The days following his father's accident were incredibly long, yet to Dennis they all blended into one never-ending day. Each morning he came downstairs and his mother would be still in bed and it was the same when he returned in the afternoons. It had been only a week. He had been leaving early, dropping his sister to and from school, and then heading to his own. Still, the entire situation felt surreal. Eight days ago he had said goodbye to his dad and thought nothing of it. Saturday, the day they were supposed to catch the game together, he had spent hauled up in his room, not knowing what to do with himself. It wasn't just the absence of his father, but also the irrational fear of Christine that stopped him from going about his day as he usually would. In the space of under a month he had lost both his best friend and his father. He couldn't help but wonder who would be next, and when she would come for him.

“Hurry up, Elaine! You're going to be late otherwise, and you're going to make me late too.”

The only response he got was a yell, telling him that she would be done in a minute, and he sighed, unsure of how long he could keep it up. In the days since the death of his father, he had taken it upon himself to pick up the slack around the house, and even outside of it too. Any thoughts he had given towards college and getting out of Libertyville had all but completely evaporated throughout the week. He had thought about picking up a part time job to bring in some extra, well needed, money, but had not applied to any. Though he knew he would need to eventually. Without his father's income, the debts would pile high. It was only a matter of time. It wasn't a big thing, getting a job, not really. But it did frighten him. He dreaded being stuck in the same town his whole life, never moving forward with his own life, and always being stuck taking care of his mother and sister. The uncertainty of his future followed him around like a dark rain cloud hanging permanently over his head. Never mind Christine, it was that which he constantly obsessed over.

At long last, Elaine's bedroom door opened, and she came out into the hall clad in a baggy white t-shirt with Duran Duran plastered across the chest and a photo of the band underneath, a pair of jeans that were ripped at the knees and strippy sandals that left over half of her feet uncovered.

“Let's get going, we're both going to be late.”

“Chill out, we still have over half an hour.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“All the more reason to leave now.” He insisted. “I'll give you five minutes to gather what you need, and I'll be waiting for you in the car.”

“Dad never gave me a time limit.” She sulked.

“Yeah? Well, I'm not him.” He sighed. “And I'm doing my best here, it would help if you were to make it easier by being ready on time each morning.”

Elaine bit her tongue and nodded before picking her bag up from where it was sat by her bedroom door. “I know.” She said at last. “I just need to grab my report for English lit, I'll be two seconds.”

“Okay.” He concluded, and bounded down the stairs two at a time.

He had been sitting in the driver's seat for less than a few minutes when Elaine joined him in the passenger seat, dumping her bag down at her feet. She made no effort to converse as he started out on the road, and he kept his eyes straight ahead to avoid any awkwardness.

“Look, I'm sorry.”

“What?” Elaine smiled in amusement.

“Don't mock me right now.” He warned. “I'm sorry, I know I've not been a very good brother since dad- this past week, I'm just not… I haven't got the hang of it all yet.”

“Me either.” She admitted. “It feels so weird and mom…”

“Oh, don't you worry about mom. She'll be okay, I know it. She needs time, the same as us.”

“Yeah.” She agreed. “Things are gonna be so different.”

Dennis felt the same hefty weight he had been feeling all week long, getting just a little bit heavier, and was relieved when he pulled up at the middle school, and Elaine wasted no time in getting out. He was grateful for the solitude it gave him, though he wasn't heading straight to high school. At the halfway point, he turned off into a side road that he had taken on the first day of senior year. He had already been to Darnell's the night before, and Christine had been gone. There was only one other place he could think to check.

He slowed the car as he neared the house that LeBay had once lived in, and the yard, in which Arnie had first fallen in love with Christine, and didn't bother to take the keys out of the ignition before getting out and sprinting down the wide dirt path. Nothing much had changed. The for sale sign that had once been placed on the Fury's windscreen was now leaning against one of the garage's open doors, and where the car was once parked, the grass was black with oil. Dennis's eyes drifted over to the house, where the windows were blanketed with filth that prevented any chance of seeing inside, and the wooden door was rotting away. He could still see Arnie being ushered through it as though it were happening at that moment. The only thing missing was the car herself. Yet she wasn't at Darnell's either.

‘So, where was she?’

Dennis drew in a breath. Christine was nowhere to be seen, but her presence was heavily felt. She had to be around somewhere.

‘But where?’

Time was slipping slowly away. If he didn't leave within the next five minutes, he would be late to school, not for the first time that week. Since last Wednesday, he had been everywhere he could think of, searching for that devil of a car. He had started with some of the most obvious places; Arnie's home, where Regina Cunningham continued to live her sad little life without her husband or son for company (he hadn't bothered to check in with her since she had always looked down on him. More so over the span of the summer), the airport parking lot where Michael Cunningham had paid for a space Christine could stay and be safe, a few other places that he had known Arnie used to take her, and most recently, Darnell's. It seemed that she was playing a game of hide and seek. Something she was a pro at.

