Something Wicked This Way Comes Challenge

Urban Legend chosen: The Ghost Hitchhiker

Title: Home

Summary: Jacob and Seth stop on their way to a party to pick up a girl who seems to be lost, and get more than they bargained for.

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A/N: I don't own anything; it all belongs to Stephenie Meyer. This is a bit darker than the stories I've written before. It creeped me out writing it, so hopefully someone else will get the heebie-jeebies, too. :)

Home

So leave me at the roadside,
And hang me up and out to dry.
-Roadside – Rise Against

"You ready to go, Seth?" I yelled, grabbing my keys from the coffee table. We were late already, and my idiot little brother was taking his sweet time.

"Almost. Give me a sec, Jake," he yelled back, probably from the bathroom. The prick spent more time in there than our sister did. I rolled my eyes and patted my black leather jacket to make sure I had everything I needed. Cell phone, check; wallet, check; keys, check; hopeful condom, check. I went down the hall to find Seth.

He was in the bathroom, like I'd thought, putting more gel in his hair.

"Come on, Seth. We were supposed to be gone ten minutes ago. Bella's not going to wait forever."

Seth rolled his eyes and squeezed the gel into his hands. "You're never gonna bone her, y'know. She's all over that Edward guy. I think it's his hair."

I picked up the tube of 'Got 2 Be Glued' hair gel and chuckled. "Everything is about hair to you, dude. You have more lube than a dirty whore."

Seth grabbed the bottle back and set it back in the cabinet before picking up his comb. For all the shit he used, he usually opted for a plain, combed back style. I leaned against the door frame and waited for him to get done. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye a few times.

"You know, you could go do something else while I finish." He put the comb down and washed his hands. His hair was nice and shiny now, pitch black like mine and looking a little crusty. Once it dried, a jackhammer would have a tough time budging it.

"You're done now, aren't you?" I asked, contemplating ruffling his hair. Then I thought of how sticky and gross it would be, and the temptation passed.

He sighed, an irritated sound, and pushed his way past me. "Yeah, let me just grab my jacket."

I smirked, following him to his bedroom. He gave me a quick glare and slipped into his little emo jacket with skulls and stars on it.

Finally we were leaving. Seth obediently got in the passenger seat of my 1986 Volkswagen Rabbit, and I took off. The streets were dark, my headlights and the lampposts offering minimal light. It was overcast tonight, so there were no stars and the moonlight was just a blurred glow through thin spots in the clouds. It gave an eerie sort of light that made the trees that lined the road barely visible. The town was built in the middle of the woods, and sometimes it felt like there were more trees than houses on any given street.

Seth reached out and scanned through radio channels, trying to find something that wasn't a commercial or a talk show. After ten o'clock, it seemed all the radio stations stopped playing music. I glanced at the clock on the dashboard – Twelve twenty-one. I sighed; I had told Bella I'd be at the party at midnight.

"You realize you've probably blown my chance with Bella, right?" I asked. "It took me two months to even get this chance set up."

Seth rolled his eyes at me. "You never had a chance to begin with. She probably just said that so you'd stop begging like a helpless little puppy."

I sneered at him, but didn't say anything back. Seth and I, along with our sister, Leah, had lived in Forks, Washington, for just over a year. I'd met Bella one day at the grocery store, and knew I had to learn more about her. Bella Swan was a caregiver at the old folks' home. She was short, brunette, and sexy with dark mahogany eyes and an inviting smile. She was single, but local therapist Edward Cullen had his sights on her as well. I was determined to get to her first, and Seth may have ruined it all for me. Her brother Emmett was throwing a party tonight for the hell of it, and thank God Bella and Leah were friends. It granted me an invitation.

Finally, Seth found some decent music. I sighed and decided that even if Edward was already there, I still had a chance.

"Dude, where the hell are you going?" Seth asked. "You just missed the turn."

I looked around and realized he was right. "Goddammit. Why the hell weren't you paying attention, asshole?" I started looking for a place to turn around.

"Why should I pay attention? You're the one driving."

"You've never seemed to care before; you're always telling me what's coming up. You're worse that a wife."

"What the fuck ever. Just turn around at that stop sign up there."

The headlights reflected dimly off the stop sign as I started slowing down. As I approached the intersection, a figure walked out from behind a large, slanted tree. It was a woman in a white dress, and she stopped by the sign. She looked over at us and slowly raised her hand, holding up her thumb.

A shiver ran down my spine. "Think we should pick her up?" I asked.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Seth cried, turning to me with a horrified expression. "Haven't you seen 'The Hitcher'?"

I chuckled. "She's a girl, Seth. Probably not more than twenty years old. We're grown men. We could easily overpower her if she tried anything funny."

He shuddered loudly. "I still say don't do it."

"Well, I'm going to anyway."

