“I’m thinking it might be time we turn around.” Savannah said

Rob didn’t look at her this time. He kept his head straight to focus on the winding mountain road, barely illuminated by the Volvo’s headlights. “And where, exactly, should I do that?” Rob took one hand off the steering wheel, sweeping it from left to right to point out the raging river to their left and the steep cliff face to their right, with no more than a two feet of shoulder room on either side.

“Geographical challenges aside,” Rob added sarcastically, “the road is so curvy a car coming up on us from behind would never have time to stop before ramming us in the ass.”

“I didn’t mean right this minute, just whenever you get the chance.”

“I’m sorry I snapped. Maybe you can check to see if you ever got signal back after losing it a few miles ago?”

Savannah pulled out her phone to check for GPS signal. “We’ve got a little bit, let me see what I can find.” She typed their destination, Chickadee Campground, into the search bar.

“Hey Rob, you know how we thought we remembered the GPS telling us to turn right on Old 195 South?”

Rob looked at her unamused. “Don’t tell me.”

“Yeah, we gotta turn around and go straight back through that intersection.”

“In other words, we were supposed to turn left onto Old 195 North. Jesus Christ.” Rob was white-knuckling the steering wheel on the old yellow station wagon. “FUCK!” He shouted

“Rob, relax, it isn’t that big of a deal. This thing happens all the time don’t let it get the better of you.”

Rob looked back at his wife, turning on the light to see her in the dark. He admired the way her blonde hair blew in the wind. His flash of anger melted immediately when he gazed into her sapphire eyes. Rob released one hand’s death grip on the steering wheel and interlaced it’s fingers with Savannah’s. The couple looked back towards the road just when two pigtails bounced in front of the car.

“HOLY SHIT!” Rob screamed, slamming on the brakes. The car came to a screeching hault just on the other side of the double yellow lines, but not before a noticeable double-bump.

Savannah sat with her mouth agape, unable to make a sound. She looked over at her husband, his long brown hair hung down over a surely ghost-white face. He was white knuckling the steering wheel with both hands again, his eyes staring blankly ahead.

Savannah regained her voice. “Rob?”

Rob just took deep breaths from his open mouth.

“Rob, we have to-“

“-I know.” He managed. He began to shake, and then sobbed uncontrollably. “Where the FUCK could she have come from? There are no houses here. What WAS she doing here?”

Savannah put a hand on her husband’s arm, doing what she could to calm him and herself. “You couldn’t have known, honey. Maybe it wasn’t even her.”

“Yeah, sure, a little girl with blonde pigtails comes running out right in front of me and suddenly my car just goes over the world’s worst placed speed-bump in the middle of nowhere.”

Rob reached over and removed his seatbelt. Shakily, he got out of the car and rose to his feet, holding onto his door as he walked around to the front of the car. There was a small amount of blood on the hood. Rob braced himself for a truly awful scene when he bent down to look beneath the undercarriage. He closed his eyes as he lowered his head to near-ground level. Opening his eyes, he found nothing except for a Raggedy-Ann doll tucked up beneath his front passenger wheel.

“We definitely hit her, but she’s not here.” Rob said, not bothering to hide his relief.

“What do you mean she’s not here?” Savannah shot back in panic.

“I mean her doll is under my car, some blood is in my hood, but there is no girl here.” He swept the light up and down the stretch where the accident happened to prove it. Nothing.

Loud, high pitched giggles came from the woods just in front of them. Then from their sides. Then all around them. Rob swept the flashlight in all directions. They were no longer on a deserted highway, but deep in the middle of the forest. Other cars that weren’t there before surrounded them, some of them almost completely taken over by ivy or other undergrowth.

From behind the cars stepped identical little blonde girls with Raggedy Ann dolls, holding hands with an adult man and woman. Rob looked at Savannah, whose tan skin was white as a sheet with terror.

Suddenly, a little girl with a small gash on her forehead approached the horrified couple.

“You found my dolly!” She said with all the excitement of a child on Christmas morning. The girl looked back up at them with lifeless black eyes. “Will you come with me?”

Rob looked over at a man holding hands with his own little girl. He looked about the same age as Rob, but his clothes were much older. Very subtly, the man nodded his head. Getting the hint, Rob looked back down to the child. “Yes.” The girl smiled and reached her hands up to take theirs.

Rob looked back at Savannah, a single, silent tear rolling down her cheek as the couple walked hand in hand with the girl, following their new companions into the forest