Come Back Witch

''Argh, what's up with everyone!''

Another car drove past him without stopping. It was the fourth one so far.

This all shouldn't have happened. Not here, not today. He's going to be late to the university once again. Dr. Cloves won't accept another excuse this week. Crashing the car should have been the worst thing that happened to him this year. No, in his entire life, yet it didn't even make the top three this week.

Walking over to his wrecked car, he finally caught a glimpse of his reflection. His blond hair was lightly singed, and his green eyes were bloodshot. He looked terrible. His student ID, smeared with sweat and dirt, read "Vinces Carver." He was trying to inspect himself for any further damage when a honk from a car rang out.

"Kid, are you fine?" an elderly man shouted as a mini-truck came screeching to a halt just a few meters away. Vinces didn't answer and just continued to stare at his reflection; for some reason even after the car crash he seemed completely unharmed. That should be impossible. The next problem was figuring out how to explain this to his insurance. A strong hand grabbed his shoulder firmly. "Hey, snap out of it. Are you hurt anywhere?''

Vinces finally seemed to snap out of his confusion and hurriedly stepped a meter away from the old man standing behind. Cautiously inspecting him, the old man was wearing a lumber jacket. His thinning gray hair barely covered his balding head. While his trousers seemed normal at first, they were packed with tools and dirty with oil and mud.

"I'm fine," Vinces answered, stepping farther away. The old man didn't try to come any closer and instead started inspecting the wrecked car. The wreck had already stopped burning. "Were you alone in the car?" His old scratchy but warm voice was filled with concern, making sure no one was still in the car.

''Yeah, I was alone,'' Vinces said, embarrassed about crashing his car for no foreseeable reason.

"Do you remember what happened, kid?" The old man walked up to him but let Vince have a safe distance. "How did you drive off the road?" The man asked carefully while inspecting Vinces; the young man didn't seem to be under the influence of anything, but the old man still seemed suspicious about the whole situation.

''I wasn't paying attention to the road,'' Vinces answered quickly, only a second after realizing his excuse made no sense; driving off a straight road wouldn't happen even if you weren't paying much attention.

"I haven't slept in a while. That's probably why.'' He added a bit too late to sound believable.

How could he tell him what he saw if he didn't believe it either. Going once again through the memories just before the crash, he remembered adjusting his rearview mirror on an empty road as, out of nowhere, a girl his age, maybe older, stood in the middle of the road just a dozen meters away. Her platinum hair whirled through the wind as she paid no attention to the road at all as if it had never existed.

To avoid hitting her, Vinces instantly drove off the road, simply not thinking about the aftermath of his new route, which ended in unfriendly terms with a tree. Fortunately, it only hit the empty passenger side of the car. Without thinking, he climbed out of the car, checking on the girl. But when looking at the road, it was completely empty.

Even though the road was empty, he felt like she was standing there.

The old man stared at Vince, who had gone quiet after his bad excuse, seemingly wanting to help but unable to know what truly happened. So he continued inspecting the car, searching for any reason the boy would have to lie to him. Even though the car had already stopped burning, the lingering heat still prevented the man from getting too close and seeing nobody inside; he probably didn't want to risk getting burned.

The old man stared back at Vinces, who was just trying to clean his clothes a bit with his hands, starting to look confused. Clearly struggling to understand how the young man escaped the car crash unharmed. "Kid, if you want, there's some water in my truck. Grab one if you need it.''

Vinces didn't let the opportunity pass and instantly walked to the old man's car. The mini truck looked old and patched together after countless repairs, now filled with dents and weld marks. As he came closer, he could see some stickers of an old rock band taped to the driver's side.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He opened the door, which at first didn't move and then nearly sprang into his face. Inside the truck there were lying way too many tools on the floor. Laying just between them were roughly half a dozen empty and just as many full water bottles mixed with a few full bottles of beer and liquor. Vinces didn't pay them any attention and just casually picked up 2 water bottles. As he decided to look up from the floor filled with bottles and tools, he saw it again.

A young woman standing just on the other side of the car, her platinum hair hiding most of her face. Even then, it was clear that she looked pale and disinterested. The rest of her body was hidden by the door and a cloak with runic-looking symbols. Some of them he recognized from his history field trip back in January when they were visiting some Norwegian runic templates.

The girl didn't seem to notice him and continued staring up the road. Then she slowly turned her head towards Vinces. Blinking abruptly as if she saw a ghost. Both of them stared at each other for just a moment. His blond hair lay completely still, while her platinum hair seemed to move despite the lack of wind.

