by W.J. May
One Dark and Stormy Night…
Heavy rain battered against the windshield. The massive drops ricocheted like bullets against the roof of the car, and the wipers were losing their battle to keep the front window clear. A gust swiped against the side of the car. Kallie’s vice grip on the steering wheel still could not stop the slight swerve the wind forced the car to do.
She had been driving already over a year, but just got her full license about two weeks ago. She knew how to drive, her Dad owned a trucking company and had let her drive tow-motors and skid steers since she turned ten. Good driver or not, no one should be driving in this sudden storm. Her too long bangs fell into her eyes and she tried futilely to blow them out. No way in hell was she taking a hand off the wheel to get them out of the way.
Her dad lay sleeping in the passenger seat beside her, oblivious to the storm. One of his dispatch had called in sick two days ago and then yesterday a driver had came down with the same stomach virus. He’d covered the dispatch’s desk and then opted to take the transport truck’s freight delivery of the sick guy himself. He had gone and done the twelve hour round trip drive with no rest, and then he still planned to be back in for work at seven.
When he got back to the office after parking the transport truck, he texted Kallie. She promised earlier to pick him up. It was Mom’s birthday today and he always made her breakfast in bed – his specialty, omelettes.
Kallie checked the time on the car’s digital clock, just after three thirty. When she had left about forty minutes ago, dark clouds covered the full moon and night sky but it had barely been raining. The storm blew in about the same time her dad had fallen asleep beside her. She suspected he had picked up the virus his workers had and she didn’t want to wake him.
Another strong gust of wind slapped the side of her little car. The Sunfire veered toward the curb and Kallie cringed as she drove through a massive puddle. The car hydroplaned and seemed unsure if it wanted to steer straight or spin. She let out the breath she had been holding when the wheels finally settled back on the asphalt.
She flipped the defrost on high to try and clear the glare from the windshield. It didn’t help fast enough so she squinted. The haze came from outside and trying to see more than ten feet in front of her seemed next to impossible. High beams were also useless. They just made the heavy rain look like shiny silver bullets and blocked any view through them.
Her dad snorted in his sleep and she glanced over at him. His head had fallen against the back of his seat and his mouth hung open slightly. She had no idea if he was wearing his seatbelt.
A strange scratch against the outside of the car made her jump. It brought her focus quickly back to the road. A twig must have blown and scraped the car.
Kallie strained to see if any tree branches or someone’s garbage cans may have blown onto the road. She huffed in frustration. They had to be close to their street now. Darn her folks for choosing to live just outside the city. Darn the city for not putting more lights on the long roads that led to her house.
She accelerated a tad when she noticed the red mailbox just up ahead. Their street was about two minutes up the road. Easy peasy. Almost home.
Less worried, she thought about her warm cozy bed and couldn’t wait to crawl under the covers and go back to sleep. Tomorrow was Saturday so no school. Maybe her mom wanted to go shopping.
Lost slightly in thought, Kallie didn’t see the figure crossing the street until it was almost too late. The dummy wore a dark hooded top and no reflector stuff. Kallie swerved hard to the right and felt her dad’s side of the car go up on the curb. Puddles sprayed the underside and made an eerie, hollow banging noise against the bottom of the car. The concrete sidewalk was slippery and the car started to hydroplane again.
Kallie bit back a scream when the car stalled out and she lost powered steering. Pressing the breaks she felt the car fishtail and almost as if in slow motion, she turned to see the bright eyes of the stranger watching her fiasco. In the glare of her lights, his eyes looked the weird red, like when you take a picture and the flash catches your retina. It was a strange thought at a terrifying moment like this.
Still skidding, she tried pumping the gas and turning the key to get the car started again.
The nightmare drive had no intention of ending. The car continued its spinning course. When the engine suddenly kicked back on, the Sunfire lurched forward and Kallie tried to swerve away from a parked car. The passenger front end clipped the parked car and as the wheel spun with a mind of its own, Kallie knew she’d lost complete control. They were going to flip. She tried to brace her hands against the ceiling and screamed.
Over and over she screamed; as they tipped, as her dad crashed against the windshield, as a horrible cracking sound filled the inside of the small car, as the car picked up momentum from the small grade hill. Her screams were muffled when the air bag burst free from the steering wheel. She had no idea how many times the car rolled over and over. It felt like it would never stop.
Abruptly, part of the front and side the car slammed into a large hundred-year old oak tree. Only then did her screaming stop.
Everything around her crashed into blackness.
Chapter 2