Road Trip with a Stranger

Dear Anna, this is goodbye.

Thank you for taking care of me. I know it wasn't easy or fair. The ties that hold us are weak and burdensome. I've decided to forge my own path to see where it takes me, and I'm giving you back your freedom. Take it. From this moment on, consider me gone. Don't look for me. You won't be able to find me.

Live a good life.

Sincerely, Maya.

'Should I have explained it better?'

Maya, sitting in the passenger seat next to a woman she'd known for only a day, pondered her farewell note to Anna. It was short and ambiguous, something Anna could easily misinterpret. Maya worried Anna might see it as a darker message, something Maya had thought about but never acted on.

In the end, Anna would get all the fortune Maya's father had worked hard for, but Maya wasn't sure if Anna would try searching for her out of obligation. Despite how Maya was portraying her in her mind, Anna wasn't an evil person. She'd be concerned. Maya only hoped Anna wouldn't spend too much time trying to find her—because she never will.

Maya and Daria journeyed across the country, with Leo, visible only to Maya, sitting silently in the backseat. Having rarely travelled, Maya often found herself disoriented, unsure of their exact location. The experience of exploring unfamiliar places with a stranger was both unsettling and intriguing.

"Where's she taking you? What if it is some kind of den where she sells you into slavery?"

Maya could only glance at Leo in the rear mirror. Thinking it'd be better if she didn't reveal her secret ability to Daria just yet, she couldn't respond or react to him.

Maya sighed silently. She had her doubts about trusting a stranger so easily, but the same reason she could see him made her believe her story to be true. She needed to believe everything would turn out alright, in the end.

Soon, the time for her medication came. The moment Daria saw her try taking her medicine, she grabbed it out of her hand, asking about it.

"It's my prescription drugs. For depression and anxiety."

"You shouldn't take it anymore."

"It's my medicine. It is the only thing that kept me going all this time."

"Trust me. Exercise and a healthy diet with socializing are all the medicine you need. You'll have plenty of friends who are just like you to support you. If you turn out to need them all that much, there are natural remedies."

"Does this thing mess with my magic or something?"

"It's best you start getting used to living without it."

Maya was speechless. A hint of anxiety began catching up to her. The situation was extremely nerve-wracking and now she was learning that her only lifeline was being taken away. Can her mind handle it without her medication?

Daria sighed deeply. "Let's give it a try tonight. If it becomes too much for you, I'll return the medication. This is a crucial decision, and I don't want you to regret anything because of the influence of prescription drugs. In my experience, many of the children I recruit are often overmedicated by a flawed healthcare system. The shared trauma is understandable, but they usually adapt well without the medication. You should trust yourself more."

The trip was long, and they had way more to go. After the whole day of travel, they settled in a motel. Daria was on her phone a lot, and her not considering Maya would try to run away gave Maya a positive feeling. In an unknown place, far from painful reminders, she felt liberated. Unable to sleep, she decided to hang out by the pool.

"You really believe she's taking you to some magical place?"

Leo was sitting beside her. They were soaking their feet in the water. Or rather, she was. He was only pretending to as the water denied his existence, not producing any stir on the surface where he moved his feet. It was an unusual feeling seeing someone touching the water but not interacting with it.

"Why not?" she responded.

"Has every instinct of self-preservation died inside of you? Didn't you hear what she said to you? It sounds ridiculous."

"So does seeing dead people."

"This has some basis in reality. There are people reporting seeing ghosts. There are no people claiming to be witches and control elements or whatever."

"How do you know? And besides, she said it's not here."

"Then where? Where's she taking you?"

"Somewhere… else."

"I hope it's worth the risk."

"Maybe, I'll just wake up tomorrow safe in my bed, and everything will be how it used to be. Making this just one ridiculous dream."

"Maybe. Or maybe you'll wake up tomorrow still in this motel with a strange woman waiting to take you 'somewhere you can never return back from'," he quoted Daria.

"When is this 'back' you're talking about? Back yesterday to popping pills and staring at walls? Or a month ago doing the same? Or a year ago, still the same? 'Back' is somewhere I wasn't able to go for a long time."

It was time for her prescription drugs, but Daria threw them away. She hoped the drugs weren't the ones that kept her so calm through this. Otherwise, tomorrow could be an entirely different story.

"I'm sorry for being harsh," Maya apologized for dragging the mood down. "It means a lot that you're with me."

"Yeah, it's quite something going through this insanity with you."

"I should set some milestones…" Maya changed the subject. "If I live and this all turns out to be real, I want to completely rewrite my life. First, I want to make some friends and connections. So that's my goal for the first day… Leo, do you think I can become popular?"

"Hmm… You weren't popular before?"

"You were my last real friend, Leo. How's that for popularity?"

"I always thought you were naturally loved. Don't worry, I'm here to help. I was the most popular guy in my school. It's really easy…"

Leo continued rambling about his popularity while Maya rested her head on her knees and softly smiled. He still goes on without an end, bragging about his friends from school who were no longer connected to him or her.

'Curious. I expected him to miss his old friends and life since he is no longer living, but it is as if they never mattered.'

Leo cheered her up. She'd forgotten how funny he was. Before she realized it, she found herself laughing at his ridiculous stories and bantering as if they were back to being children. They always thought they would be together forever.

'I guess this is one way. As a ghost, he can always stay with me.'

Despite her acting and Leo's belief, accepting this whole story wasn't easy for Maya. Outwardly she was calm and accepting, but inside she was scared.

'What insanity has compelled me to do this?'

That's right. There was nothing back home. She had no point to go back to. Unbeknownst to her, since she left the house, it became the place she dreaded returning to. If she were told this trip was cancelled and she had to return, that might as well mark signing her death sentence. If not her body, her soul would surely die off living there for any longer. There would be no hope of rewriting her tragedy and reinventing herself.

'There must be many terrible homes out there, but how many are this empty and lonely?'

Soon enough, another morning came and they were back on the road, already driving for almost the entirety of the next day, only making short stops to stretch their legs. The sun was getting low by the time they went off-road. Meandering on a dirt road through a forest, Maya could feel her blood pumping.

So far Maya had been fairly accepting, but now things were beginning to look more and more shady. Still, she said nothing. They were reaching deep inside the forest, it looked like even the rover was struggling on this poor dirt road.

Daria stopped the car in the middle of nowhere. Meticulously checking her watches and syncing them up.

There were two watches on Daria's right wrist, nestled side by side. One was a timeless antique piece, while the other was a sleek, modern analogue watch. Maya wondered about the story behind them but felt too shy to ask. She noticed that the antique watch was always early, leading her to assume it was broken and perhaps cherished for sentimental reasons.

"Last stop. I hope you haven't changed your mind?" Daria announced, giving Maya space for the doubt she knew she must have by now.

"No," Maya said, insecurely.

"Then give me your phone."

Maya carefully placed her device in Daria's outstretched hand. After quickly scanning it, Daria opened the window and flung it outside.

"Hey!" Maya was shocked by her careless action.

"You'll get a new one," Daria said, then sighed slightly in preparation for what was to come. "Here we go."

Before Maya could protest, Daria slammed the gas pedal. The car lurched forward, accelerating rapidly. Maya, terrified, grabbed onto anything within reach. Her fear intensified as she saw the path abruptly end—leading straight into a solid rock face.

'No, no, no…'

Daria showed no intention of slowing down, and Maya screamed. Suddenly, a chilling thought flashed through her mind:

'Was a car crash in the woods always where I was supposed to die?'

Believing she was finally caught by the fate she was never supposed to escape, Maya squeezed her eyes shut and clutched Leo's hand, bracing for the inevitable impact.