My Dad's Ride

My dad owns an old 1974 Chevrolet truck. It originally belonged to my grandfather when he bought it back in 1982, my dad bought it from him for $1.00. Me and dad would travel all over in that truck, we had some good times and some bad times. We've had that truck since I was seven.

It had a camper on the back that made it almost like a second home. When we drove to the drive-in theaters, we would put a mattress in the back and convert it into a semi-living space were we could watch the movies. We left the mattress in there, mainly because we didn't have any other place to put it and we were both too lazy to take it out. So, it stayed in the camper for who knows how long. We kept the mattress clean with bleach to make sure it didn't grow fungus or anything like that, we wanted to keep it as healthy and safe as possible in case we needed to sleep on it. My dad even took the liberty of putting a blanket and a couple of pillows on the mattress to make it more homey. I had fallen asleep in it several times. However, this time, it was different.

My dad had just recently got a huge promotion at his job. He had been working as a driver for a fly-by-night, haphazard company owned by some cheap rich guy that transported naturalized immigrants to their workplaces. It was the only job he could find since he and my mom divorced. He was moving on to a manager position, and his cheating boss was finally giving him the salary he deserved. However, my dad was dealing with more people coming in to work for him. It was good because he got $25.00 for every person that he hired, and he was getting around fourteen people every week, which equated to an additional $350.00 on his paycheck.

Unfortunately, it was taking time to find apartments for the workers. Most of them even had to stay in the homes and apartments of the company's employees, including my dad. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment and we only had three beds. My dad slept in his one bed in his room while I slept in one of the two in my room. I offered to lend my bedroom to one of the company's new employees, Ferdinand, and his wife. They promised not to touch any of my stuff and I gave my consent to let them use my room for the week until the company could provide them with housing. My dad came to me, "Where are you gonna sleep, son?"

"I'm not sure, really." I had thought about sleeping on the floor with dad, but then a thought passed through my mind. "Hey, dad, is the old mattress in the camper still there? If it is, I could sleep in there." The company had provided dad with a van to drive the workers to their jobs, so he rarely used the old Chevrolet anymore. To be honest, it had almost begun to fall into disarray. He looked concerned, "I don't know. It's still in there, but I've been to lazy to wash it. Pluss, it's cold out there, I don't know if that's the best place to sleep." I did my best to reassure him, "Don't worry, I'll get my blankets and a pillow and make sure that all the windows are rolled up. It won't be perfect, but it's better than nothing, I suppose." I could tell he didn't like the idea, but he gave me the okay, handed me the keys, I got my two blankets and a pillow and headed out to the truck.

It was around 6:05 PM. The sun had already fallen and it was pretty much already dark. It was only by the street lights in the parking lot that I found the truck. I unloccked the camper first and I saw the old mattress in almost perfect condition despite its age and neglect. I made sure to close the camper entrance window and lock it from the inside, just for safety. Then, I set up my pillows and blankets on the matress and layed down for the night. I fell asleep after about an hour of listening to the wind outside. I can't explain what happened then, but I began having nightmares. They were full of shadows and ghostly moans and the people in them looked like their skin was make out of white glass that was cracking to reveal rotting corpses underneath. I barely regained conciousness long enough to pull the covers over my head, then I fell asleep again almost instantly.

I don't remember what dream I had after that, but I remember waking up first to a very potent and sour smell that burned my nose and stimulated my gag reflex, then to the feeling of vibration and movement, it was the truck. Someone was driving the truck! Without uncovering my head and trying to remain as unnoticed as possible, I reached into my pocket and found the keys. The keys went to both the ignition, the camper, and the doors. My dad didn't have any copies made, and I had rolled up all the windows and locked all the doors from the inside. Someone had probably broken in and fumbled with the ignition to make it go.

I was scared. More so than I had been in a while. I slowly lifted by head to see if I could get a look at the driver, but before I could remove the covers from my head, I heard what sounded like glass cracking, and then I felt someone's hand slam down hard and fast on my head, holding me in place. If it hadn't been for the pillow to cushion my impact, my skull would probably have cracked on any solid surface. "Ddddooonn'tt lllooookkk." I heard a vaguly female voice say to me just inches above my head. I could feel the presence of other people in the camper sitting around me. Naturally, I couldn't see a thing from under the covers, so I can't say exactly how many of them there were. I could also feel something next to me, something long and wooden. I realized at once that it was a shovel.

