Chapter 1
Sam was driving his truck on a highway in southern Ohio. There were no nearby signs of civilization. There was nothing but grass and trees and fields and pebbles. Until there was. It was a lone girl walking along the road. Dark red pants that seemed to have a faint pattern, black sneakers, a denim jacket, and a large backpack.
She noticed the approaching vehicle and signaled for him to pull over. He did, and when she asked for a ride he told her to get in.
About five minutes into the drive, he noted that she seemed like she was paying attention to everything at once and therefore nothing. He pulled over & told her to get out, repeating himself when she asked why. As she followed the instructions he put on gloves and muttered,
"What do you mean, 'Why?' I'm going to kill you, that's why." He immediately heard her door slam as she ran. He wouldn't have been bothered if she had run like a normal person, he had wanted her to run. Scaring the living hell out of his victims is the only part of his routine that he enjoys and it's not like she could have actually escaped. He knew that he was faster than her not only by his distinct height advantage but by the fact that the pants she was wearing were skin tight. No, he wouldn't have been startled just by the fact that she ran, it was the fact that she ran around the front of the truck and came to an abrupt stop in his open door.
For a brief moment his face was painted with confusion and surprise. You can't blame him, though. It's quite rare for a serial killer's victim to respond to the promise of death with joy. Even so, here she was in front of him, bouncing on her toes with her hair moving around her face like butterfly wings. She started to vocalize that excitement and she began to ramble on and on about how cool it was to meet someone like her and-
"What were the odds of a killer picking me up? I mean, hell, these pants are so stained with human blood that I just dyed what hadn't already been colored!" Suddenly it made sense. He had picked up another serial killer. A serial killer that was very different than himself, but a serial killer nonetheless. Then she surprised him even more. She reached out and began to shake his hand, introducing herself as Olivia Walker, explaining that it's her actual name and that she hasn't told anyone that in two years, and saying that they should stick together because "it gets real lonely when you're out in the wide world of America all on your lonesome."
Now, in defense of Samuel's intelligence, he distinctly remembers thinking that everything she had done up to that point made her the dumbest person he'd ever met. That said, apparently there was something about her or the way she talked for 15 minutes without ever blinking or taking a breathe or ceasing to move with infinite energy that led him to eventually agree to take her with him.
