V is for Village

It was late afternoon, and they were hopelessly lost, having apparently taken the wrong road when they reached an unexpected detour after exiting the highway, hoping for a short cut to avoid a traffic jam.

"If we had just stayed on the highway, we would have been through that little kerfuffle and been well on our way," the woman chided her husband. 

"But we never would have seen all this brush and this fine gravel road," the man responded. "When was the last time we saw a house, anyway?" he asked, glancing quickly at her before returning his eyes to the narrow, rough roadway.

"Oh, my, it's been nearly an hour or more," his wife answered, looking at her watch. "What a desolate place this is! No wonder there aren't any homes out here! Besides, where on earth would you go for groceries or gasoline? We haven't seen any such thing since we left the highway."

The sun was quickly getting lower and lower in the sky, and they were each, silently, concerned, but neither said a word, not wanting to worry the other.

"Once it gets dusky," the man said, "we should be able to see lights from a house somewhere out here, and we can head towards it and ask for directions."

"That's as good a plan as any," his wife replied, and she scanned the horizon for spots of light in the growing darkness. 

She must have dozed off for bit, because she awoke to the car slowing; she glanced over at her husband and saw him gripping the steering wheel tightly as he braked the car. Looking up, she saw they had entered a small village, no more than a dozen or structures visible against the night sky. 

"Is it abandoned?" the woman asked, but before her husband could answer, a single light came towards them, swinging slightly. As it got closer, they could see a cloaked figure carrying what appeared to be a lantern. Other figures followed, and they surrounded the car as the man brought it to a stop.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, but her husband reached over and squeezed her hand, hushing her, but as the figures loomed over their car, she opened her mouth once again in a silent scream as the doors were wrenched open and she felt herself being dragged out into the darkness.