Thread by @dyllyp

So I don’t really believe in ghosts or anything like that. But maybe I should say “I didn’t believe in ghosts”—didn’t being past tense, because one night all of that changed. And I’mma tell y’all the story as soon as I make myself some coffee.

https://twitter.com/rabiasquared/status/1422761195233325070

Coffee acquired.

Okay, so a little backstory: I grew up in the Bay Area, right around the corner from Santa Cruz. In the 70’s, Santa Cruz was known as “The Murder Capital of the World” because the sleepy coastal town produced more serial killers per capita than any other place on the planet.

Herbert Mullin, Ed Kemper, John Linley Frazier, etc—all products of Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is also where The Lost Boys was shot, so there was just something spooky about SC. But, it was still my favorite place on the planet and these stories intrigued me as a kid.

Fast forward to my teens. I’m 17 or 18. I’ve just left my parents house and moved into a party house with a bunch of other teenagers. In the morning, I’m at a student at SJSU. During the day, I’m working at a skate shop. At night, I’m working the graveyard shift at a pet store.

So all these dudes I’m living in this party house with are avid extreme sports bros. Snowboarding, rock climbing, dirt bike riding, surfing, all that shit. One of their dads has a cabin in Tahoe, so we begin to make bi-weekly trips to go snowboarding and partying in the snow.

Well on one trip, me and my buddy Chris are stuck working late one night and we can’t get our shift off, so we agree that we’ll just meet the rest of the gang at the cabin after we get off. Our ETA was like 2:30AM, but we’re teenagers so we have that youthful exuberance.

Between the Bay Area and the snowy mountains are expansive stretches of farmland and nothingness and farmland and nothingness. I’m driving my Jeep, Chris is in the passenger seat. Well, halfway through the drive my gas light comes on so I stop at a gas station to fill up.

So I walk in the station, pay for the gas, grab some snacks. I see Chris walk in behind me to grab some smokes or whatever. After filling up the tank, I get in the car and Chris is already in the passenger seat ready to go. He’s looking sheepish so I’m thinking he stole something

And if he did, I don’t wanna be there when the gas station attendant in the middle of nowhere with a rifle behind his check stand finds out, so I peel out there and get back on the road.

Well no we’re driving through farmland and we’re surrounded by corn fields on each side. The moon casting weird ass shadows on everything. So Chris looks at me and says, “You wanna go off-roading?” And I’m like “What? Right now? Nah let’s just get to the cabin.”

So for the next hour, he’s bugging me. “C’mon man, it’ll be fun. No one’s out here. It’ll be dope. Pull into the field right there. That’s a perfect spot.” And now I’m getting annoyed like

“Pull over.” “No.” “Right there.” “Nope.” “I’ll drive.” “Absolutely not.”—for an hour straight.

Jokingly (but not really) I say dude, “I’ll give you $40 not to say another word for the rest of the drive.” I reach down to grab my wallet, and I left if at the station. Goddammit.

So now I’m really annoyed because we have to turn around and drive an hour back. And on the drive back Chris is still PLEADING with me to pull over into the corn fields. Almost child-like behavior tbh. “C’mon man, it could be fun” is what he keeps saying.

I pull back into the gas station. And the attendant sees me and Whattya know, my wallet is right there and he hands it to me.

After I grab it and turn around, Chris comes flying into the gas station and staggers me with a sucker punch. I stand up like “YO WTF IS YOUR PROBLEM”

Chris is livid. Screaming, “DUDE DONT EVER FUCKING DO THAT AGAIN. WTF MAN. YOU THINK THAT SHITS FUNNY. I THOUGHT YOU DITCHED ME. IVE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR LIKE 3 HOURS” And I’m like huh??

I was like “Are you high man? You were sitting right next to me acting like a complete psychopath.” And I look over at the gas station attendant, and he says, “Your friend has been standing right here talking to me all night.”

Me:

I have goosebumps just typing this.

But later on I found out Ed Kemper picked up a hitch hiking college student, pulled over, and murdered her on the side of the road—on that same road.

Anyway, I wrote a short film about it starring my boy Jonny Lipnicki.

My homie Adam here was a part of that crew. Good times.

https://twitter.com/punkcrabrangoon/status/1422972023983071232