You pick the shortcut, wanting to end this and get back to safety as soon as possible. You tell Honza to floor it, and he obeys. The car tears down the road, but when you look back the skeletons are still hot on your tail. You pray silently to every god you can think of, hoping to make it out of this in one piece. Honza still has no idea what really has you spooked.
In about ten minutes, you have reached town. You almost cry in relief at the sight of familiar stores, houses, hotels, schools. There is no sign of the skeletons anywhere.
To be safe, you take up Honza’s offer to stay at his place tonight. You haven’t seen any skeletons, but you don’t mind the company, since you would be alone if you went to your house. It takes you a few hours to fall asleep, and when you do your dreams are plagued by rotting skeletons, but you wake up safe and sound on Honza’s couch. There are still no skeletons anywhere in sight.
You are still very cautious for the next few weeks. For the first few days, you completely abandon your nightly bike-rides, partially because you still haven’t gotten a tire and because you are still terrified. But eventually, you force yourself to go out again, but much earlier than before. You work your way back up to cycling at sunset, and it takes months before you do it.
As the months pass, the incident falls to the back of your mind. Months turn into years, and you haven’t thought about the skeletons in a long time. You never told a soul about it. You still go on your bike rides, but you haven’t seen anything unusual since that night.
And then one day, ten years later, on a nice night with a beautiful sunset, a skeleton rides past you.
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