The road trip of hell.

“Hurry up, come on Maeve seriously we don’t have enough time, we need to get away from here before he comes”, “Sophia, SOPHIA! Slow down what happened?” cried Maeve running after her distressed and clearly panicked best friend. “Can you please tell me what’s going on and why you are in this abandoned area at this time of night!”

That morning both Sophia and Maeve had been up early, washed, dressed and packed ready for their annual road trip. “SOPH!” Maeve yelled with a toothbrush hanging out of her mouth and a worn razor in her hand, pressed to her leg, “have you seen my keys?”. No matter how early the girls got out of bed they always found a way to be late to everything, “Yes they’re down here!” an equally rushed Sophia yelled upstairs whilst frantically trying to eat her bowl of Special K cereal and simultaneously googling the route to the little cottage they would be staying in for the night.

During the four hour drive to the coastal town the girls sang their hearts out to Ed Sheeran and Artic Monkeys with the windows rolled down and the wind sweeping through their hair, every girl’s Pinterest story dream. However, this story is no dream, for two hours into the road trip Maeve was running low on petrol and had to pull into the nearest garage, “I’m just going to run into this shop and replenish our snack pile, be back in ten!” Maeve called out to Sophia. During this time Sophia kept getting a call from an unknown number, she hadn’t answered yet because of something her dad had told her years ago about people trying to scam her out of money. However, the calling didn’t stop. Sophia was forced to answer the phone.

Sophia was a typically quiet girl, not shy but by no means the loudest in the room. If you spoke to her she could hold a good conversation, but, if you didn’t, she would happily slip into the background, observing and watching her peers interact around her. She had had a good upbringing, two working parents, a brother and a sister whom she loved dearly and would do anything for. 

“Hello?” Sophia tentatively said into the phone, “who is this calling? I think you might have phoned the wrong number”. “Oh no, I have the right number, Sophia isn’t it?” said a voice that can only be described as fear himself, it sent a shiver down Sophia’s spine and the whole car filled with what felt like the evil frost on a winter’s morning that stings every extremity. “Who is this?” Sophia said again becoming increasingly agitated and uncomfortable, “What do you want and how do you know my name?”. The strange voice at the other end of the line said something to Sophia that made her tense up and turn a violent shade of green as though the words themselves were a form of unearthly poison. 

Sophia could see Maeve running back to the car, she tried to compose herself but it was almost impossible, plus she would never succeed in hiding something this big from her best friend anyways. But this time she had to try. “Okay so I’ve got chocolate, crisps and some el vino for later” Maeve said in her usually cheery tone before looking over at her friend and exclaiming, “Gosh what’s happened to you, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost Soph!”. Sophia tried her best to muster a smile which at that moment was like asking a blind man to see, “Oh don’t worry about me I think it’s just travel sickness, let’s just keep going so we arrive before it’s dark out”.

That evening Maeve had noticed that Sophia wasn’t like herself, her constant state of fidgeting and checking her phone began to irritate Maeve who had expected this trip to be as amazing as their previous ones but something was definitely not right. “Come on Soph just tell me what’s on your mind and maybe we could sort something out on how to make it better.” However, tonight Sophia wasn’t having any of it, no matter how much Maeve tried to cheer her up she couldn’t help but think of the disturbing thing she had been asked to do, “No, Maeve seriously not this time, it’s best I deal with this myself I don’t want to bring you into it”. She couldn’t take it anymore, her best friend’s worried look in her eyes and the disgust she felt towards herself so she told Maeve she’d be back in a bit she just needed to clear her head. 

Sophia  had left the cottage for two whole hours on the only night that they had booked to stay here and although Maeve was annoyed about this there was something in her gut eating at her telling her to go after Sophia and get to the bottom of what she was hiding, after all they had been best friends for 10 years and their one promise to each other was no secrets allowed. 

After half an hour of driving Maeve finally spotted a figure, which looked like that of her friend’s, running frantically towards what seemed to be a ditch. “What the hell is this girl up to” Maeve thought to herself. Getting out of the car cautiously and in a state of confusion Maeve walked up to the frantic figure. On discovering that she had been correct and it was in fact Sophia, Maeve froze at what her friend was doing but Sophia didn’t give her any time to ask questions”

“Hurry up, come on Maeve seriously we don’t have enough time we need to get away from here before he comes”, “Sophia, SOPHIA! Slow down what happened?” cried Maeve running after her distressed and clearly panicked best friend. “Can you please tell me what’s going on and why you are in this abandoned area at this time of night!”. Sophia, visibly upset began to cry, and not just a normal cry, a body-shuddering cry that broke Maeve’s heart to see and hear, “Please just tell me what happened and what is in that bag beside your feet”. Through shudders and sobs Sophia could only reply, “can you keep a secret?”.