The warm engine of the old car melded well with the smell of tobacco, “Hol, I-I’m scared” Ghen chittered. They were both wearing their coats and scarfs, making it altogether too warm in the small space. They could feel each other's breath, as if illuminating the car.
“That’s fine... I probably should be too but... I don’t feel much of anything right now.” xe squeezed her hand and sighed.
The car had swerved on... some kind of highway, they were going away, the two of them. Moving into a new town. A truck would come in later and bring all their stuff but they’d go ahead first. It was night, they wanted to be there early. The road was dark, slippery and filled with snow. Holly swerved, and thought xe was going to run into another car. They drove into some sort of ditch.
They stepped out into the darkness, only the occasional streetlight dotting the highway. There wasn’t any connection their cellphones could reach and pushing the car themselves didn’t seem to have much of an effect. So instead Holly smoked a cigarette out back whilst Ghen figured out how to relax herself for a bit, since she’d worked herself up into hyperventilating.
After a few hours of sitting in the car, the fog and snow only grew higher and higher on the road. Ghen had fallen asleep, her head on Holly’s lap. Xe brushed through her short hair and sighed. Xe watched the window wiper wipe away the snow. They’d left this on; something to make their vision clear, something to bring at least some noise other than the breath of another to remind them that they were still present.
If Holly was honest with xyrself, xe was getting pretty anxious too. Obviously most of it was just going to be waiting but for how long.... and if the power ran out, how would they keep warm? The highway wasn’t that well traversed either, hedging their bets on a random stranger, Holly didn’t feel right with that. Xe wanted another smoke but knew Ghen’d just tiredly chide her for it as always. Xe sighed. Waiting was a frustrating thing. They had a whole day before the truck would arrive but by the time they reached their new home, it’d probably be there in a few hours and they’d have no time to explore or settle, Holly thought.
Xe inspected the glint of xyr nails in the small lights coming from the car. Ghen had painted them for xyr but she didn’t do the best job, smudging it in a few places. Which only made Holly smile, xe wouldn’t want it differently.
A part of xyr wanted to wake Ghen up, tell her it was her turn to watch but... xe didn’t want to bother her. She’d already done so much these last few days, she should relax however much she could. Holly did wish she brought more drinks though, or food, xe was getting hungry and the thermos full of coffee had already been drained along with the water bottles.
Xe stared out at the wiping of the windshield losing xyrself in its movement, in the reflection of them both. Xe could feel xyr eyes drifting. Holly pinched xyrself with xyr hands. Had to keep watch.
If anything did move or pass by, it was too dark or too covered to be spotted. Xe tried to turn on the front lights once and there was only a small glimmer in the darkness. This was going to be a long night. It was December 21st after all... well, it’d be a long night too for the waiting. God what a dumb joke, Ghen would laugh at it though.
Holly was snoring, a comfortable noise, Ghen thought. She was surprised xe didn’t wake her, xe was being too nice again. Xe could be really annoying, putting xyrself down like that.
Ghen was also surprised by the seeming total blackness. Something which scared her, the dark always did. She looked at the small little clock in the car, it was 2.15, they’d been stranded here for five hours. Come morning, they’d have been stranded here a lot longer, she thought.
Her mouth felt dry when she tried to open it. She licked her lips reflexively and breathed in the stale, warm air. She undid the buttons on her coat, she was warm. She thought about going outside but her legs had fallen asleep. She kept her head close to Holly’s chest, listening to xyr heartbeats. They comforted her.
There wasn’t much for her to do, she thought. Just wait. She traced the padded ceiling of the old car with her fingers. It’s surface felt strangely cold to her. She pulled her head away from Holly and back to her own seat. She looked around, trying once more to catch some kind of glimmer, a spark. To her shock, she did. From behind. A small one, one she wasn’t sure was real. But she saw it nonetheless. Behind their car it stood. Moving.
Quickly she buttoned up her coat, pulled back on her gloves, breathed in and opened the door. Carrying her phone, flashlight turned on, she tried to open the door. It didn’t budge, frozen shit. “Shit!” She muttered.
Her breath wavered as she put more force into it. She hoped the light hadn’t passed yet. She wanted to see it, even if it was something dangerous she wanted to see it. With a clunky creaking sound the door opened, with a little help from her foot.
