15 Greatest Stephen King Short Stories Of All Time
13. Riding The Bullet
King has said in the past that Riding the Bullet was written as a response to his own mother's passing, and it's clear from reading it that the novella was written by a man deep in grief.
The story follows Alan Parker, a directionless university student who one day gets a call that his mother has had a stroke and that he needs to come home to look after her. The problem is, Alan doesn't have a car, so he decides to hitchhike over one hundred miles to be with her. Meeting some bizarre people and visiting a graveyard on his trek, Alan is picked up by a dead man who offers Alan a choice about who dies: him, or his mother.
In his panic, Alan offers his mother, and spends the next several years in fear of the moment when his mother will actually leave him.
Despite having King's typical flare for spooky visuals, Riding the Bullet is a dark and touching exploration of loss and fear, which tugs on the heartstrings just as well as it attacks the fear bone.