A question about hitch-hiking ghosts.

[seanan_mcguire]

Almost everybody's heard the basic hitch-hiking ghost story—dude (usually) gives a girl a ride home, and later finds out that she was actually dead way before she got into the car—but there are some really fascinating regional variants. So here is my question for you:

How does the story go? Is she a victim, a predator, or just a confused kid trying to go home? Is seeing a hitcher like seeing the Bean Nighe—you're just doomed to die now? How does it go?

To be clear, I'm not asking you to make something up; I want to know how, in your part of the country or the world, the story goes. Or, if this is the first time you've encountered the idea (outside Disney's Haunted Mansion), I'd like to know that, too.

Curious cat is curious.

Comments

[solomons-pond.livejournal.com]

There's always Leslie Fish's "Ferryman" which is the inverse in a medieval setting. The ferryman takes a desperate girl across in a storm, but when she shows up in the morning she finds out he's been dead for several years... spooky and good.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

See, that one, I already knew. :)

[credendovides.livejournal.com]

What a shocker.