I rolled to a stop at the sign and rolled down Seth's window, leaning over to see the girl. She bent down to look into the car, one hand on the door, and Seth flattened himself against the seat.

"You okay, miss?" I asked.

She slowly shook her head. There was something off about the girl. Her movements were slow, exaggerated.

"Do you need a ride?"

She nodded and a small smile tugged at her lips. "Yes, please."

Her voice gave me another chill. It was distant and a little raspy. Her skin was pale and powdery. It looked like it would shatter if I touched her wrong. I had to wonder what the hell had happened to her.

"Go ahead and get in the back." I motioned to the backseat, and she nodded again before standing up and moving to the backseat of the car. It took her a moment to open the door and climb in. Once she was in, though, she situated herself in the middle and looked at me through the rearview mirror.

"Thank you," she said happily, all traces of the rasp gone. The dome light was on, and I could see more of her details now. She was pretty with rust-colored curls, a pale face, sensual lips, and wide green eyes. Her skin looked healthier in the light, not so breakable.

"Where do you need to go?"

She leaned forward, putting her arms on the shoulders of the seats, and Seth shrank back from her a little. She didn't seem to notice him at all. I looked over at her, and she smiled silently at me for a second before answering.

"Six thirteen Grand Street."

Grand Street wasn't too far from where we were now, so I nodded and started driving. She leaned back in the seat, and I caught a whiff of a strange scent. It was lavender and sugar, but almost too sweet with a bitter undertone that stung my nose a little. "What are you doing out so late?" I glanced at her in the mirror.

She shrugged. "I was on my way home from a friend's house and got lost in the woods. Normally, I would have just stayed the night, but we got into an argument and I just had to leave."

I nodded. "I'm Jacob, by the way." I held up my hand for her and she smiled as she shook it.

"Nessie."

"Holy crap, girl! How long have you been out there? Your hands are like ice." I rubbed my hand on my jeans to warm it back up.

She looked a little embarrassed. "It's been a while."

"Seth, give her your jacket."

He looked over at me in disbelief. "Give her yours."

"I'm driving, I can't just let go of the steering wheel. Give the girl your jacket; she's freezing and you could outlast an Alaskan winter."

Seth grumbled as he rolled his eyes and took off his jacket. "Fine, but I want this back," he said as he handed it back to her.

She took it gratefully. "Thank you. I promise you'll get it back, completely intact." She shrugged into the jacket and rubbed her hands together.

I turned down Grand street and frowned. "You sure you're going here?" I asked, looking around. There weren't even any houses on the street.

"Yeah, it's just a little ways further. It's six-fifteen."

I nodded and just kept driving.

Seth huffed. "You know, Edward's probably getting Bella drunk right now, and will probably have her in bed before one thirty."

I groaned. "Drop it, Seth. This is a little more important."

Nessie leaned forward again. "Did you have a date tonight?" she asked, looking over at Seth with a slight smile.

"No, but he did."

Her smile fell as she looked at me, and for a very brief second I swear I saw her eyes flash black. A shiver ran down my spine. It was impossible. Nobody's eyes went black. Not entirely black where it erased any traces of white. There were no more streetlights; all I had were the dash lights. It had to be a trick of the lights and my imagination.

"You did?" she asked, a strange hint of an almost-rasp underlining the question.

"Well, not really. We were going to a party, and there's this girl I was going to try to talk into going out with me."

She nodded, but the way she looked down made it seem more like a calculating gesture than an understanding one. I licked my lips and cleared my throat, changing the subject.

"About how far down here is it? Are we getting close?"

"It's not too far now. Only a few more minutes. Six eighteen."

I nodded, but something didn't sit right with me. Did she realize she'd just given three different numbers? I glanced over at Seth, who sat slouched down in the seat, staring out the window. For a moment, I wondered if he had something when he asked me to leave the hitchhiker alone.

"You sure? There's nothing out here."

She sighed and leaned back. "You know, I think you're right. Maybe it was 2nd street. I'm sorry, it's been a very long day."

I shrugged and turned the car around. "No worries. We'll get you home."

"Leah's going to kick your ass. You know that, right?"

I looked over at Seth. "Then why don't you call her and let her know we'll be on our way once Nessie's home." I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and handed it to him. He snatched it out of my hand and started dialing the number.

"What's that?" Nessie asked, leaning forward in the seat.

"What's what?"

Seth glanced at me for a second before holding the phone up to his ear.

"That thing you gave him."

I cocked my eyebrow. "My cell phone?"

"Cell phone… Is that like a telephone?"

"Are you kidding me?" I glanced at her, and her face made it obvious that she wasn't kidding. She looked honestly curious, and maybe a little intimidated. "Where have you been hiding the last forty years?"

She met my eyes for a brief second, and hers seemed glazed over as she answered me. "Nowhere." She leaned back in the seat and crossed her arms, her eyes cast down. I looked at her in the rearview mirror for a second before turning to Seth. He was in a conversation with someone on the other end.

