Avery released a breath as she completed the turn. Nice, new smooth road. What was she worried about? Sure, this portion of the street seemed a bit darker and far lonelier.

“See?” said Conner, his tone tinged with satisfaction. “I told you there’d be less traffic.”

She eyed the road and its immediate surroundings. Another wave of unease speared through her. “Yeah, you were right about that.”

In the drizzle, the taillights of the truck ahead of them appeared far in the distance. One car drove past them to the intersection, but besides those two other vehicles, the road was empty. An abandoned field lay on either side of them. A few rickety buildings had stood there the last time she’d been through this area, but they must’ve been torn down to make way for more development. In a few months, stores and eateries would likely pop up along the street.

Conner leaned back in his seat and stretched his arms over his head. “I think we’ll make good time now.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but the darkness plaguing the road suddenly grew to such a degree that her headlights might as well have been penetrating a thick fog. Fear pushed her to slow. She didn’t want to run off the street. “What in the world?”

“A fog maybe? It’s raining, after all.”

She grunted. “There wasn’t one a minute ago.”

He waved her concern off. “Fog can be patchy. We must be in one right now. Just keep driving slowly.”

She stared carefully at the blacktop that was visible right before the nose of her car. The glow of the headlights faded away only a few feet from her bumper. “I don’t like this.”

“We’ll be fine,” Conner said, but this time his voice lacked the confidence it’d had before.

She released a shaky breath. “If this doesn’t let up in a minute, I’m going to stop and wait this out for a bit. We don’t even know if there’s construction on this road that we can’t now see.”

“But Aiden and the car.”

Her chest tightened at the thought of making her son stay at the daycare after closing hours. “We won’t be able to get them at all if we’re in an accident.”

“True.”

She put her foot on the brake just as a flash of silver metal glinted through the mist. A parked vehicle? But that thought was ripped from her mind as the car shot forward as if being propelled through a shaft. A scream ripped from her throat as Conner screamed, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing!” She slammed on the brakes. Nothing happened. Oh God. What the hell was going on?

The fog faded away, revealing a tunnel of glinting silver around them. Everything whizzed by them, and her gaze couldn’t grab hold of any one sight. Her head swam and her stomach threatened to rebel. The tires of her car didn’t seem to be touching any sort of ground, a notion which sent waves of terror crashing through her. 

“What…what is that?” Conner stammered.

Fear made her voice harsh and shrill as everything went dark around them. “I don’t know!”

Conner answered her in kind. “Stop the damn car. Go in reverse. Do something.”

"I am!" Hysteria bubbling up her throat, she punched at the brakes with her foot. Nothing. She jabbed at the wireless ignition button to stop the car. Nothing. She threw the car into reverse. It just kept flying ahead.

She gripped onto the steering wheel, hopeless at the realization there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop this nightmare. God, she didn’t know which was worse—the silver tunnel or this all-encompassing darkness.