When the car broke down, I was fifty miles past nowhere with another hundred to nothing. The sliver of the moon that remained struggled to peek past the clouds, as I hunched over the engine, hoping to get a glimpse of the problem and keep moving. No one traveled this road after dark.<\/p>\n
When the battery died and the lights went out, I settled in for a long walk, careful to keep my feet on the black river of cold pitch. I checked my phone for reception every few minutes until it too turned lifeless in my hands, just another hunk of technology that betrayed me.<\/p>\n
The rustling of the brush caused me to nearly leap out of my skin as a bobcat bounded up onto the shoulder and dashed away into the dark, more frightened of me than I of it. I counted to thirty before taking another step, afraid of drawing it back. Ten steps later, I stumbled and fell to my hands and knees. My hands rested in something sticky, but the moon had retreated once again. I stood and wiped my hands on my jeans as the light poked through the shroud above. The lifeless carcass at my feet grinned up at me. It was likely the bobcat, though what was left of it fostered some doubt. My skin began to crawl and I struggled to remain calm. I rubbed the back of my neck, which had grown much warmer.<\/p>\n
By the time I felt the hot breath on my neck and hand, it was too late even to scream.<\/p>\n
[plinker heading=”Like my writing? Check out some of my other posts.”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the car broke down, I was fifty miles past nowhere with another hundred to nothing. The sliver of the moon that remained struggled to peek past the clouds, as I hunched over the engine, hoping to get a glimpse of the problem and keep moving. No one traveled this road after dark. When the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[308,184,213,185,307],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-creepy","tag-horror","tag-monsters","tag-scary","tag-terror","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2193,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-10-the-haunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":3006,"position":0},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 10 – The Haunting","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\"An evil old house, the kind some people call haunted, is like an undiscovered country waiting to be explored. Hill House had stood for 90 years and might stand for 90 more. Silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 walked alone.\" I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":680,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/where-the-hell-is-matt\/","url_meta":{"origin":3006,"position":1},"title":"Where the Hell is Matt?","author":"Jared Cash","date":"November 24, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my new favorite video on YouTube. It's a video of this guy dancing in places all over the world. I checked out his website, \"Where The Hell Is Matt?\" and learned a bit about why he's doing this. 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The Amityville Horror (iTunes) is the supposedly true story of a haunted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2185,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-9-the-mist\/","url_meta":{"origin":3006,"position":3},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 9 – The Mist","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Mist (iTunes) is one of the rare moments where a Stephen King story translated to the screen actually surpasses the source material. The first time I saw the movie, I watched the studio release in 2007. I was rather impressed, but always felt as though something was a little\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2227,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-15-the-faculty\/","url_meta":{"origin":3006,"position":4},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 15 – The Faculty","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"So, here's another\u00c2\u00a0Bodysnatchers\u00c2\u00a0story. The Faculty is actually one of my favorites, because it has a large number of young actors that are either recognizable or famous, a great soundtrack for those of you that graduated in the late 90s, and just the right amount of chills and thrills to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2286,"url":"https:\/\/zepfhyr.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/scary-movie-month-day-26-a-nightmare-on-elm-street\/","url_meta":{"origin":3006,"position":5},"title":"Scary Movie Month – Day 26 – A Nightmare on Elm Street","author":"Jared Cash","date":"October 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The most important rule to remember in a scary movie is to never trust that your boyfriend will actually do what you tell him and stay awake to protect you. Instead, he will inevitably fall asleep and either let you die or die himself. 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