The Road to Hell

Joe thought it was unsafe of Laura to go running late at night in the city, and he told her so frequently.
“What if something actually happened to you and I was left feeling guilty because I never warned you?”
“You’ve warned me more times than I can count.” Laura was an athletic girl and carried pepper spray, so she considered the matter closed.
“Yeah, but you don’t listen to me, and it is dangerous and you know it. Half of the time I can’t even sleep because I’m imagining you running around out there.” He didn’t want to fight with Laura, but he worried about her.
“This is about your peace of mind, then?”
“No. Or maybe. I don’t know what you mean by that. The point is, can’t you go in the mornings or something, nobody’s out at midnight, or anyway nobody safe.”
Laura laughed and chided him. “You watch too many movies.”
“Oh wow,” Joe said “nice sidestep of my point.” Laura rolled her eyes at him and he kept talking. “It’s so easy for you to say ‘you watch too many movies’ because it makes me sound irrational.”
“Joe, you are being irrational.” She stressed the word “are.” He became more frustrated.
“I’m not kidding around, alright? I’m serious. You could get hurt.”
“I could die in a car crash this afternoon too.”
“Why doesn’t Alan go running with you? At least you’d have a guy with you.”
Laura didn’t like Joe bringing gender into the conversation. “Because he’s got eight thirty class Monday through Friday and the only time I have to run is after midnight. I don’t need a guy to protect me while I exercise.” Joe realized he had made a mistake mentioning Laura’s boyfriend.
“I’m just saying, gang bangers aren’t going to attack and rape a girl if she’s running with her boyfriend.” He whispered the word “rape.”
Laura raised an eyebrow in surprise and mock. “What if they rape him instead?”
“How is it that you still don’t see I’m not kidding? This isn’t some kind of fucking joke.” He did not whisper the word “fucking.”
“Relax dude,” Laura took the tone of a mother comforting her child, “nothing’s going to happen, I’ll be fine.”
“Whatever, I just don’t want to wind up at your funeral or seeing you in a hospital bed.”
“You’re not going to see me in a hospital bed. Thanks for looking out for me.”
“Then let me go with you.”
Laura was surprised by the suggestion. “You don’t even run.”
Joe took a condescending tone “I’m sure I’ll be fine, how far do you go?”
“Between two and three miles every night. It depends.”
“I ran track in high school, two or three miles is fine.”


Between two or three miles was not “fine” for Joe. After three quarters of the first mile he had sharp pains with every breath and he realized he was in terrible shape. When Laura asked him if he was going to be ok, he gasped “yes” and pushed himself harder. After a mile and a half he could not pretend anymore.
“Laura.” He sounded dead. “We gotta head back soon, I’m going to pass out.” He slowed to a walk and Laura slowed to stay with him.
“I usually run to the highway when I go this way and make a loop back around,” she indicated an intersection ahead of them, “we can turn up there and make a smaller loop. Are you going to be alright?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, It’s been so long since I ran” Laura smirked but didn’t say anything. “You can tell me you told me so if you want, but at least you’re not out here alone.”
“I’m not going to tell you I told you so, I just said I wasn’t going to get raped, I didn’t say you were going to wipe out fifteen minutes in.”
They reached the intersection and turned right, down Cardinal Street, which was lined with industrial buildings on either side. They were walking quickly, Laura trying to maintain some semblance of exercising, Joe trying to move as slow as possible without falling behind.
It was dark and neither Joe nor Laura saw two men waiting in shadows on the sidewalk to their left. The men on the sidewalk saw Joe and Laura and they saw their cohort fall in step behind the two.
The man behind Laura grabbed her, one hand on her left wrist, the other clamped around her mouth cutting off a scream. The two men, swinging baseball bats wildly, rushed at Joe. A rib breaking swing to torso sent Joe crumpled to the ground. He was aware of someone tearing at his clothing looking for a wallet. Neither Laura nor Joe carried a wallet when they ran.


The police found the bodies of Joe and Laura thrown in the corner of a warehouse on Cardinal. Laura had been raped by two of the attackers and then strangled. DNA samples were taken for evidence. The right half of Joe’s face was beaten beyond recognition. A baseball bat had dislodged all his teeth and shattered his jaw.