Evening came much too quickly this time of the year. It was the same every year, but it still caught some by surprise. The nearly moonless sky only drew the point home that much clearer; it would be a dark night.

By the time the car rolled into the petrol station it had already become so dark that even the headlights couldn’t chase away all the shadows that lingered around the building. It only made the contrast that much starker; a small haven of light around the car, and beyond that simply blackness.

She rubbed her arms, feeling the chill of the evening. A part of her wished she had stayed behind long enough to go through some of the old, stored-away boxes for a proper jacket. There were too many things she had left behind back there. She was late enough as it was, though. She had even forgotten to top off her car, which is how she found herself in this dismal place halfway between nowhere and somewhere. Even if she ignored the speed limit, it would still probably take her half the night to get home. Worse still, she had heard bad things about this old road. They had warned her to take the highway instead, but if she had, she would have been stuck by the side of the road by now. All alone.

The pump meter was climbing so slowly, as if it was draining the last drops out of the fuel tank. She wondered how often this unmanned station was resupplied. From what little she could see there were strong hints of neglect and dirt. It almost looked abandoned. It hadn’t even been on the map, instead showing up on the road sign just when she needed it.

There was a mechanical click as the pump shut down. She winced at the cost. When had petrol become this expensive? Maybe she hadn’t been paying attention lately. Either way, she was happy to walk around to the driver’s door and get back into the warmth of the car. Her heels made a soft noise against the concrete.

“Where are you going?”

The voice behind her almost made her jump in fright. She spun around quickly, with one hand on the door handle just in case. There was a young man, a teenager really, standing a few paces away huddled up in an oversized jacket. Stringy, dark hair covered most of his eyes. The car’s rear lights coloured him in a deep red.

“I- I didn’t see you there,” she stammered. “I didn’t know there was anyone else here.”

“That so?” He asked, still keeping his distance just at the edge of the night.

“Yeah. Well. I have to get going now,” she said. A quick glance around told her they were the only ones here. As far as she could see.

“Where are you headed?” The young man pushed his hands into the deep pockets of his jacket.

“I’m headed home. To my family.” Where had he come from? There were no towns around here. Was the boy a hitchhiker? He was doing a bad job at it. She just wanted to get into the car and drive away. All she wanted was to get back home.

“Have you heard the story about this road?” He turned his head a little, as if he was listening for something. Were there others out in the blackness, where she couldn’t see?

“N-no?” She fumbled for the keys in her purse. She had been taught to never leave the keys in the ignition for fear of someone jumping into the car and driving off the moment she stepped away from it.

“They say it’s haunted, you know?” He took a step closer, causing the red light to wash over his face. It made his eyes look even darker, almost inhuman. “The way the story goes, a lone driver picks up someone waiting at a half-forgotten station nobody uses anymore. Turns out the passenger is the ghost of someone who died in a car accident years back. The driver loses control of the car and crash, dying just like the other one had before.”

She yanked the door open and jumped inside, slamming it shut immediately afterwards. She tried to force the key into the ignition, but her hands were shaking too badly. Did she remember to lock the doors?

The passenger door clicked shut.

The boy in the large jacket was sitting in the seat next to her when she slowly raised her head. He didn’t look at her. Instead, he seemed fixed on the side-view mirror.

“Please get out,” she begged quietly. She didn’t trust her voice anymore.

“But I’ve not finished the story yet,” he replied, almost as quietly. Outside the night was closing in.

“You see, the phantom passenger who haunts the road shows up at the station during the last days of October. It’s said that this was the time they died, and now appear to play out the accident over and over again. Killing the other person in the car.”

She felt the icy fingers of panic dig into her heart. It was becoming so cold. The windows of the car began to frost over. Still the boy kept talking in that low voice, as if he was talking to himself, telling her about the story of the haunted road and the phantom that kept coming back for more victims.

The radio turned on, drowning out his words in a burst of static noise. She could almost hear voices in that white noise. The boy reached out with a pale hand and turned it off, shutting out whatever message was trying to get through.

”Do you know what day it is today”, the boy asked in the sudden silence.

She just mutely shook her head, gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles had gone white. She didn’t know what to do. She just wanted to go home.

”It’s the day you die.”

She began to cry, convinced that this boy was going to kill her. She had no way to escape, trapped inside the car with him.

”It’s the day you die every year, Mary.”

Her head jerked up at the mentioning of her name. She had never told the boy her name. He was looking at her sadly. In the faint light of the dashboard she could make out that his eyes were blue, just like her son’s.

”Go back to sleep, Mary,” he urged her with a gentle voice. “Rest another year.”

The boy scooted over to the empty driver’s seat, and got his car running. He leaned forward to wipe a bit of the condensation off the windscreen. Enough to drive safely.

The car slowly eased away from the abandoned petrol station and disappeared down the misty road.