I had always liked driving alone at night. It gave me time to think, or to not think if I so chose. Because of my love for driving, the midnight trip home was one of my favorite parts about going to see my family. The drive was about an hour long. Which was long enough for me to unwind, but short enough to not feel exhausting. Call me old-fashioned, but I really enjoyed listening to the radio while I drove as well. I’d tune into whatever the local station happened to be playing as I zoned out while watching the reflective yellow lines on the road pass rapidly by me. There often weren’t but a handful of cars traveling along this stretch of highway so late into the night, and this gave me a sense of solitude. But I liked it, it was meditative in a way.

One night when I was returning home from a visit with the folks, I was enjoying the trip the same as I always had. The skies were almost completely dark, with just a thin sliver of moon and scattered stars peaking through the black. The radio was playing some old jazz song, and there wasn’t a single soul sharing the road with me. It was peaceful.

But just as I was sighing in contentment, the smooth and calming sounds of the jazz radio abruptly cut off into a roaring static.

“Krrrrrrrrr!”

“Ah! Shit!” I hissed to myself as my hand quickly shot to the radio to turn it down. I now sighed in frustration, annoyed that my peace had been broken so suddenly. After messing with the dial for a moment and failing to get the radio signal back, I decided to pull out my phone and try to connect it to my car's speakers so that I’d still have something to listen to. But after rummaging through my jacket pocket in search of the device, I at last pulled it out only to find that the battery had died. I had a bad habit of not keeping the thing charged and now it was biting me in the ass.

“Welp, guess I’m screwed if I get into a wreck!” I jabbed at myself, irritated that I hadn’t thought to charge it at my family’s place. With little other choice, I accepted that the remainder of my trip would be one without music to keep my company.

After a few minutes, I became curious as to exactly how much of a drive was left. I checked the clock to see that it read 12:34. Remembering leaving my parent’s house just a bit after midnight, I concluded that there was roughly a half an hour left before I’d arrive home. Sighing deeply in frustration again, I resigned myself to focus on the road ahead of me.

The painted, yellow lines of the road crawled quickly into the view of my headlights and underneath the hood of my car. I watched them carefully for a while, my mind struggling to remain focused. When finally lifting my gaze back up to the road, an odd feeling of anxiety came over me. Maybe it was just the lack of music to occupy my thoughts, but I couldn’t help but feel like the darkness that engulfed my vehicle was a little too thick. I wasn’t able to make out any of the usual trees or landscape that surrounded the highway, nor could I see the stars in the sky. I thought back to when I’d started my journey home and distinctly remembered admiring the pin pricks of light when I first got on the highway. But I didn’t recall seeing any clouds or oncoming storms that would otherwise block them from view now.

The feeling gnawed at my psyche for a bit, but I shook it off as best as possible. I told myself there was nothing to worry about. Soon I’d arrive at my exit, and not long after that I’d be home. Checking the time again, I furrowed my brow in confusion. The clock still read 12:34. That was strange, I knew it had been at least a few minutes since I’d last checked.

“Oh great,” I said to myself, “I guess the clock is broken.”

Still, I didn’t think much of this at the time. Knowing I probably only had about 10 minutes or so left on the highway before my exit, I decided I would worry about recalibrating the clock when I got home.

With no other choice, I continued driving like nothing was wrong, ignoring the creeping feeling that was slowly working its way up my spine. More time passed, and I found myself glancing toward the edge of the road for a sign. I didn’t normally pay much attention to the exits prior to my own, but I couldn't remember seeing even a single exit sign for quite awhile. Still, I kept onward, trying to convince myself that I was just tired and was just misjudging the amount of time that had gone by.

Finally, after what felt like well over half an hour, I saw a sign approaching in the distance. As I got closer, I could see that it was a large green sign that read, “Exit 181, 1 mile.” I sighed in relief, knowing that meant I was almost at my exit, exit 182. Just a couple more miles and I’d be nearly home.

After a minute or so, another sign came into view with a road that spanned right off of the highway. “Exit 181, next right,” it read. I passed by it, unthinking, my leg beginning to shake as the anxiety that had been chewing at the edges of my mind became harder to ignore. Then, a moment later, another sign approached from a distance. A little reassured, I slowed down a bit in preparation to get off the highway. But as I got close enough to read the sign, I found myself feeling confused rather than relieved. The sign read, “Exit 181, 1 mile.”

