🌙 Night night🌙

I will NEVER pick up a hitch hiker again

So basically like I said I was driving home, and in between college and my house there is a lot of land out in the middle of nowhere. Usually I enjoy these rides and put on a podcast and music to keep myself entertained and relaxed.

Now when I was younger, I used to get rides all the time from strangers. Yes I know it was kind of dangerous but where I lived usually everyone was pretty hospitable, nothing bad really came of it back then. So, in response to this I always try to help out a stranger when I see they are on their own and need help.

I've met a lot of great people picking up hitchhikers, and honestly the world would be a much nicer place if we didn't have physcopaths taking advantage of this.

Which leads into my story. There were barely any cars on the big stretch of land I was driving, in which snow and flat earth was all around me. In the distance I could see a figure staring at my car. As I approached closer I saw that it was a young woman with black frizzled hair and a long skirt standing on the side of the road. She was holding her thumb up, but on this particular occasion I had to get home quicker than usual, so I kept driving on.

I look in the mirror feeling bad about it and saw that she was on her knees crying in the middle of the road. Guilt got the better of me so I turned around and let her in. I lowered the car window and said, "Hey is everything alright? Why are you out here by yourself? It's freezing out!"

She wasn't even shaking from the cold. She looked like she had only been out there for like 10 or 15 minutes. She didn't even answer my question and just responded,"Oh how kind of you sir thank you so much."

"Ok..." I responded. A silence ensued for a moment.

"Do you need a ride or what?" She nodded her head.

"So get in."

She sat in the car and I asked her,"Where to?"
She looked on me in confusion. At this point I was getting really frustrated and changed the tone of my voice
"Look lady where do you need me to take you?"
She pointed down the street and I just started driving.

I played music and didn't really say anything. Suddenly she picked up her phone, and it was a flip phone by the way which made things even weirder. Someone was calling her and when she picked up the phone she stayed silent. I could faintly hear someone on the other line, just enough to recognize it was a voice but not enough to give any description of it. I was looking over at her during this and she kept her eyes on the road. I saw out of the corner of my eye her taking a picture of me. I said,"Can you not do that?" and she just put the phone back to her ear.

After about a minute she hung up and began texting.

I asked,"Who was that? One of your folks?"

Finally she talked,"Yes it was one of my brothers."

I responded,"Why weren't you saying anything?"

She looked over at me and said,"You're going to make a left coming up here."
Growing even more annoyed I started asking her more questions passive aggressively. "Hey I'm Jordy by the way what's your name?" She remained silent.

"Can you tell me what's up with you? I pick you up out of the kindness of my heart and you won't even tell me your name? Not to mention you must have been freezing out here, and there's no town for miles. Are you lost? Confused? Talk to me please."

She says,"Look, I'll repay you soon, please just drive."

She gave me an elaborate route to take, and even though I told her she could put the address in my gps she still insisted that she talk to me instead. Finally after a 30 minute drive we stop at this house in the middle of nowhere. She tells me she will be right back to give me some money. I told her I didn't need it, but she insisted I did, so I just sat there. I realized she had left her phone, and I look at it to see why she was acting so strange. I went into her texts and read something that made my stomach sink.

"New toy will be there soon. Get the chloroform ready. Come out of hiding as soon as I ring the doorbell. Have guns ready" With a picture of me above it. At this point she was still walking up to the porch. I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and booked it out of there.

As I was driving home, I made sure I got as far away as possible so they couldn't track me down. I must have drove for an hour before I stopped. I looked through the phone, and there were pictures of shit I can't even describe. Some of them were the most gruesome shit I've ever seen. I saw two men, tied to a pole, with their eyes, ears, and noses cut off. It became too much to bare. Suddenly I receive a text on the flip phone. It was a picture of a young boy, with a text reading.

"Dead if you rat, snap phone and leave it where you are, we know your location. You have been warned"

I nearly vomited at the thought of the child. It was clearly taken in the same room as the other photos.
I had to think. Was this child still alive, or were they tricking me? Did they actually have my location? If I did what they asked would they kill him anyway?
I received another text,"30 seconds."
This was it. I had to make a decision.
"15 seconds."
I snapped the phone.

And here I am days later with no evidence, no location, no proof, feeling like an absolute fucking moron. I should have taken a fucking picture of the photos to show the police.

Word count: 1050