[now playing... scream drive faster by LAUREL]

[camera clicks on. the camera is sitting on the dashboard of CALLEN's car, pointing out at the dark road as CALLEN drives. no music is playing, and the car is quiet as CASS speaks.]

CASS: [voice only] Okay, so we're going to this road in Ojai Valley. According to tumblr user matt-the-blind-cinnamon-roll, they and their old friend went down this same canyon road one normal night and encountered what they called "vaguely humanoid, and hairless, with elongated limbs and pitch-black eyes." It was chasing them, too, and at one point they made the decision to not look into the backseat of the car they were riding in.

RANDI: [voice] Well, that's not creepy at all.

CASS: Oh, forgot to mention: this road leads to Donner Pass.

CALLEN: Really?

BILLY: What's Donner Pass?

CASS: Back during the Gold Rush, a bunch of travelers got stuck there by snow. It's said that some of them turned to cannibalism to survive. A lot of people have died on that pass. So, basically, this road connects to an infamous road littered with death and is definitely haunted.

RANDI: Gotta love Donner Pass. It's one of the first true horror stories Cass and I researched.

LILLI: [nervously] Cool. Beautiful.

FAYE: Suddenly I don't feel great about this.

MAVERICK: Me, too.

BILLY: Hmph. Wonder why.

[the car is filled with silence again.]

MAVERICK: Could we turn some music on? Please?

CASS: Oh, yeah, sure.

[a few clicking noises are heard, then, quietly, Scream Drive Faster by LAUREL starts to play. The dry, dead-tree-and-cactus littered landscape begins to turn into rocky, layered sediment surrounding the car on both sides. The road is empty and dark. A house is seen on the right side, modern and stark, with no cars in the driveway, no chairs on the porch. Like it was built but not lived in.]

CASS: We're here. In the canyon.

[CALLEN keeps driving, steadily. A couple other houses appear on either side of the road, all the same as the first: soulless. CASS turns the music down, as if they want to hear the surroundings better, although not much is heard beside the rattle and dull thrum of CALLEN's car as he drives the old canyon road.]

CALLEN: I don't like this, Cass.

LILLI: I don't, either.

MAVERICK: Me, neither.

CASS: It's okay. We'll be out of here soon. The canyon ends eventually.

FAYE: I have a bad feeling.

CASS: It's okay, it's all fine.

BILLY: Dude, just look at these houses. They're creepy as fuck.

RANDI: Yeah.

FAYE: I don't see any cars. Anywhere. Not on the road, not in the driveways... [they pause, breath catching a little.]

LILLI: What is it?

FAYE: I don't think we should look behind us.

[the car is filled with thick, heavy silence. It's stifling. The camera still faces forward, at the dark, empty road, until it shifts slightly as someone, most likely CASS, picks it up. They turn it slowly around, to face the nervous faces of the group, piled in the car.]

FAYE: [voice shaking slightly] I don't think you should turn the camera around, either.

CASS: I won't look. I just want the camera to see. So I can review the footage later.

[MAVERICK can be seen clutching RANDI's arm in the very back, eyes shut tight. RANDI's staring at CASS. BILLY, in the middle row, looks directly at the camera, as if they can safely see whatever's behind the car in its lens. LILLI and FAYE connect their hands, LILLI squeezing gently. FAYE squeezes back.]

[the camera turns back around to face the front, where the crumbling rocks lead back to a barren, flat landscape, the road cutting through it.]

CALLEN: I'm going to take the next exit.

CASS: Okay.

CALLEN: Let's just go straight back to the hotel. No stops.

CASS: Okay.

[camera cuts.]

⋆✮⋆

[camera clicks on. the quality of film is worse than normal, and CASS can be seen sitting at a desk in the hotel room, computer shining dim light onto their face. A camera, supposedly the one they usually film on, is plugged in to the computer by a black cord.]

CASS: [looking at the camera facing them] I'm recording on my phone as I look through the film footage. [their voice is quiet. Tired.]

[RANDI comes up behind CASS, leaning on the chair they're sitting in, eyes on the computer.]

RANDI: That's where we entered the canyon.

CASS: Yeah. And there's the first house.

[the two of them watch, intently. It's quiet. Then CASS thumps the desk with their fist and puts their head in their hands, fingers pressed to their eyes.]

CASS: There was nothing there. We were freaked out over nothing.

[RANDI picks up CASS's phone, then flips the screen to show the computer screen. It shows the group in the car, and the dark canyon road out the back window. RANDI taps the center button on the computer to play the footage.]

CASS: [in the footage] I won't look. I just want the camera to see. So I can review the footage later.

[more dark canyon road. Then, there—a flash of... something. Something white, maybe, but only a glimpse. It was probably just a small boulder on the side of the road.]

[RANDI sighs softly and taps the phone screen, and the camera clicks off.]

author's note⋆

don't ask me what this chapter is. i don't know either. i planned the entire thing in my head the night before i wrote it, so it might be a mess, i don't know.

the account of the weird, creepy creature by a tumblr user named "matt-the-blind-cinnamon-roll" is real. i didn't make that up. i found it in a screenshot of a long tumblr thread about fairy trees on pinterest. i looked on my maps app and found that there are many wilderness areas near a town called Ojai, where a native american group (mentioned in the og tumblr screenshot) lived near. i don't know if the location's right. i don't know if there's an actual canyon near Ojai. but a major road that goes through Ojai does eventually connect to Donner Pass. and Donner Pass is an entirely real place.

if you want to read the tumblr thread, i have it saved in my "folklore and legends" board on my pinterest. it's the second pin i saved in that board. the very first part of the thread reads "irish people: the faeries aren't real" and you'll find what i'm referencing a ways down.

all of the locations that the squad will visit in this applyfic are real and i have found stories about certain sightings about all of them.

um. i am kinda vague with what the camera's seeing this chapter. it's called selective narration (i just made that up).

i love you guys. have a wonderful day! hopefully i can write more for this since i'm on winter break rn.