I stayed under the covers for the whole ride. The truck stopped at various points and at each one I felt both the driver and one of the passengers in the camper get out with the shovel and walk away into the distance, each of their movements accompanied by the sound of cracking glass. The driver always returned with the shovel, but not the passenger. This happened seven more times over the course of what I assumed to be five hours. The hand holding my head in place had eased up and at some point I could even feel her thumb gently rubbing through my hair, almost like she was affectionately rubbing a pet. At some point I felt her other hand on my back, rubbing and moving in a strange way that I've never felt before. It took me a while to realize that she was giving me some kind of massage. The sensation was such that I almost fell asleep, that's when I felt her pelvis on my back and her legs at my sides. I was laying on my stomach through the whole ride, so I could tell that she was laying right on top of my like a masseuse giving a back massage. It was so uncomfortable, but I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

At some point during this, the truck came to another stop. I heard a woman's muffled screaming in the background and a man shouting, "Quit your squirming, you little bitch!" I fellt all of the passengers get out and leave me in the truck. I didn't remove the covers, but I heared the whole thing. "What the fuck?!!" I heard the man shout, "No, no, no, this can't be, this can't be, goddammit!! You're all de..." He suddenly stopped. I heard the woman scream again and run off into the distance untill she disappeared. I heard the sound of muffled screams, but this time from the man. I heard the sound of bones cracking and some kind of wet sound, almost like someone throwing up, that made my stomach churn. Then, everything went quite again. I felt the pessengers get back into the camper and the driver return to to the wheel and we continued on our journey. As the truck started, we ran over something both soft and hard at the same time, and I heard the sound of bones cracking as we passed over it.

This strange and ride continued until the only passenger left was the one holding my head and giving me this strange massage. As I felt her weight lift off me I felt her head next to mine, "Iiiii kknnoooowww yyyyooouuu eeenjjoooyyeed ttthhhaatt." I could feel the smile on her face. I felt her leave the camper and heard her walk off into the distance with the driver. After a while the driver came back and drove some more. After about an hour of driving, the truck finally slowed down and I felt it grind to a halt. I didn't know what to do at this point. I didn't know what this driver wanted. I had thought about just jumping up and scream at him and then attack him like a maniac. But, I didn't kbow if that would do any good. Thankfully, much to my surprise, I heard him get out of the truck and just walk away.

I layed there with a mixture of confusion and relief. I stayed under the cover until I finally fell asleep again. This time, it was peacful. I woke up to the sound of knocking on the camper window. Finally uncovering my head I looked at the window, it was my dad. "Hey, son. Sleep good?" I looked at him with unease, "Uh, yeah, sure. It was okay." I didn't bother to get my pillows ot blankets out of the camper, my dad told me he would get them later. I checked the truck to see if I could find any evidence of what happened, but the thing was clean, it looked like nothing had happened. I've never told my dad or anyone about what happened that night. It's been several days since it happened and I can't make any since of it and I'm still confused about what it was.

Even as a write this in my journal, I'm still confused about what happened. Though the fact that my dad is watching the news doesn't help my remembrance at all, mind you. They're talking about some murder that happened last week. Apparently, some psychopath had kidnapped and murdered seven people in a rather peculiar way. He had thrown them into liquid glass and let them boil to death before removing their corpses from the vat and letting them dry and harden. When the police found them, the killer had gotten away and their bodies could be seen beneath the glass in an advanced state of decay. The bodies were buried in Saint Gabriel's Cemetary. Although, in their wills, the victims specified which cemetary they wanted to be buried in, which the state denied.

However, according to the news report, the graves of the victims had been found disturbed and enpty several days ago. In the report, the gravedigger who found the graves stated that the graves looked like they were dug out from the inside instead of from outside. There was barely any dirt around the graves and they looked like they had caved in, as if something had broken out of them. To make things creepier, upon exhuming the coffins, the police found that they had large holes in them, all of which were made from the inside.

The police couldn't explain it. They filed it as grave robbery. At that moment, the newscaster said something that sent chills through me, ''"We've just recieved breaking news. The body of 45 year old Trevor Roads was found erlier today on Route 56. Based on the rate of decay, it's believed that his time of death was on the day of the grave robbery, though furthur forensic analysis will be needed. He was found mutilated in several places and his body looked as if it had been run over by a vehicle. Authorities have been searching for Roads for some time for both these murders. It was speculatated that he was the one who disturbed and robbery of the graves, though police have found no evidence to connect him to the robbery. The police have searched his apartment and found that he had a habit of stalking his victims prior to killing them. They found detailed files on each victim. One in particular, 26 year old Melissa Rivera, who worked as a masseuse for a local spa. According to employer and customer interviews, Rivera was known for giving "special favors" to overpaying clients, rubbing their hair, and whispering into customers' ears after each service. Her employer states that her death is a tragic loss and she will be dearlynmissed, he also commented "Whoever got the last massage from her is a lucky bastard, indeed."''