The Ladies of Horror
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The Body Keeps the Score 
by Elaine Pascale 

“Stop,” Matt said, choking around the deep drag he had taken off the joint he and Justin shared.

“Wha?” Justin turned his head away from the road to shoot his passenger a quizzical look. “You gotta piss or something?”

Matt stared straight ahead, his eyes wide. “It’s her, the woman in white.”

Justin leaned over the steering wheel, staring intently into the falling snow. “I don’t see anything.”

“That’s cause you aren’t from around here.”

“Well I’m not stopping for any invisible woman.”

Matt cupped the joint protectively. “You have to. I’m serious. I’m not giving this back if you don’t.”

Justin laughed. “What is this man? We still have hours on the road ahead of us.”

“I’m serious,” Matt repeated. “And it won’t be me that gets cursed, I’m not the driver.”

“Cursed?”

“For real. If you stop, she’ll think you are offering her a ride and she’ll leave you alone. If you don’t stop, she’ll think you left her. Worse, that you forgot her.” Matt remembered his grandmother telling him the story that had been passed down for generations. The woman in white had been in love with a married man. He promised to leave his wife for her. They had planned to run away together and he told her to wait by the road for him. She wore the dress she had kept in her hope chest. It was the gown meant for her wedding night, meant for her to experience true love.

She stood by the road and waited. The night grew dark and cold and snow began to fall. Still she waited. She ignored her hunger, her thirst, and her fear. She waited as the snow piled up but his carriage never arrived. She waited as the sun rose and set again, until she convinced herself that he had forgotten her, forgotten all about her. That was how little she mattered to him.

In the deepening snow, she convinced herself she mattered to no one, as someone would have looked for her if anyone cared. She waited longer, until the deepening snow made movement difficult, until she no longer mattered to herself.

She laid on the snow, cursing herself for being so stupid, cursing the man for leading her on, cursing the world for caring so little. The snow fell, hiding any evidence of her body. She was not discovered until months later, when spring arrived, but by then, her spirit no longer cared about her body.

“If you don’t see her, if you don’t take notice of her, she’ll curse you,” Matt said urgently.

“She’ll kill me?”

“Worse.”

Justin laughed. He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation, that Matt was asking him to stop when they were on their way to spring break. They had been roommates for two years so he was accustomed to Matt’s weirdness, but this superstitious nonsense was new.

“I’m serious. She’ll curse you so that no one remembers you.”

Justin smirked. First, he had never believed in the supernatural. Second, he was far too charming to be forgotten. The girls from Delta Zeta who pined for him could attest to that. “We’ll be fine, little man, no worries. Now pass that over if you know what’s good for you.”

“You don’t know what’s good for you,” Matt admonished as he reluctantly passed the blunt.

They drove for a short distance, the snow fall picking up and making the world around them white.

“See.” Justin turned to Matt, directing an exhalation of smoke onto his nervous passenger. “Nothing to worry about.”

Matt did not respond. He was pale and his hands were shaking.

“You gonna take this or what?” Justin nudged the weed toward Matt.

“She’s here,” Matt whispered.

“Wha?” Justin’s face grew serious. He was now concerned about Matt.

“She’s here.” Matt pointed over his shoulder to the back seat. “She’s here and she’s mad.”

Justin swerved the car onto the snowy shoulder. He got out and instructed Matt to do the same. “Dude, take a deep breath. Let this cold air knock you back into your senses.”

Matt stared at Justin blankly.

Justin followed his own instructions, taking a deep breath and stretching his legs a bit before saying, “Let’s get back in the car.”

Matt looked from Justin to the car, the bewilderment on his face never fading.

“Matt, c’mon.”

Matt shook his head slowly, saying, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

.

Fiction © Copyright Elaine Pascale
Image courtesy of Pixaby.com

More from Elaine Pascale:

The Blood Lights

The Blood Lights are the last thing you’ll see…

Jezzie Mitchell is in anguish; the violent outbursts among the girls in the residential treatment center where she works mimics her brother’s murder. Is there a connection between the contagion on Cape Cod and the deadly Bahamas vacation that changed her life?

Jezzie reaches out to former lover Lou Collins, a scholar who has chased proof of the lights for decades. Will he be able to solve the mystery of the lights in time?

Intensely competitive, reporter Bridgette Collins knows the lights are a way to secure fame. Because it will put the final nail into the coffin of her ex-husband’s career, she vows to know the secrets of the lights.

Even if it means unleashing a world-wide epidemic…

Available on Amazon!