"You're sure these things are safe, Mags?" Sydney planted her feet to stop her friend from pulling her along more.
"For like the bajillionth time, yes!" The brunette rolled her eyes at her cautious friend. "I take these all the time - they're great, you don't even have to talk to anyone," Maggie held in a burp and laughed. "Besides, we definitely shouldn't drive ourselves."
The two young women had a good night catching up with old college friends. That 'catching up' of course involved a drink or eight. It was well past midnight, and walking back to the hotel was out of the question. Having these driverless cars in her new city, Maggie had suggested taking one of the self-driving pilot cars. Despite the drinks she had, Sydney remained firmly apprehensive about the new technology.
"Look, we don't have to take it, but I will bitch if you don't get in this car. It's not cheap to cancel."
The blonde held up her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine, I'll take it."
Maggie nodded clumsily. "Good! Get in!" The brunette had opened the door to the waiting car, gesturing overdramatically for Sydney to get in.
Sydney rolled her eyes, giving a mock bow. "Why thank you, miss - ow." She had misjudged the height of the car and bumped her head against the roof.
"See, no driver is going to judge you for that, it's perfect!" Maggie chimed in cheerfully as she followed her friend into the backseat.
Once the door closed, there was a pleasant chime and a gentle voice spoke out: "Welcome Maggie and Sydney. To confirm, your destination is the Hyatt on Third Street?"
A prompt appeared on the screen on the back of the console between the two front seats. Maggie clumsily tapped the green check.
"Destination confirmed," the disembodied voice chimed in. "Estimated time of arrival: 3:13."
"There's still traffic?" Maggie said incredulously. "It's three in the fucking morning!" The screen was counting down the time to arrival - it claimed the trip would still take nearly half an hour.
The driverless car started moving, deftly merging into the road without any input from the two passengers. Sydney laughed delightedly. "It's awesome, isn't it, Syd?"
The blonde was still looking at Maggie with apprehension.
"Oh, what is it now?"
"How'd it know my name?"
Maggie waved her hand dismissively. "I put in your name as a passenger. Stop being so weird! Technology isn't out to get you."
Sydney relaxed a little and smoothed out her yellow dress. She was still unsure about it all, but trusted Maggie's judgement enough - at least for one ride.
"Can you believe Mark looks like that now?"
Gossip was always something to calm Sydney's nerves. Her blue eyes perked up. "Oh my God! I didn't want to say anything there... Maybe I should've given him a chance freshman year!"
Maggie waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, come on, it's still Mark. A six pack doesn't change everything, you know. I think he's much better as a friend."
The two young women's gossip distracted them enough to not notice the brief flash of a logo on the screens in the car.
The disembodied voice came on a few seconds later. "Would you like in-car entertainment?"
"Sure, whatever," Maggie pressed the green button on the touchscreen again and got back to her conversation. Instead of a movie or video, the two screens displayed an intense, slow spiral.
It went unnoticed for a minute as the two friends continued to talk about their different opinions of how their friend group had changed since graduation. But it caught Maggie's attention eventually. She tilted her head slightly, regarding the spiral.
Why was the car playing a spiral? Wasn't it supposed to be a movie? Why is it so enticing? Why can't I look away?
Each question bubbled up briefly in the brunette's mind, and just as quickly vanished. With every passing second, the spiral seemed more and more beautiful, harder and harder to look away from. It wasn't very long before she didn't even want to look away from it at all.
"Maggie? Maggie?" The blonde shook her friend's shoulder.
Sydney's voice seemed to be coming from a mile away. All Maggie could think about was the beautiful spiral. There was the occasional word now.
Good girl. Deeper. Relax. Good girl. Keep watching. Good girl. Good girl.
Maggie felt a soft flutter in her stomach each time the text changed. "Yeah..." she murmured absentmindedly in response to Sydney.
"What? Oh. Oh! What the hell!" She shook Maggie's shoulder vigorously. "Look away, dammit!" Maggie's eyes were glazed over, totally locked in on the spiral. Sydney kept her eyes focused on her friend. "Dammit Maggie, look away, you idiot!"
It had no effect on the brunette. Sydney was almost completely leaned over, trying to get her friend's attention.
Suddenly, the car slammed on the brakes. Sydney was forced back into her seat. The seatbelt was locked in place now, and she couldn't move.
"Do not interrupt the in-car entertainment," the voice said, still as gentle as always. That didn't do anything to help the chills Sydney felt at the disembodied voice.
There was a soft
pshh
that came from above Sydney. She looked up to see a faint gas coming out of the vent in the ceiling of the car. It wasn't the AC or the heat, Sydney was sure of that. The blonde tried to close the slats of the vent but found them stuck in the open position. She tried to undo her seatbelt and roll down the window, but nothing responded to her. The car simply refused to obey her. "Maggie... Maggie I swear to God... snap out of it! Maggie! You stupid bitch! Look at me!" Her voice was shrill with desperation.
The woman in the yellow dress paid Sydney no attention now. Maggie was still held in place by her seatbelt, but her eyes were locked on the screen in the car, locked on that mesmerising spiral. "No..." she murmured blankly.
The first wave of the gas coming from the vents reached Sydney. It smelled sweet. It almost felt sticky as it flowed over her face. She tried to hold her breath, but it only bought her a few more seconds. Against her better judgement, she inhaled deeply to fill her lungs with air.
Inebriated as she was, the gas went to work immediately. Sydney felt like all the drinks from the night had caught up at once. Her stomach felt heavy and her head felt light. Her eyes went out of focus and her vision swam. "No... what's... happening..."
No one was there to listen to her. There was no driver, and the disembodied voice didn't care to give an answer. Maggie was useless as well. If she saw what was happening to Sydney, she didn't seem to notice.
Sydney lifted her arm up weakly and tried to paw at the door handle. Everything was working too quickly on the blonde; it felt like she was trying to lift hundred pound weights every time she moved her arm. Weakly, she let her hand drop down. "This was... bad... idea..." She sputtered out before her eyes fluttered shut.
As if someone was watching, the gas shut off. A strong, clean breeze replaced it, blowing a few loose strands on Sydney's head about. The window next to her rolled down on its own, sucking the rest of the sedative out into the wider world. After a few seconds of that, the car window rolled back up.
The air in the car was safe, completely harmless to the entranced Maggie. Her attention was fully in the grasp of the spiral. Whomever was controlling the spirals seemed to know what was going on in the car. The series of text on the screen changed:
Good girl. Sydney's beautiful. Keep watching. Sydney. Keep watching. Sydney. Dress. Good girl. Dress. Off. Off.