Graduating high school is usually a big deal for most teenagers and it was no exception for me and my friends. It was all we thought about for those 4 long years.
In fact, me and my 3 best friends, decided to celebrate by going on a road trip. We didn’t even care where we went. All we wanted was a good time before we were sucked right into college. I couldn’t stand the thought of being right back in school so this trip we were going to make worth our time.
Ultimately, we never even decided on a specific location to go to. What we did agree on is that we would just let the road take us wherever and stop off along the way if we saw anything cool.
We all wake up the next morning and finish packing. Making sure we have everything we need and that we don’t forget anything.
Throwing everything into the trunk of the car we can barely contain our excitement. We were ready for an adventure! We slam the trunk shut and basically run into the car. This would be the first time any of us had done anything like this.
Our first full day of driving was great. We saw some nice views, ate at a couple of small diners, and just saw various other little interesting things.
It was getting late by now though and we were all pretty tired so we found a cheap motel to sleep it off and begin again first thing in the morning.
Waking up the next morning was just as exciting as the day before. We pile back in the car and resume our adventure.
At this point we didn’t even know where we were. We had just been taking random twists and turns. We didn’t care that we had no idea where we really were though. What we did care about was what appeared to be a very heavy oncoming storm and the fact that we were running low on gas now.
“Why didn’t you stop for gas a long time ago man now we’re gonna be screwed!?” My friend yells from the back.
He was right. We were screwed. Shortly after, our car ran out of gas. This storm was too intense now for us to be walking in it for too long and it was too cold for us to stay in the car.
We notice there’s a little cabin that appears to have a light on not very far ahead. Our best option was going to be to make the short walk to the cabin and pray that they can help us.
To our luck an older man answers the door pretty quickly after I knocked. He also seemed very happy to help which was even better because I didn’t want us to be a bother to him.
We all introduced ourselves and he tells us his name is Joseph. I could tell immediately that Joseph was a very skilled artist. He had beautiful paintings of people and various landscapes lying around all of his scattered supplies.
Joseph notices me looking at them and says “oh, those old things? I just paint what I see.”
The storm outside didn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon and Joseph had told us we were several miles away from the nearest gas station. Promising to take us into town first thing in the morning, he offers to let us stay for the night.
We all stayed up for awhile just talking and getting to know Joseph. Most people might have told us we were crazy for staying with him but he was completely harmless.
Me and my friends started to get tired so we told Joseph we were going to head to sleep. Joseph tells us that’s fine but if it was okay with us he wants to continue painting in his bedroom.
“Of course, it’s your house, do whatever you want.” Then we turn the lights out and drift to sleep.
I woke up the next morning feeling pretty refreshed. It was a cozy place and I actually slept really well. I’m always the last one to wake up anyway so I wasn’t shocked that my friends were already up and gone, probably waiting on me with Joseph.
I start to make my way back to Joseph’s room when I looked over and saw a canvas propped up against the wall I didn’t notice before. A perfect reflection of our car out of gas in the exact spot it happened.
Looking over, I noticed several more paintings like this. All depicting different vehicles stranded in this same location. My blood started to run cold. Who really was this guy? And where are my friends?
I opened the door to Joseph’s room and notice he is still frantically painting. Scanning the room my friends were no where to be found.
“Andddddd done!” Joseph exclaims to me putting a final stroke on the canvas. “Where are my friends!? What did you do to them?!” I yelled at him out of rage.
Joseph just laughed. “Young man, “I”, didn’t do anything to them. I told you, I paint what I see. They’re in here.”
As he turns the canvas around I started crying harder than I ever have before. It was a painting of my best friends. Forever stuck inside of Joseph’s canvas.