It was around 8:30 PM on a Saturday night that Mr. Butcher got lost for the first time. He always considered himself a great driver, and he'd never received a ticket, been in an accident, or even gotten lost, let alone in his hometown. But for some reason, he found himself on a long stretch of road that he had never been on before, and it seemed like it was going on forever.
"Adrian, where are we?" asked Mrs. Butcher, his wife of 25 years. She, too, had lived in this town all her life and also had never once been on this street. "I've never seen this stretch of road before. Did you take a wrong turn?"
Adrian sighed and said, "Honestly, I did. I just didn't want to say, because I thought I'd be able to get on the road back home with ease. How have I never been here before? This is such an extensive road, I feel like it would be impossible to not know of it seeing as I've lived here my whole life." He was always the proud type, but he would never lie to anyone about his mistakes, despite it hurting his pride, especially his wife.
Adrian looked up at his rear view mirror to check up on his kids. His 17 year old son, Evan, had his air pods in and was passed out, and his 13 year old daughter June was blankly staring out the window. Evan was a good looking boy for his age: 5'10, very little acne, and blue eyes. While his natural color was light brown, he recently dyed it purple, much to Adrian's disappointment, as well as getting a single piercing on his right ear, his favorite earring being a silver diamond shape that hung off a chain. His daughter was around 5'6, and didn't try to hide any of her imperfections. She was breaking out, her dirty blonde hair was messy, her glasses that she broke recently blurring her aqua green eyes.
Adrian sighed and looked at his wife. She was very pretty for a 53 year old: 5'5, brown hair put up in a bun, blue eyes, slim body. She was his perfect woman. As he looked at the rear view to examine himself, he wondered why she even decided to marry him. He was good looking, sure, with hazel eyes, short brown hair, and in impressively sized beard, but he was also slightly overweight due to his age of 51.
"Rebecca, do you mind turning on Google maps to see where we are right now?" Adrian asked.
"Already on it." Rebecca replied, the bright light from her phone illuminating her fair face. "Damn it, there's no service here."
Right on cue, Evan jolted awake, as his music cut off. He stared out the window, and then back at his dad as he knew exactly what was going on.
"If I had driven us I wouldn't have gotten lost." He noted. Adrian looked back at him with a quizzical face and asked, "Oh yeah? How long ago did you get in that wreck again, two months? I don't think so bud."
Defeated, Evan sunk back into his chair in boredom, but as he was looking out the window, he noticed a figure walking slightly ahead of the car. "Hey dad..."
"Yeah." Adrian said with a smile on his face. "I see them too." Pulling the car to the side, Adrian parked and exited with his family. They approached the figure as Adrian caught their attention. "Um, excuse me?"
As the figure heard him, they stopped walking and turned around. They had a black cloak on so the Butcher's couldn't see their face, but their long hair and feminine voice determined that this was a lady. "Are you lost?" She asked.
"Unfortunately yes." Adrian replied. "I've never seen this stretch of road in my entire life. Do you know how far this road goes and where exactly it leads to? It feels like I've been driving forever and this is a fairly small town."
"Ah, the road indeed has an end. Where it takes you, that is a whole other story." She began. "This is a cursed road, you see. At the end of the stretch, no matter which way you go, lies a curse. This curse may bless or destroy you. It all depends on your perspective. In fact, that's what this road is all about, perspective." She gave out a short chuckle.
Confused, Adrian asked, "A curse? I'm confused, we're just trying to get home. Is there any other way that we can get back onto Hogan Street?"
Completely ignoring him, the woman continued. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the opposite sex? To indulge yourself in the pleasures of the fairer sex? How about a king, ruling over a vast amount of individuals who all look up to you? Or even a proud lion, the alpha male in the pride, surrounded by a vast array of lioness? Once your party reaches the end of the road, your perspectives will all change around each others. Reality, space, time, they will all bend around you. As the first week passes, your identity and mind will be completely different, but on the second, you will remember all, but still in the same form. After each fortnight, your perspectives will change once more. And once more again, and again, and again. Only after you all have spent 200 weeks changing perspectives will you find yourself back in your car, taking the right turn towards your home. And I suspect that by then, all of your perspectives of the world will have completely changed. Maybe this is for the better, and maybe for the worse. Who knows? Alas, I better be off. I wish you all well in your journey, and I hope that you find this experience a mostly pleasant one. Oh and, watch your balance, the road will begin moving soon." She then bowed, and promptly left, walking straight through the dense forest around them."
The entire Butcher family was confused. "What a strange old lady." Evan remarked.
"Understatement of the year." June chimed in.
"I'm so confused, what did she mean, different perspectives?" Adrian asked. But before they could dwell on it any longer, they all felt a sudden shaking beneath them. At first they thought that it was an earthquake, but as they looked down, they could see that the road was moving on its own, almost like a conveyor belt, and was rapidly pulling the family further down the street. Panicked, they looked back, and could see that their car was gone. At this point, June began screaming, Evan started hyperventilating, repeating "I'm just dreaming, I'm just dreaming...", and Rebecca was yelling at Adrian to "Do something!" But Adrian himself was still. He said nothing. He didn't move. His mind was bending, asking himself a million questions all at once. He had completely blocked out all auditory stimulus and could only hear himself. As they all looked ahead, they could see a light. Now it was getting crazy. The road was pulling them so hard that they all fell on their asses. Now it was quiet, and as they looked ahead towards the light, they each began wondering where they would end up, at what time of day, and in what kind of different perspective?