Pantomaniac

Chapter 7

The side of Kef's cheeks ache a little as his lips twitched. He looked in the rearview mirror. For a few moments, he indulged himself. Even though he felt silly, he couldn't help it. His lips did not stop curling into a smile. Maybe it was hitting rock bottom. Maybe it was the fact that the new job was a daytime job. Or maybe, it was because he had finally crawled out of the dark space within himself, ready to face the day with a new mission.

When he got the call to fill up the employee form, his heart had skipped. Like a child spotting a lollipop. He had gotten into his car and told himself that that would be the last time he ever needed to go to work in the night. And it was just for some formalities.

Kef punched in the address on his phone GPS and started driving into the night. He looked up into the sky. Stars were shy but he spotted a flicker and even that made him smile.

As he drove on, he afforded himself some music on the radio. His soul lifted. His chest felt light. His mind rested. But after almost 20 minutes into the journey, Kef realized something. He had gone down that route before. His eyes landed on a rusty, red bench by the side of the road. He didn't care much for it previously but at that moment, he realized that he had passed by the bench three times.

Kef pulled over.

Grabbing his phone from the dashboard, he checked the address. Everything was keyed in perfectly fine. He even relaunched the app. He continued the journey only to find himself back at the same spot.

There it was, the red bench.

Kef frowned. The familiar tingling in his chest sneaked into him and all of a sudden, the night seemed ten times darker. As he stared at the bench, he pictured shadows lurking behind the trees, waiting to glide towards his car on the opposite side of the road. Killing the radio, Kef stared at the GPS. He tried to figure out where he had gone wrong. Did he take a wrong turn? Or perhaps missed one? But that was impossible. He might have screwed up a lot in life but navigation was the one thing he was good at. And geography, for that matter.

As his brain strained, Kef felt the hair on the back of his neck stand. He quickly shook the feeling off. He was still unsure but he figured the only way to find the way was to continue driving.

And so, he did.

He drove much slower that time, making sure not to miss any turn. But that was the thing. There was no turn. The GPS told him to keep moving ahead. Kef's confusion was starting to turn into frustration very quickly.

He leaned forward and almost kissed his phone when he saw a white dot on the screen. At first, he thought it was a stain but when he rubbed it with his finger, the map moved with it. It was a dot. On the map.

Kef squinted and tried to figure out what the hell that was. His eyes kept shifting from the road to his phone and back to the road. With one hand holding the steering, he scrolled the map to look ahead, hoping to find something that would have solved the digital mystery. But again, all he saw was a regular navigation map. Nothing odd. Which, ironically, was the only odd thing.

He decided to give it one more shot. Kef retreated from the phone and started to lean back. But as he turned to face the road, a white arm appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the steering.

Kef froze.

His eyes stared at the arm. It was off white and looked ice-cold. It was frail and pale, so pale that it sent chills up Kef's own arm. Kef's head shook. But he could not move much. In that second, he remembered that his car was still moving forward. He quickly looked at the road. Empty. But his car continued forward.

Staring at the arm from the corner of his eyes, Kef gently lifted his foot from the accelerator. The meter started going down.

But not for long. As he got down to 50 kilometers per hour, it started going up at an alarming speed. Kef gasped. He rammed his foot on the break. But the car kept moving forward. Trees rushed by his side view. His car shook. And the road felt like it was swimming under his car. Kef turned to the passenger seat.

That's when he saw her.

The child mime looked at him. Her white mask as pale as her arm. Her body as still as a doll. Kef's whole body started shaking, his eyes wet with tears.

Then came a blinding light from in front. Kef shot his head forward but in that exact moment, the mime's arm pulled the steering and his car skidded off the road. Kef's eyes shot wide opened as he stared into the line of trees by the road. His car dashed forward. Within seconds, the vehicle would ram into the bark.

Kef rammed his foot on the break over and over. At the last moment, he grabbed the hand break and pulled hard. The car turned and came to a halt. He jerked forward as it hit the edge of the tree, banging his chest against the steering.

Breathing hard, Kef looked to his side. The mime was gone.