Dean hadn't seen another pair of headlights in over an hour.
Just endless wet asphalt, guardrails, and towering fir trees pressing in from both sides like they were leaning closer by the minute. The fog slid across the highway in slow, deliberate waves - white tendrils curling through the beams of his high beams like breath on a cold mirror.
He wiped a spot clear on the windshield with his sleeve and checked the glowing dash clock.
1:28 a.m.
He was pushing north through southern Oregon, somewhere between Grants Pass and Canyonville. He'd left Ashland just after sunset, intending to make Portland by sunrise, but that plan had faded somewhere around Medford. Now, his back ached, his energy drink was warm, and the music had long since dissolved into silence. Just the hum of the tires and the pressing dark.
Then out of the mist, green reflectors caught his eye.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean blinked. He didn't remember seeing it on the way down last week. And he'd definitely driven this stretch before, more than once. Still, a rest sounded good. He could stretch, breathe, and maybe dig that last caffeine tablet out of the glove box. He flipped on his turn signal and coasted onto the exit ramp.
The off-ramp curved hard through a wall of fog and trees, narrowing as it descended into the valley. The air felt colder here - like he'd passed through a membrane into something older, quieter. The Pine Ridge Rest Area appeared all at once. It was smaller than most. Just a narrow lot with half a dozen parking spots, a low concrete restroom building, and a picnic table crouched beneath an overgrown pine. The lamps overhead buzzed faintly, casting circles of pale yellow across the cracked pavement.
There were no other cars. Dean pulled into the space closest to the building. His headlights swept across it as he parked - concrete walls mottled with moss, bathroom signs so faded they looked like chalk outlines. A vending machine stood beside the door, glowing softly, its backlight flickering behind rows of dusty sodas and faded candy bars. He stepped out of the car. The forest swallowed the sound of his door closing.
The air was wet and cold, soaked with cedar and pine needles. Fog pooled ankle-deep across the pavement, hiding the cracks and puddles underneath. He walked toward the bathroom. The moment he stepped inside, the flickering fluorescent lights buzzed louder. The mirror above the sink was warped and cloudy, bending his reflection like heat off pavement. His face looked? off. Elongated. Washed-out. His eyes too far apart. He glanced away quickly and that's when he saw it. Carved into the cinderblock just above the sink, in deep, raw letters:
YOU'RE STILL HERE
Dean stared at the message. Something about the words made the air feel heavier. Like they weren't a warning. Not even a threat. Just a statement. He backed out of the bathroom and into the fog. The vending machine buzzed faintly beside the door. He glanced at it - noticed that the keypad was smeared with something sticky, like soda or sap. He turned back toward his car without investigating. The engine turned over reluctantly. The radio came on automatically, blaring a burst of static before switching to a song - low, muffled, warped like it was playing underwater. He shut it off immediately. As he merged back onto the freeway, the fog closed behind him like a curtain.
His GPS had been useless since Siskiyou Pass, just outside Ashland. It had glitched somewhere past Canyonville, displaying "no route available" for the past hour. He hadn't bothered restarting it. I-5 was simple - north to Portland. One straight shot through the trees. So when the sign reappeared just ahead - almost exactly fifteen minutes later - Dean felt his stomach drop.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
It was identical. Same chipped paint on the bottom corner. Same tilt of the signpost. Same font. Same place. He checked the clock.
1:43 a.m.
He hadn't turned around. He hadn't slowed down. He hadn't seen another exit. His grip tightened on the wheel.
No way.
Still, part of him needed to check. He hit the blinker again and took the exit.
Same hard curve. Same dense fog. Same rest stop. But now, the vending machine was shattered - glass across the sidewalk, shards twinkling under the lamplight like teeth. A half-melted candy bar oozed down the front. Something dark streaked the cracked screen.
The bathroom door hung slightly open, swaying with the breeze. Dean stepped out of the car and walked slowly forward. Inside, the lights buzzed louder. The air smelled metallic now, like blood or rusted pipe. The message on the wall had changed:
YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE STOPPED
Dean's breath caught in his throat. He turned and walked quickly back to the car. He grabbed his phone from the center console.
1% battery.
Figures.
He typed a quick message to his brother, fingers jittery:
"dude something is wrong. I keep ending up at the same rest stop on I-5. pine ridge. vending machine smashed. 1:50am. happened twice now."
Send.
Spinning.
Sent.
The screen went black. No sound now except the wind in the trees and the buzzing of the overhead light. Dean started the car. Put it in drive and this time, he didn't look in the mirror as he pulled out. The fog behind him folded shut like a trap.
As he sped down the I-5 again the fog didn't thin. In fact it felt like it had gotten heavier. Almost like driving through wet wool. The beams of Dean's headlights dissolved a few feet out, swallowed by the dense forest that pressed tighter with every mile. Trees leaned like ancient walls on either side of the interstate, and every sound felt like it was happening within his car.
He hadn't touched the radio, the heater, or the defroster.
He just drove.
1:57 a.m.
His eyes were dry and aching. His shoulders locked.
Then, through the fog -
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean gripped the wheel harder. The same sign. Same busted post. Same chipped paint. No way. No possible way. He hadn't turned around. Hadn't slowed. Hadn't missed an exit. He was still driving northbound on I-5 - and yet, there it was again.
This time, someone had written on it. Barely visible under the misty glare, in faded black spray paint across the bottom:
STILL HERE
He didn't remember deciding to take the exit again. His hands just moved. The turn signal clicked. The wheel followed the curve like it was on autopilot. The ramp was tighter this time. Or maybe the fog was just worse. The trees leaned closer. The yellow lights were dimmer. The pavement was wet - not from rain, but from something thicker.
