The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Hitching a Ride

After all the commotion at the donut shop, I just took my coffee with me and headed back for Foothill Blvd. Traffic was light and it was hot so I wanted to keep moving, so instead of standing on the corner, I headed down the hill with my thumb out. On days like this, I liked to strip off my shirt but that's not the best way to get a ride, so I put the hair in a ponytail, used a napkin to wipe the sweat off my neck and kept on truck'n.  

I ran into Little Greg coming up the street and he asked,

"Got any?"

I just shook my head, we high-fived as we passed each other. Man, it was a hot mutherfucker, one of those days when there's not a cloud in the sky and the sun seems to be your personal torture device, beating down on you. I stopped under a canopy in the front of Tony's liquor to get a break from the bearing heat and lit a ciggy. I leaned against the brick wall, cool against my back and that's when I heard it.

"Dude, can I get one of those smokes?"

There was only one voice in the world that sounded like that and I wasn't particularly in the mood to look in the direction from whence it came. My heart lept out of my chest and my sweat seemed to double in an instant. Being as I was standing there alone and no one could see me I slowly turned my head, promising myself I would not scream or any other dumbshit. There he was, just standing there plain as day, like he was at the donut shop. I had to suppose he was a ghost, but he seemed more solid than the other apparitions I had been dealing with. 

He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and Kacky trousers, same freckled face, flaming red hair and big blue eyes still magnified larger than life. It took all my grit not to run screaming down the street, I stood my ground, held out my pack of Kool's and shook one out. He, of course, reached for it with his spindly long fingers but failed miserably to take it. 

"So does this mean I'm dead?" He asked, puzzled.

Though I felt as if I were losing my fucking mind, I answered him the best I could.

"From what I have experienced, I'm afraid so Pal." I put the cigarette he couldn't  grasp in my mouth and lit it off the one I already had going.

"That would explain why I'm not getting dope sick." He cocked his head and blinked his eyes a couple times and said, 

"I haven't used any insulin either, so that's a check in the plus column," He chuckled.

Then he looked at his hand in front of his face,

"I can't see through my hand, not exactly ghostly is it?"

"Not the kind of ghosts I've come to expect, you're not all that scary at all," I said.

He then thrust his hand through the brick wall and it seemed as though he was trying to grab something. He laughed that croaking laugh that was peculiar to him. 

"Even if you could grab something in there, it wouldn't be able to come through the wall now would it?" I pondered.

"Well, I suppose you're right there Merrill old chum, hold on a second."

Then he stepped right through the wall, quite disconcerting if you ask me, not something you see every day. I was happy I wasn't high, that was for sure. He stepped back out and said,

"Did you know old Tony had a shotgun behind the counter?"He asked.

"I always suspected as much, as many times as he's been robbed."

"Now I have to wonder why you can see me, nobody else seems too, why do you?"

"probably something to do with that acid, remember?"I reminded him.

"Ohhhh yeah, you and Dale's head, have you spoken to him lately?"

"Not so much, I was wondering where they were in fact. Have you seen them Worm?"

"Can't say I have Merr," He took off his glasses to clean them on his shirt tail. I had never actually seen him without those coke bottle glasses, he looked a lot younger, though you could see the marks the heavy frames left on the bridge of his nose. He then realized as he was cleaning them that he didn't need them either. He looked around, up at the canopy, at the cars passing by and then at me.

"Hmm, I always hated these things." He said matter of factly, then he folded them up and stuck them in his shirt pocket, "Better keep them just in case, don't know what's gonna happen next."

"I gotta get down to Van Nuys to meet Michelle at her work, you wanna come with? I was just stopping here to get out of the heat for a minute?"

"Oh yeah, look at you all sweaty and stuff, It ain't hot to me at all, in fact, I'm not sure I can even feel temperature."

"Can you walk or are you just gonna float next to me?" I was getting used to this idea. he stamped his feet on the ground and they made no sound whatsoever.

"Wow, no pain either, that's another check in the good column. I had a lot of pain you know."

"I had no idea, never heard you complain."

"That's how I got my heroine habit my brutha, my feet, legs and back were fucking killing me and now, I guess they really did Ha ha! Hey, do you suppose someone will find my body soon, last I know I was in the bath at Terrible Derrill's."

We began walking down the blvd, me with my thumb out, Worm in front of me doing the same. 

"You know Brutha, maybe this whole being dead thing ain't so bad. I haven't felt this good fuck'n ever, and I mean ever. I was born fucked up from the get-go, my Moms was a dope fiend when I was born, that's why I WAS half blind, shit I only weighed two pounds. Diabetes, blind, liver failure, all kinds of fucked up shit. But today... I feel fuck'n great."

I noticed as we walked that the sun had a strange effect on him, he sort of blinked off and on randomly. Having no idea what that was about I didn't bother mentioning it. He seemed to be having such a good time I didn't want to spoil it. I knew the passing cars couldn't see him either but what the hell, he was having fun being Worm and I was good with that. My world had gone crazy and this was just another crazy assed thing, I couldn't wait to tell Jimmy. 

A random cloud crossed the sun casting a shadow as we walked and I heard the sound of a car with a broken muffler pulling up just behind us blowing their horn...