The Entity at the Crossroads

The ancient world is full of stories around crossroads and weird stuff that happens near them. Are these just myths, or something more? I know you're skeptical, but I'm sharing an encounter with one such entity. Maybe you won't snicker the next time you come across ancient wisdom warning about them.
A little something about myself. I live in suburban Denver. We're an average American family: dad works at an office downtown, mom stays at home, and me and my sister go to school. I'm in high school rn and should start applying for colleges next year. Dad drops us off to school on his way to work.
We were living our ordinary lives, with our fair share of ups and downs, when one day, something changed. Something that would make me question everything I ever knew about this world.
It was an ordinary sleepy morning. We were in the backseat waiting while Dad was driving us to yet another long day at school. Nothing out of ordinary happened till about 10 minutes into the drive.
You see, when you take the road from our house to city center, after leaving our neighborhood, you have this short stretch of land just before the crossroads. There's no buildings or people around. Just rocks and a few trees and then road meets another road. I've never really paid it much attention till that day. I almost didn't see it first, but my eye caught something a bit darker than the trees with sharper angles. As we got closer, I saw that it was a pole with some support structure.
"What's this? Never seen this before.", I said. But both my dad and sister seemed very disinterested in it and said that it looks like they're building something. I felt it was weird and had so many questions. Who are 'they'? What are they building? Why are they building when it was vacant for so many years? My dad and sister didn't want to speculate much. But I did get my answers as time went on. We'll, sort of.
The next time we crossed it, on our way back that evening, the structure was adorned with a huge white rectangle, as if a canvas resting on an artist's easel. I squinted to see if I could make anything out on it. But no, it was a perfectly white blank rectangle. "Look it's changed!", I exclaimed as we got nearer. Both my dad and my sister looked but didn't seem very impressed. I wondered why they were not alarmed by these abrupt changes happening right before their eyes.
"Isn't it weird?" I said. "There's nothing there" my sister replied. Was she referring to the fact that the rectangle was blank? Or was she, I feared, unable to see the thing at all? We spoke nothing about it for the rest of the drive. The next two days were weekends and I couldn't get the thought of that thing out of my mind. I was blissfully unaware that things were about to get weirder.
On Monday, as the drive began, I looked out of the window anxiously, with dread and excitement, for the structure. I had feared it would have undergone further mutation. I was right.
Most of the innocent white colour had changed to a deep red. There was some brown too, and the places which remained white spelled something out.
Coca-Cola. The white lettering on red spelt out "Coca-Cola" in a fancy cursive style, very identical to the lettering on coke cans. Why was this thing imitating the intellectual property of some sugary drink? I voiced this out loud. "They have a lot of advertising budget" my dad said, matter of factly.
Again with the 'they'. "Who are 'they'? Why have they made this thing? What even IS this thing? Why are you guys not concerned AT ALL?", I screamed all these questions at them. For a few moments they just stared at me blankly, confirming my suspicion that something was making them under-react and be distracted when talking about the thing.
Finally, my sister broke the silence. "It's a Bill Board, dumbass", she said. "Bill Board?" I asked. "You really don't know what a Bill Board is? Even kids know it", she sneered. At this point I could feel the anger building up in me. 'Bill Board'? That object has a name and she knows it? How can everyone know it if I don't, am I not a part of 'everyone'? Or is the thing making her alienate me too?
And just as I was about to confront her, dad said, "Keep quiet both of you, let me focus on driving!" And just like that, a thousand questions were silenced because Mr. Bill Board knew who my authority figures were and made one of them silence me. At this point I was scared stiff at the realisation that everyone except me was under the influence of this self-proclaimed Bill Board. I decided not to say anything.
And so days passed. Bill was always there. Every few weeks, its physical appearance changed to something else. Usually it would imitate some corporate marketing material, but once every two years, it would imitate election campaigns. It was mocking our ideals of free markets and democracy. And hundred of cars passed by it everyday. They noticed. But no one stopped and questioned. Why was it there? Why did it parody companies and election candidates? Who created it?
No one questions its presence except me, such is its grip on people's minds and hearts. So if you're ever near crossroads or any stretch of the road with heavy vehicular traffic, pay close attention. Who knows, you might even catch a glimpse of 'them' in their outdoor construction company outfits, making yet another Bill.
Category:Trollpasta
Category:Satire
Category:Pages with grammar that doesn't suck
Category:Originally on r/shittynosleep