The Pine Ridge Rest Area emerged again, like a repeating dream. This time, the trees had moved. Dean swore they were closer to the building. The forest line that had once sat politely behind a guardrail was now only feet from the sidewalk. The shattered vending machine sat like a broken mouth next to the bathroom. The air smelled wrong - like burnt pine sap and rusting metal. He popped the trunk, hands shaking, and dug through his duffel for his phone charger.
Locked himself in the car. Plugged it in. Nothing. Then buzz. The screen blinked. The dead battery icon appeared. For a second, nothing else happened. Dean watched it. Just that little hollow battery symbol, pulsing gently, slowly, then filling. Not fast enough though. So agonizingly slow, like something was crawling back to life.
Then it flickered.
1%
He unlocked the screen. A text buzzed through.
"pine ridge? that rest stop's been shut down since 2003. burned in a fire. they pulled the signs. Just looked it up."
Dean stared at the screen, chest tight. He looked up. The sign was still there, clearly visible even from the parking lot. Still green and still glowing.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
Then he saw movement, by the restrooms. Two figures. Just at the edge of the fog. One tall. The other slightly smaller. Dean's breath froze.
They didn't move like people. They didn't stand like people. The tall one's limbs were too long and its arms hung far below the knees. The small one's head tilted completely to the side, like its neck wasn't built right. They weren't walking. They were waiting.
He turned the key. The engine stuttered. Once. Twice. It died. The figures stepped forward. Slowly. Smoothly. Dean locked the doors, even though they were already locked. The taller figure had no face. Not that it was hidden - there was just? nothing there. Like a blank porcelain mask stretched over a mannequin head. The smaller one had eyes. Huge. Black. Reflective like wet obsidian. No pupils. No whites. Just two bottomless pits staring through the glass.
Then softly,
Knock.
Once, then again.
They didn't jiggle the handle. Didn't press. Just knocked. Like they were guests, invited. Dean's phone buzzed again. He looked down. The screen was dark. Dead again. He glanced back up, and the tall figure was right at the window now. It leaned down, smooth face hovering inches from the glass. And it spoke.
Not out loud. Not with a mouth. But inside his skull.
"You've already stopped."
Dean screamed and twisted the key again. The car roared to life. He threw it in reverse, gunned it out of the lot, skidded onto the ramp, and shot back onto I-5 like hell was behind him. The fog swallowed the rest stop whole.
2:14 a.m.
Fifteen minutes later, it happened again. Through the haze, the green sign glowed like a cruel joke.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
This time, someone had carved into the metal, gouged letters shining silver in the headlights:
"JOIN US."
Dean didn't stop.
He floored the gas. The road blurred beneath him. But the fog didn't break. The trees didn't thin. There were no mile markers, no exits, no lights in the distance. Just forest. Just darkness. The trees never changed. No matter how long he drove, no matter how hard he pressed the gas, they stayed the same, tall black silhouettes pressed shoulder-to-shoulder beyond the guardrails, watching.
There were no more signs. No exit numbers. No mile markers. Just fog, and pine, and that faint copper taste in the back of Dean's throat.
The speedometer read 81.
Then 89.
Then 92.
He didn't care anymore. He just wanted out. His hands were cramping from gripping the wheel. His phone was dead. The charger didn't respond. The lighter port was dead too. Even the dash clock was blank now - just a glowing red slash where numbers should be.
Then the radio switched on, by itself. At first it was static. Then a voice, crackling through:
"...if anyone finds this, I don't know how long I've been here. I tried to drive straight. I didn't stop. Don't stop. If you see yourself - don't let it see you back?"
Dean's blood went cold. It was his voice. His voice. He shut the radio off. It clicked back on again, louder.
" - already stopped. Already part of it. It knows you now. You brought yourself here. You brought it with you - "
He yanked the entire radio unit forward until the wires tore loose and the dash sparked.
Silence.
He kept driving.
And then, impossibly, a glow in the fog. He saw a break in the trees. A ramp. An overhead lamp. The green flash of a sign.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean's hands twitched. He wasn't going to take the exit. He wasn't going to do it again. But the ramp came anyway and the wheel turned. Even though he'd taken his hands off.
The off-ramp was silent. The rest stop unfolded exactly as before: the broken vending machine, the swaying bathroom door, the same crooked picnic table sagging under the pine. Except this time there was a car already there.
Same model. Same color. Same make. Same license plate. Dean slammed on the brakes. His own car was parked in space number four. Headlights off. Engine off. Windows fogged. He stepped out, heart pounding, keys still in hand. The air was colder than before. It smelled wrong, sweet and sour at the same time, like rotting cedar. He walked toward the second car.
There was something inside. In the passenger seat, draped across the center console - His gray hoodie. The one he'd lost two weeks ago in Ashland. Folded neatly. A coffee cup sat in the holder. Steam still rising. He reached for the driver's side door, then stopped. His reflection was in the window, but it wasn't mirroring him. It was looking back. Breathing, and smiling.
Dean stumbled backward and fell onto the wet pavement. Behind him, the bathroom door slammed shut. The trees rustled, not from wind, but movement. Something heavy in the underbrush. Something breathing through its mouth. He scrambled to his feet and ran for his car - the one he'd arrived in. Inside, he locked the doors and tried the engine.
Nothing.
The fog outside the windshield rippled like heat. And then - like a curtain being pulled back, two Deans stepped out of the treeline. One had the same hoodie he just saw. The other wore the same shirt he had on now. Both smiling. Both wrong. Their mouths moved, but no sound came out. And then -
Knock. Knock.
On the rear window.
Dean didn't look.
He closed his eyes and waited for the dream to break.
3:01 a.m.
