"Detour" by Erica Ruppert
Erica Rupert takes us down a dark journey to the lakeside lodge. From our "Road Trips 2024" installment.
Welcome back to Weird Fiction Quarterly's holiday storytelling event.
Today's tale comes from our Road Trips 2024 issue by frequent WFQ contributor Erica Ruppert.
Since this is the time of the holiday season is when a lot of schools are letting out and workplaces are starting to release their employees for the holiday season, we figured that we'd leave you with a tale to recount for when you hit the road and find yourself on a dark and unknown path.
Enjoy...
Detour
by Erica Ruppert
Pia’s dad loaded the car while her mom packed the last-minute things. Then she carried Pia’s sisters from their beds and nestled them into the back of the station wagon beside the fishing gear. Pia was old enough to wake up and get in on her own.
They were on the road just before midnight. Vacation had officially begun.
Dad liked traveling all night to reach the lakeside lodge in time for breakfast. Mom kept him awake, pouring coffee from the thermos and handing him sandwiches from the cooler wedged behind the seats.
Pia huddled in back with her sleeping sisters, letting her imagination roam free as they left the lights of the city behind. She imagined what might come out of the trees along the empty, unlit interstate. She shivered to imagine what would be fast enough to catch them.
~
A sign warned of lane closures ahead, and then a line of concrete barriers abruptly blocked the road. Cursing, her father veered onto an off-ramp.
“Bob,” her mother said, loud in the dark. “Slow down.”
He didn’t. He lit a cigarette, accelerating as he merged onto the new road. This one was only four lanes, still a highway but not like the interstate. The trees were closer here, pushing toward them like a crowd at a fence.
“Check the map,” he told her mother.
Pia heard the rustle of paper, and then her mother turned on the interior light. She held the creased map up, trying to trace their route.
“What’s it called?” she asked.
“Toby-something, I think,” he said, annoyance edging his voice. “I was busy not crashing the car when the sign came up.”
“I don’t see it,” she said. “Would you pull over?”
He opened the window and let the cigarette butt fly away on the slipstream.
The air outside smelled like green things and wet mud. He rolled the window back up.
“We’re not stopping here, Ar. Find where we can get back on the highway.”
Pia stared out the windshield at the black trees, trying to see what hid behind them. The car’s headlights were too weak. The night was too big.
She turned to peer out the back window. Shadows moved behind the dim red taillights. Something scraped the side of the car with a squeal like claws on metal.
Pia shrieked, cringing away from the windows.
“Quiet,” her mother said softly. “Don’t wake your sisters.”
~
Pia hid herself in blankets, sweaty and too scared to move.
Her mother hadn’t spoken in ages. The red glow of her father’s cigarette reflected off the windshield, a firefly shining against the darkness ahead. The road seemed narrower, the line markings faded into afterimages.
Trees bent over the road, closer and closer, branches clawing the sides of the car as it drove past. Something paced them. She could hear it panting.
The red point of her father’s cigarette went out.
The highway vanished.
Pia could only imagine where they would find themselves come morning.
Now, let's get to know today's author!
WFQ: What was your favorite weird fiction that you read this past year?
ER: There was so much good weird fiction this year! But my favorite was Scott R. Jones's autofiction novel, Drill. He has a way of making the bleakness and meaninglessness that infuses cosmic horror viscerally real.
WFQ: Where else have you been published in 2024?
ER: Seven Stars: Collected Stories (Trepidatio Publishing), Thirsty Work, The Fabulist Words & Art, "Needs Must" in Tales to Terrify, Episode 645, "Come Not Between" in Here There Be Dragons, "And You, Their Best Beloved" in Dracula Beyond Stoker Issue 4: The Brides of Dracula.
WFQ: What is your favorite weird aspect, character, or story about the holidays?
ER: My favorite weird holiday story has to be Ramsey Campbell's "The Christmas Present". The absolute panic of the ending has stayed with me for years.
WFQ: What are you working on for 2025?
ER: I'm working on a number of short stories, and on a long term project that I keep putting aside in order to write short stories.
WFQ: Where can folks follow you online?
ER: I'm on Facebook, BlueSky, and at NerdGoblin.com.
Stay tuned for our next story, but in the meantime, watch out for road construction that sends you down dark paths!