Speeding past the sign, my sense of anxiety began morphing into one of dread. I could have sworn I’d already passed exit 181, so how was it possible that I’d passed it again? Before my panic could rise to a peak, I steeled myself and decided I must have just misread the previous sign. So this time when I passed the sign reading, “Exit 181, next right,” I made sure to read the number carefully so that I was certain it was 181.

It was indeed, I was sure of it. So as the next, identical, green sign came into view only a moment later, the words, “What the fuck?” escaped my lips in the form of a scared whimper. I slammed on my brakes, my tires making an obnoxious screech against the road as they burned rubber. Sitting there on the middle of the highway, I stared up at the sign for what I was certain by now was the third time. The metal shook slightly from the wind as it towered over me, returning my confused phrase with words of its own, “Exit 181, 1 mile.”

I did nothing, for a moment, but sit and read those words over and over and over in a pale attempt to register them. But with nothing else to do, I slowly pressed on the gas, and continued driving forward. My leg now shook rapidly with anxiety as I tried to steady my breathing. The words, exit 181, echoed through my mind as I approached the exit yet again. And as the road that broke from the highway passed me by once more, I found myself on the verge of a panic attack.

By now, I knew for a fact that I’d passed this exit more than once. Surely I wasn’t losing my mind, was I? In the end, it didn’t make much of a difference. I was on the middle of the highway at night with a dead cell phone. What else could I do but keep driving? So that’s what I did, and all the while fear pressed on my chest like an increasing collection of stones.

Just as the anxiety was beginning to suffocate me, static suddenly erupted from the radio, filling the inside of my car with a loud squeal.

“Aahhh! What the hell!” I yelled as my hand instinctively reached for the volume dial again. But just as I touched it, the static of the radio was replaced with a voice. I listened for a few seconds as the gargled speech became more clear.

“Thank you, listener, for joining us on this beautiful evening!” Were the first words I could make out. I listened on, “If you’re just joining us, we’ve got a great collection of classics coming up! But first, a word from our sponsors! Bzzkrrrrrr is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people! I don’t think there’s a place on Earth more lovely! If you’re looking for a great, old-fashioned community with like-minded folks, come on down and visit us some time here in Bzzkrrrrrr!”

It sounded like the radio was trying to sell some kind of tourist attraction or town, but each time the name was said, static burst through the speakers.

The radio DJ continued, “Just take exit 181 and join our community! Now back to the music!”

As if on cue, a familiar sign came into view. “No, no, no!” I yelled in frustration as the words etched upon it were the same ones echoed on the radio, “Exit 181, 1 mile.”

“What the fuck is going on?!” I yelled, slamming my hands into the steering wheel in anger and panic. “Now the fucking radio wants me to take this exit?! Well, hell no! Where’s MY exit?! Where’s exit 182?!” I screamed at the radio, half expecting a response. But only static buzzed in response to my angry questioning.

Becoming frantic, I pressed down on the gas pedal, accelerating well beyond the speed limit as I stared daggers at exit 181 when passing by it again. I looked out at the endless stretch of blackness that lay beyond my headlights, grinding my teeth as I did so. No matter how I tried to rationalize the situation, it seemed impossible. I’d never experienced any sort of psychotic break before, but it was the only reasonable explanation.

As I tried to keep my heartrate under control, a loud buzzing screamed through the speakers in my car, and I once more heard the radio DJ’s voice blair throughout my four-wheeled prison. Unlike the cheery persona from before, however, the tone of his voice had a darkness to it. Gone was the cheerful and inviting persona that had invited me to his home, and in its place was something I could only describe as malevolent. He didn’t say anything directly violent, but I could feel the threat at the end of each word as it hissed through the speakers.

“You want to come to krrrrrrr. It’s the happiest place in the world! The sun is always shining and the people are always smiling! So make the right choice. Take. Exit. 1-8-1.

His last words were slow and deliberate, resembling more of a demand than a request, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was talking to me directly. A chill ran up my spine at the thought. But, that couldn’t be possible, could it? Then again, how was any of this possible? I had been driving on the same span of highway for hours by now and passed the same exit multiple times. And now? Now the fucking radio was talking to me, telling me to make the only choice I seemed to have. But I got the feeling that this town I was being coerced to visit wasn’t as friendly as the DJ made it sound. I wasn’t sure if it was a mental break or not, but whatever was going on, I knew that I wasn’t going to take exit 181.

When I went by the sign signifying that it was 1 mile away again, I didn’t bother looking at it. Instead, I just pushed on the gas more. As the exit itself grew nearer once again, the radio crackled to life once more. But before it had the chance to say anything I muted it, speeding past 181 like a bat out of hell.

