I Care {Darkiplier}

(Chapter 20)

The dream continues to linger in the depths of your mind as you watch the scenery blur by. You and your friend finally made it out onto the road, with everything packed in the back of the car. You both stopped earlier by some food joint, to get fueled for the long road ahead. You were already out of L.A by that point...

"That's quite admirable, difficult to find..."

Damien's words play on loop, whispering every so often. The dream had stuck with you, after something like that, it was difficult to shake. You try to shove the voice, the weird clash of emotions, away. Tuck it away in a box.

...

They always rise to the surface.

You find yourself sighing quietly, slightly frustrated, but making sure your friend won't notice. You try to focus on something besides the winding road, choosing to read the clock's time. It read around 1:00. It had only been a couple of hours by that point since you both set foot on the road.

"Isn't it exciting?" Your friend suddenly asked, referring to the manor. They were the first to speak up since they started the classic road-trip playlist around half an hour ago.

You were thankful for the distraction, letting your mind drift to the manor. In some aspects, you suppose it is, even if terrifying all the same. The manor had something sinister there...After all, Dark was created there. "I guess, it is a little scary though. That place has been around for years, right?" You pin on a question at the end of your statement.

"Yep! Supposedly since the 1930s? Allegedly...people went missing there, after some kind of party? And nobody really has occupied it since." You're barely able to hide your already known knowledge, your lack of reaction, but are able to recover by opting for a look of fake surprise to mask your neutral expression.

"Really?" You look over, raising your eyebrows for added effect.

I suck at this...

"Yep!" With your friends' gaze on the road the whole time, they didn't get to read your reactions too deeply and did not think anything of it. "Anyway, what if there is something there leftover from the past?"

All you could do was shrug, you had no clue yourself, "Not sure, maybe? I got no idea."

"Exactly! No time like uncovering something like the present!"

"I suppose."

You could only hope things would go well...

____________________________________________________________________________

The sun began to set, disappearing behind the trees that littered the landscape around you

both. It was now long since what it was. You both would eventually stop at a small diner to eat some late lunch and now here you both were, nothing but the tunes playing from the playlist. It was nice, something kind of normal for once. You need to savor it while you could.

You yawn, feeling somewhat sleepy from the gentle beats of one of the more calmer songs on the playlist, mixed with the tires rolling across the road, you were able to close your eyes, lulled to sleep by it.

Quick flashes, filtering in one after another, images.

Rain, standing underneath an umbrella.

A room, perhaps a classroom.

A cane, a pin.

A watch.

A fireplace.

A library.

It's all sudden, sporadic, fading in one after another, like lightning, for seconds until it's gone.