I woke up violently with a hard jerk. I slowly opened my eyes, the sun shining brightly in my eyes. I sat up straight and looked out of the window to my left. I forgot I was in my friend Joseph’s car. I turned to my right and he was staring at me, obviously trying to hold back laughter.

“What?” I asked, feeling kind of uncomfortable.
“Haha, you are the most violent sleeper I’ve ever seen. You were floppin’ around like a retarded fish. You were talkin’ too, nothin’ really made sense though, you just said funny stuff like ‘om nom nummy’ and senseless stuff like that.”
“Haha! Wow, I must have had a nightmare or something, I don’t really know. I can’t remember.”
“No prob, we are on our way to a wedding, people get uncomfortable at weddings. Whose wedding is it anyway?”
“Eh, I don’t know. One of my cousins, I met her like once before when I was, like, six.”
“Awesome, well we are almost there, maybe two more hours. My aunt and cousins live in Salt Lake City, maybe I’ll stop by and say hi or something.”
As we drove on I jumped in the back seat and started looking through our coolers for something to eat. I grabbed a few apples and hopped back in the front seat. There was a weathered hitch-hiker standing on the side of the road. He had long dirty hair. He was standing next to a sign stating the amount of miles to Salt Lake, but Joe just kept driving. Did he see him? He had to have.
“Hey, why don’t we pick that guy up?”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t quite feel like pickin’ up some strange hitch-hiker and get an axe buried in the back of my head.”
“Come on man, what are the odds of that?”
“Okay, we’ll pick him up.” Joe said, letting out a loud sigh.
Joe turned around and drove back to where we saw him, but the man was gone. Where could he have possibly gone?
“Well…he isn’t here…he must be pretty fast…” Joe said with irritation in his voice.
Joe turned back around, headed towards Salt Lake.
“Well that was weird. Oh well, guess we will just go witho-“ I was in shock. The same hitch-hiker was standing in front of us.
“I think we should just keep goi-“ but Joe already stopped the car.
“Hey, you goin’ to Salt Lake?” Joe asked.
“Yeah.” The man replied flatly.
“You wanna ride? Hop in the back.” Joe told him. He sat in the back seat.
“Thanks.”
“No prob.” Joe replied.
I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and a little nauseous. I don’t like this guy. We should have just kept driving.
“So where you goin’ stranger? What you got goin’ on in Salt Lake?” Joe asked.
“A wedding, my truck broke down a while back, a brown pickup.” The man replied.
“Joe, I don’t think we passed a brown pickup…I don’t think we’ve even seen one since we set out on our trip.”
“Eh, no worries.” Joe replied, giving me a serious look. I know he feels the same as I do.
“Hey, I gotta take a p***, gimme a sec.” Joe said, pulling over. He took the keys as he stepped out of the car. With his right hand he quickly flicked his fingers. I knew he wanted me to get out with him.
“One sec, I do too.” I said, quickly getting out of the car.
We walked a good 30 feet from the car to a cactus. Joe unzipped his pants, but didn’t take anything out.
“Gabe, I don’t like this guy.” He said quietly.
“Neither do I, you were right, I think he’s a little...strange.” I said, also unzipping but not takin anything out.
“Well, we already offered him a ride, can’t just tell him to get out of the car because he’s weird, just keep an eye on him for me Gabe.” Joe told me.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” I replied.
We both walked back to the car, taking our time. We got back into the car and Joe started it up. The car was silent for a good 20 minutes. Then, out of nowhere, a large truck smashed into the driver’s side of our car. Dazed and confused, I looked to my left, Joe was barely conscious. I shook him, trying to keep him awake. He shook his head and we both looked up, the truck was a large brown pickup.
We looked at the driver’s seat of the pickup, and the man driving the pickup was wearing a pillowcase over his head. There were two glowing red eyes peering out at us. The man pulled the pillowcase back and it was none other than the hitch-hiker.
“Joe! We gotta get movin’ man! Hurry!” I shouted.
Joe started up the car and floored it. I stared out of the windshield, expecting the worst. I could see a small black dot in the center of the windshield, and it seemed like it was slowly growing. Soon I could make out a shape, it appeared to be moving. As I focused in on it, I realized it was a hatchet, flying right at us.
