Goblin Bites: Scary Stories 4

There was once a man driving home on a quiet, rainy night. He'd had a long, hard day, and was utterly exhausted. It was all he could do to keep his eyes open and maintain his lane. Luckily there weren't many other cars around due to the lateness of the hour, otherwise his constant nodding off at the wheel could have had disasterous results. The rain fell more heavily as he came to a four-way stop. His usual route was blocked by a fallen tree, leaving him no choice but to take the scenic route through a network of back roads.

The back roads were heavily overgrown. Huge pine and oak trees lined the crumbling strip of asphalt, casting deep shadows that his headlights could barely penetrate. There were no lights on the back roads either to help cut through the gloom, which seemed that much darker with the pelting rain. The motorist gripped his steering wheel tightly throughout his journey along the old roads. His instincts were to drive as fast as possible to put the ominous road behind him postehaste, however the conditions forced him to drive slowly. He crawled along the road, keeping his eyes peeled on the impenetrable darkness in front of him, just in case a wayward deer decided to leap into his path .

As he maneuvered around a sharp bend in the road, where the shadows were deepest, he suddenly caught a flash of movement on the side of the road. He slammed on his brakes, thinking at first that it was an animal, but to his astonishment it was a woman. She was pale and fair, dressed in a long, red overcoat that hung past her knees. There was a car in the ditch, and she looked like she might be in trouble, so he pulled over and rolled down his window. "Hi," he greeted cautiously, "Are you okay?"

The woman was weeping, but she did her best to smile, "I am now. I lost control and ran off the road."

The motorist looked from the car - of which he could only see the glow of the tail lights through the sheeting rain - to the woman again, looking her up and down from head to toe, "I can see that. Are you injured? Should I call an ambulance?"

The woman shook her head with a sniffle, "No, I'm fine. I just want to go home. Can you take me home? Please?" The motorist was apprehensive at her request. He was practically falling asleep at the wheel himself, and the last thing he wanted was to delay his long-awaited meeting with his own bed. That, and the idea of picking up a stranger off the side of the road didn't seem like a smart idea. She looked harmless enough, but what if she was really a psycho or something? Still, she looked so sad and desperate that he couldn't turn her down.

"Alright," he sighed, reaching over to unlock the passenger side door, "hop in. Do you live nearby?"

The woman beamed at him gratefully, "Oh, yes. Thank you! I don't live far; just a few miles down the road. Thank you very much!"

The motorist paused to think for a moment before putting his car in gear. "a few miles down the road?" he thought. He didn't travel down the back roads often, but he was almost certain there weren't any houses around for at least fifteen miles. He shook off the thought, reasoning that the city must have put in a new subdivision he was unaware of. At any rate, he was too tired to argue and just wanted this to be over with as soon as possible.

The woman warmed her hands on the heater in front of her, still sobbing quietly. The motorist glanced over at her curiously for a moment while he drove. "You sure you're okay?" he asked, "you seem very upset about something."

The woman nodded, smiling through her tears as she dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief, "I'm just so happy to be heading home at last. I'd been standing there so long, and I'm sure my husband is very worried. Thank you again for your kindness." The motorist felt bad then about entertaining the thought of just leaving the woman back where he found her. She seemed so sweet and genuinely grateful over something so simple. That, and it hadn't escaped his notice how beautiful she was; long, flowing blonde hair, the biggest and prettiest brown eyes he'd ever seen, and a dynamite figure to boot. He felt a little jealous of her husband, to be honest, and almost suggested she spend the night at his place instead.

They rode together in silence, the only sounds around them the pitter-patter of the rain on the car roof and the woman's quiet sniffles. Every now and then she gave him directions, but other than that not a word was spoken between them. After a while the motorist started getting a little uneasy, because the directions she was giving him seemed to lead farther and farther into the woods and away from civilization. They rode for nearly an hour, by which time the motorist was understandably losing patience with his passenger. When the paved road under his tires changed to a worn gravel path no wider than his car, he stopped and frowned at her. "Look here," he snapped, "this is getting ridiculous! Can you really not remember where you live, or are you just having fun yanking my chain and wasting my gas?!"

The woman started bawling again, "Please, don't stop now! We're so close to my home. It's just at the end of this road. My husband will be waiting for me! Please!" The motorist sighed, feeling guilty for making her start crying again, and continued on the road. At long last, the trees parted into a small clearing before him. His headlights illuminated a small shack that honestly had seen better days. The porch sagged and the roof line looked dangerously close to falling in, making the motorist wonder how anyone could live there. A light burned in the front window, however, assuring him that it was, indeed, inhabited. He put the car in park with a heavy sigh, "This is it, huh? No offense, but it's kind of a dump."

The woman stared at the house in shock and disbelief, "No... my beautiful home! What happened to it?! This can't be right!" She began wailing and sobbing bitterly as she leapt from the car, but instead of running toward the house she sprinted blindly towards the woods. The motorist was confused and concerned by her behavior, but he wasn't about to go chasing anybody through the woods at night without some kind of back up. Feeling he had little choice, he marched up to the house and rapped on the door.

Several long minutes passed before the door slowly creaked open. The face of a withered old man peeked out, narrowing his eyes at the motorist, "What'cher want? Kinda late for peddlers, ain't it?"

The motorist startled at the old timer, then shook his head to gather himself, "I'm sorry to bother you, mister, but I'm looking for your son. Or... grandson, maybe? You see, I found his wife stranded on the side of the road a while back, and she asked me to bring her home."

The old man's pale eyes widened and he opened the door a little more, "Didja do it? Didja bring her home?"

The motorist nodded, growing more unsettled by the moment at the old man's strange reaction, "Y-Yeah... but when we got here, she took off running. She was really upset, and I'm afraid she might get hurt in the dark. Can you wake up her husband for me so we can go look for her together?"

The old man's eyes grew misty and he let out a heavy sigh, "Son, I don't have any children... or grandchildren. I've lived in this here house alone since '54." The motorist's stared at the kooky old man in alarm and bewilderment, but the old man held up a gnarled hand to silence him. "Yer not the first feller she's bummed a ride from," he muttered, "nor will ya be the last, most likely. My wife has been tryin' to come home since the night she passed away in that accident. This time was the closest yet. Maybe one day soon, she'll finally make it."