The bride from Oaxaca highway

 

Oaxaca is a very interesting state in the Mexican republic. It is known worldwide due to its cuisine and its beautiful beaches; however, it has also legends and myths which turn it into a mysterious place. 

Oaxaca is considered one of the oldest regions in the continent, it has fantastic ruins and some communities still have old languages that transformed into magical. It was the home of Maria Sabina who was considered the principal chamán in the art of the hallucigen mushrooms, for this fact it is said that politicians, actors and singers were seen going out from Sabinas’s house. However, there are other legends that could be considered creepy and scary.

I knew some stories about Oaxaca but I never thought I could be part of one of them. 

I had to travel to Oaxaca to make some business about mezcal and typical food; I decided to take the bus instead of flying because I wanted to know places all-around Oaxaca state. I arrived to the bus station and I met the driver of the bus. He was a very easy going guy with a smile on his face and a quick laugh. He had been a bus driver for many years, but he had only travel the route by day and this one would be the first time he would do it by night. 

He was a very nice guy and we started a conversation about all the beautiful things in the state. He was from the state of Mexico but he knew the region completely due to the constant traveling in the route. He recommended me several places to visit and some other to get typical food. We were talking for a while until it was time to board the bus. I sat at the back of the driver and we continued the conversation about things in the state. 

Suddenly, I noticed that the driver covered the rear view mirror with a piece of cloth. I was really very confused and I asked him why he has to do that. he laughed at me and he told me that he didn't believe in legends but some security was not over the precaution. 

I supposed he saw my confused face and nodded his head. He told me that once upon a time there was a couple who got married and started their honeymoon that very day. They decided to travel by car and enjoy the little towns along the way. Thick fog appeared during the traveling and provoked a very big accident on the road. A trailer entered to the track where the couple’s car was going on and it crashed directly in front of the car.

The husband died because they were playing around on the car. He had no time to avoid the trailer, the fog made it difficult to see through combined with their playing and enjoying. The bride’s face was completely destroyed. She was extremely sad; she blamed the trailer driver for her misfortune and the death of her husband; it took a couple of months her recovery. 

Both families were worried for the girls’s attitude, she was mourning for several months and she was just eating enough for surviving. 

One morning she woke up early, she looked as if had been crying all night before. She went to her mother, kissed and told her that was going to look for her beloved husband; later she was wandering all over the road looking for the soul of the husband because she believed she could find him and get together for the rest of eternity. 

Some people say that they saw the bride wandering all over the road looking for him and that was the very last time that she was seen and nobody found her body or any trace to find her. 

Some years later some trailer drivers were driving along the way and they saw a ghostly woman walking on the side of the road. Nobody suspected that she may be the girl who was lost because of that accident or the lost of her husband. When they stopped next to the girl and went down from the trailer, they could see nobody around the place and were really very scared. They constantly talk about the events and the girl. 

One day, one driver from a bus was traveling along the road. He was checking out his rearview mirror and he saw a woman with a wedding gown sitting in the last seats of the bus. The driver was amazed because he had not seen any girl with that kind of outfit getting into the bus. 

When he turned his head to give a good look to the girl, there was nobody in the backseat. He checked his rearview mirror again and the girl appeared there in the backseat again. The bus driver started to sweat and a chill began to be felt on his back. 

He checked the rearview mirror again; the girl was standing in the middle of the bus in the hallway. He turned his head again and look at the hallway, there was nobody there. He was really very terrorized and he started to speed. 

Suddenly, he checked the back mirror again and the girl was there, she was looking directly at him. He screamed in terror and the eyes of the girl were looking directly at him. 

There was nothing else known about the bus driver. Some people talked about findings of buses, abandoned in lonely county roads and the drivers were found dead in the driver seat with a terror gimic on their faces. Highway police officers had patrolled the roads, looking for a serial killer who might be murdering bus drivers for fun or revenge; but the authorities either found nothing or suffered the same fate. Coroners investigated the bodies and they didn't find any trace of violence or aggression; the bodies seemed to die because of natural causes or because of plain total terror, any kind of substance was found on the bodies nor any sickness, physical or psychological. 

He was driving alone and he and the bus disappeared in the murky night. The driver was really very serious when he was telling me all this story and they say that many people had suffered  for these appearances but nobody had survive to tell the real story. 

I couldn't laugh because I supposed that the driver could feel embarrassed or angry for all the things that he was telling me were very real for him, but for me there were just stories from Crazy people.

It was about 3 o'clock in the morning when some cold breeze came from the back of the bus, everybody was sleeping but I could feel that chill running all over my spine. I didn't dare to turn my head and see along the bus. I heard the bus driver whistling nervously because maybe he could have felt the same breeze that I felt, 

Suddenly, he stopped the whistling and reduced the speed of the bus. I saw through the windshield and thick fog was covering the road. You cannot see anything in front of you just like a white cloud that didn't permit to see the lines all over the highway. 

For a moment I thought I saw something that looks like the silhouette of a woman wearing a white gown standing at the side of the road. The fog disappeared as quickly as it came. The lights of the bus permitted to see the way as if it were day light. 

Nobody at the bus was awake but the driver and me. The driver opened the side window and lighted a cigarette. I stood next to him in the steps of the entrance and he closed the door that divided the cabin and the cockpit. He offered me a cigarette with trembling hands and I accepted it in the same way. Neither he nor I said a word for a while. I was trying to explain myself what have happened and he was assimilating his experience. I asked him if he has had that sensation before. He explained that it was the first time that he had felt the Death so close to him. 

He had traveled the same way thousands of times before, but this time he was sure he could die any time. I let him breath deeply but I had the feeling that he burst out crying. I had received a bottle of mezcal as a gift from a supplier and I have it inside my backpack. I opened the door and returned to my seat, took the bottle out and drank a long sip directly from the rim as if I wanted to pass out to forget that terrifying experience. The liquid passed through my throat, burning everything up, but I continued drinking. I took almost a quarter of the bottle in just one sip; however, my mind was still awake. It didn't permit me to get drunk and assimilate what I had just lived. I sat and I tried to sleep, but the memories continued growing in my brain, making difficult even close the eyes. 

I was awake for long, I didn't notice when I fall asleep. I was almost 6 o’clock when the bus reached the terminal at Oaxaca City. I took a look at the driver and he curved his lips up as something, he believed, was a smile. He seemed to be older than the man I met the day before. 

Neither of us said a word. I got down the bus, followed by the rest of the passengers who were totally relaxed after a nice sleeping night. I think my face looked exactly the same as the driver, some people looked at me in compassion. I saw myself at a mirror in the men’s room at the terminal. Some gray hair appeared on the side of my head over my ears. 

That very moment, I bought a plane ticket for the time I had to return. I had always considered myself as a skeptic guy, but even now, I can not find a scientific explanation for what I lived. The only thing I am sure of is that I had been near something out of this world, something so creepy and terrifying that made me get older in a matter of hours, something so bad that I think I could touch evil. 

5 years have passed since then and still now, some nights I woke up in the middle of the night, sweating as if I did a lot of exercise and I can see in my mind, a pair of dead eyes looking at me, wanting to take me beyond this life.