The Lament of the Vanishing Tollman

The moon hung low in the sky, casting a pale, ominous glow over the Gao Beidian Highway. It was a stretch notorious for its desolation and the tales whispered by the locals about the spirits that haunted its winding paths. The night was especially dark as a group of weary travelers, having driven for hours through the relentless rain, approached the last tollbooth before the city limits.

The tollman, an elderly man with a weathered face and eyes that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand secrets, stood at his post. His voice was a deep, comforting rumble, but it seemed to echo through the rain-soaked night, unsettling to the travelers who had already been jaded by the eerie silence that followed each toll payment.

The driver, a man named Zhang, pulled his car to a stop. "Last one," he muttered to himself, reaching out to pay the toll. The tollman, his eyes reflecting the dim light of the dashboard, handed back the coin without a word.

"Thanks," Zhang said, his voice tinged with fatigue. "Hope we won't have to drive too far after this."

The tollman nodded, but there was a strange hesitation in his gaze. He turned back to his toll book, and as Zhang drove off, he watched the car disappear into the distance with a peculiar intensity.

Hours later, Zhang's car was the only one left on the highway. The rain had stopped, but the air was still heavy with the scent of damp earth and the lingering chill of the night. Zhang's passengers, a group of friends who had been traveling together for years, felt a growing unease. They had all heard the stories, but none had expected the truth to be so close to home.

The road ahead was a blur of headlights and shadows, and the car's engine was the only sound that broke the silence. Suddenly, the car's headlights flickered, and Zhang, gripping the wheel tightly, felt a sudden jolt. The car veered off the road, sliding into a ditch. The tires screeched, but they could not stop the car from careening into the darkness.

When the car finally came to a stop, the passengers were disoriented. Zhang's heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to open the door. His fingers fumbled with the lock, and when it finally clicked, he stumbled out into the rain-soaked night.

"Where are we?" a passenger asked, her voice trembling. "We shouldn't be so far off the road."

There was no answer. The only sound was the distant howl of a wolf, a sound that sent a shiver down Zhang's spine. He looked around, trying to make sense of the darkness. The car was on its side, the engine sputtering to a stop. They had no phone, no flashlight, nothing but the rain and the fear that had settled in their hearts.

They decided to walk, the rain now pouring down in sheets. The darkness seemed to close in around them, and the cold air cut through their clothes. They were lost, and worse, they felt as though they were being watched.

Then, as they turned a corner, they saw it. The tollman, standing in the middle of the road, his eyes wide with terror. His mouth was open, as if he were trying to scream, but no sound came out. His body was twisted in a way that suggested he had been caught in some invisible force.

Zhang and his friends rushed forward, but it was too late. The tollman was already gone, leaving behind only the rain and the eerie silence of the night. They searched the area, but there was no sign of him. The only thing that remained was the tollman's toll book, open to a page with the name "Zhang" written in ink.

The next morning, the news spread like wildfire. The tollman had been found, but he was no longer the man they had known. His eyes were gone, replaced by two hollow sockets, and his skin was leathery, as if he had aged by decades in a single night.

The passengers of Zhang's car never spoke of their encounter again. They all vanished, their stories merging into the endless legends of the Haunted Highway of Gao Beidian. Some said they had been taken by the tollman, others that they had simply vanished into the night. What was certain was that the tollman's disappearance was no ordinary one, and the secrets he carried with him into the afterlife were as elusive as the spirits that haunted the highway.

In the end, the only thing that remained was the toll book, open to the page with Zhang's name, and the chilling realization that sometimes, the most terrifying monsters are those that walk among us, unseen and unspoken.