The clock was back. Glowing. Like it had never stopped working. Dean opened his eyes.
The fog was lighter now. The lot was empty. His car was the only one there again.
The second vehicle? Gone. The hoodie? Gone. The knock? A memory.
But the silence? Still there. Pressing.
He turned the key. The car started like nothing had ever been wrong.
The vending machine was back to normal. Intact. Glowing faintly.
The sign at the edge of the lot flickered.
WELCOME TO PINE RIDGE
Oregon Department of Transportation
He drove out without a word. The ramp back to I-5 felt longer now. Slower. The fog had shifted to a blue-gray hue, like early morning, but the sun wasn't rising, and when the highway reappeared, it didn't feel familiar. The trees were different now. Too symmetrical, like they'd been copied and pasted down the length of the road. Every few miles he swore he saw a turnoff ahead. A break in the trees. A curve in the road. A green flicker.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean wasn't sure how long he'd been driving at this point. The road hadn't changed in over thirty minutes. No signs, no towns, no headlights in either direction. Just endless I-5 and the deep forest pressing in like the walls of a tunnel.
He glanced at the clock again.
3:01 a.m.
Still? That couldn't be right. His phone was still dead. The charger port wasn't responding. The radio was silent. Just an uncomfortable static when he tested it earlier. The only sound now was the low hum of the tires and the occasional thump of his heartbeat in his ears. Then he saw it. A faint glow through the fog. Green reflectors ahead.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean felt his stomach tighten. He hadn't passed another mile marker in forever. And this one? he knew it by heart now.
"I didn't loop. I'm still going north.
So why is it back?"
He shook his head and kept driving. Do not take the exit. The sign slid past. The trees swallowed it. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Then something moved at the edge of the road. Not an animal.
But a car.
It was parked on the shoulder, just beyond the next curve - no hazards, no lights, just there. Dean slowed slightly. As his headlights swept across it, his breath caught. Same make. Same model. Same rust spot on the rear bumper. It was his car. Parked, silent. The engine, cold.
Someone was standing next to it. From this distance - maybe thirty feet - it was hard to tell, but the figure looked? familiar. Same height. Same hair. Wearing a jacket just like his. Dean's hands went clammy on the wheel. He passed without stopping. Didn't look in the mirror. Just kept going. Ten minutes later, the same sign appeared again.
PINE RIDGE - REST AREA - 1 MILE
He whispered to himself: "No." This time he glanced in the rear view mirror as he passed it.
And froze. The rest area was behind him. Lit. Empty. Exactly as before. He slammed on the brakes, threw the car into reverse, and sat there. Watching the empty road. Nothing behind him. Nothing ahead. And yet? he was back at Mile 87. Dean drove forward again. Not fast. Just steady. His eyes felt dry. His jaw ached from how hard he'd been clenching it.
He didn't remember passing any on-ramps, but now there was a break in the trees ahead. Like a forgotten exit ramp. No sign this time. Just the road curling away, half-hidden in fog. His headlights caught the glint of a road sign - bent backward and rusted. He didn't stop, but he slowed. Enough to see what was scrawled in black paint across the sign's surface:
YOU'VE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE
He drove on. Five minutes later, he saw motion in the fog - something crossing the highway up ahead. He braked hard. A figure, just at the edge of his lights. It paused near the tree line. Then stepped out of view. He crept forward. As his headlights swept the spot, he caught it again - just a glimpse. A man. Jeans. Hoodie. Same hoodie he lost a month ago. The one with the small bleach stain on the sleeve.
Dean swallowed hard. It was him. Or someone who looked just like him. But the face, he couldn't make out the face. He didn't stop again until he found a pull-off - an unmarked gravel turnout with room for maybe two cars.
He killed the engine. Sat there in the dark. No sounds. No headlights. No signs. He checked his phone again. Still black. Then he saw something on the passenger seat. A folded piece of paper. He hadn't seen it earlier. He was sure it wasn't there. He picked it up. The handwriting was his. Shaky. Quick. Written in pen.
"Do not open the trunk."
"Do not speak to them if they look like you."
"Don't stop again."
Dean stared at the note. His breath fogged the window. He checked the rear view mirror. Nothing. But his hand still drifted to the keys in the ignition. And in the silence, he heard it:
A soft knock.
From the trunk. Dean didn't move for a long time. The engine ticked as it cooled. The forest outside pressed in close - darker than before. The fog wasn't drifting now; it was settling. Clinging to the windows, to the mirrors, to the silence. That knock from the trunk? it could've been anything. The road flexing. A rock falling from the hillside. A leftover creak in the chassis.
Except it had been three knocks. Evenly spaced. Like someone letting him know they were back there. Dean stared at the keys in the ignition, but didn't turn them.
The folded note still sat in his lap.
"Do not open the trunk."
He re-read it. Over and over. His own handwriting. His own sharp little "D." But he didn't remember writing it. He didn't even remember having paper in the car. And yet it was there.
The back of his neck prickled with cold sweat. He reached slowly, opened the glove box. Nothing but napkins and an old phone charger. No pen. No notepad. He put the car in drive. Didn't turn around. Didn't open the trunk.
The road narrowed as he climbed. He hadn't realized how steep the incline had become. I-5 wasn't supposed to do that here - this felt more like the pass before Ashland, not north of Canyonville. The trees were different too - taller, older. Cedar now, not pine. He passed another sign. It had been folded inward by wind or time, but he caught the rusted lettering:
MILE 87 - NB
It hadn't changed.
