A year or so ago, I drove up to Georgia to visit my folks. I lived in Florida at the time, and considering the price of plane tickets, driving seemed cheaper. The drive from where I was – not too far from Orlando – to where my family was – an hour outside of Atlanta – was only about seven hours, not including rest stops. This was my first time doing this trip on my own. I tried leaving early, but I’ve never been an early riser. I ended up getting on the road around 2 or 3ish.
The drive from Florida into Georgia wasn’t too bad. Once you get on the highway, it’s basically a hundred mile straight shot into the state. Throw on some music or a podcast and, honestly, it’s not a bad drive. For the first chunk of the trip, I was having a pretty good time.
Around four hours in it started getting dark. By this point, I was nearly to Georgia. However, I was hungry, I needed to pee, and my car needed gas. I found a gas station connected to an Arby’s and pulled in. I peed, ordered some food, and sat down for a quick meal. I sat in a booth next to a window and scrolled through my phone while eating.
Strangely enough, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was being watched. I looked up from my phone and surveyed the restaurant. Everyone was just minding their own business. Even then, the feeling persisted. I looked out the window, and…
There was…something in the distance, just standing there. It was hard to make out too many distinct details from where I was. Based on what I saw, it seemed humanoid, but a bit taller than most humans and with much longer arms than I’d ever seen on a person. The most distinctive part of it, though, was its eyes. Two bright green eyes sat on its head, shining even through the growing darkness of the setting sun. I grabbed my phone to get a picture of it, but in the second I looked away, it had disappeared.
I scarfed down the rest of my food and quickly got some gas, then left as soon as I was able.
I tried to down my unease with some loud music, which did help a bit. I had some rock song blaring as I passed the state line into Georgia. The highway shifted a bit at this point, getting hilly, a change from the flat roads of Florida. The next couple of hours went by smoothly as I made my way towards my folks’ home. Sometimes, though, I swore I saw a flash of green on the side of the road, but I chalked that up to my imagination playing tricks on me. By now, the sun had completely set and it was pitch black out.
My initial plan was to stop at a Buc-ee’s for some gas and one of their briskets. However, I noticed that my gas tank was emptier than I thought, so I stopped at a gas station on the next exit. This gas station, despite being right off the highway, felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. There were no fast food joints or anything around. Just a winding road bordered by woods that led to that dimly lit gas station. No one else was there. I wondered if this was the safest place to be, but then my car helpfully let me know that it was almost out of gas. I sucked it up, drove up to a gas pump, and started filling up my car.
At least gas was cheaper in Georgia.
As I pumped gas, I looked around. Not too far from the edge of the gas station, right by the woods, I saw two familiar specks of green. The dim gas station lights highlighted the figure’s silhouette: tall with abnormally long arms. This time, I noticed two new things. First, the figure’s arms seemed to go all the way to the ground. Second, thanks to the light, I noticed some color on the bottom half of the thing. A dark gray body, with some unsettling splotches of dark red. I stared at it, barely breathing. It just stood there, staring back.
I felt the gas stop pumping, turned to see that I had filled my tank, and then turned back to see…nothing. The thing was gone. Again.
As I opened my car’s door, I heard a loud, animalistic cry near where I saw the being.
There was a running narration in my brain telling me, Ignore it get back on the road get away don’t be an idiot. Against my better judgment, I got in my car, drove over to where I saw the being, and prayed that I wouldn’t be killed. As my headlights illuminated the area, I thankfully didn’t see any green eyes.
The sight that greeted me wasn’t much better.
Right where I saw the being earlier there was instead a deer lying on its side in a pool of blood. Chunks were torn out of its body, and through those tears I could see the animal’s organs and bones. Its head was twisted a full 180 degrees around, its eyes frozen open in sheer terror. I noticed what appeared to be bloody, human-like footprints bordered by thick lines trailing off from the deer and leading to the nearby woods.
I drove away as fast as possible and got back on the highway. I was going 90 on the highway and getting faster with each second, just focused on getting to my folks’ place. I wasn’t making any more stops. As I drove, I jumped at every green light I saw or thought I saw on the side of the road.
Unfortunately for me, the lights I should’ve been worried about at that moment were flashing red and blue. A cop car was behind me, and making it clear I should pull over. I looked at my speedometer. 130 mph.
Fuck.
I pulled over on the side of the road, the cop car pulling up behind me. I got out my license and registration as the cop approached. He knocked on my window. I lowered it.
“Y’know how fast you were goin’, son?” he asked in a thick Southern accent.
A part of me wanted to make a smartass comment, like, “The speed limit?” A part of me wanted to explain what was going on. A part of me just wanted to comply and get this over with quickly.
Instead, my mouth opened and closed like I was a fish on dry land.
