Fanfiction ► The Malevolent Story Collection,

[Mordecai]

Now that I have your attention, feel free to keep an eye on this thread. I haven't the time to write any now, but, eventually, I will start writing small one to two chapter lengthed 'scary' stories that I have heard from family, friends, or have come up with on my own. Mostly, they will be my own, since my dreams are a big influence on this and.. well, are an adundant source for ideas. Anyway, PM me if you're interested in working with me on this. I'll be PMing a select few people, and by Wednesday, I'll have at least one story on here. I'll be accepting two others to work with me.

 

[Mordecai]

Nifleheim
by Curtis Harvey​

Chapter One - The Ebbed Cloud

The road was slick, and rain still pattered down ahead of my nice Infinity. For some reason, my parents decided to surprise me with a new car on my birthday last winter. It was a nice gift, but out of place, taking all of the rough times we’ve had into consideration. My mother wasn’t the problem; it was my father. I got more than a bad feeling whenever he would cast his glare in my general direction. A sad story, since you normally think of a family being happy – mine isn’t. At least, it isn’t when I’m around.
Before I knew it, the rain stopped pouring like it was the apocalypse and lingered in a slight mist. I would have loved for it to have stopped completely, but it was better than half a mile ago, where I was struggling to keep in a straight line. Though, I suppose it didn’t matter, since the last person I saw was about thirty miles back. I had this overwhelming sense that I wouldn’t see anyone else for a long time. I was kind of right.
Winds started up, howling in their strange ways and whistling by the windows and pounding on the hood with bass drum beats, more intense because the car was against it. It was nothing less of an annoying storm that the weather man forgot to tell you about. Even though I took the precaution of sitting down at my parents house and tuning in to the news to catch a glimpse at the forecast for the week, I ended up in a deathly haze that washed over my grand prix white birthday present. There was little I could do of course, but I know what I wanted to do – I wanted to slap that weather man in his sharp jaw boned cheek for lying to me. In any case, I was stuck in ( what I thought to be ) an oncoming storm of great magnitude. I was kind of right; deja vu.
Once it hit me I couldn’t see straight. Patches of grass–that’s how intense the winds were; I’d say ninety miles an hour–flew from the sides of the road and flopped on to my once beautiful windshield. Anyone else would have had it by now, especially my girlfriend, but I refused to submit. I’m a hardheaded guy, I can admit it, and when I’m angry, I want people to know about it.
Music was a great passerby. There was a brown leather case to my left, and I picked it up, still looking back at the road occasionally to watch where I was going. Probably a stupid move, considering the situation, but I didn’t care. I felt this need to overcome the rain and the fog and everything else that mother nature lashed out at me with. My band of choice was of course Led Zeppelin. The rain most likely drove me into the mood, and I needed something to keep me awake. When you listen to Led, you have to listen to the whole thing, otherwise you miss out on the whole experience. My friend used to say that.
About a half hour later, when the CD was almost done playing, the rain and wind completely let up. I could see fifty feet in front of me and past that was blanched. In every direction was white, past the fifty foot mark. Signs were swallowed up behind me, and I noticed the white become thicker as I sped down the highway. I wasn’t sure where I was anymore, though. My destination was West Virginia, and I had come from California. I figured I was somewhere past Nevada – I left around nine hours ago.
Just as fast as the rain stopped, the fog came rolling in. It was bad. I found myself wanting to stop right there to pull over and nap, maybe wait it out, but I didn’t. Curse my hard head. Curse it to death. I couldn’t think of any one time that it helped me at all, so what use was it? I told myself I’d change and went back to paying attention to the road. This was boring, because Led Zeppelin had just finished up around the time the fog came in.
Something weird happened after that. I can’t really think of any words to describe it, but I know what I saw. While tapping the face of my horn on the steering wheel, the fog just stopped. I went from, literally, a total white out, to clear trails and a grey sky. Fifteen minutes later it started again, just as thick and odd as the mist I escaped from twenty miles before. One second, maybe less, I was out of any sort of fog. The next second I was in it, and the strange thing was, was that the wind only blew through the part that didn’t have any of it. I hadn’t slept in a while, so I figured it was just my imagination. The fog must have muffled the sounds and effects of the wind, not been devoid of it. So I looked on and drove, at around sixty five. I was in a hurry to get out of it. Not one of my best ideas, I admit.
Now, I know some queer events have taken place in my life, but this was the beginning of some of the most unimaginable. A figure on the right side of the road, that started off as just a dark blotch of mist, grew in size as I neared it. The edges of the figure were ruffled and I couldn’t quite make out the features; the features that would tell me what kind of sign it was, or if it was a person, or what. Squinting didn’t really help, and by this time I had slowed way the hell down just to be cautious. Finally I could make out what, or who, it was – a woman.
The car crept up on her, purring softly, and she kept walking. Maybe she didn’t know I was behind her. So, I sped up to pass her a bit and get her attention. Within a minute or two, she finally noticed the white vehicle to her left and jumped up and down with glee. Just what I needed; a nutcase. Still bobbing, she grabbed the handle of the door and swung it open, sliding in the seat buttocks first. It was a nice view, to say the least.
