Short horror stories: Urban Legend edition

Riverdale road

It took quite a lot to scare her. She always held a strong sense of confidence when traveling alone due to the fact that she'd been traveling alone for her job ever since she turned twenty-three. She learned at a very young age that the things that happened in the world were more often dangerous occurrences, so she quickly learned ways to protect herself. However, it became more complicated when you had to protect yourself against something that isn't physical.

Claudia turned up the volume on her radio while driving on the dark highway to keep her heavy eyelids from closing, in hopes that it would wake her up. Closing in on a long red light, she glances out her window and gazed at the Colorado mountains. The strong winds blew the dust all around the road. Although it was such a breathtaking sight for a woman from a village to see, it also intimidated her. The mountains continued, never ending. I bet somebody could get lost in that, she thought. She looked ahead again and the light turned green. Going further into the darkness of the night, she then came across a winding road. Suddenly static came over the walkie-talkie on her dashboard, causing her to flinch.
Picking it up, she answered it. "Hello, who is this?" She asked. Some more static came over until finally, her coworker spoke.
"Where are you now?" He questioned Claudia.
"Right now, it looks like the middle of nowhere. Maybe between Thornton and Brighton." Claudia responds over the walkie.
"Oh, that road huh?" He chuckled.
Claudia's dark eyes narrowed at the strange comment. "Yeah, what's wrong with it? Is it tough on semi trucks or something?"
"Heh, I wish that was the only problem." He says.
"What are you talking about?"
"I—he got lost—but I—" The walkie started breaking up, his words no longer meaningful to Claudia now.
"Hey, you're breaking up." She tried to tell him despite the static, but it was no use. Within moments, he was completely disconnected from the walkie.

After awhile, the wind died down and silence reigned. Claudia's hands became tired from gripping the steering wheel so tightly so she decided to take a short break on the side of the road. She jumped down from the great height and extended her arms toward the night sky. The road was dead and usually, she liked it but this particular night, it gave her a sense of uneasiness.
"I don't feel alone." She whispered out loud to herself. She took it upon herself to retrieve her pepper spray from the truck and explore the surrounding area. The crickets and cicadas were unusually quiet tonight. If even bugs are too scared to make any noise, then it must be serious. Appearing in front of Claudia, looked to be a dark silhouette of a man who was barely visible to her eyes. She looked down and spotted cowboy boots walking toward her. Have I gone insane? Am I too sleep-deprived? As she thought of any reasonable explanation, the nervousness inside overtook her, and she sprinted back to her truck. She opened her glove compartment and reached for her asthma inhaler. However, the trembling of her hands caused her to drop it out of the window. She was too scared to even attempt to get out of her seat and retrieve it, so she slouched into her seat and covered her mouth in order to be as quiet as possible. She waited in the seat to hear footsteps and soon, she heard them. The clicking of boots pounding on the dusty road. First, approaching from behind the truck and slowly walking beside her door and crunching down on something tough. The steps stopped and the only sound was Claudia's panicked breathing. She waited, even though it seemed like time had halted and been completely frozen. After a few minutes, she sat up and looked around the truck, only to find that no one was outside the vehicle. She took a deep breath, blowing her dark curls away from her face and stepped out of the truck. The moment she landed on her feet, she looked down at her inhaler, which had been broken into pieces and was lying in a pile. So, I wasn't just seeing things, she thought to herself. Before another minute passed her by, she hopped back inside the semi and sped off down the road and drove as far away as possible.

Although she didn't see the mysterious cowboy again, she saw a few other occurrences that would bring raising hairs to her arms. Passing by a sign, she spotted a man jogging on the side of the road. Though when she came up on him, he stopped and slowly turned around to stare at her. Through her mirror, Claudia glanced at him and noticed that his joggers and shirt were stained with blood. Every now and then, she heard a tap on her semi. Whether the tapping came from the back, the top or even from her window. After what felt like forever, she reached her destination and caught up with her coworker. It was then, that she finally learned what was wrong with that stretch of road. The ominous events didn't end there, nor did they begin with Claudia.

"I've been driving around this area for about sixteen years, so I know every rumor and tall tale about that road. They say some man went crazy and burned down his mansion with his family inside. That's presumed to be when everything else started happening." He explained.
"Everything else?" Claudia asked.
"Personally, I call it the bad luck road. In fact; just in the past year, there have been thirty-three fatal car crashes..." He pauses before adding one last piece of morbid information. "And every couple of months, a jogger just seems to go missing there."