The Criminal

Amanda was driving to her hometown. It has been months of hectic work, and she was finally happy to go home and relax. As she drove down the familiar route, her mind went on a journey of its own �" down the memory lane. All her childhood years, all the events that made her the woman she was today, flashed before her eyes.

As she reveled in the memories, the flashing lights and wailing sirens pulled her from dreamland back into reality.

“What the hell” she spoke to herself. “I wasn’t speeding”

She was ready to give the officer a piece of her mind, when she realized that the car wasn’t after her. It was probably transported a convict to the prison, just a few miles down the road. She remembered how that prison was a curse on her hometown. Prisoners escaped all the time and their closest target would be her town. She glared at the prison as she drove past it.

She turned on the radio to take her mind off things. Music always made her feel better. Just as she crossed a signpost that said she was five miles from her destination, she saw a guy sticking out his thumb. He was muscular, and dressed in formals. He looked like he was probably in his early thirties. Amanda stopped the car, and rolled down the window.

“Hello there! I’m Joseph. My car broke down, and I need a ride. Would you be so kind to give me a lift?”

“Sure Joseph, hop in. I’m Amanda, by the way.”

Amanda liked picking up hitchhikers. She was always happy to have them in her car.

“So Joseph, where are you headed?”

“Vacation. I have a cabin around here. Just a mile before River Heights. We’re vacationing there for the weekend”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Amanda was curious.

“Me, my wife, and our kids. We wanted to go somewhere peaceful, and where be--”

“--better than River Heights?” She finished his line for him. “I was born and raised here. Welcome to our town, Joseph”

“Oh. You’re a native. My mother was from River Heights, so the place is always special to me”

They continued exchanging stories, as the car approached a small path that broke off the highway.

“That’s the way to the cabin” Joseph said, sounding excited.

As they drove down the dark path, an unsettling feeling came over Amanda. But she kept driving, as the path suddenly ended in the middle of a forest.

“Umm... Joseph? Where’s the cabin you--” A sharp blow to her face stopped the sentence in half.

Joseph got out of the car, pulled Amanda out, and shoved her on the ground. She tried getting up, only to get hit again.

“You know Amanda” he said, ripping off her shirt. “Picking hitchhikers around a prison is a foolish thing to do. They might turn out to be a killer. Lucky for you, I’m merely a rapi--”

He froze, as he felt a cold intrusion in his chest. He looked down to see blood dripping down the slit between his ribs. Amanda shoved him off and stood over him, with her favourite knife covered in his blood.

“Speaking of foolish things, you should never get in a stranger’s car, especially a stranger who grew up around a prison”, she said with a maniacal smile in her face. “Like you said, they might turn out to be a killer”

Joseph gasped, as the cold knife proceeded to taste more of his blood. It was going to be a long night.