“Honey, we are lost.” Kathy says, lifting the sunglasses off of her nose.
“I know. We still have the electronic compass in the car though.” Riles replied, clocking the wheel back and forth a little. He has been doing it more for the past twenty minutes now.
There is a house that is nowhere near in sight. The farmsteads blew past them eight miles ago and there is nothing but woods all around them. The sign on the side of the road reads Newton Heights when Kathy wondered of ever hearing Newton Heights before. The tires on the car did their job, not knowing that the back passenger tire is leaking slowly. The car is pushing more to the side of the road when Kathy knew that there is something wrong.
“Let’s get to Newton Heights and get ourselves some distance from this stress.” She shook the leaf buds from her hair. Riles on the other hand cocked his head with both of his hands on the wheel.
“Yeah, that sounds about cherry.” Riles agreed with a smile forming on his lips.
They drove on in silence for more than five minutes before meeting the edge of Newton Heights. Before they got there, they see a glint of something in the distance. The cars on both sides of the road are set on the town limit entrance of Newton Heights. Kathy and Riles both can see Cadillacs, Toyotas, Chevys, and Fords on both sides of the road. The glass is all intact but there is something shimmering on the road. Kathy and Riles came up to it when he ground on the brakes.
“What in the hell is that?” Riles spoke for himself, parking the car and getting out. She followed suit and got out of the passenger side to see what is on the road as well.
What they saw are layers of glass. This glass is from houses when Riles didn’t feel okay about this, none at all. He remembered something like this when he saw about this on the news.
“It looks like a sound alarm. Something to detect that someone is here.” Riles looked around with his worried jumbles coming up over his throat.
“We are running out of gas. We have to get to civilization.” Kathy concluded the only option. Riles didn’t feel great about this, not at all.
Something about his mind though is playing with him. He felt his cheating desires come up to his mind with another thought that is making him feel weird. He didn’t feel guilty for cheating on Kathy. He did it but for the life of him he did not feel guilty. He sneezed when it sprayed all over the road in a splat of blood. He raised his hand and removed the blood off from his nostrils. Kathy didn’t see it. She was too occupied on her phone.
I haven’t had a nosebleed since I was a kid. That was when there is a buildup of mold in his parent’s house and he couldn’t breathe. Maybe there is something in the air. That’s it, something in the air and nothing else.
Riles walked back to the open door of his car and got in. Kathy followed with her mind wondering to something that is nibbling at her. They put the car into drive and drove over the layers of glass upon the road. They cracked under the weight of the car’s tires. Kathy felt like crying.
When they got into Newton Heights, they noticed that the street light intersection is out of commission. There is graffiti all over the walls of the buildings that holds no signs. Cars are parked all over the street of where Riles and Kathy is driving. Kathy felt something cross her mind when she turned to Riles with growing amazement that is mixed with bewilderment and disbelief.
“Something came to my mind and I believe it is just my imagination.” Kathy kept playing this thought in my mind. She played the scene in her mind when her eyes started to get wider.
“Did you cheat on me with May?” Kathy asked Riles when he didn’t flinch on the accusation.
How in the hell does she know? What – What? Riles became unsettled when he moved a little in the seat.
“Where did you get that from?” He replied with false hurt.
“Really, you bring this up right now?” Riles raised his voice in the cab of the car.
Kathy stared at him before grabbing the handle and opening the door beside her. The car is still crawling at a slow pace.
“Honey, what are you doing!?” Riles rammed on the brakes of the car and parked it. She walked across the road with her purse jiggling against her hip.
“Can you get back in the car, please? I don’t know where you are getting this crazy idea.” He says with a smile, feeling confident as he parked the vehicle in the middle of the street.
“Crazy…Crazy!?” Her teeth started to become unhinged. Then she started to laugh with her expression looking like a loon.
“I see what you have done. Somehow I know when I can somehow see in your mind! You did cheat on me!” She laughed with her hand coming to her forehead.
Riles got out of the car when he can see something in her mind as well. It is all the memories that she had since she was a little girl. What in the hell is going on in this town. There is no single person in sight and the windows on some of the places are all bashed in. What happened here?
“Come on. Let’s get you back in the car. I think you’re having an episode.” He came over to grab her on the arm.
“Don’t touch me!” She back away from him, tearing herself apart in her mind. She looked like a person trying to figure out a complex quadratic equation.
