~~ FORK IN THE ROAD ~~

A single streetlight flickered and blew, as Carly sped along the deserted highway towards home. She blinked as she drove underneath it. Just a mere second of darkness between the glowing orbs enough to make her eyes heavy. Seventeen hours since she'd last left home, and a mere 6 hours sleep she might get before leaving again.

"Great idea Carly!" she muttered under her breath. "You wanna take your kid trick or treating? NO PROBLEM! I'll just pull a double shift. Got nothing better to do than stuff my face with candy and watch old horror movies anyways." She rolled her eyes and sighed...
It wouldn't be so bad , but for the hour commute each way. Working day shift normally, Carly was long since safely home and tucked in bed by this hour. The scarcity of other drivers made her uneasy. What if her car broke down? Or she had a blow out? Or if she hit a deer?
"FOCUS CARLY!" she spoke with authority over the musings in her mind.
Her exit finally within sight, she could almost feel the warm covers of her comfy bed around her, protecting her from the mid-fall chill.
It wasn't until she had fully made the turn that she noticed all the streetlights on this stretch were out. The road ahead was completely devoid of anything in sight, and Carly slowed the car to a crawl...suddenly overwhelmed with fear like she was driving into a black hole.
"Get a grip, Carly..."
Switching on the high beams, she hit the gas. She knew this road perfectly in the daylight, and felt confident enough that she could navigate it in the dark.
The road was paved, but long ago. It twisted around, and ran up a single long hill before coasting down to a long flat expanse.
The car jerked left and Carly swore, realizing that the only thing darker than the road in front of her, was the potholes that lay therein. She slowed a bit, so as to account for the many more she knew were ahead.
Her eyes burned with exhaustion and straining to see the road in the dim light. She blinked it away, and her head nodded a bit. God, bed is gonna feel so good...
She could barely make out where the dark shadows of the tall spruce trees ended and the night sky began. It was like driving down one dark forested tunnel. Just twenty more minutes, and she would be home.
Carly came to the fork in the road and promptly swerved left, to the route which directly connected to home. Only then did she see the first lights she had seen for miles...and the first vehicles.
Police cars had blocked the road, and an officer directed her to turn back to the fork.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!! Drive back to the right fork and add another 45 minutes to my time??? GOD!!!! " She fumed.
At this point she was so tired, she didn't even bother to see what was going on, or why. She just wanted to get home as fast as possible. Turning the car around, she drove back and entered the right fork, a path she had only driven once before, while getting lost searching for her new address. She knew it well enough to find her way around, thankfully.
The rage subsided, and her head nodded again, her eyes closing for a couple of seconds.
When she opened them, there in the head lights, was something...someone, crouched in the road.

Carly screamed and yanked the steering wheel hard to the right. Too hard. The car bounced out of a big pothole as it turned and sent her careening off the road and into the trunk of a huge oak tree. Her forehead hit square on the steering wheel between her white knuckled hands, and she let out a quiet little " Ow"...before her vision too went as black as the night outside.
The pain came first. Then the dizziness. Then the nausea from the dizziness. She shivered too. So cold. Opening her eyes, everything was blurry. The dark outline of the steering wheel, the spider web of cracks in the broken windshield...the splinters of wood and bark hanging from the tree and scattered on the crumpled hood of her car. Her fingers raised and gently touched a large bump on her head.
She moaned and turned towards her foggy window, hand moving to open the door.
The illuminated face of a small child gazed at her. Her cheeks as white as new fallen snow, and her eyes as black as tar. Carly screamed and jumped back from the window at the sudden specter.

Was this what she had seen in the road? Whose child was this in the middle of the night, on an almost abandon road? Was she the reason for the police cars? Carly's mind raced with pain and questions. In the blink of an eye the face was gone.
"Hello? HELLO!" Carly yelled from the passenger side of the car. Not sure if the child was merely hiding. "Are you ok? Are you hurt? Did I hit you?"
Silence, but for the breeze scraping the broken branches against the side of the car, like fingernails on a chalkboard. It raised the hair on Carly's neck, and she shivered again...not with cold.
She climbed over the front seat, and exited out the back passenger door. If the girl was hiding behind the driver side door, or worse..she didn't want to hit her. A fresh wave of pain and dizziness washed over her as she stood on the ground, and walked around to her door.
No one was there.
Maybe the bump on her head was more severe than she thought.
She stumbled a bit down into the ditch, to assess the damage to the front of her car. Despite being crumpled beyond belief, one headlight still shone in the darkness. It was then, that she spotted it. A tiny face staring up at her...broken.

Now she was sure, it was not just a bump on her head.
Surely no child would still be out trick or treating? This girl must be lost. That's why the police presence. She debated on walking back to the police, or trying to find the girl herself. A long walk back to them means the girl could travel farther away,and then not be found alive.

