Speaker 1: Propessants Studios presents Hitch, a collection of unusual stories. Don't
you hate when you forget to plug in your phone
when you go to sleep, You wake up, then you
see your battery in the red. Then it has the
nerve to update seriously, hitch my phone. It's at five percent.
With the updated version of the Hitch app, riders can
now send me a message along with a pickup time
and location. This cuts out any social human interaction. Well,
you'd think, so, there's no way you're going to stop
those chatty kathys. Every October there's a bar crawl downtown,
a zombie bar crawl. It's like Girls Gone Wild, but
with zombies. Oh you dress up as a zombie. Cool.
I wish you'd stay that way. I'd rather hear instead
of y'all talking my ear off. With roads blocked down
due to either roadblock signs or I heard of drunk zombies,
it really messes up my routine. The plus side is
the zombies have dash. Dash is cash, and cash is great.
I've been busy non stop mark Mark, and Mark tipped
me pretty good. Sabrino was a drag queen zombie and
Frank tipped one hundred bucks. A lot of people didn't
even look like zombies. Ketchup rubbed down their faces would
have been more convincing. I made what i'm making one
check in one night. The zombie crawls aren't so bad
after all. I saw three people stumbling on the side
of the road.
Speaker 2: They are definitely not.
Speaker 1: Capable of driving, let alone walking. If cops even look
in their direction, they'll be arrested. I'm feeling good. I
made enough money today. This one's on me. I pull
over beside them and one falls onto the other. Two
than they all fall apart the car, leave it on,
step out and help. Huh. They must not have been
at the zombie crawl. They don't have any zombie makeup on.
They're really out of it. I told them I'm gonna
give them a ride and asked where they lived. They
didn't really give me a verbal answer, a lot of
twitching though. I'm pretty sure they need a hospital, have
nowhere else to take them, and I'm not gonna let
them stumble around out here in the dark. We pull
up to the hospital's main entrance. I get out, go
around the car to let them out. They were all
passed out. I pull a guy out by his feet.
I get his body halfway out and he starts to
wake up. I asked him if he's okay. I remember
like it happened five minutes ago. Hey man, are you okay?
Hold on, hold on, I'm gonna take you in the hospital. Nurse, nurse, nurse, nurse.
This man is convulsing. I don't know who this is
or what's going on. No, no, no, stay back, hey, ever,
stay back. This man is dangerous. Thank you?
Speaker 2: Miss?
Speaker 1: Are you okay? Miss?
Speaker 2: Miss? Hello?
Speaker 1: Can you hear me? You need to stay with us. Hello, Hey,
don't know, don't pass out and stay up. Stay awake, ma'am.
She's doing the same thing as the other guy.
Speaker 2: Hey no, no, no, no, stay back, no, stay back.
Speaker 1: Everything unfolded in front of my eyes in a matter
of seconds, but it felt like eternity. Luckily I made
it out alive, barely. The other two people were in
my car, well, they aren't people anymore. It was either
faced them two or the horde that was about to
explode out of the hospital. They're gnashing at the windows.
I walk up to the car, saliva dripping down their
chin and loud clanking from their teeth. Run around to
the rear driver's side, hit the window, run around to
the rear passenger side to open up the door. They
fooled them enough to make it to the driver's seat,
slammed the car, and reverse made sure I ran them
over before I took off, put the pedal to the floor.
Look back in the mirror as I'm leaving. They get
right back up. After that night, I'm not really sure
what happened. The CDC quarantined the hospital for weeks. Supposedly
the hospital's back up and running. I heard there was
an outbreak in South America. It could possibly be related,
but the government's keeping it under wraps. So the next
time someone sleeps next to you when they wake up,
ask them, are you a zombie? Everyone has been acting strangely, man,
myself included, not quite like themselves, almost like a version
of themselves. On the outside, they seem the same, but
on the inside they're almost nonexistent, ran by impulses, urges,
and primitive functions. Regardless of how much humanity has evolved
along the way, we coddled everyone and let a less
evolved version of us tag Alongugh, this job gets me
sometimes I might need a vacation from hitch. Maybe ponder
this idea more and make a podcast, maybe something that
has to do with standing up for yourself and following
your own path in life. See so much hate, depression,
evil and strange phenomena, But I also see people who
overcome all odds, do what they have to just to
make ends meet. Then all the hard work they put
into their own business for years finally paid off and
they're able to not worry anymore. Trust me, I've seen
terrifying things that hitch, but I've also seen beautiful, unexplained events.