“You cheated on me, you bastard. Don’t ever touch me again!” She cackled when she turned and ran out of the side of the street.
Jesus, Riles rose his lips in a curl. What a freaking fruitcake.
Riles is left alone in the town where there is no one in sight. He didn’t follow her when he glared over the buildings, trying to find a library somewhere when he came to a building that is cropped between two other buildings. He walked to that, going up the stairs when he sees the sign that is posted on the window beside the locked door.
Don’t think. You will DIE!!!
“What kind of sick joke is that?” Riles spoke in the silence of Newton Heights. He tried the door but it is locked. He made a disgusting face when he turned to look around Newton Heights. The grass has grown considerably since the last rainfall. Riles didn’t know when it rained last. He lives in Butte Montana before they headed out two days ago. He noticed something that is within the grass when he pounded down the steps, going across the street to see what is in the overgrown weeds. When he looked at it is when he backed up a few steps.
“That’s a…It’s?” That was all that came out of his mouth when he turned to the many faces that are upon the street.
It is the faces of young and old, strong and weak; the faces of thousands looking at him in the perils of madness. Riles is scared to the core.
“Where did you all come from?” Riles shook his head in pure fright.
They all are standing there with their expressions blank. His wife came through the crowd with that same blank expression upon her face as well.
“We came from the dying light that is in the stars. We take over all that we sought now.” His wife says.
What the hell is happening? Riles started to retreat a couple of steps back. He kept his car keys in his hand.
“Honey, let’s talk about this.”
“I know what you are thinking right now. You will never leave.” She smiled that dark smile that can cut through the darkness.
“She is not here anymore. We are all one.” She spoke when the other repeat the second sentence in unison.
Riles backed up a few more steps now.
“Come on, honey. Let’s talk about this.” He staggered in the middle of the street a little.
“You’re scaring me.” Riles spoke like a lost child.
“We are one. We will murder again.” They all spoke in unison. Their faces are blank as they started to walk towards him when Riles started to break sweat.
He felt like running when after the fifth step, he turned tail and ran. They followed him with their feels clocking on the street.
“Stay away from me!” He stammered through his gritted teeth, running back to the car that is sitting in the middle of the street. He ran and jumped inside the car when many bodies dropped on the hood of the car, bending the metal down on the top of the engine.
“You’re a liar, Riles. You will pay what you owe.” They spoke in unison when he crammed the keys into the ignition of the car. He turned the engine and started it up, screeching the tires back when almost all of them dropped off from the car. The only one that is still on the hood is his former wife staring at him with that blank stare that is beautiful and insane at the same time.
“You will pay for what you owe, human.” She spoke like in a dinner setting through the windshield of the car.
The car bumped over the side of the street when she rattled off the hood of the car. The back of her head hit the sidewalk as her skull cracked, pouring blood out of the crack as she laid there. She did not move anymore.
Riles started to cry when he rammed the gears into drive and drove out of Newton Heights like a bat out of hell. He drove and drove, going over the glass at the edge of Newton Heights when he turned his head towards the rear windshield of the vehicle. He sighed when over the cries he started to laugh to the point that his sides are hurting.
“I’m done with her. I’m so done with her.” He mumbled a little when something came from the back of the car in a little voice that is coming from a girl that is hiding in the backseat.
He turned when it was too late.
“You will pay for what you owe.” The little girl smiled as she dug a cleaver blade into his throat as the blood splattered all over the inside windshield. The car’s back passenger tire finally ran to the rim when it slowly moved to the side of the road. The car traveled into the bushes as it made a hallow bang up against them.
The girl came out of the backseat of the car when she looked up and down the road. There is no presence to witness as she skipped back to Newton Heights with the others that are one. They are all thinking of the same thing now when the girl smiled. They are not stressed anymore as they silently made their way out of Newton Heights to infect the next town and the next town and the next town and th…
Short Stories
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This was an incredibly interesting piece, I was truly hooked from the start. At first, I was super confused on why Kathy was getting those thoughts but then it all made sense. I guess my only suggestion would be to slow the pacing a bit around that part of the story so it doesn’t feel like it is completely out of nowhere, maybe more of a slow progression if that makes sense. The ending left me spooked. I really enjoyed reading this!
Thank you, Nic. I’m working on my sentence structure more. It is coming out better than expected. Check out my “River of Red” piece if you are interested. It’s a part-by-part book.