Road Rage: Haunted Coal Ridge, #18

By Chuck Sperati

A series of intertwined supernatural stories that will make you wonder where the darkness ends and the light begins. All small towns keep secrets, but in Coal Ridge when the secret gets out, it begins to feed…again.

Story 18: "Road Rage"

Linni and her husband were looking forward to spending the day at the Pumpkin Festival, but when a reckless driver led them on a rage filled chase down the freeway, a confrontation seemed inevitable.

Unfortunately, when the road leads to Coal Ridge, horrors soon follow. In a flight for their lives, husband and wife must figure out a way to stay a step ahead or be engulfed in an unyielding darkness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writing Distracted
• Release date: Sep 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646390366

Chuck Sperati

Among other things, I'm a writer--with some published experience--whose been mostly quiet for the past few decades, mostly because I let life get in the way. I've long had a creative outlet at the gaming table and recently found another when I started building a website. With this new outlet also came inspiration. Right now I'm working primarily on a series of short stories that has received some very positive feedback, so I'm sharing. If you enjoy anything I've written, check out my website at https://www.chucksperati.com, where you can find more things that have crawled out of my imagination.

Book preview

Dedication

Coal Ridge is based on Ohio's Finest Village. It was a great place to grow up and continues to be a remarkable community to which I enjoy returning to see friends and family. For those who live there, take a moment, look around, and be wary of the shadows.

A special note to Nicole Hobbs for providing the original cover photograph. Thank you!

Preface

A series of intertwined short stories that will make you wonder where the darkness ends and the light begins. All small towns keep secrets, but in Coal Ridge when the secret gets out, it begins to feed...again.

Set in a small, somewhat geographically secluded town in the Midwest, the blue-collar people of Coal Ridge are friendly and laid back, enjoying block parties, gossip, and the simple joys that come with being a close-knit community. Because everyone knows everyone else, secrets are hard to keep, but some are so well hidden that they've been forgotten.

These short stories explore a supernatural awakening that will test the bonds of family and community.

Road Rage

This is ridiculous, Rick Morgan muttered to his wife.

This is your goddamned fault! Linni whisper-yelled back. If you weren't such an asshole on the road, we’d be at the Pumpkin Festival instead of stuck here.

Watching the creature stalk along the front windows of the Red Rider Market across the street, neither looked at anything else while they bickered. Whatever this shadow thing was, it had a spider-like body with a bird's head, and a pair of long tentacles waving around it's back.

That guy cut me off and hit his damn breaks!

You wouldn't let him over and then flipped him off.

Oh, that's not how it happened.

Rick, I was there. You do this all the—oh crap! she stopped, and her mouth snapped shut.

Turning towards them, the creature shuddered, and its tentacles began to stretch in their direction.

Grabbing his hand, she pulled her husband down behind the dumpster and looked for someplace to run. There weren’t any good options. The alley behind the small, three-store plaza dead ended at a tall wooden fence atop a stacked rise of railroad ties, which also separated it from the residential houses behind. The other way was an open parking lot and they’d already seen how fast the creature could be. Stopping here had been a bad idea, but Rick just had to see the comic book shop.

That type of innocent wonder had drawn her to him, but in this situation, it