E

egghead

Guest
Original poster
desert-road-at-night-video-id465524992


A smooth, charming yet incomprehensible voice choked out from the radio, straining to be heard over the sound of static and white noise.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is your host--*bzzzt!* Welcoming you all to--*bzzzzt!* radio. It is about 10 o'clock and looks like another rainy night, hope you're all bundled up at home with that special someone. For you lovebirds out there, let's start off tonight with that sweet Sinatra sound."

As soon as a love song sputtered from the speakers, Glen slammed his hand on one of the radio's knobs, shutting it off before he could start feeling too lonely.

Heaving a sigh at the silence, his half-lidded eyes returned to the dusty strip of road in front of him. He didn't know what the man on the radio was talking about; there was no rain out here, not on a dark desert highway.

Squeezing the cracking leather of the steering wheel, he was surprised (and a little proud) that his beat-up old car even made it this far into the journey. He had no idea where he was, or how long he had been driving, but none of that mattered when there were more important things to wonder, like whether it was a hitchhiker or a cactus on the side of the road up ahead.

Squinting at the dark figure, Glen unknowingly eased his pressure on the gas petal and felt the vehicle slow to a crawl. Half of his brain wrestled with the other, one arguing to keep driving while the other told him to be a good person and pick up a complete stranger and possible serial killer.

Pulling up beside the hitchhiker, the latter part of his head had won him over. Reaching awkwardly over a pile of crumpled up fast food bags and dirty clothes to crank the window open, he stammered out in his best good person voice.

"N-need a ride?"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Love
Reactions: Axel1313
The night was definitely a relief. Harsh sun and heat replaced by cool darkness. As well as the sweet smell of showers that hung in the air. Or maybe that was just his imagination? A fever dream brought on by extreme thirst and hunger. From seeing nothing but dust and bleached bones. Lucid licked his dry, cracked lips, wishing it were reality. He was lost and longing for relief however it may come.

As his hope began to fade into the void a blinding light filled his vision. Was it an angel or a car?! Who would possibly be stopping for the sorry figure at the side of the road. With his mess of fading blond curly hair with black roots viciously taking over and filth caked face. He had no mirror but could feel that he must have looked like he was feral.

Lucid went to speak but his voice crackled and broke horribly. His throat killing him for even trying to use it. After a long coughing spell the young man attempted it again. His voice coming out harsh, gravely and as dry as the terrain he'd been wandering for God knows how long. "Uh...Y...yeah...I do. If it's no trouble."
 
  • Love
Reactions: egghead
Glen couldn't help but feel for this guy already. Not only was also alone in the middle of nowhere, but he probably looked worse than he did with his greasy blond hair and all that gunk streaking his face.

After unlocking the door and giving it a push, it cracked open with an awful scraping sound. He leaned back in the driver's seat and quickly cleared the passenger's side by banishing all the trash and clothes to the floor in one swipe.

The mess reminded him of the one waiting for him at his apartment; just thinking about home weighed heavy dread down upon him. Maybe that's why he was out here, to get away from the city...

"So, uh..." he cleared his throat, trying his best to not stare too much. "What are you...doing way out here?"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Love
Reactions: Axel1313
"Thanks..." He croaked out. Shoving his pathetically shrunken down backpack onto the floor with the rest of the garbage as he slid into the passenger's seat. Yanking the rusted old door closed behind him as he did so and breathing a sigh of relief. It felt so nice to sit on something soft again. He let his head fall back for a moment, letting his exhausted body sink into the musty old seats.

He then opened his bright green eyes and looked to the man who had dared stop to help. "Chasing a dream....or maybe it was running away from something? I can't really remember to be honest." He cleared his throat and sat up straighter. "I've been out here way too long though. That's for sure."
 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: egghead
After pressing down on the gas and driving off from the side of the road, Glen sweat over the hitchhiker's excuse.. Running away from something?

A grunt escaped from his lips as the car hit a bump. "Y-yeah, me too..." he glanced at the rear-view mirror to see his tired reflection stare back at him. "Um, there's some water in the side door...if you want it."

Feeling the younger man's eyes burning through him, he blinked rapidly, trying to shake off the grogginess built up from driving all day and the headache stabbing his brain.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"Heh, good to see a fellow lost dude on the roads." He grabbed the bottle of water carefully and proceeded to greedily gulped it down. He felt horrible for going at it like a starving animal but oh god did it feel like liquid heaven going down his throat. It was something he had desperately needed for far too long now. He emptied the bottle quickly and let out an extremely relieved sigh.