"No, he says we'll be on our way in a bit, but I'm not too sure about that. This girl doesn't seem to know where she lives."

I furrowed my brow and contemplated smacking him upside the head for his rudeness. It wasn't like she couldn't hear him.

"Nessie… someone." He turned and looked in the backseat. "What's your last name?" Her voice was quiet when she answered him, and I hoped neither of us had hurt or offended her. "Nessie Masen."

Seth was quiet for a minute. Then he held up his hand and leaned forward a little. "Whoa, slow down. What?"

I furrowed my brow again, for a different reason this time. "What's going on?"

He turned to look in the backseat again. "Is your first name Renesmee?" he asked.

I glanced in the rearview mirror. She looked up and nodded. "Yes. Nessie's my nickname. Why?"

Seth shrugged and went back to the call, confirming the girl's name. He leaned forward again, rubbing his eyes as he hummed, nodded, and 'yeah'd a few times. I wished I could hear what was being said on the other end. Seth's shoulders stiffened, and the car became eerily quiet. A strange air filled the small space, and suddenly it felt like we were all being watched. The muscles in my back tensed up like I was going to shiver, but it didn't release. It just got tighter.

"What's going on?" I asked again.

Seth looked over at me, and the look on his face sent a tiny sliver of panic racing through my gut. He glanced in the backseat and then back to me.

"O-okay. I'll let him know, and we'll be there when we can. Love you, Leah. Jake loves you too."

He hung up and swallowed thickly. "Leah says we need to get there as soon as possible. Like right now." His eyes flickered to the backseat so quickly I might have missed it.

"Why? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, she said everything's fine there. But Edward took quite an interest in… our guest." His eyes flickered again. "He said a lot of people say they see her there at night. He said they have for years."

"Seth, quit being so goddamned evasive and just answer the question. What the hell is going on?" I started slowing down for the stop sign ahead. I recognized the slanted tree, and it seemed strange to realize it was the sign I'd stopped at to pick Nessie up.

"I mean, we shouldn't have picked her up." He turned back at her and I looked in the mirror. She was looking at him with a strange expression. It was fear, anger, innocence, and knowing all mixed into one, and it made me shiver. "You lied."

She blinked. "I didn't."

"You're not supposed to be here, are you?"

"What are you talking about, Seth?" I asked.

"Edward says she died sixty years ago. He has the damn obituary and everything to prove it."

I managed to push away the initial rush of uneasiness. "What the fuck, Seth? She's sitting right there in the backseat."

"Renesmee Ann Masen, yes?" He asked, looking back at her. Her fear and innocence seemed to be fading slowly.

"Yes."

"Got into a fight at your friend's house because she didn't want you to marry your fiancé, right?"

I raised an eyebrow, fighting another shiver as Nessie nodded. Her eyes darkened, but it was in a normal, living person kind of way.

"You left her house to go home in the middle of the night, got lost, and ended up getting yourself attacked by a group of drunken guys who eventually hung you from one of the trees?"

This time I did shiver. The car was still stopped at the stop sign, and I turned in my seat to look back at her. She met my eyes and nodded slowly.

It took a moment for everything to sink in. As I looked at her, her skin lost its color and became the pale, breakable skin I'd first noticed. Her eyes dimmed, the vibrant jade fading to gray, glossed-over sage. She looked like a corpse.

"Holy fuck," I said softly, breaking the silence.

"I'm sorry." The metallic rasp in her voice was back, and this time I realized that it was because her voice was hollow. There was no life. "I've tried for so long just to get home, but nobody stops to help me." Her movements slowed, taking on an unnatural sway that seemed too erratic to be on purpose.

Maybe because they listen to their brothers, I thought to myself. I closed my eyes. This was a dream. It wasn't real because it wasn't even possible.

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Nessie, you're going to get out of the car. Seth and I are going to go to the party, and we'll move on with our lives because this isn't even fucking happening right now." I closed my eyes tightly and took a few deep breaths.

"Dude…" Seth said, his voice barely more than a whisper. "Where the fuck'd she go?"

I opened my eyes and looked in the backseat. It was empty except for Seth's jacket on the seat. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"See? Not happening. This is all a dream and we'll wake up tomorrow and swear never to have whatever the fuck it was we had before bed again."

I put the car in drive and slowly started easing forward.

"Not a dream, Jake. It fucking happened. We saw, and gave a ride to, a fucking ghost."

"No, Seth. We didn't. Because ghosts don't exist. Do you fucking hear me? They. Do. Not. Exist."

Seth nodded and looked out his window. I turned up the radio.

"I told you not to stop," Seth said, not turning to look at me.

"I know, man." I should've listened.

He just nodded, and we were quiet again. I found the right road this time, and smirked to myself when Seth pointed to it as I turned.

