It was late, I'm not really sure of the time. I had been driving for hours and had started seeing the lopers. I've called them that for years. I've done a lot of cross country driving, so I know when I'm tired I start seeing them.
They are dark shadowy shapes, black in color, that look almost human, but with elongated features. They lope beside the roadways at night.
Every once in awhile, they sort of dart in front of your vehicle, almost as if to say, wake up. This happens when you are becoming transfixed by the passing lines in the road. They are creepy, scary, and real.
On this particular night, I pulled over when one darted in front of me. I sat there, breathing hard, chills running down every inch of my body. Usually I keep driving, but on this particular night I pulled off to the side of the road. I needed fresh air to wake me up. I still had several hours to go.
As I got out of my car, I could see a light through the trees. Not entirely sure why, but I followed it. I came to a cabin and there was a candle burning in the window. I stood there, in the shadows, silently observing. Not seeing anything, I crept closer. The window was old glass, with discoloration from years of candles, and weather. It was difficult to see in. As I peered into the window, I could see the outlines of the loppers. I stopped breathing. I had goosebumps on my arms, and I felt frozen in place.
I regained my senses and slowly backed away. Heading back towards my car I could feel them getting closer to me. Feeling like I was moving in slow motion, I hurried to my car, fumbling to get the doors locked, and the car started. I drove away almost in a panic, wide awake now.
These loppers would be on mountain passes and long stretches of winding roads. Always in lonely desolate places, made lonelier at night. Driving alone, made the nights a place of nightmares, every horror movie watched came alive in my imagination.
I headed down the pass to a café at the bottom for some early morning coffee. As I sat at the counter, and ordered, a lone trucker looked over at me. He said, "You see them". A statement, not a question. I knew he was talking about the shadows I called loppers. He then said, "they are the souls of the people who die on the roads, and they gather when they know someone is going to die". "They stay in abandoned cabins, and wait for the people who wreck". I was frozen again. People I had met over the years had talked about the shadows, but none of them had ever given me a feeling of foreboding like this lone man.
I gave a nervous chuckle and looked away. He stood up then and started to approach me. As he slide past me, he whispered, "don't let them touch you". He walked out, and I sat and finished my coffee. The old trucker was creepy and I wondered how he knew that I saw these things I called the loppers.
I woke up with a jolt to see I had run off the road. I groggily took inventory, and found I was in one piece. My car not so much, but drivable. As I pulled onto the road, I glanced back and I could see the glimmer of a candle burning through the trees, and the shadowy figures lopping off into the woods.
I realized then, the loppers are real. I've talked to people over the years since my encounter in the woods, people who do long distance driving. They've all seen them, at night, usually after midnight, and always on mountain roads, and long lonely stretches.
