What’s that coming over the hill?

Ellie Johnson has had more than enough of driving tonight. She’s none too fussed on driving in the dark anyway, at least not on her own. It’s so quiet. It’s crazy to think it, but she always feels like having the music on loud will drive the demons away.

Crazy, of course. She feels like a little kid just thinking it, never mind saying it out loud, which is why she never has.

Bleep bleep!

And it’s a hell of a lot easier – and more legal – to drive when your nagging bloody dad isn’t wittering on the phone, too.

“Dad? I dunno, hour and half, tops. I'll be there soon as I can.” The signal is coming and going, and the music’s not helping either, but with the phone sandwiched between her ear and her shoulder and both hands on the wheel she hasn’t really got any hands spare to change that. “I can't hear you. The signal's going.”

There’s no answer from Dad – shockingly enough, the signal’s gone. Ellie switches the call off, tosses the phone onto the passenger seat with a sigh. Sodding valleys, couldn’t get a decent signal if your life depended on it.

--And oh shit, is that a body on the road?

Calm down, Ellie. You didn’t hit it, therefore it’s not your fault. No police and no higher insurance level for you. Get out and take a look. But it’s dark and she’s alone and Dad has nagged her often enough, so she grabs her trusty baseball bat before she gets out cautiously into the not-quite-blackness, door left open behind her for a quick getaway.

Warily, “Hello?”


“Are you all right?” She prods the figure carefully with the bat, and almost laughs when the head turns out to be a football. Fucking pranking kids...

And then a thought, and she swings around with the bat for someone creeping around behind her, and nearly laughs again when, of course, there’s no-one.

...Ooookay. Freaked out now... She heads back to her car, quickly, where the music (she thinks) is blaring her demons away, and reaches for the keys she left in the ignition – which aren’t in the ignition.

They must have dropped onto the floor. Yeah, just that. Nothing wrong here, it’s fine, just- just lock the doors first, yep.

No sign. Getting really worried now, Ellie grabs for her phone, tries to call Dad -- “Come on!” -- but of course the fucking signal’s gone, hasn’t it?

A sudden clatter, frighteningly close at hand, and then a scrape on her roof.

“Help!” And she sounds like some kind of little kid in the dark, and even the music can’t help her now...

She recognises the chirp of the doors unlocking with a sick swoop of her stomach and a gasp. “Leave me alone!”

And then the door opens and she’s screaming like a kid, screaming and trying to get away from the figure, the thing, screaming still as it drags her out of the car but there’s nobody to hear her, nobody at all...

Is it a monster? Is it a monster?