Deep Creek

Chapter 9 - The Long Drive Home

We kept along that road until we hit the highway, talking about what I’d heard. We only spoke about it in small bursts; it was interrupted mostly by bouts of thinking and quick profanities at drivers not paying attention to other cars on the road… Namely, my car.

We tried to reason with why I heard a woman talking, and came to several sound conclusions. Maybe there were people walking past in the distance, but wouldn’t Marli have heard them too. Maybe I mistook the grumbling of the beast as a woman’s voice, but the car sounded too deep and angry, more like a man’s voice after a few beers and a bad night at poker.

“We should take the highway; it’ll be quicker to get back to mine. I just want to go home.” Marli was upset, she wasn’t her usual self.

We followed the highway for a minute or two before we realised how cold the car had gotten. The thick humidity had lifted and left a cold emptiness. The air had become hollow.

“I think Melbourne’s weather’s pretty stuffed up.” Marli tried changing the subject but I didn’t reply. I was still in deep thought.

About a month before, I’d lost my GPS going around a sharp bend on a highway intersection, but Marli was more than willing to step up and take its place. Guess we can just hope that she doesn’t fly out the window too.

“Quick! Quick! There’s the turn off there.” Marli shouted at me.

Her only problem with being a GPS substitute was that she was a little bit more delayed and would tell me to turn as we were passing or had just passed the corner.

“Awh, you missed it.” She said with a slight frown.

“I’m beginning to think that you do that on purpose.”

“Promise I’m not, I just want to go home. I guess I’m not thinking straight tonight.”

We kept driving until we got to the next turn off, I took it to realise that the good highway workers of Melbourne had knocked off for the night and forgotten to re-open the side streets. Probably in a rush to get home to their beer and poker. But this forced us to continue back onto the highway which I was mildly starting to detest.

I began to merge onto the next turn off, but was interrupted by Marli yelling at me that it was the wrong one.

“Oh wait… That was the right one…” She was hopeless.

The atmosphere in the car was deteriorating rapidly, and a strong sense of unease was beginning to manifest itself. This was the first time the Beast was making me feel claustrophobic.

We finally made our way to an open side road and did a U-turn, and thank god for that. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. I just wanted to sleep, just wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard what I heard and felt what I felt.

I was overcome with relief as we pulled into her court. Familiar cars, familiar letterboxes, a familiar house… Just an area that I knew almost as well as my own street. It could have felt like home, well, a second home with my frequent comings and goings.

I stopped the car and was about to say my goodbyes for the night.

“Hop out of the car for a second.” Marli said mid-thought.

“Why?” She was confusing me again.

“Because, I want to try something first."

“Fair enough…” I took my keys from the ignition.

I opened my door and stepped out of the car, it was quiet. But after a few seconds there it was again, the mumbling was back. I looked into the car to see Marli in mid conversation, or monologue considering she was the only one in there. She looked kind of silly in there talking to herself, but oddly enough, it suited her well.

Even though I was in a familiar place, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. I could feel it, it was watching me with those burning eyes, and it was close. I walked over to the car and tapped on the window. Marli opened her door and stuck her head out.

“What?” She shouted.

“Whatever you’re saying won’t do anything; I think it’s out here. That’s if it is an it.”

She fell silent and stared at me for a second, but it almost looked like she was staring through me and not at me.

“Marli? You alright?”

She was quiet and her face had a blank stare. Her eyes as cold as the night had become.

“Marli!?” I yelled with slight desperation, she was starting to freak me out.

Her eyes flickered back to life, darting between me and the dark street behind me.

“I don’t feel well. I think I need to go inside and get some sleep.” Her voice was raspy and unclear.

I nodded my head in agreement and she turned towards the driveway. She didn’t even look back to see if I’d gotten in my car or not. She may not have been feeling very well but I could guarantee that I felt just as bad, if not worse. I slowly walked back to the beast and sat behind the steering wheel for a moment before driving off.