My eyelids fluttered open as I felt the car come to a stop. Yawning deeply, I took in my surroundings. A quaint little mom and pop gas station; the sun slowly rising over the horizon, and the chirring of the insects that come alive in the summer.A big ol' slice of Americana served right up on a silver platter.
I smiled. I'd always wanted to go on a road trip. The thought of the open road, beckoning my wandering mind to see, feel and hear all of the things it had to offer me.
The little known hideaways, little pieces of history tucked into the veins of this country.
"Finally awake?" Sam said, sliding into the driver's seat. "Yeah. Where's my coffee?" I asked . He laughed. " In the store where you left it." He said with a blank face. I rolled my eyes and started laughing.
"Pleeeeaaaseeee?" I whined. "Fine. But you owe me." He winked and hopped back out, jogging towards the door. With weariness still weighing a bit heavily upon me, I let my eyes flutter closed for a light catnap, which soon became a deep slumber.
I awoke disoriented, and unaware of my surroundings. My eyes slowly opened to reveal an amethyst and amber-tinged sky. The faint, familiar scent of gasoline was in the evening breeze filtering in through the open windows.
A sudden revelation fell upon me. We'd never left. A whole day had passed, and Sam was nowhere in sight.
Grabbing my phone out of the center console, I called his phone. Annoyance and dread hit me as it began to ring somewhere in the car. Nervously, I glanced over to the door I had seen him disappear into. There was nowhere else he could be, so I reluctantly left the car, and walked over to the seemingly insidious door.
I did not want to give myself time to think, to dwell, to pause, so I opened the door as fast as I could muster. "Sam?!" My voice echoed off the walls. No response. "Sam?!" I repeated looking around at the half empty shelves, the empty aisles, and the empty register booth.
Frustrated, I went back outside and scanned the area. Gas station pumps? Nope. Road? No. The treeline by the road? No sign of him. I spun back around to face the small brick building. Twilight was rapidly approaching.
I couldn't leave; I wouldn't leave Sam. I figured I'd give the place another once over and then if he still wasn't there, I'd come back out and drive around for a bit and see if I find him.
Slowly opening the door once more, I took a step forward before my foot caught on something on the threshold. I fell on my hands and knees hard. Looking down at the floor, I was confused to see that instead of tile, or linoleum, I had landed on a hard, rocky soil.
Quickly getting up to my feet, I looked around so fast it made me a little dizzy. "What the hell?"
Instead of a gas station shop, I was now standing in some sort of cellar. The smell of the dank, ancient dirt swirled all around me. I turned back to look at the door to see that it was now gone, replaced by a solid stone wall.
In my mind I know this is not possible. There is no way I came in the same door and ended up somewhere else. This cannot be real. But it was. It was evident that I had.
"Hello?"I called out uncertainly, as I wound my self deeper into the cellar, looking for any signs of life. Then suddenly, I heard it. A series of intermittent thumps.
I was about to shout another hello. But it froze in my throat at the sound of that thumping.Whatever it was, or whatever it was coming from filled me with a nauseating dread.
Knowing with absolute certainty that I had to press on, I lightened my footsteps and muted my breath, trying not to let the anxiety and fear freeze me in place. As I walked on, I began to notice changes around me. The temperature seemed to increase, and with it came a sticky humidity.
