Speaker 1: Propessant Studios presents Hitch, a collection of unusual stories. Welcome
to the joy Ride Podcast, where I bring you joy
in my ride. Oh man, I sound ridiculous. Go on
a ride of joy with the joy Ride Podcast. On
a ride of joy? Screw it? Why not?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Figures? I better get gas before I forget take a
ride with Hitch, the only business in town where you
can hire a driver to take you to your destination
with an app on your phone. Make the world a
better place with Hitch. I walked into the gas station
to pay the attendant off in my own world, I
opened up the door and walked straight into a big,
burly dude. He had a long, burly beard, a Panthers
ball cap on, and a flannel shirt. You had to
be sick foot eight, built like a lumberjack. Excuse me,
I didn't see it there. It's okay, buddy. I instantly
thought he was going to be waiting for me outside,
but the guy seemed genuine. Definitely not what I expected,
that's for sure. I paid the attendant and made my
way outside, expecting the guy to be waiting for me.
I didn't see him, though. I drove home and relaxed
the rest of the night and spent time with my kids.
I parked the car in the street since the babysitters
car was in the driveway. I went to open the
door and had to quickly slam his shut. My door
was almost taken off and me along with it. A
big red pickup truck flew right by, leaving a cloud
of black smog at my car. I went inside the
house and spent the rest of the night with the kids.
I wrote an outline for my podcast for me to
try next time I record. The next day, I turned
on my hitch ab instantly I received a notification I
aim to pick up a Henry Meyer at the Gray
Fox neighborhood. I picked up Henry Meyer on Gray Fox Drive.
He is a big and tall guy. I couldn't even
see his face in the rear view mirror he's so tall.
Out of all the things I could have imagined him
doing for a living, turns out he's a TV producer.
That's pretty funny here, I'm thinking he's a farmer or
a construction worker. He said recently he's really been getting
into podcasts. Well, that's funny. I just started a podcast,
I told him. He told me he knows. I thanked
him for listening. It's hard to get feedback on your
own work like at all. Maybe we can talk more
about the podcast he brought up. I dropped him off
at the local farmer market shopping center called Turn Up
the Beats. Today was a busy work day. Busy is good,
just not for a Thursday. I go home and create
a low recording booth for recording my vocals on the
podcast show not too shabby. Welcome to the joy Ride podcast.
I am your host, Brian. Today we talk about productivity.
Did you know your commute is a fantastic way to
be productive? How much do you commute, Even if it's
only a ten minute work drive, that's twenty minutes a
day That can really add up. Perhaps you could listen
to a podcast or an audiobook about your craft, or
gain a piece of knowledge that is an hour and
forty minutes a week just on your commute back and
forth from work. Imagine doing that along with commuting everywhere else.
It's time to get productive people. I'm definitely starting to
develop a forward progression on my podcast. I wasn't really
sure what I could talk about. I picked up the
kids from the babysitters house. We were all hungry, so
we decided to go eat at the Sloppy Pig Barbecue restaurant.
We go to turn left into the restaurant, but I
had to wait for traffic to drive by. Someone was
speeding a little too fast and he was heading straight
for us. Wait a second, I'm pretty sure he's trying
to hit us. My kids laughing in the back at
each other, my heart pounding out of my chest making
its way up to my throat. I looked back at
my kids and told them that I loved them. This
red truck heading on it is closer and closer. I
gripped the wheel so tight and couldn't move. As soon
as the truck was three car legs away, I slammed
on my gasped and swerved to the right to dodge
the truck. The truck missed us and slammed into the
compact car behind us. The car flipped as the truck
was plowing through it. All of a sudden, it was
like the earth stood still. All I could do was
hear my breathing and looking shot at the damage that
has been done to that little car. It was crushed
like a tin can. I see the victim barely moving.
I snap out of the the days I was in
and scrambled out of my car to go check on
the victim. Get over to the car, shattered glass, metal
and plastic all over the scene, and kneel down to
look inside the car. Then the red pickup truck peeled
off and fled the scene. Are you okay?
Speaker 2: I asked?
Speaker 1: The lady slowly turned and looked at me. It was
like she realized where she was and started screaming. Called
nine one one, your virgin.
Speaker 3: They bleeded.
Speaker 4: My name is Brian, and I just witnessed a fatal
car accident over by the Salty Pig Barbecue. The car
flipped over and crushing this lady inside. She's in a
really bad condition. She's screaming, bleeding. I can't do anything.