The hatchet smashed through the windshield. Shards of glass flew everywhere, a few pieces lodging themselves in Joe’s throat, and in my left eye. Joe yanked them out and continued driving, coughing erratically and holding his neck. As I looked out of the windshield, the man stood in front of the car, laughing like all of this was a joke. Right before the car hit him, though, he vanished.
When we arrived at Salt Lake City, Joe immediately drove to the nearest hospital. Surprisingly, the glass that flew into Joe’s neck didn’t go very deep, just a few small bandages and he was okay. They checked my eye, but there was no glass stuck in it, just the clean cuts. The doctors told me that I was lucky that the cuts weren’t very deep, and that my eye would heal up just fine. I had to wear a bandage over my eye for a week or two, and I would be fine.
When the doctors asked us what happened we played stupid. We just told them we slipped down a flight of stairs helping a friend move. They either bought our story, or they just didn’t care. That night Joe and I rented a hotel room. We didn’t speak at all about what had just happened, we just separated the beds and crashed.
The next morning we had to get up early for the wedding. Though we were a little stiff, over all we weren’t in as much pain as we thought we would be.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not driving back to Vegas, I’ll sooner buy an airplane ticket and fly back.” Joe said.
“Agreed.” I said, letting out a soft chuckle.
“Well, the wedding is soon, we better get going.” I said.
“Agreed.” Joe replied.
We decided to rent a cheap car, figuring any cheapy would probably look better than the battered car we drove into town with. We drove to the church and took our time getting out of the car. Joe rushed inside of the church.
“Whoever that hitch-hiker was, I’m sure God will protect us from his evils.” Joe said nervously.
“I sure hope so.” I replied, barely able to hold myself still.
We interacted with some of the family inside of the church. We sat down and chatted while we waited. The groom stepped up onto the stage.
“Wow, his hair is all matted and dirty, you would think he would clean up before his wedding, eh?” Joe said.
As he turned around Joe’s jaw went slack. I looked up, and saw the groom looking back at me. His face twisted into a wicked smile. It was none other than the hitch-hiker that we had picked up on our way to Salt Lake City.
I got up and bolted for the open doors in the front of the church.. Before I could reach them they slammed shut. Chains whipped out of the walls and slammed tightly on the doors. There was a pentagram carved in the wood doors.
I spun around to find another exit, but I was no longer in a church. I was standing on the top of a stone pillar, a tempest of flame whipping around me. The hitch-hiker was standing in front of me. A wicked smile crept across his face as he began to blacken and melt.
All that was left before me was a bubbling black puddle. The liquid then began to rise and take shape. It solidified into a pitch black demon. Its horns were cracked and splintered. Another wicked smile crept across its face revealing its sharp crooked yellow teeth. He slipped his long pointed tongue out and licked his lips.
“What the! What the hell is going on!”
“I’m not going to sugar coat it or give you a riddle. You, Gabriel, are dead, and this my delicious little morsel, is your hell.” Replied the demonic creature with a manic cackle.
“M-my hell?”
“Yes, destined to live in fear and agony for the rest of eternity. I’ll show you some mercy this time I don’t quite feel like torturing you.” Said the demon.
The demon leaped at me, its mouth wide open, and swallowed me whole.
I woke up violently with a hard jerk. I slowly opened my eyes, the sun shining brightly in my eyes. I sat up straight and looked out of the window to my left. I forgot I was in my friend Joseph’s car. I turned to my right and he was staring at me, obviously trying to hold back laughter.

“What?” I asked, feeling kind of uncomfortable.
“Haha, you are the most violent sleeper I’ve ever seen. You were floppin’ around like a retarded fish. You were talkin’ too, nothin’ really made sense though, you just said funny stuff like ‘om nom nummy’ and senseless stuff like that.”
“Whoa man. I just had some crazy déjà vu.”
“Aw man, I hate that.”
“Wow, I had the worst dream man. I’ll tell you about it after i eat.”
I jumped in the back seat and rummaged through the coolers. I grabbed a few apples and hopped back in the front seat.
Joe’s eyebrows raised, “Yo Gabe, there’s a hitch-hiker, should we pick him up?”