He wasn't moving forward. He crested the hill and saw it again. No sign this time.No warning. Just the shape of the Pine Ridge Rest Area, emerging through the trees like it had never been gone. It wasn't off the highway anymore. It was just there, to the right of the road. He braked. Not because he wanted to, but because the curve forced him. His headlights cut across the familiar bathroom building, the crooked picnic table, the still-swinging door.
Everything was exactly the same. Except for one thing:
A truck was parked near the back.
Engine cold. Driver's side door open.
Dean rolled forward, slowly, unwillingly. The moment his tires touched the lot, the lights died. The overhead lamps fizzled and went black. So did his dashboard. The car kept moving for another five feet, then the brakes locked. Dead silence, no power.
Just trees. And fog. And something whispering in the cold between the branches. Dean opened the door. The forest swallowed the sound. He stood outside, breathing slow, watching the trees. There was no wind, but the leaves moved anyway. Not like they were blowing - but like they were reacting.
He stepped toward the bathroom. Inside, the air was colder than outside. The buzzing light over the mirror was back - but now dimmer, pulsing like a heartbeat. The stall doors were all open. The floor was damp. Not flooded, just? wet. Like the building was sweating. He looked at the mirror. His face stared back. But behind him - etched into the glass, backwards:
"OPEN IT."
He blinked. The words were gone, replaced by steam. He wiped it clean. It was his face again, but paler and streaked with dirt and nerves. His reflection smiled. He didn't. Dean turned and left the bathroom.
At the car, he paused. Stared at the trunk. Three knocks again, but softer this time like someone tapping politely. He circled around the back. His hand hovered over the latch.
"Do not open the trunk."
But what if this is the only way out?
He lifted it. Empty. No one inside. No body. No doppelganger. No twisted version of himself.
Just a cassette tape. And a small, handheld player, beat-up but intact. Looked like something out of the '80s. He picked it up. There was a label on the tape, written in his handwriting:
"PLAY WHEN READY"
Dean sat in the driver's seat. Closed the door. Still no power. He pressed play on the recorder. At first, just static.
Then:
"This is Dean Marks. If you're hearing this? it's too late to stop it."
"You'll think it's a loop. That it's a dream. But it's neither. It's a copy."
"It lets you leave if it thinks you're the right one. The original. The first."
"But if you open the trunk before you forget who you were? you stay. That's how it picks."
"I made it out once. I think. But I don't remember if I was? me."
"?If I'm not, and you are - don't stop again. Burn the car. Walk."
"Don't talk to them. Don't sleep here. Don't believe the next version of you."
"And whatever you do - "
The tape clicked. Then stopped. Dean sat there for a long time. Dean sat in the car for a long time. The engine idled quietly. The air inside had gone cold. Fog curled across the windshield in slow motion, blurring the edges of the cracked pavement and pine trees. He stared ahead. The Pine Ridge Rest Area didn't look abandoned now. The lights worked. The building still stood. The vending machine buzzed softly under a flickering bulb.
But Dean knew better. He knew something had shifted. The sign had disappeared when he took the last exit, no green glow, no "Mile 87." Just instinct pulling his hands to the wheel. And now? he was stuck. Somewhere between memory and asphalt. Somewhere the map didn't cover.
He took a breath. Opened the door and stepped out into the fog. The bathroom light buzzed above his head as he entered. He didn't go inside the stall. Didn't check the sinks. He just looked in the mirror. His reflection stared back.
Too pale. Eyes too wide.
He blinked once, and saw something else flash behind the glass.
A hallway. A forest. A version of himself walking into the fog.
Then it was gone. Only him standing in an empty old rest stop bathroom.
Back outside, the fog had deepened. He couldn't see the highway anymore. He turned to look at his car. The door was closed. But he didn't remember shutting it. He stepped toward it, slowly, cautiously - then stopped. Inside the driver's seat? was him. Back turned. Hands on the wheel. Staring forward. Unmoving.
Dean blinked. The figure vanished. Just an empty car again. He stood there a moment longer. And then the fog swallowed him.
~~~
One week later:
Oregon State Police Dispatch - 7:42 a.m.
Audio Transcript
Unit 41: "Dispatch, this is Hensley. I'm out on a check near Mile Marker 87, northbound side. Found an abandoned vehicle."
Dispatch: "Mile 87? That can't be right. There's no listed stop between 84 and 91."
Unit 41: "That's what I thought. But there's an old turnoff. Concrete lot, overgrown. Looks like a rest area that got shut down. Signage is gone. No lights. Building's still here, though."
Dispatch: "Copy that. What's the vehicle?"
Unit 41: "Gray Ford Fusion. Still running. No driver. Plates match that missing persons alert - Dean Marks. Looks like someone just stepped out and vanished."
[pause]
Dispatch: "You said a rest area? Are you sure?"
Unit 41: "Yeah. Real old. Probably Pine Ridge. Thought they decommissioned it years ago after that fire."
Dispatch: "That place was torn down in 2003. There's no power out there. No access listed anymore."
[pause]
Unit 41: "?There's writing inside the bathroom."
Dispatch: "Say again?"
Unit 41: "On the wall. Scratched into the cinderblock."
[static crackles]
Unit 41: "It says: You're still here."
Hensley didn't stay long. The car was towed out, eventually. But no one ever found a trace of Dean Marks. No footprints. No calls made. No cameras. His phone was recovered from the passenger seat, but it never powered back on. No cassette tape. No photos. No notes. The restroom was cleaned. The scratches were covered with gray paint. A new lock was welded to the door. But the fog never stopped rolling through.
Every few years, someone driving north on I-5 swears they see a faded green sign half-hidden in the trees:
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
And every few years?
Another car is found.
Still running.
Driver's door open.
No sign of the person who was behind the wheel.
Only one message scratched faintly into the concrete above the sink:
You're still here.
