The Legend of Youngs Corner XXIII

PART XXIII
The Sighting on Hotel Rd.

2001 – October

It was a late night, and the guys and I had gone to Denny’s for a snack. It was a group of about 8 of us. Nico and Nicholas were there, as was Bobby and Gaeten. Including me, that was all that came from the original group. Nick D, who had expressed so much interest in going to the cabins the night of my birthday, but who could not join us for the journey in June, was there as well. Rounding off the group were a couple seniors from high school, those who had heard of the legend and wanted to hear the stories from the veterans themselves. Many expressed a wanting for us to return, to lead yet another trip into the heart of darkness. But it was Bobby who spoke most vehemently against it, and for good reason. For a very, very good reason.

It was at the peak of the night, he said, when, not but a week ago, he was driving home. The darkness of the night lay thick in the sky in the fall sky. He was heading north on Hotel Rd. Bobby was approaching the intersection on which Youngs Corner turns off to the left. Further up Hotel Rd. was my Grandparents house, the house on the hill overlooking the lake. But before you could reach either of these places, you must drive along the border of the Northern Woods, which lay along the left edge of Hotel Rd. for more than a mile. With his music low, and his high beams on, Bobby kept a watchful yet tired eye on the road. Soon, something happened, something that forever changed our perception of fear.

As the intersection approached Bobby could see a slight ruffle in the trees to his left. Something was coming. From nowhere, a dog ran out of the forest heading north, alongside the road. The dog, Bobby could see, was a couple hundred meters away but his car sped towards it. He also could see the dog was golden. As he neared the dog another figure emerged from the forest, but this time it wasn’t an animal. It was a hunched human figure, cloaked in black.

Bobby’s scream was heard in silence for an immense feeling of shock had gripped his throat. His car swerved to the side of the road and stopped short. The adrenaline now pulsing through his veins not only awoke him but told him to do something against his will – go back and see for sure. Without a second to think, Bobby pulled the car back into road, this time heading in the opposite direction. He was going south, towards the figure.

He sped on. He slowed the car just when the running dog passed him on the right. And what came next was an image now burned into his memory. It was a sight all too familiar to me, for I too saw it once, 5 years ago, through a plane of glass in my living room door. But this time it was seen through the glass of a car windshield. The figure approached as Bobby drove on. Soon he could make out the black cloak and boots, the hunched back, and an outstretched hand. But what struck him the most, as it did me, was that face. That face of wrinkles, those hollow sunken eyes, and that smile, that pleasant yet incredibly sinister smile. Bobby drove on, having decided to take an alternate way home. He had discovered something that we had all hoped was gone. The witch, it seemed, was not dead after all. In fact, she was very much alive…