We still had a half a mile to go, so I settled myself in for the ride. The song on the radio started getting fuzzy, static overlapping the guitar solo. The strange tightening pressure in my back I'd felt before was there again, and the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

"Hey, Seth?" I asked, although I wasn't sure why.

He looked over at me, and the fear in his eyes said he felt it too. I tried to shake it off as I pushed harder on the gas pedal. The static eventually overtook the song, and I reached out to change the station. Static. I pushed each of the preset buttons, but there was nothing but static.

"Just turn it off," Seth said, barely concealing the panic in his voice. I did turn it off, but it only caused my back to tighten up more. It got hard to breathe, and I wished I'd just shiver and get it over with.

I saw a sweep of headlights behind me, and glanced in the rearview mirror. There was no car, but the face in the mirror caused me to slam on the breaks.

"Holy fucking shit!" I yelled as the car screeched to a halt.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Seth cried out, bracing himself on the dashboard.

I ignored him, and turned in my seat to check the backseat. It had to be my imagination. I was nervous, frayed, and too damn tired. But when I turned, I realized it wasn't that.

I could only tell it was Nessie from the color of her hair and the shape of her face. Her skin was a chalky greenish-gray, and her eyes were completely black. Her hair hung down her shoulders in mangled curls, dirt and debris stuck in several places. Her head sat at a strange angle, like her neck as too weak to hold it up. I glanced at Seth, who had turned to see what was going on. His face had to mirror mine; I was sure I looked just as horrified and sickened as he did.

The Nessie-thing started leaning forward, reaching out to hold the front seats. I shivered; her movements reminded me of a few Japanese horror movies I'd seen. Like somehow someone had managed to take out a few of her frames and she jerked abnormally, missing a second of movement.

"I'm sorry, Jacob," she said in her hollow, metallic voice. "I can't let you do this." As she slid her torso between the seats, her head bent forward as though she had no control over it. Her hair fell away from the back of her neck, exposing a small portion of skin and a dark line that I recognized from the many forensics shows I'd watched on TV. Ligature marks were popular on those shows, and Seth had mentioned she'd been hanged on a tree.

I swallowed. "Do what?"

She turned her face toward me, and I recoiled from the muted cracking sound of her neck and the unnatural blackness of her eyes. I knew now that I hadn't imagined it earlier. "I was a hitchhiker once. The boys who I thought were rescuing me were my murderers. From the moment I woke up again, I've been trying to get home. That's all I want. Very few people have offered their help, and I never seem to get very far. You can help, though. I know you can."

"Why me?"

"You're different. You can help."

Seth was pushed as far against the door as he could go, frozen. I felt terrible for getting him in this situation. "I can't get you back to a house that doesn't exist anymore."

The soulless black of her eyes blazed, and I couldn't breathe as the pressure in my back spread through my ribs to my chest and stomach.

"I just want to go home!" she growled. My stomach churned in response to the tension. "Take me home!"

I swallowed and looked at Seth again. He was shaking, his eyes glued to the decayed girl between our seats. I had to get him out of this somehow. As his big brother, it was my responsibility to protect him from shit like this. I looked back at the Nessie-thing and my stomach gurgled. She was still staring at me, through me, waiting for my answer. The scent in the car had turned sour, like decay and bleach, and it made my head spin. Finally, I nodded.

"Okay. But first, let me take Seth to the party and drop him off. After that, I'll take you wherever you want to go."

Seth looked at me with huge, scared eyes. I gave him a pointed look; I had to do this.

The tightness in my chest decreased marginally, and I could breathe a little easier as she nodded jerkily. I cringed at the sound it made. She moved back slowly, and I took one more glance at Seth before I shifted into first gear and smashed down the gas pedal.

"Stop here," Nessie rasped a few blocks from Bella's house. I didn't argue; I pulled over and looked at Seth.

"I'll see you in the morning," I said, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder.

He looked at me, and his eyes were wet. "If you say so."

His fear spread to me, and for a brief moment I wondered if I really would see him tomorrow. I shoved it aside and pulled him over to me for a quick hug.

"Go tell Leah I'll be back after I help Nessie get home."

He looked hesitant for a second, but shivered when the thing in the backseat leaned forward. He licked his lips quickly and got out of the car. The door slammed shut, and my whole body shivered. I watched Seth run down the sidewalk, thankful that he didn't hesitate. At least he was safe now.

I closed my eyes and put my forehead on the steering wheel for a second to gather my wits. I'd already agreed to take the thing wherever it wanted to go, and I was just now realizing what exactly that meant.

"I want to go home now."

I looked up, a little startled to see her sitting next to me in the passenger seat. I nodded and turned the car around.

"Which way?" I asked.

She looked out the window for a second. "I don't know." She turned her head to look through me. "Home."