Flight or Fight

1. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Y/N = Your Name

Exhaustion was trying envelope your body. Trying to stay hydrated with your bottle of water and snacking on the few snacks you had remaining in your backpack, you continued your hike. The blisters on your feet were begging for you to stop, but you had ventured so far, you hadn't seen a pitstop or any sight of life for miles.

You ended up on this hike around the beautiful mountainous terrain because you ended up hating the higher education life of university. Your first year went by fine, then the second year bored you so much; the university trying to cover their tracks from having some of the worst professors hired. By the end of it, you opted to drop out, but you knew your parents were going to be disappointed in you. You had lied to them about this year being a gap year and that you'd do what most people suggest and travel the world.

Your parents weren't particularly thrilled about your choice in the matter, but you were an adult now. Having turned 21, you just needed space and to do something on your own. You chose to backpack around parts of Asia and Europe, now ending up in Romania of all places.

It's rich history and lore of vampire origins gravitated you, wanting to see some of the gothic horror locations of castles. At the town you stayed at for the night a local woman had suggested to follow the road around to hike around the beautiful mountain tops, claiming a beautiful castle would take your interest on the way, and for some reason, she made it sound so convincing. You couldn't really explain why you had the impulse to trust this woman, but you did.

She didn't lie about the view though. It was like out of a movie. Breath-taking. Untouched snow all over the ground, only disturbed by the wildlife – rabbits from what you could witness. The trees with snow on them looked like an ideal Christmas tree, making you fondly think of home. You hadn't seen your family in a while, so you thought of taking a picture of the view with your phone, however you had no signal. You sighed, having to remind yourself to send it later.

As you continued to follow the road around, you furrowed your eyebrows. The cold was nipping harder at your ears and nose, especially when the wind picked up. The woman who suggested this route had not mentioned how long it would take to the next town or how abandoned this road would be. She made it sound like people would usually drive along here to get to the next town along, which you were hoping would be your next destination.

Your back ached from carrying all your belongings. You weren't one for carrying much, but it was enough to make your pace slow. You longed for a shower or a soak in a bath and a bed. You enjoyed hiking, but you regretted doing this in the cold, bitter winter.

You hoped you'd either reach this other town soon or find this castle and hoped you could spend the night there. Daylight was slowly fading behind the treetops.

You walked so far; you couldn't tell how far it had been though, but still no sight of any life. You clutched yourself, hands around your chest and you continued forward. Light snowflakes started to fall from the sky, making it even colder than before. You sighed at the sight of it, loving snow, but not being stuck in it for long hours; you were just hoping it wasn't going to start falling heavier – the last thing you needed now was to be in a snowstorm.

In the distance you heard a humming noise. You chose to ignore it, thinking you were just becoming delirious. The humming continued to get closer and louder to you. Deciding to finally turn around to look down the road you'd been walking, two headlights came into vision, almost blinding you. Was this real? An actual car on this road?

Without hesitation you yelled, flagging it down with your hands, thankful when the truck pulled over.

"Oh my god, thank you so much for stopping." You breathed, looking through the driver's window that was pulled down.

The woman looked concerned for you, her long blonde hair slicked back into a ponytail. Her demeanour gave off this kind and caring aura. She kind of reminded you of your mother.

"Why are you out here in this weather?" She questioned with a motherly concern tone.

"Well..." You tried to catch your breath. "A woman at the previous village said this way would lead to another town, she also mentioned that there was a castle or something around here." You explained, trying to comprehend how insane you probably sounded.

"Well, I'm not sure about a castle in these areas, but I can take you to the next town up. I'm heading there myself." You sighed in relief at her answer. "Come on then, get in before it gets too dark out." She said, leaning over to open the passenger seat.

You moved around the vehicle, swinging your bag off your shoulders as you slid into the car, pulling the bag to sit by your feet. Quickly closing the door as the woman closed the driver's window, you could feel the warmth coming from the car heater, slowly being able to feel your fingers once more.

"So," The woman began as she set off once you put your seatbelt on. "What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Y/N." You politely responded.

"What a nice name. I'm Irina." She lightly smiled.

"Do you live around here then?" You asked.

"Yeah, lived in these parts all my life. I make deliveries between the villages. You're actually very lucky I had to make one today, not many people drive these roads anymore, especially in this weather."

You could tell these roads were dangerous, going around the mountainous terrain, winding blind corners with no rails on either side, making it easy to full down the slopes. You prayed she was a good safe driver. The snow was clearly coming down heavier as her windscreen wipers struggled to move all the flakes off.

After about another 25 minutes of driving, you were talking about why you were traveling and all the locations you had visited before coming to Romania. She seemed genuinely interested in your life story. When silence took over the conversation, it was a calming silence.

Resting your head against the window as you listened to the car engine purr, feeling the warmth brush against your face. You were hoping it wasn't going to be too long till you could get to a comfy bed, eat a warm meal, and clean yourself up.

Irina looked away from the road for a second to switch the radio on, she was driving slowly while doing it, but your eyes flicked to the edge of the headlights, screaming when you saw a figure stand in the road, getting closer to you. Irina's eyes quickly flicked up to what you were screaming at, as she tried to slam on the brakes.

You braced for impact, not expecting it to be as bad as it was. It was like colliding with a wall as the figure threw the car off the side of the road. Spinning around, thankful that the seatbelt was stopping you from dropping through the now shattered glass.

You couldn't keep up with counting the number of rotations the car was doing until your head smacked the dashboard in front of you. The ringing in your ears and the pain shooting through your body numbed as you fell into darkness.