Chapter 4: The Road That Doesn't End

Elton stood at the gas station doorway, gripping the polaroid with trembling fingers.

The burning building in the photo. The child standing in front of it.

His younger self.

His stomach knotted. He didn’t want to understand what it meant, but deep inside, he already did.

Something terrible had happened here.

And he had been part of it.

Elton swallowed hard and stepped outside.

The fog was thicker than before, swirling in unnatural patterns. The road that had brought him here was barely visible, but he could make out the faint glow of his E-Scooter's headlights in the distance.

Without looking back, he ran for it.

Every muscle screamed at him to leave this place behind.

He jumped onto his scooter, revved the engine, and sped down the road.

The mist curled around him, stretching and twisting like hungry hands reaching out.

His headlights barely cut through the darkness.

He kept going. Faster. The gas station vanished behind him.

Then, after what felt like ten minutes of riding, something appeared in the distance.

A building. A gas station.

His chest tightened.

It couldn’t be. He had driven in a straight line. There were no turns.

No side roads. But the gas station was right in front of him again.

Identical.

Exactly the same.

The neon sign flickered weakly, and he could still see the shattered glass inside.

The road he had taken had led him back. His breath came in shallow gasps.

He turned the scooter around and hit the throttle, pushing forward again—harder, faster. The mist swallowed everything behind him.

For several minutes, he rode, refusing to look back. Then—he saw the building again. The same gas station.

As if he had never left. He skidded to a stop.

This wasn’t possible.

Something was wrong with this place. The road was a loop—an impossible, inescapable loop.

And then—he heard them. Footsteps. Not his own.

Someone—or something—was approaching through the fog.

Elton’s pulse raced.

He turned, expecting to see the thing wearing his face.

But instead, three figures emerged from the mist.

Women.

They walked side by side, their silhouettes shifting in the gloom. As they stepped into the dim light of the gas station, he saw their faces.

The oldest, with long, dark curls and sharp green eyes, spoke first.

"You shouldn’t have come back."

The second, taller with sleek black hair, crossed her arms. "But now that you’re here, you can’t leave."

The youngest, with soft features and an eerie smirk, tilted her head. "You don't remember us, do you?"

Elton’s mind whirled. He had never seen them before. Had he?

The first woman took a step forward.

"I’m Evana."

The second.

"Viviana."

The third.

"Yolanda."

Sisters. Elton's throat was dry.

"What do you want?" Evana’s expression hardened. "It’s not about what we want. It’s about what you did."

Viviana glanced at the gas station.

"And what still lingers here." Yolanda grinned. "The road only loops for those who haven’t made peace with the past. You, Elton, are one of them."

His head pounded.

They knew.

They knew something about what had happened here.

What he had done.

Before he could ask, another sound cut through the fog.

Heavy footsteps.

Elton’s blood ran cold.

Because these weren’t human.

The footsteps were too heavy. Too slow. Too deliberate. Something huge was moving in the mist.

And then—it spoke.

"ELTON."

His own voice.

Deep. Distorted. The thing wearing his face was still watching. Still waiting.

Evana’s eyes darkened.

"You’re running out of time."

Viviana pulled something from her coat pocket—a polaroid camera. She lifted it, aimed at Elton, and clicked the shutter.

A picture slipped out. Elton grabbed it, his fingers trembling. He looked down. And froze.

It was a photo of himself.

But not here.

Not in the gas station.

The background was somewhere else. A place familiar yet buried deep in his memory.

A run-down house. The place where it all started.

And standing beside him in the photo—

Were the three men.

Johnny. Brody. Eddy. Elton’s breath came shallow and fast.

The sisters watched him carefully.

"What does this mean?" he whispered.

Evana’s gaze didn’t waver.

"It means you don’t have a choice anymore."

Viviana glanced into the darkness behind him.

"You either remember what happened that night… "Yolanda smiled wider.

"Or the thing in the dark will remember for you."

Elton turned just in time to see a shadow lunge from the fog.

And then—Everything went black.