The Ghosts of Kimberlina

Kimberlina road, full of ghosts and regrets

The Ghosts of Kimberlina

 

By

 

Ruben Candela

 

 

November 19, 2010

 

 

 

23 year old Annie Chambers only saw a pitch black highway on the night of December 17th.  Annie had gone to a late night movie with all her friends and was now driving back home around 1:30 A.M.  Annie was just like any normal girl her age.  She had a job, went to school, and always enjoys a good time with her friends.  Annie was driving north on highway 99, it was really dark and foggy out, very typical weather for this time of year, but she noticed something rare tonight, it was darker than usual tonight a lot darker.  Another oddity that Annie noticed was that there weren’t many cars out. Even if it was late there would still be life on the highway would but not tonight.  Annie received a phone call it was her mother, “Hey mom sorry I’m coming home so late, after the movie we went to a diner with Mary and the other girls.”  “It’s alright Annie, just be very careful driving out there, the weatherman said that tonight has been the foggiest it has been in years.”  “Yeah I know mom I can hardly see anyone driving out here, there isn’t even any semi trucks driving, which is really weird”  “That is odd, but I think they’re at the truck stop avoiding all these conditions tonight, and I think you should do the same”  “No mom that’s ok, I’m almost home anyways, I’m severa miles away from Kimberlina Rd”  “Well ok, but be careful.”  “Sure will mom, ok bye.”  

Shortly after hanging up Annie began to think to herself, “Should I listen to mom and stop?  Nah, I’ll just keep going I am almost there anyway.”  Annie lived in a small town that was near the 99, she had two routes to go to, one was to take the exit to Kimberlina road and take the back roads to end up at the south end of the town, the other was to keep going straight and to take the exit to another highway, which went straight through the town.  But since she lived on the south end of the town she was going to take the exit to Kimberlina.  Annie looked at the clock on her watch and it said 2 AM, she was now passing up the truck stop and saw that her mother was right about all the truck drivers staying there, she looked at the clock once more and noticed that two minutes had gone by.  The next exit after that was the exit for Kimberlina, she was getting closer. Annie began to think about the movie that she and her friends watched earlier tonight.  The movie was about the witching hour theory, in which it is said to believe that in the hour’s midnight to 3 am is where it is believed that ghosts and demonic forces are at their strongest.  This made Annie very weary, “Oh man, stupid movie why did I have to listen to Mary to watch it, but then again that’s all that it is a movie!”  The movie became nothing more than an afterthought in the back of her mind.  The exit was coming up ahead, “Oh thank god just a couple more miles and I’ll be home to my nice bed.”  Annie drove onto the exit ramp heading towards the stop sign at the end of the hill.  At the end of the road where the stop sign is there is another sign that just had arrows pointing to the left and to the right.  On the right was just a road going more out into the country, and on both sides was covered with almond trees.  The left, led to a hill going up and then down and that road also had almond trees to the side of the road.  Annie needed to take the turn to the left to get home, as she stopped at the sign, she was looking both ways for oncoming traffic, she looked to her left and only saw the bottom of the hill and fog, she then looked at the right and was startled by what she saw.  On the right side of Kimberlina road was a broken down car with a family standing there, just standing and staring at Annie.  She looked at the family and was surprised that there was someone out here.  She thought about helping as she stared at the family who was just staring back at her, and then she noticed the little boy that was there with them.  He had tears running down his face and both the mother and father looked so lost, and they had this look in their eyes that has just seen so much pain and turmoil lately.  It made Annie think about helping but she said, “No I can’t, I got to get home soon.”  So as she turned left heading west, feeling just a little guilty about the family Annie looked once more at the family through her rearview mirror.  She saw that the father had started chasing after her, immediately she starting freaking out and starting driving faster, the man was still running after her, but he was waving his arms around as he ran.  As Annie drove over the hill, she looked at the mirror again and saw that he was gone.  Annie breathed a sigh of relief that she had escaped that creepy family but still felt uneasy for that was definitely one of the creepiest things that she has witnessed.  Looking ahead of the road as she was passing through the fruit and almond plant that was on the passenger side of the road, she noticed that it had gotten noticeably foggier, and here is where much more unexplainable things started to happen to her.