"How do you get yourself into these messes?" Carly spoke with exasperation.
A giggle from the dark forest, answered her.
"HELLO!? Are you alright? I think people are looking for you. I can help you find them!"
Another giggle, and a rustle of branches moving in the opposite direction away from Carly.
" Lovely, " Carly quipped..." this one has a sense of humor."
Realizing this would be more difficult than she thought, Carly went back around to the passenger door, opening it and fumbling on the floor among coffee cups till she found it. A flashlight.
Her head throbbed something awful, but she knew if this was indeed a lost child, it would hurt more to have her not found.
"HELLO? My name is Carly! I can help you! "
A rustling to her left, as she tread lightly into the woods.
A giggle. Then another to her right.
She shone the flashlight all around. Who knows if it was the child or an animal.
If a deer came charging at her right now, she swore she would have a heart attack.
A twig snapped in the distance behind her, and she spun around with the light in hand.
A face, smiled back at her...

...and then was gone with a gust of wind.
This child, was not the one she had seen by the car. Nor now did she realize, either of them were the one in the road. Yet all were eerie. Their faces didn't look right. Their clothes didn't look right.
"WHAT is going on here???" Carly whispered to herself. Suddenly this situation had shifted into something different. Something wrong.
Giggles...lots of them. From behind multiple trees. And whispers, all inaudible, but for her name...
" Carly....Carly....Carly...Carly..."
So that was it. A sudden realization washed over Carly. A group of kids playing tricks on Halloween. SERIOUS tricks. No wonder the police were out here. Boy did she have it wrong.
"Oh my god, really? You kids are psycho! You could have killed me or yourselves running me off the road like that! You know the police are looking for you, right? In fact...think I'll go help them out."
Carly spun on her heel back towards the road. There behind her, was another one.

This one just stood there, staring at her. Mocking her with her clown make-up and painted dark eyes. She giggled, loudly....and a hundred giggles if not more, answered back from the darkness.
There can't be that many... Carly thought. But the giggles roared from all sides of the forest. They surrounded her. They grew in pitch till it was so loud that Carly had to cover her ears. The girl still stood in front of her. Grinning, and blocking the way back to the road.
The ground beneath Carly's feet began to vibrate, as if a herd of animals were stampeding nearby. Then it shook like an earthquake, and a crack formed between her feet. She tried to move but the soil gave way and opened a giant sinkhole beneath her. Her feet slid the side of the wide open hole, glowing with red it was and smelling of sulfur and charred flesh. Only her fingertips...barely held her to the world above.

HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME!!!
Only the laughter of a hundred small children answered her plea.
Her fingers slipping, her head throbbing...and her mind racing....Carly lost herself, to the heat and depth below.

The flames burned to a white light....and the ground slowly closed it's open mouth.
The voices among the trees...were silent.

********************************************************************************
Officer Simms thankfully sipped his fresh coffee.
"Thanks Jim, I needed that."
" How much longer you guys gonna be out here?" Jim asked.
Simms sighed..." Just waiting on the tow truck. Ambulance left about an hour ago. We'll clear this mess up and get the road open before morning rush hour."
"Rush hour..." Jim chuckled. "Any word on the victim?"
" License says Carly Jones. I'll try to notify next of kin. She took a bad bump to the head. Took a good chunk of the tree too. There's some skid marks like she swerved or somethin'. No idea what she was trying not to hit. Anyways, just give me another hour, and I should be wrapped up here."
"Sure , boss. I'll be off then." Jim waved and climbed back into his police cruiser. Driving back towards the highway, he slowed down from the left fork in the road, and gazed up at the right for oncoming traffic. Then continued on his way home for the day.
He didn't see the flash of red light change to white...nor hear the roar of maniacal laughter as he drove away.

I couldn't let Halloween pass by without writing a story, contest or not. Credit goes to the wonderful artists of DeviantArt for their inspiration in writing this.
Hope you enjoy.
~ AD

a reply to: AccessDenied


I Love This!!! You did a Great job with Your use of the Images!!!
Also about Them; The Images Rock!!!
The Twist at the end was unexpected, and Awesome!!!
Very Well done!!! VERY well Done Indeed!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

a reply to: SyxPak
Thank you ! For many of my stories it is the images themselves that inspire me to write the story around them.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Edited double post.
CURSE YOU GREMLINS!

AccessDenied - this was excellent. Well written and mysterious, and I agree with SyxPak the images were apropos and added a lot!

S &F!

originally posted by: PrairieShepherd
AccessDenied - this was excellent. Well written and mysterious, and I agree with SyxPak the images were apropos and added a lot!

S &F!

Thank you! glad you enjoyed it!