A mix of defiance and bravery came over me, but that courage was deflated as soon as the radio somehow cranked itself back up, and a familiar voice broke through again.

“You think you can just ignore me, you fucking bitch?” The radio DJ spat angrily with a startling intensity. “You can’t keep driving forever, so just take the exit. It’s your only way out and you know it. So do it. Turn right at exit 181. Take the exit! Take the fucking exit you bitch! DO IT! TAKE IT! TAKE EXIT 181! TAKE THE EX-” I cut off the screaming voice of the DJ as I tore the radio from its console, throwing it on the floor of the passengers side all while returning the screaming with some of my own.

“What the fuck?! What the FUCK?!” Is all I could choke out with my now hoarse vocal chords. I began hyperventilating as I practically pushed my gas pedal through the floor. My car was moving so fast at this point that I had trouble maintaining control of the wheel, but I didn’t care. I hoped, prayed even, that if I just drove fast enough, I’d eventually reach exit 182 or even 183, I didn’t care what it was as long as it wasn’t exit 181. But despite my dangerously insane speed, nothing changed. I flew by the abhorrent exit over and over again so many times that I’d lost count.

The radio DJ was right, I couldn’t go forever. While I still had a decent amount of fuel, I was completely aware, even in my panic, that eventually it would run out. That being said, it felt like there was little else I could do. So I just drove on, beating my steering wheel in a frenzied state as the hopelessness of my situation slowly wrapped its gnarled appendages around my psyche.

It was when only a shred of my mind remained that my peripheral vision caught something in my rear-view mirror, pulling me back to reality. Lights, flashing red and blue. It was a police car.

“Shit!” I said, immediately taking my foot of the gas and doing my best to brake from the outrageously high velocity I’d been traveling. For a moment, a new panic rose in my chest, but then I realized, wait, a cop! Another person! I knew I might be facing a harsh punishment for criminal speeding, but at least I had another human on this damn road with me at long last.

By the time I had slowed to a reasonable speed, the car had already caught up with me. Putting on my hazards, I pulled off to the edge of the road and tried to think of how I’d explain all this to the officer. They pulled up behind me, the reflection of their bright lights nearly blinding me as they parked uncomfortably close to my own vehicle. A few seconds later, a door slammed, and the crunch of dirt underneath boots echoed ominously as the officer approached my window.

The form outside my car was tall. So much so that I couldn’t see its head while it was standing so close to my vehicle. I sat staring vacantly for a moment, wondering if it was safe before they began tapping on my window to get my attention. Quickly snapping back to reality, I rolled it down so that I could speak to them, and the deep voice of a man broke through the chilly night air.

“Ma’am, do you have any idea how fast you were going?” The officer asked in an intimidating tone.

I swallowed tears and did my best to respond, “Officer, I’m sorry but… something really weird is happening!” I began, but was cut off.

“License and registration, please.” He said sternly.

I began going through my glove compartment in search of the requested documents but continued trying to explain myself as I did.

“Yes, sir. But please, you have to listen to me! I’ve been stuck on this stretch of highway for hours!” I said, trying not to sound too exasperated.

“Going that speed? Lady, you’d better explain yourself.” He responded incredulously.

“No! You don’t understand!” I tried to reason, “I keep passing the same exit over and over and over again!”

“Ma’am, what in the hell are you talking about? Have you been drinking tonight?” He asked accusingly.

“No! I’ve been stuck in some sort of loop, driving by the same exit repeatedly! I can’t get to my exit, it’s like something is trying to keep me from my exit!”

“Uh huh, sure. What exit did you say you’ve been trying to get to?” He asked in an almost mocking tone.

“Exit 182!” I replied.

“Exit 182?” He asked. “Well that’s your problem, ma’am. You’re going to the wrong place!”

I stopped, looking back at his gaunt, towering form in confusion. “Wh-what do you mean?” I asked, paranoia beginning to choke me once more.

He slowly bent down, his impossibly tall form collapsing like a skyscraper as he brought his face level to the window to meet my petrified gaze. I let out an involuntary gasp as what I previously thought to be a man stared into me with a rabid expression.

