EELONA ALLISON - HITCHHIKER

Eelona Allison is a Creative Writing student at Full Sail University who often spends her time getting lost in books, finding comfortable spots to sleep, and watching foreign films. She enjoys analyzing books and stories and looks at different types of writing to see what she can input into her own creative mind looking at the world objectively and take in information with a unique perspective. 

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​HITCHHIKER

​The cold, wet, mud splashed around me as I ran out from the house, my clothes soaked from the rain, pants ripped, and my shirt torn. Slowly, my back drenched with blood from the freshly acquired wounds. I finally reached the road down the street from my home, wet asphalt stretched for miles around me with nothing but tall grass and scattered buildings in every direction that only the stars in the sky illuminated. It had been such a long since I felt so safe it was being the only person that existed.
I was finally free from my father who did everything keep me locked away from the world after he found out that I don’t think of myself as a male or female. He was always so loving and kind to me growing up, but he hated anything that didn’t classify as normal. My kind and loving father soon turned into my captor and torturer. My bedroom was soon replaced with a basement floor, and I was pulled out of school. He wanted to everything to hide his greatest mistake.
The dark basement kept me in, was so cold and quiet that the empty winter night streets were full of life and warmth to me. Lights approached in the distance. Frantically, I waved my arms trying to get them to stop. They slowly passed. Inside an old small car, an older looking couple, but they kept moving past me as if they don’t see me standing there. “Please stop please,” I said as I ran after them. I chased them for a few minutes while I continued to plead for them to stop. They finally slowed to a stop rolling their windows down, beckoning me to come closer as I approached their car panting. “Could you please give me a ride?”
“Sure, dearie, climb in the back,” the old woman said, sweetly.
I opened the door to the old car and was hit with a wave of urine and sweetness in the air. I hide the discomfort of the smell on my face, as I climbed into the vehicle. “So, dearie, where are you going?” the old woman said, turning towards me from the passenger seat.
 “Anywhere it doesn’t matter as long as it’s not in this town,” I said, solemnly.
“Well, at least tell us your name then and why you seem to be covered in blood,” she said.
“My name’s Ezra. I just es-escaped from my father.”
The car went silent, and we kept driving for a while. I felt uncomfortable when I realized that I must have been dripping blood and water all over their seats. They didn’t seem to mind, but I felt bad about it.
 Embarrassed, I curled up looking outside to see the surrounding buildings slowly thin out as we went onto the highway. I turned back as they flipped on the radio, playing a gentle jazz piece that seemed to really go well with the rain falling around us.
Regardless, the couple felt warm and safe like nothing could happen to me. Finally, I felt safe and free like I can be myself without the judgment of my father. But I never knew that I wouldn’t be safe that I shouldn’t have hitched a ride that I wouldn’t be seen again. The old woman cleared her throat. “Well, my name is Janice, and this is my husband Mike.”
“Do you think you can tell us why your dad locked you up,” Mike said.
 “I never sai—”
Mike laughed, leering at me in the rear-view mirror. “Kid, it’s pretty obvious he kept you away from people. Now, it’s okay you can trust us. We are giving you a ride and all.”
I looked down, feeling my cheeks heat up.  “My dad never liked how I was different. When I told him that I didn’t feel like a boy or a girl he locked me away. He would h-hurt me when I tried to get away or talked back to him.”
“I see. Well, you have nothing to worry about you’re never going back to him if we can help it,” Mike said.
“B-but he said it’s not normal that if I ever tried to leave people would hurt me even more. That I wouldn’t be excepted anywhere,” I said.
“Don’t worry kind your dad was messed up in the head. Theirs all types of people in the world and being non-binary is nothing to be ashamed of,” Mike said.
“Exactly, you have nothing to worry about, dearie. In fact, my husband is different as well. He may love me, but he’s not attracted to me sexually,” Janice said.
I tilted my head in confusion. “How does that work exactly?”
She chuckled and waved off my question. A shiver ran up my spine as Mike groaned deeply while staring at me in the rearview mirror. As the car turned into a wooded area Janice turned around to face me smiling widely and said, “You never did tell us your age dearie?”
“Oh, sorry, I’m twelve, ma’am,” I said.
She clapped enthusiastically turning towards Mike. “Well, isn’t this perfect, dear. Just what you like.”
“Yes, that is perfect,” Mike said, with a hunger forming in his eyes as he continued glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“What are you guys talking about?” I asked, my body clenched up like it was about to be pounced on by a starving lion. They didn’t answer me, and I panicked. I tried to open the car door to get out, but it wouldn’t open, no matter how hard I pushed. As they drove further into the woods, I heard the rushing of the nearby river, which made my chest pound as if it was the crashes of water hitting against the rocks.   
“I think I don’t want a ride anymore can you guys just please let me out here,” I said.
Janice turned to face me and frowned disapprovingly. “But we just found you and Mike is really irritable and needs to let off some steam don’t you think you could help him.”
Fear took control of me, moving my body before I knew it. I leaped forward towards Mike, my hands flailing about, scratching any part of him to stop him from driving. Mike swerved off the cliff, crashing us into the rocky river, killing Janice instantly and knocking me back into my seat. Mike crawled out of his seat coming towards me. I screamed as he started touching me and said, “If I’m going to die here I’m at least going to have fun.”
“No!” I bellowed.
I kicked Mike’s head knocking him out as water rushed to fill the car sinking it further in the river. Crawling over his passed-out body and kicked open the car window. I forced my battered body up the cliff making my way back to the road outside the forest when I got to the road I saw a pair of headlights heading towards me.
 Recounting my recent experience as a hitchhiker I ignored the vehicle and tried to get away, but they drove faster as they spotted me. The car stopped in front of me and emerging from the car was the last person I ever wanted to see. My father standing his face blank as he slowly walked towards me. For the final time, laughing hysterical, I saw look up at the night's stars, but they’d illuminate nothing for me anymore.