John Stevens, Wolven Falls, Silver Forest, Maine.

It feels like an address from a badly written werewolf novel. And I should know. I have come across many in my YA phase.

I fire the car ignition and punch the address in satnav. As I suspected, it cannot find it.

“This destination does not exist. Please enter the correct information…” A disembodied voice tells me the third time and I slap my forehead in frustration. Beside me, Olly flinches.

“Let’s just start. We can always ask for directions when we are nearer…”

Yeah. I get that but I prefer to know my destination before starting my journeys. Usually they are boring like my Uni, library or just pharmacy to pick my medications, but hey, who said the destinations have to be exciting to make the journey worth it?

Now this silver falls place…why on earth is it not on the satnav? It was on the same planet right? In the same country?

Silver Falls…the name sounds exciting, intriguing. I hope the journey is worth it.

“Silver Forest.” A quiet voice corrects me from the backseat. Mrs. Bates, our old housekeeper has decided to join us in our search for this mysterious guardian. She too has nowhere to go. To be frank, I too was not comfortable leaving her on her own. She has looked after us since our childhood. Yes, Olly is her favourite but it’s because of Mrs. Bates’s diligent care that I am even alive today.

“It’s Wolven Falls, Silver Forest. It’s in Maine. Just punch in for Bar Harbour and we will take it from there.”

Her quiet voice soothes my nerves. I have a tendency to get jittery. People who don’t know any better put it down to my disposition, but it’s not that. It’s because of my weak heart that I am blessed with since birth, just one of the many reasons why grandma disliked me.

My hands go clammy I start the ignition. Mrs. Bates is watching.

“Are you sure you can drive, Ms. Diane? Maybe Ms. Olivia should. You already did most of the packing.”

“I can’t.” Olly says flatly. “I am too tired and want to sleep.”

She hasn’t slept well last night. She had a bad phone call with Brad but Mrs. Bates does not know that. Maybe that call was the reason Olly has decided to toe my line and get on this trip, otherwise, I was afraid she was going on another of her ‘Stalk the cheating boyfriend’ mission.

The journey begins on a sombre note but soon the mood picks up. It’s the first time that we are on a road trip. Don’t ask me why we are driving all the way from Santa Monica to Bar Harbour, it’s going to take us at least two days, but we have no choice. It just so happened that we had no money to shell out on flight tickets thanks to our grandma. Mr. Williams took pity and loaned us this car. We are supposed to return it, but we never discussed when or how.

For now, it’s my car. I am the most practised driver among us. Olly has never gone out without a chauffeur, and Mrs Bates avoids going out at all.

*****

We have passed Chicago. I am amazed by the sheer size of it. I wish we could have spent some time there, but Mrs Bates hurries us like there’s no tomorrow.

Olly’s bad mood has much lightened. The fresh air and open road have done us wonders.

I whistle as we pass town after town. The speed of the vehicle is addicting. Never in my life have I been on the road for so long. I always thought my poor heart can never stand such stress, but boy, was I wrong. I feel exhilarated, as if coming out of that place was the only thing needed to recharge me.

The wind caresses my face, wisps of unruly hair dance around my face in joy.

The happy song comes to my mind. I open my mouth to sing aloud. Olly looks at me in surprise… then decides to join me.

We sing as we progress. Mrs Bates is blissfully quiet. Sometimes I see her grey head bobbing up and down in the rear-view mirror, but mostly she seems to enjoy the view.

The road seems never-ending. We have crossed three thousand miles and entered Maine. Mrs. Bates looks nervous with excitement as we pass the Acadia National Park.

It’s the afternoon of the second day and we have entered a stretch of the road that takes us off the highway. Tall conifers skirt the edges as the road winds inward. All around us is a thick pine forest. The narrow road slithers through it like a snake through shrubbery. The civilization has fallen far behind. We can barely see a few feet beyond the edge.

The breeze is cool, thick with fresh pine scent. We pass a board warning people off wolves. A dark majestic head is stuck on the board. Its yellow eyes seem to follow us as we pass the spot.

Olly looks dreamy.

“Do you think werewolves are real?” she asks, and I give a bark of laughter.

“No dummy. Come out of your fantasies. The sign is about normal wolves, there is no such thing as a werewolf.”

She looks disappointed as she shrugs and closes her eyes for another nap. I turn my eyes to the road but know that Mrs. Bates is watching me through the rear-view mirror.

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*****

We have entered a stretch of territory unknown to humans. Or at least to the sat nav. It whirrs and gurgles and tells me again and again there is no signal. I cannot believe in this day and age there is a signal problem in Maine. Maybe the US is not as advanced as we like to think.

It’s the morning of the third day. We are starved for breakfast but do not see any motel for miles. The navigation is off and our phones do not work. I do not understand what’s going on.

I have a sneaky feeling that we are about to get lost. We have not seen a human on this road for the past five hours. It feels like we have entered a pre-historic era. Any moment, a dinosaur will come running through the bushes to devour us whole. Now that’s a possibility I had never considered. To top it all, I have stupidly forgotten to carry a paper map. My sense of direction is only enough to take me from home to Uni and back. Out in the wild, I am lost as a puppy.

“I can’t believe it!” Olly says in irritation as her tummy gives a loud rumble. “I need food and now! Or I’m going to die.”

I can’t help but agree. It’s been fourteen hours since we had our dinner. We ate at seven last night and now it’s eleven the next morning. My head has begun to swirl. I need some sustenance. Not to mention a pee-break and a cool off.

I can feel my heart beating erratically. My palms get sweaty despite the wind and my mouth keeps going dry.

