The disturbing video Kyle had witnessed had still been playing back in his mind.
Seeing that poor young boy just.. be a corpse. If it was fake, it was one very convincing fake.
He had a terrible nightmare about it all. He could only remember it somewhat. He talked to the boy, but his skin was pale and his eyes were red. Lips dark. Like talking to a zombie in the fresh stage of decomposition. Kyle asked who the boy was in the dream, and the boy simply vanished.
The fact he was able to go on sleeping after that.. or sleep in a tent at all after the circumstances.. was a testament to his taste for danger.
As he awoke in his tent, he saw a new text from an unknown sender.
He opened it, being met with nothing else but a link.
Had it not been for the dangerous game he had been playing with the strange caller, he would've assumed it was spam. Instead, he clicked the link.
It was on the archives of a newspaper, dating all the way back to.. of course, 1950.
He was struggling to see much relevancy outside of the publishing date. It was an article about some old festival that had taken place.
Until he came across the pictures. It showcased different people in attendance.. and one of them was the same boy and his father.
Kyle gulped.
There was no doubt now. That video was from 1950, unless the article was somehow an incredibly well-made fake.
He scrolled desperately, reversed image searched, everything he could think of. He couldn't find anything on how these two males were.
He gave up after a while, prepared to stuff his phone back in his pocket before he received another text.
Of course, it was from an unknown sender.
Get out of the tent. Get into your truck. Get out of the forest. Head for Oregon.
There they were. The same person who had been stalking him and calling him. Sending him orders through text, now.
"Maybe they got lazy." He scoffed under his breath.
Kyle got dressed and put his backpack on, heading deep into the forest.
He had always loved hiking. And he didn't have to play this game verbatim. He wanted to look around the scenery. It was something he always appreciated.
So, he decided to do just that. He could follow the game later.
He could see a river in the distance and he could just imagine it now. The forest in the backyard of his family farm-home. How he and Charlotte used to play and fish together there.
...
In the forest of the backyard of his farm-home, 7-year old Kyle and 6-year old Charlotte ran through the wilderness, with Kyle a few feet ahead of her while she was trying to keep up.
Kyle sprinted around with his swim trunks as Charlotte joined him in her swimsuit.
They soon make it to their destination, the river, where they ran down to the dock, dropped their towels, kicked off their flip-flops, and then dived into the water. The two splashed each other with water and laughter filled the general area.
"I totally beat you!" Kyle puffed his chest with his high pitched voice.
Charlotte giggled and teasingly put her hand up to his face. "Nooo!"
"Prove it!" Kyle splashed some more water on her playfully.
"I will!" Charlotte yelled out.
Just then, it seemed that Kyle was suddenly pulled underwater.
Charlotte stepped back, tilting her head in confusion. The young girl waited for her friend to emerge, but he didn't.
Until finally, he sprung up behind her and had the water splashing all over them.
He was flailing his arms all around. "Somethin's got me, somethin's got me!" He screeched. "Help me, summin's got my leg!" He cried out.
Charlotte gasped with her mouth agape, but she was stopped before she could help him when Kyle was seemingly pulled back underwater.
Charlotte frantically snapped her head around to try and find her friend. "Kyle? Kyle? Kyle?!" She screeched out. Her mouth began to tremble and her eyes watered, easily frightened at her young age.
She looked down and began to splash around the water to try and find him, but Kyle suddenly swam behind her and leaped out of the water.
"Roar!" He growled out as scarily as he could with his undeveloped voice.
Charlotte screamed loudly in response, and then calmed him.
"K-Kyle!" She crossed his arms and the water splashed as she dramatically moved away.
"Hah! I got ya good! I scared ya, didn't I?" Kyle began to relentlessly tease her. "Again!" He taunted her and splashed. "Always get ya!"
"Don't scare me like thaaat." She drew out her voice and pouted as she crossed her arms.
"You shoulda seen your face!" Kyle threw his head back in laughter. "You were so scared!"
"Was not!" Charlotte scoffed. They began to splash each other with water some more as they continued to laugh and play.
...
Kyle smiled at the memory.
It felt like the first time he had saw a place that truly reminded him of home since he began his journey. And of course, this only made him more determined to find his brother.
Maybe then, he could get a taste of that childhood innocence, that carefree spirit.
...
After a while of hiking, Kyle's mind began to drift off into more sinister areas.
He was crazy for still being here, he realized. Knowing there's a psycho-stalking-serial killer hunting him.
