Penance Day

Just after the ending of the national Penance Day fasting in Israel, a religious holiday celebrated by fasting and praying for divine forgiveness over the sins committed against the lord in Jewish tradition since the days of the Solomon's temple. David Romano had left his girlfriend’s apartment in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem and headed towards his own home, in Mitspe Shalem, a settlement on the eastern shore the Dead Sea. Not wanting to get stuck in the traffic jams that were to follow the holiday around the entrances to the city, David rushed to his car the instant he came to notice the sun was beginning to set. According to Jewish tradition, one is meant to fast for twenty-five hours during the Penance Day, however, David did not care, he just wanted to be on his way home before he could get stuck in the traffic.

Having quickly escaped the hilly roads of the Israeli capital, David eased up as he was headed towards Route 90, the highway that leads to his hometown. Knowing the highway that runs across the semi-arid steppe-like region of central Israel like the palm of his hand, David knew that the amount of traffic on the said highway was usually small and thus did not hurry to get home, knowing he’d make it in about an hour or so either way. Averaging his travel speed at sixty miles per hour, David almost became lost in the tranquility of the road ahead of him. He made himself comfortable in his seat once more after about thirty minutes of driving just as the darkness surrounded the surrounding valley.

David’s body shifted to autopilot mode soon after, as the stars filled the night’s sky as if it was the canvas of a Van Gogh painting David found himself sinking into a state of near drunkenness, elated with the beautiful view of the Judean desert’s rocky terrain being caressed by the dark fabric of the night’s sky coupled with the sensation of the wind hitting his car. He was pulled out of his blissful state by a car filled with teenagers blaring their music passing next to his. The man shook his head slightly, realizing he had just narrowly avoided falling asleep he ran his hand across his face and then came to notice something was rather off.

Just as the rear lights of the car in front of his were consumed by the surrounding darkness, David noticed that his car was quieter than usual. It wasn’t an awfully loud car but there was some distinct audibility to its engine, this time, however, it sounded as if it had been muffled. The car seemed to be driving just fine, so he paid no mind to the muffled unusual quietness of his engine. Making sure there were no cars in sight, David took one of his hands off the wheel and looked at his watch, it showed a quarter to Eight P.M. The time seemed about right, but again, something tugged David at the back of his mind, the watch; The coloring seemed a bit dull. He assumed he was just getting tired and rubbed his eyes, and then he came to notice that everything seemed a little duller as if just a bit of grayness had been added to every color he laid his eyes upon. Rationalizing it was just the fasting that had gotten to him, as he had not eaten in over twenty-four hours, he reasoned that he should take a breather before continuing on his way.

The man parked his car at the side of the road and stepped out, the first thing he noticed was how cold it was, and even though he was in the middle of the desert, it was not supposed to be this cold during this period of the year. He shuddered slightly before inspecting the open nature around him. At this point, even the heavenly bodies above seemed somewhat less bright to him. After a few moments of staring, David rubbed his eyes once more and then his sight began to stabilize to its normal state. Relieved, David let out a big sigh only to shudder once more at the sight of vapor escaping his mouth.

It was not this cold; he hadn’t felt this cold when he was outside.

The whole ordeal sent a chill down the man’s spine prompting him to step nervously back into his car and drive onwards. After a few moments of driving, a couple of bright yellow orbs illuminated the back of David’s Berlingo. He turned his head around to see the vague shape of a vehicle emitting the lights behind him. David turned his head back towards the road and pressed on the gas pedal harder, hoping to create some distance between himself and the vehicle behind him.

The pursuer picked up the pace accordingly and stayed tight on David’s trail. Constantly flooding his car with the yellow glow. Slightly irritated, David turned to another lane to his left, and for a moment the lights behind him were parallel to his car, but about a second later, they were once more illuminating the back of his car. At this point, David began feeling a little unnerved, trying to rationalize the occurrences as mere coincidences or some sloppy driving, he proceeded to drive to the lane to his right.

A moment later his pursuer was on his tail again.