The thing’s features were awful. It was like some animal had ripped the flesh from a human male and adorned their face like a cheap Halloween costume. The skin stretched and warped in horrible ways around the bony, bulbous structure beneath it. Its eyes were too big for the holes of the mask and the sockets tore and contorted around the bulging, sickly yellow sclera. But worst of all, were its teeth. Large and jagged like that of an angler fish, they shredded through the meat that surrounded the false lips of the thing, causing the pink flesh to smack together grotesquely as the twisted, mangled thing pretending to be human spoke once more.

“There’s only one place for you to go, ma’am. Exit 181.”

A scream of abject terror escaped my lips as the engine of my car simultaneously screeched to life. I pulled away from the monstrosity as fast as I could, my foot putting the pedal to the metal and leaving a cloud of dust in my wake.
“Oh fuck! Holy shit! What. The. Fuck?!” I yelled in a panic, pounding the steering wheel hard with my fist as each word scratched its way painfully out of my throat. My vehicle roared down the black stretch of highway at over a hundred miles per hour. Its dated engine sputtered and shook, rattling the frame of the car violently. I had just started to let up on the gas when something caught my eye in the rear-view mirror again. The red and blue lights were back, and quickly catching up to me.

I began hyperventilating as the realization hit me. That imposter was chasing me, and it wouldn’t be long before it caught up with my old junker of a vehicle. Immediately I pressed my foot hard against the gas pedal again, like I was trying to push it through the floor. I watched as the speedometer crept back to over a hundred at a torturously slow rate. My heart pounded in my chest as I looked back in the mirror to see the lights getting closer.

“Dammit, go faster you piece of shit!” I screamed at my car. The engine began to rattle again, but I didn’t care. My foot remained planted on the gas even as the steering wheel became difficult to control.

As I desperately tried to increase the distance between myself and the false police officer, I glanced frantically at each road sign as I accelerated past them.

“Exit 181, 1 Mile…Exit 181, next right…Exit 181, 1 Mile…Exit 181, next right…Exit 181, 1 Mile…Exit 181, next right…” Each time I read the words my anxiety rose higher and higher until I wanted to scream. But no matter how many times I passed the signs, the words upon them remained the same. “Exit 181, 1 Mile…Exit 181, next right.”

The red and blue lights were so close now that they began to illuminate the inside of my car and I could hear the sirens wailing at near deafening levels just behind me. No sooner than I realized this, the radio erupted in harsh static which nearly made me lose my grip on the wheel. The damn thing wasn’t even hooked in anymore, yet somehow the furious voice of the DJ crackled through my car at a volume that threatened to blow my speakers and began screaming expletives at me.

“YOU FUCKING DISSAPOINTMENT, TAKE THE EXIT! TAKE THE EXIT NOW! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A DISGUSTING SHELL! YOU’LL NEVER BE ANYTHING! SO TAKE THE EXIT! TAKE EXIT 181, TAKE THE FUCKING EXIT YOU BITCH!” The howling insults continued and I screamed in agony and confusion in response, matching the volume of both the radio and sirens in a crescendo of madness.

Suddenly, my cries caught in my throat as the red and blue police lights became visible in my side mirror. With horror, my head twisted at a nearly bone-snapping speed to see the imposter’s car was now tearing down the road in the left lane, its front tires even with my own. I gazed with a silent scream at the abomination that sat behind the wheel as it returned my petrified expression with a twisted, sinister smile. Then, with no other warning, he twisted his wheel, causing the police car to slam into the side of mine.

My tires screeched against the road as I struggled to maintain control of my car. Meanwhile, the radio continued violently berating me, “TAKE THE EXIT, NOW! TAKE IT OR DIE, YOU FUCKING WASTE OF SPACE!”

In the chaos, I desperately tried to focus my attention back on the road in front of us only to see the same words I’d now read a hundred times reflect the glow of my headlights, “Exit 181, 1 Mile.”

I took in a long, deep breath and turned to face the skin wearing monster in the neighboring lane again. Tears fell hotly down my cheeks as my gaze pleaded with it. The creature, still smiling through the torn flesh of its human mask, nodded slowly and expectedly at me. It knew as well as I did, that there was only one way for this to go.

Removing my foot from the gas, I began to slow down, and so too did the imposter officer. I returned my attention back to the endless road that stretched in front of me. The abyss that surrounded my headlights remained as thick as ever as the small, dim reflection of green became slowly visible in the distance. Tears and snot continued to fall from my face as I prepared myself for whatever exit 181 had in store for me. I didn’t understand what this was, but it was obvious to me at this point that no matter how long I drove forward, there was only exit 181 awaiting me.