"Thank you so much..." He breathed a heavy sigh. His once gravely voice soothed and washed father away with the cool liquid. Revealing a more lush and melodic one hidden underneath exhaustion. His eyes trained on the old man at the wheel for several minutes. Trying to make out whatever details he could in the dark.

"....And thanks for going through the trouble of picking me up...had a lot of people pass by just because of how I look. You're the first to actually stop...you don't have to take my sorry ass far though. Feel free to drop me off at the nearest shop or crappy bus station and I'll pay you for your troubles."
 
"N-no, it's fine..." Glen suddenly felt...strange. His vision blurred more than usual and his body grew heavy. What's wrong with me...?

He cursed himself as he blinked through the impending blindness. As fog took over his mind, the car swerved on the road slightly. Up ahead, flickering neon words spewed out from the darkness' mouth and dared them to stop in for the night:

M
O

T
E
L

Only classy "you're-gonna-die-here" places had buzzing, blood red vacancy signs. But before he could decide to keep driving and avoid that sort of tragedy, a loud string of sputters and coughs exploded from the car. "Uh..." was all Glen could wheeze as he finally realized that they were low on gas. "Darn."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Love
Reactions: Axel1313
Lucid grabbed the seat nervously as the old man swerved. Swallowing hard to try and wet his throat to speak clearly again. "H-hey. Man. If you need to stop and take a nap I can totally wait." The young man shrugged. Sitting up farther in the ratty old seat.

He let out a yelp of surprise. Or rather...a squeak with how raw and dry his throat still was. "Or, er...I guess never mind. Looks like we got no choice in the matter now." He looked back at the blaring neon lights in the back window. "I can flip the bill if you want to stay there until morning and then gas up?....That way you don't have to both help some punk stranger AND pay to be murdered in your sleep by whatever psychos run that house of horrors." A bright chuckle escaped his lips as he pointed back at the motel. Coupled with an innocent little crooked smirk at his own terrible joke. Shady was putting it lightly for the place but it was a more comfortable place to stay for the night.
 
  • Nice Execution!
Reactions: egghead
There wasn't much that could be done about bad luck. Glen gulped hard and tried to return his companion's smile but discovered that his mouth had become too brittle and chapped to move without splitting a lip.

Pulling up to the motel, he could already smell the chlorine from the pool. Up close, it looked much worse, like life hadn't breathed into it for years. Glen even considered staying in his car for the night instead, but knew he'd be much better off sleeping in an actual bed, no matter how dusty or moth-eaten.

"No turning back now..." he mostly told himself as he swung open the car door and clambered out into the cool night. Gesturing awkwardly for the other man to follow him, he led them to a door with a large sign pointing to it that screamed, in bold letters that made his headache ten times more debilitating:
F R O N T
D E S K

The worker who gave them their key was a skinny guy in a greasy wife-beater. It had a plastic tag that showed off their room number. "Around back," he grunted over the fan whirring above them, too invested in watching static on an old television screen to look up at them.

Around back, the actual room wasn't anything too shocking; it didn't have cockroaches or dead bodies. Instead it had tacky curtains, a tiny lamp with a busted shade shoved against the wall, and...one bed.

"Ugh..." Glen could already feel his back breaking at the thought of curling up on the ratty armchair tucked in the corner. "Well, it's better than sleeping outside."

Probably.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Love
Reactions: Axel1313
Lucid thought the manager was something to cringe over, man was he wrong. The room was even worse. Tacky, outdated and cramped. Least no bugs....as far as they could see.
"It's gonna be a tight squeeze but least it's a bed." he looked to the older man with a shrug. Not even thinking twice about it. He just wanted to sleep.
"Time to kick off the ol' shoes, bar the, door and hope creepo doesn't have this placed bugged amiright?" The young man chuckled with a newfound sense of energy. He kicked off his crusty sneakers and one of his socks before flopping back onto the bed. Sending up small clouds of dust from under the matress.
"I'll move in a bit mmmkay? Just soaking in what bedsheets feel like again." He hummed, reaching down to his right knee to unhook enough straps to free his stump of a leg and let it breath. Letting the metal and plastic and porcelain fling halfway across the room in the process. Felt good to be able to take that off for once. "I'd go take a shower too for your sake umm....old dude? But with the smell a that pool the water here's gotta be a coctail of chemicals that even I won't touch."
 
