I almost became a killer.
It happened one night, while I was driving down an empty highway — and in the glare of my headlights, I saw something that nearly changed everything in my life.
I was behind the wheel of my old van — an aging driver with decades of experience on the road — when something caught my attention. The headlights reflected off a metal chain stretched across the highway, like a sinister warning. My heart skipped a beat, and I slammed on the brakes. That moment is burned into my memory forever.
I’m seventy years old. I’ve spent nearly fifty of those years on the road. I’ve driven through rainstorms, blizzards, and fog so thick I could barely see my own hands. I’ve seen it all — crashes, endless night shifts, you name it. But I’d never felt what I felt that night.
The light from the headlights revealed a small shape on the road. At first, I thought it was an animal. Maybe someone’s lost dog, or a stray cat — or maybe a wild creature. But as I got closer, I realized it was something far worse.
A little girl — barely a year old — was crawling along the shoulder of the highway.
She wore nothing but a diaper. Her skin was pale as snow, and around her neck was a thick leather collar, like the kind used for fighting dogs. A heavy chain trailed behind her, dragging across the asphalt. Cars sped by in the distance, swerving to avoid her, but none of them stopped.
I froze. She was crying, crawling, her tiny knees bloody. Alone. Completely alone. It felt… as if she had been waiting for me — like she somehow knew I’d be the one to stop.
I rolled the van closer, and the light finally caught her face. Her dark eyes were wet with tears, but there was something off about them — something almost animal-like. And then I saw what made my blood turn to ice.
Her hands were burned — covered in old, deep cigarette marks. Scars. Not fresh, but healed over time. And the chain… it wasn’t just lying there. It looked ripped, as if she had broken free from something — or someone. She kept crying, staring at me with those dark, hollow eyes.
A cold wave of dread swept over me. My gut told me something was wrong — deeply, horribly wrong. My instincts screamed: Don’t trust this. Something’s off.
I grabbed my phone and called 911. I told them everything — about the girl, the chain, the burns. I expected the usual calm instructions. Instead, the operator went silent. After a few seconds, her voice came back — sharp, panicked, trembling:
“That’s not a child! Run! Now!” she screamed.
“It’s a trap! They’re watching you!”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. My hands went numb. This couldn’t be real — it sounded like some nightmare. I looked around. The world was still. The empty road stretched endlessly, no sound except the hum of my engine.
Then — I saw her again. The little girl lifted her head and looked straight at me.
And I realized — those eyes weren’t human. They glowed faintly, like a predator’s.
I turned the van around and hit the gas, not even sure where I was going. My pulse hammered in my ears. I just knew I had to get away. Still, those eyes haunted me — burned into my mind, following me through the dark.
After a few miles, I stopped to catch my breath. Far ahead, I saw a cluster of cars pulled over on the side of the road. None of them were moving. I drove closer — and saw that they’d been abandoned. No drivers. No passengers. Just silence.
A little further ahead stood a metal fence — one I didn’t remember ever seeing before. That’s when I realized… I wasn’t on the same highway anymore. Somehow, I’d ended up somewhere else — a narrow forest road, cloaked in darkness.
I got out, trying to make sense of it. That’s when I felt it — that same gaze on me again. I turned, and there she was, standing in the dark, motionless. Waiting.
She moved — not like a human, but like an animal ready to pounce. I froze.
Her eyes — those eyes — were wrong.
Then her small hand reached toward me. I stepped back, but something huge and black shot out of the darkness — a shape, massive and fast. Not a creature… something worse. Something made of shadow.
My heart clenched. My mind screamed. The girl wasn’t human.
And that night… was only the beginning. 😨