Speaker 1: The EMS and police arrived at the scene. They had
to cut her out of the car. Both of her
legs were missing. I'm not sure if she even realizes it.
She's in so much pain and shock that she passed out.
After they dragged her out of the car. They gave
my statement to the police. We decided to drive through
somewhere for food. That accident took up a lot of time.
I'm sure I could speak for all of us when
I say we're starving. The kids go to bed, and
the babysitter comes over so I can go back to work.
Henry Meyer might as well get going now. I go
to pick up Henry and notice a large gash in
his head. I've been working at Hitch for a little while. Now,
my intuition tells me this isn't right. What happened to
your head, Henry?
Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I just woke up and my head was bleeding. Do
you need me to take you to a doctor. No, No,
I'm okay. It's just a scratch, Just a scratch, Henry.
You have an extremely deep cut in your head. Henry
insisted that he's okay and just wants me to take
him to the store. I act like I'm leaving. I
act like I'm turning out of the parking lot. Instead.
At parking spot far away, I noticed that Henry didn't
go inside that store. He walked past it into the
mechanic shop. Inside, I see the big red truck. My
phone starts to ring from an unknown number. I never
answer those. I received a voicemail.
Speaker 5: Hey Brian, it's Henry, I'll give it a call because
of your podcast. I have a few people in the
industry that like what you're doing and they'd like to
sit down and talk. So give me a call back
if you're interested. Okay, thanks, by.
Speaker 1: How did Henry get my number? I'm done with that guy.
I should call the police on him. Actually, I'm gonna
call it today and get some rest. This job. It's
been draining lately. It's becoming unhealthy and affecting my well being.
I get home and see a note on my door.
Why haven't you called Henry? I called the police station.
If he knows where I live, this affects my family.
I give them all the information on the car accident,
the phone call, and the note, but it still didn't
give them enough motive to act on it. There's no
proof of threat and it can't be proved that it
was him at the scene of the accident. I went
onto my dash cam to checked the video of the
past few days. Every pickup and every drop off had
that red truck there. Even at my house. I looked
out my bedroom window and he's there. I fell out
of view, my heart pounding rapidly, breathing became heavy. I
need to find out what to do, but the cops
won't do anything unless I'm dead. There was a loud
pounding on the front door. I could see Henry walking
around the house. He got in his truck and drove away.
He called me later that night and left another voicemail.
Speaker 2: I'm always watching, I'm always listening, I'm always.
Speaker 1: Today is a slow day. In eight hours, I've had
three riders. It may have something to do with the
Hedge app. The riders that did have said the app
was glitching. It would open up then cancel itself out
every time you go to schedule a pick up. I
might as well go get some lunch. I'm hungry and
need something to do. I drive through somewhere and pick
up some chili.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, not the best thing to eat in the car,
but it's a mix of sleet and snow outside and
it's the perfect comfort food. All it needs is some
corn bread with honey butters spread on top. A drive
back over the main street and park in a central
location so I can snag a rider when I get
a chance. I look up at a tree and see
the branches dancing with vigor in the hollowing wind. Did
you know that trees have a heartbeat. They don't necessarily
have a heart, but more like a rhythmic beat that
pumps water up to its branches. The heart beats so
slow that we never notice until recently. These are the
things in life that fascinate me. Hmm, yeah, I'll focus
the podcast more on this subject. It lets me still
talk about philosophy, but also lets me learn about everything
in the world. I could call it did you know
that's so much better than joy ride podcast? I open
up the bag of my Chili's in what a surprise.
No napkins live in that hitch life and keep extra
napkins on hand for riders. The pop open the glove
compartment and the spider comes out. I instantly smash that
eight legged freak. Can't let that thing run wild in
here and bite me or the riders. I grabbed the
napkins and my chili. I dig in the chili with
my spoon. I feel my whole right arm tingle. I
look at my arm and see how hundreds of baby
spiders covering my arm. That panic and violently swapped them off.
Some fell onto my leg. I could feel the spiders
piercing my skin. I opened the door, unbuckle my seatbelt.
My entire right half of my body's paralyzed. The hundreds
of spiders multiplied. There were so many spiders I couldn't
see my skin. My entire bodies now paralyzed. They crawl
into my ears. I can hear them screaming, clawing, and
biting in my ear canals. Hundreds crawling to my nose,
down in my throat, More flowing too my mouth as
I'm screaming in agony. Then more crawling into my eyes
and my eyelids and deep into my eye sockets. I'm
now blind. I think my heart is gonna stop. I
can't hear, feel, and now I can't breathe is this?
