Detour

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I had always wanted to drive cross-country, seeing America through my window. It had been a dream of mine ever since I was old enough to know what a road trip was. The fact that my friends and I would be splitting up once we finished high school meant we had to have one last hurray, one final adventure before we went our separate ways. I didn’t hear any objections when I suggested it. Hell, they looked about as excited as I was.

We’d already crossed six states on our way to California. The cornfields of the Midwest had given way to the majestic scene of the Rocky Mountains. I remember feeling my chest swell when I saw them for the first time. They really were purple.

I glanced at my friends though the rear-view mirror. Emily was playing something on her smartphone, her eyes glued to the screen as she bobbed her head to whatever song she was listening to via her earphones. Beside her, and as oblivious as she was, Beth and Tom were making out. The two had been a couple since sophomore year and had broken up and gotten back together at least four times. I’m surprised that Beth, who wasn’t originally in our group, agreed to come with us. Tom can be pretty persuasive, I guess.

It kind of annoys me how they’d spent most of the trip just locking lips instead of taking in the sights and enjoying what time we had left as friends. Then again, with them tongue-wrestling, Emily lost in her own world, and me driving, there was hardly anything for us to talk about. About the only one truly putting some effort into this whole thing was Tammy, who at the moment was documenting our trip using the camera her dad had purchased for her last Christmas.

“So we’ve just crossed over into Mountain Time,” she said, addressing her non-existent audience. Posing for the camera, my eyes lingered on Tammy longer than I would feel her comfortable knowing. Somehow, I think she did know, but Tammy was never one to embarrass me. I did a good job of that all by myself.

“Now let’s get a word from the captain of our expedition. Say hello, Mike.” She pointed the camera at me.

“Hello, Mike,” I said, grinning stupidly.

“So what’s our next destination, good captain?” She spoke in an exaggerated voice that suggested a cross between actual news reporter and explorer. A twinge of her Southern accent came through no matter what manner of voice she was speaking in, a trait I found almost irresistible.

Who am I kidding? Tammy was irresistible.

“As you can see,” I motioned with my chin, “there be mountains.” I tried to sound like a mountaineer, or something manly and rugged, for the camera. Mostly, though, I did it for Tammy. She panned the camera to take in the view before us. There were no cars on the road to obstruct the shot. The scene was perfect enough to be a postcard.

“Wow.” Tammy was impressed. “This was a great idea, Mike.”

“That’s Captain Mike.” I laughed at my own joke. I was so cheesy, especially around Tammy. Tom would love to tease me about my not-so-secret crush on her but at the moment was too distracted by Beth’s…distractions.

Tammy panned the camera around the car. “Let’s see what the rest of the crew has to say about it. Hmm. Well I don’t speak spit so let’s bypass Tom and Beth. Emily?” Tammy glowered at our resident geek. “Em-i-ly,” she said slowly.

“I’m afraid we lost one.” I cupped a hand over my mouth to play TAPS.

Reaching over, Tammy knocked Emily over the head. The short-haired girl complained loudly before removing her headphones. “What the hell?” She snapped. Her mood worsened when she saw the camera in her face. “Whatcha listening to?” Tammy focused on her friend’s pouting face.

Emily covered the camera lens with her hand, to Tammy’s chagrin.

“It’s called music. Stop being nosy,” Emily, my oldest friend and all around introvert, said to the Georgian transplant.

Tammy pulled back. “I’m documenting our last adventure as the Scooby Gang. Come on, Em. Some day we’re all going to get together for Christmas and watch this video. Do you have anything to say to your future self?”

“You’d better be rich.” Emily pulled her headphones back, ending the interview.

“Brat.” Turning back to the front and, thankfully, to me, Tammy said, “So looks like it’s just you and me.”

If only, I thought. I almost wished it was just Tammy and me on this trip. To be alone with Tammy would have been the perfect getaway. I’d never would have gone through with it, though. I’d never have gathered the courage to ask her out myself, just the two of us, all alone.

“Looks like it, kiddo,” I said, feeling a pain in my groin as if I had just kicked myself there. Tammy gave me a weird look. Crap. Just lost points there.

“Been a hell of a trip, hasn’t it?” I said to direct the conversation elsewhere. “You liking it so far?”

She smiled. “Doy! We’ve only been planning this trip forever.” It’s funny, I thought. Tammy was born in Georgia but had lived up North long enough to pick up enough of the local lingo. I doubt ‘Doy’ was common vernacular in Savannah. “I’m just glad we managed to find the time to do it. We’ll be graduating in a couple weeks and I wasn’t sure if I should have gone to Cancun or something.”

“Cancun?” I asked in genuine shock. “By yourself?”

“Why?” She aimed the camera right at me, the lens narrowing as she focused it on my face. “You don’t think I can take care of myself? Ya’ll think Ahm’ a delicate Suthern' flowa' who’d witha' without t’ protective shade of ‘er tree?”

Oh God, there goes the accent. Her real accent. I almost swooned just listening to it. “I-I didn’t say that,” I stuttered. Gripping the wheel took a lot of concentration. My palms were sweaty. “I know you’re tough. I’ve always known that. It’s just…it would be kind of lonely, wouldn’t it?”

She giggled. It sounded like heaven. “Why? Did you want to come along?”

“Why? Did you want me to?” I asked.

She looked away. Was she blushing? I could have sworn I saw some skin redden at the corner of my eye.

And thus our game went on. A part of me always knew that Tammy had feelings for me. You would think that one of us would have had the courage to come out and tell the other other how we felt, but either we were too proud and didn’t want to make the first move, or we were both just scared.

Maybe things would be different this time. Tammy still hadn’t told me what college she’d been accepted to, which was important because I planned to go to whichever one she was going. I was just waiting for the right time to talk to her about it. There was still time. America was a big country.

“I don’t know,” she said to my question.

I knew it to be a lie. Should I call her out on it? Tammy was the most amazing girl I’d ever met. Maybe it should have been just the two of us. It was impossible to discuss our feelings with the peanut gallery in the back. Maybe I was worried it would make things awkward between us and I wanted Tom and the others around as an excuse to keep things platonic.

“So,” Tammy started, suddenly energetic again. “What’s the first thing you’e going to when we get to California?”

“I don’t know…surf?”

“Surf?” Tammy wrinkled her nose. “You don’t surf.”

“I can learn.” Truth be told, I was never much for surfing. If Tammy got into the water, though, I might give it a shot.

In the backseat, Beth and Tom had finally come up for air. “Oh my God, would you two give it a rest?” Beth asked us.

“I could say the same thing about you,” I told Beth through the mirror. “It’s called a room, you lovebirds.” I probably sounded more jealous than I had wanted. Tom picked up on it quick. He flashed me a wink and a knowing smile. I hated him for it.

Emily as always was completely oblivious to the world around her. I almost envy her. In a make believe world, you get to control what happens and, if anything goes wrong, you can always hit the reset button. This was just one such situation I wish I could get a do-over on…just me and Tammy.

Tammy turned the camera on Beth. “So, how are you doing?”

“I’m peachy. Thanks for asking.” Leaning over the front seat, Beth spoke directly into my ear. “Mike, honey, can you pull over at the next rest stop? I need to use the lady’s room.”

Her voice tickled my lobes. I physically trembled. “Um. Okay.” I wasn’t sure if I noticed the look of jealousy on Tammy’s face when Beth pulled back or if I had only imagined it. Suffice it to say the next few minutes were a bit awkward.
~~~

My first impression upon entering the gas station was wondering just what century I had stepped into. The one glass window was barred from the inside, providing a few of the only two working pumps outside. The interior had floor tiles that resembled a black and white chess board. The walls were stark white and the aisles were narrowed in between tall, wooden shelves stacked with magazines, snacks, and beverages.

Tom and Beth brushed by me, the latter making for the restroom sign she saw at the back. Tammy paused by the doorway to start filming. “Retro,” she said smiling.

I heard Beth complain. “The door’s locked.” She poked her head over the far shelf. “I really have to go.”

“Restroom’s for paying customers,” came a deep voice at the far end. Sitting behind a counter, his bony legs propped up as he reclined in his chair, sat the establishment’s proprietor. He casually lifted his torn brown cap to look us over. It was hard to tell from this distance, but I thought I saw something yellow when he looked right at me.

“I need gas,” I told him as I walked up to the counter.

He smiled at me, revealing a single tooth that jutted out in an unnerving overbite. “Well then.” He raised his hand to reveal pointy, dextrous fingers that produced a small brass key. “I guess that makes you paying customers.”

I took the key from him and offered it to Beth, who ran back to the restroom where she had to fiddle with the lock a few times before it opened. I cringed as she slammed it shut. “Sorry,” I apologized to the man on her behalf.

“Think nothing of it. So,” reclining in his chair again, the man crossed both hands behind his head. “Road trip, are we?”

“You could say that.” I went to fish the money from my pocket. Tom appeared next to me with bags of chips, cookies, and some soda. I looked at him incredulously.

“What?” he said. “I’ll get the next one.”

I just sighed and paid for the items. While taller and some might say better looking than me, Tom was a deadbeat if I ever saw one. When I was working a summer job to get money to pay for things like—I don’t know, this trip!—he just leeched off his parents. Tom wasn’t a bad guy. He could be halfway decent once you got to know him. But it amazed me how he was able to snag a girl like Beth whom, let’s just say, is high maintenance.

Must be the kissing, I thought, and wondered if I should ask for a few pointers. Knowing Tom, he’d probably take it the wrong way, thinking I’m gay or something. Our friendship was kind of one-sided half the time, with me being the supportive fool while he got all the breaks, the attention, the girls. He had my back in more bad situations than I care to remember. I just wish this was more of an equal partnership.

“So,” he began as I paid for the snacks

“So what?” I said.

“Dude, are you going to get serious with Tammy or not?” There was an urgency in his voice. “You might not see her again after this trip. I’d make my move if I were you.”

“I’m working on it.”

“What’s there to work on?” He pressed, shoving me in the process. “You like her. She likes you. Do something about it.”

“I’m biding my time.”

“You’re being a loser.”

I know Tom was just trying to help but I really felt like decking him at that moment. “Why don’t you mind your own business?”

Tom reared back as if I’d attacked him. “Dude. I’m just trying to help. I really don’t know why you’er taking such a long time. Tammy’s a catch. Any moron can see that.”

“Well call me a moron,” the owner said all of a sudden. I noticed he was inclining his head sideways, looking past me to Tammy was who filming an antique bobblehead. Raising a thick, gray eyebrow, he looked to me and said, “Tammy, I take it?”

“How did you know?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“You cringed slightly when she brushed by you at the entrance and you’ve been looking at everything except her since you came in here.” He then raised his other eyebrow. “That, and you clenched your fist when you saw me looking at her just now.”

“Huh?” I quickly unclenched my fist. “What does that mean?”

Tom chuckled. “It means, Mikey, that even this guy can see you’ve got the hots for her.”

“Hots?” The owner chuckled all giddy-like. “The boy’s practically boiling over. Better stand clear less you become immolated by the ashen cloud.” He laughed aloud. I could feel my head burn red.

“How much?” I asked, practically slamming my wallet on the counter. The sooner we got out of here, the better. I practically bowled my way to the exit.

“You should buy a map,” the owner said to me across the room. Looking over my shoulder, I offered him my finest glare. He didn’t seem to notice. “The last thing you want is to get lost.”

“We know where we’re going,” I told him, turning back towards the door.

“Suit yourself,” I heard him say. Before the door closed shut he added, “Just remember to stick to the road.”

What a hick.

I ignored him, heading for the pumps to refill the tank. Still in the backseat, her headphones blasting some crazy music, Emily took one look at me, removed her headphones, and lowered the window.

“Hey. What’s got you in such a bad mood?” Am I that easy to read? She tilted her head to the side. “Tammy, huh?”

“Did Tom tell you something?” I hated the fact that everyone was in my business. Can’t people just leave well enough alone?

“You’d have to be blind not to notice. And deaf. And braindead.” She put her finger to her head to imitate a gun, pulled the imaginary trigger, and made a shooting noise before her head went slack and her tongue stuck out. “Gaagh.”

I reached over and shoved her head back inside.

“Ass!” She said. Emily flipped me the finger before rolling up the window. She had her headphones back on and was surfing the net on her phone in no time. She could be such a brat sometimes.

Tammy came out shortly thereafter. “Hey, Mike.” She came running up to me with something in her free hand, the other clinging to the camera as if it were her firstborn child. “Check it out. It’s air freshener. Smells like pine needles. I got this for you.”

“Are you telling me my car stinks?”

Tammy’s response was swift. “Five teenagers alone in a car for hours on end? Of course not.” She waved it in my face, the scent of pine was intoxicating. “It’s just you.”

“Ouch!” I took the offered gift. “Well thank you very much. My unhygienic self will appreciate all the help it can get.” I was joking of course, but then I saw the change in Tammy’s mood.

“You don’t like it?” I could hear the whimper in her voice. She was so good at this. It was hard to tell whether she was fooling around or being sincere. “I can return it if you want.”

I refused. “Of course I like it. I was only joking with you. It’s just that I didn’t get you anything.”

Tammy smiled. “This trip is your gift. You know I’ve been wanting to go for the longest.” She took the air freshener and tied it around the rear-view mirror. “There.”

“What the hell is that?” I heard Emily asked inside the car. “God that stinks!”

I rolled my eyes. I had finished filing the tank by the time Beth and Tom joined us. We were on our way and back on the road in moments.
~~~

