WRONG TURN,RIGHT ON TIME PART1

  This happened a few months ago. I've been driving for Lyft for a few years now, and I usually stick to late night shifts. The roads are quieter and the tips are better, but there is a trade-off. Every once in a while, you get a story that sticks with you, and not in a good way. I'd always thought of myself as careful. I've dealt with my fair share of odd passengers, but nothing, and I mean nothing, even came close to being as strange as what I'm about to tell you. 

 I didn't have a dashcam at the time, and that night was the main reason I installed one. It started off normal enough, just me and the odd sounds my car would occasionally make. I've got this beat-up 2005 Volvo, but it's reliable as hell. The streets were quite literally deserted, which like I said earlier, I preferred. Sometime after 2pm, I got a request from a convenience store nearby. Seemed harmless at first, but for some reason, I got this weird feeling in my gut about it. 

 You ever get that feeling like something's off, but you can't explain why? That's exactly what hit me as I drove up. Before I even saw the guy, I figured out why I was getting that gut feeling. The convenience store I was pulling up to was closed, all the lights were off, and there was not a single car in the lot. As I pulled closer, I saw him.

I made sure to drive pretty slowly so I could get a good look at him. He was pacing outside the store, wearing this ratty hoodie that looked like it hadn't seen a washing machine in years. I'm not kidding about that, there was literally a hole in his sleeve. His movements were jerky, like he couldn't stand still, and he kept glancing over his shoulder like he thought someone was after him. If I had to guess, he was on something. 

 I probably should have just cancelled the ride and driven away. I even hovered my finger over the cancel button, but I didn't for whatever reason. I unlocked the doors, and he slid into the backseat without a word. I regretted my decision the moment I took my foot off the brake. Most people either scroll on their phones or stare out the window, but not him. He just sat there, staring at me through the rearview mirror, not blinking, not looking away, just staring directly at me. I tried not to stare back, but I couldn't help but catch his eye a couple of times.

He looked kind of angry, which was also pretty unsettling. I tried to ignore him and turned on the radio to break the silence. I don't even remember which station I clicked on, but the moment the music started playing, he snapped at me to turn it off. His voice was deep and a little raspy, and I could tell he was a smoker right away. That kind of caught me off guard, and I jerked the steering wheel a little bit. I resisted the urge to look at him in the mirror and just did as he said, gripping the wheel a little tighter.

I didn't say anything, and we drove in silence for a while. I thought maybe he'd just sit there quietly until we got to his stop. That's what I was hoping for, at least. But then he spoke. I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. He asked me if I ever picked up someone I shouldn't have. That question hit me like a brick. I let out this awkward laugh and said, well, I hope not. I was trying to keep it light, but he didn't react.

He just leaned back and muttered something to himself that I couldn't hear. Then he started going on about how he used to be an Uber driver, and he quit because some punks stole some stuff from his car. He was slurring his words a bit, so I couldn't make out everything he said, but I got the gist of the story for the most part. I looked in the mirror once or twice while he was telling me the story, and I realized he was smiling the whole time, which was incredibly unsettling. A normal person wouldn't smile talking about something like that. 

 He concluded his story by saying, it's funny how much trust you put in someone sitting right behind you. That comment was what did it for me. I started thinking about him as more of a threat than just a crazy drug addict. Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do about it. I felt my pulse speed up. I kept my eyes on the road, but my mind was spinning. I glanced at the GPS, focusing on the destination like it was some kind of lifeline, but the guy did not know when to stop talking.

He kept babbling about nonsense, some of it concerning and some of it just gibberish. I honestly couldn't keep up. Eventually, he started apologizing to someone, although I don't think it was me. He began insinuating that he had just done something awful and that he was a bad person. He kept saying I didn't mean it repeatedly, followed by a few frantic I'm sorry. I didn't respond worried that he'd do something if I did.

I didn't know what he'd done or what he was capable of, but I wasn't about to find out. We were only a few minutes from his stop when he snapped out of his muttering haze and yelled at me that I had missed the turn. I didn't miss it. The GPS clearly showed we were on track, but I slammed on the brakes anyway, mostly out of fear. He demanded that I pull over, so that's what I did. My hands were shaking at that point.

I just wanted the nightmare to be over. As soon as I shifted into park, headlights appeared behind us. It was a police car. I said a silent prayer and watched as it crept down the road, its spotlight briefly sweeping over my car. The guy in my backseat slouched down like he was trying to stay out of sight. I turned my head and saw him lying almost perfectly flat on my backseat with his eyes closed. I whipped my head back around before he saw me, trying to keep my breathing steady.

