╔════════════════════╗
CHAPTER SEVEN
╚════════════════════╝

THE TRICK
OF THE MIND

THE ROAD WAS BUMPY.

It was only bumpy because she wanted it to be, because she needed it to be, not that she knew. No, all she knew was that she liked it when she was kissed right underneath her right ear, and that, after so much traveling, they were finally entering another town, and she needed to feel it, needed to know it was real, because the signs passed too quickly for her to read, for they did not exist.

She didn't know she was drowning. Drowning in the blur of the night and the rush of the wind that did not exist, and the darkness of the everlasting empty that was the sky, and the whiskey brown eyes of her sun that pulled her in, so alluring that she hardly noticed her reality melting away, dripping wax into the ocean that was slowly consuming her whole.

"Is this a town or a city?" she asked, looking around at the small town looking gas stations, then towards the looming skyscrapers in the distance, clawing at the void above them, desperately trying to escape the non-existent world they were trapped in.

"It's somewhere," Peter yawned, stretching languidly as he woke from his, for lack of a better term, cat nap.

He never answered with clear replies, but because she was wading through a dream she was unaware of, she hardly paid attention to his responses, taking them as they were, forgetting them almost instantly.

In the time that had passed since they passed the first unreadable sign indicating an approach to civilization, she had grown rather fond of him. Of course, he still confused her and was exasperating at times, but it was nice to have someone with her on this constant journey Upstate.

Why she was headed Upstate, she didn't very well know, but she had nowhere else to go, so she was willing to just follow wherever he told her to go.

"How long have we been together?" she asked, glancing over to look at him, only to pause, nearly swerving into the barrier between the two highway lanes.

If she had crashed, she would have realized that there was nothing there. They would have crashed and felt nothing, for nothing was real and there was nothing to worry about. But she didn't know that, so she felt her heart stop as she righted the car, her entire body shaking.

She caught her wings just before they melted.

What caused her to falter was the way he was looking at her. With his hair rumpled from sleep and jacket hanging off him, he was the epitome of serene, and his smile. His smile was loose and relaxed, like his leg that was crossed in front of him and the leg pulled up against his chest, his entire body facing her, leaning against the back of the seat on his side.

His smile. Like the rest of him when he woke up, it was soft. It was warm and safe and she felt her heart twist with a desire to be as close to him as possible, to melt into his arms and feel what he felt, to be as comfortable as he was, so free in the emptiness around them.

Not that she knew it was empty.

"What's up, doll?" he asked, with a head tilt and a small smile, and it was as if her entire body was on fire.

She was floating, yet grounded, like she was sinking deeper and deeper into an ocean she wasn't even aware of, her skin prickling and nerves singing, an overwhelming need overtaking her, and she didn't understand it, but she needed to feel safe.

"Come here," he whispered, holding out his arms, and suddenly her seatbelt was off and she was climbing over the gearshift to settle in his arms.

If she had been in her right mind, she would have realized that she had simply parked in the middle of the road, but the road no longer existed now that she wasn't looking, which meant it never existed at all. Would have noticed how she didn't even have to touch her seatbelt before it disappeared off her body. Would have noticed how the dark day yielded no passing cars, same as usual, for there were no others in the nothing to speak of.

But she noticed not, only the smell of cinnamon and the anchoring arms wrapped around her waist, keeping her safe. Safe from what, she did not know, but safe nonetheless.

"You're so small," he mumbled into her hair, tucking her into the little nook he made with his body, and she sighed as she settled against him, her eyes growing heavy.

She tried to fight against the heaviness in her eyes and the numbness spreading along her arms and legs towards her neck and face, but she couldn't move out of his grip, couldn't escape the cloud that overtook her, rendering her immobile and unconscious.

Blissfully asleep. Unaware of the world melting away all around her.

○ ○ ○

"Your friends dropped by a little while ago. Um, they're...nice? One of them's really inappropriate though, she said some...stuff. About us. It wasn't really...yeah."

There was the sound of sneakers squeaking against linoleum and the rustling of a hand being shoved into a jacket pocket.

"I think I'm failing everyone in my life right now. I'm just trying so hard, but I just keep messing up. But your dad showed me your first few grades. They were really good, you should be proud. I think I did right by that. Right by you."

The silence made no motion to affirm or refute the statement.

"I forgot the color of your eyes."

○ ○ ○

She woke in the backseat with Peter, her back pulled flush against his chest, his arm keeping her in place. She awoke to the feeling of safety, but startled when her eyes played tricks, showing her the world around the car melting back into place, like footage of melting wax played backwards.

"What the hell?" she breathed, sitting up straight and pulling her knees up to her chest, desperately searching for another glimpse at what she hoped was a trick of the eye.

What she had seen will never be known, as there was only nothing surrounding her, and her perception of the nothing was much less complex than the truth of the nothing itself.

She felt her body shake, as if she had just been startled from a nap, her nerves singing and her heart racing, the hairs on her body standing on edge when she felt feather light kisses being pressed to the back of her neck.

"Bad dream?" he asked, and she shrugged, trying desperately to think of what she had even experienced in the first place, leaning back against him and tilting her head so he could press kisses down to her shoulder.

"We need to keep going," she said, not answering his question, sighing as he nuzzled his nose against her neck, "Let's just keep going."

