A/N: So instead of updating my other stories, I wrote this. A horror one-shot based on the legend of Lydia, the Disappearing Lady. I'm absolutely fascinated by stories like that; ones that are horror stories that could have actually happened. I love supernatural stuff, so I just had to write this one. After you read it, you should check out the actual legend. It's pretty dang cool. I do not own Big Hero 6 or the Lydia story. Cue intro! (what?)
"Oh, and don't pick up hitchhikers."
That was the last thing Cass said to her two nephews before they left that morning.
Now, Tadashi Hamada and his younger brother Hiro were in the car, on the way back to the cafe where they lived with their Aunt Cass. They were laughing over a ridiculous story Tadashi had told about his friend from school who'd bought thirty box sets of Pokemon cards at the drugstore once, and then proceeded to casually hit up the nearest Wendy's for fifteen iceless Diet Cokes, the box sets displayed in the front section of the car.
"Stop it, stop it, I can't breathe!" The fourteen-year-old Hiro was laughing so hard, tears were slipping down his cheeks.
The twenty-four-year old Tadashi grinned at his little brother. They'd been adventuring in the nearby mountains all day, having the time of their lives. Now, it was night. The two young men were currently driving through a thickly wooded part of the forest. The full moon and gangly, gnarled branches cast eerie shadows on the faded, barely-paved road. The trees and underbrush on either side were so dense, nothing could be seen beyond the front line.
Hiro wasn't sure about his brother, but he was feeling very uneasy about their current location. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end, and a strange feeling was creeping up his spine like a spider. It wasn't even that he felt as if he was being watched; it was more of the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
Tadashi didn't appear to be feeling the same, as he launched into another funny story, seeming so upbeat and light-hearted.
Hiro tried to listen, but it was difficult when he couldn't stop checking for something- or someone- on the side of the road.
"Look! Over there!" Hiro interrupted Tadashi's current story, pointing wildly out the windshield.
His brother squinted to see.
The person Hiro was pointing to turned to face them, seeing approaching headlights. She was around Tadashi's age, tall and lanky, with black hair cascading in waves to her waist. Her skin was a shade so pale it nearly glowed, her dainty face very pretty. She was decked out in a flowing white gown that drifted against the ground, hiding her feet. The only strange thing was her eyes. Her irises were a soulless black. Upon closer inspection, Hiro could see the red diagonal slash adorning each cornea.
Tadashi braked next to her as she held out her thumb. "Need a ride?" he called, rolling down the window.
The girl nodded. Tadashi unlocked the back door. "C'mon in," he said with a smile.
The girl did not smile back. She climbed into the backseat of the car while Hiro elbowed his brother, whispering, "Remember what Aunt Cass said? No hitchhikers!"
"Oh, hush, brother." Tadashi turned to the motionless girl in the backseat. "Where to?" he asked her.
"I will give you directions as we go."
The girl had a soft, soprano tone of voice that reminded Hiro vaguely of an owl's.
"What's your name?" Hiro asked her.
"Lucinda." Nothing else.
"Well, Lucinda, you're in safe hands." Tadashi turned back to the windshield. Only Hiro, still gazing at the girl, noticed her eyes turn a shade darker.
Hiro leaned away from Lucinda as far as he could. There was something upsetting about her, and Hiro didn't like her at all.
'Kick her out. Kick her out of the car.' He wanted so badly to say that to his brother, but didn't want to make Lucinda angry. So Hiro ran his fingers through his shaggy black hair, figuring that it must be his crazy imagination. There's nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all.
"Turn right."
Lucinda's sudden, subzero voice made Hiro's skin crawl.
Tadashi turned the car, slightly rolling down the window. A light breeze ruffled his relatively short black hair and he blinked his large brown eyes against the sudden cold.
Hiro's matching eyes would not close for a moment. He needed to be watchful.
The road they'd turned onto was much narrower than the original road, the foliage on either side even denser. The twisted roots creeping along the ground seemed to be sliding like snakes onto the road.
