Chapter 1
After driving nearly half way of their twelve hour journey, Nicole was convinced that she had made a grave mistake thinking that they could make it in one day. The stop that was planned for their actual six hour mark was required about 50 minutes in, after her brother had eaten the entirety of their snacks and stated that he was in need of more food. She had known that there was no point in trying to reason with a 17 year old, and they had to go off route to find a drive through. Despite having the window down for a few hours, the car still smelled of grease, meat and fries. Remy was snoring next to her. His seat had to be pushed back to its maximum to accommodate his long legs, seeing him at that size was something she was still getting used to. They had not lived in the same house for over a year, but he often phoned her at 3 in the morning requesting some edits to be done for a paper he had to hand in the next day. Despite their frequent presence in each other’s lives, she was still getting used to Remy’s new size. He had grown at what she considered an alarming rate, she had assumed he must have now stood at a lengthy 6 feet 3 inches, and had gotten a collection of inked drawings on his thigh. His face had thinned out, prominent cheekbones visible so much like their older brother. She was certain that he would not recognise Remy, it had been years since they’d come face to face with their oldest sibling. It had gotten way hotter than she had expected and she began to feel the tight hold her jeans had around her thighs and stomach. She couldn’t imagine now why she ever thought that jeans were appropriate for such a long journey, and looked longingly at Remy’s loose breathable sweat pants. Remy had never gotten his full licence, despite being an excellent driver. Like the majority of other things he took on, he tended to abandon them without finish. A characteristic that made their father clench his teeth and lecture Remy on this problematic approach until Remy would turn his hearing aid off. The thought of their father made all the greasy food in her stomach feel like a rock. If he knew where they were headed he would have slashed the tiers of her silver civic. She turned up the cool air and the music, one of Remy’s playlist which consisted of music she barely knew, she now heard a man singing about wanting to consume a girl’s entire body and soul to a prominent guitar solo. She glanced at Remy, who did not stir from this, she pulled the car over onto a side the road and shook him awake. After a groggy exchange and him leading a stretching session outside of the car, he took over. The roads were nearly empty. She had spotted maybe a total of 3 cars driving past them, and they were headed in the opposite direction. They were heading towards rural lands, with their destination being a town that had a population the total of one high rise building in New York City. Remy began to talk about the English exam he thought he failed, Shakespeare was never his strong suit, nor did he care to make it one. They had spoken in great detail about the logistics of their trip, while dancing around the purpose of it. Remy who always had some new information on current events or joke to share, didn’t offer a hint of sarcasm their entire ride. He was the youngest, and was merely 10 when their home began to shift and turn, and Adrian’s departure was as if a second pillar had been knocked down from beneath an already damaged bridge. With an age gap of nearly seventeen years between the two brothers, Adrian could have merely been a foggy existence in Remy’s world, but Adrian embraced their relationship and was a prominent fixture in Remy’s life. Their eldest sibling had once taken a trip that was meant to span 2 weeks but instead went on to last two months. Nicole saw Remy dart towards the phone whenever the caller ID displayed long distance, and his face fall as Adrian informed him that he would be delayed one more week. Remy didn’t bring Adrian up much since he vanished from their lives four years ago. It was as if a silent taboo had been placed on speaking their brother’s name in their father’s house. They had quick exchanges on if neither of them had heard from Adrian, from their sister Alex who had also silently packed her bags one night and exited their realities. Four years ago their father removed all photos of his children from their home, four years ago he had sat Nicole and Remy down and gave them a story they could recite if anyone dared ask about their siblings. They were instructed not to go into too many details. General notions were to remain consistent, Alex living in New York and Adrian moving to a different state to pursue a relationship. She had remembered Remy scoffing at this notion, making his father stop mid-sentence, looking at Remy with his mouth still slightly open and his eyes slightly widened. Remy and Adrian were close but she doubted how transparent Adrian would really be with a then 12 year old Remy. On so many occasions Nicole had been tempted to turn to Remy and plead, demand, rationalize with him what had happened to their family but a muscle in her chest would tighten, and she could no longer find her voice. She imagined a ghostly figure with a hood and a spindly tale, more cartoonish than ghastly in her imagination, reaching out a long skeletal hand and slowly placing it over her mouth, silencing her. When sh felt the presence of the ghostly figure she would let herself eat a tub of ice cream along with a pack of cookies. She'd then spend an hour bent over the toilet, with her fingers down her throat, drool running down her fingers and arm and chunks of vomit on her chin. She learned that Ice cream tasted just as good being thrown up as it did being consumed, the cookies not as much. She had imagined that during this ride, they could finally speak, she would start the conversation, dig through his brain for memories. But whenever she was about to say something, ask something, shed notice his palms sweating, the corner of his eye twitching and she felt the coolness behind her, radiating from the hooded skeleton which was now in the car with them. Instead, she'd grab for his bag of chips. Remy was not easily frightened or put off, he consumed horror movies on a weekly basis, old horror ,new age French horror, gore and slashes movies were his favourites. Remy was not faint of heart, and maybe his desensitisation would be a good thing, considered what they would soon encounter.