"Sure, but let's get you some food first, you've been driving forever," he said, and if she was able to tell, she would have noticed that he never said any definitive statement to allude to time, because time did not exist in a nothingness.

But she didn't notice, instead moving sit in the front seat, looking around, expecting to see the trick of the eye again, and if she had looked in the rear view mirror a moment before, she would have seen it, as there was nothing to exist unless she needed it to, and the road behind her did not exist, for nothing existed at all.

If she had been in her right mind, she would have realized that they were still parked in the same area that she had parked before, right in the middle of the road, a road that stopped existing from the moment she stopped looking, but she was not, so she noticed not.

She simply buckled in the seatbelt that she hadn't needed to touch to be rid of it and began to drive, not needing to turn on the ignition, simply stepping on the gas and heading off, Peter having settled in his own seat while she had settled in her own, the boy adjusting his limbs before relaxing.

"Where do you want to eat?" she asked, looking around at the buildings that began to appear as she continued along, trying to discern whether they were in a town or a city; unfortunately for her, they were nowhere at all, for this place did not exist.

He didn't say anything, instead letting her choose to turn into the diner that came into view, appearing because she needed. If she hadn't been in the dreaming state, she would have realized that the diner was exactly the same as where they had eaten before, and there were no cars in the parking lot nor people in the diner, but she was unable to see, so she didn't notice.

She sat across from Peter, settling back in the booth, shivering, and it was then that she remembered that the heater was still broken from however low ago it was that she realized it had been broken. She thought about asking Peter, but he was too invested in eating his burger to focus.

She picked up her own burger to eat, though she didn't remember ordering, taking a fair-sized bite; in comparison to Peter's it was minuscule, the boy nearly unhinging his jaw to take a large bite from his stacked burger, and he gave her a lopsided smile with his mouth still full, causing her to wrinkle her nose and roll her eyes.

"You wanna crash for the night someplace?" Peter asked, once he finished swallowing, "We've just been sleeping in the car, which is fine by me, but maybe you don't want to just lie in the backseat with me every night. Not that I'm complaining."

His eyes glinted with boyish mischief, along with his smile, and she glared at him despite her heart tugging and her stomach turning as she looked at him, drowning in his eyes, desperate to be near him, even though he had tangled their feet together while they were eating, his shoe knocking against her calf.

"I think we should keep moving," she said, feeling a need to get Upstate despite not knowing what was up there, "I'm fine with sleeping in the car. Besides, we need to keep going."

She should have been asked why. She should have asked herself why. Someone between the two, the only two in the vast nothing they were in, should have asked why she wanted to get Upstate. But that would mean she would realize she had no reason at all, only that Peter wanted to go, and he would have to give his reason.

No one said anything. Instead, he simply nodded and shoved a few crumpled bills she couldn't discern into the check plate that had appeared in place of their disappeared plates and food. Then he rose to his feet and held his hand out for her, letting her take it, the two walking out of the diner.

As they passed the counter, she saw something shift out of the corner of her eye, like melting wax played backwards, forming a uniform expected to be in the diner, simply because she expected to see it, see some indication of life in a nothingness where cars did not exist unless she needed an illusion of life, as what happened when she looked towards the parking lot, missing the way the wheel of the car whose color she could not remember the moment she looked away solidified into place.

"Did you see that?" she asked, unable to help herself, feeling her heart stop, caught in her throat.

"Hm?" Peter asked, looking around him, tugging her along, "I don't see anything. You okay?"

She nodded, not catching the way he had stiffened, moving faster after her question, all but ushering her into the car, closing her door before sliding over the hood and into his own seat, buckling up and crossing his arms, now tapping his foot under the seat, his fingers unable to stay stagnant, arms moving in various ways.

"Are you okay?" she asked carefully, starting the car and leaving, the trick of the eye still on her mind.

"Yeah," he said, and she nodded, now keeping the question to herself, letting her mind wander to what she had seen as the two continued to make their way Upstate.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she hardly thought about the lack of cars that passed, as there were no cars at all, for they did not exist. How she couldn't read the signs for there was nothing to read at all, for they did not exist.

What she had seen had been merely a trick of the eye, she decided. Nothing more than her eyes adjusting to a scene and playing games with her as she tried to make sense of them, for there was no explanation as to how it were to occur, as she had no idea that nothing existed, nothing at all. It was simply a trick of the eye.

A trick of the eye, not the light, as there was no light at all, the sky only a lighter dark than it was before, yet dark nonetheless. A dark empty, devoid of all but void, a nothingness consumed nothingness, for there was nothing to consume, as there was nothing but lack of existence.A simple trick of the eye.

Or, more accurately, a trick of the mind.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Long time no see! Deadass, nearly a month, but I really did miss this fic, I've just been busy trying to complete about 40 fics, but I figured I'd come back to this, and I'd try to plot it out and really see where we can head with it, because I love the concept so much.

So sorry that there wasn't much happening in this chapter, but it'll pick up again next chapter, and I'm gonna get this done because someone wrote a fic also about Delmar's daughter, only that it's his son, and I called dibs on the idea first, so I'm gonna get more reads on this, buddy, I swear to God. (I'm so petty, but I did have the idea first, from the moment I watched the movie.)

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!