It was almost six o’clock and I still hadn’t seen a single car on the road. The sky and turned gray and while the mountains were still ahead of us they didn’t look as impressive as they once did. On either side of us were fields of tall grass, the stalks higher than the car. I kept my eye out for a sign, a road marker, anything.

“Are we lost?” Beth asked after finishing another make-out session with Tom.

“Not yet,” I joked without the humor.

Beside me, Tammy looked through the map of the Western States. I leaned in close to her and asked, “We’re not lost, right?”

She said nothing, staring intently at the map.

“We are lost.” Beth blew out a long-winded sigh. “Dammit, Mike. I’m getting tired. I need to crash soon.”

I was about to ask her what she had to be tired about. When she wasn’t making out with Tom, she was too busy texting her friends back home. The only weight Beth carried was her own whenever she hauled her own ass out of the car.

“We’re fine.” I spoke sternly. It was my subtle way of telling Tom to keep his girl in check before she annoys everyone in the car. Everyone, that is, except for Emily. The girl tuned out the entire world when she had her music on. Then hit me.

“Emily!” I said. She didn’t hear me. I’m amazed she wasn’t deaf. “Emily!!”

Beth nudged her.

“What?” She snapped. Emily didn’t much care for Beth. It had taken a long time for her to open up to us, her inner circle of friends. To have this relative newcomer mix with the group dynamics had truly irked her. She began rubbing the spot where Beth’s elbow had touched her.

Beth made a gesture for Emily to remove her headphones and when she did I asked, “Could you find out where we are? We haven’t seen any road signs lately.”

“What do you mean?”

“Use your phone to pinpoint our location,” I explained. Emily was the most tech-savvy person in the car and I knew she’d have us pinpointed in no time at all.

“Fine.” Emily blew out a sigh as she slouched in her seat. A few seconds later, I saw her lips purse up in frustration. “The hell?” She snapped.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I”m not getting any signal.” She looked at her phone as if it had betrayed her. I saw her brow begin to twitch as she struggled to figure it out. “It’s not working.”

Next to her, Beth puled out her cell phone. “Mine’s not working either. Babe?”

“Babe”, aka Tom, checked his phone as well. “Nada.”

I didn’t bother trying mine or asking Tammy to do the same. “We must be in some kind of dead-zone,” I said. “Maybe there’s too much cloud cover for a signal to get through.”

Tom glanced out the window behind me. “Not a cloud in the sky, bro.”

It turned out to be true. The darkening sky was clear of the smallest cloud. Had we found ourselves a Holiday Inn, I might have decided to lay out on the hood of the car and just sleep underneath it—it was that nice.

“That sucks.” It was an obvious observation on my part but I had to fume somehow. I was the driver, the captain of our expedition, and right now I had no idea where we were. We could have fallen off the face of the earth for all I know. Thinking back on it now, I could not for the life of me remember when I last saw another vehicle or road sign anywhere on the highway. I knew this part of the country was sparsely populated, but I couldn’t recall any sign of civilization before stopping for gas.

“Hey!” Tammy called my attention. She was leaning forward and squinting towards the window. “I think there’s something up ahead.”

I followed her gaze and saw something up the road. My eyes lit up when I saw the sign. “Finally.” I was so relieved I actually sped up, slowing down just as it came up. The object was placed at the side of the road beside a path that veered off the main highway. It was an old wooden sign with three words painted in bright red.

“Welcome to Ponyville.” I looked at Tammy and she at me. “Ponyville?” She shrugged her shoulders. “Well..it’s something I guess. Maybe they have a motel. We can find out where are there.”

Tammy nodded. “That’s good. You look like you’re getting tired and could use the rest.”

“Or you could let someone else could drive,” Tom said.

“Your license was suspended, Tom. The only other person in this car who can drive is Emily and her head barely reaches the top of the wheel.”

Emily looked up. “Did someone say my name?” She suddenly realized we had stopped, having been fixated on getting her phone to work. “Where are we?” She leered out the window. “Ponyville?”

Tammy had her camera up and recording.

“Really?” I asked her.

“So people known we weren’t making the name up.” She focused on the sign. “Ponyville, USA,” she said for the benefit of her audience.

I began tapping my fingers on the wheel in a nervous twitch. It was getting late and the last thing I wanted to do was drive out on a country road. I don’t remember a town called Ponyville on the route I traced for us back home. I imagined a place where wild ponies trotted along behind fenced pens with a farm in the background. It sounded quaint. And Tammy was right. I was getting tired.

Just remember to stick to the road.

I heard the station owner’s voice at the edge of my conscious mind. This is crazy. I must be exhausted if I’m hearing things in my head. I turned on the car signal.

“At the very least we can grab something to eat. Something besides junk food,” I said, looking at Tom in the mirror. He flipped me off.

Tammy was excited. “Yay, Ponyville!”

I laughed. It sounded like a nice place.

~~~

It was the strangest place I had ever seen. The town looked like something straight out of the Wizard of Oz. Bright buildings with straw-thatched rooftops lined the dirt roads. The lawns were well-manicured. Flowers of every variety and color dotted the gardens and the streets were made of cobblestone.

Tammy was filming everything. “This is so cool. It’s like we’re back in time.”

“It’s so girly,” Tom said, earning a smack from Beth. “What? It’s true.”

“Don’t be an ass, Tom. Mike, see if you can find a hotel or something. I really need a shower.” She sniffed Tom. “Some of us more than others.”

“You didn’t have a problem with that before,” Tom said, earning him another smack.

I ignored their childish bickering. I doubt we’d find a hotel or any sort of modern establishment anywhere in this town. I began to wonder if they even had electricity. It was hard not to be taken in by the quaint homes, the architecture, the bright benches and stone bridges. Tammy was right, it did feel like we’d gone back in time.

I pulled to a stop in front of a fountain with a statue of a horse doing a balancing act on a ball. While no expert on equines, I found the eyes to be too large in proportion to its head and, if I wasn’t going crazy, the horse seemed to be smiling right at me. “Creepy,” I said.

Tammy went out to film the statue. “How cute.”

“Why is it pink?” Tom asked behind me. I didn’t even hear him get out. “I’m telling you this whole place looks like a four year old girl’s wet dream.”

Beth shoved past him. “You can be gross sometimes.” She stretched out her long legs, her midriff rising steadily. “So where is everybody?”

So taken in by the town’s charms I was that I realize she was right. We hadn’t seen a single soul upon arrival. “That’s a good question.” I glanced around. The fountain was located in an area large enough to be considered a town square with several streets converging on its location.

Then I looked up at the sky. “It’s late. They’re probably all getting ready for bed.” In the distance, the sun was beginning to set, casting the town in a twilight purple. “People turn in early in small towns like this.”

“Still,” Beth said as she twisted her hips to look at me, “we should have seen at least one or two people.”

She was right. This was strange. “Maybe they’re having dinner.” I looked at my watch. It was a quarter past six. Behind me, Tammy climbed atop the horse statue. She straddled it, clenching her legs tightly around the sides and turned the camera around to face her.

“Check it! I’m a cowgirl.”

Tom chuckled. “If you fall, Tams, I’m going to laugh.”

“Tammy!” I rushed to the side of the fountain. “Get down from there. People here might find that disrespectful.”

Tom nudged my shoulder. “Dude, there’s no one else here.” He spread his arms out wide, doing a wide turn. “Hello!” His voice carried far. I cringed. “Anyone here?” He walked towards the center of the square, twirling as if he meant to take off like a helicopter. “A-N-Y-O-N-E?”

There was no response. I half expected a local to pop his head from one of the second story windows of a house shouting at Tom to “Keep it down” or something. Seconds passed and not a single retort from anywhere in the square. No one was there but us.

Tom paused to look at me, a devilish smile crossing his face. “I think we have the place all to ourselves.”

I knew what he was thinking. Tom always had a penchant for mischief. He was a good balance to my play-it-safe attitude toward life. I found it charming, when we were kids. Most of the time he just annoyed me like a good friend.

“I choose the big house!” He exclaimed, turning back towards the pagoda. Like a big kid, he rushed towards a pagoda with banners flapping in the wind. It was easily the tallest building in town.

Beth called after him. “Tom!”

“Come on!” He ran off.

Beth looked at me. I could only give her a shrug. She sighed and casually walked after her boyfriend. I heard a splash as Tammy came down from the statue. She swore and sat down on the curb so as to remove her shoe and drain out the water.

I noticed that Emily had yet to get out of the car. She was still trying to work out the kinks in her phone, probably attempting to get a signal. The girl loved electronics. This place must feel like the stone ages to her.

“Emily?” I tapped on the roof. “You okay?”

She looked at me with her large eyes. Her nose wrinkled in frustration and she tossed the phone to the seat next to her. Emily was not normally one to show her emotions but I could feel her anxiety from outside the car. “Let’s go,” she told me. I almost took it as a command. But I heard something her voice, something that said she wasn’t alright.

“What’s wrong?” I sat next to her in the backseat.

“I don’t like it here.” She hugged her legs toward her chest, rocking back and forth. “We should go.”

“Emily, night’s coming and we have to take a break from driving. Well, I have to take a break from driving. It’s too dangerous to be on the road this late. We’ll rest here and leave first thing the morning.” I tried to sound as reassuring as possible, but I could see it wasn’t working. “Emily, you can live a few hours without your mobile devices.”

Her head turned to me. “Is that what you think?” She narrowed her wide eyes. “That I’m going through some kind of withdrawal?”

I scratched my head. “Is it?” I was never good with counseling. I was used to people reading me, not the other way around.

“Do you remember that time when we were eight and we went trick-or-treating on Downer Street?”

How could I forget? Emily had been my friend longer than anyone. We used to hang out all the time. One Halloween we casually “lost” our chaperone to hit the houses that no kid had gotten to yet, you know, to get first dibs on the candy. Downer Street was in an old part of town, mostly run-down but people still lived there.

I remember walking past this one house with cobwebs draping the front porch. There were spiders and pumpkins and a spooky ghoul at the front gate. I loved it. It was the best-dressed house for Halloween I had ever seen. I wanted to go in, but Emily stopped me. She warned me that something was wrong about that particular house. I told her she was just being a chicken and teased her about it. But Emily, shy, reserved Emily, was so adamant, so persistent that she wouldn’t let go of my arm. She began to cry, threatened to tell my mom. I reluctantly gave in, though I did not talk to her for the rest of the night.

A few days later we found out that a couple of kids went missing that same night. Their bodies were found buried in the back yard of a certain house that “Looked like something out of a nightmare,” the headline read. I remember speaking to Emily about it, thanking her for saving my life. We agreed never to tell anyone about what had almost happened that Halloween. It was our little secret.

“I remember.”

She glanced out the window for a second before turning back. “I feel it again. That same feeling that said we shouldn’t have gone into that house. I think…we should leave.”

“To the next town?” I asked her.

“To the next county. This place isn’t safe.”

“How can you tell?”

Emily huffed. “I just can, alright? Why don’t you believe me?”

“Emily where are we supposed to go? Do you want to just go back to the highway and sleep in the car? It gets cold out here and I don’t want to burn out the battery by keeping the heater on all night. The last thing we want is to be stuck out there.”

“Better out there than here,” she countered.

I could hear the tension in her voice. She was actually scared of this town. Sighing out loud, I tried to figure out what to.

“Hey!” Tammy popped up by Emily outside the window, causing the girl to jump up in alarm. She was filming us both. “What are you two talking about?”

“Dammit!” Emily smacked the window, hard, sending Tammy jerking backward.

“Whoa! Are you PMSing?”

“Shut up!” Emily returned to her rocking. I gave a signal to have Tammy give us a moment and she gratefully backed away, turning her camera somewhere else. Slowly, I put a comforting had on Emily’s shoulder. “Tell you what, we’ll go back to the gas station.” I gritted my teeth just saying it. “You didn’t get any bad vibes from there did you?”

Emily thought a moment. “No. Well…I don’t think so.” She sighed. “I don’t remember. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“But now that your electronics are down, you know these things?” Emily glared at me. I held up my hands. “I’m not being patronizing. I believe you, okay? It’s getting the others to do it that worries me.” I eased my way out of the car. “Regardless, we still need to get Beth and Tom. Want to come along with?”

“We need to go…now.”

“Emily.” I pinched my nose. “Look. Just stay here. I’ll find the lovebirds and Tammy can keep you company.” I looked up. “Tammy?” She was gone.

“Tammy!” I raised my voice.

“Keep your voice down,” Emily bade me. “Get inside, please.”

“I’m not leaving her out there all by herself. Geez Emily, she’s your friend too.”

She looked away, ashamed. “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t push the matter. “Lock the doors if you want. I’ll be back as soon as I find Tammy. Okay?” I exited the car and shut the door. Emily promptly took my advice, locking them up and shutting all the windows. She made her way to the driver’s seat and gave me a look that said “hurry back.”

I mouthed. “Don’t worry,” and moved to where I last saw Tammy.
~~~

