It had always been there.

I remembered it.

After the...accident, never had I not found it somewhere nearby.

As I prepare to rest for the night, I always took a peek outside to see if it were there. As expected, it was. Silently standing there, as if standing guard outside the comfort of my house. Fighting against the cold night that could bit through the thickest wool. 

After the bell rang; signaling the end of the school day, before I even set foot outside the school grounds—it was there, as if awaiting for my departure from this awful place. 

I used to think of it as a stalker, fearing every time I saw it, colors drained from my skin as the worst of thoughts crossed through my mind. But I soon came over this paranoia, and soon after, I began to acknowledge that I actually felt...safer, to say the least, around it.

It provided comfort and company when I was alone. It gave me the feeling of familiarities when I explore foreign places I have never been to before. It also provided a sense of security when I encounter strange places as well as strangers.

I have tried to know who's behind the mysterious car. I snuck behind it, peeked into its interior only to find it empty, every single time. So I stopped trying. Maybe some things are...better left unknown. 

On a breezy autumn morning, I remembered, it disappeared. Gone. Without any trace for me or anyone to track. Or even a goodbye. It simply....vaporized.

Its sudden disappearance shook me like never before. Even my parents departure could not rival the intense grief I felt. We never communicated, never acknowledged each other's presence officially, but I've grown...unexplainably attached toward that car.

But I learned to live without it. Just like I've learned to with it. Life carried on, I moved on with it, as if that car never existed in the first place.

However, you can only lie to yourself for so long...

On a freezing cold winter dusk, I caught the sound of an engine, idly rumbling outside my quarters. I stopped what I was doing and ran. I knew this engine sound—I'd know it anywhere!

Hurriedly, I peeked out of my window. There it was, in its usual place outside my home. It may have changed a bit, its body bulkier and the paint fresh, but it was him. My guardian.

Smiling warmly to myself, I nodded to it as it flashed its headlight to me, a silent greeting against the biting frost outside. Yes. Everything was going back to normal. 

It was going to be alright.