I was very reluctant to go up there after the stories I had heard at school but, I went along with it as I really liked him and he was a big tough rugby player, what could possibly go wrong?

 

Stephen pulled up at my parents place just before at 8pm, he drove a black Volvo estate owned by his father. Stephen knocked at the door and I answered, My folks came to the door and greeted Stephen, they stood chatting to us on the porch before we said goodbye. He told Dad he’d look after me and have me back by 10.30pm as it was a school night and final exams were fast approaching.

 

We headed down Drury lane and through town, as we got closer to the turn-off for the asylum, the street lights of the city began to slowly disappear until we were driving in almost total darkness. We turned left onto Gallows Hill Drive, my heart started to beat slightly faster recalling the stories. I told myself everything was fine, we were in a new car and I was sitting next to a big guy who could handle himself well.

 

As we made our way around a slight bend, something jumped out in front of us, was it a fox or a person?

 

‘Did you see that ?’ said Stephen

 

‘Yes’  I said, rubbing my eyes

 

He continued on up the road which had now become gravel and much noisier. The sound of the blue metal hitting the underside of the car was like a meteor shower from below.

 

‘CRASH’ the windscreen shattered, as I turned right to look at Stephen, all I could see was a thick wet tree covered in hundreds of black spiders, it had speared its way through the windscreen, between the seats and right through the back of the car, Blood and yellow spider guts were splattered all over the cream leather seats.

 

Stephen had no choice but to pull up in the middle of Gallows Hill Drive. Memories of the stories rushing through my mind, urban myths, whatever the fuck they were had now started to become our reality. Stephen got out of the car and shut the door.

 

There was silence, so silent it was deafening, all I could hear was a slight breeze that was whistling through the gap between the shattered windscreen and the giant tree that had speared its way in, the Spiders were all over the cabin like a black hairy rash. It began to rain, I could hear the big drops hitting the glass on the sunroof right above my head. There was an almighty ‘THUD’ followed by two more loud thuds, a shadow flickered across the dashboard of the car, the radio came on, the glow lighting up the cabin and then off again… ‘THUD’ Oh god this was one of the stories I had heard, I was living a nightmare.

 

I re-ran the story through my head - A young couple break down, Man gets out, Woman in car hears a dull thud on the roof, she gets out to investigate and see's an escaped patient from the mental asylum up on the roof. He has decapitated her partner and is banging his head on the top of the car.  Should I get out? What am I going to see if I get out of this car?

All of a sudden I felt something tight around my throat, it was almost squeezing my airway as I put my hands up I felt big warm hands, they were Stephen’s hands, we had arrived at the Lookout, I had drifted off, I just smiled and kept quiet.

 

I heard a laughing sound, I turned to my left and looked out the window, there was a man standing there staring back at me chewing what looked like a human eyeball, was I dreaming? Was this Urban Myth or Reality? I felt crawling all over me and that smell, what was that fucking horrid smell, I looked right, the tree was gone, Stephen's torso was strapped into the driver's seat, his head missing at the shoulders, there were things crawling out of where his throat used to be... I looked to the left again out of the window, the man was gone, this time there were bars, steel galvanised bars, I felt a warm feeling, I opened my eyes to the reality of a padded cell and a straight jacket,  my own urban myth, the reality was I had been confined to a mental asylum.

THE END