I-68 Bypass

[jackofallgeeks]

I'm not sure how long I'd been driving. A long time. There's really no such thing as sunset in West Virginia. The place is all hills and valleys, 'mountains' as the locals call them, which reduces sunset to one climatic moment, one splash of read over the sky before darkness. I pulled off the highway and over an overpass to a gas station just as the sun kissed the ridgeline and it was over before I'd parked. I staggered the first couple of steps, my feet unused to walking after so many hours driving, but it felt good the get out and stretch. There was a stiff, chill wind that felt good on my face and carried the clean smell you only find several hundred miles out from any large city. I walked purposefully toward the restroom, a side building next to the gas station's quick mart. I'd never needed to pee so badly. I was washing up, splashing water on my face to clean the grime of the day off and wake me up a bit, when the door opened behind me and a man walked in. He was middling-height, just shy of middle aged with a haircut that would make a pretty poor come-over once he crossed that threshold. He wore a suit that was a little rumpled from driving, his shirt half-untucked and one shoe untied. He cast a furtive glance at me out of the corner of his eye, catching my face in the mirror, before taking one of the toilet stalls. One thought occurred to me: dark country highway like this, that guy could be some kind of... psycho killer or something. I wiped my hands over my face and saw my own reflection in the mirror. Tall and broad, with an old t-shirt that almost didn't fit, bloodshot eyes and a day's growth of stubble, pallid complexion and a dull, brutish expression on my face. And that's when it struck me: I was the psycho killer. We all have our part to play...

Comments

I can hear blues guitar when I read this one

[xenu.livejournal.com]

So...what happens next? Who IS this guy and what is he doing? Where is he headed? What did he do?

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute ... I've heard this story before ...

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

-laughs- Well, yes, but the (implied) ending to this version is different. Plus, I wasn't in that bathroom, I was pumping gas, so I had to make up the details.