The Bike Ride From Hell

Suspense Stories | Sep 9, 2013 | 12 min read
48 Votes, average: 4 out of 5
Suspense Stories

The Bike Ride From Hell

#amintyunrennyUS
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‘I don't know how long I have left', thought Kyle Maddington. ‘My head is pounding, my heart is racing, I'm out of breath and my limbs ache like nothing I've felt before. Should I give in?'

He's sitting on damp mud and broken twigs behind a rock. The rays from the sun are trying to break through the branches from the tall trees that are wrapped around each other. He looks ahead of him to see a forty ft. drop. There's nothing to break his fall only his back. This is a life and death situation. It's been like this for six hours.


Earlier in the day, Kyle went for a bike ride. It wasn't really a spur of the moment because he often did it at weekends anyway. He isn't a health freak, he just enjoyed it because it was fresh air and you get out and about. He usually goes out with his friend Mike but this weekend Mike promised his wife that he'd clear the garage out. During the weekdays, Kyle was a teacher in a middle school. He taught English Literature to a group of ten year olds that really had no interest in learning. Do they ever?

Kyle took to the road at 9:10 that morning and went along his usual route but something came over him. As he entered the lanes that lead him to his route, there was another lane. He wasn't sure if it had been there all along or if he had just been ignorant of the whole thing.

‘You only live once.' He thought before taking his bike down the new route.

It took him down a small slope and onto a smooth pavement. He couldn't believe that he never knew of this area. He preferred to ride on smooth pavements than rocky surfaces because of the pain he gets in his lower back and ass.

The further he went, the darker it got. The trees were becoming thicker and fuller as he rode on. He stopped and looked up at the trees, at the sun, how it disappears so quickly when the branches reach their fingers over it. It seems that they want to ball the sun up in their hands and squash it so a yolky substance drains from it. Kyle thought it would make a great picture nonetheless so he got his phone out to take it. His phone can be incredibly fast when it wanted to be; sadly this isn't one of those moments. He looked at the battery, full. He looked at the signal, dead.

He pressed the camera icon and waited for it to load. After waiting a while, he gave up and put the phone back in his pocket and got back on his bike. ‘Did the floor just shake?'

He could've sworn he felt a slight tremor. He got back off his bike and knelt down to put his hand on the ground so he could feel the quake. Something made him lift it back up quickly. It was freezing cold. It was as if he put his hand in snow. ‘How the hell did that happen?' he thought. ‘The sun must've been here earlier. How did it get so cold?'

Did he make a mistake in going down the new path?

He stood up and noticed he can see his breath. Everything had gone cold. It must've been 30 degrees earlier but it dropped to at least somewhere in the minus.

There's the tremor again. A dull thudding that sounds like it's getting closer. Something was heading towards Kyle but he didn't know where from. It's getting louder, thunderous. Kyle got back on his bike and decided to stick to the route he knew best. It'll get him home quicker anyway.

The loud tremors began to slow down and eventually stop. He turned the bike around and listened out for more. He could only hear the birds chirping on the tree branches.

As he looked up at the trees, there was another noise that sent a chill down his spine; a growl, a very low growl.

He almost felt that he shouldn't look. ‘What if it was a lion? Why the fuck would a lion be here anyway?' he thought.

He lowered his head and had the breath from his mouth sucked back in. Should he scream for help? Should he just get on his bike and ride like the wind? ‘Yes that's it.' He thought ‘I'll just ride past it. It's just a figment of your imagination, right, Right?!'

Kyle tried to get back on his bike but was scared stiff. His eyes were wide with fright. He'd never seen anything like it.

Standing at least ten feet away from him was a horse and carriage. It was surrounded by mist and it was huge. It looked as if it was from the 19th century and was all black. The horse had long black hair and fiery red eyes. It breathes what looks like smoke out of its nostrils. Kyle looked closer at the carriage and noticed a small hunched figure sitting behind the horse. His face is hidden behind by the white mist that came with them and the collar of the dark coat he's wrapped in.

It just stood there waiting for Kyle to make his move. Kyle side stepped his way around to see the other side of it. The horse turned its head wherever Kyle moved. Its eyes were focused on him. Kyle looked closely and noticed that the horse was bearing its teeth at him.

"Excuse me, did you want to get past me?" asked Kyle in his clear teaching voice.

The horse and driver didn't move. The horse blew out more smoke from its nostrils and that's when the smell got to Kyle. It smelt of rotten ground and rotting flesh. Kyle held his nose and the horse growled at him. Kyle went back to his bike and picked it up. The horse nodded him on to get on the bike.

"You can just pass if you –"

The horse let out a loud, scary, screech that was the cross between a lion's roar and a neigh but this time toned up to an eleven.