I've seen spirits model round an attempting jumper on a bridge.
The spirits filled the energy fields around him with positivity, love,
and hopeful visions of the future. The guy stepped down
at the freedom of his own will. No one yanked
him down. He chose to make that decision. How do
I know this? He needed a ride and event. He's
my neighbor and he's doing good things now with his wife.
He recently moved up in his company. The guy looks
happy he was able to share all of this with
his son. See his wife passed away. The stress, the pressure,
the gottam and if you got what it's like to live.
What's the point of being alive if you can't live right.
The point is there's always going to be something to
live for. We just have to find it and not
get a skewed reality of what you're living for. Hence
all these people walking around like another version of themselves.
Speaker 2: Time to go back to the grindstone. I am to
pick up Frank.
Speaker 1: Ceipher a drive over to Uptown to pick up Frank.
He left a message saying, the guy in the hat
real helpful pal.
Speaker 2: Good thing. It's raining and dark hour. I wouldn't be
able to see you. I take a rite on the
Wyatt Street, believe it or not. I a spot out Frank,
like a bright neon sign on a dance.
Speaker 1: Club with music blasting. Except Frank, it's quite the opposite
of your typical nightlife. He has a dark gray trench
coat that reached down below his knees, big black buttons
all the way up the center, and a large matching
fedora hat. The hat is so large that it covers
his entire face, especially since he had it tilted down.
The back door opens and Franken said, good evening, I said.
All I got out of him was a grunt, where too,
I asked.
Speaker 2: Not out of the city.
Speaker 1: He mumbled that was it. That was confused. But the
man wanted what he wanted. He never took his hat off.
He kept so silent and still. It was like he
was wanted by the FBI or something. I drove to
the city limits. This is where I stop. I don't
drive out of the city during working hours company policy.
Speaker 2: I said, that's fine. He handed me cash for this trip.
Speaker 1: I told him only digital transactions, and he said he
doesn't have any bank cards, his bank information, or his
phone on him.
Speaker 2: I told him there was okay.
Speaker 1: This time, he stepped out of the car and started
walking to the city limits, and just like that, it
was off into the night. He must be a lonely fellow.
Looks like he's tired of the city.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't blame him. So many people live here. Everything
we see on the news is about gunshot victims, walkers
hit early in the morning while everyone's trying to get
to work on time, Cars flipped over, texting and driving,
drinking to get rid of hangovers, just to go to
work again, to drink again later that night, and dying
of alcoholism. The city is full of despair. Someone is
that man. I feel it, but I don't have the
luxury to leave, not yet. I drive home to an
empty house. The kids aren't here. Today I had my
yearly physical. I wanted to pick up equipment to start
my podcast. Then I had a busy night working for
hitch This is the first day I never saw my
kids all day or all night. I wake up and
check my phone today this payday, I definitely want to
see how much I made by taking on an extra
rider three times. Last week. My phone takes forever to load.
The internet spotty in my house.
Speaker 2: My paycheck is the same as last week.
Speaker 1: It's not right.
Speaker 2: I worked more. I should at least.
Speaker 1: Have one hundred dollars more plus whatever that guy with
a trench coat and hat tipped. I'm going to have
to get on my computer and check out the hitch
driver website. But I have to go pick up the
kids and take them to school and grind out more
riders for a bit. Frank already, huh. I took him
more of a night owl. I pick them up in
the same location Wyatt Street. He was wearing the same
outfit he got in same spot. He said, whatever you
say boss. I told him.
