My wife has been peeking at me from around corners and behind furniture. It's gone from weird to terrifying

We’ve been married for eight years now, but we’ve known each other our entire lives. In high-school, I was a-fat ass nobody who did fat ass nobody things, like sit in the library and play board games all day, and she was an athlete who played sports, and when she wasn’t doing that, she helped out a former child star with her homework. It all worked out in the end for the child-star, who got her sh*t together and is now one of the most successful actors in Hollywood, and despite the fact that they met in a weird “Popular girl angels this unpopular child” kind of way, they became good friends, and my wife was even a bridesmaid at the actor’s wedding. <br> <br>I bring all this up, partially because I am very proud of my wife and her accomplishments, and partially because it’s a good example of what she means when she says it’s a small world.<br><br>Over the weekend, we went out for some drinks at a bar that was on the way out of town if you were headed in the direction of the ocean. It’s not a place we usually go, and I only found out about it by working my way down a list of the bars nearest to our house. It was one of maybe four places that were farther away from our house than the nearest dive-bar, a place we already knew and loved. It’s not a not a particularly fancy place, but when we walked in, my wife stopped, looked around, and said “it’s a small world.” There, sitting at the bar wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, both indoors, at night, was Tatiana Watkins, the former child actress who’s wedding my wife went to.<br><br>We took a table and I went up to the bar to order us a round of drinks. When I approached, Tatiana turned and smiled, and I smiled back not realizing who it was until she said “It’s a small world isn’t it?” I was a little star struck, so it took me a little to get out my “Wife! Come meet Tatiana Watkins” yell, which was Slurred and alcohol fueled as though I had already had a few drinks, and was incredibly embarrassing. My wife came up to take my elbow, and guide me back to the table before I made the situation worse. As we walked away though, Tatiana still smiled, and my wife said “Yeah, it’s a small world.”<br><br>We sat back down at our table, and Tatiana smiled and waved a couple times, and after about fifteen minutes of not bringing us our drinks, the bartender brought up two free rounds of the drink we had ordered. It was a weird drink that neither of us had heard of, and neither did we recognize half of what was listed as ingredients. We thought Tatiana must have ordered it for us, but when we tried to thank her, she was gone. <br> <br>We were a little confused, but figured maybe we had missed her leaving because we were drunk, and when we got the bill, it was also paid for, and had a little note that said “It’s a small world!”<br><br>We got home late that night, and went to bed until late in the afternoon the next day. I woke up first, and made some coffee and some breakfast. Once my wife was up and ready, we sat down and talked about the night before. After a little while, my wife started to get ready for work, and I told her that I was going to take a drive along the coast. I hadn’t been to the ocean in a while, and the weather was really nice, and I figured it would be a good way to get out of the house. <br> <br>When I got in my car to leave, I felt like something was a little off. It was a subtle thing, like the seat being an inch closer to the steering wheel than I was used to, or the radio being turned up a notch higher. I couldn’t quite put my finger on one thing that was different though. <br> <br>I drove for about forty minutes, and thinking that I was already out of town, decided to stop at the same bar from the night before and grab a drink. For some reason, I really wanted to try one of whatever drink we had the night before, and I figured it was the best place to find out the official name of it. <br> <br>I walked in, and saw one of the two bartenders from last night. Shaved head, wrinkles around his eyes, big smile and a tooth missing. The other was a younger kid who looked like he may have been his son. I assumed he was when the older one introduced himself as Dave, and the kid as Dave Jr. They both seemed to know Tatiana, and when I asked about her, they said that she lived in the town. I asked them the name of the drink they served us, and they told me it was called “The Road to Hell”, and it was a “Special Drink, that they only served to special people.” I asked if it was a house drink, but they just laughed and told me that if I wanted another, I would have to find the road that it was named for.<br><br>That sounded like a fun challenge, so I got in my car and set off in the direction of the ocean. I figured that I had already driven most of the way here when I went to the bar, so I should be near it, right? After about twenty minutes of driving, I realized that I wasn’t as close as I thought. After about forty minutes of driving, I figured I must have missed it, and turned around. <br> <br>It was then, as I was turning around, that I noticed that something was off, like it was when I got in my car. I pulled over to the side of the road and parks, then got out and walked around to all four corners and checked that none of the tires were flat. None of them were. I got back in, and turned on the GPS. It placed me on a street that went straight from my house to the bar. It may have been a little out of the way, but I should have only been driving for about twenty minutes to get there.<br><br>I got frustrated and decided to just go home and forget about the whole thing. I clicked GPS, and it gave me the same, slightly out of the way road it said that I had taken when I left the house. I drove along, until I saw the bar, and doubled back, deciding to go back out to the ocean like I had originally planned. I drove until I hit the point where I had turned around, and kept going, but after twenty more minutes, I still hadn’t seen the ocean. I decided to pull over and look at my maps, and while I did, a car pulled up next to me and a man rolled down his window. He was also wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and when he turned, I saw that it was Dave Jr, the younger bartender. <br> <br>“Are you lost buddy?” He asked<br><br>“Yeah I’m looking for the ocean.” I replied, confused as to where he had come from.<br><br>“Did you take the road here?” He asked<br><br>“I don’t know.” I replied, confused. “Did I?”<br><br>“Yes you did” He said “That’s the only way to get here.”<br><br>“I tried to go to the ocean, and I couldn’t find it.” I said<br><br>“Well why would you want to go there? You wouldn’t like it.” He replied<br><br>“I just want to look at it. I haven’t seen it in a while.” I said.<br><br>“Did your wife take you here?” He asked<br><br>“No, I just came out for a drive.” I replied<br><br>“Was she in the car when you left?” He asked, smiling.<br><br>“Yeah, she called me from work and said that she was going to be late picking up lunch, and that I should go ahead and start driving without her. I said that it was kind of silly that I was going to drive all this way without her, but she insisted.” I said, getting confused. When would she have called me? She was with me when I left.<br><br>“Did she call you from my Dad’s bar?” He asked, winking at me like we were old buddies.<br><br>“I don’t know, I don’t remember her calling me at all.” I said.<br><br>“Well she did.” He said “Now, if you want to find the ocean, you have to get off this road.”<br><br>“Where am I going to go?” I asked<br><br>“I can’t tell you that.” He replied<br><br>“Why not?” I asked.<br><br>“Because it’s a small world, and if I told you how to get out of it, you would have to stop pretending you don’t know that you’re trapped.” He said.<br><br>I laughed out loud, but stopped when I saw that he was being serious. I laughed again, and he looked at me weird.<br><br>“What is this? Some kind of hoax? Did my wife put you up to this?” I asked. <br> <br>He didn’t answer, but he smirked a little, and I noticed he was chewing something. I figured he was chewing gum or some earnest-dude amber-tobacco, but then I realized it was a little piece of food. When I looked closer, I realized it was a shrimp, and then I figured out that the road I was on was called “The road to hell.” I started to get scared, and I looked back at him, but he was gone.<br><br>When I got home, my wife asked how my day went, and I told her it had gone well, and that I had almost made it to the ocean. She asked what had stopped me, and I told her that I had just decided