I’m not sure if I’d started to nod off, and that itself had made me start when I returned fully to myself, or if there had indeed been something in the road that I was sure I’d caught a flash of before thoughtlessly cutting the wheel to the right and sailing down the steep incline. Maybe it was both. Had I kept my eyes fully open I might have seen whatever might have been in the road much sooner. Now, I sat bleeding into my eyes and breathing painfully against a seatbelt that had cinched so tightly it felt as though it would crack my ribs. Or… perhaps my ribs felt as though they would crack because that is what they’d already done. I managed to reach the small knife I kept in my console and cut through the belt before spilling out onto the forest floor. I needed to find my phone and call for help, assuming I had any reception out here. Just as I turned to search for my device, a twig snapped behind me. I turned, momentarily forgetting my phone, and saw something emerge from the trees. Then I knew. A trap had been laid, and I was the prey who’d stupidly stumbled into it.
#
There was a car coming. The sound came long before the lights. My hearing was sharper than a human’s, so I knew I had a minute or two before the vehicle rounded the bend at the bottom of the hill. I moved up to the edge of the road but stayed close to the tree line, not wanting to show myself too soon and give the driver a chance to escape. When I saw the lights my breathing and heartbeat quickened. Excitement. I was hungry. When the car was mere feet away I jumped into its path, confident in my ability to nimbly avoid the automobile regardless of the direction in which it might veer. I saw an open mouth and wide frightened eyes before the driver and his car flew down the steep slope. I dove after it, blowing through tree limbs and landing just beyond where the driver had come to rest. I watched as he climbed out of the car, and I started to salivate. I couldn’t wait any longer. I moved forward, relishing the look of fear that slowly transformed the stranger’s face as I materialized out of the darkness and into his view. I grinned before lunging. Dinner.
Bio: I am an emerging writer of mysteries, thrillers and horror. I am working on my first novel, which takes place in the desolate northernmost part of the Scottish Highlands. I enjoy exploring fear through my writing.