It was a Friday evening and the sun had just went down. Me and my friend Sam were driving down the road about 15 miles from our house. We were looking for the party that was supposedly on Western Avenue. We had a couple of wine coolers in the back along with a couple beers - nobody showed up to these parties without a beverage of their own. I was in the passenger’s seat while Sam was driving his 4 door truck with the extended bed for those nights he got kicked out of his house with nowhere to sleep.

Main Street was dark and it was hard to see the street signs. Sam claimed he knew where the party was - he always knew where the party was - so i was quite content sitting in the passenger’s seat and watching as he flipped through the stations of music. All of them seemed to be on commercials and ads for various things and the few that weren’t seemed to be losing reception, fast.

Thinking he found the right road, Sam turned right and headed down the road. No stations were working so he shut it off completely. He seemed extremely frustrated and soon after turning, he finally admitted we were lost. Pulling over to the side of the road he reached for the glove box. Grabbing his GPS, he flipped the switch on and for a second the GPS was working. Once it turned on fully, Sam tried to locate a satellite. Unfortunately, the GPS didn’t recognize the road and then reminded us of how low its battery was. Turning it back off and shoving it back in the glove box, Sam tried to turn his car on. Sputtering, the engine wouldn’t turn over. Taking the key out, Sam tried again. Sputtering, the engine had trouble turning over. Sam looked thoroughly pissed.

Sam turned to me and saw that I was confused so he explained a few things.

“The engine won’t start so we are stuck here and the GPS isn’t charged.” he said.

I returned, “I thought you had a generator and a charger for your GPS...”

“No,” he said sighing, “My brother had to use my GPS charger and I never thought to charge my generator. We are stuck here until sunrise...”

“Crap” I said, “my mother is going to kill me. Is there a house or a gas station somewhere around here?”

“I thought I saw a house with their lights on maybe 3 miles back.”

“Do you want to go look?” I asked.

“You’re coming with me...”

“Sam please...you’re so much faster than I am at running. I would only hold you back and slow you down. Plus I’m tired.”

“Okay fine. You take a nap but when I come back, you owe me.”

“Okay” I replied thankfully.

“Make sure you lock all the doors and no matter what don’t open the doors for any knocking or creepy guys okay?”

“Okay. I will keep the doors locked and if any guys are sleeping in the bed of your truck when you come back it’s because you wouldn’t offer them a room in the backseat of your car...”

“Thank you.” he said laughing.

As he walked away I watched him in the rearview mirror, I watched until the darkness seemed to swallow him up as it left me alone to sleep. Turning to the door, I locked every door in the truck. Leaning the seat backwards I tried to fall asleep. My phone said 12:30 AM.

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I woke up to the sound of knocking. It wasn’t the normal knocking as in a knock at the door - no the knocking was frantic, like someone needed to get out of the cold or like someone was being chased and this was the only house for miles. Waking up, I became frantic trying to figure out what this knocking was. There were no screams, no talking, just the knocking. Looking at the time, I saw that it was 1:45AM. Sam should have been back by now. Looking around I tried to see where the noise was coming from. Bringing the passanger’s seat back to its normal position, I looked in any and all mirrors, but there was no-one to be seen. The knocking continued. I looked out the back and the front windows, all of those were also clear of anything peaking in. Curling into a ball, I told myself it was just a dream, and passed out again.

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Around 3:00AM I woke and saw that Sam still had not came back. Had he abandoned me? No, he wouldn’t do that. Something was wrong, and I had to find out just what it was. Getting up, I slowly opened the door and climbed out. The cold wind hit my face as I stepped down from the lifted truck. Reaching up to close the door - a good 2 feet above my head was the top of the door - I saw something above the truck. At first, I thought it was just the low hanging tree, but trees don’t move in a circle. Taking a closer look, I saw that it was a figure, hands tied above their head, mouth taped shut, hanging from a rope on the tree from their feet. I looked in horror as I realized who it was. Sam had been hung by someone, and was trying to get my attension by knocking, but I had ignored it. Sam was now dead, hanging above his own truck. Grabbing my cell phone, I realized for the second time of the night, the fact that I didn’t have any service out here. I had to call 911. So I left Sam there, and headed back on Compton Avenue for cell service to alert the cops of what had happened...