"You good, kid?" The elderly man's voice came from behind Vinces, who nearly jumped out of his shoes, scared by his sudden appearance. As he looked back at the truck, the girl disappeared once again. "Yeah, I was just looking for the water," he said quickly, secretly searching the surroundings for the pale beauty but finding nothing.

The old man stayed quiet for a moment and then whispered. "You were standing there for almost half an hour, kid. Are you sure you're fine?''

Vinces looked back at the man, confused. Grabbing the water bottles couldn't have taken longer than five minutes. A shiver of horror ran down his spine. "Did you see that?" He asked cautiously; seeing the old man's confused face, he tried to evade the situation with an excuse, deciding to keep the strange things happening to himself for now.

As he slowly turned around towards the old man, his gaze only focused on the sun behind him, clearly having moved across the sky.

"Sorry I've been lost in thoughts," he says as he throws one of the bottles of water to the old man, who catches it and opens it silently while giving him another suspicious look. Vinces didn't care much about what the old man was thinking and also opened his water, taking a sip. The cold water feeling refreshing on his dry throat, he didn't realize until now how thirsty he was, greedily drinking another sip as the old man began to laugh. "Don't worry, there's more than enough for you."

Vinces stared at the truck driver, embarrassed. "You haven't told me your name yet.''

The old man laughed once again, nearly choking. "Oh yeah, sorry, kid; didn't come to it yet. I'm David, David von Klakus, and you would be'' As he tried to decipher his student ID hanging on Vinces shirt. ''Vinces Carver is my name; nice to meet you and I appreciate the help." As he held out his hand to greet the man, who happily accepted the gesture and shook his hand firmly.

"You don't seem to be from the small town around here. Are you part of the Mathley Colles University visiting?" Vinces nods. "You got it right, third-year history major." He smiled as the old man's expression darkened and came abruptly closer, grabbing him by his damaged school uniform.

Even though he didn't seem to like it. But a flicker of fear is visible from David's eyes. He didn't seem to understand the mysterious situation.

"You said you were in the car alone, but you want to tell me whom you were searching for just before I came?" The old man doesn't seem to be aggressive. He simply wanted to force the student to finally tell the truth, or at least that's what Vinces hoped was happening.

Vinces stepped back quickly; the years of boxing with friends kicked in as he let the part of his uniform the old man held rip off. "I thought I saw a person when I crashed and just wanted to make sure nobody was hurt." He isn't lying but also not telling the whole truth because in such a heated moment, even if David would believe him, he wouldn't have time to explain.

David seemed to sense that Vinces was telling at least some part of the truth and slowly raised his hands. "Sorry," he said quietly, then louder, "you must know there have been some people disappearing around here since you guys arrived and everyone, myself included, seemed to be a bit on edge." The old man stared at Vinces wrecked car. ''I could bring you back to town if you want; I don't want to pressure you into following me.''

After a few seconds of thinking, staying out here seemed far more dangerous. Especially after that David told him about the missing cases.

''I will trust you, you're the only one that stopped to help me after all.'' Vinces lowered his guard and walked toward what was left of his car.

"I don't think any of my textbooks survived. Well, they were for my French class anyway, so I don't really care." Standing in front of his burnt-down car, which had nearly cooled off already, he let out a sigh.

"My dad will kill me for this" as he picks up a small wooden stick that used to be his rearview mirror pendant, which his small brother gave him a few years ago as they were visiting the mountains. He had kept it carefully ever since.

Returning to the old man, Vinces spoke quietly, a bit embarrassed. ''I would be ready to go.''

David simply nods and enters his truck, pointing towards the passenger seat in the front. Vince slowly walked around the truck, lost in thought about the seeming ghost that already appeared a second time. "I'm going mad, just like my grandparents did. No, this is different, something tells me it is," he whispered to himself. Then he opened the passenger door, which screeched loudly. Not minding the sound, he sat down and put the seatbelt on.

David stared at Vinces, his gaze unreadable, while starting the motor. On the second try, the car finally started and he began to slowly to

Turn around to the road heading towards the small town.

Lost in thought, Vinces stared out the window. As something caught his eye. The young woman was once again outside the window. Sitting on the remains of his car, her cloak lying next to her. She was wearing a white shirt from a brand he didn't recognize and black jeans. It reminded him of how some school uniforms look in the UK or America, just missing the jacket.

She was staring at the moon, which hung impossibly bright in the early daylight and then slowly turned towards him, giving a faint smile and said something inaudible before disappearing with a snap of her finger.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vinces saw an abnormal smile on David's face in the reflection of the car window. David wasn't looking at the road; instead, he stared at his back intensely. Every instinct screamed at him to not turn around.