CLANCYPASTA | "Eternal Horizon" by SubstantialBite788

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Eternal Horizon, written by SubstantialBite788, and narrated by ClancyPasta, Highway Hypnotism.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a real thing. Driving a tractor trailer at night with an monotonous ground-souring-wide line in the piston-pumping purring engine but you in another dimension, muscles relaxed and attention compromised.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_01]: You feel safe if there's an empty road ahead of you, but that's when the worst happens.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_01]: That's when the unexpected plows into your serenity with a snap of a finger. You wake up, shove from Nirvana, and into a new warped reality.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I often got lured into the eternal Horizon. That's what I call it. One night I was in deep.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I was somewhere else other than driving that truck. I don't even remember moving out of the hammer lane.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_01]: I missed my accent, but I knew I could take the next ramp and get to my destination that way.

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_01]: The only trouble with that route was the low-hanging bridge. There was not much clearance.

[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I barely fit under at the last time. And if they had paved the road recently, I was certain I wouldn't fit under at this time.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I was coming out of my hypnosis, thinking about that damn bridge didn't even notice the white car coming towards me until it was too late.

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Its engine roared with the increased acceleration, coming straight at me, not trying to avoid the collision, but purposely trying to plow into the big Rick.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I instinctively jerked the steering wheel to the right, but to no avail.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: The car smashed into the corner of the engine hood in front bumper. My body jerked back, snapping my head back into the headrest.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: If it hadn't been for that headrest, I would have broken my neck.

[00:02:27] [SPEAKER_01]: There was stiffening pain in my neck like an extreme crick, and my head pounded with each beat of my heart.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I stepped down out of the cab, smelling oil, fuel, and engine coolant, a savory sweet compound whafting through the night air.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I walked to the front of the truck. There was a young man slung halfway through the windshield, shards of glass scattered over the hood.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_01]: His lower torso was impaled by the jacket lower half of the windshield.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: The top of his head exploded, leaving a deep dark chasm in the crown of his skull.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Brain matter, flesh, and blood were splattered across my radiator grill.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It looked like someone had thrown rancid hamburger meat all across the front of my truck.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01]: A part of me was scared that this might be someone I know.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I walked closer to the car to get a closer look.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_01]: He had blonde hair, and a thin blonde beard. The kind of beard that only grows in patches.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: He was young, maybe a college kid in his early 20s.

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: His eyes grabbed my focus. One was blue. The other was green.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I was mesmerized by it, staring, and then he blinked.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I stepped back in astonishment.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I realized that it was probably just his nerves twitching. He can't be alive.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: There was no brain in his head anymore. His gut had blood out all the blood that was required for a functioning human being.

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Then he blinked again.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Hold up, fella. I'm gonna call for help.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I walked to the back of the trailer and called for help.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Stating that there had been a terrible crash, and that the boy was barely alive.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know how, but he was alive.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_01]: When the operator asked me the nature of his wounds, I felt silly.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm seeing things.

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tell this lady that the kid that is barely alive no longer has a brain in his skull.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: That's the nature of his wounds.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you come quickly in scoop his brain or pieces of his brain back and his head?

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I lied, and stated that he had a severe head and stomach injury.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: The operator told me to stay on the phone until the police and paramedics got there.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I kept the phone to my ear, and went back to the car.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_01]: He's gone.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Sir, did you say he was gone?

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, ma'am.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I went looking for the boy around the back of the car, along the shoulder of the road, and even in the car.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't understand why confusion was worrying me.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_01]: At the top of the ramp was a convenient store.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I walked to the store and looked around.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked in the bathroom to see if maybe he was in there cleaning up.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_01]: No one had the sink, but I did hear someone in the stall.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I could see that whoever was in there was not sitting on the toilet, but standing facing the wall.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_01]: He had on a pair of boots.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw blood began to pull around the drain, and then something saw them dropped at the floor.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a piece of bone, and then a chunk of flesh.

[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: And then more bone.

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I pulled the door open.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_01]: He turned to face me.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_01]: With no structure, the left side of his face was caving in and falling apart.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: The green eye was held in place by exposed rigid eye muscles.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I ran out of the bathroom and backed down to the truck.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't look at him anymore.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_01]: How is this possible?

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I hated to see him suffer.

[00:07:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I wished he would just go ahead and die.

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I was running back towards the truck.

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw flashing lights.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: A fire truck and several police cars were parked behind my truck.

[00:07:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Is this a joke?

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think this is funny?

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_01]: What are you talking about officer?

[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_01]: When I got down to the front of the truck, there was no car.

[00:07:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Just my truck, somewhat jackknifeed in the middle of the ramp.

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a car here.

[00:07:52] [SPEAKER_01]: It collided with my truck.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Look, the boy is up there in the store.

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_01]: He's in the bathroom.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Come on, I'll show you.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Two of the officers followed me to the convenience store.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We walked past the store clerk and into the bathroom.