Speaker 2: He looked up at me. Don't you call me that.
Speaker 1: I'm no buddy's boss, I'm me. He made my heart
stop right in place when he looked up and I
saw his face. Well, it wasn't exactly his face. He
had it wrapped up with bandages. No skin was shown.
Speaker 2: Was he a burn victim? Is he blind?
Speaker 1: There's no holes for his eyes, nose, ears, or mouth.
But somehow I could feel the expression looking at him.
He doesn't like this world. He surely doesn't like me.
He gets out, and before he shuts the door, he
looks at me and says.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow same time.
Speaker 1: Boss then walks away. What a mysterious person. They didn't
even have time to ask him about the missing money.
It was too captivated by his face and the tone
of his words. That's strange. I didn't realize the time.
It's already that time of the day to pick up
the kids from school. I honestly don't know where I
lost track of time. All the kids getting out of
school look happy. They don't need alcohol, drugs, fame, money.
Speaker 2: To be happy. They have each other, though they are
all glued to their phone. Maybe that's the new equivalent
starting them young. Huh.
Speaker 1: Luckily my kids know not to have their phones out
around me. At least they show me some respect. In return,
I treat them like normal people, not like some child
that needs me for every little situation. I'm here for
them and all at all times, but independence is super important,
at least in my eyes. We go home, spend the
day together, go to bed, and I settle down with
a drink. Think about that, Frank Zeipher, he said he's
nobody's boss. I wonder why that struck a heart string
with me. I mean, I understand I don't like having
a boss. I don't like people telling me what to do,
and I interpret that lens onto others, like my kids
and the people I bump into.
Speaker 2: I'm not my kid's boss.
Speaker 1: They are not little workers being bred for my numbing work,
So why should I enable that when they're individuals themselves.
The babysitter comes over in the afternoon so I could
work for a few hours in the morning. I researched
how to make a podcast. It seems pretty simple. Everyone says,
just start recording, you can only get better. So I
purchased a condenser microphone or my phone. It's a really
good quality better be for the amount of money I
paid for it. I'm going to start recording next week
and see what I can come up with. I need
you now, Frank Ceipher. Don't know what that's about, but
luckily I'm ready to start the workday anyway. I drive
over to pick up Frank. Same spot again.
Speaker 2: You got it, Frank said, Hey, Frank, before I forget
your money never came through.
Speaker 1: Do you not have the funds? Are you assuming I
can't afford this ride? He sounded defended for sure. Now
I'm not assuming anything. Your transactions never went through though,
I told him, did.
Speaker 2: You stop to think that maybe it's all on your end?
You're literally relying on an app on your phone. They
get updates all the time, he replied, It makes sense,
to be honest, never put that into consideration. Then he
laid it on me. He let it all out, and
I was not ready for what I saw, for what
I heard. That is the problem with people like you.
You assume the world works a certain way, like it
revolves around you. Life keeps going even when you die.
Everyone just keeps going. They may stop and think about you,
but they have their own lives to live. Yet you're
so concerned about everyone else that you assume is revolved
around you. You're wasting your time.
Speaker 1: This city is wasting its time.
Speaker 2: People take the first chance to get that benefits them.
Until you are hit by a tent on heavything that
holds you down, you won't understand. He never will, because
once you have that strength built up to lift that
thing off of you, you'll finally start to understand what
life is about. You have three choices. One, let the
weight hit you and hold you down forever. Two, fight
against all odds and lift that anger, despair, regret, pain
and loss off of you. Or three do nothing, live
life like a zombie.
Speaker 1: You'll be a living zombie, just like everyone else.
Speaker 2: In the city. Why do you even stick around, I asked.
Let me show you why I stick.
Speaker 1: Around, he said. Frank started unraveling the bandages on his
face one by one. I could see him unrolling the
weight bandages off. He started with his chin, then his mouth,
except there was no mouth, no lips, no mustache, no beard,
Then no nose, no eyes, ears, no eyebrows, no holes
on his face. All I saw was skin. I don't
understand what I'm looking at. What the what happened? Frank,
why are you like that?
