Trapped in an unfamiliar place far from home following a traumatic car accident, Kate is forced to confront a once-buried nightmare anew. Will this specter of her past lead her to certain destruction?
In Hell’s Shadow is a paranormal horror story set in Deer Falls — the same fictional Colorado town featured in my stories The Ghost Diaries, Snow Dragon, Pandora Reborn, and The Crimson Reaper. First published through Samak Press in April 2020, In Hell’s Shadow will be republished in six episodes here in the Strange New Worlds newsletter in celebration of the story’s fifth anniversary.
I | II | III | IV | V | VI
Kate felt certain she was lost. Incessant rain made seeing the road in either direction almost impossible. This downpour only began a few minutes ago, but the relentless barrage against her windshield felt like it had lasted for an hour. Raindrops pelted her car like liquid darts tossed from the clouds. Fierce wind rattled and rocked the vehicle from every side as it climbed a steep canyon road.
She glanced at her car radio.
8:07 pm.
Seeing the time only exacerbated her worried state. Kate should have reached the turnoff for the road leading to Sarah's family cabin at least 15 minutes ago.
"Sarah must be worried sick about me,” she said.
A knowing smile emerged on Kate’s lips. Sarah would not be Sarah without getting worked up whenever things did not go according to plan. She became acquainted with that quirk in a hurry during their first few days together as college roommates. It bugged Kate a little at first. Later, she learned to accept — and even appreciate in certain situations — Sarah's organized and punctual nature.
Kate glanced down at her cell phone lying on the passenger seat. It still showed no bars — same story as at the mouth of the canyon. Typical. Her cell service consistently had terrible coverage areas. She dropped calls walking from one room to another in her apartment on more than one occasion.
If only she could call Sarah to clarify the directions, connecting with her would offer a path out of her current waterlogged ordeal. Kate imagined Sarah had left numerous text messages and voicemails by now — each one asking if she was all right. Poor Sarah probably paced through the cabin. All their worries would melt away once Kate arrived at the cabin. She pictured Sarah tossing back her blonde curls and playfully scolding her for being late as usual before wrapping her in a warm embrace. Drama of the moment would fade into joy of spending an intimate weekend together.
Distinguishing faint yellow and white lines atop the puddle covered asphalt grew more difficult with each mile marker she passed. Her headlights made a scant difference in separating any solid object from shadowy mountain terrain. Trees, hills, and road signs already resembled grotesque monsters lurking within towering shadows. These monsters seemed ready to pounce onto her car and drag it off into a lair nestled amid pine and fir trees in the heart of the mountain forest.
“I'm never going to find her place at this rate.”
Kate had no choice. She needed to turn around and start over. Blindly following a slippery road that stretched higher and deeper like a snake climbing a riverbank would get her nowhere. Her GPS proved equal in worthlessness to her phone in solving the mystery surrounding her current location.
"Pavement Ends . . . one mile." Kate squinted, trying to decipher hazy words as she passed by a small sign. "Great!"
She had driven too far. Retracing the road down the canyon mouth remained her only feasible option. Kate recalled seeing a small convenience store somewhere near the mouth of the canyon. It offered a good place to go and test her phone signal. Once her signal returned, Kate could let Sarah know the reason behind her delay and ease both of their minds.
Kate pressed on her brakes and cranked the steering wheel with sharpness to avoid thick mud masquerading as a dirt road where the pavement ended. No sense getting stuck so high in this canyon. She seriously doubted anyone would be near enough to tow her car out if the tires got wedged in the mud.
At once, her brakes emitted a sharp squeal. Both front tires hydroplaned through a shallow puddle collecting near the yellow line. Her steering wheel locked in place as though some unseen hand turned off the engine. Kate’s car spun around almost 180 degrees and slid backward.
It plunged through a metal guardrail and flipped onto the passenger side. Her car rolled over and over down a muddy embankment. Every bone and muscle in Kate's body felt jarred out of place. Her phone slid off the passenger seat and bounced around like a pinball. Loose coins flew out of the cup holder and scattered through the air. Her hands locked into a death grip on the steering wheel. She felt the rear axle snap when both tires bounced off a large boulder.
Kate pinched her eyes shut.
Both eyes popped open again when the car skidded to a halt in a narrow brook. Only one headlight still shone onto the rain-soaked terrain. The other one shattered upon impact with the guardrail. Kate’s phone lay below her head. The screen now bore numerous eggshell cracks, rendering it unusable.
Muddy water sloshed against the mangled car frame. Kate sat pinned upside down in her seat, her body pushing against the seat belt. Her shallow panicked breaths provided the lone sound inside the vehicle. Kate tried not to move a finger or a toe. She feared the slightest wiggle would create a tremor that jarred her car loose and send it sliding further down the mountain.
Her vision grew blurrier. Why were her eyes growing fuzzy? It didn’t feel like her contact lenses fell out during the crash. Kate witnessed lightning darting across the sky on the horizon, but nothing else in front of her had a solid or real quality to it.