Under normal circumstances, Ponyville would be a lovely place to visit. I’d never seen a town so well-preserved. There was no garbage or graffiti. Every home had a garden. The windows were washed daily, it seemed, and the roads were so well-maintained that they felt smoother than the cement streets back home.

You’d think having a bunch of outsiders, teenagers no less, show up in your small town would be enough to draw some attention. Either the entire town was hiding, or they simply weren’t here. I found neither scenario to be comforting.

“Tammy?” I said. She couldn’t have gotten far. The sky had grown darker since I last looked up. Pretty soon it would be too dark and too dangerous to be outside. Much as Emily would hate it, we may have no choice but to spend the night. “Where could she have gone?”

“Hehehehehe.”

I looked around. “Tammy?” No answer.

The laughter had subsided, as if a trick of the wind…until I realized there was no wind. The air was dead still, as vacant as the cloudless sky above. Still, I’m sure I hadn’t imagined it. It had sounded feminine, almost childlike, like a mischievous little girl’s laugh. “Is anyone there?”

I heard it again. That same childlike laughter. This time it came from behind me.

“Hehehehehehe.”

Again it vanished as soon as I turned around. “Is this some kind of joke?” I put on my best tough-guy voice, trying to sound as intimidating as possible. I wasn’t known for my brute strength or had a penchant for violence. Then again, I wasn’t little either. Lithe, perhaps, but by no means a skinny twerp.

Then I saw it, the muffin house, for it looked like something out of a fairytale. The building appeared to be one giant pastry, its roof resembling a cake with frosting as the gutters. It was bright and well-lit, the first building that appeared to be actually inhabited. The door was wide open, the light warm and inviting.

Before I realized it, my legs were already walking. I passed a sign outside that read Sugar Cube Corner and was immediately assaulted by a hundred different scents, all making my mouth water. I stopped at the doorway to take in the sight before me. The bakery was a hodgepodge of bright colors, all candy-themed, with candy cane pillars and cookies and mints painted on the walls. There was a swirling rug in the middle the color and smell of mint. Cupcakes lined one wall while cakes adorned the other.

My stomach rumbled.

“Hehehehehehe.”

The laughter ended all notion of hunger. “Look, this isn’t funny.” I scanned the room, ignoring the pastries even though each and every one of them looked absolutely tantalizing. “Please stop fooling around and come out where I can see you.”

There was an intake of breath.

“No.”

I blinked. “Where are you?” I stepped forward. “Come out!”

“Hehehehe….No.”

I felt my ire rising. I wasn’t going to entertain this child any further. “Fine! I’m leaving.”

Something grabbed me from behind. Yelling, I swung my arm around and almost punched Tammy in the face. She cried out, nearly dropping her camera. Cringing on the floor with her arms raised, Tammy looked at me as if I’d gone deranged.

Gasping, I took a step away from her. “T-Tammy! I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?” I tried to help her up but she backed way from me. “Tammy?”

“What is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry. I heard this voice. This kid was laughing at me and when you touched me I thought…” I shook my head, changing the subject. “I was looking for you.”

“For me?” She looked genuinely confused at that. “I was looking for you.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You disappeared,” Tammy explained. “I was recording and when I turned around you weren’t there. Emily was gone too. I thought you two were playing a stupid joke but after I couldn’t find either of you,” she stopped. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Emily was in the car,” I told her.

She shook her head. “No she wasn’t.”

“I left her in the backseat when I went looking for you. I was talking to her, I looked up, and you were gone.” Seeing her face scrunch up I said, “I’m not going crazy.”

“Neither am I,” she said defensively. “Look, I can prove it.” She raised her camera and flipped open the screen. Tammy rewound the footage until it showed the fountain. Hitting play, I saw the image move and heard Tammy narrating aloud. “So here we are in Ponyville,” she began. The footage moved from the fountain to the surrounding buildings. “Talk about retro, huh? It’s like these people are stuck in the eighteenth century. I don’t even think they have cars.”

The camera panned out to take in the scene of the main square. Not too far away was the pagoda, where Beth and Sam had gone. “That’s probably the only landmark. I wonder if that’s where we’ll find the tourism board.” She laughed.” “It’s worth a shot.” The camera shook as she turned suddenly. “Hey, Mike. I…” It stopped.

I felt my jaw drop.

I wasn’t there. Neither was Emily. The car was completely empty. “Mike?” Tammy’s voice said. “Where’d you go?” The camera moved toward the car. “Emily?” The windows were pulled up so I vaguely see Tammy’s reflection on the screen. Her head turned left and right. She looked very unnerved. “Guys?”

“You see?” Tammy said, pausing the video. “You weren’t there.”

“But that’s impossible. I left Emily in the car.” I looked past Tammy to the doorway. My heart began to beat loudly. “She was there. I left her all by herself.” I looked at the camera screen again, hoping it was mistaken. “Oh God. Emily.”

I grabbed Tammy by the arm. She protested at first. “Ow! Mike, what are you doing?”

“We have to go back for her. She told me this place was bad news and she was right.” Tammy continued to fight me. “Tammy, please.”

But she resisted “You’re staring to scare me.”

She wasn’t the only one. My breathing was erratic. My heart pounding. My palms sweating as I considered the implications of leaving my oldest friend defenseless. I had found Tammy—or she found me, whatever!—now it was time to go back, find the others, and get the hell out of here.

“Don’t go.”

It was the girl again. My head snapped in the direction it came from. Tammy looked oblivious. “What is it?”

“Tell me you didn’t hear that.”

“Hear what?”

I looked around. “The voice. That girl.”

“Hehehehe.”

“There! You hear it?”

“Michael! I don’t hear anything.” Tammy took a step back. I could see the growing fear in her eyes. I was scaring her. Truth be told, I was scaring myself, but I know that voice wasn’t in my head.

“I’m telling there’s someone in here with us. She’s been taunting me. Hiding from me.” I raised my voice. “This is getting old. I don’t know who you are. I don’t care. My friends and I are leaving this town and you can go play your stupid tricks on someone else.” Without another word, I turned and headed for the exit. “Let’s go,” I told Tammy.

SLAM! The door closed not an inch from my nose. The windows closed as well, the shades hissing shut behind them. I reached for the knob, turning it. It refused to budge. I began to push at the door, pounding at it with my fist.

“Don’t go,” the female voice said.

“Mike? What’s going on?” Tammy’s voice had become small. She spoke to me in barley concealed terror.

I wanted to be strong for her. I wanted to be brave. Right now all I could think about was breaking down that damn door! “Let us out!” I demanded.

“Stay with me,” the voice taunted. “Please.”

I shouldered the door, numbing myself in the process. “ Open!” I was losing patience. I kicked the door.

Something scurried to my left. Several of the assorted cupcake stands trembled as something had bumped into them. The skittering was quick, like several legs moving very fast at once. Tammy cried out. “Something touched me!” She ran to my side, using me as a buffer between her and…whatever it was.

I stood before her protectively and looked around. Traces of laughter filled the room. My eyes were moving so fast it became difficult to focus on any one thing.

Tammy clenched my arm with her free hand. I could feel her trembling. “Mike. I want to get out of here.”

“I know.” I looked at her. “Me too.”

Her eyes widened at something I wasn’t looking at. She gasped just as I turned back. I saw something behind the counter, something fluffy…something pink.

I didn’t think. Grabbing one of the cupcake stands, the cakes spilling to the floor, I intended to use it as a blunt-force weapon. I ran to the counter, holding my makeshift bludgeon with a shaking hand as I looked over the counter to find—nothing.

“Mike?” Tammy asked behind me.

She couldn’t see what I saw, or didn’t see. There was nothing behind the counter at all. “It’s gone.” I backed away slowly. “I think you’d better grab something in case you see it and I don’t.” I looked over my shoulder. “Okay?”

Tammy was trembling by the door. She nodded to let me know that she understood me.

I almost didn’t see it. There was movement behind her…something just behind her head.

Something pink.

“Mine.”

It all happened so fast. The door flung open and Tammy was pulled off her feet. There was a maniacal laughter as she screamed, her legs flying off the floor. Before I could even move the door slammed shut again. I literally barreled into it without it budging. “Tammy!” I never fought so hard to breaks something in my life. The door was an impossible object. Tammy’s screams were cutting into my ears. I had to get out. I had to save her!

“Fuck!” I kicked at the door. Nothing. Realizing I still had the stand, I brought it up without thinking, without realizing the futility of what I was about to do next. The door was solid wood. The thing lacked the necessary mass to even leave a dent in it. It would likely break if…

Break. I went toward the nearest window, literally ripping the shades off the hinges, I shattered the glass with the stand. I chipped away at the bits of glass that remained and tried not to cut myself while I climbed over the edge. The night had grown colder. Tammy’s screams were dying somewhere far away. I didn’t waste any time.

“Tammy!” I ran. I wasn’t even sure I knew where the screams were coming from. Her terrified wails were nearly overpowered by the insane laughter of her assailant. I swear to God I didn’t care if it was a little girl. I would bash her head in with my makeshift weapon if she dared hurt my friend.

I kept running. All around me the houses appeared to be watching me, their slitted windows resembled leering eyes. My footfalls echoed on the cobblestone streets. I almost tripped several times on stones that jutted out of the earth. I don’t remember seeing so much as a pebble out of place before. It’s almost as if the street was trying to slow me down. I was paranoid, I knew. But I didn’t care. I just wanted to find Tammy.

