Highway Haunt

At night, it's a whole other story.

   It starts in a single moment. Nothing in particular to set it off...maybe you were a little tired and you focus on something - anything - to keep yourself awake. Maybe, just for a moment, you even fell asleep. Whatever happened doesn't really matter, because you can see it now.
   Those strange scratches on the speed limit signs. Those suspicious red splatters on the turn-out. The way the shadows seem to get darker in spite of approaching headlights. The weird way the dividers in the center of the road are damaged, the pattern of crumbling concrete looking so much like...
   Claw marks.
   You begin to notice, too, all the dead animals along the shoulder. You think there are too many to possibly be the result of careless drivers. You see the red glowing spots in the distance and you aren't so sure they're merely reflectors catching your light. You hear about another person gone missing over the radio, and wonder where all the missing people really are right now...and if they're still breathing.
   You're wide awake now. You're alert, you see everything. Every shadow, every movement in the trees that grow wild beside the road. You're suddenly acutely aware of how very alone you are, of how very slow seventy, eighty, ninety miles an hour actually is. You begin to sweat, but you won't roll down your window. You start to turn on the fan, but you think that maybe your scent can be carried through the vent, to the wind outside, to be inhaled, to be sensed, to be tracked...
   You turn up the radio. Then you turn it down again - what was that? You might have heard something, a howl, a cry...maybe a coyote, you think. But you've never heard a coyote sound like that...
   Now you feel it. It's out there, somewhere close, watching you. It knows that you're aware now. Aware of it's existence, aware of what it can do, aware of what it has already done. By becoming aware of it, you've allowed it to become aware of you.
   There's a gun in the glove compartment. You take it out, steering with your elbows as you load. Only one clip. That should be enough.
   Any time now, it will come for you.
   But you're ready.
   You saw it first.

Author's Note

This is an altered version of something I wrote after getting an idea while driving at night...you know what to do!

Reviews

[Brandy Alexander]

I really like your writing style. You know how to use tone to create tension and then you build on it in the most delicious way. Paranoia, fear and panic are hard emotions to translate but you do it effortlessly. I can't wait to read more from you. Well done.