A woolly boot stepped out, quickly joined by another one. Ghen slumped out from the car, almost slipping and falling on the door. She chuckled, a cloud of breath leaving her. She looked behind her and the light was now a lot closer than before. They weren’t that far from the highway, maybe she could signal them. She trudged through the thick, cold layer of snow, shivering from the cold.
She stepped over the barrier on the side of the road and reached the road proper, she held out her gloved thumb for the approaching light.
She could see now fall in the cast light of the approaching vehicle. On closer inspection, it did not look like a car. Not at all like one. It’s form was... strange... there were eyes? They looked more painted then real as well as some vortex of rotating circle. Ghen thought she must be hallucinating or that this must be some kind of dream. The entity came by, Ghen lowered her thumb, it passed her by. She thought it’s eyes(?) where focused on her and ducked deeper into her cowl, reflexively. Once it was long passed on the highway, Ghen looked up at its distant light, still in disbelief over what was seen a moment ago. She rubbed her eyes with her freezing gloves. Shocked by the cold.
She tried to shake the bits of snow off herself and move a little to keep warm.
A burst of light woke Holly up, xe thought morning had suddenly come and the bright sun was reflected in the snow. But that didn’t seem to be the case. Ghen was nowhere to be seen. Behind the car a bright light could be seen.
Holly’s heart began to race, quickly xe pulled her scarf over xyr face and pulled on xur gloves. Xe dashed out the car door, pushing the door open with all the force in xyr body. Xe stepped out and in xyr hurry slumped straight into the snow, xyr face reddened. xe dragged xyrself through the dark of night and saw the figure of Ghen on the side of the road. Completely still. Xe jumped over the side of the road and as quick as xe quick tried to catch up to Ghen.
“Ghen?”
“Ghen????” A hand waved in front of her.
In complete shock she looked down back to the road. Holly was there. Xyr face was as red as anything she’d seen, xe looked completely red, xyr coat and boots were almost entirely wet. Ghen chuckled at that, picturing xyr stumbling through the snow.
“What?!” Xyr sounded annoyed
“Oh-- hehhehe --- nothing...”
“D-Didn’t seem like nothing! You were just staring out at the sky, as if completely lost!” Xe gestured, making big arcs with xyr hands. “And what was with that light! Did a truck pass or something?”
“I...” She looked back left and right, to the road. “I don’t think it was a truck...” Her teeth chattering, full of icy wonder.
“What was it then? A Car?”
She chuckled and threw her cowl back over her shoulder. “An experimental aircraft, maybe. The thing looked like it had eyes.”
“...” Xyr eyes widened, “That’s fucking freaky... Are you sure that’s what you saw?”
“Not in the slightest.” She was smiling.
“...”
“...”
“Sh-Should we get back to the car.” Xe was shaking, Ghen only now saw, of course xe was, xe fell. But... Ghen felt fine... warm even... Weird.
“I think--”
Suddenly Holly’s face flickered, xe interrupted, “Ghen!” xe was smiling.
“What?” The sudden tension was gone, she was confused.
Holly pointed. “A light!!” xe waved xyr hand.
Ghen felt frightened more then anything. It was unlikely it was another of those... things but still... it could be... or it could be something else. She grabbed Holly’s hand, holding on tight to it, through her gloves.
Xe turned xyr head to her, “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” xe gave a faint smile with xyr long, sharp face.
“Yeah..”
It was a truck, of some sort sort, the snow was like grain and obscured it’s exact details. They both held out their arms and waved to the truck. They didn’t even know if it could tow them out. They just wanted to talk to someone, who might now something, anything. The closer the truck came, the slower it drove. It halted about 50 feet from them and they walked over.
The door opened, violently. Out stepped a short, squat figure in a long coat and beanie. They were wearing thick-rimmed glasses and were red-nosed. “What are you two doing out here at a time like this?” His voice was gruff.
“Uhhh...” Holly began.
“We swerved and crashed our car back in the evening. We’re stuck here now.” Ghen said, pointing to some point in the dark, where they thought their car ought to be.
He clicked his mouth, or at least they thought he did, it was a vague sound. “I see.”
“...”
“...”
“Don’t think I could help you, being honest here. And ‘sides” He scratched his head, “Pressure’s hard ‘n all with Christmas coming up. I’m sorry.”
