Tales of Mild Terror

Swamp Road

Julie always drove home in the dark. She always drove on Swamp Road. She grew accustomed to navigating the obsolete highway without thinking. Her blue sedan knew all the curves and dips in the road. Her friends always told her she was crazy to drive on that old road.

"Girl, the interstate go right past yo' house. Why you always drivin' on that creepy ass road." DaYondra always said.

Swamp Road

There were virtually no roadside houses, just miles and miles of swamp, thus the name. There were rarely other drivers, most people disliked all of the sharp turns. Julie enjoyed the isolation. After a long shift at the hospital where she worked as a nurse, she wanted to be away from other people. This was especially true today. It was Halloween and she was sick of all the costumes and zaniness.

"Ahhh. I am, like, so tired of sick people! Especially sick people in costumes!" she said to herself as she pulled out of the hospital parking lot. "I'm going home and, like, not answering the door for stupid trick-or-treater kids. I'm just going to watch Gilmore Girls."

Julie's car rolled by the last gas station on the main road before turning on to the old Swamp Road. "$3.16 a gallon!" her inner voiced screamed. Normally, because she was a women, she never noticed the price of gas or how many gallons her tank held or what her last MPG average was. Today, however, this upset her.

A small economy size car pulled out of the station as she passed by and it followed her onto Swamp Road. It was the first time in a long time that anyone else had been on the road with her. The car stayed close behind. At first, it annoyed her. Eventually she began to ignore the two glimmering headlights in her rear view mirror.

Suddenly, everything changed. She was jolted out of her alpha-state-mindless-driving-trance into reality when the car behind her flashed its brights. And again a few seconds later. Again. Once more.

"What's the dealio, freakwad?!?" she said to herself, and presumably to the driver of the other car.

The brights flashed again. Julie was starting to become agitated and apprehensive.

"OMG!" she thought. "Like, why is this guy flashing his brights? It's totally creeping me out. He's going to, like, throw me in a pit and make me put on lotion all the time and then, like, cut my skin off and wear it over his skin. Just like in that movie. What was it called...Savannah Smiles?"

Julie began to tremble. Her fear grew exponentially with each passing second. She decided to turn on the stereo and listen to her Spice Girls CD. The Spice Girls always made her feel better. Not this time. The flashing continued. Then came honking. Julie was going crazy, she was sweating and began crying hysterically.

She pulled the car over into the swampy median, leaped from the driver's seat and began running. The car behind her pulled over in the same fashion and a tall menacing figure emerged, quickly following her. She turned and went directly into the swamp, keeping a watchful eye on the man in pursuit. A low hanging branch caught her in the mouth and she fell on the spongy ground. The tall man crouched over her and she could taste the blood that had begun running over her lips.

"Please don't kill me!" she cried.

"Kill you?" he questioned. "I'm trying to save you."

"What?!?!" she asked with shock and amazement.

"There was someone in the back seat of your car. He had an axe. Every time he raised it up to kill you, I flashed my brights. Then he would crouch back down and hide."

"Bizarro! Thanks. But, like, wait a minute. If he was in my car, that means he's out here somewhere."

Both looked cautiously in the immediate area. "NOOOOO!" Julie screamed. The last thing she saw was the moonlight reflected off the axe blade that went through her chest.

The killer never wore her skin. He just fed her to his hunting dogs. His dogs also ate that guy who was trying to help her.

October 2007