Throughout most of the time the radio had been playing just fine and was a main catalyst for keeping Annie sane throughout these events.  The radio then began to make a bunch of static, “come on damn radio don’t do this to me right now!”  As she said this she started banging on the radio and suddenly the radio stopped with the static and turned off, and turned back on and started playing a song that sounded familiar to her.  All she heard was a bass guitar in the song, she could tell that the song was already half ways in because she knew that she had heard this song somewhere before.  “What the, I wasn’t listening to that before the radio turned off? This song sounds so familiar though, where have I heard it from?”  The more she thought she then remembered the song and where she heard it.  The song was Orion.  “That’s right… This was Ryan’s favorite song, they played it at his funeral,” she then started to reminisce about Ryan and became very melancholy.  Ryan was a close friend to Annie, almost like a brother to her and on one night he was just murdered on the streets.  There were no witnesses, no signs of struggle, no evidence what so ever, except for the bullet that they found in his head.  The murder went unsolved, and has been to this day.  Then Annie started thinking more, “wait, why was the radio playing that song if I wasn’t listening to it before it turned off?  Could it have been Ryan doing that?  No come on what am I thinking! Ryan is gone… but it is the witching hour and his spirit maybe trying to contact me? NOOOO get a grip, it’s not! I must have changed the station on accident when I was banging on the radio; yeah that’s what it was.”  As soon as the song was finished the radio went back to the static, and it stopped again but it didn’t turn back on.  “Come on!!!!” Annie was now fully frustrated because she lost the one thing that kept her calm all night. As she was driving on the bridge that went over the canal, she saw something. She passed the canal and saw something again but on the corner of her left eye.  She turned and yelled at what she saw.  It was a big white dog or at least something that resembled a dog running along with her on the side of the road.  Annie was driving 52 mph, which was below the speed limit, but the dog was keeping up with her.  She couldn’t believe what she was watching, it was so foggy that she couldn’t see much, but she saw this big white dog perfectly.  She just kept watching the dog and watching and watching, until she had noticed that she was drifting into the right side of the road and onto the dirt, she freaked and turn violently back onto the road but by doing this she lost control of the car and heard a thunderous thump followed by the popping of a tire.  Annie was now driving with a flat tire and once she finally regained control of the vehicle she pulled over to the side of and tried to collect her compure.  With tears in her eyes she tried to calm down, “Oh god, what a terrible night! I should’ve never gone out tonight, please lord let me get home safe soon, I don’t want to stay out here stranded.”  Once she calmed down she reached for her cell phone to call her parents to come and help but when she saw the phone her heart sank, there wasn’t a service signal at all. “Now what do I do?!?!?!?!”  With Annie’s morale down, she just sat there trying to ignore her surroundings and the noises she was hearing outside.  Annie heard noises as if someone or something was shuffling out there, she also heard voices, but she quickly dismissed these noises as all in her head, but still they were quite freighting her.  She tried turning the radio back on so she can maybe drown out the noises from outside but it was to no avail, the radio simply didn’t want to turn back on.  Annie just sat there for at least a good 5 minutes just thinking and trying to stay warm, then she suddenly remembered about the big dog!  Was it still out there? Or had it left?  Annie then grew very fearful for the dog and started looking in all directions she looked to her left and nothing then to her right and still nothing.  Annie finally breathed a sigh of relief, but that relief that she had gained was short lived.  As she started to feel relaxed she saw a pair of dark yellow eyes piercing the night from the rear view mirror.  Annie froze with terror, she could hear her heart beating faster and faster she stared at the yellow eyes and noticed that it was the dog, she saw the shape of the dog she couldn’t believe it and she started yelling at the dog, “no you’re not real go away!”  She closed her eyes for 10 seconds and opened them again.  Annie looked once more at the rear view mirror and saw the a street light in the place where she had seen the yellow eyes.  “Those weren’t street lights! I saw yellow eyes I know I did!”  Annie started losing it, she didn’t know whether the dog was really there or if it really was the street light on the side of the road.  One thing was certain though, and that was that Annie was beginning to become more and more frightened.  Once again she dismissed all that she was hearing and seeing as her imagination, after all she was tired from a long night so naturally the mind will play tricks on you when you’re tired and not as aware as everyone when fully rested.  Annie then put her head down and started staring at the gas and brake pedals.  Annie thought about looking at the mirror again just to make sure that there wasn’t anything there.  Annie gazed upon the mirror and saw the yellow eyes again, this time in the shape of a man.  Annie became frozen with fear again as she stared into the dark shadow of the man with the yellow eyes.  The shadow started walking towards her, as Annie became more nervous she closed her eyes again and started praying.  When she finished and opened her eyes, the shadow was now gone but this time in the back seat of the car.  There was the shadow as he began to laugh.  Annie had enough of this she quickly got out of the car and started running and screaming as she ran started seeing the shadow running after her and the dog as well, she started hearing more and more noises coming after her, she passed through almond tree orchards, she couldn’t see anything at all it was so foggy.  She just ran through the fog, crying and yelling Annie ran at least half a mile.  Annie finally was clear of the almond orchards and started seeing empty fields.  This is where a good yet weird thing happened.  The fog cleared up, it was weird she was amazed and glad to see the clarity of the landscape, the sky was clear as well, the moon was full and blue so the land was fully lighted.  Annie then turned around and saw the fog still back there, but she didn’t care she was finally in the clear. 