"It's Glen..." He hadn't taken a step from the doorway since they'd arrived, and it didn't look like he had any intention of moving. "I-I mean, it's fine, I can take the couch."

Scratching the back of his burning neck, he wondered if he was overreacting to sharing the same room...No, the same bed with a stranger. It didn't seem like the hitchhiker cared about sleeping next to somebody who smelled like a combination of ashtray and hot wings, but he still didn't want to risk anything.

Trying not to stare at the leg on the carpet, he shuffled inside, making to sure to deadbolt the door behind him. Cutting across the room, getting as far away from the other human being as possible, Glen cemented his place on the armchair. Letting his hand run across the arm rests, the leather felt like heaven against his calloused fingers. "Heh..." he huffed as he sank deeper into the seat, relief watering down the ache in his body.

Pulling out a cigarette from a pack crammed into his back pocket, he briefly considered cracking open a window before deciding that a little smoke wasn't going to drag down the five-star quality of the motel. Taking a deep drag, the old man enjoyed looking somewhat cool for a few seconds before he started imitating the horrifying noises his car made earlier that night.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"Glen~" He let the name roll off his tongue smoothly. "Wow. And just when I thought you couldn't get more average." he sat up on his elbows so he could shoot the old man a wry wink.
"My name is Lucid. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you haven't heard that one as a name before." A little chuckle escaped the young man. He watched carefully as Glen moved to the musty old chair in the room...he didn't seem one who liked much contact with people.
"I really do insist you sleep in the bed. It's gotta be the most comfortable thing in here other than the floor and loooord knows what has been on that right? Besides, I don't know about you, but it looks like both of us don't take up much space whatsoever so shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Another chuckle escaped before he fell back in to watching the old dude curiously again. And damn, craving a few puffs of his own cig after doing so.
"Smells like you like the old and cheap stuff there Glen." He teased. Taking out an E-Cig adorned in way too many Hello Kitty decorations and took a long drag from it and puffing out fluffy white rings that wreaked of strawberry bubblegum. "Can't blame ya though on that. It's still a good brand isn't it?"
 
  • Love
Reactions: egghead
He stared long and thoughtfully into nothingness for a few moments before his jaw hung open slightly; it looked like he was going to say something, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was a cloud of smoke. After the golden boy's words stopped flowing into his ears, he realized that he couldn't keep his eyes off of the cutesy stickers plastered all over his fake cigarette.

"Yeah, I guess so..." he muttered, voice lifeless before reanimating with his next question. "So, uh, what's with the cats?"
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"I guess so doesn't answer the question Glen." He poked fun at him mercilessly for such a blazee, so-so answer.
However his attention turned to the device in his hand when questioned about it's decoration."These?" He held up the E-Cig and turned it around in his hand. "Oh,well. My uh..." He hesitated, the only visible parts his cheeks taking on a shade of pink as he struggled to get it out.
"My son decorated it for me. It's the cutest thing really." The color in his face deepened but a warm smile graced it as well with the warm memories. "He absolutely loves Hello Kitty and told me that since it's something that makes him happy, he put as much of it on something that makes me happy. So I can be, according to him. 'super doubly happy.'..." He looked back over at Glen. "Cutest lil shit in the world if you ask me..of course I'm probably a little biased too, haha."
 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: egghead
Glen sucked in toxic air so sharply that the cigarette almost tumbled into his lungs. "W-what?" he stammered, finally glancing up from a stain on the carpet to meet the gaze of his roommate. The revelation stunned him, so much that his mind blanked on the fact that he was just outed for being boring.

"You have a kid?" The word cooked hot bile at the back of his throat. He never had children, and didn't know if he could handle them. But the smile on the blond's face also stabbed loneliness deep into his heart, made him wonder if maybe he was missing out on something in life.

"Ah, ha ha..." he began to laugh, nervously, like he was incapable of relaxing. "I-I mean, I'm not saying that, because you're young that you shouldn't...Uh, it's okay if..."

He put out his smoke against the sole of his shoe, grinding it until it was a crushed up smear, almost wishing God or a giant would reach down and do the same thing with his head.