“Let’s go little further. I think we’ll find something.” Mrs. Bates says and I give her a suspicious look. Why do I feel Mrs. Bates knows where we are heading?

“How do you know Mrs. Bates? Have you been here before?”

“Oh no!” she gives a sheepish smile. “I am just saying, as we are in the countryside. There is bound to be something small, we just have to wait.”

Sure enough, the forest slowly recedes to make way for an empty stretch of road. The trees thin dramatically. In the distance, I can see thickly forested mountain ranges. But the road to it is nearly through the desert.

On the side, a mile ahead of us, is a small shack-cum-motel.

I give Olly a look and see her frowning. There is something about this area that makes it feel weird. I just can’t put my finger on it.

We reach the motel and get down. Up close, it looks even more dilapidated. The paint is peeling, and the windows are smudged with dirt. The sign board is broken as is something knocked it with sheer force. It looks shady. On any other day I would have given this place a wide berth, but today we have no choice.

I take the lead as the other two follow. A bell dings as the door opens, announcing our arrival. The owner looks up from the cash counter and my heart nearly stops.

He is the most strange looking fellow I have ever met. Large skinhead with tattoos covering every inch of his body. His muscled arms protrude from his sleeveless vest like two tree trunks. On his face is a mishmash of scars. It’s evident he has had an eventful life. He opens his mouth to smile, and I flinch. It’s a jumble of mis-happen teeth - rotten, jagged, pointy.

“Ah…customers!” he says, as if it’s a wonder anyone entered this place. “What can I do for you?”

I am about to step back and run for the car, but surprisingly, Mrs. Bates takes over.

“We need some food.” She smiles, tucking a wisp of her hair behind her ear. A blush rises to her cheek.

I raise my brows.

“And we would also like to know this address. Could you please help us with the directions? We seem a bit lost.” Mrs Bates continues.

The man gives her a lascivious grin as he takes the chit from Mrs. Bates on which I have scribbled the address. His eyes go still as he takes it in.

“Silver Forest, you say? Who gave you this address?”

Urmm…it’s none of your business? I am about to quip, but again Mrs Bates interjects.

“A friend. We are going to see a friend there. It’s urgent.”

He raises his eyes, then shakes his head. “If you are sure. But I would stay away from that place if I were you.”

“As I said, we are just visiting a friend.” Mrs. Bates quickly swats down any further queries on his strange advice. I am annoyed at her, she is no more our housekeeper, neither is she the caretaker. It’s us who are supposed to care for her here onwards. But looking at the lady, you would feel like she was our mother.

The man shrugs his tattooed shoulders. He scribbles down something on the chit and hands it back. His two-tone eyes watch us quietly. My panic is building, but I need to hold at least until I use the loo. The other two order food while I attend to my business in a revolting-looking cabin that churns my stomach even more.

Ten minutes later, we are back in the car. Olly is disappointed.

“My back hurts.” She complains as I speed out of the deserted parking lot. “He was not that bad. I would have preferred to eat in.”

I can’t be bothered to answer. My heart is racing. The strange man rings alarm bells in my head, and more than that Mrs. Bates’s serene face.

She said we are lost yet looks unconcerned. Why am I the only one panicking?

They gobble up the food. I can barely take a few bites. The chips are soggy; the burger is stale with barely cooked meat. I get no flavour except of raw blood. It’s disgusting.

We drive on. As the day wanes, the golden sun brings me some solace. Shadows are deepening and air is soothing again, but the mountains loom ahead, dark and foreboding. The prospect of entering the forest again makes me nervous.

“I hope the fables are true..” Olly says with an annoyingly calm face as we pass another ‘mind the wolves’ sign. Anger shoots my head as I press the accelerator. I can’t wait to get this over. We should never have taken up this trip.

*****

I could never understand why people were afraid of forests at night. All those tales of menacing dark, whispering winds and grinding of trees as if they are mating… I always shrugged them off as a product of fanciful imagination. What worse could be there at night that was not in the daytime? It was the same forest, same birds, same wind and same creatures.

I wish I had believed them. As a grey dusk settles in, the beauty of the forest gives in to menace. The dark is deeper, as if ready to swallow us whole. We are on the path only because of the car headlights. There is barely any space to move ahead, the hedges and shrubs have overgrown to nearly block it.

We are lost. I know we are. But I do not say it aloud. I am the only one scared of us three, and I do not like it.

My foot presses on the gas pedal on its own accord. The car trundles on the barely visible forest road at an alarming speed. I can’t seem to slow down. Have I lost the brakes? I do not know. I might actually get a heart attack if I try to find out.

I keep my foot pressed, my eyes ahead, my sweaty hands glued to the steering wheel.

Olly is bouncing beside me, her face lit with excitement like she is in some theme park adventure ride. Mrs. Bates, behind us, looks excited too.

“We should slow down,” she says with excitement as the car lights flash on a clearing ahead. “They might come to fetch us…”

“Nobody knows we are here, Mrs. Bates” I scrunch my eyes, dodging a sneaky rock in the path. “We did not inform anyone.” Grandma hadn’t left a phone number, nor did we have time to write. Even if we had, I wonder if a letter would have reached here. I don’t think any postman even knows this area exists.

And even if we tried to contact, I had a sneaky suspicion there was no one to reach out here. Grandma was probably in one of her moods when she left us that note. She just wanted to send us on a wild goose chase for the sake of fun.

I curse under my breath.

As I take a dodge past the rock, we are met with another boulder, one impossible to dodge. I press my brakes frantically, but they refuse to obey. The car zooms on, straight into a dark wall. There is a deafening sound of crunch, then I hear no more.

***** *****