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It's been 4 days of driving and stopping and driving and stopping in the same direction. I was getting sick of it but had to keep going.

"How's everyone doing?" I asked wearily.

"Bleh. I got a headache." Trine took off her headphones and slouched in her seat, her worn MP3 player resting in her palm. 

Maw was napping and I knew that because he always snored very loudly, no matter what state of sleep he was in. I sighed and scratched my eyelid, then I saw a sign on the side of the road that read "Pandora Gardens". I looked over and there was a garden, trail, and playground behind the sign. 

"Great, a park! I need some fresh air!" Trine exclaimed, throwing her MP3 back in her bag with zest. We both got out of the car and Maw stayed, still snoozing with the sounds of his own thunderous breathing. We kept in sight of the car but we looked around at all the things we could do. I headed towards the playground and sat on the stairs of a slide structure to unwind and take in the breeze. Trine leaned on the railing and crossed her arms flatly, closing her eye and breathing slowly to take in the sun. 

"So, how are you?" She turned to look at me. "I can take the wheel for the rest of the day if you want and you can chill."

"Alright, thanks." I fixed the scrunched-up sock in my sneakers and relaxed my hands on my lap. "I'm fine, I have a feeling we're close to Paradise."

Trine smiled but then it slowly faded away. "Right…"

"I… I believe.” I said. “That's all we need to do. Or we'll just find somewhere else.. we'll..."

"We don't even know where it is specifically." Trine cut in, putting her hands on her eye, exhausted. 

"... It's okay." I took a deep breath. "It's only been a week or so, we'll find it. I'm sure of it." 

"Well you're great at being an amazing friend, I know you'll find us somewhere perfect to live." She hugged me and I gave a joyful chuckle. We spent a couple of minutes exploring the playground and then we decided to go walk towards the garden. We kept our eyes off our car for a couple of minutes, taking in the wildlife. I even saw a bunny in the garden, well... it was more like a jackalope, but with teeth as its horns like a beetle. I always liked how weird animals were in Nexternity. You could see bears with saber teeth, cats with two tails, sea urchins with eyes, or elephants with wings. They weren't killed or hunted for these features, they were just accepted. Amazing creatures they were. I got distracted looking at the bunny for a minute or so, it was resting and chewing on grass, but then it took off in a flash. I turned around to see what scared it and Maw was standing there right in my face. His sudden appearance made me stumble back briefly but I remained my posture.

"Hey!" He said with a playful grin and then started looking around. "Ooh, this place is naturey!"

"Wh- Maw? We thought you were sleeping!" Trine placed her hands on her hips.

"Eh, got bored of it and decided to join you two." He yawned but kept focusing on me.

"Bored of it?" Trine repeated with sarcasm.

"Alright." I started walking back on the path with Trine. "Just don't scare any more animals away."

"Everyone's always scared of me, I'm a giant mouth for Hell's sake," Maw commented, picking his teeth again. I quickly turned around to face him,

"You don't scare us." I uttered, staring so seriously at him that I had to remember to rest my shoulders.

Maw chuckled and put his hands in his pockets. 

"Cool."

The flowers in the garden were a mix of different gorgeous colors. Blue, pink, orange, yellow, red, and purple were all blended with spiky vines and viridian leaves. It almost made me feel hungry for this imaginary aura around it, like your soul was reaching for every hue and shade.

"Which one do you think you would be if you were a flower?"

"Maybe the rose?" Trine said, touching its petals gently. "I've always loved roses."

"Roses definitely fit you, Miss Red." Maw mocked how she almost always wears scarlet clothes.

"Hey, it's my favorite color! Don't judge me." She crossed her arms. "What's your favorite color, huh?"

"Chartreuse. It burns your eyes like acid." His wicked grin crept up.

"Figured." Trine went back to eying the flowers.

"Maw, I think you'd be this spiky orange flower!" I turned to him and pointed to the sharp-petaled dahlia.

"Yeah, that's me. Jagged." He smiled to himself and inspected all the flowers, he rested his gaze on a blue carnation. 