A sense of dread started to fill David’s body as a chill had crept down on his spine, while he tried his best to evade his pursuer. The man tensed up with each passing second as he was forced to wiggle his car’s trajectory left and right to no avail. His pursuer was always on point.

After about ten minutes of attempting to escape the car behind him, David with a racing heart and a clouded judgment decided he is going to make a surprising halt to his driving and thus to force his pursuer to stop along with him. He planned to confront the driver behind him once they both stopped, having been clearly fed up with this game he thought himself caught in.

Against his better judgment, David made a sudden stop by slamming on his brakes as hard as he could, forcing his car to turn a bit sideways as he struggled to freeze in place. The sudden stoppage of momentum threw David off guard forcing him to close his eyes.

Before he had the time to react, he could feel being swallowed by the lights coming from behind him, just as the lights enveloped his frame, David felt a slight impact to the back of his car followed by the sensation of something freezing tugging at him from the back through to his sides and out of his chest. The cold sensation caused him to gasp for air as if he had been thrown into a pool of freezing water.

David shot his eyes open only to see that he was alone on that road, completely alone. No cars, no lights, no nothing in the distance. Moreover, his vision had become slightly blurred and his breathing was labored. He frantically looked around to see if there was anything wrong with him or his car. Everything seemed about fine, apart from his internal feeling of freezing dread.

David found himself shuddering uncontrollably.

After spending a few moments trying to calm himself down without success, something odd caught the man’s eye, the moonlight seemed almost gray. He shot his eyes upwards to see that the celestial bodies were now colored in a grayish hue.

David’s eyes widened in a state of near terror, he blinked a few times, but the unnatural hue remained. “What the…” he uttered to himself before shaking his head slightly and reassuring himself that he is simply tired and hungry. After all, it was the end of the Penance Day. David took a few very deep breaths and forced himself to start his car once more - at this point, he had almost let the dreadful incident with the driver from before slip his mind, until he noticed that once again; vapor was coming out of his mouth.

A whirlwind of thoughts flooded the man’s mind as he struggled to keep his psyche in check. The dim lights of a small town illuminating the night to his left shook David out of his internal storm of emotions.

He was close to home, so close to home.

The grayish hue persisted to take over David’s sight as he pressed on, causing him further distress. Tired of trying to convince himself that he was fine, David turned on the radio but could not reach any channel. They were all filled with the same static noise. Having to take a sharp turn to the road that leads directly to Mitspe Shalem, David let go of the device and then he heard something that made him press on the brakes again; the sound of faint agonized moaning came from his car's stereo.

Wide-eyed, utterly positive he just heard a person in a great deal of suffering moan through his speakers and with a racing heart pounding against his ribcage, the man quickly switched the radio to another station and then proceeded to press on the gas pedal gently. In his mind, David was sure he was starting to lose it. Not wanting to flip his car over by accident, he made sure to drive as slowly as possible as he made his way towards his hometown.

After a few grueling moments of painfully slow driving, David noticed a commotion at the side of the road. He could barely make out the fact that there was a wrecked car flipped on its side surrounded by various medical staff members and military personnel. Being sure that he was hallucinating at this point due to his fasting, David opted to drive on, that is until he felt liquid flowing down his chest. he touched his shirt with one of his hands, whatever had come into contact with his hand at that moment had a somewhat odd warm, almost squishy feeling to it. The sensnation turned some gears in his head and forced him to look at his hand.

The sight made him stop his car dead in its tracks, bringing it to an asphalt burning screeching halt just a few yards behind the site of the accident he had seen a couple of moments before.

As David Romano stared in terror at his blood-stained hand, his mortified howls muffled the sounds of the radio broadcast playing out in his car, “Good Evening listeners! This is the News edition of Eight P.M, we are forced to inform you of the tragic end to this year’s Penance Day as it was marked by the passing of a resident of Mitspe Shalem as a result of what is assumed to be yet another terror inspired shooting perpetrated by an unknown figure at one of the exits from Route Ninety. Currently, our security forces are surveilling the scene, further information will be released soon…”