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Short Story 373 - The Midnight Commute (Int)
The rain hammered against the windscreen, blurring the already faint lines of the country road. Alex gripped the steering wheel tighter, knuckles white. It was past midnight, and he was miles from home, driving back from a late meeting. He’d taken this route countless times, but tonight, everything felt different.
The wind howled like a distressed animal, shaking the car slightly. The headlights struggled to pierce the thick darkness, revealing only a few feet of road ahead. Alex slowed down, his heart pounding in his chest. He told himself it was just the weather, just tiredness, but a nagging feeling of unease settled in his stomach.
Suddenly, the car’s headlights illuminated something in the middle of the road. Alex slammed on the brakes, the car skidding slightly on the wet surface. He squinted through the rain-streaked windscreen. It looked like…a figure.
As he got closer, he could make out a woman standing in the middle of the road, her back to him. She was wearing a long, dark coat, and her head was bowed. Alex cautiously rolled down his window.
“Excuse me!” he shouted over the wind and rain. “Are you alright?”
The woman didn’t move. Alex tried again, louder this time. Still no response. A shiver ran down his spine. Something was definitely wrong.
He put the car in park and cautiously opened the door. The wind and rain hit him like a physical force. He pulled his coat tighter around him and stepped onto the road.
“Hello?” he called out, his voice trembling slightly. He took a few steps closer to the woman. As he did, she slowly turned her head.
Alex gasped. Her face was pale, almost ghostly white, and her eyes were wide and vacant. She didn’t seem to see him. Her expression was utterly blank.
He took a step back, his heart racing. He wanted to get back in his car, to drive away as fast as he could, but something held him back. He felt a strange sense of responsibility.
“Can I help you?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
The woman didn’t answer. She simply stared at him with those empty eyes. Then, she slowly raised her arm and pointed a long, thin finger towards the woods that lined the side of the road.
Alex followed her gaze. The woods were dark and impenetrable, the trees swaying wildly in the wind. He couldn’t see anything.
He turned back to the woman, but she was gone.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision. The rain was still falling heavily, but the road was empty. There was no sign of her.
Alex felt a cold dread wash over him. He scrambled back into his car, locked the doors, and started the engine. He put the car in gear and sped away, not daring to look back.
He didn't stop until he reached the brightly lit service station on the outskirts of the next town. He pulled into the car park, his hands still shaking. He sat there for a few minutes, trying to calm down.
He couldn't explain what he had seen. He tried to convince himself that it was just a trick of the light, a figment of his imagination, brought on by tiredness and the terrible weather. But deep down, he knew he had seen something…something unsettling.
He bought a cup of hot coffee and sat in the brightly lit café, trying to shake off the feeling of dread. As he sipped his coffee, he noticed a newspaper on the counter. The headline read: “Local Woman Missing.” Below the headline was a photograph. It was the woman from the road.
The article stated that she had been missing for three days. Her car had been found abandoned near the woods.
Alex felt a chill run down his spine. He put down his coffee and stared at the photograph, his mind reeling. He knew then that he hadn’t imagined it. He had seen her. But where had she gone? And why had she pointed to the woods?
He knew he had to tell the police.
Alex drove to the nearest police station, his hands trembling as he pulled into the parking lot. He explained the encounter to the officer, his voice shaking slightly as he described the woman, the woods, and the strange feeling of dread that had gripped him....
Story written by Google Gemini 2.0 AI
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