Vocalization

Rocky Road

It was late evening and I was walking the streets of Canivere, Minnesota. At least I thought I was. Now, looking back at it, I most definitely was not. I was far outside of town. Canivere wasn't small, definitely not small enough that there would be no houses in proximity to each other. I was sure I had gotten lost. No signs, no map, not even a compass that could help. And the GPS of my phone was nonsensical. At least the compass still worked. But as anyone knows, the compasses contained in mobile phones are far from being accurate. It's better than nothing, I had thought to myself. No reception. Great. Now all I had left to do was find someone who could pick me up, even if I hated talking to strangers. The wind was cold, but I had my trench coat. Left at home. Thankfully, the air was still warm. It was a nice summer night, one of the ones that would be perfect for a dreamy date.

A date. Of course. With my perfect looks. How could anyone ever fall in love with me? I was the most oddest girl out there, with the most basic of looks and the most posh of clothes. Well, not really. There were no rhinestones and sparkles, just a flower hairpin that looked as if it were made of gemstones. Other than that, I would wear clothes from whatever era had come before. A mixture of an anime girl and a vampire with a bit more skin showing. Yes, I was pale. The vampire was not my idea. I still am, actually. Anyway, the description of "posh" was actually pretty wrong. It was dainty, to say the least. Still is. I am trailing off, am I not? Did I mention I was desperate for love?

Well, with the same airheaded behavior I am exhibiting right now, I kept wandering along the road. It was still a road. At some point, at least one car had to stop by. I hoped that they would be kind. That whoever drove it was not an abuser. Oh, what was I thinking? It was merely nine in the afternoon; the abusers would only pop up once it was dark. Thank god it's summer. While walking along, I took in the scenery. I was right outside a forest that seemed to have been untouched for years now. Beautiful, but also a little scary. The forest was dark, unlike everything around it that was bathed in a pale light. Thin white clouds were covering the sun. If I were to get unlucky, it would rain. But that would only be in a few hours as there were no thunderclouds to be seen. Thunderclouds. Sia's song. Like a switch in my head, it flipped on. In my head, I was singing along, but in reality, I stayed silent. I was just too scared. What if someone would hear? Nonsense, there was no one around, but... Still... I somehow felt watched. I always did. What an odd feeling. But was I myself not odd? Trailing off again, eh?

The street was pretty okay, just a few cracks here and there. It had gone gray from the sun, with a double, faded yellow line separating the two sides. I was walking on the left one so I could see the cars coming at me. There was no way I was still on the right track, so the direction did not even matter anymore. How long had it been since I got out of town? Hours? Minutes? It had to be at least an hour. Slowly but surely, I was getting tired. The soles of my ballerinas were not very sturdy and I could literally feel every single grain of stone out of place on the tarry ground. The area was so lonely. Surely, there was no one around, not even a single living soul in the forest. Once again, I looked at my phone. Still nothing... Goodness, how far off the grid am I? This is nonsense, how am I ever going to get back? All alone like this... Might as well die while I'm at it...

Then, suddenly, I could see a roof lurk through the leaves in the distance. It was old, really old, but still seemed inhabitable. Perhaps there was someone there who could help me. In this very same moment, there were voices. Male voices. But no car sound. What were they doing out at this time without a car? And in this place? There was one, then two, then three, then four. Five. Five men. At least they were not alone. Even though I hated strangers and I preferred being alone, I would have loved to be in their position, had it not been for the fact that they seemed upset. Now, I could see their faces and I could see them approaching me and the house simultaneously. They were also formally dressed, not like those "popular" kids with their sweatpants and caps. Furthermore, they were definitely older than me. Not by a lot, but they seemed more mature, judging by their looks. Not to say they looked bad, they actually looked pretty good, but they certainly did not look like they were in their teens. But in their Twenties to thirties maybe, possibly. I noticed that smoke was rising up behind them. Perhaps their car was broken? That had to be it. One of them, the guy with the highest voice. I immediately put on a shy and most definitely awkward smile. Make a good first impression, I thought. Don't make them hate you. They should like you, Evelynn, you have just met them. You may not have talked to them, but they saw you, that's enough.

"Hey", the one with the glasses approached me. He seemed a bit timid too. Oddly enough, he periodically seemed to be avoiding eye contact with me. "Excuse me, do you live there? Or anywhere around here?" I blinked, causing an awkward moment of silence. "No and yes but also no", I summed up my dilemma. The men looked at each other in a confused fashion. The one man in a black shirt chuckled quietly. His long hair swept around a bit as he moved. "Our van stopped running and we're looking for help", he explained. His voice was unexpectedly Deep, but still soft and oddly comforting. I could imagine him narrating audiobooks, but Maybe that was just my mind being weird again. "I think what Eli tried to ask is if you can help us", he translated. "Basically, yeah", the man whose name supposedly was Eli confirmed. "Well, I am quite in trouble myself", I had to admit. "I was on my way back home from Canivere. My GPS told me which way to go until it suddenly stopped working. I think I got lost, at least I have no idea where I am. All I can do is show you the way back to where I came from, if that helps." "Is it far?", the brown-haired man with the vest asked. His voice, on the other Hand, was oddly high, but cheerful. "I must have been walking for over an hour." He rolled his eyes and sighed ironically along with the other members of his group. "Come on, guys", the only man with darker skin said to cheer up the others. "Let's just ask whoever lives in that house over there for help." "And if there's no-one there", the last one of the five continued, throwing his jacket over his shoulder once more, "We'll just walk back to that town." "Sounds good to me", I smiled. Quickly, I added: "If I have anything to say, I mean." The man with the shoulder-length long hair nodded with another chuckle. "We need you to get back to town, don't we?", he remarked with a smile. "Since we'll probably be stuck together for a while, why not introduce ourselves?", he proposed to all of us. "I'll go first", Eli said. "My name's Eliezer, but that's long and annoying, so just call me Eli." "I'm Layne", "J", "And Earl", the one with the jacket, the darker skinned and the high-voiced guy said in one line. "And I'm Geoff", the long-haired man concluded. I nodded and smiled, which was literally all I was able to do in a social situation. "Great. My name is Evelynn. - I've never had a nickname", I added, in reference to Eli. "You'll be Eve then", he said, laughing. "That sounds really nice."