“Hey it-it’s fine, we get it!” Holly nodded.
“Yeah, good luck! And thank you for your hard work!”
He sighed and chuckled. “Yea... there’ll be, uhhh, plenty more of that the next few days. I’ll be playing Santa, I tell myself. Need to work hard for that...”
“Well, Thank you, Santa!” Holly tried to say in a cheerful voice.
“Heh, appreciated.” He flexed his gloved fingers and coughed. “Well I... It’d be best if I returned to my work now. S-Sorry I couldn’t help you two out and I sure do hope yall can get out of this mess sooner rather than later.”
Holly looked down, “Y-yeah...”
“I’m sure we will!”
“Good. Have a nice holiday after this is all over.” He said, getting back into his truck, fumbling as he opened the door.
They watched him pass them by before returning to the car. He let out one last honk and that was it.
The old blue vehicle and its electric heater seemed like heaven compared to the harsh cold outside. The reprieve was nice, the worry was not. They both still had no clue how long the battery might last and how gradually it would get cold again.
“We should’ve asked him to contact emergency services.” Holly bit xyr gloved thumb. “Too late now...”
“Oh.... Right.” Ghen sighed. “...M-maybe someone else will come and w-we could ask them?”
Holly chuckled. “Yeah. Right.” xe sighed, “... I just... I just wish it didn’t have to feel so long, you know. With all that’s been happening and,” xe threw xyr hands up, “and with the holidays coming up...”
Ghen patted xyr head, reaching up. “Yea, I know, Hol...” She was tired.
“I’m sorry. It’s just, everything had been going so well these last few months and now this happens and I feel like everything’s just gonna be broken now. I know it won’t be but I can’t help but feel that...”
“Hol, yeah, honestly shit can go wrong. Like this. It sucks. But we’ll wait it out. The sun’ll rise, we’ll be late but we’ll be there. And once we are there, we can finally start again.”
“Tsk...”
“I’ll keep watch, now you just sleep, ok?”
“No, you’ve already done so much! I should watch...” Xe muttered, tiredly.
“And who do you think fell asleep during their watch, huh?”
Holly grimmaced, “Tssk. Alright then. But wake me up when it's 5.30, we’ll switch.” Xe pointed to the small clock above the radio set. It indicated 3.17.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ghen waved, brushing up against Holly. “I’ll do that. Now get to sleep, okay?”
“...Thank you. I will.” Xe pulled xyr coat further over them and propped xyrself against the window.
‘Work, huh’ Ghen thought, they had jobs lined up for the New Years, the first time it was like this for both of them in a few years. They were glad, because if they were busy during Christmas with setting up their new house, it’d be better than if they were with their family or at work. She still had to fill in those forms too...
Only one or two lights came to pass until the light of day started filtering through the dark clouds. Neither of them really wanted to approach them, in all likelihood it’d just be another trucker and they might get ignored. The car was still warm even though they’d shut off the heater as precaution earlier.
They hiked back up to the road, dragging themselves through a foot of snow, when they reached that side of the road, several cars were passing. It felt so much warmer out now with the sun. The dark was gone and something in them felt reassured. They held out their hands and waved, it was only a matter of time before they could find someone to call the authorities or someone to help them out. Soon a light-green car stopped, an old lady stepped out and listened to their tale, she said she’d call, she said help would be on its way. Only wait a little longer. Holly wasn’t in the mood for that but there really wasn’t any choice in the matter
“I’m so tired, Hol.” Ghen said, pushing herself on xyr wide shoulders.
“Heh, yeah, I told you you should’ve slept back in the car.”
“And if you did, you’d be the one falling asleep right now.”
“Pfff,” Holly kicked the snow aimlessly.
“You know you would...” Ghen flailed her arm up to Holly’s face, her cold, gloved fingers brushing up against xyr face.
Holly grabbed the arm, pushed it away from xyr, leant xyr face closer in to Ghen’s and kissed her. She blushed, eyes wide.
“Well, at least we won’t have to wait much longer.” Xe said, xyr eyes darting over to the road and approaching vehicles. Xyr gloves clasped around hers.
“I don’t know, maybe they aren’t here to help us.” She chuckled.
“Wouldn’t that be great! hehe..” A cloud of breath leaving her as xe pulled xyr scarf down.