All good things must come to an end, or so people say. The mission of the haunted highway started the following afternoon. I ended up along a desolate stretch of road. It had been too far away to get a taxi to so I'd used my bracelet.

Trees lined the road and I realised I was surrounded on all sides by a forest. There was a bench though and that was where I'd taken up residence. The snow hadn't hit this part of the country yet, but it was still cold. The trees had lost all their leaves and were like wooden skeletons, limbs gnarled and contorted.

"Junko." Someone called my name and I looked round.

Andy was approaching me. He wasn't alone though. Two other people were with him. I had assumed that Ashley would be with him, but this was very peculiar. He stopped when he got to the bench.

"You're here early." Andy stated.

"Yeah, I didn't want to be late and miss you." I replied.

This place was eerie. I hadn't seen any cars yet. It was like it was abandonned; a stretch of road forgotten in time. I glanced at the guy next to Andy. He was short, coming up to just above Andy's shoulders, but he was taller than me.

"Junko, this Ricky. He's a part of Lemmy's team. They decided to split this mission between legions." Andy said, motioning to Ricky.

"And I'm Devin," The other guy said, grabbing my hand. "And I know all about you."

He looked familiar and then it clicked. He was the guy with Tris from the other day. He'd been more interested in his bracelet at the time, but now it seemed like he was a lot more social.

"Y-yeah, you were with Tris the other day." I said, and he smiled.

"Yup. Like I said, I know all about you." He grinned.

This must have been some sort of training exercise. Devin let go of my hand and turned to Andy, who looked beyond exhausted.

A rumbling sound made us all look round. A truck was driving down the road. It was rustic and sounded like it would die at any minute. It stopped just short of us and the door opened. A man clambered out. He was wearing a trucker's hat and I could smell the alcohol on him from here.

"You kids all right?" He asked.

"Yeah, we're just interested in the events round here." Andy smiled.

The guy looked from Andy, to Ricky, then to Devin and finally to me. He actually smiled, like Christmas had come at once.

"You mean the aliens." He gasped.

"Aliens?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah, kid. I've seen them." The guy said, proudly.

I glanced at Andy and he was frowning. From the mission briefing this road had seen a lot of weird activity. There'd been sightings of a strange creature, ghost cars, a woman hitchiker, but no aliens. I guessed it wouldn't be so unusual.

"Where'd you see these aliens?" Andy asked.

The guy didn't seem to understand he was being interrogated so he allowed us onto his truck. We were either driving towards a murderers house or the guy was harmless.

His house was a shack through some trees and it looked like it would fall down at any second, if the wind blew in the right direction. The guy killed the engine and motioned for us to follow. The trees staretd to give way and we were standing on the edge of a cliff.

The drop was steep. Above us was the grey morning sky and below a sheer drop. The guy stood off to the side, watching the skies, like he thought the aliens might just nip down for afternoon tea.

"Up there." He stated.

"What did the craft look like?" Ricky asked.

He'd grown bored and had sat down on a tree stump. I continued to stare at the sky. The clouds were grey, everything was grey, like that song except that was blue.

"Craft?" The guy scoffed. "Nah, I've seen an actual alien."

Ricky sighed loudly, "Fine, what did the 'aliens' look like?"

"Alien. There was only one," The guy snapped. "She was beautiful."

I exchanged a look with Devin to find he was grinning. The guy started going into detail about this alien and how she and him had had made love multiple times. I covered my ears and wrinkled my nose. Devin had covered his mouth, trying not to laugh.

"Can I just interrupt?" Andy asked, and the guy paused. "Have you ever seen any ghost cars?"

"Ain't no ghost cars. Just the alien." The guy fired back.

"Yeah, the alien, that you had sex with." Ricky snorted out a laugh.

"See this guy gets it." The guy chuckled, leaning over to nudge Ricky.

"Please, please don't touch me." Ricky snapped, leaning away.

We made our way back to the main highway and Andy sighed. He split us into teams, sending me off with Ricky. We walked down the road, saying nothing. This was awkward.

"So, how's your day going?" I asked, trying to bridge the silence.

"It could be better, don't ya think." Ricky replied, smiling.

We'd walked as far an old sign post when he stopped, looking around. The road stretched onwards and I copied Ricky. My eyes scanned the road until I saw someone. I squinted into the distance, trying to get a good look at the figure.

Ricky hadn't seen them so I stepped forward. Maybe they were lost and needed help. As I drew closer I noticed something and my eyes widened.

"Mom." I whispered.

It looked like her. From behind, I recognised her jacket. The one she'd been wearing the night of the accident. I started walking towards her.