Kyle covered his ears. He's pissed off the horse and driver but he didn't know how. He stepped on the bike and began to peddle towards them to get back onto his known route but the driver moved the horse to the side to block him off.

Thinking that if the horse and carriage was a ghost he would surely be able to walk right through it but when given the opportunity to, it was solid as a rock. This thing was real alright and Kyle Maddington picked the wrong turning.

Kyle backed off and the horse slowly stepped forward bringing the carriage creakingly along with him. ‘Who's driving this thing?' thought Kyle. He begins to pedal slowly and then picks up the pace. He looks behind him and sees the horse and carriage standing there looking at him. Kyle looks back ahead of him and pedals faster. ‘What're they waiting for?'

The driver slowly lifted the reigns and kept them in the air for a few seconds. Kyle was now officially out of their vision. He snapped them down and the horse lifted up and roared again this time billowing out red mist from its nose. Kyle tried to cover his ears as the horse began to pick up pace behind him. When he noticed he was being chased he pedaled faster than ever. The pavement began to get bumpier and awkward. Kyle didn't seem to give a damn about it. He just didn't want his breaks to snap or his chain to break away. He's never pedaled that fast before. He didn't want his breaks to give up on him now.

The horse began to approach the rear of Kyle's bike but didn't step on it like he thought it would. Instead, the horse came up beside him and further so that the driver was now next to Kyle. Kyle tried to ignore it but couldn't. He looked at the driver who was looking straight ahead at the road. He turned his head towards Kyle and then back to the road. Kyle saw his face, in a flash, and it was more hideous than that of the horse's face. The driver had half of his face missing and had bits of tattered and torn flesh hanging from the side of his head revealing his cheekbone and teeth. His eyes are red like those of the horse. The driver began to kick Kyle's arm away from the handlebar. It pained Kyle. ‘What is he wearing?' The shoes of the driver are pointed at the tip and have easily cut the side of Kyle's arm. He kicked him again and again. Kyle punched back at the driver but that didn't faze him. The driver threw a punch to Kyle but missed. Kyle had a vision that involves him grabbing the driver and pulling him off. He went to re-create that vision. The road started to get smoother and straighter. The driver went to hit him again but this time, Kyle saw it coming and grabbed his arm. One hand on the handlebar, the other on the ghoulish driver's arm, Kyle had him where he wanted him. With all his might and determination, Kyle pulled on the driver's arm but lost his balance. ‘That's not how it was meant to go' thought Kyle. The arm had been pulled off completely. The bone that connected to the driver's shoulder was sticking out of the arm. Kyle threw the arm on the ground and looked up at the driver who was grinning back at him. Another arm began to grow out of the shoulder. The driver began to laugh hysterically at Kyle's attempts to stop him.

Kyle swore in his head and began to slow down.

‘How could this be? I'm playing ‘Ben Hur' against a friggin' ghoul.'

He didn't stop all the way. Instead he let the carriage overtake him. The carriage didn't go far, however, and stopped.

Kyle stopped to wait and see what happened next.

A slight gust of wind that chilled him to the bone was all that followed. The driver turned quickly to him and glared with those red eyes. It was a vision that you saw when you were a child.

In bed, late at night, you couldn't sleep because of the ‘thing' you saw at the end of your bed staring right back at you, waiting for you to fall asleep so it could get you. But Kyle wasn't a child and he was seeing something very real sitting in front of him. Could he be dead already? Did he die on the road? Was death really that painless? All of these questions and many more would ticker tape itself across his brain. The cut on his arm began to dry up. He couldn't believe how much blood ran out. The trees have blocked the sun out completely and had placed the woods in a cooling blue colour.

Kyle looked beyond the driver and saw the trail leading to a giant tree and a tiny bike trail next to it. Kyle didn't seem to recognize the tree but thought his plan out thoroughly and ever so quickly. He planned to ride as fast as he could towards the tree and make sure the carriage was right next to him and then dodge out of the way sending the driver into the tree. At first he thought if he was riding next to a ghost then it would just go through the tree but then he remembered his arm and the sore, stinging pain that it carried. The driver had hurt him and Kyle was more than happy to return the favour.