Her screams were gone. The laughter sounded so far away now. I don’t know how long I’d been running. Exhaustion forced me to stop and catch my breath. I hunched over, my breathing so ragged it was hard to believe the sound was coming from me. How could I have let this happen? It was so careless of me to go into that bakery. What the hell had taken her? It didn’t look that big, but the strength it possessed was…inhuman.

I felt something graze me arm and I yelled, bringing the stand up to smash whatever had touched me.

“Ah!” Beth held up her hands in fear.

“Beth?” I couldn’t believe it. “What the hell? What are you doing?”

Beth stepped away. “Looking for you. You gone crazy or something?”

“I…no…where…” so many questions. It was hard to think. “Have you seen Tammy?”

Beth looked confused. “I thought she was with you and the car.”

“It took her!” I cried out. “It came up behind her and it took her away. I…” I looked around as if I suddenly remembered what I was doing. “We have to find her. It must have gone this way. No. That way.”

Beth watched me like I was some sort of madman. “Stop it! You’re not making any sense.”

“It took Tammy!”

“What took her?” She grabbed me with both arms. “What happened?”

“Something…a girl…a thing…I don’t know. We were in the bakery and it came up behind her and kidnapped her.” I paused just long enough to ask, “Surely you heard it? Her screams?”

“I didn’t hear anything, Michael. I got turned around trying to get back to the car and when I came here all I saw was you looking like you’d just run a marathon.”

I couldn’t believe it. “What are you…?” I looked behind her. “Where’s Tom?”

She let me go. “Hell if I know! I lost him and decided to come back. At first I thought he was playing some stupid game but now,” she looked worried, “I hope nothing’s happened to him.”

Tom was the last thing on my mind right now. “We have to find Tammy first. I need your help, Beth.”

She threw up her hands. “Fine. But first tell me, slowly, what happened.”

I managed to convey a somewhat coherent story to Beth who listened closely. After I finished, she looked at the stand I held and then back at me. “You sure it sounded like a girl?”

I nodded. My knees felt weak. “Oh God, Beth. I don’t know where she is. She’s lost.” Tears began to form in my eyes. My vision became watery. Beth had to physically restrain me before I fell. Then she smacked me.

“Calm down. You’re scaring the shit out of me and I don’t appreciate it.” She grabbed my head with both hands, forcing me to look at her. “Now think. This is a small town. There’s not a lot of places to hide. We’ll find Tammy, but first we need to get back to the car and find the others. They can help us cover more ground when we look.”

It sounded reasonable enough. I gradually submitted myself to Beth’s reasoning and nodded. “Okay.”

She took my hand, obviously feeling I wouldn’t be able to so much as walk without guidance. She felt warm, which was a welcomed respite from the chill air. The night had grown so dark it was getting hard to see. I couldn’t imagine how we’d find Tammy in this darkness. I followed Beth through the blackened streets, which seemed to narrow as if, bit by bit, the homes were inching their way closer to us. I was seeing shadows everywhere, shapes of things behind windows, around corners, things almost too horrible to imagine yet my mind tried anyway. I stopped thinking altogether. I wanted this to be over, to find Tammy and my friends, to just go.

Beth stopped all of a sudden. Getting her bearings was near impossible with what little light remained. I could swear the shadows were smiling at us.

“Damn,” I heard her swear. “I think I took a wrong turn.”

My heart fell to its lowest point. We were lost. Tammy was lost. It was hopeless. I heard something behind me. Beth had stopped us in front of an alley. I felt like I was staring into the gates of hell…it was impossibly black, foreboding. The sound grew stronger.

“Beth,” I began.

“Hm?” She turned around. In the dark, I could vaguely see her eyes widen. “That wasn’t there before.”

The sound grew stronger. It sounded like…wings?

They came out all at once. Black creatures with long, leathery wings. I thought they were bats at first, but these were huge, almost as big as I was. Beth screamed as we ducked. The creatures flew over our heads, around us, moving like a swarm into the night. When they’d finally passed I watched them go round and circle the roof of a building across the street. They were moving so fast it was impossible to tell one from the other.

Beth cursed. “I hate this place!”

I agreed. But then I saw something. “Beth?” I pointed to the “bats.” They slowly converged into a single shadowy being, a cocoon of inkiness that silenced as the wings stopped. Beth and I stood in absolute confusion and fear. Then the cocoon began to move. Two massive black wings spread outward, their wingspan must have been at least twenty feet in length, connected to an equine body the color of death itself. The only thing that wasn’t black was the tendrils of rainbow-colored hair that coiled around its head. As the huge winged monster spread its wings, wisps of shadow stuff billowed. Only when it stopped, looking right through my soul with hate-filled eyes, did I realize it was about to attack.

“Run!” This time I grabbed Beth as we ran. The winged monstrosity took flight, black smoke trailing behind it. I looked back in time to see it fire straight up the sky, screeching. It was the worst noise I had ever heard. Finally there was a massive sonic boom as it plummeted straight toward the ground, toward us.

I turned a corner, Beth with me, just as the winged nightmare rocketed by. Its wing was impossibly sharp. It sliced through the stone of the house we ducked around, sending debris crumbling down on us. The wings damaged several more houses, slicing though them like they were butter.

I pulled Beth out of the rubble. “Come on!” I could see it coming back for another pass. Beth coughed but submitted to my will. We were up and running in less than a heartbeat. I desperately looked for an escape, a place to hide. I saw it just as another sonic boom filled the air. The screech was horrendous.

“In here!” I shoved Beth through the open door of the building, slamming it shut just as the creature barreled into the door. It didn’t break, surprisingly, though the creature slammed into it several times for good measure. I propped myself against the door, wishing that it would just go away. For once I got my wish.

The shadow-thing realized the door wasn’t budging, shrieked once, and then flew away, its powerful wings lifting it into the air. There was another sonic boom and then…silence.

And then there was only dark.

Beth was trembling next to me. “What was that, Michael?” It was hard to understand her with how scared she was. “What the fuck was that,huh?”

“I don’t know,” I told her.

“What the hell is going on in this town?” Her voice was shaking now.

“I don’t know. I…” I wiped my brow. I didn’t realize how sweaty I had become. My heart beat so loudly that my chest rattled. I had dropped the cupcake stand somewhere outside, probably when that thing tore the house down on us. Finding myself without a weapon was bad enough, but doing so in the dark.

“We need to keep moving.” I stood up, bracing myself against the door momentarily. The shades were drawn over the windows of the room. I didn’t want to look outside for fear of seeing that thing waiting for me. I wondered if it realized it could just burst through the window. What a stupid thing to think about of all times!

Beth moved, got up, and stumbled. “I can’t see.”

