Roadside Distraction

By: Hannah Bertalot, Creative Writing Editor

“Oh, shoot…” 

Stella pulled over as her check engine light turned on. She popped the hood, grabbed a flashlight out of her door compartment, then paused as she noticed the baton that she kept with her in case of emergencies. Usually, she’d leave it there and wouldn’t pay it any mind, but tonight didn’t feel right. Of course, she could just be paranoid, but it never felt good when a car breaks down in the woods after dark. It always felt creepier.

Stella wasn’t afraid of the dark, nor was she particularly superstitious, but there were a lot of stories of people going missing in this area, and there were a lot of stories of people seeing animals, and a lot of stories about things that didn’t look like animals on the side of the road. It was just common sense to be cautious, in her opinion. 

She took the baton with her when she got out, then tucked it under her arm as she looked over the engine. Stella didn’t immediately see anything wrong, so she tried to start the ignition again, but found that it stuttered and refused to start. 

“Of all times, why now?” She complained as she walked back to look at the engine again. She knew that whatever little knowledge she had about cars wouldn’t help her here, so she mentally resigned herself to finding an alternative route into town. Stella slammed the hood back down, then got back into the driver’s seat. She flicked on the hazard lights and pulled out her phone. 

Naturally, it was dead. What was this, the opening scene of some cheesy horror flick?

Stella breathed a deep sigh as she racked her brain for alternatives. She certainly wouldn’t walk all that way in the dark, but she wasn’t inclined to sit here and wait until morning either. 

She could always hitchhike… but she wasn’t about to actively seek out the easiest way to end up as another headline on the local newspaper. 

Then again… what were the odds of something bad actually happening to her? It’s not like the stories of people going missing were more common here than any other place- it didn’t actually happen all that often, that was just all that people ever heard about in the Lone Pine area since so little happened in this town. No, maybe it wasn’t the most ideal option, but it beat being out in the woods by herself all night. 

Reluctantly, she got out of her old Volkswagen and stood on the shoulder of the road, watching for oncoming traffic. Headlights appeared in the distance, and she flashed her flashlight at it repeatedly. 

The vehicle came, then zipped past her, completely ignoring her predicament. Stella ran her hand through her hair, then sighed in frustration. Twenty minutes passed before she saw another vehicle. This time, she stepped onto the edge of the lane, more urgently flashing her flashlight at them. Thankfully, pulled in front of her car and stopped. A woman got out of the short truck, then waved to Stella. 

“Howdy, break down?” She asked. Her fingers drummed on the hood. 

“Yeah, my check engine light came on, but I don’t really know what to do with that.” 

“Bah, I don’t either. Need a ride into town? Where are ya headed?”

“The little diner in Lone Pine is fine, I can call my brother from there.” Stella answered. 

“Righty’ then, hop on in!” 

“Hang on a moment, I still need to lock up…” 

“Take ya time!” The woman then sauntered back over to the driver seat, and hopped in. 

Stella hurriedly shoved her baton into her purse, then grabbed her keys and her phone. She tried one last time to power it on, but the screen flashed a disdainful little red battery at her once again before it turned off. She frowned, but shoved it into her purse regardless. Stella shot a precursory glance around the front seat before she’d decided that she had everything that she needed, then locked the door. 

As she walked up the passenger side, she noticed that the exterior of the vehicle was extremely filthy, caked in mud along the running boards and a layer of dust higher up. Based on the accent that she’d heard from the woman, she assumed that she must have been a rancher, or farmer, or something. The truck fit the profession, she figured. 

Similarly, the truck smelled dusty when she stepped inside. There wasn’t really an escape from the sneezing-fit inducing scent, though. She pulled the door shut, and the woman barely waited for the doors to lock before they started back on the road again. 

“So, missy,” The woman started, “We’ll be ridin’ together for a little bit, why dontcha tell me about yourself?” 

Stella paused as she thought carefully about what she wanted to say. Enough to not come off as awkward, but not too much as to paint a target on her back. Usually small talk wasn’t so hard, but when she had to think so much about it, it really killed the flow of what could have been conversation. 

“Not the talkative type then, are ya? Well, I don’t mind.” The woman amended with an easy tone.

  She turned the dial on the radio, and a grating static played over the silence instead. The southernly woman hummed along to a melody that Stella couldn’t hear, seemingly unbothered by Stella’s stiffness. 

For a long time, they both stayed like that- and Stella could only be relieved that she didn’t try to force the conversation.

 Even if that made her feel a little less uneasy, she couldn’t help but notice other minutiae that kept her from dismissing her worries completely. With a brief glance over her shoulder into the backseat of the truck, she could faintly see a monkey wrench stained a dark color that didn’t really match the shade of any type of oil or other machinery fluids that she could think of- a dark-reddish brown. She tried not to overthink the odd location, either, but the manner in which it sat- weirdly within reach of the woman next to her, but laying like it had been frantically tossed there. 

Don’t be stupid, Stella. This is a nice woman, she’s not about to murder you.

As pleasant as it would be to listen to that thought, the way her stomach twisted violently at the thought of letting her guard down caused her to quickly push that thought away. It would be a better idea to pay attention, just in case. She wasn’t about to be murdered, but it would be a good idea to keep an eye out for deer, because that’s good practice to do as a passenger, and if she hitched a free ride into town, the least she could do was help make sure they both arrived there safely, especially with the abundance of animals out on this road at night. 

