Insomnia Horror Collection

The Last Fight We Ever Had

I grew up living with my cousin Gilbert, he lost his father at an early age and he and his mom started living with my family shortly after as money was hard to come by for a single mom. If you asked anyone what is was like they would no doubt answer with, "chaotic."

See for some reason Gilbert and I fought, a lot. I mean about everything from day one. Bedrooms, food, television stations, the weather; any excuse we needed, we fought. I can't really say why but during those days I hated him and I don't think it would be a stretch to imagine he hated me also. Looking back now I wonder if it was because I was young and didn't understand that his living with us and taking up our space and resources wasn't his choice but a necessity.

So that was us, we fought... days trickled into months and those into years and nothing really changed except we became adults. It ended though, the fighting, the anger and hatred... it all ended that day at Debbie's birthday party.

I must have been nineteen by this time and Gilbert was only a year younger than me. We were at a close family friend's birthday party and we did a great job at making it awkward for everyone by fighting over the most ignorant things. This time was a little bad because it got physical; I remember actually slapping Gilbert across the face with the cord from a toaster.

He retaliated by kicking a chair over that hit me in the knee and fell into one of the guest's baby. We both apologized but the damage was done. It was kind of a party killer and shortly after everyone started to go home; it was getting dark so we used it as an excuse to go as well.

I was driving and Gilbert of course bummed a ride from me like usual. Looking back on it, for two people who hated one another we sure spent a lot of time together. So there we were side by side in the car driving home together after successfully ruining a birthday party and hurting a kid, proud moment for us both.

This of course started another argument as to where the blame belonged. We ended up on a back road off the main interstate because some overnight road construction had sprung up while we were at the party. I didn't really pay attention as the argument was getting heated. The road was dark and getting darker, where we were at was kind of rural so there wasn't much in the way of street lights. Guess we didn't pay it any mind, what was important at that time was placing blame and hurling insults. Yes we were so into it that we barely managed to notice passing the lone black man standing on the side of the empty road. We kept going at it; Gilbert would turn on the radio to drown me out and I'd reach over and turn it off. About a mile down the dark two lane road we passed another lone black man, just standing there only illuminated by our headlights as we passed.

It got a bit quieter in the car as we both paid a little more attention to what was going on. Gilbert looked over his shoulder and back at me but I had nothing to say to him yet. Another three quarters of a mile and true to form there he was again on the side of the road. This time there was no mistaking it, it was the very same man and we both knew it. Gilbert reached over and turned the radio off his self this time then looked at me with a face I have never seen on him... terror.

"Claudia... was that..." He asked hesitating.

I looked at him blankly and in shock, "Yeah I really hope not." I answered.

But I knew it was, it had to be. Unless a group of very similar looking black men were out playing a prank in the night for one random car on the road. It was dead quiet in the car now, all we heard were the sounds of us going over the cracks in the road and the wind. The strange, dead peace would not last. To our terror but not surprise we were coming up on the same man on the side of the road once more. This time I had to get a better look, if not only to satisfy my curiosity but to also flip him the bird. As I approached I slowed down a bit, not slow enough for him to approach us but slow enough for us to get a good look.

What we saw will forever be burned into our minds, one of those memories you wish you could fall and hit your head to forget. As we were now close enough to see the man's face we could see him smiling. He was just standing there, in the dead of night all alone smiling at us and never breaking eye contact. He wasn't hitchhiking or speaking or waving, he just smiled and stared right into our eyes.

Gilbert started cursing and begging me to go faster to which I obliged, this wasn't natural something was seriously off. I went from around forty to fifty five miles per hour and a mile down the road the son of a bitch was there again, I almost expected him this time. As we passed the routine began to change, this time as we got closer he turned to walk in the same direction we were traveling. We passed him once more, a half of mile later there he was again! This time walking but still looking at us grinning ear to ear, even bigger than before. He walked but his head was fixed on us and he moved with robotic movement, stiff and inhuman. A sickness began to grow in my stomach, even the air around us seemed... off. Gilbert was visibly tearing up and was shaken, he kept looking over his shoulder and then let out the most blood curdling scream I have ever heard from a male.

"Claudia look!" He screamed as he was turned around looking behind us.

I looked over my shoulder and the man was behind the car! He was jogging and keeping pace with us. I looked at my speedometer and it read forty five, this was impossible but so was passing the same man seven times on the same road. The sick feeling in my gut turned into panic, I pressed on the gas even more and watched the needle cross the fifty five mark.

"Claudia!" Gilbert screamed with his voice cracking and breaking.

The man was actually gaining on us, this time I could see him near my back door. His body and feet were moving at blurring speed and his smile was growing more deformed by the second. It was now taking up the entire bottom of his face and literally stretching ear to ear.

Gilbert was completely in shock and terrified and so was I but someone had to keep driving. The situation couldn't have gotten any worse or more terrifying... until it did.

The man started to grow larger in size; it seemed like every mile faster I went he grew an inch in height. I pressed my foot on the gas until it felt like I would punch right through the floorboard of the car. Being a small compact car that wasn't built for speed I was approaching its limit.

The car began to hum as I approached the ninety miles per hour mark and by this point the man was close to seven feet tall and running perfectly in sync with us. He was on Gilbert's side with his hand on the top of my car and he was leaning down as he ran and peering in at us through Gilbert's window. His eyes were wide and bloodshot; his smile was massive and disfigured. Gilbert shoved himself to the floorboard and was sobbing and I was out of ideas. This is where we die; I felt it in my bones.

I didn't know what to do and the car had no more speed to give us. I slammed on the breaks and the man tripped and tumbled a few feet in front of us. I saw him getting back up slowly and I looked at Gilbert who was crying still.

"Pray with me, Gilbert pray with me right now!" I screamed.

I wasn't sure what that would do if anything, it was the only thing I could think off; we couldn't outrun this thing that was apparent and I just didn't know what else to do.

Gilbert and I tucked ourselves in the floorboards best we could and started reciting the Lord's Prayer over and over through tears. I remember feeling Gilbert's hand grab mine and I could hear loud footsteps approaching with a wheezing kind of giggle with them. It never came... for some reason it never came. After about seven minutes I climbed up and Gilbert did as well, we looked around and nothing was there but us and the night. He was gone... it was gone.

We wasted no time getting back on the road and didn't slow down at all. Paranoia gripped us as we constantly looked around expecting to see the man on the side of the road or worse... next to us, but we never did. We made it home and everything was different after that. Gilbert and I suddenly found everything we used to fight over so pointless and just dumb. People noticed the change in heart between us but never knew why. I have never told this story until now and to this day I don't know what happened that night. I don't know who or what that thing was and I pray I never see it again... that was the last fight we ever had.

The End