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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Voodoo_Clerk on 2025-01-30 19:51:12+00:00.

When I finally graduated high school, I knew exactly how I wanted to spend my gap year before selling my soul to a college for 4-6 years. I wanted to hit the road and see as much of America as possible. Get in my car and hit the interstate coast to coast. My parents were hesitant about allowing me to go at first, thinking I might go all “Into the Wild” on them, but I assured them, that after my grand adventure, I would return safely back to the east coast and begin my college studies. And so they agreed and loaned me about $5,000 in an emergency fund, in case I needed to pay for anything. Although I wasn’t planning on staying in any fancy hotels, I wanted this to be an experience just as much as a vacation, so I planned to live exclusively in my car the whole journey. 

Kissing my parents goodbye, and plugging California into my GPS, I hit the road with a suitcase full of clothes, a backpack full of books and snacks, and a mind ready to find itself out there on the road. Now I could bore you all with my stories of crossing the country, from the time in the Appalachians when I saw a bear and a raccoon fight over a sandwich. Or one time in Ohio when I could’ve sworn I saw Bigfoot. Or even the time while resting on the banks of the Mississippi where I watched two dudes battling a raft up the river Huckleberry Finn style. No, that's not why you’re here. You’re here to know about the mansion I stumbled upon.

 Now, I had left the East Coast right at the tail end of Summer, in August. I had hoped to get to the Rockies in time before it started snowing. But I also was taking my time and enjoying the trip, living my life as I wanted and even resting a few days at the same rest stop to take a break from driving. Unfortunately for me, Mother Nature had other ideas about when she wanted it to start snowing. I was driving through the Great Plains, marveling at the endless flat planes, when the first snow began to fall in mid-October. 

I decided to stop at a rest stop and wait the first storm out. Unfortunately for me, it was full of truckers thinking the same thing I had. I didn’t mind at all, after all, there isn’t a harder job than being a long-haul trucker, so I continued on the road, hopeful that I’d find a new rest area. I drove a few more miles, happy that I had decided to get a full tank of gas a few miles back. I made sure to turn the heater on and bundle up with the winter jacket I had been thankful that my mother had forced on me. 

It was smooth sailing until the snowstorm turned into a full-blown blizzard. My phone vibrated, alerting me to the terrible weather conditions. Now my car is old, a hand me down from my uncle, and her tires are not good in the best conditions. So you can imagine how badly she was handling in a blizzard. I was thankful that I was the only one stupid enough to try driving in the weather because my car began drifting in and out of the lanes of traffic. 

I pulled over to the side of the road finally, and laid back in my seat, thinking over my options. Looking at my phone I saw that there wasn’t another rest stop for at least 20 miles. Not terrible at all in normal weather. In a blizzard it was suicide. But if I stayed here on the side of the road, I ran the risk of my car getting snowed in and trapped. Not to mention a snow plow just showing up and burying my car in even more snow. So I was presented with two unfavorable options. Risk the weather and keep driving towards the rest stop, or wait for the storm to blow over on the side of the road. 

And I made the worst decision. Deciding to just drive slow and go for the rest stop, I started my car back up and returned to trying to drive in the increasingly difficult to navigate weather. I told myself that if it got too bad, I would just pull over and wait. I kept driving for about another half mile, barely going 10 mph in fear of my car spinning out and sending me into a ditch. Vision dropped to just barely past my high beams, and I was seriously starting to question my choice. 

As I made it about a mile and a half, something ran across the road. At the time I thought it might have been a deer. It sprinted across the road and I was barely able to catch it in my headlights. In a panic, I quickly turned to avoid it, and in the process sent my car into a hard spin. My poor traction sent me straight off into the road and my car ended up hanging off the edge of a bridge that was over a small stream. 