He began to cycle, slowly then faster, and when he reached the driver he thought ‘fuck it' and waved him on. He wanted to challenge the horseman and egg him on. The horse screeched again and began to pick up the pace. Kyle kept looking back as he was approaching the giant tree. It was as wide as half a house so that was plenty of room for the driver to splat into. Things, however, began to take a drastic turn and Kyle was rapidly running out of time. The carriage became level headed with the bike and just when Kyle felt big headed about his plan coming into fruition, the driver took out a riding crop with a steel top and began mercilessly beating him over the back with it. With every whack came a cry or a weak yelp from Kyle's mouth. He could taste copper in his mouth which meant one thing; internal bleeding. That sick coppery taste came in lumps and Kyle spat it on the driver. That just angered him and sent the crop down even harder. Kyle grabbed the weapon and didn't pull it away from him; instead he held it so they could stay on the same level. The tree was coming up and Kyle, with all his might, pushed the riding crop back into the driver, forcing him to steer to the left. Kyle steadied his bike and went down the trail as the carriage crashed into the tree. It didn't come out the other side, much to Kyle's joy. The noise was unbearable. The horse screeched and cried, the driver screamed and the carriage made a sound that could only be described as forks scraping an empty plate, or polystyrene being rubbed together. Kyle slowed down to turn around to see the wreckage but there wasn't anything there Despite the colossal bang that it made, there didn't seem to be any signs of casualty or parts of the carriage. Not even one of the wheels like they do in cartoons where after an explosion happens there are a set of wheels that roll pathetically across the screen. Kyle felt triumphant but couldn't seem to think where he was. He had no intention of going back the way he came as he didn't want to attract another ghost on wheels. He got his phone out to see if the signal picked up. A strong gust of wind took him by surprise. Screaming in his ear, it knocked him off his bike and sent him tumbling down a hill. He grabbed his bike on the way down and fell through numerous bushes and twigs. He tried grabbing anything he could get his hands around until finally he found his footing behind a large rock. He got his eye sight back after seeing everything as if he had been in a washing machine. The wheel on his bike was bent and was no good to ride back. Kyle knelt down behind the rock and waited.

That was several hours ago. The sun was going down now and the stars began blinking. Kyle took his torch from the front of his bike to see where he could go. The hill he was crouched on seemed unforgiving. It wasn't quite vertical but it was enough for when he stood up he had to grab hold of something to stop him from plummeting to his death.

There's been nothing but silence surrounding him. No traffic noises, no birds chirping and no horsemen. He felt like he was in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone'. He was battered and bruised. He was wheezing from the probable flattened lung that he had from the riding crop. He had to get home and so he decided to climb up to where he fell and just go back on himself.

The climb seemed like a piece of cake. It was due to determination, determination to get him the hell away from there. ‘Where the hell is ‘there'?' he thought. He grabbed the ground with one hand and pulled his bike with the other. He wasn't going to go without his bike, even if he couldn't ride it. He reached the point in which he fell and dusted himself off. He placed the torch back on the front of his bike and began to walk back to the big tree and beyond. He peered down in front of the tree to see nothing. The carriage went into the tree, alright, but it stayed in there. He shrugged it off and walked up the pavement towards his house. But something didn't feel right. It seemed to have gotten colder again, more so than usual. Kyle looked up and, just as he expected, there stood the horse and carriage, just like it did before. ‘This is it' he thought, ‘No going back.'

The horse snarled at him and the driver whipped the reigns sending it into frenzy. The horse charged at Kyle who ditched his bike and ran for it. He stumbled over a part of dodgy road but continued. He was hurting and defiantly needed medical attention but the driver had other plans for him. Kyle came close to the edge of the path which led to a fifty ft. drop. The horse came closer but moved ahead of him. Kyle was breathless. The driver was next to him and when Kyle saw him, he just gave up.

It was a spur of the moment thing. What more could he give? The horseman made sure that Kyle couldn't escape him and so Kyle did the only thing plausible.

Whilst falling, he made sure he flipped his finger at the driver before splattering gore, bone and tissue mess on the rocky surface below.

The horseman peered over the edge at Kyle and then disappeared into the night. He truly had won but Kyle had the last laugh.


Epilogue


The children at Kyle's school were saddened of the news and the headmaster held a memoriam for him. It was a sad few weeks. The parents of the students knew him as a kind, loving, generous, funny man. The search party found him in three days, laying there with his once blonde, now bloody hair glued to his forehead and his one once blue, now white eye staring up. It had rained since Kyle went missing and so the water had dried his eye out. The other eye was squashed against the rocks.


People are saying that they've seen Kyle Maddington. You know, the teacher who was a kind, loving, generous, funny man.

They say that he haunts the area where he jumped (fell, according to the papers) on Wick Mountain.

Some say he can usually be seen from 9am –5pm, almost like a shift pattern. He rides his bike majestically beside a horse and carriage, destined to race forever.

Others say he tries to run people off the road whilst riding a bike at them.


I guess we'll have to find out which is the truth…


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Luke Mepham Sep 9, 2013

Hey I wrote this. How come someone else is listed as the author?

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