Foggy Roads [Writing Prompt W.2]

She often joked that she could drive this route blindfolded. She had driven it a million times and knew it like the back of her hand. Until today.

The fog rolled thick across the road in front of her. From time to time, a stretch cleared and she could see something other than white, but it quickly disappeared back into a dream-scape completely lacking color. The newly fallen snow didn’t help dispel the surreal feeling.

She should have reached one of the villages she would pass by now. She was on a long, straight stretch of road that seemed to go on forever. Some time before, there had been a turn in the road that confused her a little, because it felt far sooner than usual, but she had chalked it up to the fog confusing her sense of distance. That did happen after all. Was that what was happening at the moment too? Did the road just feel endless, and she would roll into the village before she knew it? That was surely it. A couple of minutes later the fog cleared around her.

She looked wide-eyed at her surroundings. The road was narrower than it should have been, and lined with trees that should not have been there. Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere? There was nowhere along her route that looked like this. Taking a few deep breaths she tried to keep the panic at bay. The road was too narrow to easily turn around, so she had no choice but to keep going. Eventually, she would find something she recognized, right? If only a name on a sign.

Another ten minutes later she had resigned herself to being wrong. She had seen no signs, and no other roads in that time, even though she knew that, going straight ahead like she was, she should have hit a road by now. She was just about to give up and stop to get some sleep when a light ahead caught her attention.

As she came closer, she could see that the light was coming from a large house, seemingly standing in the middle of the road. A woman was standing outside the door as she pulled up, and when she hesitantly got out of the car and stretched, she came forward.

“Welcome,” she spoke in a soft, melodic voice, “to the Fogroad Inn. Please come inside and rest for a while.”

She looked back at the seemingly endless road that she had traveled there, and then back at the light and warmth coming through the door of the Inn. With a tired sigh, she resigned herself to spending the night here. She was far too tired to go back on the road and try to get back to known roads. Locking the car, she followed the smiling woman towards the house. But when she passed through the front door, a chilling feeling passed through her, causing every hair on her body to stand on end. And she could have sworn that she heard a small child whisper “Welcome Home.”