The Hook

3

For a while, Janice sat in total silence, not even bothering to put the radio on. Then she heard a strange thumping on the roof of the car, and she jumped a little.

Fucking tree branches, she thought to herself, pissed off at the fact that a harmless tree branch had scared her so much; It's all Dean's fault. I wouldn't be so friggin' jumpy if he hadn't made me watch those damn horror movies. What the fuck kinda shit is I Spit on Your Grave anyway? Now I know why Roger Ebert said it was the worst movie he'd ever seen and the worst ever made. At that last thought, she giggled a little to herself. She had known all along that Dean had just wanted a reason to hold her close for three hours; she just hadn't expected him to try sleeping with her after scaring her nearly to fucking death.

After twenty minutes more, she couldn't take the silence any longer, so she turned the key a notch and the radio started blasting out R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion". She immediately changed the station and started listening to Tom Waits serenade her with "Downtown Train". She started singing along at the top of her lungs. Tom Waits was, in her opinion, the most gifted singer to ever step up to a microphone, and this just happened to be her favorite song of his.

As "Downtown Train" was fading out, she heard the thumping on the roof again. This time, it lasted longer. She was certain it was just a tree branch, but for some reason it unsettled her all the same. The thumping was like a pounding bass drum that was being played to the beat of her heart. She wanted to make it stop, to go outside and move the fucking branch so it would stop banging on the roof, but she didn't want to have to go outside in the dark all alone.

The radio deejay came on after the song had faded out completely and said, "And that was Tom Waits with his biggest hit, 'Downtown Train.' Now on to an artist that also had a massive hit with that same Tom Waits song, and an immensely successful and talented artist in his own right."

Suddenly, "Maggie May" started playing from the speakers.

"Rod Stewart?" she said to herself, "Jesus Christ, this country's imploding." With that, she changed the station and heard Jack White singing about how he fell in love with a girl.

"That's better," she said.

Just before the song ended, a voice broke in, saying, "Emergency Alert: We have word that a mental patient is running loose after escaping the asylum by killing two nurses and four guards. No one knows how he escaped; only that he is armed and very dangerous. One way to identify this escaped lunatic is by his left hand. Instead of a hand, he has a hook. Once again, we are warning everyone of an escaped mental patient on a murderous rampage with a hook for a hand. If you see this man, get away as far and as fast as you can, and call the police immediately."

After the announcer stopped talking, the radio was silent for thirty seconds or so. In that time, Janice heard the thumping on the roof again, and it seemed to be even louder than the last time. She didn't know why, but there were shivers going up and down her spine with each thump the tree branch made on the roof.

Wait a minute, she thought to herself, the mental hospital is only about a mile down the path. What if that psycho with the hook shows up here before Dean gets back? Come to think of it, why is it taking him so fucking long to get gas? He's been gone for an hour and a half already!

Then came more thumping on the roof, breaking her thoughts.

And what's up with that fucking tree branch?

She couldn't take the sound anymore. She turned the key off just as Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream" started playing and got out of the car. She took a few steps out, slammed the door shut, and looked up to see the tree branch that was causing her so much aggravation.

But there was no tree branch.

She screamed.