I reached out to her. I touched her head. She was cold. The lights came on that moment. It wasn’t Beth.

~~~

I pulled my hand back from the white horse. No. Not a horse. A mannequin. Its pale body was bare of any furnishing, the face void of eyes, lips, or nose. It stood before me, a silent custodian, ever vigilant.

“Mike,” Beth’s tiny whisper drew my attention to the rest of the room. An army of the same, stark-white horse mannequins filled the interior of the entrance, which was splashed in lavenders, purples, and fuchsias. There were mirrors on nearly every wall, their gold rims shined to an eye-watering sheen. I spotted piles of fabric stacked ceiling-high bearing all colors of the rainbow. It looked like a very inviting place, but then again, so had the bakery.

“Did you turn on the lights?” I asked Beth. She responded with a shake of her head. I guess that would have been asking too much. I kept my guard up as I walked down the aisle of mannequins.

“Where are you going?” Beth chased after me, barely a step behind.

“To look for a new weapon.” My eyes kept going back and forth between the rows. I don’t know what I was looking for, I just didn’t want to be caught off guard again. “We need something in case we run into that thing again.”

Beth’s hand clenched my shoulder. She squeezed tightly. “We’re not going back out there! Are you insane?”

Angrily, I shook her off. “Have you forgotten about Tammy? Or Emily? Or TOM?” I almost spat his name. “Aren’t you worried about any of them?”

“Of course I am.” She sounded hurt. I glanced once over my shoulder and spotted tears forming in her eyes. “But we can’t go back out. Not with that thing on the lose. It will kill us.” She then added, “We should stay in here where it’s safe.”

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as safe in this town.” It was true. I started to feel that this whole place wanted to kill us. I could only imagine what my friends were going through. They were alone. Terrified. Probably…I stopped myself from thinking the worse. I brought us here. They were my responsibility. I would get them all out, somehow.

“Help me find something, a pole, a knife, anything.” I’d already reached the far side of the room. Standing before me was the largest full-view mirror I had ever seen. Behind me, I could see Beth looking about. She momentarily walked out of my field of vision, though I could still hear her footsteps. The army of mannequins stood to either side of us. To say I was freaked out was an understatement. My pulse was still racing from all that running. To be stuck in here with all these things.

Stop scaring yourself. There are enough things trying to do that.

I had to remain strong. I began looking for something to use as a weapon. Aside the nearest pile of fabric, I saw a basket filled with needles and thread. They won’t do much against the shadow-bat. Still, I pocketed a couple of the needles. At the very least I could take out something’s eye with it. It was better than nothing I suppose.

I walked pass something resembling a stage. The curtain was drawn so I couldn’t see what was on the other side. I brushed against a mannequin, tipping it over. The head rolled off and disappeared down a row of its fellows. The sound it made startled me more than I cared to admit. It almost sounded like it had been in pain, like the blow had harmed it.

“Beth? How you doing over there?” I asked across the room.

“O-Okay.” Her worried voice responded. “I…I think this is a clothing store…for horses.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said harder than I should. “Horses don’t wear clothes.”

Beth didn’t respond.

“Beth?” I hope she wasn’t being too sensitive. I called her name again.

“I wish you wouldn’t talk to me like that.” I heard her stifle a sniffle. “That’s how Tom talks to me sometimes. I hate it.”

I couldn’t see her over the mannequins. “Do you two fight a lot?” I asked in an attempt to get her mind off of whatever was trying to kill us. Maybe if she settled down she could focus more on the task at hand.

“Not really. He can be bossy. He’s mean to me at times.” There was the sound of an object being moved across the floor. “He’s not a bad guy, but I don’t think he’s the guy for me. I was thinking of breaking up with him when we got back.”

I almost couldn’t believe it. “For real?”

Her incredulous voice came back. “Yes! Do you think I’m that pathetic that I’d stay with a jerk like that just because he’s cute?”

I would have argued against the logic of going a long trip with said jerk before breaking things off with him, but right now I wasn’t in the mood for playing love counselor. Besides, Tom was my friend, and I wasn’t about to take the side of a girl I barley knew over him. “Forget it. Let’s just keep looking.”

Beth moved something again. I kicked over a basket in the hopes of finding something useful. It was full of yarn. “Dammit!”

“Mike?”

“It’s alright,” I said to calm Beth down. “I’m just venting, is all.”

“I think I found something.”

I stopped what I was doing. “Yeah?” Following the sound of her voice, I began to brush pass the assorted mannequins. “What is it?”

She sounded uncertain. “I’m not sure. It’s in a box.” She went quiet.

I stopped in my tracks. “Beth?”

“Mike,” in all the time I’ve known her, I’ve never heard Beth sound so utterly dumbstruck with fear. I could hear her heavy breathing from here. “I…I don’t think we were the first people here.”

There was a shuffling sound. Beth dropped whatever she was holding. “Beth?”

“It…blinked.”

There was a fleshy noise followed by an ear-deafening scream. Beth’s scream. I heard her hit the floor and saw a couple mannequins topple when she must have bumped into them. I began running through the aisles, crying Beth’s name as I went. I don’t know what I tripped on but the next thing I knew I was on the floor and my vision went black.

Beth’s continued screaming brought me back from the void and I struggled to focus my vision. My eyes were blinded. Only after blinking did I realize that the lights had gone off. There was the shuffling of feet, or hooves.

“My eye! It took my eye!” She wailed. There was a loud commotion in the darkness. “It’s going to kill me!!”

“Beth!” I tried to get up only to feel something kick me. I fell to my backside. On instinct I kicked with my own legs, feeling them connect with something hard. It fell backward and I could swear there was a moan.There was movement all around me. The mannequins were moving.

“Ow!” Beth cried out. “Mike!” I heard more fleshy sounds coming from Beth’s position. They were fast and hard, a cry of anguish accompanying each one. It sounded like Beth was being stabbed. Throwing caution to the wind, I got up and began waving my arms left and right. I felt them connect with several hard heads, smacking the mannequins off their hooves. Moans sounded all around me. A few of them struck back, painful hits sending me stumbling all over the dark.

Somewhere, Beth kept screaming as she was stabbed to death. Her anguished cries were becoming gurgles of blood. I tried calling out but so encumbered was I trying to defend myself agains the invisible enemy that all I could manage was an audible grunt as another hoof connected with my body.

“Beth!”

Her tiny voice sounded pitiful in the dark. There was some small plea for help before I heard a sound that resembled water spilling across the floor. Then all went silent.

She was dead. I knew that to be a fact. It took a moment for me to realize that I was no longer under attack and that the only sounds were my labored breathing as I swung wildly in the dark, trying to hit something. Anything!

Then it was right in front of me. From the roof there came a spotlight. It centered on a lone mannequin with was unlike the others. It was the purest white, almost glowing, with a stunning mane of blue threads and vacant eyes. The only other difference was the horn on its head which was covered in a sticky, red substance. Blood.

But the worse part, the one that had the bile in my stomach making for my throat, was that on the horn itself was a single eyeball. I recognized the color of the iris. A silent scream opened my mouth as the bloody mannequin rolled its head back. The eyes were pure white until the eyeballs rolled into focus. Horrid blue-black eyes stared at me with pure malice as the mannequin smiled. It was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.

It made to stab me but by then I was already backpedaling. Beth’s eye stared at me blankly as the mannequin pursued. Through a combination of fear and adrenaline, I must have built up enough momentum to go crashing through the door and outside. I stumbled and fell. The white mannequin pursued. It strode on long, powerful legs, the horrific smile as sharp as a hundred knives stabbing my soul.

Light to the side caught my attention and I looked as two huge eyes came barreling towards me. At first I thought another horror was upon me, but then I heard the screech of tires. The car hardly had enough time to turn as it nearly ran me over. The passenger door opened up and a familiar voice called out, “Get in!”

I moved on pure instinct, the primal part of my brain guiding my actions. Emily’s fear-struck eyes were glued behind me as I dived into the car. Her foot slammed onto the pedal, rocketing us away from the house of horror, away from the thing that killed Beth.

The homes and streets of Ponyville gave way to trees and woodland. The headlights bounced up and down as we drove over uneven terrain, taking several sharp turns as Emily tried desperately to avoid crashing. Despite her clear discomfort at being at the wheel, she was more focused than I was.

I could hear her labored breathing as she tried to keep the car straight. My head more than once bumped against the roof of the car, nearly knocking me senseless at one point. “Stop the car!” I commanded. My eyes were bleary from the impact. I needed to get my bearings.

I could still see her shaking her head. “I told you we should have left. Just you and me.”

I looked at her incredulously. Did she just suggest what I thought she did? Emily, my oldest friend, the most stoic person I’ve ever known once she hit puberty, had shocked me to my core.

“Stop the car,” I said with more force. “Now!”

She was shaking her head. “But…”

“NOW!”

She slammed on the breaks and we barely avoided colliding with a stone bench. Who the hell puts a bench all the way out here, I asked myself? We both just sat there in utter silence for several minutes, our breathing fogging up the windows. I placed one hand on the dashboard as if to steady myself. My legs felt wobbly even while sitting. Slowly, I turned to Emily.

She was fighting back tears, I knew. Her arms trembled, extended as they were, on the the ten and three o’clock positions. “We should have just left,” she whispered. To me, it may as well have been a shout for I literally shook with surprise. “I told you this was a bad place. I told you, Michael. It’s Halloween all over again.” She wiped her eyes. “Why didn’t you listen to me?”

I wanted to argue with her. I wanted to tell her how selfish she was being knowing that our friends were still out there. But then I realized that a part of me agreed with her. Had she and I just left, we’d be safe. I hated thinking that way. How could I consider leaving behind Tom and Bet? How could I leaving Tammy?

Her screams still echoed in my mind.

“No!” I sapped. Emily jumped. I spoke in a clear, commanding voice and said, “We can’t just up and go. Our friends still need us.”

“What friends?” Now it was she who snapped. “The guy who treats you like a punching bag? The tramp he’s with? The girl you’ve had a crush on but never had the balls to admit her feelings toward you? These are the people you want to risk your life for?”

I yelled at her. “You’d just leave them?”

She slapped the wheel. “If it meant getting us home alive, dammit, yes!”

I was at a loss for words.

There was a staring contest between us. Her angry eyes met with mine, locked in a contest of wills and guilt. I thought I’d be the one to lose. But Emily broke down first. She began to cry, freely, her head dipping onto the wheel as if it were an inflated object that had lost all helium. “I’m sorry,” her mangled words came out. I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t seen an outpouring of emotion like this from her in years.

I reached out to her but she just pulled away. She turned away from me, wiping the tears on her face. “Just…just give me a minute.”

“Emily, I understand you’re scared.”

“Do you?” She lunged around, and for a second I thought she’d hit me. “What do you know, Mike? Do you know how terrified I was waiting for you in the car all by myself? Did you hear the things I did? Did you see the things I saw?”

I was about to tel her about the things I saw when she cut me off.

“This place isn’t abandoned. There are monsters living here. I saw them.” She began to whisper all of a sudden. “They were at the windows. Around the corners. I saw their eyes, maddening, evil eyes. They wanted to kill me. To eat me. To tear me apart.” She unclenched a shaking fist and pointed her finger at me. “The only reason I didn’t just leave right then and there was because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving you behind.”

I shut my eyes for a moment. I knew this wasn’t the time to play “who had it worst” because honestly, I knew I’d win. “I saw things too. I saw something take Tammy at the bakery. I saw a giant shadow try to eat me. I saw Beth….” My eyes opened. They must have been something because I saw Emily’s face go white. “I want to leave too. God, don’t you think I want to go too?”

Her mouth opened. “Then…let’s…go.” She mouthed each word carefully. She was pleading with me.

It was a weak argument. “But the others.” I can’t seriously be considering this. What was I thinking? Was I that much of a coward?

“I came looking for you,” Emily’s words brought me back from my self-loathing. “I couldn’t wait anymore so I turned on the car and began driving around. The things, they kept following me with their eyes. But I figured as long as I stay in the car they can’t get me right?”

I shrugged.

“So I kept driving. I saw none of you. Beth. Tammy. Tom. It’s like you were all gone. You left me.” She looked right into my eyes when she said that. “I was all alone.”

“I didn’t mean to. That is…Emily it was just…” I didn’t know what to say to her except, “I’m sorry.”

Another long silence pervaded. “We can’t leave them,” I said a while later.

“I know,” she said back. “God dammit, I know.”

A loud howl permeated the air. It sounded far away, but the sound was so piercing it rattled every bone in my body. Emily and I stared at each other in absolute fear as we turned back. It was coming from Ponyville.

“What was that?” She asked me.

I didn’t want to find out.

“Mike. What do we do?”

Of course it was my decision.

“We have to find our friends, but…it’s best if we don’t go back the way we came.” The last thing I wanted to do was run into whatever made that sound. “Maybe we can circle back. Come around the main road. I saw…”

BAM!

Something hit the side of the car, making Emily scream. I turned to see Tom, all bloody and looking like some deranged human being, pounding on the door. “Let me in! Christ, let me in!”

“Emily! The doors!”

She unlocked them and Tom hastily jumped into the backseat. His eyes were wide, trembling. I saw blood all over his shirt. His blood, it seemed, after spotting the trail of cuts along his chest and abdomen. I never saw Tom so terrified in all my life. He had always been my go-to friend whenever a bigger kid had been bullying me. He had been my guardian as well as my friend. No longer.

“Drive! Drive!” With his free hand—the other was clutching his blood-soaked face—he shook the headrest behind Emily. “Go! It was right behind me!”

“What? Tom, what’s chasing you?” I asked.

I don’t think he heard me. He was beyond hearing anything other than the sound of his own yelling. “Go! Now!” There was that howl again. This time it wasn’t very far away.

“Emily!” My voice snapped her out of her shock. She drove us away from the bench and into the forest. Tom was looking out the back window. I saw more blood stains on his shirt and what looked like puss seeping out the wounds. “What the hell happened to you?”

“It’s after me, man. It had a taste. It wants to eat me.”

I asked, “What’s trying to eat you?”

He screamed. “I don’t fucking know, man! A giant horse THING!”

Horse thing?

“It’s been chasing me all over town. I screamed for help but I didn’t know where you guys went. It came for me.” He was actually crying now. Tom. Mr. Tough Guy. Was bawling tears. “It took a bite right out of me.” He pulled up the back of his shirt to show a horrendous gash across his upper back, right where all the puss was coming from.

“Oh my God.” It almost bit all the way down to the bone. The flesh was completely gone! How was he still alive after that?

“Mike, how is he?” Emily asked, peeking through the rear-view mirror.

“Shit-faced scared,” I told her. “We have to get him to a hospital. I don’t know how he’s still moving.”

“It’s not going to get me,” Tom said. “It keeps trying to eat me. But I won’t let it. “I won’t let it. I won’t…” I saw him go rigid. “SHIT!”

The car lurched as something powerful collided with it. Emily screamed. I looked at the sideview mirror and saw something from out of a nightmare. A huge, four-legged beast with long pink hair ran after the car. Though the car was bobbing widely, I could make out an abnormally long snout filled with sharp fangs that glinted red in the rear lights. The creature had wide shoulders and a long neck, easily keeping pace with the car using its wide legs. Then there were the eyes…focused solely on the man behind me.

Tom was sobbing loudly. “Don’t let it get me, man! I don’t want to be eaten.” He cringed in the backseat, curling into a ball. HIs blood stained everything. The creature slammed into us again. Tom couldn’t stop screaming for us to save him.

“It’s too fast,” I heard Emily say. “We can’t outrun it!”

The creature butted the side of the car with its long snout. It wanted in. It wanted to eat. It wanted Tom.

“Give her everything she’s got,” I told Emily, knowing full well she had the pedal on the floor. The monster chasing us slowed down all of a sudden and then, if my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, disappeared from sight. It looked like it had reared on its hind legs before doing so, I wasn’t sure. All I knew is it was gone.

“Tom. Tom! It went away.”

Tom kept whimpering in the back. Adrenaline must have been the only thing keeping him conscious because he was in very bad shape. “I think it gave up,” I told him.

Tom slowly sat up, he peered over the backseat window slowly, like a frightened child. “Is it…gone?” His voice was shaking so much that at first I did not understand what he had said. I was too busy trying to sort out the creature’s sudden disappearance. “Yeah, Tom. It went away.” I was speaking for his benefit. I bothered me seeing my friend this way, injured and scared. He’d always been the strong one in our friendship. Now it was my turn.

“Mike?” Emily whispered to me, her foot still on the pedal. I looked at her. “Where did it go?” She asked with obvious concern. I shrugged my shoulders but stayed on alert, looking out the window, checking and re-checking the side-view mirror. Emily knew I was tense. We were both trying to put on a strong front, though for Tom’s sake or each other’s, I couldn’t say.

“Tom,” I called out to him. “What happened after you left? Why weren’t you with Beth?” I must have sounded like I was accusing him of something, but so what? Beth was with him before this happened. She had been his responsibility. Had he been with her instead of me….”Tom!”

Tom looked himself over as he talked. “I…I don’t know. I lost sight of her…. She disappeared.”

How the hell does everyone keep disappearing in this town? First Tammy. Then Emily. Now Beth and Tom? “How did she disappear?” I asked him, an edge to my voice.

“I don’t know.” Tom was shaking his head, tears running down his cheeks. “I don’t remember. One moment she was following me and the next…she was gone. I went looking for her. I did, really. But then that thing found me instead. It was chasing me. Hunting me. I ran for miles before I lost it in the woods.”

He spat some blood onto the floor. I didn’t reprimand him for it. “Where were you guys, man? I kept calling out to you.”

“What?” Emily gasped. “That’s impossible. I drove all over town and didn’t hear or see you.”

Tom glared at the back of her head. “You took the car? You left me alone out there?”

“Huh? No.”

He coughed out more blood. “You bitch! I needed help and you took the only mode of transport we had. I could have died because of you!”

He dare not speak to her that way when I was around. “It’s not her fault, Tom! I was lost too. We all were.” It didn’t make any sense. How could we all lose track of each other like that? “We all should have just stayed together instead of wandering off. We should have just left when we had the chance.” I looked at Emily when I said that. She remained fixated on the path before her.

“Where were you, man?” Tom now turned on me. “Huh?”

“I went looking for Tammy.”

He sounded so disbelieving. “So you went out to get some while I was fighting for my life?”

I couldn’t believe it. I reared around my seat, my voice rising. “I went looking of her because she had wandered off. Then she found me and I…” I couldn’t. In the back of my head I could hear that strange girl’s laughing. I saw it pull Tammy out the door. I heard Tammy’s screams as she was carried away.

Tom had been speaking to me. “…the hell happened? Mike!”

I caught the last part of that sentence. “She’s gone. I ran after her and she was gone. I couldn’t find her. Beth and I…”

“Beth?” His eyes lit up. “You saw Beth. Where is she? Is she okay?”

I grit my teeth. Tom kept pushing. Emily kept glancing at me from out of the corner of her eye. “Beth won’t be coming with us.”

“W-W-What?” Tom stammered. “W-What do y-you mean?”

For a moment, my heart froze. How do I even begin to explain what I meant? Do I just come out and say it? Do I tell them how I was unable to help Beth as she was stabbed to death by a mannequin with a maniacal grin? Do I tell them about the eyeball?

“Mike?” Tom’s gasping voice wavered a bit. Then suddenly…”Holy shit!”

Emily, who had been momentarily distracted by my conversation with Tom, almost didn’t see it in time. Not that it would have mattered. She screeched and slammed the breaks as the giant beast came bashing through the front window. Tom screamed louder than any of us as its huge maw, teeth glistening, clamped down and crushed his face like a ripe melon. The backseat was painted a deep crimson. Tom’s headless body spasmed as the beast began to chew thoroughly, working its long maw down his neck and into the juiciest part of his chest.

It all happened in less than a heartbeat. The car had come to a complete stop as I was thrown out by the creature’s impressive girth. A wall of pink and yellow fur rummaged through the front seat, thick, powerful arms as wide as my chest crushing down on the seats, shaking the car violently. The create hungrily ate at the corpse in the back, splattering the windows with viscera and blood. I’ll never forget the sounds as it devoured my friend right before me.

“Mike!” Emily’s voice came from the other side. She had barely escaped being crushed by the beast herself and was running around the car. I was already on my feet and running to her, but my eyes were ever on the scene of carnage before me. I could have sworn I saw two tiny wings on the creature’s back, flittering pathetically with excitement as the beast finally caught its intended prey. Crunching sounds assailed my ears. The smell of blood and guts was overwhelming. I felt sick. I wanted to throw up.

Emily grabbed me. “We have to go!” I allowed her to pull me away from the bloodbath, the pink and yellow monster enjoying its meal with reckless enthusiasm. It howled in ecstasy.

