The 11 Mile Ritual

[Prologue]

I was awakened to a call on my phone one Wednesday night while in a deep slumber. It was four in the morning as I was greeted to the voice of a man on the other side of the line.

"Who is this" I quickly responded, not really believing what I was hearing, or experiencing, was in fact real. See, the reason for my disbelief, aside from the sheer creepiness of the situation, was my lack of general emotion and touch with reality. I was dealing with a severe case of depression that had led me bound to my bed on even my best days. Having been overcome with the feeling of dread and powerlessness, I was now accustomed to not taking what life served me for what it really was. And in this case, awoken in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat to the voice of a random man, i felt like what I was experiencing was, at worst, a bad hallucination.

But as I began to awake, I realised that the voice on the other end of the line was very much real, and very much menacing. "WHO IS THIS" I shouted  in a panic that was just starting to set in. "I have a solution to your problem..." the voice answered. "But only if you're willing to follow my rules...". "What are you talking about??" I answered, voice shaking and a cold sweat dripping down my neck. "There's a special mission I have for you, but only if you choose to accept it. I mustn't lie, it is very daunting , but at the end of it all you shall be rewarded for all your troubles. Your deepest desire will come true". I was  left confused trying to understand who was on the other side of the line playing a practical joke on me- because that's all it could be... a joke, right?

Something felt completely wrong, and I don't just mean the absurdity of this call. I was drawn to this man's request. Just as I was about to answer, the line dropped. I was left to process what had just happened, and more importantly, what I was going to do about it. I tried to go back to sleep, thinking this could wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow came and went without any important event, and without a decision regarding this man's proposal. I fell asleep. And then I heard it again. I felt shivers going down my spine as I heard my phone ring. "It can't be. Surely not.". Just as the clock struck four, the same unknown person from the day before had called me again. My hands were shaking violently from the rush of anxiety and terror that was running through my veins.

Somehow I mustered up the courage to pick up the phone. "Have you come to a decision?" I heard from the familiar male voice on the other line. I paused for what felt like an eternity, reflecting on how I was coping with my existence over the past few months, and on what this call could mean. Surely this man isn't serious. Nobody can grant wishes on command I thought. And yet, I was overcome with this need to entertain his proposal. Maybe he did have otherwordly powers that granted him the ability to materialise objects out of thin air. Or better yet, maybe he could give me an answer as to how I could be freed from the mental chains that had made me all but a zombie- unable to function properly, perpetually depressed and bound to my bed, to my home, and to my loneliness.

The need to find out what his was hiding overpowered my fear at that moment. "Yes", I whispered softly as I was holding the earpiece to my head. "Good" he mischievously replied. "Listen carefully. You are going to set an intention. Wish for something you truly want. Then you have to get in your car and drive to the nearest forest. The road will find you. You will know where to go. There will be a note in your glovebox explaining what to do once you're there. Set off tomorrow at midnight.". The call ended abruptly. I was left wondering once again whether or not what I had just experienced was real. The only way to find out, and potentially be rid of the hell I was going through, was to follow the instructions.

I woke up in the morning intrigued and scared. A part of me wanted to find out what the past two nights had been all about. Another part of me wanted to forget, to get back to my usual routine. No. I couldn't continue to live like this. I couldn't go on feeling sorry for myself. Feeling helpless. Feeling like a nuisance to everyone in my life. I had to find out. And that decision was one that I would soon regret. Deeply.

On Thursday night, just before the clock struck twelve and Friday began, I unlocked my front door. Phone in hand, carrying a backpack with only water and a change of clothes, I sheepishly approached my car. As I placed my belongings in the passenger seat, I found the note. "Turn off your phone and radio, dress warmly and roll up all your windows". I complied immediately. I put the key in the ignition of my scrappy old beater.

I turned the key, switched on the lights and started driving. Driving down the highway, all I could think about was whether or not I had made the right decision- and then I saw it. A very narrow, barely paved track that led off the main road and into the woods. He was right. I somehow  knew this was the road I was supposed to follow. Before I did though, I stopped the car to read the instructions he had left me. How had he even managed to break into my car without causing any damage? How did he know where I live? How did he know this was my car? I guess such questions sound rich coming from someone who followed a mysterious voice into the woods in the dead of night- but hey, I lived to tell the tale.

