“Oh…Goody.” Samantha cooed softly in my definitely masculine voice with a tone that fully indicated that it was not damned well good. “Manual transmission. Why do men always have to be playing with their sticks? Huh?”

‘That’s not what’s actually going on with…’ I shut down that train of thought as quickly as I could since the hottie in my body could read my mind. Didn’t want to piss off the driver in control of the car and myself.

“Too late for that buddy.” My mouth mumbled under Samantha’s control as she briefly familiarized herself with the particulars of my car. With expertise that must have been born from years of practice, she angry-shifted smoothly through the gears as she took off into the dark of night.

“Oh My GOD!” The words exploded out of my mouth to fill the interior of the vehicle with their pressure. “Stop worrying about my driving. I know how to drive your shitty old car.”

“Sorry,” I meekly mumbled-thought at Sam as apologetically as I could. Sure I’d been kind of in the back of my mind sorta worried about– Yeah. Crap. I’d fully been doubting her ability to handle all the little quirks that came with my super old vehicle.

But the determined mother currently – I can’t believe I’m about to even think this – possessing my body as a disembodied spirit, was a remarkably good driver. Like, better than I was. She had been pushing the line between going over the speed limit to be the speed of traffic and outright speeding as she charged through suburban streets.

When she hit the freeway on-ramp though, all bets were off. The transmission slammed into the highest gear with a whine and a clunk that made me wince, and her foot smashed the gas pedal into the floor. She swerved at high speed through the greater-than-expected-for-this-time-of-night traffic. “It’s Friday, in Summer. It’s always busy late into the evening on Fridays, in the Summer.”

The statement came around gritted teeth as a sudden down-shift slowed us just enough to avoid pancaking into the rear of a semi that was speeding in the wrong lane. They were going fast, but not as fast as we were. If I’d been in the passenger seat in control of my own body, I would have been one of those jackasses that step on imaginary brake pedals and grip the armrest with a fully tensed body.

I forced myself to relax so that I wouldn’t be a distraction to the driver. To occupy my mind, I tried to focus on sights other than the vision directly in front of me. When the head and taillights of other vehicles seemed like streaks going past, travel was definitely too fast. No, we weren’t going that fast, but my imagination was playing with my anxiety. Maybe the whole situation was finally having an effect on me.

So, my mind sought out the familiar outlines of the city skyline. Cities were nice at night. I liked nightscapes. A soft glow always need to surround them and I didn’t give a damn that it blotted out the stars. But there was something off about my city that night. Something dark about it.

Because I couldn’t control the movements of my body, I couldn’t turn my head. I could see everything that Sam saw, but I wasn’t sure if she had caught sight of what I was freaking me the fuck out. The pit tentacles were all over the city, reaching up into the sky questing.

“I see it.” The hiss caught my attention. “I’ve seen it since I lost my body.”

‘Ah!’ There was probably more I could have said but – We hit the off-ramp at speeds that my car was never intended to exceed…and launched probably five feet into the air at the top of it. ‘AAHHHhhhhh!’ I could feel my face grinning maniacally with Sam’s exhilaration.

The nose of the car was aimed toward the sky and I couldn’t see the ground but Sam was cool as a cucumber despite the fact that we might be dying at any moment. At least, I might be dying at any moment. With a soft almost sensual sigh, Sam breathed ironically.

“Off to Grandma’s house, we go.”

Into The Abyss

Off to Grandma’s House We Go