Once Annie stopped and caught her breath she started walking slowly, she was crying but they were tears of relief after all that she had gone through it was finally over.  Annie had to adjust now, because back in the fog she heard noises but here all she heard was a loud silence.  Never has she heard a silence so eerie and so dead, it was scary.  Annie then started getting nervous, she started walking faster and suddenly heard a startling screeching noise.  She looked around and saw that it was just an oil jack pump, she was relieved.  “Oh hahaha a pump,” she said this in a nervous tone, she started looking around and saw that on her right hand side was a corn field, across from the corn field was the oil jack, and further up ahead she saw the company building that owned these fields, but most importantly she saw the railroad crossing which and she knew she only had a couple of miles to go to get home.  Annie grew relieved and started heading towards there, then she felt a great sudden gust of wind that almost knocked her off her feet.  She looked around and heard the wind going through and she noticed that the oil jack pump stopped pumping.  It stopped moving up and down slowly, slowly, until it finally stopped.  Annie felt a great nervousness all over her body and then she heard a whimpering cry in the distance.  It was a somber scene.  “Who’s there?!?! Why are you crying?!?!” Annie then became scared all over again and realized that this nightmare wasn’t over yet.  She heard the crying more and more and found out that it was coming from inside the corn field.  “Do I dare going in there to investigate?”  Annie started thinking, “I have to, I have to face this thing head on to make these things stop.”  Annie grew the courage to start walking into the corn field; she walked slowly and started hearing the crying growing louder and louder she then saw the figure of a person sitting down behind a single row of corn stalks.  Annie slowly pulled down the stalks of corn and laid her eyes on the person and suddenly opened her mouth due to the shock that ensued.  She quickly started crying and put her hands over her mouth.  “Ryan….. Is that you?”  Ryan was silent for a minute.  He continued crying and finally replied, “Yes Ann, it’s me.”  Annie looked at him and saw the exit wound on the side of his head from the gun shot that killed him.  “Ryan, is this really you? Am I really seeing you?  “….Yes”, as he continued crying.  Annie began to cry as well, she reached out to him slowly and said, “Ryan I’ve missed you so much….”  As soon as the spirit of Ryan heard this he yelled, “LIAR!!!!!  No one ever cared for me and you certainly didn’t either, I was forgotten six months after I died….”  Ryan continued crying, “No Ryan I did care for you, and I’ve never forgotten about you, you don’t know how guilty I’ve felt that our last moments we were together were spent with us having a falling out because of stupid stuff.”  “LIAR!!!!”  “No Ryan I’m not lying this is true, I’m sorry for what I did to you honestly, for breaking your heart…. But I was going to apologize to you the next day and to take you up on your offer of us being together but then you were murdered…..”  Annie continued to cry profusely, and Ryan was crying and also having sad laughter, “murdered??? No… my parents just told everyone and paid everyone to think I was murdered, I committed suicide”  As he angrily confessed about his true fate he pulled out the gun that he shot himself with and pointed it to his head.  “What?!?” cried Annie, “you killed yourself, but why?!?!?!”  Annie then grew extremely distraught and shocked when she learned about how Ryan truly died.  “Why?” asked Ryan, “because you left me so depressed and heartbroken, I just wanted to die after that so I grabbed my father’s gun from his drawer and walked out onto the street and shot myself, my parents then didn’t want anyone to know that their son was a coward and that he killed himself so they made everyone believe it was a murder that would be unsolved today.”  “Ryan…. No. I am so sorry, honestly…”  Annie started crying more and more then Ryan yelled again, “LIAR!!!!” Ryan then jumped up and clamped his hands onto Annie’s neck and started squeezing it.  Annie was being choked to death by Ryan’s ghost, he was crying, yelling, and laughing all at the same time.  “I HATE YOU ANNIE!!!! I WISH WE’D NEVER MET AND I WOULD STILL BE ALIVE TODAY!!!!!!!”  While Annie was being choked by Ryan she reached up to take his hands away from her throat as her hands reached her throat, she still felt being choked and then realized that the spirit of Ryan was gone and she heard his echoes of laughter and then realized that it was her own hands that were choking her.  Annie quickly became traumatized, and started running out of the corn field.

