Journey to Roman's Wish

Though Roman has always claimed that he was on a journey to love himself, he couldn't hide the fact that he was a hopeless romantic. After all, with a bunch of girls in his high school throwing themselves at him and him feeling discouraged from trying to see how many of the other guys were gay, could anyone really blame him for finding it difficult to find love? He has tried his best to maintain his grades, but he couldn't help but think of the idea of finding the Prince of his dreams and that he would do anything to find love.

Roman was working on an art assignment when Remus barged into his room with a big smile on his face.

"What is it, Remus? I'm busy!"

"Well, now you're busy doing something else."

Remus dragged Roman away from his art class assignment and brought him to his own room where he had his laptop's monitor showing a video that was titled 11 Miles. It wasn't the first time Roman was dragged into hearing a creepypasta with Remus and he doubted that it would be the last.

"Alright, which voice am I expected to hear this time?" the Disney fanatic asked.

"You'll soon find out," the sinister twin responded.

Once Remus clicked on the video for it to play again, they were greeted by the smooth, gorgeous narrating voice of an English man; the same English man Remus claimed was also Filipino, but, unless Roman saw a video with the guy's face, he felt skeptical. Roman expected Remus to be the only one who would enjoy the story, but the sound of the possibility of finding love caught Roman's attention. The two listened to the story while Roman feigned indifference.

When Roman was free to go back to his room, though, he listened to the story again and again and spent his time pondering before he finally caved and took out a pen and notebook in order to take notes from the story.

Eventually, Roman looked over his notes and a bag he packed filled with essentials. He contemplated on whether or not pursuing his journey would be a stupid idea.

"Hey, Roman, I'll be headed to Damien's house after homecoming, so you'll be taking the car home-" Remus barged in, snapping Roman out of his thoughts, and caused the latter twin to attempt to hide his bag and notebook behind his back.

Remus approached Roman with curiosity and snatched the notebook away. After skimming it, he didn't look scared or concerned or even like his brother had gone nuts.

"So... you're going after homecoming?" was all Remus could say.

Roman nodded and looked at the bag of essentials.

"For a fellow daydreamer, you're actually quite smart. I hope you succeed in this," Remus said and Roman gave a small smile since Remus meant well.

Homecoming consisted of more girls trying to be the one Roman would dance with and Remus getting handsy with Damien. Once everyone left for the night, Remus was about to go with Damien, but claimed he wanted to wish Roman "good night" first. Remus approached Roman and the two shared a hug, which gave Remus the chance to whisper, "There's a gas station nearby. Oh, and don't forget to introduce me to your new man," before they parted ways.

Roman made it to his car and took the advice of getting gas before he made his long drive. He was glad their parents expected him to be in another person's bed in the morning, so they won't question Roman being out of the house for too long. He drove from the gas station and was on the road without a lot of traffic. He was surprised when he saw rose petals blowing in the breeze since he didn't think he would actually be successful. He focused greatly on his desire for love and followed the petals to what he knew was the road he was looking for. He gained composure as he continued on, knowing that once he made it on, the only way out was forward.

He made it for a little while before he stopped to open his bag of essentials, take out his notebook, and observe his surroundings. Roman took note of the need to avoid turning on electricity and the need to keep the windows closed. He remembered that 30 mph was the best speed unless he had to go through a mile quickly. Roman also had his seatbelt on, but it was positioned in a way so that it would be easy for him to put on his jacket without stopping too long. He knew he would do anything to find love and pushed the thought of the knots in his stomach to the back of his mind. There were a lot of trees that surrounded him and he knew that there was a decrease in temperature, but it wasn't too severe. Roman glanced at the night sky and almost wished his friend, Logan, would see the increased population of stars in the sky with the lack of light population.

Roman couldn't relax for too long. As he wrote down in his notes, he was expected to experience colder temperatures and an increased amount of road hazards. Due to the knowledge, Roman increased his speed by one mph and turned on the heat for a little bit. Roman faced a few bumps, but he kept his cool from the knowledge that he wouldn't use people as speed bumps unlike Remus, who liked to joke about the idea.

Without looking at his notebook, Roman made it to the third mile and visualized the note "Mile 3—Sinister Silhouettes" as he saw a few out the corners of his eyes. They seemed to approach him, but he focused on the road ahead of him and sung "Life is a Highway" softly to himself as he felt dirt under his tires.

Soon enough, Roman could no longer see the beings that tried to approach his car, but he could hear unintelligible voices that sounded a lot like whispers. From the notes that he took, Roman knew to focus only on the road and his desire for love no matter how curious he grew.

As he continued forward, Roman noticed the subtle lack of trees surrounding him and slightly dimmed down his headlights since he remembered what was said about the endless lake on that mile, as well as the extremely bright moon hovering over it. Roman spent a second daydreaming of himself and the handsome love of his life dancing in a beautiful moonlight, but he shoved the thought to another part of his mind to focus on the road ahead of him. Luckily for Roman, the daydream helped him remember why he was on the road in the first place.

