True scary Halloween story

I have been meaning to put this to a web page for quite some time, but, it is so scary to me, that I have a difficult time thinking about it, hence it hasn't appeared in the written format.
This is a true story and scary enough that no embellishments are needed.



The Lonely Road


Many years ago, I used to take a short cut to the job I worked at in town. This short cut involved several miles of gravel roads with no houses for miles. I traveled this road many times without incident, even to the point of getting a flat tire on the most deserted portion of this road, and having to walk the 3 miles back home.
Strangely, one fall, I started to discover this eerie feeling whenever I found the need to take this " short cut" at night. Like something was there, watching me, waiting for me to have to stop and pull over in the darkest, most deserted portion of that road.
The road is just like any other gravel road, but, at one point it meanders through this swampy area, and it is there the road is also at its lowest point, so it is often covered by wisps of fog.
The swampy area is where I found myself feeling the worst, I just felt something evil lurked there, I don't know what it was, never saw or heard anything to make me feel this way, I just felt I was in danger there at night. I continued to travel this path, partly, because of my stubborness, I refused to let fear get the best of me, I have always felt that facing my fear allows me to rise above my it. And the other reason, I continued to drive this road, was because it WAS a short cut to my place of employment, and since I am usually running late, it seemed like an acceptable alternative to being late for work.
This feeling persisted, all fall that year (1988), and it got so bad that as soon as I was on the road, the hair on the back of my neck would start to rise. I was terrified driving that road!!! Finally, I gave in, I stopped driving the "short cut" for any reason at night.
The daylight hours were safe, and I continued to travel this road only in the daylight.
For an entire year I avoided that road at night at all costs.

A year or so later, we were traveling as a family and decided to tell ghost stories, and as we were entertaining each other, I decided to tell my story about the road, knowing my brothers and sisters all traveled the same road.
As I was telling my story, I could see my younger sister, getting more and more pale and silent, I thought I might be unnecessarily scaring her ( used to scare her all the time by riding my horse up to her bedroom window, and with my horse's head peeking in I would whisper her name, I am kinda twisted that way...), and sought to reassure her that the feeling I had was gone, what ever had been down there in that swampy area was gone. She just looked at me with terrified eyes, and said, " The EXACT same thing was happening to me, I stopped driving that road because I was so scared". Both of us looked at each other and my family got silent, this was the most frightening part for me, because I thought I had been enduring this fear alone, and to discover that my little sister had been experiencing the same phenomenon, made it all the more frightening and real!!!
To this day, I travel that road with trepidation, especially at night, I know what ever was out there causing me such fear is gone, but, who's to say it won't come back?