"...Um, yeah, th-those are cute cats."
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Love
Reactions: Axel1313
Lucid couldn't help but laugh at that reaction. It was one he was no stranger to and had even come to enjoy seeing every now and again.
"Uh-huh. And no need to try not to offend me. I've heard it all by now. Trust me. My little tyke is...aaah shit, going to be turning seven soon? And I'm only twenty-four myself so you just do the math on that one." He took another drag from his cig. Blowing out a billowing cloud of smoke that blanketed his soft features for a moment. "I do agree. They are damn adorable cats...."

"Er....got any kids yourself? I count furbabies too, just so ya know." he smiled softly at the old man. Trying to make light of the subject seeing as the poor guy's face looked a little more destressed at the mere mention of kids.
 
"No." The reply didn't really hold any sadness; he was just telling the truth. He had somehow fumbled his way into adulthood, was slowly crawling towards that dreaded 40, and still ended up completely alone despite owning several leather jackets and an okay-ish jawline. "I-It's...it's just me."

He must have realized how pathetic that sounded, since he softened the blow by tacking on a shrug and a somewhat inconvincing: "I-I don't mind."

After stacking his leg over the other so that he could scratch an itch underneath the strap of his sock garter, the calculator in Glen's head suddenly worked a miracle. "H-hey, did you say s-seven?" he asked, cautiously, not sure if he heard it right.

"Wait, that means you were only..." his voice trailed off, extinquishing itself before it said anything that could earn him a punch in the face.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: Axel1313
"Ah, I get it. Don't worry man, kids definitely aren't everyone's thing. Not even mine really but whoooops that definitely didn't go according to plan. Not like I had one to begin with though." He laughed. "And hey, you're still young-ish? And not too bad lookin, definitely a project though- er.." He covered his mouth for a moment. Damn his sleepy motor mouth. "If you ever change your mind. Right?" He mirrored Glen's shrug.
Then rolling onto his side to make it easier to talk, tucking his half leg under the sheets to try and stop the aching. "I did indeed say seven and yes, seventeen going on eighteen when the happy little accident happened. I was young, stupid and thought I knew how love worked. A regular old teenage 'rebel'." he made sure to emphasize the rebel bit with air quotes dripping with sarcasm. "Hell, I even dropped out of high school too. Y'know, the ol 'I'm sixteen and can do whatever I want and know more than any adult!' kind of deal? You ever go through that phase? You don't seem like the type but hey, life and age are a bitch so who knows."
 
A hoarse guffaw erupted from the sad sack festering in the corner; he couldn't hide his grin. Hearing about this guy's teenaged exploits reminded him of his own younger years and how much of a "rebel" he was at that age.

"Actually..." his eyes strayed back to the splatter on the floor. "I-I guess I did."

He chuckled again at the memory of his jet black, slicked-back hair and switchblade he nicknamed "Cherry". It all seemed so long ago now. Reaching for another cigarette, his hand cramped when he also realized that the only thing that really stuck with him from high school was a bad smoking habit.

Everything else just kind of faded away.

"I...I guess we should turn out the lights now." Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, Glen curled up into a fetal position on the couch. The sight would have probably been endearing if he wasn't approaching middle age and his limbs weren't so long and haunting.

"Goodnight," he muttered over his shoulder, sealing his eyes tightly shut despite already knowing that he wasn't going to catch a lot of Z's in a place straight out of a horror movie.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"Ha! I knew it." He teased with a merciless crooked little grin. "I got this image in my head of what you probably looked like and gotta say. Right now it's pretty hilarious. No offense of course y'know? It's just that I only know you from looks only." He chuckled, rolling back onto his back.

"Mmmmm....yeah. Sleep's a good idea right now. Or whatever is close enough to sleep in this place." His eyelids felt like they had lead weights attached to them. Slowly pulling them shut. He only had enough energy left to slide off of the bed and hop over to his prosthetic. Best bring it close to the bed so it wasn't an extreme ordeal to fetch it in the morning.

Taking one glance at the sad sack barely fitting on the couch he made one last trip. Grabbing a pillow from the bed and one of the layers of sheets he balanced himself on nearby furniture, making his way to Glen. "Here....you gotta have at least something to make that old ratty thing more comfortable." He tossed the musty old thing over the old man and set the pillow by his head. "Oh and Glen.....thank you for picking me up out there. I really owe you one man. Bon soir"

With that the young man hobbled back over to the bed and flopped down on it face first. Exhaustion weighing him down so much that it only took a few minutes for him to fall soundly asleep. Wrapping the sheets around him like a cocoon. Blocking out the horrors of the shady motel for the night.
 
  • Love
Reactions: egghead