Just endless wet asphalt, guardrails, and towering fir trees pressing in from both sides like they were leaning closer by the minute. The fog slid across the highway in slow, deliberate waves - white tendrils curling through the beams of his high beams like breath on a cold mirror.
He wiped a spot clear on the windshield with his sleeve and checked the glowing dash clock.
1:28 a.m.
He was pushing north through southern Oregon, somewhere between Grants Pass and Canyonville. He'd left Ashland just after sunset, intending to make Portland by sunrise, but that plan had faded somewhere around Medford. Now, his back ached, his energy drink was warm, and the music had long since dissolved into silence. Just the hum of the tires and the pressing dark.
Then out of the mist, green reflectors caught his eye.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean blinked. He didn't remember seeing it on the way down last week. And he'd definitely driven this stretch before, more than once. Still, a rest sounded good. He could stretch, breathe, and maybe dig that last caffeine tablet out of the glove box. He flipped on his turn signal and coasted onto the exit ramp.
The off-ramp curved hard through a wall of fog and trees, narrowing as it descended into the valley. The air felt colder here - like he'd passed through a membrane into something older, quieter. The Pine Ridge Rest Area appeared all at once. It was smaller than most. Just a narrow lot with half a dozen parking spots, a low concrete restroom building, and a picnic table crouched beneath an overgrown pine. The lamps overhead buzzed faintly, casting circles of pale yellow across the cracked pavement.
There were no other cars. Dean pulled into the space closest to the building. His headlights swept across it as he parked - concrete walls mottled with moss, bathroom signs so faded they looked like chalk outlines. A vending machine stood beside the door, glowing softly, its backlight flickering behind rows of dusty sodas and faded candy bars. He stepped out of the car. The forest swallowed the sound of his door closing.
The air was wet and cold, soaked with cedar and pine needles. Fog pooled ankle-deep across the pavement, hiding the cracks and puddles underneath. He walked toward the bathroom. The moment he stepped inside, the flickering fluorescent lights buzzed louder. The mirror above the sink was warped and cloudy, bending his reflection like heat off pavement. His face looked? off. Elongated. Washed-out. His eyes too far apart. He glanced away quickly and that's when he saw it. Carved into the cinderblock just above the sink, in deep, raw letters:
YOU'RE STILL HERE
Dean stared at the message. Something about the words made the air feel heavier. Like they weren't a warning. Not even a threat. Just a statement. He backed out of the bathroom and into the fog. The vending machine buzzed faintly beside the door. He glanced at it - noticed that the keypad was smeared with something sticky, like soda or sap. He turned back toward his car without investigating. The engine turned over reluctantly. The radio came on automatically, blaring a burst of static before switching to a song - low, muffled, warped like it was playing underwater. He shut it off immediately. As he merged back onto the freeway, the fog closed behind him like a curtain.
His GPS had been useless since Siskiyou Pass, just outside Ashland. It had glitched somewhere past Canyonville, displaying "no route available" for the past hour. He hadn't bothered restarting it. I-5 was simple - north to Portland. One straight shot through the trees. So when the sign reappeared just ahead - almost exactly fifteen minutes later - Dean felt his stomach drop.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
It was identical. Same chipped paint on the bottom corner. Same tilt of the signpost. Same font. Same place. He checked the clock.
1:43 a.m.
He hadn't turned around. He hadn't slowed down. He hadn't seen another exit. His grip tightened on the wheel.
No way.
Still, part of him needed to check. He hit the blinker again and took the exit.
Same hard curve. Same dense fog. Same rest stop. But now, the vending machine was shattered - glass across the sidewalk, shards twinkling under the lamplight like teeth. A half-melted candy bar oozed down the front. Something dark streaked the cracked screen.
The bathroom door hung slightly open, swaying with the breeze. Dean stepped out of the car and walked slowly forward. Inside, the lights buzzed louder. The air smelled metallic now, like blood or rusted pipe. The message on the wall had changed:
YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE STOPPED
Dean's breath caught in his throat. He turned and walked quickly back to the car. He grabbed his phone from the center console.
1% battery.
Figures.
He typed a quick message to his brother, fingers jittery:
"dude something is wrong. I keep ending up at the same rest stop on I-5. pine ridge. vending machine smashed. 1:50am. happened twice now."
Send.
Spinning.
Sent.
The screen went black. No sound now except the wind in the trees and the buzzing of the overhead light. Dean started the car. Put it in drive and this time, he didn't look in the mirror as he pulled out. The fog behind him folded shut like a trap.
As he sped down the I-5 again the fog didn't thin. In fact it felt like it had gotten heavier. Almost like driving through wet wool. The beams of Dean's headlights dissolved a few feet out, swallowed by the dense forest that pressed tighter with every mile. Trees leaned like ancient walls on either side of the interstate, and every sound felt like it was happening within his car.
He hadn't touched the radio, the heater, or the defroster.
He just drove.
1:57 a.m.
His eyes were dry and aching. His shoulders locked.
Then, through the fog -
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean gripped the wheel harder. The same sign. Same busted post. Same chipped paint. No way. No possible way. He hadn't turned around. Hadn't slowed. Hadn't missed an exit. He was still driving northbound on I-5 - and yet, there it was again.
This time, someone had written on it. Barely visible under the misty glare, in faded black spray paint across the bottom:
STILL HERE
He didn't remember deciding to take the exit again. His hands just moved. The turn signal clicked. The wheel followed the curve like it was on autopilot. The ramp was tighter this time. Or maybe the fog was just worse. The trees leaned closer. The yellow lights were dimmer. The pavement was wet - not from rain, but from something thicker.
