Paper Dolls

Chapter 49

It might just be the blood thumping in my ears but the car feels awfully quiet. The road we are on too desolate. Up ahead a two way lane stretches on to the dark horizon, no other car in sight, behind us the single car that took the same turn off that we did. 

Panic feels like a living organism in my stomach, churning and digging past tissue and muscle and flesh, right down to my nerves. 

It's too quiet, the silence too deafening. I glance at the radio, half contemplating to put on a song or something and then realise how weird that would be. 

"It could be nothing," Hyeon says, trying his best to remain calm. I catch him reaching for the radio as well but then he moves to adjust the rearview mirror and focuses on the dark car behind us. 

I squint at it as well, but the roads are so poorly lit it's hard to make out the make and model. All I know is that it's dark and it looks bigger than ours. 

Hyeon presses down on the accelerator, picking up the pace and I watch the distance between our car and the one behind grow. For a moment I feel like laughing at my own paranoia. Maybe they're just taking the same road that we are.

But then I catch the flash of their headlights and notice them moving closer and closer. They turn on their high beam and I wince, my eyes watering because of the glare. 

"Why did we take this road?" I whisper, shifting around to observe our surroundings. A massive trough filled with murky water lines my side and a forest reserve surrounds us on Hyeon's side. We're trapped with no where to go but ahead. 

"Shit," Hyeon curses, gripping the steering wheel hard as he increases speed. I try to take deep breaths to calm myself but my throat is so tight, it feels someone is squeezing it with their fist. 

I turn behind to see the car behind us fast approaching, even though we're now going way above the speed limit. Where are the cops? Where are the other cars? Why are we on this stupid empty road?

I glance at the clock which reads 2am. No wonder there's hardly anyone driving at this hour. I try to focus on the car behind us but there is no number plate which only makes things worse and there's something latched onto the front bumper of the car, facing us. 

"What the?" My eyebrows bunch together as I try to make out the metal contraption. 

Our car jolts forward before I can comprehend that they've just hit us. 

I fly forward, the only thing keeping me from smashing into the windshield is my seatbelt. It digs into my chest, making me heave. 

Hyeon is quick to recover. He switches lanes, no oncoming traffic to worry about. He presses on the gas and we fly forward, going faster and faster. 

"Come on. Come on. We're almost there," He says mostly to himself before nodding at me briefly. "Hold on, Jina." 

My fingers tighten around the seatbelt holding me in place. It's not like I can do anything else but  pray and hope that we make it out of this. I feel regret for the first time. I never thought we would get this far, never thought we would become a threat to anyone but this only further proves that we are right. 

Dalia didn't kill herself. She was murdered and the culprit might just be in the car behind us. The thought of joining her in the afterlife paralyses me with fear. Not here, not now, not like this. 

I wonder if she felt this exact same panic moments before she was pushed. Everything around me suddenly blurs, like a lens focusing on just one image and I see her standing there on her balcony. 

She turns around, facing someone she trusts. She let them into her apartment after all. She's at ease, unsuspecting and the next thing she knows she's flying through the air. Wind slapping her cheeks, the grey pavement that used to look so distant now fast approaching. Did she close her eyes or were they wide open when she hit the concrete floors?