~~~

Emily never let me go. Her short legs pumped strongly, propelling both of us through the forest. I actually had to struggle to keep up. Twice I dared look over my shoulder for fear of seeing that creature behind me. The image of it devouring my friend’s face with a single bite would haunt my dreams forever.

We broke free of the forest, entering a field of grass higher than our heads. I lost sight of Emily, though I could still hear her through the foliage. Her labored breathing was as loud as my own. We had to rest, I knew, disregarding the part of my mind that ordered me to keep on running until we were a thousand miles away.

When my tired legs could carry me no longer I finally collapsed. Emily jutted to a halt, my greater weight pulling her back. She tugged at me. “We have to keep moving!” I felt like she would pull my arm right off its socket. I tried to get up, tried to move, but my legs would not comply.

“Need…rest.” I gasped before bowling over. Finally my stomach emptied its contents over the ground, a putrid scent filling my nostrils. Emily didn’t seem to mind or care. She came around behind me and, putting both arms around my shoulders, struggled to pull me up. I wretched some more.

I don’t know if it was the scent of my sick or something else, but eventually she too was throwing up.

“T-Tom,” I said after finding my breath. “Oh…God.” I looked over in the direction we came from. The beast hadn’t followed. Perhaps it was full. I threw up again.

Emily was having trouble breathing. She sounded like a wheezing bag of air that was slowly being drained. She had to physically struggle to get on one knee. “Come on.”

I pretended not to hear her. I was too busy trying to process what was going on. This town was a nightmare. What evil place had we discovered on our road? Why, oh why did I not just drive by it?

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Huh?”

I looked into her eyes, catching a glint of the moon in their reflection. When had it come out, I thought? “I should have kept driving. It’s all my fault.”

“Are you kidding me?” Emily almost yelled. She glanced around and quickly lowered her voice. “Now’s not the time for this shit, Mike. You have to pull it together.” She knelt next to me. “Listen, I’m the one who gets to break down, okay? I’ve always been the panicky one. You don’t get that luxury.” I found her reasoning ridiculous. I had as much right to be self-hating as anyone else. “Now get off your ass. That thing may be here at any moment after it’s done with Tom.”

I doubt that. It didn’t seem interested in us at all, only Tom. Even when it had the chance, when it burst through the front window, narrowly missing me and Emily, it went straight for Tom. It didn’t care about us. Much in the same way the others…I could feel my eyes widening.

“What is it?” Emily grabbed my shoulders. “Mike? MIKE?”

“They went after someone else,” I said aloud. There had been several moments when I could have been killed. The giggling girl took Tammy when I was the first into the bakery. The shadow-bat could have easily caught me and Beth, yet we had managed to escape, barely. The mannequin had attacked Beth instead of me. And the large horse-thing had gone straight for Tom when it could have killed us all.

“Mike?”

I snapped out of my terrified thinking. Emily was trembling before me, more from fear than the night air. “What happened to Beth?”

I blinked at her.

“Back in the car, you never finished telling us what happened to Beth. Is she…was she…?”

“She’s dead,” I said almost too casually. “And I think that…Tammy is too.”

Horrified, she covered her mouth as if to muffle a scream.

In a heartbeat, I threw my arms around Emily and pulled her in close. She tensed in my arms. I could feel her heart beating against my chest. Even the stench of her bile on her lips did nothing to detract me from her. “I’m going to get us out of here. You hear me? Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“What are you doing?” She tried to pull away, albeit weakly. “Mike?”

“I should have listened to you and left when we had the chance. I am so sorry, Emily.”

Emily said nothing.

“You are my best friend.” And right now, she was the only friend i had left. I loosened my grip but did not let go of her. Emily was looking right at me, all thoughts of escape lost at the moment. I wasn’t thinking straight either. I didn’t think at all when I leaned in and pressed my lips against hers. She resisted, squealed, I could feel the tension all over her body. She finally relaxed, though, and returned my kiss, going so far as to wrap both arms around my head.

It was foolish, I kept thinking at the back of my head, to be doing this when we were still in danger. There’s no telling what horrors could be out there waiting for us. We weren’t safe until we were back on the road and as far away from Ponyville as possible.

But with so much death around me, watching my friends murdered, the monsters, I needed to find some peace. Emily was my peace. She was my freedom for this nightmare. I never wanted the kiss to end.

But it did. Pulling away, Emily kept staring at me. “Why?” She asked.

I felt like I’d just come out of a trance. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…well I did but…it’s not…”

She put a finger to my lips, hushing me. “Why did you wait this long?”

I just stared at her.

“Really, Michael. Now is when you show me? I’ve been wanting this to happen for a long time. Do you know how hard it was, watching you swoon over Tammy all these years? I left it alone because you were my best friend. I kept telling myself that was all we were but…I kept seeing you seeing her. I tried to block out my feelings. I listened to music, did everything I could to spend as less time with you as possible because I knew you’d never look at me the same way you did Tammy.” She removed her finger. “And now of all times, when we’re trapped in this nightmare, you finally make my dreams come true.”

She chuckled to herself. “I guess I shouldn’t talk. I’m also a coward. I always believed, or hoped, you felt the same way about me. You’re my Tammy, Michael. Only the feelings weren’t mutual.”

“What?” I blinked in confusion. “I don’t understand. What I just did…”

“You did out of fear. I get it. I’m don’t plan on majoring in psychology for nothing. You loved Tammy. I love you. That’s just the way we’re wired.” She had a look of sad resignation on her face. “I wanted to leave, just the two of us, because I wanted to leave Tammy behind. I know that makes me a horrible person. I hate myself for thinking that way. She was my friend and now she’s dead. I know she is.” Tears rimmed her face. Tammy, I’m so sorry.”

“Emily.” I tried to hug her, but she pulled away.

“No. Not now. It’s not safe. We have to find the cops and have them come back here so that we find our friends’ bodies. We owe them that much.” Emily stood up. She dried her tears before looking down at me. “Come on.” She reached out. “Okay?”

I stared dumbfounded at this girl in front of me. Where had the scared little Emily gone? The girl who used to cry for anything? Where had the introvert gone? Now she’d just revealed her deepest secret as well as her darkest shame. Maybe she was right, and it was the fear making me do things I would never have done otherwise. Maybe she was making me realize something that a small part of me had never realized until just now. We had to make this right, Emily and I. Be it as lovers or best friends.

“Okay.” I took her hand. She gave it a warm squeeze before leading the way. I walked close behind her for fear of losing her in the grass. The moon hung over us like a pale, white bulb. Streaks of black jutted across its surface. For a brief moment I thought I saw something, a face, or rather the face, of a horse staring back at me. “Horses,” I muttered.

“What?” Emily asked.

“Ponies. The things in this town, the monster that ate Sam, the shadow, the mannequins, maybe even the laughing girl…..they’re all ponies.”

Emily slowed down to listen. “What are you talking about?”

“Ponyville. It’s name quite literally refers to a town full of ponies. Each thing that’s tried to kill us resembles a pony in some way or another.” I could see a copse of trees in the distance. Wherever we were heading, more of them were popping up. “I think that’s what they all are. Ponies.”

“But aren’t ponies supposed to be small and cuddly?” Emily asked over her shoulder. “These things are more like demons.”

She was right. “Yeah. Except wherever this is, the ponies who live here have been tainted somehow. They’re not nice and far from cuddly.” I glanced up at the first tree, so full of apples.

“What’s making them do this?” Emily asked. “Why are they trying to kill us?”

“Maybe this town is cursed. Maybe we crossed over into another dimension. I don’t know.” Many of the apples were bright red. They looked so delicious. My stomach began to rumble. “All I know is we have to find our way back to the road. This all started the moment we took that detour.”

Emily saw me looking at something. “What is it?”

My stomach growled again. “Sorry. I’m just kind of hungry. We haven’t eaten in hours.” I pointed to the tree. “Those apples look good. You mind if I grab one before we go?”

Emily’s next question was full of disbelief. “How can you think of eating at a time like this?”

“Tell that to my stomach. Just one apple. The last thing I want is to be sneaking around and have my growling stomach give us away.” I was moving toward the tree before she could reprimand me.

“Fine.” Emily followed shortly.

