For Me,There Is Only You |18+|

6. A Lie, I wish I Never Told

Unexpected had become the new normal in my life lately.

When Ashley first told me I wouldn't be attending her wedding, I felt... conflicted.

There was a flicker of disappointment, a tiny ache blooming in my chest. After all, it was my best friend's big day, something we'd once dreamed about, planned for, laughed over.

A day I thought I'd be a part of.

But right alongside that ache came a surprising sense of relief. Maybe even—dare I say—joy.

The idea of not having to face the bizarre, secretive, and frankly unnerving people inhabiting her house was almost... comforting.

For an entire month, I told myself it was okay not to go. I repeated it like a personal mantra: You're not heartless. You just don't want to be murdered by weird cult people in the forest. That's fair.

I had other things to do. Other places to be. Right?

But, of course, fate laughed in my face.

Two days ago, Ashley pulled a move straight out of a melodramatic soap opera and hit me with, "If you don't come to my wedding, I'm not getting married at all."

I glared at her through the phone like she'd grown a second head.

What kind of emotional hostage situation was this? Wasn't it her wedding? Shouldn't it be my choice?

First, she'd been firm—adamant, even—that I shouldn't set foot back in her house. Now she's practically clinging to my ankles, begging me to come?

The whiplash was real.

Her behavior was all over the place, and it only deepened my suspicion that something was seriously off.

Was it the stress of the wedding? Maybe.

Or maybe there was something darker—something she wasn't telling me. Something hiding beneath the ever-growing pile of contradictions she'd been serving me for weeks.

Still, whatever her reasons, Ashley's emotional blackmail worked.

So here I was—driving for two hours, muscles stiff, lower back screaming, and brain fried from focusing on the endless stretch of road.

I finally decided to pull over at a tiny roadside gas station, more out of desperation than convenience.

I stepped out of the car and stretched, trying to shake off the lonely road-trip blues. It had just been me and the car the whole way, the music blasting loud enough to drown out my second-guessing.

Ashley had offered to send someone to pick me up, but the idea of riding shotgun with Alaric Clell—or worse, Hactor the Creep—was enough to make hitchhiking look appealing.

Honestly, I'd rather crawl through the mountains on my knees than sit in a confined space with either of them.

So, I drove. Alone. Fueled by stubbornness and a suspiciously upbeat playlist.

As the miles passed, the landscape began to shift. The warm, sunlit plains I'd left behind gave way to rising mist and towering trees.

The air grew heavier, cooler, like the mountains were exhaling slowly, pulling me into their lungs.

Tall conifers lined the narrow road, crowding together like silent sentinels. The road itself twisted and turned, winding higher into a fog-shrouded world where even the sky seemed unsure of what it wanted to be.

The temperature dropped sharply. The windshield blurred with moisture, and judging by the glistening roads, it had rained recently, hard.

I eased off the accelerator as the road narrowed into a winding, serpentine path. One sharp curve after another, and on my left... a sheer drop into nothingness.