“Wait a second…” I said to myself as a thought occurred to me. I looked around my vehicle to observe my surroundings more deeply. All that lay in front of me was the same stretch of road, but I couldn’t actually see anything but the same black fog that sat at the sides of the highway until my headlights illuminated the space. Was it possible that I wasn’t just driving through some abyss? Maybe this was still like any other highway. And if it was, that meant there were two directions that could be taken.

As soon as the idea came to me I kicked myself for the stupidity of it. Nothing about this situation made any sense. So there was a much better chance that I was wrong, and that if my tires left the road, I’d simply fall into the void that lay beyond them. Still, the more I considered my options, the less the alternative sounded preferable. If it was between spending my life with abominations like the one in the police car, and simply floating in the void until starvation took me, it wasn’t a difficult choice. I wasn’t going to do what these monsters wanted. I wasn’t going to do what the signs wanted. If I was going out, I decided it would be on my terms.

Looking at the sign as it grew nearer, I furrowed my brow in resolve. Exit 181 was approaching me again, but this would be the last time I would read those damn words. I made sure to keep up the act, and began slowing my vehicle more, even throwing my turn signal on as the abhorrent exit grew closer. Taking in a deep breath once more to steady myself, I glared back at the imposter, its vehicle still keeping pace with my own. Its expression now less menacing, but still horrifying, nodded at me once more. Then, as the exit approached for the final time, I slammed on my brakes without warning.

The smell of burning rubber filled my nostrils as the seatbelt dug sharply into my collarbone. The police car tried to react to my drastic shift in speed, but it was obvious that the creature driving it was caught off guard. As a result, its vehicle sputtered and twisted its front end to the right, toward exit 181, as it too came to a screeching halt. My car, however, twisted in the opposite direction as I poured every ounce of my strength into jerking the wheel to the left.

The imposter attempted to maneuver its fake police car to compensate for my abrupt change in direction, but it was too late. As soon as my steering wheel stopped turning, I floored the gas pedal. The engine of my old car roared and its tires once again cried against the asphalt beneath me. I took one last look at the sign poking through the abyss in my rearview mirror. Then, my car tore me away from it and toward the empty blackness on the other side of the road.

I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the feeling of falling off the sheer cliff that I’d expected, but instead, my car began rattling as it took on rough terrain. My eyes shot open in surprise as I realized I was now driving on the rocky, gravel median that sat between the two opposing directions of highway. I gripped the wheel hard, bracing from the bumpy Earth below. After just a few seconds, more asphalt became illuminated in my headlights, and I twisted my wheel to the left as my tires bumped back onto the road. Without thinking, I immediately floored the gas again, now racing down the highway in the opposite direction of where I’d left the false police officer.

The radio crackled with more expletives for a moment, “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING! GET BACK HERE! COME BA-” then, suddenly, it cut off, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

I looked back in my rearview mirror, expecting to see the sirens chasing me, but there was nothing but an empty stretch of road behind me. As I searched my surroundings for any sign of the imposter, I slowly began to recognize them. Gone was the empty darkness that had previously swallowed what lay beyond the edges of the road. In its wake were trees, grass, and distant mountains. Turning my gaze to the sky, I saw the sliver of moon hanging in its center, surrounded by stars which dimly illuminated the landscape around me.

Confused and still on edge, I let out a shaky breath. But only a moment later, a familiar sign could be seen coming up in the distance. My heart rate immediately shot into my throat as I approached it, feeling on the verge of another panic attack. Despite my returning fear, I dared to read the words painted upon the metallic green plate. “Exit 182, 1 Mile.” My eyes welled up with relief. Somehow, someway, I was free. I had escaped whatever nightmare loop I’d been stuck in for hours.

When the exit approached, exit 182 I mean, I hesitated for just a second. Being out of energy and nearly out of gas, however, I made the decision to take the exit. To my great relief, every road from then on out was completely normal, and only a few minutes after exiting the highway I found myself sitting in front of my home.

It was weeks before I got behind the wheel after that. I even made some excuse with my job so they would let me telework for a while. It wasn’t until a few months later that I finally struck up the courage to go and visit my family again. When I did, I took the long way to get there in order to avoid the highway and now I make sure to always drive back home before dark. In fact, I never drive on that stretch of highway anymore or at night when I can help it. I’ve since developed an anxiety disorder related to driving. My therapist and medication help me to cope, but I still hate driving with every ounce of my being. I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand what happened to me and I don’t think I want to. All I know is that I’ll never take that stretch of highway again, and no matter where I go, I’ll never take exit 181.