Now What?

That was the question I asked Tom. "Now what? Is that everyone?"

He grinned and said, "Just four fools, that's it. And now we go along with our merry plan."

"And what plan would that be?" I asked.

"To fool them all," he said. "To escape the fighting and the fear, to be free and foolish forever."

"To runaway," I said.

"To leave your troubles," he said and started to whistle. I recognized the tune as "Get Happy."

"You do realize that song's about the apocalypse," I said.

He grinned. "Then we better be on our way. It's getting dark."

We piled into John's car. Tom turned on the radio and Judy Garland's rendition of "Get Happy" started playing. I shrugged. Somehow, I wasn't even surprised by the things Tom did anymore.

I had taken up smoking before, when I had stopped running. I thought the Slender Man was going to kill me every single day, so what does it matter if I kill myself a little, right? I had half a pack left in my jacket and I put one in my mouth. John pulled out a lighter and lit it for me.

"So where are we going?" Queequeg asked.

Judy's vocals drifted through the car and I smiled. "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're on the run from a tentacled abomination."

Queequeg laughed and said, "Hit it."

I stepped on the gas and as the tires squealed, the car sped quietly into the night.