs are on the verge of giving out, and every breath hurts in your constricted chest. It must’ve taken around half an hour to lose the monster. The sun has set by now, and you’re lost in a dark forest. You fIsh out your phone, intending to call for help, but doubt begins to creep in. The authorities would never believe your story without proof. Lost and afraid, your next instinct is to contact your mom.

*Brrr Brrr Beep*

Your mom just hung up on you. Instead, you receive a text message back.

“Sorry dear. I’m in a meeting right now. Make sure not to miss your flight.”

Even though her response was not unexpected, it was still disappointing. She was always too busy for you. In a way though, it pushed you to earn achievements so as to not let down her expectations for you.

Luckily, you managed to find your way back to the road while on the phone, and your car is still there. Unsettlingly however, the wrecked car has vanished from existence. Even the tire skid marks it left behind were gone as well. Was it ever there? Or did you hallucinate from the stress of overworking? If so, then why was your right foot badly burned? There were no answers left behind.

Your main priority should be to reach the airport on time. Everything else will resolve itself later. You turn the keys left in the ignition and continue driving onwards. Even if that incident was harrowing, you still have responsibilities. Along the way, you notice the car getting warmer. Did the aircon stop working? At least the fuel gauge still displayed that there was enough for the remaining journey. You feel like melting.

*Thud*

hHHhhhEEEeeLLLLPppPP

The sound from above your car roof chills you to the bone. You brake, but your hands aren’t nearly fast enough to undo your seatbelt and open the car door before everything combusts into flames. The pain of your skin bursting open and blood bubbling is unbearable, from being incinerated alive. However, as your nerves burn away, you begin to notice the creature’s desperate cries for help. You witness the creature slide down onto the windshield, and lock its many eyes on you. Strangely, it’s like you share its feelings and it shares yours. The horror, exhaustion, confusion, and relief. Everything you can’t escape. Then everything turns dark and you die.