[00:08:09] [SPEAKER_01]: No one in there.

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_01]: No blood or facial bone splattered across the floor.

[00:08:17] [SPEAKER_01]: The officers exited in the bathroom and went to the clerk.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Did a young man just leave the store?

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: A man that looked like he had been an accident?

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01]: No officer.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: It's been a slow night.

[00:08:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I've seen two people in the last hour and he was one of them.

[00:08:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Pointing, that made.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: It can't be.

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean...

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: You need to get that truck off the road and shut it down.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You ain't driving anymore.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01]: We need to look at them locks.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Officer, my service center is about a mile away.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Can I just get my load there and then I'm down?

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I won't drive until morning.

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm going to follow you there.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I got in the cab, started the truck and drove to the center.

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I dropped my trailers and stashed the dolly against the yard fence.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I was exhausted.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I really didn't want to drive anymore that night.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't mind sleeping in the break room.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: The officer came inside and explained what had happened to dispatch.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Dispatch wasn't willing to let me stay there for the night.

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_01]: We'll put you up for the night at a hotel.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, need to stay here and be uncomfortable.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_01]: John, our operations manager will take you.

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_01]: They called John over the inner com and told him to take me to the hotel.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_01]: He came off the dock and through the dispatch door.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_01]: John had blonde hair and a thin blonde beard.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: The artist thing though, was that he had one blue eye and one green eye.

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I begged him pleaded that they just let me stay at the center.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't care for hotels. They had bed bugs and nasty sheets and they weren't having it.

[00:10:22] [SPEAKER_01]: It was against policy.

[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I followed John to the parking lot.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And got into his white car.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I should have run, but I was tired.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And I kept telling myself that I was being stupid.

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a dream or a road provoked hallucination.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_01]: There's no way any of that was real.

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_01]: He started the engine and spread recklessly out of the parking lot.

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw the hotel up ahead, but John went right past it and got on the inner state.

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_01]: What are you doing? I'm tired. I get me to the damn hotel.

[00:11:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's over. I'm done with it all.

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_01]: He mashed down on the accelerator, pushing the car to 90 miles per hour.

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_01]: He got to a gravel crossing between the two sides of the highway

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: and made a sharp turn onto the wrong side of the inner state.

[00:11:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He spied an on ramp and drove towards it, increasing his speed.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_01]: We were doing well over a hundred miles an hour.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Coming down the ramp towards us was a flat bed tractor trailer.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: What the hell are you doing? Stop, man! Stop damn it!

[00:11:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I opened the door.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I could hear the highway rushing past.

[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_01]: It was my only chance.

[00:11:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked over at John when he turned to look at me.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I could see the left side of his face seemed to be drooping.

[00:12:07] [SPEAKER_01]: His skin was falling from his face.

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked back out the door.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: You were near the grass. The truck was closer.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Not much time to act.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I pushed the door open and jumped out of the car.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't jump high, but it was enough to get me into the grass.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I landed on my shoulder, feeling the bones break and jolted out of place.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I was rolled violently across the ground.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: The momentum waning only after I broke a few more bones.

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I heard a collision.

[00:12:48] [SPEAKER_01]: On the ramp, the white car and truck were crumpled together,

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_01]: mangled metal to metal.

[00:12:56] [SPEAKER_01]: The driver had gotten out to survey the situation.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_01]: John's body was slung across the hood.

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't hold my head up any longer.

[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I lost consciousness.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_01]: When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed.

[00:13:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The nurse came in and checked my vital.

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you up to talking to a police officer?

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_01]: The officer that came to talk to me was the same officer that had followed me back to the center earlier in the night.

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_01]: What the hell happened?

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_01]: How?

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: How did you know it was going to happen?

[00:13:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't.

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I swear.

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, that boy, and just lost his dad.

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER_01]: His friend say he was suicidal.

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Should've got some help.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: But we never want to admit these things until it's too late.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing more I need from you.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty apparent what happened.

[00:14:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, except for how you were able to predict it.

[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_01]: It's weird.

[00:14:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Creepy.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But not illegal.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I hope you get better soon and back out on the road.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I never got back out on the road.

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I was done with driving.

[00:14:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Too many close calls, too many other idiots on the road.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_01]: And too many worried eyed ghosts driving off into the eternal horizon.

[00:15:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you all for listening to tonight's episode of Clancy Pasta.

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_01]: If you enjoyed, I'd really appreciate it if you'd give it a like, subscribe or follow for more.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you like support the channel, you can always head over to patreon.com slash Clancy Pasta.

[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_01]: And for as little as a dollar a month, you can get at free narration.

[00:15:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Huge props to the author for writing such a, uh, a really unnerving tale.

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And I will talk to you all next time.

[00:15:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great night.

[00:15:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Cheers.