"Might get a bit bumpy." Tadashi's knuckles went white on the steering wheel.
Lucinda did not respond.
The car jostled the Hamada brothers like rag dolls on a wild boar, while Lucinda was perfectly still, frozen, not even being tossed by the lumps and wrinkles of the street.
The road got even worse as it progressed. The branches over their heads seemed to be lacing closer and closer together until it was practically pitch dark but for the headlights of the Hamadas' car.
"You should listen to your aunt, you know." Lucinda's random comment, out of the blue, made something snap inside of Hiro. He'd had enough.
"Tadashi, kick her out. Make her get out of the car," Hiro whispered to his brother.
"What did you say?" Lucinda snarled. Her voice had become dark and slimy, conjuring images of sludgy ponds and creatures of the swamp.
Screams rose from the two Hamada brothers as the car flung itself over a large, brutal bump in the road. Tadashi momentarily lost control of the car, and it skidded across the pavement for a stone's throw before returning to its straight path.
That's when they noticed that the back seat was empty.
Lucinda was gone.
Both boys turned to see where she had disappeared to, seeing no possible way she could have evacuated. They looked back to the front just in time to see approaching headlights, closer and closer, right upon them in split seconds-
Everything went red, then it went white, then it settled into blackness.
But not for long.
"Auntie, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise, Tippy!" Thirty-year-old Sandy Price, aunt of seven-year-old Tepig Harlem ('Tippy' was her nickname for him), shushed the little blonde boy with a shake of her finger directed at the backseat of her car.
She was taking her young nephew to the mountains for a hike, knowing how much the boy loved nature even in his youth. Right now, they were driving along a winding road with thick forest lining either side, seeming to press against the boundaries of the horridly-paved road. Sunlight filtered through the overhead canopy, and the road was almost beautiful in the day. What prevented it from being particularly pretty was the eerie feeling clinging to Sandy's spine. It crept into her brain like a mist.
"Look, Auntie!" Tippy, leaning forward, straining against his seatbelt, pointed at two figures standing at the side of the road, holding out their thumbs.
"Hitchhikers. Never pick them up. They're always fishy." Sandy made a fish face to try and amuse her nephew, but he would not be swayed.
"I want to help them, Aunt Sandy."
"Alright, fine." She sighed, pulling over and rolling down the window.
The figures came into focus. One was a tall, toned young adult, maybe in his early twenties, with large brown eyes that would be kind but for the red slashes scarring his corneas. He wore a dirty cardigan, slightly torn tweed jacket, and a dark gray t-shirt all layered on top of each other, as well as severely frayed brown jeans, dilapidated green Converse sneakers, and a dusty baseball cap atop his cropped black hair. He had an oddly serene smile on his face, considering he looked like he'd been on the road with no home to return to for years.
His companion was much shorter. Because of his incredible skinniness, he looked like he hadn't eaten in weeks. He was maybe fourteen, only reaching the older boy's chest. The younger had a mop of black hair that tumbled this way and that, all over his head. One tuft had fallen into his eyes. He had the same big brown doe eyes with the red slashes as the taller one. The young teenager was dressed in a torn blue hoodie, filthy red t-shirt, grimy black sneakers, and tattered green-brown cargo shorts. Unlike his counterpart, his face had no trace of a smile, even in its pale boyish state.
"Hello!" Sandy tried to be cheerful, but her smile was fake. Both of these boys had a very suspicious air about them, and Sandy did not like them at all.
"Mind giving us a ride?" The older spoke with a strange, almost haunted voice. Not unpleasant, just… strange. Though there was nothing steely or unkind about his tone, a wave of cold spread over Sandy's whole body.
"Of course I wouldn't mind. Where to?"
"We will give you directions on the way," the younger spoke. His voice was raspier than expected, hoarse, as if it hadn't been used in ages.
The chill crawling along Sandy's bones grew even colder.
"Um, okay. Hop in."
