Crimson Road

''Note : this story has originally been written and posted by DeviantArt user theliltheing. I claim nothing on this work, and all credit goes to the original author. See here for original post.''

This story is what one would call a “urban legend”, which of course entails that it might be called fake, or even silly. It is agreeable that these are very often classified as such, but here, is something different as these are actual events, and one example in many similar ones.

Ah yes, the road, something this driver, whom chose to remain nameless didn’t hate so much. Past tense, now was a different story. But let us go back to the beginning, a few years ago, to be eerily cryptic. She had, at first, something good going on with her friends joining her for this car ride to a vacation home on the other side of the state. But no, of course it wouldn’t happen so smoothly. Going out in the afternoon, after dining time just to have less traffic on their way there. The three of them quickly realized, this was going to be a long, long ride. She, our driver, was stuck in this car with people who were getting sick of said ride after three hours of boring ride through the empty, dark country side. They seemed uneasy, maybe because of the bad travel choices. That or the night and the dark were getting to them more than they should have.

After passing one of the many speed limit sign, indicating the usual country road 10 miles per hour, the car got colder, way too cold. Odd, it was in the middle of spring, last time they had checked. Not one person had taken a jacket, and they were all freezing in mere minutes. The driver simply tried to mess with the heater knobs and buttons, trying to fix it... Well crap, this was much harder than what they made it look like in the manual, without crashing the car anyway. Water started condensating on the windows, even hardening to a thin layer of ice. Of course, her “friends” were all being useless and uncaring, snorting and laughing at her clumsiness. At least they had humor to lighten the otherwise boring, freezing and aggravating mood. One of the two, the youngest girl, added to the jokes, saying this could be the start of a bad horror film. This looked like this was not working, They all had a red, freezing nose, and the driver was stuck trying to repair an air conditioner she had no clue how to fix with reddened fingers, trembling to the bone. Well that sight was not creepy at all, nope, not one bit.

Soon, breaking the awkward silence, someone noticed a form, looking like a woman, sitting crosslegged on the road and promptly made everyone aware of that strange presence. The car came to a stop, right before the mysterious woman. The driver shot a glare at the two idiots in the back as they started making misplaced jokes. She promptly made them shut the hell up as they were saying something about her being one of these roadkill ghosts they tell stories about. But that was just silly talk, of course. And besides this poor girl looked hurt. The driver got out of the car and walked carefully over to the woman with the red, almost opaque veil covering her face, looking at her. The driver spoke first.

“Hey, do you... need any help?” The driver asked, just staring. She looked at the others, whom were busy chatting about nonsense, before looking at the bone-thin woman again. The only answer the woman gave was nod weakly. “Okay? Well uhm...do you need a ride? We could take you to a hospital, if you want?” The woman simply nodded again, and stood up. Her fine legs wobbled a little, but soon she was walking over to the car, joining the others in the now kind of cramped car. Our driver shot one more glare at the others, whom kept on being general asses to her, as she returns to her seat, fixing the rear view mirror, trying to avoid the strange, piercing and unseen stare of the woman in red.

She drove along the road again and after an instant, someone was heard giggling. The three friends looked at each other with a frown, all agreeing that it wasn’t one of them. Quickly they agreed that it was the woman. It did seem like any normal human laugh, but something felt way off. Such as the reason she was even laughing. The driver raised her head to peek at the reflection, and through her veil, the woman seemed to be giggling indeed. Okay, she was odd, but nobody paid her any mind. She may just have been happy to find help. The driver raised her hand to fix her mirror again and...Shit. crap. What was that? Blood?, on the rear window? She frowned and turned around. Nothing. Looking in the mirror one last time, she noticed, a grinning, mad face going right for her. Giggles, maddening, deafening giggles, then darkness, nothing. The car, gone. The friends, vanished into the wild.

And soon, it will happen again, and again. The woman in the red veil waits for more people to lure in, to trap, to feed..