The Pine Ridge Rest Area emerged again, like a repeating dream. This time, the trees had moved. Dean swore they were closer to the building. The forest line that had once sat politely behind a guardrail was now only feet from the sidewalk. The shattered vending machine sat like a broken mouth next to the bathroom. The air smelled wrong - like burnt pine sap and rusting metal. He popped the trunk, hands shaking, and dug through his duffel for his phone charger.
Locked himself in the car. Plugged it in. Nothing. Then buzz. The screen blinked. The dead battery icon appeared. For a second, nothing else happened. Dean watched it. Just that little hollow battery symbol, pulsing gently, slowly, then filling. Not fast enough though. So agonizingly slow, like something was crawling back to life.
Then it flickered.
1%
He unlocked the screen. A text buzzed through.
"pine ridge? that rest stop's been shut down since 2003. burned in a fire. they pulled the signs. Just looked it up."
Dean stared at the screen, chest tight. He looked up. The sign was still there, clearly visible even from the parking lot. Still green and still glowing.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
Then he saw movement, by the restrooms. Two figures. Just at the edge of the fog. One tall. The other slightly smaller. Dean's breath froze.
They didn't move like people. They didn't stand like people. The tall one's limbs were too long and its arms hung far below the knees. The small one's head tilted completely to the side, like its neck wasn't built right. They weren't walking. They were waiting.
He turned the key. The engine stuttered. Once. Twice. It died. The figures stepped forward. Slowly. Smoothly. Dean locked the doors, even though they were already locked. The taller figure had no face. Not that it was hidden - there was just? nothing there. Like a blank porcelain mask stretched over a mannequin head. The smaller one had eyes. Huge. Black. Reflective like wet obsidian. No pupils. No whites. Just two bottomless pits staring through the glass.
Then softly,
Knock.
Once, then again.
They didn't jiggle the handle. Didn't press. Just knocked. Like they were guests, invited. Dean's phone buzzed again. He looked down. The screen was dark. Dead again. He glanced back up, and the tall figure was right at the window now. It leaned down, smooth face hovering inches from the glass. And it spoke.
Not out loud. Not with a mouth. But inside his skull.
"You've already stopped."
Dean screamed and twisted the key again. The car roared to life. He threw it in reverse, gunned it out of the lot, skidded onto the ramp, and shot back onto I-5 like hell was behind him. The fog swallowed the rest stop whole.
2:14 a.m.
Fifteen minutes later, it happened again. Through the haze, the green sign glowed like a cruel joke.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
This time, someone had carved into the metal, gouged letters shining silver in the headlights:
"JOIN US."
Dean didn't stop.
He floored the gas. The road blurred beneath him. But the fog didn't break. The trees didn't thin. There were no mile markers, no exits, no lights in the distance. Just forest. Just darkness. The trees never changed. No matter how long he drove, no matter how hard he pressed the gas, they stayed the same, tall black silhouettes pressed shoulder-to-shoulder beyond the guardrails, watching.
There were no more signs. No exit numbers. No mile markers. Just fog, and pine, and that faint copper taste in the back of Dean's throat.
The speedometer read 81.
Then 89.
Then 92.
He didn't care anymore. He just wanted out. His hands were cramping from gripping the wheel. His phone was dead. The charger didn't respond. The lighter port was dead too. Even the dash clock was blank now - just a glowing red slash where numbers should be.
Then the radio switched on, by itself. At first it was static. Then a voice, crackling through:
"...if anyone finds this, I don't know how long I've been here. I tried to drive straight. I didn't stop. Don't stop. If you see yourself - don't let it see you back?"
Dean's blood went cold. It was his voice. His voice. He shut the radio off. It clicked back on again, louder.
" - already stopped. Already part of it. It knows you now. You brought yourself here. You brought it with you - "
He yanked the entire radio unit forward until the wires tore loose and the dash sparked.
Silence.
He kept driving.
And then, impossibly, a glow in the fog. He saw a break in the trees. A ramp. An overhead lamp. The green flash of a sign.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean's hands twitched. He wasn't going to take the exit. He wasn't going to do it again. But the ramp came anyway and the wheel turned. Even though he'd taken his hands off.
The off-ramp was silent. The rest stop unfolded exactly as before: the broken vending machine, the swaying bathroom door, the same crooked picnic table sagging under the pine. Except this time there was a car already there.
Same model. Same color. Same make. Same license plate. Dean slammed on the brakes. His own car was parked in space number four. Headlights off. Engine off. Windows fogged. He stepped out, heart pounding, keys still in hand. The air was colder than before. It smelled wrong, sweet and sour at the same time, like rotting cedar. He walked toward the second car.
There was something inside. In the passenger seat, draped across the center console - His gray hoodie. The one he'd lost two weeks ago in Ashland. Folded neatly. A coffee cup sat in the holder. Steam still rising. He reached for the driver's side door, then stopped. His reflection was in the window, but it wasn't mirroring him. It was looking back. Breathing, and smiling.
Dean stumbled backward and fell onto the wet pavement. Behind him, the bathroom door slammed shut. The trees rustled, not from wind, but movement. Something heavy in the underbrush. Something breathing through its mouth. He scrambled to his feet and ran for his car - the one he'd arrived in. Inside, he locked the doors and tried the engine.
Nothing.
The fog outside the windshield rippled like heat. And then - like a curtain being pulled back, two Deans stepped out of the treeline. One had the same hoodie he just saw. The other wore the same shirt he had on now. Both smiling. Both wrong. Their mouths moved, but no sound came out. And then -
Knock. Knock.
On the rear window.
Dean didn't look.
He closed his eyes and waited for the dream to break.
3:01 a.m.
The clock was back. Glowing. Like it had never stopped working. Dean opened his eyes.