‘What's one more late?’

Shrugging off his concerns over getting to school on time, he started towards the garage. Although the doors were wide open, the inside was darkened and from the distance he had been standing, he couldn't see past the first two feet inside. The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he neared the entrance, taking short, cautious steps. He swallowed the breath that had hitched in his throat, and paused, one step away from seeing what was inside. Clenching his fists, he took that final step, and his mouth fell open. All along, he had known it. Though he couldn't figure out how, he had just known that Christine wasn't gone, and now he had seen it for himself.

In front of him was the custom autumn red ‘58 Plymouth Fury in all her former glory. She looked brand spanking new, even better than she had after Arnie had fixed her up (she had fixed herself up). It couldn't be confirmed, but he knew by looking at her now, that she had been responsible for his father's hit and run accident. Despite everything inside him telling him to turn around and get away as far and fast as possible, Dennis stumbled forward a few steps until he was close enough that he could place his hand on her hood. He didn't dare to touch her, he knew better than that by now.

“I knew it.” He whispered to himself. “You weren't beyond repair after all.”

As if in response, Christine's headlights came to life. Coming on suddenly and shining directly into his eyes. Dennis brought his hand up and squinted his eyes against the blinding yellow light emanating from her. The faint static of her radio cleared quickly, replaced by music. A shiver ran up his spine as he stumbled back a few steps.

‘One way, or another, I'm gonna find ya. I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya. One way, or another, I'm gonna win ya, I'm gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya. One way, or another, I'm gonna see ya. I'm gonna meet ya, meet ya, meet ya, meet ya. One day, maybe next week. I'm gonna meet ya, I'm gonna meet ya, I'll meet ya.’

All colour drained from his face as the music blared from her radio, and he continued backing up until he was standing in the doorway of the garage. He didn't dare to tear his eyes away from her.

‘I will drive past your house, and if the lights are all down, I'll see who's around.’

Dennis walked backwards a few more steps until he was standing in the oil stained patch of grass, and then he spun on his heel and ran away as fast as his legs would carry him. He glanced back only once, and seeing the glowing of her headlights in the dark of the garage, he slammed his car door shut and put the pedal to the metal, desperate to put as much distance between him and Christine as possible.

Leigh was halfway out of the classroom door when Dennis managed to catch up with her. He had arrived late to school after his pit stop that morning, and though he wanted to, he held off on telling her exactly why. It would be easier to show her instead.

“Are you doing anything after school?” He asked.

“Not in particular, why do you ask?”

“Because I want you to go somewhere with me.”

“Umm, do I get to know where?”

“I'll tell you on the way.” He shrugged.

“Well… I've got nothing else going on, so I guess that's fine.” She agreed as they headed down the hall, side by side. “Anyway, how are you holding up?”

Dennis glanced down at his feet. A question so simple should have been easy to answer, but the last time he had expressed himself, it hadn't gone so well.

“Honestly, I've been better.” He answered vaguely. “But you know, gotta keep moving. My mom and sister depend on me now.”

As Leigh stopped walking and turned to him, he slid his hands inside his pockets, anticipating her response. He shouldn't have been as nervous as he was, but since Arnie's funeral, his nerves were all but completely shot.

“You'd do well to remember that you can't take care of them if you aren't taking care of yourself.”

“I know, and I am.” He assured her.

“Look, I know you and I aren't on the best of terms right now for whatever reason, but don't be afraid to ask if you need something.”

“Thanks.” He muttered. “I gotta get to my last class, I can't be late again… but before I do…”

“What is it?”

“My father's funeral is next week, my mom says I can have a plus one and… well, I don't particularly want to feel awkward among my dad's friends and all… I was wondering if you would be my plus one?”

“Oh.” Leigh mouthed. “Yes, of course. As long as you need me, I'm there.”

“That's a load off my mind. Thanks again, Leigh.”

“Anytime.” She nodded, attempting a small smile.

Dennis nodded, then gestured up the staircase to silently tell her that he was heading to his last class of the day, and with an awkward see you later, he started up them. Once he reached the classroom, he took his usual seat near the window and fixed his stare at the front. Though he saw the day's topic written upon the chalkboard, he paid no mind to it, his thoughts having already wandered elsewhere.

Leigh. Things were no better between them now than they had been a week ago.

That night. Was it really just a slip of the tongue, or had she been pretending that he was Arnie the entire time?

