We took the road to the countryside far away from the capital for my wife’s birthday early in july. Our goal was to run away from civilization and visit some historical landmarks from the past like old cities where the roads inside are made of rocks and there are few to none internet connection. I was in my recently bought car with my wife and my friend and his boyfriend were in another car, a 2008 silver Acura. We could have traveled together, everyone in the same car, but they had plans on going to another state once we had our time together.
Everything was fine, we had bottles of water, snacks, fuel, several playlists to kill boredom and a walkie-talkie to communicate when someone had to go to the bathroom or stop to refuel. Sometimes during the day and even in the night there was some interference in the radio, a loud white noise suddenly burst from the speaker, at first i hated it but later i got used to it, hell, it’s a free shot of adrenaline from the jump scare, after the first wave of interference my friend called me on the radio asking if i said something, my wife was about to ask them the same thing but then we understood that it was just interference from the console on trucks and maybe telefone towers? Who knows. After two days traveling, we had a stop to refuel and eat something other than granola bars. The gas station had this steakhouse, mostly the clients are truck drivers, cops or flies; but we had no choice, who knows when the next gas station would show up.
As I was paying for the gas I saw a trinket stand near the cashier, I ended up buying for my wife a necklace with a string made of leather and the pendant was a little birthstone of her zodiac sign. We had lunch and it was time to hit the road again. Now, we know the risks involved in eating in a place like that, but we never think the worst will happen. Few hours went by and the radio busted again with the white noise but then my friend’s voice came up saying they had to stop somewhere because his boyfriend was feeling sick. I get it, suspicious meat and car sickness can bring anyone to their knees. I told him to speed up and not worry about us, we had our walkie-talkie to find each other at the next gas station. And so he did, I watched that silver acura speed for his life and cut line of sight on the hill. Me and my wife were just fine, usually I am the one who gets food poisoning and we made some jokes about that. That’s when things started to get weird.
The night had already fallen and we didn’t get to see a single gas station. We started to worry if they had to stop on the side of the road and… well, get things done. If they did, I think they would let us know. My wife was already asleep on the passenger seat and I started to frequently try to contact them on the radio, then finally I saw the light sign of a gas station and rushed in but there was no sign of them. I asked everyone if they had seen a silver Acura pass by, I even told them the start of the license plate and described my friends, but no one had seen them. From where I was, I heard the interference on the radio and rushed back in to see if it was them. It was not. In the loud interference noise was only silence and I slowly started to panic. I had a choice: stay the night there or go look for them, but the second option was a little bit ludicrous. The road at night is dangerous, there are zero light poles and I was starting to feel tired.
An hour passed by and i was thinking of giving in and call it a day, but then the loud interference woke me and my wife up, i was pissed off already by that fucking noise and was ready to turn that piece of shit off but then i head something, my friend’s voice. I couldn’t understand everything but I heard them scream for help. We decided to take the path back and look for them. I don’t know what I expected to find, it was dark, I couldn’t hear anything clear and I was no PI or firefighter but I was desperate… All the logic i could think was: If the signal starts to get weak i’ll turn around until it gets strong again and it was working, it was fucking working! We started to hear them more clearly and they said something about a…As the white noise grew louder and louder, we were trying to understand and find them. My wife shouted at me to be careful and pointed to the road.
All I saw was an naked old lady in the middle of the road standing directly looking at us. I tried to lead the car away from her but in the process the car went off the road and hit a tree. I blacked out. I remember glimpses of consciousness, the old lady was standing on the passenger’s side window, my wife asked for help, there was so much blood in my head and my hands, the last thing i saw was that old lady with her white eyes like the eyes of a cat reflecting the moonlight, snatching my wife’s necklace and i blacked out again.As I woke up my head hurt like it was hit by a baseball bat, I looked to my side and my wife was gone. Her seat was empty, the door to the passenger side wide open, but all of our belongings were still there, so I took the car key and the walkie-talkie and went into the night to find them. It was still dark, it was silent, I was alone, or so i thought.
(Part 2)