“Thank you, so much.” She finally sat all the way down in the seat, but was fighting to shut the door all the way.
“Hey. Nice weather, huh?” I don’t know why I made that stupid joke. Maybe to lighten myself up a bit, I’m not sure. But she laughed, so I suppose it wasn’t a big deal.
“Yeah,” she said. She had a cute voice. Come to think of it, she had a cute face too, and a tight body. If I had to guess then, I’d say she was around twenty, at most.
“So what were you doing all the way out here?” She gave me a sigh and began to explain. Basically, her step brother ( Boon, I think she called him ) kicked her out of his car because he was mad at her. They had a fight. . . and something else that I couldn’t remember. I thought about how horrible it would be to be stranded out in as thick of a fog as this. It terrified me for some reason.
“Where are you heading?”
“West Virginia,” she said. That made me laugh.
“Same. I guess I’ll take you there, or drop you off at the next stop, or whatever.”
“Yeah, sure.”
We talked for a little while. It was mostly small talk, but it was conversation. She laughed a few times in that way that girls laugh that makes you just want to hold them. She was a pretty intelligent young woman. I already saw it in her face, but as soon as she started speaking, I knew for sure.
She nestled in her seat and dozed off for a while. I wondered how anyone could manage to sleep in a stranger’s car, then assumed that she was just beat up from arguing with this Boon guy; her brother, or step brother, or whatever. I could tell that he was quite the character. Then I delved further into my own little fantasy and imagined myself telling this guy off; I don’t know why, but I did. It might have been a way to take my mind off of the chilling – chilling as in sending a chill up your spine and neck – mist that enveloped the car. At one point, I thought about opening the door to follow the lines on the road, to be extra safe, but I might have woken her up.
An hour later she woke up. Her face was pale, and her chest was calmer now, moving up, then down, in small rhythmic motions. Her cuteness was the only thing on my mind at this point, until she broke the uncomfortable silence.
“Sorry.” I think she meant about falling asleep in my car. That or about burdening me with her presence. Neither bothered me.
“Don’t worry about it. So you got a name?” She looked at me like asking a hitchhiker’s name was against some national code or something.
“Yeah. Sarah Ann Weaver.” I didn’t mean her full name. Maybe she thought it would show that she wasn’t afraid of me.
“I’m Deven. Deven Alan Green.” She smiled a bit; that made me smile.
Sarah started to tell me about herself. Apparently, she attended some college near her apartment in West Virginia. Really, I didn’t pay attention well enough to commit the name of the school to memory. All I could think about was how god damn cute she was. I get like that sometimes; when I see a girl I can just tell if I could love them to death or not. The way I met my girlfriend was the same way. My friend introduced us at a party one night, and I adored her. Her name is Samantha. I love that name. I also love the name Sarah. This is about the time I found myself in a future predicament.
The fog hadn’t let up yet. In fact, I’d say it thickened twofold. But, that might have been the time I spent staring into it. It was mesmerizing, the fog. It had a way of making you beyond the point of bored, sending you into a whole other sort of. . . thing. How it did this, I have no clue, but it was disturbing. You could gaze into it and be afraid, excited, or confused – I experienced all of these on that road that day – and it would climax in you dreading it.
“This is some intense fog we have here. I’ve never seen anything like it.” First Sarah Weaver agreed with a nod, and maybe realized that I couldn’t quite see it due to me being fully occupied with the road. She comfortably giggled to herself and turned to me.
“I’ve seen thick fog before, but nothing like this. On top of it, every time we hit a dead spot“ – we hit dead spots like the one I went through before seeing Sarah – “there’s wind, but there isn’t any bit of breeze in the fog itself. Strange.” I was beginning to like this girl. She thought like me. Just then I wanted to kiss her. That would have been a kicker. A story to tell the grand children that my wife, assuming it is Samantha, would eventually find out after I had a few drinks in a bar one night with my buddies and came home to be interrogated. It was very. . . Soap Opera. She watched those. I thought they were funny.
“As long as the road keeps straight and I can see the lines, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” I didn’t think that there was any real danger ahead, but I think that I felt something when I said that. I thought it was a lie. A little white lie to keep her from being afraid; if I had known what come afterward, I would have kicked her out of the car, perhaps not even of picked her up in the first place. But unfortunately that wasn’t the way it happened. This is how it happened.
“Yeah, you’re right. It isn’t like the fog can kill you. Hail is the stuff to be afraid of.” I shook my head along with a slight laugh. It wasn’t that funny, because I loathed hail and the thought of it frightened the hell out of me.
We rolled up slowly to a stop sign. Just in case, I did the right thing; you never know where a camera was hidden these days. Even though the misty substance that covered us would have hid my license plate number from any picture, I felt the need to slow down and check it out. Especially with Sarah in the car. I could make a little joke out of it. Damn me for being so flirtatious all the time. Damn me.
The stop sign was engulfed by the fog as we drove away. I saw it disappear in my rear view mirror. Scary thoughts crossed my mind. . . like, what if we broke down right then and there? Would we disappear to? Were there other people out here? Who knew? I sure didn’t. Sarah didn’t seem to. Time would tell.


Out of the book I'm writing. I have four chapters done, so I'll update weekly. D2L, feel free to post your own material.