Brake Lights

The rumbling of tires on the pitted dirt road had begun to lull him to sleep, and the slow, winding gash of the path through the closely knit trees rocked him gently from side to side. 

He approached a sharp jog to the right; he squinted through bleary eyes at what the meager headlights could illuminate in the lush blackness of the forest. He gauged his turn carefully. 

No sense in making it this far just to drive off the road, he thought sluggishly.  

He tapped the brake, and let his vision slide over the dashboard as his hands automatically pulled to the side. Motion in the rearview caught his eye, and he looked up slowly. 

Framed in the tiny mirror and stained red by the brake lights, a long, bestial, and impossible shape loped behind the car on all fours. 

He gasped and released the brake; darkness filled the mirror once more.