The drive continued in a conflicted silence, as one woman hummed along to radio static, and another who struggled not to lose her nerves as it felt like her instincts fought to reason with her in her head. 

Stella stared out the window, her eyes trained on the trees as they all passed in dark blurs. Every shadow looked like a moose, or a bear, or a deer, now that she thought about it. She couldn’t be certain that any of them really were, but she astutely watched in what felt like an increasingly unlikely case that one would run out onto the road as they passed by. 

“Get out.” 

Her focus was so deadset on the sides of the road that when it was eventually disrupted by the sound of a voice as it spoke up in a raspy whisper through the radio static, she nearly jumped out of her seat. 

“Woah there! I wouldn’t have asked ya anything if I’d known you’d be so jumpy!” The woman exclaimed as she cast a sideways glance at Stella. Had the woman said something? She didn’t hear it. 

“Oh, no, sorry, I was just watching for deer. Um, what did you say?” 

“I was only asking whatcha name was, missy.” 

“Oh. I’m Stella. Stella Wood.” She answered. Stella hoped she didn’t sound half as nervous as she felt.

“Stella Wood? That seems fittin’!” The woman chuckled as she shot Stella a cheeky grin. 

“Fitting?. . .” She queried.

“Well, bein’ that I picked you up in the woods, and all, y’know?” She explained, her demeanor unruffled by Stella’s stiff response. 

“Oh, yeah, heh. Wood. Woods.” Stella chuckled stiffly, “So what’s your name, then?”

“Awh, I’m Annabelle, but you can just call me Belle, miss.” She answered as she waved her hand in an easy motion. “Ya don’t really seem to be the Lone Pine type, so what brings you here into town?” 

To her overwrought, paranoid brain, that was the million dollar question that thoroughly convinced her that she was about to die. She tensely grabbed the seat, her hand halfway to the door handle like she wanted to rip open the door with the truck in motion. 

“Woah, calm down there, little missy! Y’get so worked up, I’d think you were plannin’ somethin’ terrible!” Annabelle jabbed playfully. “Jus’ a question, calm down.”

That’s right. Just a question, it’s fine. 

“Hah, sorry. Um, I’m just… there to visit my brother’s family.” She lied. From what she knew, if a murderer knew that someone would be expecting her, then they were less likely to actually go through with it. 

“Family, hmm?” She inquired rhetorically. “That’s a good thing to have, family nearby. We’d best be gettin’ you to ‘em pretty quick then, yeah? You plannin’ on meeting them at the diner?” 

Stella nodded quickly, as she settled into a comfortable lie with her fictitious family. 

“Yeah, super thrilled to meet me. I haven’t seen my brother in a while, either, so I look forward to catching up with him as well.”

“. . .Good to hear, good to hear. . .” She mumbled. Annabelle then turned the radio a little louder, so the static was a little too loud to maintain a proper conversation. Stella was unsettled, the way that the noise didn’t seem to bother Annabelle at all, despite the way that it grated on her own ears. They both let the chat die off after that, like that was all the information that she really needed to glean from Stella. With that, her attention once again wandered back over to the window, and she started to scan the side of the road again. Though at this rate, she let her gaze wander a little more than she had previously, as she continued to look around the interior of the truck. She tried not to let herself get hung up on minute details anymore, but one thing that she noticed she just couldn’t rationalize. 

The door handle was removed. 

Stella quietly inhaled, then slowly exhaled. She didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself again, but she knew she couldn’t stay here any longer. 

“Hey, do you mind if I roll down the window? It’s pretty warm in here.” She asked as calmly as possible. 

Annabelle shrugged, “I don’ mind, go ahead.” 

Stella weighed internally the stupidity of jumping out of a moving vehicle to staying inside with someone who screamed horror movie antagonist, and hesitated once again. Really, was she overreacting? She knew herself, and she knew that in the past, she had done a lot of irrational things based purely on being scared. The radio had its mind made up on the matter, though. 

“Jump.” 

Just then, on the edge of the road, she saw the silhouette of what vaguely seemed human shaped, but wrong. The reflective sheen of a deer crossing sign caught her eye as the figure waved it like a flag, and in the corner of her eye, she saw Annabelle reach for the monkey wrench in the back seat. The truck suddenly swerved to the side, and Stella lunged out the window. 

The cold night air bit at her arms as she soared out the window and rolled down into the ditch. 

She heard the crunch of metal, but didn’t stop to look as she forced herself to crawl towards what she hoped was Lone Pine. 

She didn’t know what was happening on the road, but she didn’t want to risk Annabelle coming after her.

It was hours after the sun came up that Stella finally arrived at the diner in Lone Pine. It was quiet to begin with, but a hush fell over the few patrons in their booths as she stumbled in. There was no doubt she looked a mess, but she paid no mind as she leaned against the counter. 

“Just. . . can I have a coffee, please?” She mumbled. 

The waitress didn’t comment as she set the radio next to her, tuned to the local news.

“Last night, there was a car crash on Lone Pine Highway. In the vehicle, wanted felon Annabelle Hendricson was found, along with her associated murder weapon, an old monkey wrench. In the vehicle, supposed victim Stella Wood’s purse and identification was found. A few miles further up the road, an abandoned vehicle was found, but Stella has yet to be found, dead or alive. Authorities are actively looking for her at this time, and appreciate any potential leads that citizens might have.” 

Stella ignored the cup of coffee that was set in front of her, far more stunned by the fact that she was still here. 

She was right.