The tree was bigger up close. I craned my neck to see all those delectable apples. My stomach leading, I began to climb. Emily protested at first, but I signaled for her keep her voice down. “I’ll have a better view of the field from up there. Maybe I’ll se the road that can get us out of here.” That rational thinking calmed her somewhat and she fell silent. I was always a good climber, ever since I was little. I scaled the tree quite easily and by the time I reached the lowest branch my stomach was practically eating away at me.

True to my word to Emily. I decided to go higher to gain the best vantage point. It took some time to navigate all the branches but once I reached the peak and used my legs to balance myself, I was able to get a full three-sixty degree view of the field. I plucked an apple on my way up and began chewing it thoroughly. It tasted delicious.

“See anything?” I could barely hear Emily from so high up.

Chewing, I surveyed my surroundings. The field was vast but not endless. I could make out the distinct shapes of the town not too far away. It rested at the edge of the forest in which we tried to make our escape in the car. My eyes lingered the way we’d come, back to the forest, to make sure I didn’t see some large pony-shaped monster following us. It was clear.

Back to the field, I scanned over it and spotted a barn of sorts in the distance. Best avoid that, I thought to myself. Every time I sought shelter in a building, there was always something waiting in there. Then again, that pony that ate Tom was out in the forest. Perhaps it had lived there, a small cottage of some sort. I shook the notion from my head.

Sadly, I didn’t see the road leading out of town. It was probably on the other side of Ponyville, beyond my field of vision. We’d have to go through it to find the road to civilization. Emily wasn’t going to like this. One hand went to my pocket where I had taken the sewing needles from the store full of killer mannequins. I was ready to fight our way out if need be. I was going to get Emily out of here. Fear or not, I knew my feelings for her were true. She was my friend and I would not see her die here.

I waved my hand down at Emily to signal that there was no visible means of leaving. I’d just finished my apple too. At least if I die, it won’t be on an empty stomach, I thought morosely. I tossed the apple into the fields and was about to head back down when I saw something. A figure propped up over the grass. It looked like some sort of scarecrow, a pony scarecrow.

My blood froze.

I took a quick glance around. There were no other ponies in the vicinity but I wasn’t going to take the chance. We had to get out of this field NOW.

I quickly began my descent, being far less cautious. I scraped my hands on the tree bark, ignoring the cuts and bruises. Emily’s voice came up at me, asking what was the matter. I didn’t want to raise my voice again. Silence would be our shield against the demons in the guise of ponies. I just wish she’d keep her voice down. There was no telling…

The scarecrow moved.

Like deer in headlights, I literally froze, eyes wide. The scarecrow moved off the wooden cross as if casually discarding clothing before hopping to the ground. I lost it in the grass, though I could see the patch where it had dropped shuffling about. Then something popped up like a periscope over water. The sharp blade gleamed in the moonlight. A scythe. It began to move towards our tree.

“Shit!” I jumped the halfway remaining to the ground, landing and rolling at the same time. Pain jolted my body, but I quickly brushed it off. Emily was right by my side.

“Run!” I grabbed her hand. “It’s coming this way.”

I need not iterate further. Emily took my word and followed me into the high grass. We both could hear the grass shuffling behind us. Something was moving through it. Fast. Too fast. Faster than us.

Damn these four-legged monstrosities!

I kept a visual image of the field in my head. Heading into the forest was a bad idea and the barn was out of the question. The pony scarecrow must live there and the last thing I wanted was to fight it on its own turf. I recalled seeing a bridge that spanned the river. If we fought it out where we could see it, on a bridge that took away its advantage in maneuverability, maybe we stand a chance at killing it.

Could these things even die?

There was a cutting sound behind us. I dared a brief glimpse to see the scythe swishing away, cutting off the heads of the grass. It was getting closer. How the hell can it move so fast while waving the scythe at the same time? We had to be getting closer to the border. Or maybe I was just hoping we were. Whatever it was, I didn’t want that thing killing Emily.

“Go!” I pushed her ahead of me.

She glanced back in absolute shock. “What?”

“Go on! I’ll slow it down.”

“Are you out of your mind? I’m not leaving you.”

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the sewing needles and gave one to Emily. “In case you run into anything along the way.” I nodded. “I’ll be right behind you. I promise.”

“But Mike,”

I shoved her. “Hurry up. I’ll be fine. These things aren’t after me. They’re after my friends.”

She was confused. I wasn’t entirely sure, either. But as my mind struggled to make sense of this whole maddening adventure, it was the most logical sort of reasoning I could come up with. Emily would die if she stayed here. I would not. So long as she was alive, I would be too. I hoped.

Then the scarecrow came out of the brush. “Run!” I screamed, and to my relief she did, leaping into the high grass. I almost ran after her. The scarecrow, or scarepony, was truly a monster. It comprised of not one, not two, not three, but four pony bodies. Like some maddening centipede, the largest body made up the bottom, looking more masculine than the other three. A frail-looking body created the center, while a younger and more powerful form took the top. Atop of that one’s head was the tiniest pony of all, the one wielding the scythe like some mad gardener. Only the top two had a head and eyes, and all four of them looked at me with maddened glee. It would explain how the pony as able to move so fast with not four but twelve legs propelling it while the littlest one, the “head”, slashed the scythe around. Wrapped entirely in mud-brown rags and strings of saw, the creature was horror given form.

I was forever grateful that Emily wasn’t around to hear me piss my pants. The writhing head on the topmost pony leered at me. I could swear there was a bow tied to its head. It a blink it slashed at me, the scythe taking a hair off my head. A hair. But not my head itself. It could have killed me right then and there, so paralyzed was I. Was my theory right? Were they purposely letting me live?

The large pony on the bottom reared up and kicked me in the chest. I collapsed in a heap, coughing and gasping for air. The large scarepony leered over me. The little pony waved the scythe back and forth as if taunting me. I readied myself for the killing blow. At least I bought Emily some time to escape.

But the blow never came. The scarepony leaped over me and into the grass. I knew where it was going. I knew who it wanted to kill. I tried warn Emily but I still couldn’t breathe, let alone yell. Struggling to my feet, I gave chase. I knew I could never keep pace with it. But I had to try. For Emily.

“Emily it’s coming right for you!” My warning sounded pathetic. My chest still burned from where the hoof had struck me. I lurched like some drunkard after the monster, desperately calling out one warning after another to Emily. I could hear the sound of hooves speeding away, faster and faster, until it was hard to hear anything at all.

“Emily!” I burst through the high grass and fumbled to the ground. I was on the outskirts of Ponyville and not too far from the bridge I’d spotted earlier. There was no sign of Emily or the scarepony. Gripping the needle in my hand, I stood up, raising it like a defense weapon. “Emily!” I cried, not caring if I was loud. Caution gave way to concern. I needed to know my best friend was alright.

At the speed it was going there was no way that Emily could have outrun the scarepony. My only hope that she had somehow managed to elude it, hide from it somehow. Emily was always good at laying low. She’d been doing it most of her life. She was good at so many things, things I hadn’t noticed until now.

“Mike!” Her voice sounded like sweet music to my ears. I saw her rising up on the other side of the bridge where she’d been hiding. Emily waved her arm frantically. “Over here, quick!”

Elation had me bounding to her. My chest hurt like hell when she threw her arms around me and pulled me into a big hug. I hugged her back, but briefly. “It’s out there.” I looked around. “We have to get moving before it catches up to us.”

But Emily was shaking her head at me. “It’s alright. Look.” She pointed over the bridge and to the high grass. I followed her gaze to the edge of the field and saw not one, but two pairs of hateful eyes glaring back at us. It was the scarepony.

“Run!” I cried out, but Emily stopped me. “What are…?”

“It can’t follow us out of the grass,” she told me with utmost confidence. “It stopped chasing me when I crossed the bridge. I looked back and saw it just standing there, beating its hooves and snorting. I waited for it to give chase but when it didn’t I knew that something was holding it back. I don’t think it’s meant to leave the field. It is a scarecrow after all.”

I stared dumbfounded at her. It made a strange sort of sense when I thought about it. A scarecrow was bound to the area it was meant to protect. Perhaps there was some sort of magic that prevented the scarepony from giving chase outside its selected area. Emily escaped before it could catch her and since she was still alive, it couldn’t kill me.

We’d done it. We found someway to outsmart this evil place. The ponies had their limitations. We just had to figure them out to survive. I hugged Emily again. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Ditto.” She returned the hug. I didn’t want it to end. I wish we could have taken refuge in our embrace forever. Emily removed herself first. She was smiling. “Let’s go, BFF.” She glanced back at the field and smiled again.

I never knew just how warm blood was until it splattered on my face. One moment she was smiling, just smiling, taunting the scare pony from a safe distance. The next moment her head split open as the scythe came whirling though the air. The impossibly sharp blade kept digging until it had reached her best cavity. Her heart still pumping, a fountain of blood exploded from the new cavity, showering me with my best friend’s gore. Her legs trembled at first, her body not realizing that it was dead yet. Finally they gave out and Emily, my lovely Emily, crumbled before me.

I could do nothing but just watch her die. It had been so sudden, so unexpected, like the ultimate sucker punch that you didn’t see coming. I felt no pain, no sadness, only confusion and utter despair. The two halves of Emily split further as the impact of her knees hitting the ground had the blade sinking further until it reached her sternum. Now I was standing in a pool of her blood, the gore coating every inch of the bridge, the blood seeping over the edges to pain the water below it a dark red.

I began to tremble. In the grass, the multi-limbed scarepony watched with unfeeling eyes. In one fell swoop it had stolen my last bit of hope, which in a way had probably been its intent all along. I could have killed me in the field. That was not what it did. No. Killing would be too easy. Watching one’s friends die one at a time while you survived, that was true hell.

