Dal Segno
1.0
It's that short period of silence that really gets to you. The song fades out, and you're forced back to the present. Forced back to the real world with all its reminders to thoughts and feelings you just wish you could turn off. That you don't want to be here, trapped in a school van as you head to some stupid quizbowl event, which won't matter because it won't change anything. You didn't even want to come, but your parents insisted. Something about finishing what you started and responsibility and other bullshit that shows they don't even care enough to listen.
Why finish something when the reason you started is gone? Would they still go to work if they weren't getting a paycheck? But no, they say what they feel like they're supposed to say to look like "good parents" and play the role. Their role means they have power over you, though, so off to quizbowl you go.
Finally, the moment passes and the song fades in again, the first notes play, and you let yourself sink bank into that numb place between misery and trying to believe in the song. Trying to believe that the fact you were still breathing meant you were alive.
The cool glass presses against your forehead as you stare out the window, not really paying attention to the scenery going by. It was mostly just trees out here anyway, but it wasn't like you had a choice. If you turned your head at all, you would see them. The all too happy couple of your former boyfriend, and some girl he hadn't even met before this year that he was just so in love with that he hadn't hesitated in tossing you aside. Like your friendship meant nothing, like you were just trash, worthless garbage...
You stop yourself before you spiral down the familiar train of thought. It wouldn't do you any good anyway, even if you followed it all the way down to where such thoughts go. You're still stuck in this stupid van, in this stupid club that you only joined because he wanted to, forced to just stare out the window.
That's when you notice the sign, fallen over and half buried beneath vines. You barely catch sight of it before it's already gone, but it was enough to read it. "No trespassing, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." You're still thinking about how weird that was when a sudden jolt causes you to nearly smack your face on the window.
With a grimace, you turn your head away from the window, carefully not seeing the way he was leaning over, saying something to her with that smile, that little smile that used to be yours alone, that said he was being so damn clever and knew it. No, you leaned forward so you could focus on the front of the car, where your teacher Ms. Rafferty was driving, hands placed precisely at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions. The road ahead looked less like a road, and more like a muddy path that someone had spilled a few handfuls of gravel on.
Seeing she was having some sort of discussion with Angel in the passenger seat, made clear due to the way he flung his hands around anytime he talked, you pull out your earbuds and leaned forward to see what was going on.
"-it'd just take a minute, Ms. Rafferty," he was pleading.
"I'd rather stop and get some directions. Those phone apps are unreliable, why one of my old coworkers…" Ms. Rafferty begins to tell the story of how map quest once led her coworker into nearly driving off a pier that she had said a million times.
Angel looks pained, as he seemingly wars between his instinct to defend his beloved technology, and his instinct to suck up and be a teacher's pet.
The old you would have laughed at the thought.
Then again, the old you would have been able to share it with David, your eyes flicking over to where he sat in the row of seats ahead of you, in the middle seat so he could be next to his wonderful, new girlfriend.
"It's okay, I'm still alive," you whisper the lie to yourself, feeding yourself the words to the song. You heard somewhere once that a lie repeated enough times would become true.
Maybe it's the desire to prove that you're still alive by actually doing something that prompts it, but you turn to try and talk to the final member of the quizbowl team, Tony.
Only to find that he was somehow asleep, even when the van was shaking and bouncing like it was driving on a road made of rumble strips, his wool hat pulled down over his eyes, his mouth slightly agape. Not quite drooling, but it's a close thing. Sometimes you wonder if the boy does anything other than sleep, given how many classes you've seen him pass out in, but that's neither here nor there. It does mean that your feeble attempt to reach out and prove your existence by interacting with another person was doomed before it started.
You're still wondering what you should do when the car slows and comes to a stop, causing Tony to jolt awake.
"We there?" he asks, shifting his hat up so he could see, blearily looking around.
"Yeah, though their district has had a lot of budget cuts, so it's a bit run down. You know rural schools" you reply dryly, but he just looks around in confusion, too groggy to catch on.
You think you hear a familiar snort of amusement, but when you look David is just studying the scenery.
Tony makes a face at you, having finally woken up enough to realize that you were having him on. You just look at him, deadpan. After a short staring contest he cracks a smile and shakes his head as he starts looking around.
There's not much to look at though. In front of the van is an ancient looking two story farmhouse, that honestly looks abandoned. Its paint is peeling, the porch obviously sagging with rot, and either it never had glass windows or they were all smashed in at some point.
To the left of you is an old barn that looks similarly decrepit, with obvious holes in the roof, and the main door no longer attached, but merely leaning against the side of the barn. A stump with an axe sticking out of it and a pile of wood is barely visible beyond the barn from where you're sitting.
To the right are just trees and woods, overgrown with underbrush, which circle around the entire small clearing. No sign of farmland or animals, or anything that might hint the place has been used in the past fifty years.
"Ms. Rafferty, I don't think there's anyone to ask directions from…" you find yourself saying, as you look back up the small dirt path snaking back through the trees towards the main road.
"Not to worry, dear, I saw the farmer working by the woodpile as we drove up," she reassures you, as she unbuckles her seatbelt and opens the door. "You kids behave," she says, her slight smile betraying her thoughts on the likelihood that the quizbowl team would misbehave, before she shuts the door.
"I hope we're not late," bemoans Angel, as he continues to fiddle with his phone, raising it above his head and twisting it this way and that, still trying to get a signal to get a map to win an argument he's already lost.
"We'll be just fine, Angel, this'll only take a few minutes. We always get there super early anyway," David replies, and you hate the way you instinctively begin to crane forward to listen to him as soon as he starts speaking, and do your best to tune him out.
It's not like it'll be a riveting conversation anyway.
You force yourself turn back to Tony, only to see that he's already pulled his hat back down in preparation for more sleep, so you instead decide to watch Ms. Rafferty.
It doesn't take her long to make her way over towards the woodpile when you catch sight of the farmer she mentioned beside the barn. Dressed in overalls, a flannel shirt, and wearing a wide-brimmed hat the man looked more like a caricature of a farmer than the real thing.
Ms. Rafferty waved at him as she approached when her stride suddenly hitched and she stopped, mid-motion. You sit up, still trying to puzzle out why when a sharp *crack* assaulted your ears. And then another immediately after, causing you to wince. Ms. Rafferty toppled over bonelessly, and your breath catches in your throat as you see the gun in the farmers hand. He casually tilts the gun down and fires a third time into Ms. Rafferty, and you're pretty sure you can see blood from even here.
"Fuck! He shot her!" you hear Tony yell beside you, but you sit frozen, unable to reply. Unable to scream , unable to even breathe. Like someone was choking the life out of you, as the certainty that you were going to die hit you like a hammer.
Ignoring the chaos that was erupting inside the van, even as the part that always is paying attention to David notes how he's moved so close to you to better see, you simply look at the farmer as he calmly holsters his gun, and then begins to change. His arms, which had seemed normal, unfold forward revealing an extra joint as too long fingers curl around the axe, wrenching it free from the stump. It takes a step towards the van, and you realize its legs are similarly inhuman as the creature rises to its full height, taller than the barn door it passes. Its coming for you.
You need to do something! Anything!
You...
[] Open the door and run!
-[] Towards the farmhouse. You need to get away, and it's away
-[] Towards the barn. It's too close
-[] Into the woods
-[] Back up the road. It'll take you close than you want, but it's the only way that leads to safety
[] Lock the doors!
-[] Try to get the car started
-[] Try to call the police
-[] Try to find a weapon or something to defend yourself with
-[] Write-in