The note read as follows: "Ahead of you lie eleven miles of road. In order for your wish to be granted, you must make it through all of them unscathed. As a general rule of thumb, don't let yourself get distracted, don't stop your car for any reason, and don't get too cold. On the back side of this note are detailed instructions on what to do when you reach each mile, as well as for when your journey comes to an end. You can back out until you reach the first mile mark. After that, there is no going back, Set your trip computer to zero and start driving.".

With that being read, I decided to do as I was told. After all, I'd gone into the effort of getting here in the first place. I might as well see this through. Besides, the promise of a better quality of life all for a measly eleven mile drive was too enticing to pass up.

[Mile 1]

The note, predictably, described this as the least challenging part of the journey. As I started driving, the temperature dropped dramatically. I was thankful for the extra hoodie I had packed, which I promptly put on.  The heater was cranked all the way up as I made my way across the tree lined road. There was no lighting whatsoever. The road was mostly straight. The trees were towering above me as if they were forming a tunnel. It felt as though I had embarked on a journey to a different dimension. One where the laws of nature didn't apply. One where illusion was the name of the game. Nevertheless, I powered on as the odometer started to rack up the distance. As I neared the end of the first mile, I was tempted to turn back, but too much was on the line already. I turned off my radio, took a deep breath and soldiered on.

[Mile 2]

This is where the cold really started to set in. I was previously informed as such, but it felt as if no matter how many layers of clothing I had on, the relentless temperature drop could pierce right through my skin. The car was also struggling to keep the heat in the cabin at a consistent temperature, and I had to resort to focusing solely on the road so as to distract my self from the fact my extremities were growing number by the second.

[Mile 3]

This is where the unsettling events started unfolding. As I continued driving, I spotted a male figure on the side of the road. Aside from the fact it seemed bizarre for someone to be trekking alone across this unlit road this late at night, there was one other detail that sent chills down my spine. He looked just like me. I could just about make out the details on his shirt and backpack, and then it hit me. The note mentioned that at around the third mile, human-like creatures would start emerging from the woods and that I was to not make eye contact with them. Startled at the sight of what looked like a carbon copy of me, I tried with all my might to keep my eyes on the road. After all, I couldn't afford to crash and be left stranded in the middle of nowhere.

[Mile 4]

Just as I crossed the fourth mile line I started to notice the figures multiplying and populating the roadside. What was, however, even more disturbing is the fact that mile four would mark the first appearance of what I came to call "The Voices". Whenever I would see someone on the roadside, they would now be accompanied by a voice whispering to me. At first it sounded like they were talking from outside of the car. They were saying things to me to try and get me to crash. Screeches and screaming were abundant at this point, and I would be lying if I said that I hadn't started losing my mind. Thankfully, what was coming next was my little moment of silence away from the chaos. But it was indeed very little. And compared to what lied ahead, my current state seemed extremely mild.

[Mile 5]

As was detailed in the note, mile five saw the disappearance of the the trees. Suddenly I was driving on a road by an enormous, weirdly serene lake. The moon was shining so brightly it rendered my car's headlights obsolete. The stars were gleaming with a glow unlike anything I had ever seen before. And while I was grateful that I had been spared the incessant screaming of those creatures, I couldn't let the apparent beauty of my surroundings distract me. One of the main rules that I was to follow throughout my journey, was to never stop; and with roads like these, all it took was one wrong move and my car would be plunged into a freezing lake.

[Mile 6]

By now driving had become a proper challenge. The trees came back, the road had narrowed dramatically, and my headlights had started going out intermittently. As I was about a quarter of the way through this mile, all of the sudden my radio turned on. I was quick to try and turn it off, but then I remembered the explicit instructions of the message; "Once the radio comes one, DO NOT attempt to turn it off". I was too frightened to comply and I switched it off. This was a mistake. For my disobedience I was rewarded with a sudden loud scream coming from my speakers, so intense that it not only almost gave me a heart attack, but I came very close to crashing the car as well. Needless to say, I played by the rules from then on.

[Mile 7]

Now being way past the half way point, I started feeling like there was a chance I could actually come out of this alive. There was a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, I could live to see another day; and do it in a state of mind nowhere near as revolting as the one I had coming into this. Besides, I was promised a wish; I was promised the granting of my deepest desire. The depth of that desire, and indeed my will to live would really be put to the test the moment I started hearing voices whispering my name in my ear. It felt as though they were sitting in my back seat, taunting me and getting more enraged by the second. The urge to turn around and face these demons was growing  stronger by the second, but my faith in my desire had to prevail; I had to make it through this.

