00:00My only option was to walk back to the gas station and use their shelter to call for help.
00:04I grabbed my phone, popped open my umbrella, and trudged back through the pouring rain,
00:10immediately dialing AAA.
00:12The automated voice informed me that the nearest tow truck was 45 minutes away.
00:17I reached the gas station doors, only to realize with a sinking heart that they were locked tight.
00:23The lights inside were on, but nobody was home.
00:28Trapped and desperate, I circled back to the motel office,
00:32hoping against hope that someone had finally appeared at the front desk.
00:36The lobby remained completely empty, dead silent except for the drumbeat of rain pounding the metal roof.
00:43Unease morphing into sheer dread, I stepped down the dimly lit hallway, calling out into the empty corridors.
00:51Hello? Is anyone here?
00:53No answer. Just the hollow echo of my own voice bouncing off peeling wallpaper.
01:00Then, I heard it.
01:02A loud, violent thump echoing from deep within the building.
01:06It sounded heavy and deliberate, like a massive body slamming directly into drywall.
01:13That was my final warning.
01:14I turned around and sprinted out of the building, tearing across the gravel toward my stranded car parked 50 feet
01:21down the road.
01:22As I drew closer to my vehicle through the blinding sheets of rain, I froze in my tracks.
01:28A silhouette was sitting inside my car.
01:31Someone was rummaging through my front seat,
01:34the faint glow of a flashlight illuminating their face against the dark glass.
01:38My breath caught in my throat.
01:41I slowly turned my head to look back toward the motel.
01:45Standing in the open doorway of the motel office, staring straight at me through the rain, was a second man.
01:52He wasn't hiding.
01:54He wasn't ducking out of sight.
01:55He was standing completely still in the frame,
01:59watching me with cold, predatory intent,
02:02tracking my every move.
02:04A primal, survival-driven panic overrode my thoughts.
02:09I didn't go back to the car.
02:10I veered off the road and made a dead sprint straight into the pitch-black wall of dense pine trees.
02:16I crashed through wet branches, stumbled over roots,
02:20and ran blindly into the dark,
02:22until the highway and the motel lights vanished completely behind a wall of foliage.
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