I spent my early 20's traveling a ton. I worked part time with a imported car company that did shows all over the south. Several times a year I would drive from Florida to Kentucky, Tennessee to Georgia, all over the place. Often these trips I would end up taking some strage country or county roads to avoid highways early in the morning. The worst drive of my life 3 things happened that I can't explain. The first happened around 1am. My GPS tells me to take the most sudden exit onto a side road off the interstate. It's nothing but farm land and trees but my GOS swears its a shortcut. I'm cruising for 5 minutes or so when an old mustang pulled up behind me flashing their lights. They rode my bumper for about 15 minutes, but there was nowhere to pull off in the middle of all the country side. They revved up and I thought they were finally going to pass me being as there was no oncoming traffic- we were the only ones on the road for miles... but the car never passed me. I physically turned my head to check my blind spot and the car was gone. There was no turn off or area for them to have pulled over it just straight up disappeared. When I got back on the interstate 30 minutes had passed but I was right back at the same exit I had taken to get off. I had been on a long, straight, dark road for 30 minutes and ended up exactly where I had started.
A couple hour pass and I'm now 10 hours into my drive and only 2 hours from my home. I turn off the interstate onto a county road that leads to the highway my house was on. It was a local short cut I had taken many many times only about 2 cities over from my own. It was a little after 3am. I go for a cigarette to keep me awake the last leg of the ride, and my lighter runs out. As I'm fixing to put the cigarette back in the pack I pass a poorly light gas station. Perfect! I pulled into the parking lot and decided to fill up. While I'm at the pump I notice inside there are 2 people. An old memaw looking woman in a mumu at the register, and a big ol'red neck fella in overalls in the aisle. Theyre facing each other like they're in a conversation but neither of them are moving. I make my way cautiously inside and approach the register looking for a Bic lighter. I didnt see any so I asked the woman at the front if she had any. She looked at me like I was from Mars! I tried to explain I just wanted a lighter for my cigarettes and she goes "oh! I have matches if that's what you're looking for" she hands me a box of matches and doesn't charge me for them. I thank her and turn to leave when I realise the man on the overalls still hasn't moved, but I can feel him watching me. I'm 19 or 20 years old and 125 lbs soaking wet at this point in my life. The hair on the back of my neck is standing straight up and my brain is yelling at me to get the hell outta there. I quickly make it to my car and THE EXACT moment I turn on my engine, every light in that gas station goes off. Inside, outside, the pumps, the street light. It's pitch black except for my headlights. My tires squealed I tore out of that parking lot so fast. I kept that box of matches for years to solidify in my mind that that experience actually happened. Everytime I went back on that county road I searched for that gas station, and never saw it again.
At this point I'm not 45 minutes away from the state line and an hour from my comfy bed. I'm freaked out and beyond exhausted. I had been up for 2 days and could go cross-eyed I had been staring at the road so long. I'm still on the same road but am a long way from the gas station and I'm still trying to put it out of my mind, when all of a sudden I see blue lights behind me. Now, my father was a police officer for 26 years. I remember the year police card went from the old school rotations lights to the new LED bar lights. This hellacious road trip was probably around 2016, and behind me was the old school rotating light. It was too dark to see what kind of car they sat on, I just saw blue. I luckily had a friend who was a sheriff deputy a couple cities over and called him, knowing he worked night shifts and would still be awake. I asked him if he knew of any departments that still used these old lights and he told me noone in the entire state has them. He told me to keep driving until I saw a public spot to pull over but absolutely not to stop on the dark side of the road. I drove for a solid 30 minutes keeping my friend on the phone with me, the blue lights trailing behind me the whole way. I finally hit the cross road where the county road meets the highway. I'm almost 20 minutes from my house. I pulled into a very well lit gas station at the intersection- a gas station that I stopped at almost daily on my way to work and felt very comfortable at. The blue lights behind me suddenly cut off, and the car sped off too fast for me to get the license plate or a good description.
I went inside the gas station, bought a redbull and a pack of smokes from the little lady at the gas station whose familiar face and friendly smile felt like a warm welcome back to reality.
I got home that morning and checked all my doors several times before falling asleep. Soone after I quit traveling with the car show. To this day I hate driving by myself. I always bring a friend or my dog on long road trips. And no matter what the GPS says I stay on the highways and interstates. I have only told this story to 2 or 3 people over the years in fear of people not believing me. I still swear I fell into a time warp, or maybe the twilight zone. I'm now married to my police officer friend and he very clearly remembers that night as he was on the phone with me several times through out the night. We've only talked about it once.
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