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"Did you see their eyes?" Heath was still panting, his determination locked in on the road. Through the reflection of the mirror, I was able to see Heath squint his eyes, the corners of his lips twitching. The car revved up, zooming out of the parking lot, saying goodbye with a shrill screech.

"Yeah," Mina seemed in a daze as her words lacked her usual perky enthusiasm. "They were purple."

"They were under the spell of a witch," Heath mused while he slammed on the gas again, even harder this time which caused my body to lurch forward. The car zipped past countless small, abandoned-looking buildings. "We must be getting close."

The town of Mystaria seemed to be a desolate place. No one walked on the sidewalk. No lights were on in any of the buildings. There were no signs of life. Only a couple haphazardly painted signs marked the streets, signaling someone had been here at some time even if it was years ago.

There were no signs of wildlife anywhere. No birds in the sky. No squirrels or rabbits scouring about. There was not even a fly to swat away. Nothing.

However, a thin layer of fog fell upon us – the town's greeting call.

"Heath, someone is tailing us," Mina said, horror laced in her voice. Her head turned to look out the back window. At her words, I too took a look behind me. A giant, black vehicle, similar to the one we were in, was trailing behind us.

The lights on the car behind illuminated the street, disrupting the serene vibes that once floated through the air. The other car was picking up speed, getting closer to us with each second. From our distance, I couldn't see who was behind the wheel, but I had an inkling that it was connected to the man who had attacked us just minutes earlier.

"Are we supposed to be here?" I asked, my eyes not moving from the car that was only a couple car lengths away from us now. My body tensed up as if to brace itself. I tried to fight the instinct to lean forward and compact my body — the memory of my recent car crash fresh on my mind.

While my body had mended itself quite well, I still had a cast on one hand and a lingering headache. My broken ribs no longer made me wince with each step, but if I even breathed too deeply, I would be jabbed with a reminder I was almost knocking at death's door not too long ago.

"This is exactly where we're supposed to be," Theo said like he was digesting the situation while his words left his mouth. His voice was comforting and steady, seemingly unaffected by the high-stress situation we found ourselves in. "It seems Vanessa has taken over this town to deter people from finding her. I imagine if we fail to find her, we'll end up like those men who tried to attack us: under her spell."

My mouth dried as words failed to leave my lips, the gravity of the situation sinking in. Fighting against my body, I mechanically turned to see the car was now nipping at our rear end. I could see the person who was on the driver's side now; upon further inspection, I would hesitate to call the driver a person.

His skin looked to be sunken in, dark shadows under his eyes. He was wearing the same shirt the men back at the gas station were clad in, but his shirt looked more tattered, fraying at the edges. My body shivered at the sight of him – he gave the phrase ghost town a whole new meaning. It appeared as if this town was occupied; it was just occupied by ghostly beings.

Lost in analyzing the strange driver, I had not noticed he was only inches away from our car. Theo and Mina were both hollering at Heath to speed up, to turn, to do anything but get hit, but Heath – even with his supernatural reflexes – could not dodge the car scraping against the side of our car.

The impact was on Mina's side, the metal of the two cars rubbing against each other in a shrill, ear-shattering way. Suppressing the bile that climbed up my throat, I looked over at Mina. The damage to the car seemed to be minimal with Mina not even batting an eye at the assailant whose window was now aligned with hers. The man sent Mina a wicked smile, his rotting teeth gleaming with a yellow hue.

Heath swerved the car, taking a right turn off the road we had been traveling for the entirety of the car chase. The tires screamed out uncomfortably, but the man who was trailing us did not seem to anticipate the sharp turn we took. It would give us some time to gain some distance.

"Holy fuck," Heath cussed out. I clutched on the chair arms to steady myself, the inside of my cast digging into my hand.

"Heath, you need to lose them," Theo raised his voice sternly, his authoritative tone almost coming on display. From Theo's tone, I could tell he was getting riled up.

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" Heath's voice raised, cracking, as the car shook with the speed increase. Then, suddenly, Heath made another turn and another, until my head was spinning and I couldn't tell if we had made any progress in losing the car behind us.

Heath weaved through different streets of the town, all vaguely looking the same. There was still no other sign of life around us. Each building's worn-down brick was becoming a monotonous site.

We were all silent, tensions high, as Heath skillfully maneuvered the car onward. Mina was vigilantly looking to see if we were being followed. It seemed as if we had lost the car, or they were too far away to see in the faint fog that still lingered about.

Once we determined that we were no longer being followed, Heath stopped the car and let out a big sigh, leaning his head on the steering wheel. "Holy fuck."

"We're definitely in the right place," Theo stated. "Keep driving."

Heath grumbled before he put his foot back on the gas to continue our journey to Vanessa. Heath had to put his brightest headlights on to be able to see through the thickening fog. I squinted my eyes to try and see what was around us, but the fog was becoming too great.

We continued driving for a couple hours, but the fog never relented. Not even Heath, Theo, or Mina could see through the fog with their increased vision. We were getting nowhere until I recognized a sign we had passed earlier.

"We're back at the gas station," I said, squinting my eyes harder to try and discern any other recognizable features.

"Impossible," Heath breathed out, scratching his head.

"They must have tried to run us off the road for a reason. Head back that way and hit the gas. There must be something important down the road we were chased off of," Theo ordered, stretching out his limbs before Heath hit the gas once again.

Bracing myself, I turned to look out the back window to see if we would have a repeat of our earlier situation. The fog continued to get thicker and thicker, making it impossible to see anything but a blanket of white.

"Should I keep going?" Heath asked, our speed slowing down as the fog intensified.

"Yes," was all Theo said.

The fog held steady as we journeyed onward into uncharted territory. With each mile forward, we could not tell if we were getting closer or farther away from where we needed to be. We could have been driving to our doom for all we knew. Nevertheless, we continued forward. We must have been driving on the path for almost an hour before the fog started to begin to dissipate, a parking lot becoming visible in the far-off distance.

The parking lot was empty, and no one was near. A giant, snow-filled mountain stood tall and looming just beyond the parking lot. A wooden stand nearby with a man behind the counter was the only sign of life we had seen for hours.

At Theo's command, Heath parked the car in the ominous parking lot. Without a word, we all unbuckled and got out of the car. We followed Theo as we made our way over to the man who was in the stall. The man shared a similar gray skin tone as the other men we had seen today. He was also dressed in a loose-fitting button-up, his name — Harold — and a star sewn on the front. There was a sign above the stand that read: Mystaria Summit.

The stall had a picture of the mountain tackled to the side, but it had no directions or trails marked on it, like an incomplete guide. There was a pamphlet on the countertop, but I could not read what it said from my distance. Theo was the one interacting with Harold while Heath and Mina stood by my side feet away.

"Hello," the man greeted dully. "May I be of assistance?"

"It depends," Theo shifted his stance, arms over his chest. "What can you help me with?"

"Picking a path to the top of the summit. Choose wrong, and you might be paying with your life," the man – Harold – delivered flatly, his bony fingers dancing over the wooden counter of his stall.

We all turned to face each other, confused. It seemed the fate of our journey rested on one decision: what path to choose. If only we had any clue on how to pick the right path.