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The Story:
The truck lurched as he shifted gears. Its transmission was growling at him for the uphill work, gradually slowing in rebellion. Drops of sweat beaded from his worry and rolled down his face. If his rig would make it around the curve at the top of the mountain road, he would be home free, but until then, all senses were on high alert.
He had been mashing the gas pedal for so long, he wondered if it would ever come off the floor. But he was growing more confident that everything would be fine because the last quarter mile leading to the last curve was in sight.
He gained another tenth of a mile and felt his muscles ease off about ten percent of their tension. Almost to the last curve and the end of his stress, a girl with black hair walked out of the woods and stood in the middle of his lane, staring him down with a glare.
He slammed his hand down on the truck’s horn, but she didn’t move. Finally, he was too close to not brake for her. He brought the truck to a full stop and dove out of the cab, furious with her for wasting his last bit of momentum. She continued to glare at him as he stomped up to her.
“Hey! What the hell is wrong with you? This is a road!”
She said nothing, and he stopped inches from her face.
“Hey… Do you need help?”
She shook her head. If she didn’t need help and wouldn’t move, he wasn’t sure what to do. He reached for her arm to lead her out of the road, but she was ice cold. When he let go of her arm, he noticed a locket around her neck. It looked exactly like the one he and his wife had given to their baby girl at her burial, just after she was born 16 years ago.
“Ellie?”
“Hi, daddy,” she smiled.
Without warning, his truck exploded behind him. He whipped around to see it engulfed in flames. There must have been something terribly wrong with it that broke during the climb. Had he been inside it, he would have died just about the time he rounded the last curve.
When he turned back around, Ellie was gone, and he was still alive.
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