If this person wanted to kill him or dispose of his body, this was the perfect place to do it.
He probably wouldn't be found for a while. Even when he started rotting and stinking. Chances are, when or if someone found him, he would probably be just a skeleton with hair and clothes attached.
Despite realizing this, he ended up fishing for a while by the river. He hiked back up and took his sweet time, as if he was in no danger at all.
He had encountered his abusive father, was crossing paths with a probable serial killer, and saw footage of a 1950s father and son that resulted in death.
It was horrific, but so cool to him at the same time.
Not even in the movies did people experience so much adventure on one road trip.
He just smirked to himself. And upon arriving back at the campsite, he found it had been completely trashed.
The tent was torn up, bags and trash thrown around randomly.
Kyle squinted. Was this the stalker? Perhaps punishing him for not immediately following orders?
He didn't know, but he didn't bother to clean up the mess. He simply put the tent up and got ready to fry the bass he got from fishing. Clearly, he wasn't intimidated. If anything, it just made him look forward to more thrills. He finished eating and got inside the truck.
But once he sat down, he looked over to see the 1950 film casing gone and replaced with another.
"Woah.." he muttered, lifting the casing.
This one looked similar, but the date was "1961" instead.
He sat there and pondered over it.
How many tapes were there?
How did this stalker have so much access to this kind of stuff? No way had they been around that long. Impossible, he reasoned.
He was fascinated, disturbed, and excited to see what was on the tape. But for now, he just let it sit.
...
Time since leaving Nevada: 7 hours and 30 minutes.
Once again, Kyle had rebelled against what the stalker had said. He couldn't handle being subservient to anyone for too long. Following the stalker's orders to begin with was rebellion towards his mother, but he didn't wanna give into the stalker's demands too much.
Sure, he wanted to play the game. But he didn't wanna be seen as a submissive subject that would always do what was said.
Plus, what good was a road trip without a little sightseeing? Without doing things he'd always wanted to?
He'd get to Oregon, yes. That was his goal, where his brother was. But Oregon wasn't going anywhere. He decided he might as well live this road trip to the fullest in the meantime.
He found himself in Los Angeles, California. It was practically a cliche, but who wouldn't want to be in such a place? At least once, to see what it was like.
He found that L.A was scorching hot. And there was plenty of traffic. But there was no deadline, so he didn't stress it.
He parked his car and made sure his phone would take him to the location it was set in once he needed to leave. In the meantime, he did as he wanted.
It seemed to him that everyone in the city littered. The streets were sometimes a little gross. He had wondered if he glamorized the place too much. But the scenery really was nice outside of that. The smell of the hot summer sun and every person he passed seemingly wearing obnoxious cologne gave him mixed feelings, though.
He entered a Domino's Pizza place and it tasted far better than he remembered tasting in Kansas. Was L.A food always this good?
He got lost in just how good it was, sitting by himself for several minutes and taking everything in.
And then, a young voice behind him blurted out his name. "Kyle?"
Kyle slowly turned around to see 6- year old Colton. And his parents, Thersea and Ethan. The people he met at that Wizard of Oz amusement park four months ago.
Colton's blonde hair was a bit longer and past his neck. Thersea looked unchanged with her tan skin and dark brown hair going past her shoulders. Ethan looked the same, too, with his short dark hair.
"Oh, hey!" He smiled at them. "Really is a small world." He muttered and chuckled, waving at the boy and the couple as they followed their son, who had seemingly sprinted up to Kyle in excitement. Kyle ruffled his hair and chuckled at the young boy.
Kyle was surprised to see them. Yet elated, really. It was so nice to see friendly faces he was actually familiar with for the first time since his trip began. "What are you guys doing here?" He wondered.
"Ah, well we live around here these days." Thersea said. "What about you?" She smiled sweetly.
"I'm on a road trip, actually." Kyle laughed. "Looking for my brother."
The couple raised their brows. "Oh, I didn't know you had a brother." Thersea mused.
"Believe me." Kyle chuckled. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like I have one. My brother went off to college in 2018. Haven't seen or heard from the guy since."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Thersea frowned slightly.
"Yeah, family being broken up is awful." Ethan nodded, seeming extremely sympathetic.
Kyle paused, looking down and fidgeting with his food. "Ah, it's alright.." He wondered why he brought the issue up, when it somewhat bothered him if was discussed in the wrong way. But thankfully, he caught himself and looked back up at the family.