It is this? How it ends? H huh? What the what?
A crazy nightmare? I swear? If a spider comes out
of that glovebox.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to.
Speaker 3: W r K five.
Speaker 2: This is your host, Raven, and I've been dying to
be back.
Speaker 5: On air only because I get to play the latest
and greatest terrifying stories fresh off the press for your
ears to hear.
Speaker 2: This one ain't no joke.
Speaker 3: You might want to keep the lights on.
Speaker 2: It's a creepy past the radio hour.
Speaker 3: One evening, I was going for a run, and it
was already a long day's work at the hospital. But
I must keep a strict schedule if I want to
run a personal best, and this year's Boston Marathon today
is an easy run for sixty minutes. I opened my
front door start my run right away. As usual, I
have my headphones in. I like to listen to new
music or audio books on my easy run, or else
I run too vast, then my hard workout days are
grueling at best. I make my way through the winding
roads in my neighborhood, up a short inclined hill down
into the park. The park is closed after dark, but
I know a way in. I feel a little safer
in there. No cars are there to hit me. I
run the outside loop, which is about four miles long,
then make my way out of the park. Before I leave,
I see something standing at the entrance I came in at.
The more distance I close, the more that some thing
turns into a some one. I stopped at in my
tracks and turned my music off. I don't have my
phone with me. I usually do to listen to music,
but my battery was dead, so I used an old
m P three player. Instead, the shadow figure stands still
as a statue. The air is still to night, so
any noise whatsoever will set off in alarm. I walk
back into the park and find a way to sneak
through the woods out onto the road. I find a
spot far away from whoever that is blocking the entrance,
Making my way up from the brush and trees as
quiet as I can, I hear a snap from a
twig near by. Instantly I crouched down. Some one is
to my right. That guy is fast, But then some
one on my left comes walking up to the other guy,
catching a glimpse of him from a street light, strikes
me with fright so hard that my breathing becomes out
of control. He has red, curly hair, white makeup pancaked on,
and an abnormally long chin. One side of his face
is black. His nose, eyebrows, and lips are painted red
as blood. His teeth are shirt and they are the
real thing. His soulless eyes are all black. As he walks,
I can hear jingles from little bells that he is
wearing on his torn and faded costume. They are standing
at least six feet five inches tall and about ten
yards away from me. If I stay here, maybe I
can wake them out for the night. Behind me, I
hear bells coming my way. I drop to the ground,
light flat. I try to control my but as the
bells get closer and closer, my breathing becomes heavier and heavier.
I take one more gasp of air and hold my bread.
They walk inches by me toward the others. I let
out a sigh. No, I shouldn't have done that. The
people that walked by me turn round. The two out
on the road turned toward me as well. They all
start walking in my direction. I get up and start
running deeper into the park. I can't see anything. No
lights are on, no cars, no people, no police, just nothingness.
The moon shines on a nearby cabin. I make my
way there and out comes more people. Five of them
walk out the door. They see me all right, They
start sprinting after me. I'm so tired, hungry, and getting
really cold. I take off to my left. Luckily I
sort of know where I am. If I can make
my way over to the main path, I can hop
the gate. I reached the path, that too, is plagued
by at least ten people. Those five flank me from
my left and call the ten people from the main
path over. I run to my right and the first
two are blocking my escape. I only have one more
way to go. I turn right again and spread as
fast as I can. I run right through the trees, branches,
and brush, tearing my skin to shreds as I dart through.
I make my way out and fall in the ditch.
I think I've broken both my legs. Crawling with my
arms toward the street light, hoping, just hoping a car
passing by will see me. A car from the distance
pulls up. What a relief. I cry for safety, telling
them that I'm being chased, and I fear for my life.
As soon as a leg strikes the crown from the car,
I hear those bells again. Not the ones from behind,
These are coming from that car.
Speaker 1: Today's episode I Hitch was written by Brian do So.
WRK five's radio DJ is Graham Road the Hitch gas Station,
ad voiced by Eric Stofrick Running for My Life narrated
by Pete Lutz. Hitch is a fictional podcast. Any names
or likeness that are similar to real world ones are
entirely coincid
Speaker 2: A