The fog was lighter now. The lot was empty. His car was the only one there again.
The second vehicle? Gone. The hoodie? Gone. The knock? A memory.
But the silence? Still there. Pressing.
He turned the key. The car started like nothing had ever been wrong.
The vending machine was back to normal. Intact. Glowing faintly.
The sign at the edge of the lot flickered.
WELCOME TO PINE RIDGE
Oregon Department of Transportation
He drove out without a word. The ramp back to I-5 felt longer now. Slower. The fog had shifted to a blue-gray hue, like early morning, but the sun wasn't rising, and when the highway reappeared, it didn't feel familiar. The trees were different now. Too symmetrical, like they'd been copied and pasted down the length of the road. Every few miles he swore he saw a turnoff ahead. A break in the trees. A curve in the road. A green flicker.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean wasn't sure how long he'd been driving at this point. The road hadn't changed in over thirty minutes. No signs, no towns, no headlights in either direction. Just endless I-5 and the deep forest pressing in like the walls of a tunnel.
He glanced at the clock again.
3:01 a.m.
Still? That couldn't be right. His phone was still dead. The charger port wasn't responding. The radio was silent. Just an uncomfortable static when he tested it earlier. The only sound now was the low hum of the tires and the occasional thump of his heartbeat in his ears. Then he saw it. A faint glow through the fog. Green reflectors ahead.
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
Dean felt his stomach tighten. He hadn't passed another mile marker in forever. And this one? he knew it by heart now.
"I didn't loop. I'm still going north.
So why is it back?"
He shook his head and kept driving. Do not take the exit. The sign slid past. The trees swallowed it. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Then something moved at the edge of the road. Not an animal.
But a car.
It was parked on the shoulder, just beyond the next curve - no hazards, no lights, just there. Dean slowed slightly. As his headlights swept across it, his breath caught. Same make. Same model. Same rust spot on the rear bumper. It was his car. Parked, silent. The engine, cold.
Someone was standing next to it. From this distance - maybe thirty feet - it was hard to tell, but the figure looked? familiar. Same height. Same hair. Wearing a jacket just like his. Dean's hands went clammy on the wheel. He passed without stopping. Didn't look in the mirror. Just kept going. Ten minutes later, the same sign appeared again.
PINE RIDGE - REST AREA - 1 MILE
He whispered to himself: "No." This time he glanced in the rear view mirror as he passed it.
And froze. The rest area was behind him. Lit. Empty. Exactly as before. He slammed on the brakes, threw the car into reverse, and sat there. Watching the empty road. Nothing behind him. Nothing ahead. And yet? he was back at Mile 87. Dean drove forward again. Not fast. Just steady. His eyes felt dry. His jaw ached from how hard he'd been clenching it.
He didn't remember passing any on-ramps, but now there was a break in the trees ahead. Like a forgotten exit ramp. No sign this time. Just the road curling away, half-hidden in fog. His headlights caught the glint of a road sign - bent backward and rusted. He didn't stop, but he slowed. Enough to see what was scrawled in black paint across the sign's surface:
YOU'VE PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE
He drove on. Five minutes later, he saw motion in the fog - something crossing the highway up ahead. He braked hard. A figure, just at the edge of his lights. It paused near the tree line. Then stepped out of view. He crept forward. As his headlights swept the spot, he caught it again - just a glimpse. A man. Jeans. Hoodie. Same hoodie he lost a month ago. The one with the small bleach stain on the sleeve.
Dean swallowed hard. It was him. Or someone who looked just like him. But the face, he couldn't make out the face. He didn't stop again until he found a pull-off - an unmarked gravel turnout with room for maybe two cars.
He killed the engine. Sat there in the dark. No sounds. No headlights. No signs. He checked his phone again. Still black. Then he saw something on the passenger seat. A folded piece of paper. He hadn't seen it earlier. He was sure it wasn't there. He picked it up. The handwriting was his. Shaky. Quick. Written in pen.
"Do not open the trunk."
"Do not speak to them if they look like you."
"Don't stop again."
Dean stared at the note. His breath fogged the window. He checked the rear view mirror. Nothing. But his hand still drifted to the keys in the ignition. And in the silence, he heard it:
A soft knock.
From the trunk. Dean didn't move for a long time. The engine ticked as it cooled. The forest outside pressed in close - darker than before. The fog wasn't drifting now; it was settling. Clinging to the windows, to the mirrors, to the silence. That knock from the trunk? it could've been anything. The road flexing. A rock falling from the hillside. A leftover creak in the chassis.
Except it had been three knocks. Evenly spaced. Like someone letting him know they were back there. Dean stared at the keys in the ignition, but didn't turn them.
The folded note still sat in his lap.
"Do not open the trunk."
He re-read it. Over and over. His own handwriting. His own sharp little "D." But he didn't remember writing it. He didn't even remember having paper in the car. And yet it was there.
The back of his neck prickled with cold sweat. He reached slowly, opened the glove box. Nothing but napkins and an old phone charger. No pen. No notepad. He put the car in drive. Didn't turn around. Didn't open the trunk.
The road narrowed as he climbed. He hadn't realized how steep the incline had become. I-5 wasn't supposed to do that here - this felt more like the pass before Ashland, not north of Canyonville. The trees were different too - taller, older. Cedar now, not pine. He passed another sign. It had been folded inward by wind or time, but he caught the rusted lettering:
MILE 87 - NB
It hadn't changed.
He wasn't moving forward. He crested the hill and saw it again. No sign this time.No warning. Just the shape of the Pine Ridge Rest Area, emerging through the trees like it had never been gone. It wasn't off the highway anymore. It was just there, to the right of the road. He braked. Not because he wanted to, but because the curve forced him. His headlights cut across the familiar bathroom building, the crooked picnic table, the still-swinging door.