I was in hell.

~~~

Ponyville was dead silent. I slouched through the streets, the moon my only companion. I no longer cared if something jumped out of the darkness at me, killing game or eating me or whatever the hell these damn things wanted. I stopped caring about any of that. My presence was all too conspicuous, my feet scraping across the ground. I clenched the needle in my hand, for all the good it did me. I was considering how long it would take for me to die after plunging it through my eye, impaling my brain. At least then I’d be free.

But that was the coward’s way out. For too long I’d been a coward. I never told Tammy how I felt. I never stopped Tom from teasing me. I never confronted Beth about how shallow she was. I never noticed Emily.

One way or another, I would take as many of the bastards with me as I could, one gouged neck at a time.

I felt them more than saw them. Emily’s words came back to me then, about how they were always just out of sight. Always in the shadows and around the corner, but never in your field of vision. They were all there now, the residents of Ponyville. The monsters were teasing me. They dared me to come to them. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of going down easily.

I had reached the town square, the same square where the pony fountain was standing. In the moonlight I could see its face, only now I knew without a doubt that it was staring right back at me, laughing. “What the hell are you looking at?” I challenged it. “Did you enjoy the show?”

The statue just smiled.

“Is this some kind of game to you? Huh? Lure unexacting travelers here and then kill them? Toying with them first?” My ire raised with each syllable. I wanted the whole town to hear what I had to say. “You’re all damn cowards!”

To the statue I said, “Whatever you are, I will find you. And I will kill you. I’ll make you pay for each life you stole from me.” My words were beyond vehement. They were dripping with so much anger and so much pain that it was a wonder my body hadn’t burst from the exertion. I felt hot all over, my skin defying the pervading cold. “Come out where I can see you, you piece of shit! Come out where I can kill you!”

“Hehehehehe.” The girlish laughter came from all around me. I turned suddenly to find not a darkened village but a brightly-lit one full of light, life…and ponies.

But these were not the monsters I had seen out of the corner of my eye or the demons that killed my friends. These were smiling, happy, multi-colored ponies that were in the throes of celebration. They each had a unique mark on their flanks, their mane and tails bound in different styles. The square was adorned with balloons and ribbons, adding to the festive atmosphere. There were tables set with an assortment of foods, the smell of apples pervading. Many of the ponies, mostly female, wore amazing dresses that were as brightly colored as they were. Among the ponies were animal pets, no, friends, each of them accompanying a pony of their choosing. In the sky, several winged ponies performed an amazing display of choreography that was so supercharged that it created a fireworks display that lit put he night sky.

The songs. The food. The music. The camaraderie. It was unlike anything I had ever seen or felt in my life. This wasn’t hell. This was paradise.

At the far end of the festivities I saw the most amazing house yet. It was a giant tree complete with balconies, windows, and a porch. The door opened and purple-colored pony with a horn stepped out. She—it was too beautiful not to be a she—was greeted warmly by a group of ponies. I recognized a rainbow-colored mane, the long pink hair and yellow fur, the stunning white coat, the design of apples on a flank, and bright pink hair.

My heart pounded. These were the ponies that killed my friends. But they looked nothing like the monsters I had seen. These ponies looked nice. They looked like best friends. They hugged and nuzzled each other from where I stood. I could feel the warmth of their love even from this distance. The six ponies talked amongst themselves excitedly. From behind the exotic purple pony—the unicorn—a tiny dragon bounded forward wearing a fedora. He posed in front of the others, the white pony, also a unicorn, wrapped a hoof around him and they all had a good laugh.

All around the group, the inhabitants of Ponyville danced and laughed and enjoyed their time together. They were completely oblivious to me, the only human in their midst. All these ponies, their horns alight, their wings flapping, their hooves bucking in tune with the music……this was the real Ponyville.

A shot rang out.

The music stopped and every pony froze in place. At the group of six, the little dragon stumbled once, then twice, before falling to the ground, a gaping hole in his chest. The white unicorn screamed and soon the air was filled with gunshots. Ponies ran in every direction. Those that flew were falling out of the sky, blood seeping from their wounds. Bullets rang out in every direction, killing the magical creatures in droves. The mane six ponies spread out, some to defend their fellows, others to rescue those they could. From the distance but closing fast, I heard shouting. Human voices. I turned around to see an army of armed men, all wearing masks and carrying rifles, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd. Where had they come from? Were there humans here all along? Why were they attacking these peaceful ponies?

A few of the ponies fought back. I saw the rainbow-maned pony with wings—a pegasus, I think—come crashing down on the head of a man in front. His helmet burst like a popped grape, sending the contents of his brains all over the floor. HIs fellows began shooting at the wildly moving pegasus, hitting nothing but air. She kept crushing the heads of the armed men, coming down such force that the ground shook. Finally one took out a machine gun and began spraying the sky. The pony was fast, but not fast enough to avoid the onslaught of bullets. She died quickly, her body riddled with holes.

The pony with apples on her flank screamed at the death of her friend. She began tackling the men to the ground, stomping on them with her hooves. For a little pony she was incredibly strong, throwing men twice her size off her as she barreled, stomped and bit her way into the human lines. Many men died before her, but there were too many. This powerful pony was eventually overwhelmed. Covered in bullets and stab wounds, she eventually succumbed to her injuries, dying only when a human put a slug in her head.

I saw the two pink-haired ponies try to get their fellow ponies to safety. The one with the frizzy hair bounced around, doing everything possible to distract the humans who were killing her friends. She managed to draw several of them away from a group of little fillies and colts, jumping and running despite having been hit several times by bullets. She keeping laughing, bleeding and all, for every second she kept them busy. She was still smiling when a lucky shot brought her down for good. The other flying pony was carrying a small animal in her hooves, her wings burning and utterly useless. She used her own body as a shield, protecting the little creature, a rabbit, as a group of armed men stopped them to death.

The unicorn ponies began shooting magical blasts of energy with their horns. Humans were vaporized or lit on fire. The ponies made them pay dearly for every blood-soaked step they took in their town. With casualties mounting, the humans began using heavier weapons. From the back came men armed with canons and flamethrowers. Some lodged grenades to decimate the unicorn ranks. The flamethrowers burned each pegasus out of the sky. Cannon fire leveled the town. Entire homes were blown to bits. All around me there was carnage and bloodshed, the ponies fighting valiantly against an overwhelming force.

It went on like this for what felt like hours, though the vision—for what else could it be?—lasted only a few minutes. I watched as the purple pony made a last stand against the invading army, her fellow white unicorn dead beside her. She mowed down dozens, scores, hundreds of the armed human horde, decimating their ranks. But she was one against many and with her friends gone, she didn’t last much longer. Bleeding from head to hoof, the small but mighty unicorn gathered up her magic for one last attack. She glowed with raw power, her body levitating off the ground, electricity bounding like angry serpents all around her. She screamed like an enraged goddess, unleashing her magical blast until it encompassed the entire square and parts beyond.

I was blinded by the blast. When it subsided, I found myself alone in the square, but the lights were still on. Lamps lined the sides of the street leading up to the same tree-shaped house. No longer magnificent, it resembled a burnt-out husk whose branches ended in clawed limbs and writhing talons. There were tables arranged a semicircle around the entrance to the house, as if a small party were being held.

“Hehehehe.”

I heard the girl’s sinister laughter as I began to approach, my eyes widening with each step. There was food on table and party favors all around. Intestines took the place of the ribbons. Stands of hair, bloodied from a freshly-scalped head, held the balloons in place. Body parts were laid out in a gory spread, in bowls and in plates. I recognized some of the pieces, my stomach threatening to blow out at any moment.

“Hehehehe.”

My legs moved without my command, taking me closer and closer to the treehouse. There was a voice coming from inside the burnt husk, Tammy’s voice. She was screaming.

I entered the portal and looked around. The interior resembled burnt toast on the surface, the residue of magical energy nauseating and plentiful. There was a lone table in the middle of the room with a camera on top. I immediately recognized that camera. The flap was open for me to see and even though I knew what was on it, I still couldn’t turn away. Tammy was strapped to a table, her clothes removed and her stomach opened. She was still alive, still crying and wriggling as the pink pony gradually pulled out one organ after the other. The pony smiled at the camera. Her face was literally all smile, no eyes or snout or ears of any kind. Just a large mouth that grinned endlessly as she took Tammy apart piece by piece.

“Party,” she said. “We’re going to have a party. Won’t you join us?” She said to the camera.

Tammy couldn’t form words. She was beyond coherent thought. The pain she felt as the pink pony took out her liver, her kidney and intestines, it must have been excruciating.

I covered my mouth as my vomit came upward. Dropping the camera, I fell to the floor and threw up.

“Are you satisfied?” Came a voice behind me.

I couldn’t stop shaking as I turned around. There, standing right in the middle of the doorway, was the purple unicorn. Her beautiful face was devoid of all emotion, her dark eyes penetrating and wickedly enticing. Behind her I could see the whole town, a host of ponies, standing just outside of the semicircle. They were all there, the mane six ponies. The shadow-bat, the monster that ate Tom (still licking her long snout), the white mannequin with Beth’s eye on her horn, the scarepony that killed Emily, and right in the middle, wearing Tammy’s face as some kind of Halloween mask, was the pink pony with the mouth for a face. She danced maniacally, laughing all the time.

“Does you enjoy the show?” The purple pony asked me, throwing my earlier question right back at me. “Did you, my little human?”

I fell on my backside. My knees couldn’t stop shaking. “W-What?”

“Your kind fell upon us like wolves on sheep. We were a peaceful people. The humans were greedy. They wanted our magic, our happiness, our friendship. We tried to live in peace with them but in the end they utterly destroyed us.” Her eyes flashed suddenly. “So now we destroy them.”

“But it wasn’t us!” I argued. “My friends…we,”

“What would you know of friendship?!” Her voice went dark, deepening until it sounded almost masculine. “You are monsters. You killed us, tried to wipe us off the face of Equestria. But we survived. We always survive. Don’t we, Spike?”

Spike?

A large shadow loomed over me. As I craned back my head I saw a large reptilian creature with razor sharp fangs reach down and pull me up. It was immeasurably strong. I could feel the bones in my arms give way as I dropped the sewing needle. It plopped pathetically on the floor. The twelve-foot dragon held me off the floor as its pony master walked back to the party. Carrying me, it broke through the doorway and into the night. The gathered ponies laughed and jeered as I was held up before them like a trophy.

I watched the unicorn stand before her friends, the once pretty ponies now twisted into nightmarish versions of themselves. She turned to me. At once the crowd fell silent. She was once a pony of some status in this community. I wonder what she was called.

The pony continued to speak in the deep voice. “Each life we take balances out the scale. Though I doubt the death of every human being on the planet can account for all the lives you’ve destroyed.” She stepped forward. “Ponies. Griffons. Fairies. Even Diamond Dogs. Your kind is a disease. You spread and consume all in your path. That which you cannot control, you destroy. Take one last look around, human.” The unicorn waved her hoof. “This was Ponyville. The home of Friendship and Harmony. You destroyed it.”

“No!” I yelled. “It wasn’t me. My friends, we were innocent.”

“Innocent?” The deep voice resounded. “The sins of the elders are passed onto the children. We were once like you, violent and brash, selfish and cowardly. But we learned a new way. We offered to teach this way to your kin. But you refused. You chose the way of death and violence and destruction. We tried to teach you, but you instead taught us.” She smiled at me. It was the most frightening thing I saw all evening. “Would you like to see what we’ve learned?”

Behind her, the pink pony began to shriek and and clap loudly. The ponies gathered did the same. It was time. The lights dimmed. “Spike,” the unicorn said. I could feel the dragon lift me up. Pain the likes of which I’d never knew existed as I felt its jaws clamp down on my left foot, tearing it off with one bite. My lifeblood began to spill to the ground below me. I watched the pink pony come and lap at it like a rabid dog. The dragon ate loudly, the sound of my crunching bones could be heard even over the ravenous crowed.

Adrenaline shot through me as my body tried to wretch free. It was hopeless, I knew, as the dragon was just too strong. It took another bite out of my leg, and another, gradually working its way upward. I was being eaten alive. My body began to convulse with pain. The blood loss was making me feel so cold. I could only pray I’d black out from the pain soon. Death would be a release, a final escape from this hellish town with a perpetual vendetta against humanity.

I suddenly felt warm again. Tendons and muscle spasmed as my leg suddenly grew back. The unicorn had used magic to fix my devoured appendage so that when it came back it was as good as new, bare but whole.

I didn’t understand it. Had she just saved me?

From below I watched the unicorn smile again. “Not so fast. Spike is a growing dragon. One little leg won’t sate him or my friends.” She regarded her fellow ponies. “It is a party after all.”

I felt the dragon take a bite out of my shoulder this time. The pain was blinding and my screams filled the night. Each time I felt I would pass out or die from blood loss, the unicorn would stitch me back up good as new. It went on like this for I can’t even imagine how long. The dragon would devour a piece of me. The unicorn would heal me. Finally the frenzy of the ponies became too much so that the mighty unicorn could no longer hold them back.

“Feed, my little ponies,” The unicorn said as Spike lowered me to the ground. Her horn was alight with pure evil. “I can do this all night.”

As the hundred maws and talons rendered my body, i remembered thinking how wrong I was. This wasn’t hell. Hell had no ponies. This was Ponyville.
~~~

The sun rose on the gas station the next morning. Opening up for business, the proprietor whistled a jaunty tune as he twirled his keys in one finger. He took in the morning with a smile, his feet taking long strides until they stopped suddenly. He’d just stepped on something sharp.

Bending down, he picked up a long sewing needle. He examined it for a bit before picking up the sound of laughter in the distance.

“Hehehehe. Thanks. Keep em’ coming!” The girlish voice said.

He looked down the road the teenagers had gone. After a long silence he smiled and shrugged. “Well, I did tell him to buy a map.”

The fingers of his hand clenched into talons, crushing the needle like a twig. His shadow elongated until he became a serpent. Taking to the air, the proprietor vanished in a poof of dust, his laughter as intoxicating as that of the pink pony.

End

Off the Road

by BlueColton

Detour