I work at a pub about 15 miles from my home. I often get off work late, like 1, or sometimes

even 2 am, and then have to make an exhausted, lonely drive back to the house in the dark.

It's been taking me a little longer than usual these past couple of weeks, as works in

the main road have forced me to use a long and winding alternative route through the forest.

And I hate it. A dark, creepy forest in the middle of the night all alone in my car. I had

a nightmare not long ago about the car breaking down between the shadows of the pines, and

I'm embarrassed to say that he really knocked my confidence. But whatever, it's not

like I have a choice. Almost every night I make this drive back.

I leave the main road behind, and I wind my way through the hills, and then the forest.

The branches overhang the road. Like ancient twisting arms, they reach out for me as

I pass beneath in between. Reaching out for me in the dark.

There's this one corner in particular that just sends my heart racing every single

damn time. It's steep as hell, and I have to slow the car right down to prevent myself

from driving directly into the bushes at the roadside. Around it winds in a quick, brutal

curve, and then there's a long, sinister straight, one in which you cannot see exactly

where it ends, even with vehicles' lights and full beam. It takes a while, but at the

end of this straight is another winding turn, somewhat similar to the first, and it's

only then that I can actually start breathing normally again. As it's here, the forest begins

to thin out, and the hills recede, before the road joins up with a more widely used

section of road. At that first deep turning, there's a very small clearing, a section

of long grass where the bushes don't quite meet, and on one terrible night, as around

the corner, the lights of my car were reflected back at me from the glowing eyes of a hair,

...