The man's eye twitched, an unreadable expression hidden in his sharp features. Everyone in the room was quiet now. The man tilted his head up, turned to Rose, and then did the unexpected. He told her he'd pay for Ash and Finn's hospital bills and have someone escort them home.

Ash wanted to complain that he didn't know where either of them lived, but she thought better of it. This doctor knew her name. He probably had some spy or whatever who knew where she lived - the thought did not help. She glanced at Finn, who looked how she felt. This is a terrible idea. We can't trust him.

Rose tried to remind him that Ash and Finn weren't well enough to go home - they had so many questions unanswered - but the man kept insisting they were fine, calling up someone to take them home. Ash wanted to call her mom or someone and ask them to take her home, but she was an adult. She had a phone, and besides, she always imagined herself being a good fighter.

Finn and Ash sat in the fancy black car, staring at the window at the world, all blurry, around them. She finally sat back in her seat, aware of every little thing the driver did. She noticed Finn, who kept fidgeting with his watch. He'd still put it on, even though they both still had bracelets of red skin around their wrists. For a second that seemed to last forever, Ash was in debate whether to roll up the divider or not, both because she wanted to talk to Finn and because of their safety, and eventually went with rolling it up - despite the voice in the back of her mind screaming at her not to.

"Why'd you put that on?"

"Because," he tried to make the watch sit comfortably on his arm, "it's supposed to stop the phantom pains."

"Oh."

After a moment of silence, he spoke again.

"I got it when I was younger - my parents had it made for me. They told me it'd make everything better, of course, I believed them. I guess it doesn't really work though."

They sat in silence a little longer before Ash spoke this time.

"Sorry about your dad."

"What do you mean?"

Ash stared at her hands in her lap, trying to come up with the best way to put it.

"When Rose led me into your room, I noticed you and him were arguing."

"Yeah - he likes doing that a lot."

"The thing is, though, I . . ." Finn looked up at her from his watch, "I think you should stop the argument when it begins."

"Trust me, I've tried."

"I mean . . . how many times has he been right in an argument?"

"Like, once?"

"Exactly. Unnecessary arguments waste time, and they never help anything, do they, so just- I don't know - tell him to leave or something."

"It's not that simple," despite his hopeless tone of voice, Ash noticed hope in his form. He opened his mouth to speak, a smile on his face, but he never got around to the first word.

The two of them were thrown forward - their seatbelts the only thing keeping them from crashing through the window. A deafening sound erupted around them, then gravity went all wonky and Ash couldn't tell what was up and what was down.

She squeezed her eyes shut, clutching the nearest thing for stability and comfort. Stray pieces of plastic and metal flew past her, knicking her arms and face.

Then everything was still.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

She risked opening her eyes, catching her breath as she soaked in the scene around them. From what she could tell, the car was flipped on its side, the passengers inside practically hanging from their seatbelts. Ash realized the thing she'd grabbed onto with her life was Finn. Little cuts and scrapes decorated his face and arms - he was unconscious. She moved, a sharp pain shooting through her shoulder. Carefully getting into a better position, she unclipped her seatbelt, falling on top of Finn.

She jerked her head, getting the hair out of her face before unbuckling her friend. His limp body slumped against the car door. Ash took a shaky breath, climbing to the other door of the car and somehow managing to push open the heavy door. Those car doors were heavy normally, with gravity pressing down on them, they were practically impossible to open.

Cool night air streamed into the car. She couldn't make out much in the dark - stars floated overhead in the distance - but from what she could tell, they must've been in a forest. She looked down at Finn, still asleep against the side of the car. She groaned. How in the world am I gonna get him out of here!?

After half an hour, she completed another impossible task somehow, pulling Finn out of the car and onto the grass. She flopped down beside him, already exhausted.

"What now?" Even though it was summertime, her breath still left her mouth in a puffy cloud. She desperately wanted to forget about trying to figure things out and just lay there on the forest floor, but she forced herself to get back up anyway. Finn slept like a baby - but now she knew he was much heavier than one. Unsure of what else to do, she bent down, shaking him by his shoulders to try and wake him up.

"Finn. Finn! Finn!"

After a few straight minutes of calling his name, she lost patience and slapped him across the face. He woke - finally - with a start, bolting upright and taking in everything around him.

"What . . ."

"We were in a crash. I think . . . I think we're in a forest or something."

"But . . . we were just in New York. How could we possibly oh no we're in a forest."

He stood, with some effort, wincing as he made a tight circle.

"How in the world could we of possibly made it to the forest in such a short amount of time!?"

"I'd like to say we might be in Central Park, but -"

"We'd hear the city - besides, you can't see so many stars in New York."

Despite the fact that they were both in one piece, and now knew they weren't in New York, neither of them felt any better. In fact, Ash felt even worse.

"What do we do?"

It was an obvious question of course, but she didn't know what else to say.

Finn pulled out his phone, repeatedly pressing the power button and tapping it violently with his finger. It was already broken enough without him breaking it even more in frustration.

"Stop. Finn, stop it."

"What about you?"

She shook her head - she'd lost her phone a while before, in the car crash. They both stood there for a moment, looking around the forest in despair.

"Well, we have to go somewhere."

"Where!? We don't even know where we are!?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that! We can't just stay here though, okay? I mean, if you want to stay, be my guest, but I'm leaving."

She picked a random direction and followed it, Finn eventually giving up and following. Leaves and sticks cracked under their feet as they walked - thankfully they'd been given their original clothes back, so there was that at least. An owl hooted in the trees, bugs made their own funny sounds and frogs croaked somewhere in the distance.

A few times, one of them would trip over a root or an especially big rock and fall to the ground. Each time though, the other was there to help them up. They walked in more silence until Ash couldn't stand it anymore.

"Why is this happening to us!? I mean, why were you and I choosen for whatever this is!?"

Finn clearly didn't have the answers to her questions, but she had to ask anyway as if it'd get them somewhere.

"Maybe we have something in common."

"True enough . . . okay. Your eyes are green - but mine are brown. My hair- is a different color. Did you ever get braces?"

"Yeah. You?"

"No."

They both thought hard about it. Ash's stomach growled.

"Man, I'm hungry."

"Me too."

They both glanced at each other, the same crazy idea in their heads. Neither of them mentioned it though. Finn yanked the cuffs of his sleeves down before returning to his wrist-rubbing.

"Weird, huh?"

"More than weird, but yeah."

"Do you think that man knew what was going on?"

Even talking about him made the air colder somehow but she still wondered. Finn shook his head.

"I don't know."

He forgot about his wrists and started rubbing his shoulder.

"Agh, my shoulder hurts!"

Ash stopped, tired of walking towards nowhere and giving them both a break for a moment.

"Let me see," he pushed his shirt collar back, revealing his shoulder. It was completely fine. Thinking about it made Ash's shoulder hurt though. Finn noticed her rubbing it and asked about it.

"It's fine." Nevertheless, she pulled her sleeve all the way up. She tried to swallow when they both saw what was hiding there. Similar to the burns on their wrists, there was a red patch of skin burned into her shoulder where her seatbelt was.

"I think the seatbelt gave it to me." He nodded in agreement, but there was a solemn look on his face.

"Ash . . . you think . . . maybe . . ."

"We can experience what each other is feeling?"

He nodded, his eyes wide now.

"You think that's crazy?"

She nodded, raising her eyebrows as she started through the forest again. "Yes."