Vacation roulette | series | choose your own adventure | horror | supernatural

Vacation Roulette — The Past Gets in the Way

What to do when the path isn’t clear?

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Your partner is already in bed, looking at their phone. Anxiety and regret fill you as you look at them, knowing what you’re about to share. Knowing you are about to seriously disrupt their night.

“Uh, hey,” you start, unsure of yourself.

“One second, let me finish this video,” they answer, not looking up from their phone.

You stand there, feeling uncomfortable. Feeling exposed. You aren’t sure where to put your hands. You’re far too aware of your mouth, your breath. Your tongue is sticky. You need a drink of water.

Before you can move, your partner puts down their phone and looks up at you.

“What’s up?”

You look at them. You wonder if you’re making the right decision, telling them about the text message. That maybe you should handle it yourself. But then you think about how much work it took for the both of you to get to this comfortable place. A place where you trust each other. A place where you communicate.

“So, I got this text,” you begin. Your partner just raises their eyebrows.

“It was about the vacation. It said I could still have a chance to go. We could still have a chance to go. I had the option to text yes for more or stop so I wouldn’t get any more messages. I didn’t realize replying ‘yes’ meant I was agreeing to anything. I just wanted to know more. But now…” You trail off, not knowing what else to say.

“Okay, um, what did you agree to, exactly?” your partner asks, concern evident in their eyes. They can see that you’re anxious.

“I’ll just read it to you,” you say. You take a deep breath as you get ready to read the first part of the instructions.

“You must go to 613 Maple Ave between 1:00 am, and 3:00 am, break into the house, make your way to the main bedroom, and retrieve the gold locket from the jewelry box on the dresser. The residents may or may not be armed.”

“What the fuck?” Your partner blurts out. “If this is a joke, it isn’t funny,” they say, clearly unimpressed.

“No, no. Not a joke,” you choke out. “There’s more,” you say, cringing.

“Of course there is. Well, get on with it then,”

They are very obviously unhappy.

“You must then take the locket to the coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and Church Street at 9:00 am and give it to the person in the red hoodie reading a Jim Butcher novel.“

“That’s it?”

You nod.

“That’s all the instructions, anyway,” you say meekly.

“What does that mean?”

They cross their arms, frowning at you.

“Well, um, it says if I don’t do it in 24 hours, they will have to follow up?”

“Give me your phone,” your partner demands.

You hand it to them. As they read the texts, the colour drains from their face.

“Well, obviously, you can’t do it, right?”

You purse your lips.

“Can’t I?”

Your partner looks at you. Really looks at you. You can feel their judgement.

“No, you can’t,” they say firmly.

“But I — ”

“NO!” They cut you off. “We agreed that if we were going to be together, you would leave that life behind. You promised! You PROMISED you would never go back!”

You can see tears forming in their eyes as their voice rises. You sit on the end of the bed.

“I know. And I’ll still keep that promise. But this is different. Who knows what they mean by ‘follow up’? It’s probably not a coincidence that they gave me this specific task. Think about it. This is exactly what I used to do; only I would sell the jewelry instead of handing it off to some stranger in a coffee shop. They must have known that. But how?”

As you speak, you realize how true it actually is.

“I’ll do this, and then we can either go on the vacation or just forget the whole thing. Okay?” You reach your hand towards your partner, hoping they’ll take it.

They look at you with sad, scared eyes. You can see the moment they make their decision, the resolve clear on their face.

“No. I can’t go back. We can deal with whatever they throw at us, but you can’t go to that house,”

You drop your hand.

“And if I go?” You ask, already knowing the answer.

“If you go, then you and I are done,” they say, and your heart breaks.

You decide to:

Go anyway, losing your partner forever.

Get into bed and stay with your partner.

Go back to the previous chapter.

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