"I think you'd be this spunky, extra beautiful blue one, Eyeball." He said, tilting the carnation's petals upward with his nail. Then he looked at me with such a graceful smile, I forgot he was Maw for a second.

It took way longer than it should have to reply to him. His sentence repeated in my mind. Beautiful. It's just a flower, I thought, he didn't mean me. No one has ever called me beautiful. Just "pretty" or "nice" so they could persuade me to favor them. I always read too much into things, but in the back of my mind, it felt like he meant it. My cheeks uncontrollably turned red and he must have noticed because it looked like his heart skipped a beat. 

"B-because it's blue, y'know!? Like you!" He became flustered and cleared his throat awkwardly. "...No other reason."

I giggled and walked past him, brushing his shoulder. 

"Cool."

It was becoming evening and we strolled on the path for a while more, making little comments about the nature there, then we started heading back to our car. It was a nice hour of fresh air and I was more than ready to relax and well... I can't even put on headphones because it would basically blind me, but I can just read and rest. I caught a glance of two gray and black creatures with wings around our car. They were sniffing it out and trying to get the food inside the trunk.

"What the- there's some damn winged raccoons near the car!" Maw picked up his pace.

"What are you gonna do?" Trine responded with sarcasm. "Ask them to go?"

"No!" He clenched his fists with confidence. "I'll scare 'em."

"If they bite you, you better not get rabies." Trine matched his pace but was notably more nervous.

"Hah, I've had rabies before! I got this." Maw gave a bold smile. Trine looked at him with disgust.

"Go ahead," I called out. "I'm going to take in this sunshine one more time and I'll catch up once the raccoons leave."

They nodded and ran over to the car.

I brushed some leaves off of my shirt. We wore the new clothes we got often on the journey, they all showed our personalities perfectly. I combed my eyelashes up again, letting the wind blow through them. Maw was waving his arms wildly at the raccoons but they were just staring at him with blank expressions. Trine face-palmed. I burst out laughing and started to gradually make my way toward them, they probably need some help. Then out of the corner of my eye, I spied the same ivory car that I had seen for the past few days a couple of parking slots behind ours. What? Were they following us? What is it doing here? Who drives it? My heart beat faster and I felt a sense of danger. Then I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around and I was met by the tall, triangle-headed person that I had a glimpse of in the hotel parking lot. Their head was 2-d just like Trine's but upside down. No mouth but their eyes were unsymmetrical in size, the left bugging out. He had a cool look about him and his hands were behind his back as if he were waiting for me to notice him for eons. He was wearing a bright cyan turtleneck sweater and black khakis. His colorful appearance clashed with his distant eyes. Then I saw his arms, one pair was protruding from their shoulders and two pairs from their back. I felt my body start shivering with fear and I looked back at the vintage ivory Mercedes. This was not a coincidence. My flight reflexes kicked in and before I realized it, I fled.

The wind hit my face like waves and my eye started to sting. The long grass pelted my legs as I started stumbling through them, all I wanted was to get away from this new, mysterious man. Following us for four days. After all the signs I saw, all the times I saw his car, I didn't say anything! What does he want with us!? I felt trapped in my mind when I was sprinting but when I looked back, he was after me. He was chasing at a steady pace, like a slow, unmovable force. No matter how fast you ran, he would catch up to you someday. Whimpers and pleads slipped out of my throat. I picked up my legs and kept running for my life. I closed my eye and then suddenly I was in the street, a car rushed past me an inch from my face. Another truck's horn blared as it was speeding toward me. I couldn't react fast enough to get out of the way and I thought, this was it, time to ascend or do whatever you do when you die again in Nexternity. Then I felt an arm pull the back of my shirt and take me out onto the curb away from the cars. I fell down and groaned.

"Do you make a living out of almost killing yourself?" Came an unfamiliar voice. It was calm and collected, with no accent or distinction. 

I looked up disoriented, and the multi-armed man was in front of me. I staggered back and stuttered.

"W-w-who are you!? Why are you following us!?" I managed to spit out. 

The man was confused for a moment but then rolled his shoulders and glanced at his watch. He made a composed blink and then held out his hand to help me up.

"I heard you are going to the Paradise."