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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/bohemiancouchpotato on 2024-09-25 01:55:30+00:00.
Anyone who has even spent time in a small town knows how rumors fly. Everywhere you go you will hear gossip about affairs, who was kicked out of town, how the manager of the local diner got fired, and so on.
Sure, my town might have those things, but the rumors don't stop there.
Anomalies, missing people, cryptids, you name it. Around almost every corner you'll find something you wish you hadn't.
For a bit more context, I live in a small town of about 2000 people in eastern Colorado. For privacy reasons, that is all the information I will give you about my location. I was born and raised here. After graduating high school, I just never left and had no intention of leaving.
For the most part, these rumors are just that. Rumors. Urban legends, folklore, whatever word you find fitting. At least that's what I believed until just a few years ago when I started to get curious about some of the rumors. When I was young I would just stumble upon them. As I got older I would seek them out. To uncover the oddities of this town I am so fond of.
I am here to tell you all about my small town and all its wonderful and terrifying anomalies one at a time. Starting with old man Marly’s abandoned car.
It was the summer of 2017. My friends and I were bored and wandering around private property.
“Hey wait. Isn't this old man Marly’s land?” Linda said to me with a burst of energy.
“Yeah, I think it is. Why does it matter?” I respond back to her in an uninterested tone.
“Callie, you don't remember the old rumor about him? You're kidding right?” Linda remarked with a snicker.
“You honestly expected me to remember every little rumor this damn town has?” Just as I finished my sentence Ally jumped in.
“Oh, come on, you have to remember! Kids have been talking about old-man-Marly since middle school.” I shook my head as she tried to jog my memory. “You know, the old car in the field that people never came out of or whatever.”
“Hmm, yeah, I think I remember something like that,” I responded back halfheartedly.
“Come on, let's go try and find it!” Ally said with excitement.
“I promise you it's not as fun as you think it is,” Linda said with a chuckle.
“Wait, you've been in it?” I said with my interest rising.
“No, I've actually never seen anyone sit in it. I just looked at it from afar and felt creeped out and left.” We all stood still in our places. Our curiosity slowly grew inside of us. “I think I can remember where it was. It's been a few years but let's look.”
We walked around the 100-acre property casualty for the next hour when we finally found it.
It was nearly impossible to make out the make or model of the car. It looked like it was once a light blue but was covered in years of rust and decay. Weathered by the hot summer sun and harsh winters. I'm not really a car expert, but it looked like a car from the 1950s. It was slightly sunken into the earth. Like it had begun to accept its fate as part of the land. It was about a mile away from a road so it really didn't make a lot of sense for it to be out there. However, It wouldn't be the first time I saw a random old car just decaying in some dirt.
As we got closer to the car we felt uneasy. The car had a few trees and bushes surrounding it that would just slightly scratch at the paint making a hideous screech as the wind blew.
We were a couple feet away and started to shyly giggle. All of us were unsure as to why we were so nervous.
Linda learned to open the door. It took some muscle, but she got it open.
The windows were either tinted or became black some other way because we couldn't see inside. Our jaws hit the floor when we looked inside. We were blown away by a beautiful 1950’s interior. What was surprising is that it looked brand new. At least I would imagine it would look brand new. The seats were cherry red and leather. I could smell the new car smell from feet away. Fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and strangest of all, the radio was softly playing an old song that none of us recognized.
I had goosebumps all over my body. We all heard some rumors about the car, but none of us remembered ever hearing about the inside being perfectly preserved.
Linda leaned forward and found keys in the ignition. She took a deep breath and sat down. Ally and I both gasped as she hit the car seat.
We all froze. Feeling like idiots trying not to move as the wind whistled by us.
“See guys, I told you it was silly,” Linda said as she started to fidget with stuff inside the car.
Ally and I made our way around the car looking at it at every angle. Something still felt so wrong about all of it.
“Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but I am still here. As you can see, I am still in the car even though-” She shut the car door before she finished her sentence.
Ally and I stood by the car waiting for an uncomfortable amount of time for her to open the door back up. We figured she was trying to be funny or trying to scare us and we didn't want to get in the way of her joke.
After what must've been 90 seconds I walked up to the door. I flung the car door open expecting her to yell ‘gotcha’ at me or something dumb, but to my shock. She wasn't in the car. Not only that, but the interior of the car now looked old like the outside of the car. The radio was off, and the keys were gone.
The two of us spent the next hour freaking out trying to find her. We tried to find her on our own because we didn't want to get in trouble for being on private property but after finding no signs of her we asked for help.
That was the last time I ever saw Linda.
The years passed by and it was as if nobody cared she went missing. I couldn't even find records of her disappearance online.
A couple years later, I was wandering around old man Marly’s field. I saw the car and was brave enough to open the car door and I was amazed to see the beautiful new interior that was in the car before Linda went missing. The old-timey song that echoed on the radio sent shivers down my spine. It brought me back to the last time I saw Linda.
I pulled myself out of my fuzzy memories and walked back into town. I was planning on just going home but stopped by the local diner.
I got inside just as it started to rain. It felt like the weather was trying to match how I was feeling. I sat down at the high-top bar with the bar stool squeaking in the process.
Mrs. Patty saw me from the kitchen and got a puzzled look on her face. I won't go into too much detail about Mrs. Patty, but she has been in this town longer than most people I know. She has definitely seen some things, but that's another story for another time.
“Why so gloomy baby?” she said with a smile and a twang.
“It's nothing. I just have a lot going through my head.” I could tell as soon as I looked up at her that she didn't believe my lie. She was a stubborn woman and I knew I wasn't going to win this game. “Okay, okay, you win. Have you ever heard anything about that old car in Mr. Marly’s field?” Before I could even get the sentence out her eyes widened. It was clear I jogged her memory.
“Oh wow, it's been years since I thought about that car. Yes, when I was young we used to dare each other to go sit in it. It started out with people just saying it was haunted because of the music that would play on the radio. Then one day my friend Robecka shut the door. Me and a few other kids watched from a little ways away but got confused when the door didn't open. I walked up to open it up and she was gone. We searched for her for a while then gave up and went home. We told our parents and that was that. A week later, my friends and I all went back. My friend Sal did the same as Robecka. He sat down and shut the door. I think you can guess where the story goes from there. I never saw Robecka or Sal again. They just disappeared. Into thin air. Yet another one of the big misstories of this town.” she murmured as she whipped down the bar counter.
“Wait, your friends are the ones that started the urban legend?”
“Yes, unfortunately. They didn't get justice. It seemed like everyone else just forgot about them.” She paused and then looked at me. I could tell she had the realization that I had been to the old car. “Oh no. Don't tell me you-” I interrupted her.
“Yes, You remember my friend Linda? She got in the car and never came out.”
“Oh, that poor sweet girl. I'm so sorry, Callie.” She said to me in a loving tone while I tried not to lose it. “You know, something that always stood out to me about that car was the keys in the ignition.” As she finished her sentence I perked up.
“What…what about the keys?” I replied.
“Well, I'm sure as you know when you open up the car, the inside looks as good as new. It looks as if it's been sent back from the 1950’s but as soon as someone gets in and shuts the door, the next time the door is opened the interior is old and matching what the rest of the car looks like. But do you know what's missing when you open that door back up?”
“The keys!”
“Exactly. I don't know if that means anything, but where do those keys go? I don't know. It's probably nothing, but I'm too old now to do anything about it.”
“No, I think you are on to something!” I blurted out and I jumped off my chair and ran back into the rain.
I ran back to the old car. As I sprinted through the trees and jumped into puddles, I started to think how stupid the idea was.
I final...
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