Doses of Horror

The Backroads

Imagine the darkest night you've ever seen or experienced. The moon, hidden, leaving you in complete darkness. That was this night.

- - -

I had said my goodbye to my boyfriend after spending the entire day with him. It was about 1:00am when I began to head home.

Traffic nowadays has been extremely bad, so I've learned almost all the backroads in the area. Yes, traffic exists at 1:00am here as well, unfortunately.

The only thing about visiting my boyfriend is that he lives about 45 minutes away by freeway. But, by the backroads it's about an hour. So, taking them back home so late wasn't ideal, but I always did it anyway and nothing ever happened.

I drive a shitty '06 Mitsubishi Lancer ES, and my boyfriend had just changed my oil that day and I was extremely grateful to be driving home with a better functioning vehicle.

Everything was normal, except for the fact that it was pitch black outside and there wasn't a single car in sight. There's usually about one or two, but not tonight.

My playlist that I was listening to didn't sound or feel the same, so I struggled for a while to find the right music to listen to. I ended up setting with some good old fashioned country. It seemed to be the only thing that I was willing to listen to.

Deer were crossing the road every now and then. Jumping out at random times, catching me off guard. But, still missing every single one luckily.

Driving felt like such a drag, and felt as if it would never end. The long, dark and empty roads seemed to have gone on forever. To make it even worse, I was exhausted.

Casually driving along the road, I felt a sudden pit in my stomach. I had been diagnosed with anxiety a long time ago so, it was something I had learned to deal with. But, this felt different. My stomach turned, my senses heightened and my heart grew heavy. My heart beat began to speed up and my lungs tightened, it began to be difficult to breathe.

I began repeatedly checking all of my mirrors. All of my blind spots and the sides of the road ahead. But still, there was nothing. Suddenly, my aux cord began to cut out maybe? Static filled the car with my music cutting in and out, only a few lyrics were heard now and again. This only made the feeling worse.

Trying to ignore the feeling, I paused the music and the static stopped. I was only about 30 minutes away from home at this point and I was desperate to get there. I pushed my foot on the gas just a tad bit more, trying to escape the dread I felt.

About 3 minutes after I had began to speed up, a black Audi A3 sedan appeared on the road behind me. I didn't see any side roads that they could've taken to turn onto this road, but then again, maybe there was and I wasn't paying close enough attention.

The feeling grew stronger at the sight of the car. It seemed as if they had their high beams on and they began to ride my ass. Right up to my bumper. At first, I was confused on why they didn't just pass me because there was a lane to my left. But, they chose to ride my bumper instead and my grip onto the steering wheel tightened.

I started to slow down to encourage them to pass, but they didn't budge. The car stayed in its spot and continued to blind me with their lights. It became extremely difficult to see the road ahead of me so, I decided to move into the left lane instead. But, they went into the left lane with me.

"Shit," I whispered to myself as I felt the panic grow inside of me.

Up ahead, I could barely see that there was an intersection with only a stop sign. I made a quick decision and when I reached the intersection, I turned. I didn't touch the breaks once or turn on my blinker, so the driver behind me wouldn't be able to tell that I was turning.