Annie escaped the corn field but she kept running, she had finally had enough of all these things happening in this nightmare.  She made it out and suddenly stopped at the middle of the street and stood there shocked yet joyous because of a pair of headlights coming towards her.  Annie quickly started yelling help, she started waving her arms around, and she didn’t care if it was a stranger driving, as long as she got a ride away from here.  As the car drew closer, it also slowed down after that the car pulled up next to Annie.  Annie looked at the car she was happy that the car had stopped but one problem stilled remained, would she be better off getting a ride from a stranger?  She thought about it and decided that it was better than staying here, so she walked up to the window and the window was down and she looked at the driver.  The driver was a young man, he looked about 25 years old, and he was very handsome man with a upside down triangular face and a goatee.  Annie breathed another sigh of relief to find out that it wasn’t some creepy old man driving, but a normal guy that was around her age.  “Was that your car back there?” asked the driver, “Yes, I got a flat and I’ve been stuck here since, can you please give me a ride to the next town, I’ve been through a lot tonight.”  “Sure no problem I’ll give you a ride, I live in that town too, go ahead and hop in.”  “Thank you!! You don’t know how much I appreciate this, and I don’t know how I can repay you.”  “Oh don’t worry about that,” Annie went around the car and sat in the passenger side of the car.  As she was settled in the car, the driver started driving.  At first Annie stood quiet; after all that she went through this night she couldn’t help but start crying quietly.  The driver heard her sobbing, but he ignored it he just stayed quietly and kept his eyes on the road.  They passed over the train tracks the driver finally spoke, “you said that you had a tough night, well what happened?”  Annie sat there thinking and finally said something, “just a bunch of freaky and scary things happened tonight, can’t really explain it, if I did explain you’d probably thing I’m crazy and you wouldn’t believe me.”  “Oh you can be surprised.  After all it is the witching hour, where a bunch of weird stuff goes on during those hours.” “You know about that stuff?” asked Annie.  “Yes I do, I know a lot about the paranormal, and judging from the time the witching hour is now over, it’s 3 in the morning.”  “That’s crazy, but thank god it’s over,” “Yeah it’s over but another hour has begun.”  “Another hour, what hour is that?”  The driver looked at Annie and showed an evil smile, “the devil’s hour of course, that’s when the devil comes out and roaming the land looking for souls and such.”  Annie then again became frightened as she stared into the eyes of the driver, the driver then began to laugh, and all Annie did was just sit there quietly…

 

 

Three weeks later

 

            “As of now, the parents of Annie Chambers do not want to make a comment about the disappearance of their daughter, so I would be taking in all the questions.”  There were many reporters asking questions to the police chief that was in charge of Annie’s disappearance at a press conference.  One reporter asked, “Chief can you please tell us the details about that night?”  “Yes I can, right now the only information we know is that she went out with friends, and on her way back home she pulled over to the side of the road on Kimberlina road and we do not know why, we’ve inspected the vehicle and we found nothing wrong with it, everything was perfect and intact, there were no signs of an accident, no signs of struggle, and no signs of anyone else that was in the area and since then we have no information about her whereabouts, there isn’t any other evidence, it’s almost as if she has disappeared out of thin air.”

Author's Note

Please be courteous and honest and enjoy the story! :)

Reviews

[Angel of Disease]

Geez an I thought Kimberlina was already creepy haha. There are some mistakes in the story, most are just unnecessary words. Removing some of these words and or revising the sentences will help the story become more clear. The story is also pretty creepy. At first I thought the guy with his family stranded on the side of the road were the ghosts. Also I found the idea of Annie choking herself rather disturbing. This story reminded me of Silent Hill and Left 4 Dead for some reason hehe. Most of all I really loved the twist at the end with the devils hour. Overall I love the story but now I don't ever want to drive home from Bako by myself.