Trust Issues

Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. Today's story is about a strange encounter out on the road. My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. The man's glowing fluorescent vest got to my eyes as I was walking him toward the front gate of my house. Just as my husband pulled up. He shook his head, stepped out slowly as he always did, and walked up across a gravel covered driveway. He nodded at the man and then gave me a stare. I knew what he was about to say, but I didn't care, and a bit of few of you would agree with me. If I do a good deed and the beneficiary ends up wasting it or taking advantage of it, that's on them, right, not me. I would have already done my part, and that's what this man wanted. He was raising for a charity that donated wheelchairs at the end of the year, but they were short on their goals and were going door to door raising the funds before their deadline, their self imposed deadlines. My husband would probably say, but I didn't bother to explain much else. All I said was that he was there for charity. He told me the same things over again, that I was by myself, and that we didn't know who was stepping into the property. What if he tried to kill me or something. Of course, whenever he would find a news article of something happening to a woman who opened the door for a delivery person, or even just waiting at a red light without the locks on her doors, he would send them over. I understood him, I really did. But the guy had some serious trust issues. What happened to you when you were little? I would ask him. Although I think he was right about half the time on his fears. It's just that it wasn't only those things that I used to do that take them off. I just remember how hard it was to get something right with the guy. Do you still want to go to the store, he asked, waiting for my answer in silence. I shrugged, and then he said he was going to use the bathroom and be right out. So I yelled for him to get my purse. As I waited by the passenger side of the truck. I reached for that bag when you were at a red light, and he quickly shot me a glance. There was a woman standing at the median of the street right by the no U turn sign. I held back the urge to ask him what if she had kids, or to tell him that if we have the chance, we should help people. But I had enough for the day, so I stayed quiet all the way to the parking lot at the supermarket. We had a trip planned out towards the mountains for that weekend. Supposedly it would be the last of the fall trees over at Gatcombe Park, and everything was already reserved. There were a few things that we needed before heading out early the next day, and honestly, I just I wanted things to get better now so that the drive could be manageable. At least. Things hadn't been very good lately, and I just needed to catch a break. Thankfully, we were both thinking the same thing. We were able to talk about it briefly on the way back. I understood that he was just looking out for me, but he completely ignored how I was feeling about the whole thing. I felt alone, what about what I thought about the situations? When would it be okay to help? And honestly call it stubbornness or justice, but I wanted to prove him wrong, just not on that drive back to the house. I washed my face with a splash of cold water that quickly started feeling like ice. When I stepped out of the bathroom. It wasn't even four in the morning, and Kyle was out loading things into the truck. I could hear the door opening and closing as he stepped in and out. Good morning, he said, I thought a lot about yesterday, and I'm sorry. Let's figure something out, all right. I looked at him, glad that he had said that, even though I had no idea what he meant, but it was a start. The drive wouldn't be as awkward now. Plus I had already let it go. We were heading out of the city. The last street light was fading in the distance behind the truck, and there was nothing around us but rocks and bushes next to the two lane highway. Up ahead, about an hour or so, like a tunnel, stood the entrance of the woods that would later be followed by another few miles of nothing and then the climb up to the park. The more we drove out there, the weaker the radio signal got, until it served as just white noise to keep us from being complete silence. Kyle was fully awake. He was used to getting up this early most days, but I sure wasn't. After about twenty minut miutes or so, we started talking normally again, this time about where we were going to stay, and Robert and Martha, who were going to be joining us the following day along with their other two friends. It was supposed to be a time to relax. As we settled back into conversation, suddenly the fog began to roll in, thick fast. It crawled over the road like a ghostly blanket, dimming the truck's headlights. As we pushed further into the empty highway, the trees ahead, dark, scrawny swayed gently in the breeze. Strange chill crept over us in the truck. Kyle slowed down, his eyes scanning the dense mists. This FOG's insane, he muttered. I nodded, barely paying attention, still wrapped up in my thoughts