[Mile 8]

The voices started to become unbearable. The car was near undrivable. I had to slow down for the sake of not crashing due to the severe turns and bumps on the road. The creatures were now beginning to manipulate my mind. They made me feel things I knew weren't real. I felt like I was being stabbed in the chest by a thousand metal spears. I felt like the skin on my hands was peeling off the bone, and like I could die any second. My body felt so fragile... so uncontrollable... so... gone. Yet I noticed that if I tried to not believe what they were saying, I could gain my senses back. I could see through their mind games; but it was too difficult. For what felt like hours I was stuck in a state of limbo; half awake and able to control the car, and also terrified out of my mind at the prospect of being killed by them. But I wasn't.

[Mile 9]

Ahead of me was a stretch of road that I was dreading to cross since the beginning of my journey. You see, the note specified that my car would stall and that I had to restart it. The most terrifying detail though, was that if my car came to a full stop, I had to drive the entire mile without looking outside the windshield. I secretly hoped this wouldn't happened, but of course it did. As I was about half way through, my car gave up. At first I didn't want to believe what just happened; quickly though I attempted several times to restart it, and by the time I did, I had come to a full stop. My only option out of this was to either surrender myself to the the entities that were by now slamming their bodies against my windows, or to pin my eyes on the odometer, and drive with the aid of my parking sensors. I knew I was about to hit something when they went off, and I could monitor when I had crossed the ten mile threshold by pinning my eyes to the dashboard. And that I did...

[Mile 10]

The voices in my back seat had started to lure me to look at them. It's a feeling I cannot describe. My intention to not look was firmly set in place, but they could bend my mind's perception of my actions. As such, I found myself nearly looking at the rear-view mirror, an action that would certainly seal my fate. At this point I didn't know what was worse; the voices in my car, the figures starring menacingly on the side of the road, or my slowly dwindling supply of patience as I neared the end of this treacherous journey? I had noticed a few miles back that the roaming figures had started to look less and less human. By now they had transformed into to shapeless, amorphous blobs with a deeply disturbing look in their eyes. A look that signalled they had been forced into wandering this road for decades. I wonder if they had once been people just like me. People that had failed the ritual and had been sentenced into  fate worse than death. A fate of haunting the roads, looking out for potential victims. It sure seemed like it given the fact they had so desperately tried to make me veer off course, or look at them. In any case, I still had a mile left to go.

[Mile 11]

This is it. The defining moment of my journey. The end of the line. My car gave out during this mile. No matter what I did there was no way to get it back to working order. Yet somehow it continued to move. At this point I was out of options. Either I could get out of the car and face my demise, or I could let it lead me to the end and hope for mercy from whatever force had lured me into this predicament in the first place. I chose the latter. My note however had warned me of one last hurdle I had to overcome. A red light was to appear shortly. When I approached it, I was to close my eyes and ignore every sensation I was experiencing until my car came to a halt on it's own. When the light came close I blindfolded myself with my scarf and shut my ears with my hands. Suddenly the temperature soared. My entire body felt like it was being burned to the bone. I was desperate to open my eyes and see what was going on, but I kept trying to remind myself that it would all be over soon. 31 seconds was all I had to endure of this hell; and I'm sure it was a glimpse of hell. There was no other explanation for it. Gruelling temperatures and deep, disturbing voices cursing at me, praying for my downfall. I nearly lost it. I started sobbing and screaming uncontrollably. Finally the car came to a stop.

[Epilogue]

After having experienced horrors beyond my wildest beliefs, I took a second to collect myself. I looked around and had noticed that I had been transported back to the starting point of the road I had just travelled; only now there was no road in front of me. All there was, was a dense, lush forest. No sign of people wandering, no road to been seen, no lake, and no moon. I had been told that my wish would be granted in the days after my experience, since it wasn't a physical item I could just be given. If I had known then what I know now about the 11 Mile Journey, I never would've accepted the offer. And as for my wish? I am still waiting...

You are about to read my rendition of the 11 Mile Ritual story. Of course the main storyline follows the popular tropes, but I’ve added my personal touch as I felt inspired to re-write it. Enjoy.