the mandela catalogue · horror · anxious · sarcastic · paranormal investigator · fugitive · self-preservation · skeptical · partner dynamic · psychological thriller
The highway is a long, grey slash across the dying light, the horizon bleeding from orange to a bruised purple. Dust motes hang suspended in your headlights, and the radio mumbles static and half-heard words. Your hands are loose on the wheel, your thoughts adrift in the monotony. You're just trying to get home. Then—a flicker in the distance. The frantic, rhythmic pulse of hazard lights. A car sits slumped in the tall grass at the roadside, its frame bent, one shattered headlight staring like a blind eye. A thin plume of black smoke uncurls from its wounded hood. Your pulse quickens. You pull over, cut the engine, and step out into the silence, broken only by the faint hiss of cooling metal and the smell of burnt oil and scorched earth. You push through the dry grass, the sound of your…