"Mom?" I shouted now, attracting Ricky's attention.

He turned and faced the direction I was looking. He seemed to be trying to see my Mom. His eyes widened, but before he could say anything I'd taken off, running after my Mom. This was it. I'd get to see her again. I had been sort of hoping that she'd show up during this whole ghost hunting thing.

"Junko, stop." Ricky called.

I had already sped by, giving chase. My Mom was walking away from me. Where was she going? How come she wasn't turning to look at me? She vanished into the trees and I ran after her. I could see her as she moved through the under growth.

"Mom, please come back. I miss you." I shouted, but she didn't turn.

The trees thinned until we were at the cliff. I saw her on the edge and ran towards her. I had gotten to the edge and my feet hit empty air. The scream tore from my lips as wind rushed by me. I landed on something with a crunch. Sitting up, I found I was on a ledge. Where had Mom gone?

"Mom." I screamed.

Nothing happened. I blinked and sat up. My arm throbbed. I'd landed on it. My fingers weren't moving. They felt numb. The feeling came back to my body and pain surged through me. It wasn't just physical pain. I was reliving the moment when I realised I'd never see my parents again.

"Junko?"

I looked up to see Andy. He leapt down, landing gracefully on the ledge. He scooped me up and I burst into tears, like a child. He jumped again, flying into the air and landing back on the cliff. I could see Ricky and I looked away.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

Ricky walked over and smiled at me, reassuringly. His eyes were still panicked. I'd done that to him.

"It's ok. Are you all right?" He asked.

No, I wasn't all right. I sniffed and broke down again. Ricky reeled back and looked at Andy, who cradled me closer. Someone broke through the trees and Devin appeared, looking flustered.

"Chris and Lemmy are on their way." He gasped.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." Andy sighed.

"Andy, I'm sorry. It's all my fault." I sobbed, and he glanced at me.

"It's not your fault at all. You saw someone that looked like your mom. I'm sorry it wasn't." He said, sadly.

Andy carried me back through the trees. I saw Lemmy first then I saw Chris. He moved quickly, heading straight for Andy and I.

"You guys weren't supposed to damage the poor kid." Lemmy chuckled.

"She saw something." Ricky replied.

"What did you see, sweetheart?" Lemmy asked.

Andy had handed me to Chris. He looked at me too.

"M-my Mom. She was walking away from me." I murmured.

Lemmy frowned and nodded. He looked regretful. He probably thought I was an idiot. He turned and started chatting to Ricky.

"Are you ok?" Chris asked.

I looked at him and nodded. He seemed to realise I wasn't though. I buried my face into his jacket, breathing in his scent. The hand he had wrapped round my shoulder gently toyed with my hair.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Don't worry about it. Let's go get your arm looked at." He replied.

"It wasn't Andy's fault. I ran off." I sobbed.

Tris greeted us when we got back to The Netherworld. She smiled at me, much like how she'd done when I got scratched and when I'd tripped that time. The first time had been my first ever time here and I never dreamed the demon holding me would actually like me. He'd seemed to cold and closed off at first.

Tris' cold hands felt my arm. I winced and she sighed, pulling back.

"Broken arm." She said.

"I kinda landed on it." I replied.

The hosptial wing looked the same as ever. Tris appeared again, holding a bottle of something. She sat in front of me. She'd put my arm in a sling. Chris had gone somewhere, but promised he'd be back.

"You'll need to drink this." She stated, pouring some of the white liquid into a glass.

It was clear, but thick, kind of like milk. Tris handed me the glass and I took a sip, gagging at the taste. It was metallic and sour. It burnt my tongue and my throat as it slid down. I drained the glass, coughing when I was done.

"There we go," Tris smiled. "That potion will fix your bone. Takes about an hour to work."

I sniffed and she stood, sighing softly. Her gaze was sad and sympathetic. Her hand gently touched my good shoulder.

"You should never follow the dead. Nothing good comes from it." She murmured, then left.

The door opened again and Chris appeared. He walked over, sitting in front of me. He didn't seem angry so I guessed Andy was still safe.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Stop apologising. It doesn't matter." He replied.

I wasn't going to stay in the hospital wing all night, but standing proved difficult. Evidently, I'd bruised various other body parts so Chris had to carry me. It gave me another chance to be close to him though so I wasn't complaining.

When we got to his room, he set me down at the top of the bed near the pillows. It was still fairly early in the day so he'd have to go back to work. I didn't mind. It'd give me a chance to sleep and I did, fairly quickly.

Notes