I woke up suddenly, with my face deep in my airbag. The impact had been enough to deploy them, and I was thankful that at least they worked and saved me from ending up more injured than I was, which amounted to a few aching ribs and some cuts on my face. I looked around the car and assessed my situation, and finally decided, I was fucked. My car was stuck in a shallow stream, judging by my lack of heater, the battery had been damaged and I was stuck in a blizzard. 

“God damn it,” I muttered to myself as I winced in pain and unbuckled myself from my chair. Already I could feel my body starting to shiver despite my body being clothed in several layers of warm clothing. I quickly grabbed my bag and started searching for something that could help. Then I quickly tossed it in the passenger seat when I realized it was the bag full of books, and grabbed the useful bag that my dad had given me. He always was one to be prepared for things like this to happen, and to my joy, I found a mini shovel and a road flare in the backpack. 

“You’re the best, Dad,” I said through chattering teeth. I reached over to the dash to get my phone, only to realize it wasn’t on its mount anymore. I looked around the car for it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I elected to find it later once I could assess the car’s damage. Opening the door with some difficulty I was immediately blasted with a gush of freezing cold air in the face. Escaping my car, I quickly lit one of the road flares and walked around my car to assess the damage. 

The front end was bent upward, and it was clear that even if I dug it out and got it off of the edge of the bridge, there was no way I was driving it anywhere. I tossed the flare to the floor and quickly returned to the car, cursing my bad luck and renewing the search for my phone. I finally discovered it underneath the passenger seat. To my relief, it still worked, albeit with a large crack on it, but unfortunately, I had no reception at all. I had downloaded the map earlier to be able to know where I was going in a no-reception area like here, but now I was in the middle of nowhere, trapped in a snowstorm and in desperate need of reception. 

I decided to try calling 911, but although I managed to get through, I couldn’t understand a word of what the operator was saying as they just sounded like a jumbled mess of sounds and words. Slamming my head back against my seat I began breathing on my hands, trying to keep them warm as I tried to think of a way out of this. If it really came down it it, I figured I could maybe use one of the road flares to build a campfire. Or, hope and pray that a snowplow saw my road flares and stopped to help me. 

I wrapped my arms around myself to keep my body as warm as I could. I closed my eyes and sat there shivering for a moment, it was like I could feel all my body heat beginning to leave my body. I must have fallen asleep there shivering when suddenly someone knocked on my window. I flinched awake, suddenly painfully aware of just how cold I was. My body shivered uncontrollably and taking a quick look up at my rearview mirror I was scared to see my face was bright red from the cold. 

I looked over at my window and noticed that a heavily jacketed figure was standing there at my door. I was so happy to see another human I nearly reached out and kissed them on the spot. Quickly opening the door, the howling wind quickly shut off any conversation we might have had. I didn’t know how long I had fallen asleep, but it had been enough for the entire area to suddenly transform into Antarctica. 

The jacketed figure motioned towards me and then pointed at a car that was also pulled over to the side of the road. They motioned for me to follow. I nodded at them and quickly gathered my two backpacks, following after them as the snow and wind continued to slap my freezing face over and over. They opened the passenger door for me, and I quickly entered and was immediately greeted with the heater on at full blast. I quickly shoved my completely numb fingers against the vents. They were even redder than my face was and I was thankful that this person had found me. 

They soon entered the driver seat and pulled down their hood, revealing themselves as an exhausted-looking woman. She looked to be in her 50s and looked more like a disappointed school teacher than a guardian angel. But I didn’t care at all, she had just saved my life. 

“T-thank you so m-much.” I told her through chattering teeth. “I-I a-almost hit a deer or something a-and I almost ended up in the stream.” I told her as I desperately tried to get more heat into my body. She nodded and looked me over, she seemed disappointed in something at first but she quickly pointed out into the storm. 

“You’re lucky to have crashed so close to my patient’s house.” I looked at her in confusion. As far as I knew I had been driving past an enormous nature preserve, at least according to my GPS. “I shall take you up to his house to warm you up. He shall decid...

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