The Girl In Apartment 13 | Apply Fic

Chapter Eleven: Drive

Carter's head drops forward scaring her awake. She sits up, immediately realizing that she's in the driver's seat of her old car, the one she and her sister were driving the night her sister was killed. Her eyes dart towards the road, not recognizing the road they're driving on. There aren't any other cars, just her alone on the road. The time on the dashboard reads just after one. She immediately tries to slam her foot on the brakes but they don't respond to her pressing on them. She tries to take her hands off the wheel to grab onto the emergency brake and put it but her hands refuse to cooperate, staying locked in place. She turns to her passenger seat and then looks into the rearview mirror, seeing she's alone in the car.

"What the actual fuck?"

She fights against the steering wheel but the car just stays in its lane, perfectly going straight. She looks around at the landscape, the headlights not picking up anything other than the road ahead. Not a street sign, a side road, a plant, or even a bend in the road. It's just her and a perfectly straight path.

"What the fuck is going on?"

She leans forward but her seatbelt snaps her back into her seat. Her body goes tight. She never thought that she would be behind the wheel of a car again after the accident. Her eyes trail over to the radio just as it starts trying to find a specific station. Then, it settles on a song.

"I wake up every evening, with a big smile on my face, and it never feels out of place, and you're still probably working, at a nine to five pace, I wonder how bad that tastes."

Carter shivers at the song. Another thing she's been avoiding, the last song she and her sister ever listened to together. The radio died on the last line of the song as she was staring into her sister's face moments before her sister left the world. Every part of this situation is rubbing her the wrong way and reiterating old trauma. A shiver travels down her spine. She turns back to the road, staring into the darkness of the night

"When you see my face, Hope it gives you hell, Hope it gives you hell. When you walk my way, Hope it gives you hell, Hope it gives you hell."

This time, she hears a second voice numbly singing along to the song. It's a familiar female voice but it being mixed with Tyson Ritter's makes it harder to identify. She starts whipping around, looking for anyone else, thinking it might be Yumi's or Jade's.

"What the fuck?" Carter snaps.

"Now where's your picket fence love, And where's that shiny car, And did it ever get you far, You never seemed so tense love, I've never seen you fall so hard, Do you know where you are?"

This time, she knows that she recognizes the voice. It's her sister's. She turns to the passenger seat and, sure enough, Amy is sitting there, singing along to the radio and texting on her phone. After a minute, her sister turns to look at her.

"Carter, what the fuck? You're going to get us killed!"

Carter tries to make herself look at the road but she can't look away from the girl in the passenger seat. She tries to take her hand off the wheel to reach out and put her hand on her sister.

"Amy?" she asks, her voice starting to dissolve into sobs. "Amy?"

"Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Amy, you're dead and this car is supposed to be totalled. What is happening? What's going on?"

"Carter, pull over. What is happening with you? I'm driving the rest of the way."

Carter nods, trying to make the car move over the shoulder and slow down. But no matter how much she turns the wheel, it doesn't respond to her actions. As she tries to make the car slow down, it gains speed immediately, shoving both Carter and Amy back into their seats. Amy puts her phone down and grabs onto the oh-shit handle.