He stayed in that position for a really uncomfortable amount of time. I wanted to ask him to leave, but decided against it. Eventually, he lifted his head and told me I had gotten lucky. Before I had a chance to do anything, he opened my car door and disappeared. I ended up calling my shift short after that. I was shaken up and didn't feel like driving around anymore. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I came across something on my phone that proved how dangerous of a situation I had been in. 

 According to a news article, a convenience store had been robbed on the night I picked up that passenger. It was two blocks from where I had picked that guy up. It makes me sick knowing I was inches away from a dangerous criminal who could have harmed me if he had chosen to. I'm a little scared to contact the police about this. I try to avoid law enforcement for various personal reasons I won't get into. I'm not really sure if my report would even help. 

 Either way, I'm much more cautious about who I let in my car. I used to live in the city. The urban lifestyle is honestly what I always envisioned for myself. I'm not going to get into it, but after an extremely traumatic experience, I couldn't bear even the smallest noises. I began to hate noise in general. My psychiatrist told me I had developed a rare case of phonophobia, so that pins and needles feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. 

 It's kinda like that, but in my chest. Always there, like my body was bracing for something that wasn't coming. Every car horn or slamming door felt like a jolt straight to my nerves. I couldn't keep living like that. About three years ago, I found a cabin buried deep in the Pacific Northwest. I don't want to say exactly where it was, for reasons you'll soon understand, but all I'll say is that it was somewhere in Oregon. It seemed perfect.

Very few neighbors, no traffic, barely any cell service. What really sold me on it, though, was the lack of noise. It was just me and the peace and quiet. For the first time in months, I thought I might actually feel safe. The cabin itself was small, but cozy. To be fair, it was exactly what the listing had promised. You could tell it had been built to last, with thick wooden beams and a sturdy stone fireplace. It smelled like pine and old books when I first walked in. You know, that kind of earthy scent that's almost comforting.

Think like one of those old cabin style bed and breakfasts, for any of you who have gone skiing before. The nearest neighbor lived about a ten-minute walk down a narrow dirt path. I didn't meet her right away, though. For the first few days, I just soaked in the silence. I'd wake up to the sound of birds instead of sirens, and at night, the only thing I heard was the wind brushing through the trees. It was like the whole world had pressed pause, and I could finally breathe again.

I did all my work from my laptop, so there really was no need for me to connect with the outside world beyond that. About a week after I moved in, there was a knock at the door. The cabin obviously had no doorbell, so those knocks were something I'd have to get used to. I opened the door, expecting it to be my neighbor, and it was. It was a moderately old woman carrying a basket of preserves, like she'd just stepped out of a Hallmark movie. 

 She introduced herself as Michelle, and told me she lived about ten minutes down the trail, which didn't sound far at all until you factored in how dense the woods were. I mean, you could get turned around in there just looking for firewood. She was in her late sixties, with oddly long gray hair and these piercing blue eyes that made you feel like she could see right through you. She wasn't rude, exactly. More like blunt. She welcomed me to the woods, and extended the basket toward me like she was expecting me to take it. 

 I didn't really have much of a choice. She was practically shoving it in my face. I know it sounds hospitable, but her vibe seemed a little off, if that makes any sense. I grabbed it impulsively, but I admit I had never been treated that way by a neighbor before. It wasn't anything crazy, but it wasn't something I was used to. I thanked her as I took the basket, and she looked at me like she was expecting me to say something else. 

 I honestly didn't know what else to say, so I just smiled. She kept staring at me awkwardly, which confirmed my suspicion that this woman didn't interact with a lot of people. Eventually, she spoke. She said, and these were her exact words, which I'll never forget, always keep your lanterns full, your windows shut tight, and your wits sharper than your axe. It wasn't something a normal person would say to someone else.

It was like she was reciting from a rule book. It honestly sounded more like a warning than advice. I nodded, smiled, and turned to go back inside. After shutting the door, I stood there in silence, waiting to hear her footsteps walk away. She didn't walk away for a good 45 seconds, which was probably the strangest part about the whole interaction. Despite the weird vibe, I did appreciate her kindness. She seemed reclusive, but not unfriendly, the kind of person who'd help you if you asked, but wouldn't go out of her way to pry.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING 👄 PART2 COMING SOON