THE SITUATION

Marla, from Marla’s World, has created a writing challenge. The challenge is for multiple authors to write a single story. She will choose a story that she has written, or that another author has submitted for this challenge, and she will nominate the next person to continue writing it. Once that person has added their section, they will nominate the next author. It will continue like this until the story is complete.

THE STORY SO FAR …..

Marla has started this story

“Drive! Get the hell out of here,” he thought as he sped down her dense tree-lined driveway. “Thank you,” he said to his car, the first time he felt truly happy his old car died. This one just needed a fob in his pocket to unlock the doors and start the car.

Since they matched on the app, their conversations had been so interesting and wide-ranging. Their first date went well too; she was even more beautiful than her pictures had shown. The conversation continued to flow smoothly, and the kiss at the end of the night removed any doubt from his mind that he truly liked her.

He broke convention asking her out again for the next week as soon as he had gotten home, and she agreed. They continued to talk every day, and he was getting more and more excited about tonight’s date as the week went on.

This time, she picked a restaurant an hour away, but close to her house, and he happily agreed. Once again, the date had gone really well and she invited him back to her house to watch the Netflix special they had discussed, and he followed her to her house.

He followed her down her long, dark driveway that wove through a dense forest, becoming increasingly anxious, but unable to pinpoint why. Finally, they got to the house and he was ready to jump out of his skin, but he decided to follow her inside anyway. That’s when he noticed…

Sadje continued the story

…that it was awfully quiet. No insects or birds chirping, no sound of any kind was heard. It was quiet as a graveyard. It felt like he was in another dimension altogether with the sound on mute.

He could see Rebecca beckoning him from her front door, her lips were moving but he couldn’t hear her words. His unease and jitteriness increased. She was saying something but…

“What?” he shouted.

There was no reply. He saw that she had disappeared into the house. The light coming out of the open doorway changed hue and was now purplish blue.

He slammed on the brakes. He held his breath, expecting impact, he couldn’t drive as he was almost blinded by the flash. But there was no impact and everything was instantly quiet again. He tried to get his breathing back under control, hands gripping the steering wheel with force, and opened his eyes.

He jumped into his car and reversed out of the driveway. The blue light was following his car.

Suddenly there was a very bright flash and he couldn’t see anything…

Christine added this part

What the hell is going on? he thought. Looking straight ahead he could see Rebecca’s house out the front of the windshield but there were no lights and Rebecca was nowhere to be seen. Hadn’t he just followed her here? What was going on?

He didn’t know if he should park the car and get out, going to the front door or if he should just put the car in reverse again and get the hell out of there. They had had a great dinner, he liked her and she seemed to like him, but this was all so confusing. He felt like he was dreaming. Was he in some sort of Twilight Zone?

Di added this section

With his breathing back to normal and the fear of what had just happened slowly starting to diminish, he had to chuckle to himself. It had to be that he had drunk too much. That was it. He was “seeing” things because he was drunk. They had shared the bottle of Prosecco before dinner had even started. Grabbing the driver’s side door handle, he pulled up to open his door to get out, but…

…the door was locked. He ferreted around for the fob, cursing the car, modern electronics, and technology. Where was it? He’d managed to get away so it had to be inside somewhere. The interior lights started to blink on and off, and of its own accord, the car started to move. The blue light was back, pulling him like a magnet towards Rebecca’s house.

There was still no sign of life there, but the door was wide open now. He decided he wasn’t drunk. He would never have gotten behind the wheel if he thought he’d had too much, so something else was playing with his mind, and he didn’t like it. No Sir. He didn’t like it one bit.

His fingers closed around the fob which had fallen into the passenger footwell. At his touch, the engine started and smoke came from the rear tires as he slammed it into reverse to get away. The force was strong, but the car responded brilliantly, eventually breaking the hold and the light went out. He spun the car on a dime and hightailed it down the wooded drive towards safety.

Suddenly, a shape materialised in front of him, her clothes in tatters, and her eyes wide with terror. It was not Rebecca.

Fandango wrote this part

Jason slammed on his brakes and the car came to a stop maybe five feet in front of the terrified girl. Jason’s hands on the wheel were shaking and he was breathing rapidly as he and the girl were staring at each other. Finally Jason had calmed down enough to open the car door, step out, and walk around to the girl he’d come close to running over. “Are you all right?” he asked her. “Who are you and what are you doing out here in the middle of the road?”

She didn’t say anything but started pointing back in the direction of Rebecca’s house. Jason turned to look behind him and he could see the blue light slowly moving in their direction. “Shit! Quick, get in the car,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the passenger side of the car. She resisted, but she was small and he managed to open the car’s passenger door, and literally throw her inside. He then ran around to the driver’s side, but she had engaged the automatic door locks, and with the fob still inside the car, he wasn’t able to get into it.

“Unlock the goddam door!” he yelled. “I’m trying to get us both to safety, don’t you understand?” He started to look for a rock to break the car door’s window, but it was too late. The strange blue light had engulfed Jason and the car with the girl inside of it.

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Sicilian Storyteller wrote this part:

Jason felt as though he were being sucked into some sort of vortex, spinning wildly out of control. As he was drawn in deeper and deeper into the whirlpool, objects and images flew by him and he held up his arms to keep from crashing into them. In this dizzying state he was still able to recognize some of the debris that was swirling around him, memories and people from his past.

The eddy began to spin faster and faster; Jason felt like he was about to be catapulted out at any moment when he suddenly bolted straight up in bed, drenched in sweat. He looked around and did not recognize the room he was in. Quickly he looked to the other side of the bed; it was empty. He didn’t know why but he was relieved.

Getting up, Jason walked around the room, hoping something would look familiar; no luck. There was a large window on the opposite side of the room, covered by a curtain. In two strides Jason reached the window and pulled back the curtain, not knowing what he would find on the other side. Beyond the window was a scene that bewildered Jason and he stood there staring like an idiot. The view was a sun-filled garden with beautiful fruit trees, a freshly mowed lawn and neatly-planted flowers edging the driveway. And there were two young children happily playing on swings that hung from a large oak tree off to the side. The children gaily waved at Jason and he waved back, perplexed.

Where was this place and who were those children?

Suddenly Jason became aware of a scent – the unmistakable aroma of coffee and bacon – and his stomach involuntarily grumbled. He followed the delicious fragrance to an unfamiliar kitchen. There was a slender woman in a sundress, her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, standing by the stove, cooking and softly singing along to a tune coming from a radio. Her back was to Jason. Just then she turned around and Jason was stunned to see who it was.

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For last month’s Pass the Baton, I tagged https://mrbump.uk/ (aka Pete), and he did such a good job that I’m going to tag him again.