Arnie. His best friend who he had protected, guided and done everything he could to help. His best friend who had turned his life upside-down, even now, when he was six feet under.

Christine. Seemingly just a car to any poor sucker that didn't know any better. Not to him.

Problems upon problems, and he knew how to solve none of them. It was times of high confusion like this that he would usually turn to his dad for advice, but that was no longer possible. Leigh thought he was crazy, but in less than two hours she would see for herself, and he would reassure himself that he wasn't losing his mind. All he had to do was get through the next hour.

That's exactly what he did. Absently copied the notes written on the board, pretended to listen to the lecture about classic literature versus modern day, spoke when he was spoken to, and at the end of the hour, took his workbook up to the front and dropped it on the pile on the teacher's desk. He knew that he should have been making more of an effort with final exams barely a couple of months away, but even when he tried, he couldn't. Even when he wasn't thinking about Christine, something always pulled his mind back to her.

Leigh was already waiting for him on the steps outside when he reached the front of the school, and at his side as he sprinted down the steps. She waited until they'd stopped by his car to speak, once again wondering where it was he wanted her to go.

“Classes are over, you can tell me where we're going now.” She prompted.

“Hmmm, nope.”

“Why not?”

“Because if I told you then I know you wouldn't go with me.” He sighed.

Leigh grinned mischievously, if he wouldn't tell her willingly, she would get him to slip. “Is it somewhere naughty?” She asked innocently as he plonked himself in the driver's side.

“What? No, why would it-”

“Don't tell me it's somewhere illegal for people of our age.”

“Of course not!” He snapped. “Please, Leigh, just get in the car and stop asking questions.”

The shift in his tone told her that pushing any harder was a bad idea, and feeling slightly defeated, she trailed around to the passenger side and joined him in the Duster.

“It wouldn't kill you to be nice, you know.”

“I am being nice.” He insisted. “Oh, come on… I'm sorry, it's been a rough week. I didn't mean to- to be mean.”

“Yeah.” She said quietly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really, I just wanna get where we're going.”

“Oh, okay.”

Dirt crunched and crackled beneath the tires as the Duster slowed to cruise speed and then stopped altogether in the same spot he had parked it earlier that morning. Leigh continued to give him questioning glances, but Dennis ignored her and got out of the car without a word, pausing right before the oil stained patch of grass and waiting for her to catch him up. It was less than a minute before she did.

“Uhh, where are we?” She questioned, her eyes dancing around uneasily between the house and the open garage.

“Before I tell you, promise me you won't get mad.”

“That really depends…” She began. “Did you bring me here to kill me?”

Despite the teasing in her tone and glint of humour on her face, Dennis didn't laugh. He found the joke too grim with everything that was happening around them.

“This is LeBay's house, the guy who sold Christine to Arnie. He first saw her right here where we're standing, see the oil on the grass?”

Leigh glanced down at the grass and noticed the oil for the first time since they'd been standing there, but when she looked back at him, she was less than impressed.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Obviously not, I just need-”

“When you asked me to go somewhere with you, I didn't think Christine would be involved!”

“Please just bear with me.” He pleaded. “The garage. Look in the garage. I came here this morning and she was… well, go see for yourself.”

Leigh folded her arms across her chest and begrudgingly stalked over to the garage. He waited until she had stepped almost entirely in the dark to follow, and stopped short when he entered an empty garage with no car in sight. No sign of Christine having been there at all.

“No, I swear she was- she was right there!”

“Oh really? Where?”

“Literally there.” He insisted, pointing to the spot they were both facing.

“She must have added invisibility to her powers then.” Leigh scoffed.

“I swear, I'm not making it up. I went to Darnell's. We can go there right now and you'll see she's not-”

“Enough!” She cut in. “You are just as bad with Christine as Arnie was. Worse, actually.”

“No, I-”

“I'm not going anywhere with you. Not today, maybe not ever. You're crazy, Dennis. You're obsessed with that damn car and I won't go through something like that again. This is it, after the funeral, I am done with you.” She snapped, turning and heading back the way they came.

“Leigh, no… Please…” He begged, hurrying after her. “Don't turn your back on me, I can't… I'm not crazy.”

“Then stop acting like it.”

“Well, what about you?” He yelled.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don't pretend you're innocent in all of this.”

“Excuse me?”

“Or like you weren't just thinking about Arnie when we kissed that night.” He added, his voice laced with venom.

“I wasn't!”

“No? Then why would you say I love you Arnie to me after I told you- forget it. Clearly you're aware of what you said, it's why you're calling me crazy right now… you're in denial. You don't want to admit to yourself that Christine is still around.”

“I never-”

“Yeah, you did… and given the way you refuse to believe me it's obvious that you were just wishing it had been me who was killed and Arnie with you that night.”