Everything was exactly the same. Except for one thing:
A truck was parked near the back.
Engine cold. Driver's side door open.
Dean rolled forward, slowly, unwillingly. The moment his tires touched the lot, the lights died. The overhead lamps fizzled and went black. So did his dashboard. The car kept moving for another five feet, then the brakes locked. Dead silence, no power.
Just trees. And fog. And something whispering in the cold between the branches. Dean opened the door. The forest swallowed the sound. He stood outside, breathing slow, watching the trees. There was no wind, but the leaves moved anyway. Not like they were blowing - but like they were reacting.
He stepped toward the bathroom. Inside, the air was colder than outside. The buzzing light over the mirror was back - but now dimmer, pulsing like a heartbeat. The stall doors were all open. The floor was damp. Not flooded, just? wet. Like the building was sweating. He looked at the mirror. His face stared back. But behind him - etched into the glass, backwards:
"OPEN IT."
He blinked. The words were gone, replaced by steam. He wiped it clean. It was his face again, but paler and streaked with dirt and nerves. His reflection smiled. He didn't. Dean turned and left the bathroom.
At the car, he paused. Stared at the trunk. Three knocks again, but softer this time like someone tapping politely. He circled around the back. His hand hovered over the latch.
"Do not open the trunk."
But what if this is the only way out?
He lifted it. Empty. No one inside. No body. No doppelganger. No twisted version of himself.
Just a cassette tape. And a small, handheld player, beat-up but intact. Looked like something out of the '80s. He picked it up. There was a label on the tape, written in his handwriting:
"PLAY WHEN READY"
Dean sat in the driver's seat. Closed the door. Still no power. He pressed play on the recorder. At first, just static.
Then:
"This is Dean Marks. If you're hearing this? it's too late to stop it."
"You'll think it's a loop. That it's a dream. But it's neither. It's a copy."
"It lets you leave if it thinks you're the right one. The original. The first."
"But if you open the trunk before you forget who you were? you stay. That's how it picks."
"I made it out once. I think. But I don't remember if I was? me."
"?If I'm not, and you are - don't stop again. Burn the car. Walk."
"Don't talk to them. Don't sleep here. Don't believe the next version of you."
"And whatever you do - "
The tape clicked. Then stopped. Dean sat there for a long time. Dean sat in the car for a long time. The engine idled quietly. The air inside had gone cold. Fog curled across the windshield in slow motion, blurring the edges of the cracked pavement and pine trees. He stared ahead. The Pine Ridge Rest Area didn't look abandoned now. The lights worked. The building still stood. The vending machine buzzed softly under a flickering bulb.
But Dean knew better. He knew something had shifted. The sign had disappeared when he took the last exit, no green glow, no "Mile 87." Just instinct pulling his hands to the wheel. And now? he was stuck. Somewhere between memory and asphalt. Somewhere the map didn't cover.
He took a breath. Opened the door and stepped out into the fog. The bathroom light buzzed above his head as he entered. He didn't go inside the stall. Didn't check the sinks. He just looked in the mirror. His reflection stared back.
Too pale. Eyes too wide.
He blinked once, and saw something else flash behind the glass.
A hallway. A forest. A version of himself walking into the fog.
Then it was gone. Only him standing in an empty old rest stop bathroom.
Back outside, the fog had deepened. He couldn't see the highway anymore. He turned to look at his car. The door was closed. But he didn't remember shutting it. He stepped toward it, slowly, cautiously - then stopped. Inside the driver's seat? was him. Back turned. Hands on the wheel. Staring forward. Unmoving.
Dean blinked. The figure vanished. Just an empty car again. He stood there a moment longer. And then the fog swallowed him.
~~~
One week later:
Oregon State Police Dispatch - 7:42 a.m.
Audio Transcript
Unit 41: "Dispatch, this is Hensley. I'm out on a check near Mile Marker 87, northbound side. Found an abandoned vehicle."
Dispatch: "Mile 87? That can't be right. There's no listed stop between 84 and 91."
Unit 41: "That's what I thought. But there's an old turnoff. Concrete lot, overgrown. Looks like a rest area that got shut down. Signage is gone. No lights. Building's still here, though."
Dispatch: "Copy that. What's the vehicle?"
Unit 41: "Gray Ford Fusion. Still running. No driver. Plates match that missing persons alert - Dean Marks. Looks like someone just stepped out and vanished."
[pause]
Dispatch: "You said a rest area? Are you sure?"
Unit 41: "Yeah. Real old. Probably Pine Ridge. Thought they decommissioned it years ago after that fire."
Dispatch: "That place was torn down in 2003. There's no power out there. No access listed anymore."
[pause]
Unit 41: "?There's writing inside the bathroom."
Dispatch: "Say again?"
Unit 41: "On the wall. Scratched into the cinderblock."
[static crackles]
Unit 41: "It says: You're still here."
Hensley didn't stay long. The car was towed out, eventually. But no one ever found a trace of Dean Marks. No footprints. No calls made. No cameras. His phone was recovered from the passenger seat, but it never powered back on. No cassette tape. No photos. No notes. The restroom was cleaned. The scratches were covered with gray paint. A new lock was welded to the door. But the fog never stopped rolling through.
Every few years, someone driving north on I-5 swears they see a faded green sign half-hidden in the trees:
REST AREA - 1 MILE
PINE RIDGE
MILE 87 - NB
And every few years?
Another car is found.
Still running.
Driver's door open.
No sign of the person who was behind the wheel.
Only one message scratched faintly into the concrete above the sink:
You're still here.
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