Speaker 2: I asked. You don't get it yet, do you. It's
because you're in denial. That is why I stay here
in the city. Brian, I'm you wait a minute, like
a clone, I asked, No, you'll find out eventually. Drop
me off here, he said. He got out.
Speaker 1: Before he closed the door, he said, see you later, boss,
then he walked off into the distance. Later that night,
I hopped on my computer to check my hitch account.
There are zero transactions with Frank Ceipher. It showed everyone
else though. It even showed me active at the time.
I want to check my security camera when I picked
up Frank, Frank wasn't there. In fact, nobody was there.
I was driving around, I was talking. I remember every moment.
It was Frank a ghost, or maybe he was telling
the truth. Maybe he's me.
Speaker 2: Contribute its successful. We'll can save man comun Dacy's w
LOK five coming at you with the hottest mainstream and
low budget horror entertainment that'll have you and hold to
your mummy. I'm your terrifying host, Raven.
Speaker 1: Are you ready?
Speaker 2: It's my favorite time of the evening, the creepy pasta
radio hour.
Speaker 3: I was waiting at a bus stop along with a
mother and her child. The child cries out and the
mother shushes the child. The child doesn't stop. It seems
that it wants attention, but the mother just scorns. Won't
you hush, you nasty child. It is just about noon
and the bus has picked us up. The child is
babbling at the top of its lungs, laughing, babbling and
bouncing around. Daddy will be home for dinner, my child,
if you watch your dinner, you need to quiet down,
or you'll go to bed hungry. When the mother and
child got off the bus. From the window, I heard
the child run off and the mother say, may all
the hornets from the nest come sting you so you
finally pipe down. All the child wanted to do was
pick up the big brown leaf and show it to
his mother. This reminds me of a story about the
noonday Witch. A mother warns her son to behave or
she will summon the noon witch. The noon Witch is
a folklore where a witch comes at noon and takes
away misbehaved children. The witch doesn't look how you would think. Normally.
Witches are wicked women that fly on brooms and cast
them on expels. The noon Witch, on the other hand,
is not your typical wicked woman. No, she is a monster,
standing eight feet tall, with a flat and elongated skull,
her eyes with vertical pupils bulging out of her sockets,
her jaw locked open, with her forked tongue hanging out,
scales on her decrepit hand with razor sharp nails two
inches long. The all black wardrobe does, however, pertain to
this witch. When the noon Witch arrives, she is there
to take the child. She will not leave empty handed.
One day, a mother very similar to a mother at
the bus stop, cursed her child. She cursed the noon
witch to come. She wanted to scare her child. Straight
the sun rose at high noon, the hand or moved
at the front of the door. Mother went to see
what was going on, and in came the witch, snarling
What a vile creature. She demanded the misbehaved child and
called it a cursed child. The only way the child
could be cured of its curse is to go with
the noon Witch. The noon Witch will then be his
claimed mother and never to see his current mother again.
The mother, terrified, never meant for this to happen. She
thought that it was an old wife's tale. The mother
scooped up the child into her arms and ran. She
fled around the witch into the living area, down the hallway,
and into her bedroom. She slammed the door shut. She
didn't know what she should do. The bedroom door did
not have a lock. Instinctively, the mother held the child
to The child crying, flailing, and scared. The mother shielded
the child away from the Noon Witch. One minute past noon.
The witch leaves. Later that night, the husband comes home
from a long day's work for dinner, family time, and relaxation.
He finds the mother in bed and turns her over.
She lays there, cold and lifeless. He could still see
the fear in her eyes. Out from underneath lays the
child smothered.
Speaker 1: Today's episode on Hitch was written by Brian dos wrg
viv's radio DJ is Graham Road The Noon Witch, read
by m Cleveland. Hitch is a fictional podcast. Any names
or likeness that are similar to real world ones are
entirely coincidental. A