Nighttime Cruising

Just did overtime at my call center job. I got off extremely late than what I am used to. I usually get off around 8 but since it’s a holiday weekend I got off at 11:30pm. My eyes are very heavy and I still have to drive home. So many calls and dealing with the public takes a lot out of you. I clocked out of work and went to the parking garage. I spot my car which is a gray 2006 Hyundai Sonata and unlock my car doors.

BEEP-BEEP

I hopped in my car and start it up. As I began buckling up, I remembered to turn my dash camera on. I had a couple of fender benders and I needed safety for when I drive. The camera records in 1080p which is great and it even has a night mode setting. I put my car in drive and began to make my way out of the parking garage. As I am driving to the gate of the parking garage, I can get a glimpse of outside. I noticed that it is raining outside heavily. It was not the best condition for driving but I am sleepy and need to get home.

I scanned my parking garage pass and left the garage. My windshield instantly became soaked from the storm as water just sloshed all over my windshield. The storm is very strong and is making it difficult to see out of the windows. “My home is only 10 minutes away”, I thought to myself. Lightning was striking around the area every 25 seconds. The light from these strikes illuminated the sky intensely. It was similar to the flash of a camera. I kept driving and reduced my speed by half.

I was speeding in some zones though, just to hurry up home after a long day. As I got closer to home, I was already dreading the one road I had to take to get home. This road is a one lane road with lots of trees around. Sometimes deers, racoons and other animals will jump out in front of your car. ‘’Finally on the home stretch’’, I thought to myself. I turned down that dreaded road and kept a constant speed of about 50mph. This road is about 3 miles long. Once going down this road the rain picked up freakishly. The rain poured down so hard that it sounded like it was a hailstorm instead. It was difficult to see at this point. If I had to guess, visibility was about five feet in front of the car. I kept driving fast anyway.

My eyes began to get heavy and began to close. Then I heard a loud “THUD!’’, followed by the force traveling through my car to my body. I slammed the breaks and my tires squealed loudly. My heart sank as I realized I just hit something. I get out of the car and check to see what I had just hit. My stomach felt sick when I realized that I had not hit an animal but a human. It seemed to be a kid at least the age of seven. I checked on the kid to get a response. Nothing. No breathing or talking, nothing but a motionless corpse. The kid was wearing a yellow raincoat and seemed to be a Caucasian boy with dark black hair. I hopped back in my car and called 911. I explained everything that happened to the 911 operator. The operator told me the EMT and police are on their way. The rain picked up even more; so much that I could not see out of the car windows. Around five minutes later I could see the blurred flashing red and blue lights. The police pulled beside my car and get out of the car. It was two cops and they made their way in front of my car. I get out of slowly and I hear one of the officers speak to me.

“What type of sick person are you?”.

I did not know what the officer was talking about. I did not run over this kid on purpose. I walked slowly to the front of my car and was surprised. There was nothing in front of my car. Nobody, no dent on the hood of my car. Nothing, I was in utter disbelief. The other officer ordered me to put my hands on the car and they began to pat me down followed by a sobriety test. They wrote me a ticket. I was clean and the cops angrily told me to get in my car and go home. I did just that and was baffled over what I had just witnessed. I sat down on my couch and started trying to process what happened.

“No way, No way”, I thought to myself. After a considerable amount of time, I realized that my dash camera was still on. I ran to my car and grabbed my dash camera and came inside. I hooked up the camera to my computer and downloaded the video from tonight. I search through the video and find the exact moment I heard the loud “THUD”. I play the clip and was weirded out. The camera showed this kid waving and frantically pointing to the woods to the left before being struck by the car. The video continued playing and it showed the kid getting up and just instantly vanish. Now I was completely freaked out. “Did I hit a ghost or was my camera acting strange. I know what I saw, I have to go investigate’’, I told myself.

I did not get any sleep that night. I waited until 9:00am and called out of work. I took my dash camera and hopped in my car. I had the video clip playing so I could see at what area did I have this “accident”. After a few minutes of searching, I found the area where the “accident” took place. I pulled my car off the road and parked it.

I get out and go the left of the forest where the kid was pointing. I just started aimlessly exploring. I did not spot anything out of the ordinary. I spent about two hours in the forest.

“It has to mean something”, I thought to myself. I was just about to give up until I heard a branch snap to my left. I check and see nothing but, I continue my search in that direction. I walked for about five minutes until my nostrils became filled with a horrible stench. It smelt like rotten eggs and spoiled milk. I began to gag but was able to keep the contents of my stomach down. I continued walking until I heard a buzzing sound. It sounded like flies. I looked around and there it was. A body wearing a yellow raincoat that was heavily decomposed. It looked as though the corpses had been there for at least a month. I began to take out my phone to call 911 but was interrupted by a hand touching my forearm. I looked down and almost fell over. It was the boy I had “hit” last night. The boy spoke and said, “Thank you”. And then he vanished. My phone was still out and I called 911 and explained everything. The cops and detectives came out and removed the body from the forest. I was taken to the police station for questioning. The camera that I had was also confiscated.

I began explaining to the cops about the incident yesterday and how I had called 911 about an “accident”. They laughed until I showed them the ticket, I had received last night. One cop left the room and fetched the two officers from last night. They instantly recognize me and began shouting obscene things at me.

“You’re the funny prankster from yesterday, killing kids HUH”!? an officer shouted.

I tried to speak but kept being interrupted.

“You’re going down for this”, an officer yelled banging the table.

I stayed quiet and the room stayed quiet for about 15 seconds. The silence was finally broken by “You got to come see this!”.

The officers played my dash camera video and saw the boy from last night.

“This is some spooky stuff,” an officer yelled. They all look at me and leave the room for at least 20 minutes. Three officers come back into the room and let me go but explained that they would keep my camera for the investigation until further notice. I agreed, signed some papers and left the police station.

Several months later I received a knock on my home door and I opened it. I instantly recognized who it was. It was the two officers that had responded to my 911 call. They handed over my dash camera and told me great news. They found out what had happened to the boy. The boy had been missing for months and was last seen with his dad. The dad was brought in for questioning. When questioned about the whereabouts of his son he broke down into tears. The dad explained that he thought the child was his. He found out that it was not his child and the wife was lying to him the whole time. She was going to divorce him and take the child with her. One day he took the kid out for ice cream and then strangled the kid to death shortly after. The man dumped the body in the forest and then reported his son missing. I was told the man was found guilty and the state is seeking the death penalty. The cops thanked me for my service and left. I shut and locked the door. I turned away from the door and saw the same boy sitting on my couch eating an ice cream cone.