Damn truck! Every time I drive this stupid company truck the some-bitch breaks down! This time was different though, this time the damn thing had been stuttering and stalling all day long and of all places to quit, it had to stop here! 5 miles from anywhere!
I angrily jammed the gear shift into park and turned the key, the starter whirred and the engine coughed and sputtered. "Oh come on!" I yelled out loud and followed it with a long stream of expletives.
The head lights dimmed as the battery weakened, so I shut them off, and sat back in the seat, disgusted and pissed to say the least!
I got out and opened the hood, hoping to find a simple problem, as my tools were in my van back at the office. I couldn't find anything loose or un plugged, but I couldn't miss the smell of gas.
I thought back to the days when a problem like this could be fixed in a few minutes, but with all the "high tech" junk under the hood, this could be any number of things, and I was clue less! I slammed the hood down and got back in behind the wheel.
This stretch of road was a lonely place to be stranded especially between 11pm and 5 am. I was well aware of this road. I felt my air bristle as I recalled 30 years ago, when I and a friend had stopped in the very place where this piece of junk choose to quit! It was a night not unlike this night, bright moon light illuminating the night sky and highlighting the small puffs of clouds, that seemed to drift slowly across the night sky from the north east to the south west. Moon light so bright that I could clearly read the same "no trespassing" sign hanging from the chain link fence 15 feet from the edge of the road.
My friend Bill and I had been out dumpster diving and cruising the allies for resalable junk, neither of us drank nor partook of any drugs. Well, at least not until after that night!
We saw a column of smoke or steam rising from the ditch on the right side of the road, as we got closer the mist grew thicker and obscured the road ahead. Bill slowed down and pulled to his car onto the shoulder of the road. Both of us thought that there might be a car down in the ditch.
We had both been down this stretch many times and had never seen anything like this before. We both sat quietly staring as the mist, well lit in the headlights of the car and bright moon light, began to move up onto the road about 40 feet in front of us.
It was not like any fog I'd ever seen before, it went against the wind and gathered up in the middle of the road. Taking shape yet with out clear definable features, into what we both swear was a woman in a wedding gown!
The mist was wispy like smoke swirling and curling, yet unaffected by the direction of the breeze. Her face and full bosoms soon were visible, though shrouded in a white veil and the swirling mist, her gown seemed weightless within the fog as the train and layers of sheer white fabric floated and blended with the swirling mist.
The ghost stood in the center of the road as if pleading with us to help her. Her hands gesturing to us, as trying to entice us from the car. We could only stare as she turned into the wind and drifted gracefully against it, across the road and up over a bridge embankment.
We sat in shocked amazement at what we had both seen. My hair bristles even today, recalling what we had seen years later. That night Bill's mother told us that a young bride and two of her bridesmaids had been killed in a head on collision in that very spot 10 years before, on their way to the wedding at a local Fire Hall.
Since that time I have been up and down this road many times and never saw anything again.
This was a great place to be stranded! If I leave the car I can be sure that either the car will be stolen or at least broken into. I could care less about the car, but my equipment was in the trunk, so I decided to stay in the car.
Perhaps if I'm lucky a cop will come by and I can get a ride or at least call a tow truck for me. I turned on the radio and reclined the seat and relaxed. I laid my head back on the head rest and closed my eyes for a few minutes, it had been a long day and I was getting tired.
This car was real piece of junk but it did have comfortable seats and a decent radio! So I settled in and made the best of my situation. After a few minutes the radio started to act up, the volume blared and the channels changed rapidly from one to the next. The dome light came on and off over and over. i pulled out the key and it didn't stop!
The gasoline fumes seemed to be getting stronger and I sat up and was amazed to see the entire car totally engulfed in a thick swirling fog! I could only imagine that the gas must be leaking onto the hot engine and vaporizing into a cloud so I got out in a hurry and carefully closed the door.
Even in the bright moon light I could barely see to walk around the front of the car, the fog was so thick that I stumbled across the ditch and climbed up to the fence. The fog was slowly swirling around the car, at times rendering it invisible. I could see the lights in the car going on and off creating a flashing glow in the thich fog.
I stood there watching when the doors began openning and shuting one at a time, each time the dome light flashed on and off illuminating the fog but nothing else. I had the strong urge to flee and I turned to my left but the fog had moved up and began to take shape. Rising up and forming a column almost as tall as my self.
I looked to my right and watched in horror as wispy smoke like arms were reaching out of a rising column of mist for my arm.
Through my jacket I could feel icy cold fingers wrapping around my wrists then both my arms were yanked up and I felt my self being lifted from the ground and thrown back forcefully against the fence!
The back of my head crashed into the fence pole filling my head with bright flashes of light and pain. I couldn't move, but I could see the misty shape of two women holding my arms against the fence!
They were wearing matching gowns that at first I thought had floral patterns on them but as the mist seemed to solidify I could see to my horror that the patterns were blood and not flowers! I could see the terrifying injuries on the faces and bodies of what were once beautiful women.
Flesh torn and hanging, exposing bone and internal organs, I tried to break free but my arms were numb with the cold that seemed to flow through them from the grip of these two tortured souls.
I looked down toward the car and a third misty form, much whiter than the other two yet spattered with blood as well slowly drifted towards me. I was shaking with fear as the "bride" lifted her veil revealing her full cleavage and a beautiful face, but as the veil rose my fear turned to absolute horror!