The cop raised an eyebrow. “You ok, kid?” I think it was supposed to sound like genuine concern, but I heard a threat. I got the impression that if I told him what I saw he’d think I was on drugs or something. I wasn’t on anything (and had in fact never even so much as smoked a joint) but I doubt the cop would believe me. So, instead, I got my bearings, cleared my throat, and said, “Yeah, I’m fine.” I handed him my license and registration. “Sorry, officer. I’m coming up from Florida to see my parents and I left a bit late. I’m supposed to be there by 10 and, well, I needed to rush.”
He looked over the documents, and nodded. “I think your folks’d rather you get there safe, even if y’are a bit tardy.”
I nodded a bit more quickly than normal. “I know, sorry. I’ve never been pulled over before, so I’m a bit nervous.”
The officer went to his car to run my documents and print a ticket. Off in the distance, I swore I saw a flash of green. A few minutes later, the cop came back with a ticket and handed it to me, along with my license and registration. “Well, don’t make a habit of it. Be careful, ok?”
Far behind the cop, those green eyes stared at me.
“I will,” I said.
When the cop got back in his car, the eyes were gone.
The rest of the drive on the highway was done at a steady 70 mph. The entire time, I felt like that creature was following me, that I should go faster. Eventually, after a paranoid hour of driving, I got off the highway, and started down the back roads.
The back roads in the area consisted of long, winding roads with very few streetlights. On some stretches, the only reason I could see anything was because of my headlights. The roads were bordered by woods, with trees that blocked out the moon.
I tried not to let my paranoia and fear get to me. I tried thinking it over logically. I mean, I saw that thing miles ago. There’s no way it could’ve followed me, especially with how fast I was going. Those green eyes I saw when I got pulled over could’ve been anything. Besides, I didn’t see anything after I got pulled over.
A voice in the back at my head nagged at me. It could be hiding, biding its time. You saw it in Florida, and it followed you to Georgia. It moves fast. Or maybe there are more of these things. Maybe there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of them just waiting to get you.
I took deep breaths, trying to calm down. I looked at the navigator on my phone. I was only half an hour away from my parents’ home. I could make it.
Just as I was thinking those happy thoughts, something suddenly appeared in the road in front of me. I swerved, narrowly avoiding it but going off the road into the grass. Luckily, I didn’t crash into anything. I turned on my hazard lights and tried to compose myself. I looked in my rearview mirror to see what the hell I almost hit, and in the flashing red light of my car I saw the broken body of a deer. Behind it, I saw the lower half of something very tall, with freakishly long arms. I saw its feet, human-like but with toenails ending in sharp points. Its long arms terminated in two sharp, bony claws. Its skin was grey, and in the red light the fresh blood on its body glowed. I watched as it bent down to the deer corpse, and I saw its face. Green eyes set in a skeletal head, its mouth a perfect circle. From that mouth a long, dark tongue emerged, dotted with knife-like protrusions. Its tongue started slicing into the deer’s body, chunks of flesh and muscle being cut from the corpse. The tongue slid back into the creature’s mouth with bits of deer held within it. It used its claws to grab larger pieces of the deer and shove them into its mouth. Blood splattered over its body and the street. I sat frozen in terror, only able to watch the disgusting sight. It stopped eating the deer, then turned and looked directly at me, green eyes glowing in the night, blood and viscera dripping from its maw.
I slammed on the gas and got back on the road, driving as fast as possible away from the creature. I kept my eyes straight ahead, worried that if I looked behind me I’d see that…thing chasing me.
Thankfully, I got to my parents’ house unscathed. When I got in, my parents could see I was visibly shaken. I just told them the drive was longer than I thought it’d be and left it at that.
I stayed up in Georgia for a couple of weeks. I never left the house during the first few days and kept the blinds in my room closed the entire time. A part of me worried that I’d see those green eyes staring at me in the night. My parents eventually coaxed me into going out with them during the day. Incidentally, we drove by where I saw the creature. There was no proof that what I saw that night happened. No deer corpse or even a bloodstain. A part of me wondered if I imagined all of it.
I never saw it during the rest of my stay, nor during the drive back to Florida. Over time, I convinced myself that I must’ve imagined the entire thing. Future drives to Georgia helped me prove that to myself, even if I still did jump at green lights on the side of the road though.
A month or so ago, I had to move in with my parents. It’s a long story, but to put it simply I was having job troubles in Florida and couldn’t stay. I packed my stuff in my car and drove up there. That drive was, thankfully, uneventful. Honestly, that first month was pretty uneventful outside of the actual move and job hunt. I soon found a job nearby. Nothing special, but a decent way to make a few bucks.
Last night, while driving home from work, I had to stop to get gas. I ended up in some middle of nowhere gas station on the way home. I’d stopped there a few times here and there. It was creepy at night, sure, but it was safe and had decently priced gas.
As I was pumping gas, I looked out towards the nearby woods, and saw something that froze my blood:
Two green eyes.
Wait, not just two, I realized with dawning horror.
Dozens of green eyes.
All staring directly at me.