Roman soon started to feel like the trip would eventually be for nothing, maybe he might screw up somehow even though he had come so far. Before he rebrightened his headlights, he noticed the lack of stars in the night sky and he, somehow, felt lonlier than when he left the dance that night. The headlights flickered every now and then, but that didn't stir the adventurer as much as he felt it should've. He glanced at his radio as he noticed that it turned on without him touching it. He heard a voice calm and deep enough to rival Rob Gavagan's, going into great detail about his atelophobia and uncertainty of being loved for himself, flaws and all. He wasn't as bothered by it as he was annoyed; he was annoyed because he had to deal with that clingy worry every day and keep up his overconfident facade on a daily basis just for the hope that one day he could look in the bathroom mirror, give himself compliments, and not feel like he was lying to himself. Once he was driving at 33 mph, he noticed the voice slowly fade, and he started to feel pride in himself for reaching the end of another mile.

The sounds from the radio were soon replaced by screams in Roman's head. He heard a voice in his ear and almost turned toward the back of his car to attack the intruder, but he remembered from his notes that he would end up shocked into paralysis if he saw their faces. As an angry reaction, Roman squeezed his steering wheel and continued driving at 33 mph. He didn't want to be weak and he didn't want to become one of them, so he continued to ignore them and stay focused.

Roman kept a sharper eye out for sharp turns. As the temperature outside the car was dropping, the temperature inside the car grew, but he quickly grabbed his jacket and put it on backwards since he knew the heating system would stop working soon. Roman remained careful as his headlights flickered again, and he tried his hardest to not pay attention to the sound of scratching and laughing from outside the car.

Roman's car came to a stall and he was half-worried due to the action and half-proud due to it meaning he was almost done. That didn't mean he wasn't in a hurry to start up his car again while his eyes were closed, though. Roman was just about to enter a panic attack, but he suddenly heard the safe noise of his car starting. He went back to driving and heard the occasional crack on his windows, but he knew he could just claim kids were throwing stones and get them repaired. Roman heard many voices in his head and, though they were troublesome, he tried singing to himself again to ease them. He heard less of the voices as he continued on and he almost wanted to relax, but knew he couldn't.

Pretty soon, the road was smooth for Roman and he didn't hear the bad voices in his head. However, he still felt many knots in his stomach. The Disney fanatic glanced at his notebook and could make out, in his handwriting, "10—Too Easy." The road ahead of him was surrounded by the trees and silhouettes and he knew all too well that worst was just the rest of the mile away.

By the time he lost power in his car, Roman sighed as he knew he was at the threshold of his ultimate challenge. He had come so far in his quest to find love and didn't want to end up being a cold "Missing Person" case, so he thought to himself, "On my way to the belly of the beast" as he looked at the distant light illuminating in the darkness. Roman pulled out a thick scarf from his bag and used it as a blindfold since he couldn't trust himself to keep his eyes closed on his own. He also took advantage of his free hands by covering his ears. As he remained in his position, he was still able to hear sounds that he could associate with torture and suffering. As for the heat he was going through? It felt as though his surroundings were replaced by magma and his flesh was dripping while melting away. He knew it wasn't happening, but that didn't stop him from flinching and clenching his teeth. He slowly removed his hands from the sides of his face as he heard power being restored to his car. Roman gripped onto the vehicle and hit the brakes eagerly. Roman took a few deep breaths before he slowly lifted his scarf off his face and gently moved forward. He stopped as he reached a dead end and closed his eyes as he took the dead end as silent permission to relax. With his eyes closed, he imagined spending the rest of his life with the man of his dreams; with whom he would spend the best of times and the worst of times, who he'd trust enough to show his vulnerable moments to, who would be there for him just as visa versa would occur.

Roman slowly opened his eyes and he found himself back at the beginning of the road. He looked at his phone and confirmed that no time seemed to have passed. He almost gave himself a heart attack from remembering all he had gone through. As Roman turned back toward the school, he had a lot of thoughts going on: telling Remus he survived, wondering how many other people actually made the journey, what he was supposed to expect when he made it back. He noticed a man who looked like he was leaving the front door of the school and squinted. Roman slowly parked his car and made his way to the man. As he got closer, he could tell that the man was at a middle ground between blond and brunette and he looked like a stunning twink.

"Excuse me, sir, are you lost?" Roman asked him.

The man looked at Roman and approached him until they were an inch away from each other.

"Oh, sorry, I just saw a multitude of people coming and going while talking about this dance that was going on. I guess I was a little late for that, though," he responded while looking down.

"Well, I didn't have anybody to dance with tonight. If you swing that way, I'd love to share a waltz or two with you, good sir," Roman proclaimed.

The man gave Roman a sweet smile that almost increased his pulse, and the two looked on Roman's phone for a few songs while occasionally giggling at their closeness.

"I'm Jon, by the way. Jon Cozart," the twink introduced himself.

"Roman Phillips. And it's an honor to meet you," Roman responded.

They proceeded to dance the night away in the parking lot and they seemed to enjoy each other's company fairly quickly. Roman knew that he would eventually have nightmares of what he had been through, but all that mattered was that he would enjoy getting to know and spending time with the beautiful man that was with him.