The older climbed into the front seat of the car, moving with impossible grace. The younger climbed into the back with Tippy, eyeing the seven-year-old in a way that made Sandy feel even more uneasy. She turned to the older.
"What's your name?" Sandy asked him.
"Tadashi. That is my brother Hiro."
Hiro said nothing.
"Nice to meet you both." Sandy was lying.
She started the car. There was something severely off about these boys, but she just couldn't put her finger on it. It was a queer scent of supernatural; a weird, ghostly glow.
Hiro's staring at her nephew was starting to make Sandy- and most likely poor Tippy- uncomfortable.
"God, save me now," Sandy whispered to herself, so softly even she could barely hear it.
"What was that?" Tadashi's voice became hard, probing. He might as well have screamed at her to tell him what she'd just said.
"Nothing." Sandy glared out the windshield.
Silence reigned in the car for what had to be an eternity.
"Turn right." The sudden, spectral voice of Hiro cut through the silence, a cold blade cutting open the deafening hush. Sandy jumped, turning onto a side street much narrower and bumpier than the one she'd just been on.
Sandy flicked her eyes over to Tadashi. He was staring at her with a thoughtful, upsetting expression on his face. "Sandy?"
Her spine prickled and gooseflesh crept up her arms.
I never told him my name.
"Tadashi?" She responded, ignoring her uneasy feeling.
"You need to set a better example for your nephew." Tadashi's tone was almost matter-of-fact.
"W-What do you mean?" Her knuckles whitened on the steering wheel.
Hiro spoke to Sandy, but did not take his eyes off her nephew. "What was it that you told Tippy when he pointed us out to you?" He paused as if thinking.
In perfect synch, the brothers simultaneously recited what she'd told Tippy just twenty-five minutes ago, before she'd even rolled down her window for these two creatures. "'Hitchhikers. Never pick them up. They're always fishy.'"
"But that's exactly what you did, wasn't it?" Tadashi's voice had lowered to a heavier baritone, one that disturbed Sandy greatly.
"You gave in to your nephew. He said he wanted to help us." Hiro's voice had deepened and cleared. "You should always listen to your aunt's advice," he said to the child.
"Or else you'll end up like us." Tadashi added this.
Sandy made the mistake of looking directly into Tadashi's eyes. They were soulless now. Dead pits of coffee and tar.
"What do you mean?" Tippy seemed more interested than scared.
The brothers turned their unwavering gazes onto the child. Slow grins spread over their faces.
"Would you like to find out?"
Sandy's head jerked in Tippy's direction. "DON'T YOU DARE! DON'T YOU DARE LAY A FINGER ON MY NEPHEW!"
Hiro laughed humorlessly. "I don't have to."
What? Sandy couldn't even say the word before the car, without warning, smashed with a sickening crunch against a tree. The front crumpled, shards of glass and metal impaling the shrieking woman and her nephew. Everything faded quickly, like an erasing of memories.
Tadashi and Hiro stood and stared at the smoking wreck of the crashed car. Neither were smiling, neither were moving. They simply stared in silence.
Finally they looked at each other.
"She reminded me of Aunt Cass," Hiro said emotionlessly.
Tadashi lightly cuffed the side of Hiro's head. "Not allowed to recount the past," he reminded his brother.
"Oh. Right." Hiro nodded.
"Have you finished already?"
The brothers turned to face the voice. Lucinda approached them from the woods, smiling a deranged smile, showing off her crooked, half-rotted teeth.
"Yes. They are dead." Tadashi did not even remove his cap.
"Good. You have done well, my new friends."
The three walked away hand-in-hand.
A/N: Yeah. Wasn't that interesting? I don't know. I'm kinda bad at writing horror stories :/ so let me know what you thought in the reviews section. Should I write more of these? I'm debating if I should do any more based off of stories I've heard/read. My friend told me a pretty creepy story about his sister getting possessed. I could use that. Just let me know! Peace XOXO