Fearful Things

Inhuman

The warmth of the seat soaked into her back, making her drowsy. Her eyelids weighed tons, but she forced herself to open them wide. She focused on the bright glare of her headlights, the only thing that pierced the inky darkness surrounding her. The monotonous gray road set before her repeated endlessly; the only sign that she was moving forward were the thin branches poking at the edge of the lights, rushing towards her only to fall back into the shadows. She crested a hill, one of many in the bleak Oklahoma countryside. It dropped sharply on the other side, and her stomach somersaulted. She grimaced as the road leveled out again. She hated driving these roads at night. They were secluded and decrepit-

Her headlights touched something in the road. Her thoughts were ripped away, along with any semblance of sleepiness as she slammed her foot on the breaks. The car and everything in it lurched forward violently, screeching to a halt. She sat there for a while, her heart jack-hammering in her rib cage and breath escaping her. An ache in her hand forced her to slowly release her white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel. Swallowing past the dryness in her mouth, she leaned to look at the road. Someone was laying in the middle of the pavement, a woman. She looked filthy, her clothes stained in mud with twigs and leaves stuck in her long hair.

The driver put her hand on the door handle to get out and help, but she froze. Why was the hair on her arms standing on end? Why were her hands shaking? Why was every nerve in her body screaming at her to stay in the car? She slowly withdrew her hand and grabbed her phone. No service. Made sense considering the nearest sign of civilization were miniscule dots of light on the horizon. She bit her lip and drummed her fingers nervously on the steering wheel. What should she do? Should she help? Luckily, the decision was made for her.

Something stirred at the edge of the car's illumination. She was unaware that she was holding her breath. She watched as a hand entered the light. Her mouth fell open to scream, but all that came from her throat was a terrified squeak. The hand looked dead—the skin was gray, sagging, even rotting in some parts, with sharp nails that gleamed a dark purple. And it was as big as her car.

She trembled violently and couldn't do anything but stare, her mouth agape in horror. The hand moved with agonizing slowness to hover over the woman in the road. An arm as thick as a tree followed. It wrapped its long, decaying fingers around her and lifted her up. The driver flinched when the hand tightened its grip, snapping the woman's back. If she wasn't dead before, she was now. It receded into the darkness with its victim. A moment later, the shadows to her right, where the hand came from, shifted. Suddenly, the stars became visible again.

She had not noticed before that the trees and sky on that side of the road were obscured by a monstrous wall of shadow. The thing retreated into the woods through a cacophony of snapping branches and falling trees. The light of the moon gave it a silvery outline, and she thanked God it was too dark for her to see the creature clearly.

Completely numb, still shaking, she put the car in drive and sped away. She stared forward blankly, not seeing her surroundings. Her mind ran in circles as she questioned what had happened over and over again. She came up with a million doubts and excuses until she wasn't sure if she had seen anything at all.