“Okay, I don't know where you're getting these insane ideas from but I refuse to feed your wild accusations.”

“Just admit it and then we can move past this.”

“I'm not going to admit anything. I am sorry about Arnie and about your father, but these things happen. That's just life and it doesn't give you the right to be a jerk.”

“Leigh-”

“No!” She cut in. “I am out of here, I don't care for being in the car with you right now.”

“At least let me give you a lift home, it's a long walk.”

“Better than being stuck with you.”

Dennis opened his mouth, but closed it again and stopped following as she stalked away in anger. He couldn't recall a time in his life where he had felt alone, at least not this way. Usually it was Arnie that needed the confirmation of someone on his side, and he would be the one handing it out. The tables had turned since, and he hated it. After a moment standing collecting his thoughts, he continued back towards the Duster, throwing one last glance over his shoulder as if expecting the place to have changed. It hadn't. Christine was nowhere to be seen, and that left only one question.

‘Had she even been there to begin with?’

Back in the driver's seat, he made no move to start the car. He had been so sure of what had happened that morning until now. There was no sign of an evil Plymouth Fury, and he began to wonder if he hadn't imagined the whole thing through his grief. But then Christine wasn't at Darnell's, and not many hit and run accidents happened on the road his father had been driving on, and that he knew wasn't just in his head. No matter how much he tried to come up with a logical explanation, it only led to more confusion. More questions that he couldn't answer.

As the engine roared to life, he was about to pull away when Leigh appeared again and knocked on the passenger side window.

“I realize that I've never been this way before and I don't know how to get home from here.” She said flatly.

“Get in.” He sighed, and she did.

“This, in no way, means that I am talking to you again. Just to be clear.”

“Funny. Your lips are moving and words are coming out.” He bit back.

“Well, I'm not the one acting crazy.”

“No, you're the one using me as a replacement for Arnie.”

“Believe what you want, I don't care anymore.”

“Yes, you've made that very clear.”

“Just drive.” She snapped. “I don't want to be in this car a second longer than I have to be.”

Dennis rolled his eyes and started on the road, going as fast as the speed limit would allow, desperate to get back into the heart of Libertyville. Even with Leigh sitting next to him, he couldn't have felt more alone. He didn't bother with the radio, not even music could drown out his thoughts. They never stopped, even when he slept.

“You are not at all the person who I thought you were.” He commented.

“What? Not dumb enough for you like your previous little girlfriend.”

“Hey!” He snapped. “At least Roseanne was honest and not using me.”

“Sure. Whatever you say.”

“Next time you need some company or a ride anywhere, don't call me!”

“Don't worry, I wouldn't call you if my life depended on it.” She laughed.

“Good.”

The frown on his face as he stared at the road ahead was almost permanently etched into his features. He felt awful about the things he had said, and hurt by the things she had said, but he wouldn't make the first move to apologize. Leigh didn't believe him, she thought he was crazy, but if it turned out that he was right, then her life would be at stake and whether she hated him or not, he still cared.

“Jerk.” She muttered.

“I'm not going to play into this anymore.” He said calmly. “Call me crazy, call me a jerk, go ahead and hurt me… but I'm not going to stoop so low.”

Leigh bit her lip, trying not to react to the hoarseness in his voice. His calmness was even worse than anger, because it told her that she had, in fact, hurt him, which wasn't exactly what she was trying to do.

“Don't expect a thank you for holding back.”

“What is this?” He sighed. “What are you doing?”

“Uhh-”

“You must really hate me for some reason, though I can't possibly think of anything I've done to provoke such hate.” He cut in. “All I've done is try to be nice, and if you want me to go away then you could just say rather than going to extreme lengths. It would save us both a lot of time and… and spare me the heartache.”

“I don't hate you. You brought this on yourself because you can't let things go!”

“Wanna push that knife in further? It erh- it hasn't quite gone through my heart yet.”

“Look, if you get help and you get better from this… this illness you're suffering then I will be open to talking.”

“Right.” He whispered. “Illness.”

Neither of them spoke the rest of the way to Leigh's house and as soon as he pulled the car into the driveway, she wasted no time in getting out and hurrying inside. The time that could be read on the dashboard told him that he should have been heading home for dinner, but he wasn't hungry, and when he finally drove away, it was back the way they'd come from. Only when he was halfway there, he pulled over to the side of the road and exhaled a heavy breath.

“What am I doing?”

The answer was obvious. He already knew what he was doing, and he hated it. He was going back to LeBay's abandoned property, but what for? To prove to himself that he wasn't crazy? He'd already tried that, and it had done nothing but create more questions without answers.