Worried About a Woman You Saw on the Road
You drive along in silence for what feels like a century and then you notice that her breathing got heavier. She was taking these deep, wheezing breaths and it was really starting to creep you out. Then you hear a few muffled sighs, and it dawned on you that she’d actually been crying for most of the journey. You feel terrible and ask her if there was anything you could do to help, like take her to the police or a hospital.
“There’s no hope for me now,” she said.
You try to reassure her by saying that you’d take her wherever she wanted to go, but she just kept rambling about how lost she was and how there was nothing you could do. In a desperate attempt to comfort her, you slow the car to a crawl and turn to put your hand on her shoulder.
It was then that you finally caught sight of her face.
She was an absolute mess, to say the least. Her eyes were both deeply rimmed with a heavy purplish black, as if she’d been punched in the face god knows how many times. Cuts on her cheeks; blood running down from her nose; it was a real nasty sight. Her hair was a tangle of mud and there was blood all down the front of her nightgown. It was clear that whoever she’d had a disagreement with had beaten her up real bad.
You were in such shock that you took a sharp intake of breath and she must have heard you gasp because she turned to you and just started screaming. It was this awful, blood-curdling, high-pitched scream, and it just went right through you. You’ve never heard anyone scream like that before. You were so paralyzed by fear that you didn’t notice that she was scrambling for the door handle. In one swift motion, she opened the door and just sort of dropped out of the car.
You screech to a halt and got out of the car as fast as you could to make sure she hadn’t been hurt. Not far off in the distance, you could see her running down the road.
She was still screaming and you could see her screaming face staring back at you. It was like her feet were facing forward, but her top half was facing backward.
You know you should have gone after her, but you couldn’t bring yourself to follow her after what you thought you’d seen. You jump back in your car and drive home as quickly as you could.
“There’s no hope for me now,” she said.
You try to reassure her by saying that you’d take her wherever she wanted to go, but she just kept rambling about how lost she was and how there was nothing you could do. In a desperate attempt to comfort her, you slow the car to a crawl and turn to put your hand on her shoulder.
It was then that you finally caught sight of her face.
She was an absolute mess, to say the least. Her eyes were both deeply rimmed with a heavy purplish black, as if she’d been punched in the face god knows how many times. Cuts on her cheeks; blood running down from her nose; it was a real nasty sight. Her hair was a tangle of mud and there was blood all down the front of her nightgown. It was clear that whoever she’d had a disagreement with had beaten her up real bad.
You were in such shock that you took a sharp intake of breath and she must have heard you gasp because she turned to you and just started screaming. It was this awful, blood-curdling, high-pitched scream, and it just went right through you. You’ve never heard anyone scream like that before. You were so paralyzed by fear that you didn’t notice that she was scrambling for the door handle. In one swift motion, she opened the door and just sort of dropped out of the car.
You screech to a halt and got out of the car as fast as you could to make sure she hadn’t been hurt. Not far off in the distance, you could see her running down the road.
She was still screaming and you could see her screaming face staring back at you. It was like her feet were facing forward, but her top half was facing backward.
You know you should have gone after her, but you couldn’t bring yourself to follow her after what you thought you’d seen. You jump back in your car and drive home as quickly as you could.