Distinct aromas of leaking oil and gasoline filled the car. A trickle of blood ran down her left cheek. Kate ran her fingertips across a nasty gash across her forehead. Strands of her red hair were matted into her open wound.
Kate's lips quivered and she swallowed hard. Her fingernails on her opposite hand kept digging into the steering wheel. Thoughts bombarded her brain with as much relentless energy as the rain attacking her car.
Can I climb back to the road and flag down someone to help me?
How will I reach Sarah?
What if I end up stuck in this mangled car the whole night?
Freeing herself from this wreckage took priority. Perhaps she’d find another cabin within a short distance. Other people must be spending the holiday weekend in the canyon. Maybe she’d run across one who turned out to be a good Samaritan. Kate told herself she would find someone else. She was not alone, no matter how much it felt like the rest of humanity was miles away from these mountains.
Kate braced her left hand against the driver's side door and gingerly unlatched her seat belt with her right hand. Once she freed herself, Kate tried to open the door.
The handle refused to budge.
Without warning, more mud splashed down the embankment. A sudden jolt went through Kate as loose soil shifted underneath the roof. An already cracked portion of the windshield shattered. Her hand slipped off the door and she fell backward. Jagged shards of embedded glass pierced her neck and left shoulder. Blood trickled from fresh wounds and began to soak into the upholstery. Kate let out a tear-choked cry and groped blindly at her neck. Efforts to dislodge those shards proved futile. Her skin warmed as though an invisible hand shoved her neck under a hot iron.
Searing pain slowly dissolved into a cold numbness spreading out to her fingers and toes. Kate cast her tear-filled eyes toward the windshield. In the distance, she could make out a pair of dim lights moving down the mountain road toward her.
Another car.
If Kate scrambled up onto the road and attracted their attention, maybe they would take her out of the canyon. Then she could finally call Sarah, and everything would be all right again.
Using the steering wheel as leverage, Kate pulled herself into a kneeling position. She tried the door handle a second time, but the door still did not move an inch. It seemed hopeless. Her arms slumped down to her sides. The storm had finally retreated, leaving a thick quietness in its wake. Kate fixed her eyes on the cracked and broken windshield.
A large gaping hole lay only a few inches from her. If she mustered enough strength, maybe she could crawl through the jagged opening. Making it back to the road was crucial before the oncoming car passed her mangled vehicle without noticing Kate. After pulling herself onto the dashboard, she discovered the hole proved much narrower than she anticipated.
“It just keeps getting worse,” Kate said, climbing down to the roof again. “I know I’ll end up trapped inside this car all night before anyone thinks to look for me.”
She needed to enlarge the opening to have a realistic chance of escaping from this wreck. An image of a medium-sized red flashlight burst into her mind. Of course. Inside the glove compartment.
Luke earned the flashlight as a prize after winning a dart game at the Mount Holly Carnival two years ago. Her brother promptly re-gifted it to her on her birthday five weeks later. Kate’s first instinct was to toss the flashlight at Luke's head when she opened the gift box. She planned to toss the unwanted gift in the garbage but never got around to it. Relief washed over Kate for not following through with her plans. That dumb red flashlight had suddenly turned into her most prized possession.
The flashlight possessed a sturdy metal casing. Kate figured it might be enough to dislodge additional cracked glass if she struck the broken windshield with enough force. She wrenched open the glove box with both hands and fumbled around inside. Gas receipts, her car registration, and other important papers scattered everywhere. Darkness inside the car made seeing anything with clarity impossible. Once she grasped the end of the flashlight, Kate drew it out and unleashed a hard jab into the windshield directly above her head.
A large chunk of glass plummeted into mud gathering around and under the car. Kate crawled through the enlarged opening, though she still strained to avoid catching her arms and legs on a multitude of shards protruding both above and below her.
Once outside, Kate scrambled up an embankment coated with soupy mud. The irony of this situation struck her. Normally, she would have freaked out at seeing even a tiny grass stain claiming a spot on her pants. Now, much of her long-sleeved pink blouse and light blue jeans had turned a dark chocolate brown from crawling through mud. Kate almost slid back down to her car at one point but coaxed each limb upward until both hands touched asphalt. Headlights from an oncoming vehicle were now in full view. She made out a silhouette from a small pickup truck coming around the bend.
“Stop!”
Kate struggled to her feet and waved her arms with frantic energy.
“Stop! Please! I need help!”
The truck slowed and stopped a few feet in front of her. Kate's vision cleared enough again to make out additional details. Streaks of mud — some fresh and some dried — covered the body of the truck. Rusted metal cropped up in whatever space the mud didn't already blanket. To the naked eye, it seemed difficult to believe this vehicle bore shiny white paint at one time. The truck’s appearance bore a strange familiarity to Kate, but she could not place exactly why it triggered this feeling.
To be continued …
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This looks great! I just printed it off so I can read before bed. Trying to read more offline if possible. :)
I felt that car accident!