"Hey, uh. I imagine you guys are here to get a pizza or somethin', right?" He nodded.
"Yeah, we're actually-" Ethan spoke, but Kyle cut him off.
"How about you split mine? I probably got too much for myself anyway." Kyle laughed. "Saves money, right?"
...
The group ate their food and engaged in some small talk. It was probably the most at peace Kyle had actually felt through his trip.
"So.. what are you guys doing after this?" Kyle eventually wondered as he leaned over with a napkin and wiped pizza sauce off of Colton's mouth.
"We're gonna see an old friend of mine." Thersea gulped down her slice.
"Hmm.. maybe we can bring them some pizza, too?" Kyle raised a brow, practically inviting himself in on the journey. But he couldn't help it, he admittedly had been letting the lonely feeling get to him just a bit since the trip started.
Thankfully, the family seemed happy to let Kyle tag along.
...
Kyle and the others soon arrived at a suburban neighborhood and drove up to one of the homes. A typical house, not much different from the mid sized houses of the neighborhood.
Kyle grabbed the pizza as they walked to the door. Ethan knocked, and out stepped a woman with long fiery red hair and light eyes.
He knew who it was pretty quickly. Claire Davis. He remembered encountering her at the Oz amusement park with the others.
"Hey, guys!" Claire brightly smiled at the group. Then, her eyes shifted to Kyle. "Oh, hi. I remember you from the Oz park." She smiled and extended her hand to shake his. "What are you doing?" She smiled politely.
"I got pizza." Kyle lifted the box with his free hand and the group chuckled.
...
Claire let the group inside and they all began to chat at the table over pizza.
There was one more person who joined them. Claire's 17 year old nephew named Tommy.
Kyle remembered him, too. His blonde hair was the same length and not much had changed as he held an adult Beagle dog with a green and bone-shaped tag in his arms.
Over their lunch, Kyle had shared his story with the gang. All about the backstory with his family and why he was on his road trip.
As Kyle spoke, Claire noticed a purple bruise on Tommy's neck and frowned. "Hey.. do you mind if I ask what happened?" She eyed the bruise, gesturing toward it.
"Oh.." Kyle ghosted his fingers on his bruise for a moment. "My father." He scoffed.
The group seemed to have sad eyes in response, eyes that only grew sadder as Kyle explained all the details of what had happened with his father.
"Are you alright?" Claire frowned.
"I'm fine." Kyle said convincingly, brushing it off.
"Should we call the police, Kyle?" Ethan raised a brow with a concerned tone.
"No, no." Kyle cleared his throat. "Mom doesn't know I ran into him.. or that I spent the night with him.. or, ya know. Especially that.. he tried to kill me." He murmured. "Point is, I don't want to risk her finding this out on the news." Kyle stated.
The group seemed to understand and decided to back off.
"Hey, uh.. you could spend the night with us, maybe?" Tommy suddenly suggested.
"I. I mean. I don't wanna intrude.." Kyle said.
"No, it'd be fine. It's been days since you slept in a bed, right?" Claire asked.
"I.. I do miss laying in a bed." Kyle chuckled. "I can take a break and use a bed, sure." He smiled.
And a few hours later, Kyle found himself enjoying Tommy's company as they discussed various books and movies and played video games. Tommy seemed to be quiet, but their small talk was pleasant. And Kyle needed it after the vacant feeling of the road trip.
It was like a little sleep-over as they fell into slumber in their sleeping bags in the tent downstairs.
...
11 year old Kyle was running through the Kansas carnival, desperate. If he ran more, it was as if he'd chase out his problems.
He had just had a heated argument with his 1 year old brother. Kyle ran into his friend, 10 year old Charlotte. Who was with a 10 year old boy with long blonde hair past his neck, with blue eyes and a Beagle puppy by his side. He had a backpack on, too.
"Kyle!" Charlotte beamed. "This is Tommy. And this is Copper." She pointed at the boy, and then the dog.
...
Kyle lunged up from the sleeping bag.
"What the.." he murmured to himself, looking around the tent.
He squinted, realizing he was in the tent with an asleep Tommy.
What was the dream he had about it? What did that entail?
It was such a quick dream. And yet it felt so... real. Like playing back a memory, similar to the dream he had had when he was with his father.
"Wait..."
Was it possible he and Charlotte knew Tommy a lot longer than just these past four months?
He had no idea, but something in his consciousness wanted to say yes.
