Short Scary Stories

The shortcut.

It was coming up on Thanksgiving and I wanted to go to my parents house. They lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, whereas I had moved to Denver,Colorado for college. I had been meaning to visit them for some time, so it seemed the perfect opportunity. My suburban wasn’t the most fuel efficient car, but it was hardy, and it had taken me to various other destinations faithfully for three years, so I trusted it. It was a two-three day drive, so I packed a lot of snacks, just in case.

When I set off, it was early morning. I knew that if I wanted to get there in a timely fashion, I would have to drive at a steady speed and have a fast route. This meant as few detours as possible unless absolutely necessary. I, unlike many people, have no issue with back roads. They were just roads which people didn’t use very often, but were just as valid as others.

The first few hours of driving were perfect. The sky was clear and blue, and there was just the right amount of traffic so that I didn’t feel lonely, but the highway didn’t feel crowded. There was a good dispersment of gas stations and rest stops. I stopped a two times to get snacks and to go to the bathroom. The day went well, but as night fell, things starting going wrong.

After awhile, my route had me go onto a back road that looked like it hadn’t seen a car since the invention of TV. It was getting dark but I could still make out the road well enough. It was completely overgrown, with saplings and bushes growing in the road. There were tall, dark oak trees lining the street, darkening it and shedding black, dead leaves by the side of the road. A light mist hugged the ground, swirling softly as the car passed. I had some misgivings about this route, but the GPS said that it cut two hours off my trip, so I went with it. But just in case, I turned on the radio to calm myself down. The only station I could find was some country music station.

As I progressed further along the road, I noticed some odd things along the side of the road. The first thing I saw was a pile of what at first looked liked garbage. As I got closer, I saw it was a bundle of dirty, ratty clothes, empty cans, slopping over with some unknown rotting fluid, and some fleshy mounds. I can’t say for certain, but I thought that I saw something underneath them move as I drove past.

As night fell, the mist grew thicker, and some darkly ominous clouds rolled in. I worried slightly about rain, but It never came. The clouds just hovered, darkening my path even further. My radio suddenly began to cut out, changing rapidly from static to this really faint station that I didn’t recognize. It had what sounded like chanting and shrieking. I quickly turned it off, my heart thumping in my ears. Without the music to distract me from my surroundings, I began noticing more odd things on the sides of the road.

I passed heaps of garbage that looked like they had been there for centuries. They were covered with what looked like a black goo. There were overgrown offshoots of the road that no doubt led to long abandoned farmsteads. On one of these, there were objects swinging from the trees that lined the entrance. I told myself that they were just oddly shaped hanging vines, or a trick of the light. They couldn’t be bodies.

There was the rotted out carcass of an old wooden church, just off to one side of the road. The roof had collapsed, most of the remaining walls had at least a quarter of the boards missing. It was covered in vines and overgrowth. Through the gaping hole that used to be the doors, I saw that the pews were strewn around wildly like some great force had come through and swept them aside in a fit of violence. There were also piles in front of it that trailed partially onto the road. I slowed down and drove carefully around them. I couldn’t tell what they were but it didn’t seem very good.

At this point, I was thoroughly creeped out and I was seriously considering turning around and leaving, shortcut or not, when I saw that there was a massive downed tree lying across the road. I consulted the GPS, which told me that there was a side-route about half a mile back that would connect back with the road after a while. I thought it over for a while, then decided that I would try it out. I thought “ Hey, what’s the worst that could happen?” If the road got too bad, I could just turn around.