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Chapter 6

With hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel, the blue-eyed splendor opted to drive some odd hours before switching off with another from the group. At this point, Brittany was more than determined to make it to the university, to start a new chapter in her life as a freshman in college.

In her mind, everything was flawless… too flawless…

"Britt… your driving kind of sucks," Alvin commented from the seat behind Brittany's, kicking a foot upon the seat's shoulder as he watched Brittany ride the white dotted line for some miles.

"Yeah, but at least I'm not hallucinating!" she shot back with a sharp laugh.

The others couldn't help but to laugh right along; that is, excluding Eleanor, who seemed to be the only person to believe Alvin thus far.

"Whatever," he spat with a roll of his eyes.

"How long 'til we get there?" Theodore asked as he poked his head up from his phone. "I'm starving!"

Simon sighed as he eyed Theodore, his gaze full of annoyance. "Theo, you should have eaten when we stopped five hours ago."

"Well, I wasn't too hungry then…"

"Can you hold out for another few hours?" Simon pleaded with wide eyes. "At this rate, we'll miss move in day, and might even miss classes!"

Theodore smirked. "Fine, but I choose where we eat next!"

"And if you must know," Simon began as he readjusted his wrist watch. "We have seven hours left…"

The next two hours seemed to rush past as the gang kept themselves occupied with social media, books, and even a crossword puzzle or two. No matter what, however, Alvin couldn't shake the feeling. What feeling some may ask?

Dread.

Pure, foreboding dread.

It nauseated him to the point of skipping out on food at various rest stops. He couldn't release himself from the feeling, and it was becoming agitating, to say the least. All he could think about was the thing he saw in the middle of the road that night. It looked like Brittany, right down to her signature auburn hair tied into a ponytail; however, no one else saw the being, making it appear as though his sanity fell off the deep end. And that truck; it had all the opportunity in the world to kill Eleanor and himself had Alvin not thought swiftly.

He figured it was all coincidence. Yeah. Nothing but coincidence, his mind playing tricks. Maybe he was just nervous about the university and what it had to hold. Yeah, that's right.

That's all it was.

Suddenly, he felt a soul-shaking yank to the right of him, pulling him from his drowning thoughts.

It was Eleanor… but her wide, brown eyes were fixated outside her window, and as she held Alvin by the sleeve, he could tell she was violently trembling; seizure-like, almost.

"Alvin…" she whispered as she pulled him closer. "Look…"

Alvin unbuckled his seatbelt and scooted his way towards Eleanor and peered out. All he saw was lack of vegetation, the bright, warming sun sitting in the sky, and… was that a tumble weed and cacti? She urged him to look closer, and that's when he saw it…

It was Brittany again.

The entity stood at the side of the road, blue eyes glaring, stance – beholding. The gut-wrenching part? Her menacing smile that exposed sharpened teeth, and she held a hitch-hiker's thumb high in the sky, as if attempting to catch a ride, and just as quickly as they saw her, they drove right on pass, leaving the image imprinted in their memory.

With labored breathing, Alvin snatched his gaze from the window to the driver seat only to see Brittany jamming out to number one hits over the radio with Eleanor in the front passenger.

There she was, not on the side of the road, but driving, where she should be.

And nobody else noticed.

Alvin looked to Eleanor to see her face had flushed of all color as she loosened her grip on Alvin's crewneck. She shook her head slowly, still gazing out the windowpane as if the entity would rear its ugly head once more.

Neither knew what to say; they knew their siblings wouldn't believe a word they had to say…

Maybe they'd become believers once they noticed the speeding semi-truck barreling towards them. On the wrong side of the road.