from earlier. But that's when I saw her, out of nowhere, an old woman standing in the middle of the road. She was bent and frail. Her hair was a wild mass of gray, and she was barely clothed in what looked like a tattered house dress. Her skin was pale, almost bluish under the headlights, and her face was twisted in a very strange position. Kyle, I gasped. Before I could get another word out, he slammed on the brakes. The truck screeched to a halt, the tires grinding against the asphalt. We were both jerked forward in our seats. For a few seconds, there was nothing but the hum of the engine and the sound of my heart beat hammering in my ears. The woman stood frozen right in front of us, her eyes locked on ours through the windshield. Kyle's hands were gripping the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. What the heck, he whispered. I didn't say anything, just there back at the woman. She didn't move, she didn't flinch. It was as if she were waiting for something. We need to help her, I said, my voice shaky. But Kyle wasn't having it, no, no way, There's something wrong here. His tone was sharp. His earlier apology was forgotten in an instant. I didn't listen. I couldn't ignoring his protest, I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the door, stepping into the frigid air. My heart raised, but I had to see what was going on. Something about the woman, something beyond her appearance, felt wrong, but I kept walking toward her. Ma'am. I called, but she didn't respond. I was a few steps away when she suddenly moved, lifting her head slowly. Her eyes were wide and empty, as though she were staring right through me. I froze, my breath caught in my throat, and then she smiled. It wasn't warm or comforting. It was sinister, her lips curling in a way that sent a cold shiver down my spine, and without warning, she began to shuffle backward, her feet scraping the pavement as she moved into the fog, still watching me back in the truck, Kyle yelled, snapping me out of my daze. I turned to rush back to the truck, but when I looked back one last time, I just saw the shadow running out towards the fields, vanishing into the mist as if she had never been there. I slammed my door, shut, my hands trembling as Kyle hid the gas and we sped away, leaving the strange woman and whatever she was behind us. See We drove in silence for what felt like forever, neither of us daring to look back or speak. But I felt resentment, maybe at Kyle for not having my back when I needed him, the lack of support. Like my sister had told me, whenever I talked to her about her problems, he would then act like nothing was wrong and expected everything to go back to normal. But eventually Kyle broke the silence, his voice tight. That wasn't a normal person, was it. I shook my head, still trying to process what had just happened. Maybe she needed help. We drove in silence for a while, and when I think back on that morning, I don't know why I said it. What would an old lady be doing out so late, out there in the middle of nowhere. Kyle and I talked about it for a little bit, coming up with ideas and stories about it. He told me about thefts out in the road, he had heard about them before. He talked about the thing not being an old woman at all, but rather a thief or a killer. I entertained his stories for over an hour as we drove farther out toward the tunnel of Trees through the woods. But just as we were about to head inside there it was an odd white shape in the middle of the road up ahead. Kyle let go of the gas and let the truck cruise as it became clear it was a bent, frail woman in the middle of the road. Kyle was gripping the steering wheel tightly in his hands. When I looked at him, I could see sweat beating up on his forehead. His eyes were open wide, staring straight ahead. I realized that all this time I hadn't considered how afraid he was, and it said, chose to make fun of him for it when I brought up the thing about his childhood felt terrible. But at this time we were heading closer to the woman's face, the same one from before, with the darkness in the eyes. As we slowed down even more, just a short distance away from her, step on it, I yelled. Kyle stepped on the gas without hesitation as the thing's face approached the windshield and zoomed past us in a flash. We drove into the tunnel of trees and into the woods in silence. Neither of us said a word until we were deep in the darkness of the forest. She wasn't real huh, he asked, Impossible, I said, with a smurf, and so we drove through the darkness, just the two of us, with the purple guy slowly peeking its way through the gaps between the leaves, and up ahead. Not too far was the way out. We were almost there. Scary Story podcast is written and produced by me Edwin Koorubyas. Thank you very much for your reviews and messages. If you want to support the show, try out Scary Plus and get your stories without ants. I work on the show on my own, so your support means a ton. Links to everything or in the description of this episode. If you're following the show, I will talk to you next week. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.