Overhead the thunder threatened to rebel and rupture the storm heavy sky, Jo blinked, and yawning and with her palms, she rubbed the stinging ache of sleep tugging temptingly from her brown bleary eyes. Sipping the long neglected cup of coffee, gone ice cold by now, having weathered horrible another sleepless night in her truck's cab, this night's roadside stakeout was turning out to be a bust. Despite the darkened skies, there was not one sign of the damn thing; she checked the dash clock-- the sun would be coming up in an hour. Time to turn in.
Shifting the pickup into gear, she eased off the side of the road, starting down the lonely highway back towards LA. Over the hum of the motor, the gentle pattering of the burgeoning raindrops drumming against the windshield with the penduluming windshield wipers keeping time was a soothing song. Stifling a yawn, Jo switched on the radio to break the silence; staring hard into the distance, the headlights illuminating a lone disheveled figure walking down the road was a jarring sight.
Long had Jo been raised on ghost stories, tales of roadside ghosts hitchhiking from and back to nowhere, but observing this distinct confusion of this woman, barely older than she, the hunter didn’t believe this was one of them. Only one way to find out. Braking slowly and rolling down the window, she pulled to a coast along side of the confused woman and called out, "You lost?"