"Fast Cars"

“Fast Cars”

By Cody Williams

 

1.

Burt Dillon reached down into the console of his refurnished 1962 cherry red Ford Thunderbird and grabbed a brown bottle of beer. He took a sip of the beer and looked up at the traffic light in front of him that was on red. Burt looked up at the black, moon light sky and then to his left at first. There was nothing there. He looked to his right. There was nothing there either. Burt put the beer bottle back into the console and looked back up at the red traffic light.

            “This is bullshit! There’s nobody f*****g around! Just go! Nobody will ever have to know!” Burt thought to himself as he slowly reached down to the gearshift and switched it from natural back into first gear. Before he could let his foot off of the break, something caught his eye. A flash, if you will.

            Burt looked up into the rear view mirror that had a pair of lucky dice hanging on them at a pair of head lights that seemed to come out of nowhere. He reached up and cupped his eyes trying to block the night as he knew the other car had it’s high beam lights on. Burt reached up and flipped the anti-glare-tab of the mirror down as he saw the slowly approaching the lane beside of him.

            He rolled down his driver side window as the car came to a rest in the lane to his left. It was painted all in black except for a single silver stripe along the side. The windows of the car were tinted to the point that no driver could be seen. Above the passenger side door, there was a silver decal that read THE GRAY GHOST.

            Burt thought about it for a moment, but then let the thought leave his mind. He reached down and pressed the center of the steering wheel with force making the horn sound.

            “Hey! Hey you son of a b***h! You have your f*****g high beams on! Why don’t you be halfway considerate and turn the damn things off!” Burt shouted as he shook his fist outside the window. Nothing happened. “Hey! Do you f*****g hear me dumbass?” Burt shouted again. It was then that the front passenger side window was rolled down.

 

2.

The man sitting in the driver seat glared at him through a pair of reflective sunglasses. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt and a pair of black jeans at the best he could tell. The man’s black hair was combed back and looked quite greasy. There was a smirk on the man’s cleaned shaved face.

            Burt just sat there for a moment and stared. He could hear the man began to reave up the engine as if he was issuing some sort of challenge. He thought about it for a moment.

            ‘No! No! Don’t get involved in this! This is bad! There’s something really wrong here!’ He could hear his own nagging voice telling him in his head. The man nodded as if he was confirming the challenge. Burt didn’t answer, at least not at first.

            ‘No! No! No! There’s something really wrong here! Don’t do something this stupid!’ He heard the voice say again. The man reeved up the car again and motioned forward. Burt put the car back into natural and also reeved up the engine. The man smiled back as he knew his challenge had been accepted.

 

3.

Burt looked up as the light turned green. The man in the Gray Ghost smirked at him and the two put their cars into first gear and quickly put the throttle down racing off down the highway. Burt managed to stay with him. He looked over at the man who was glaring back at him with a wicked grin back at him. Burt could feel his heart beginning to beat faster. He tried to look away and just focus on the road in front of him, but he couldn’t help but look over at the man who must call his car The Gray Ghost.

            ‘Stop it! Stop it! Before it’s too late. Look away and slow down!’ The nagging voice in his head said again. Burt looked down at the speedometer. The orange red hand showed that he was going just over eighty miles per hour. The man in the Gray Ghost laughed and began to pull away. ‘There! He passed you! Now you can slow down! Stop!’ The voice said again. A strange look came over Burt’s face.

            “Not tonight!” He mumbled as he sat up in his seat and firmly grabbed the wheel with both hands and pressed down the throttle even more. Burt managed to pull back up beside the Gray Ghost.

            ‘Why? Why must you do this? Why?’ He heard the voice ask. To tell the truth, he didn’t know why. He didn’t know why he accepted the challenge. He didn’t know why he continued to force the issue. The only thing he really knew for sure was that he liked it. It was exciting. There was no denying that. But there was something more. He knew that too. There was something all so attractive about racing this car. Maybe it was the man driving it. Maybe it was the Gray Ghost itself. But he didn’t really want to stop.

            Burt looked over at the man driving the Gray Ghost again. Something was different. He was different. While his face was once cleanly shaved, now had a ridged five o’clock shadow.

            ‘See! I told you something wasn’t right about him! Turn back now while you still can!’ The voice said again.

            “No! I just didn’t notice it before. That’s all. There’s nothing wrong here!” He said to himself as the two continued to race.

 

4.

Burt continued to watch the man driving the Gray Ghost very carefully. The man grinded over to Burt and slowly began to turn the wheel to his right towards him. The Gray Ghost crossed the white dotted line separating the two lanes and ran into Burt’s car. Sparks flew as the two machines scraped against one another.

            “S**t!” Burt shouted as he turned the car to his left and tried to keep it off the guardrail. The Gray Ghost passed him and returned to the left lane. “Son of a b***h!” Burt mumbled as he regained control and began to speed up. Burt managed to once again get beside him.

            “What the hell is you doing you son of a b***h? Are you trying to f*****g kill me?” Burt shouted. The man in Gray Ghost grinned at him as he reached up and pulled off his sunglasses. Burt looked shocked for a moment. The man’s eyes were glowing a bright red color. “What the f**k?” Burt shouted as the Gray Ghost began to slow and Burt drove by him.

            Burt looked into his rearview mirror. There were no headlights behind him. It was as if the car tagged as the Gray Ghost turned off or simply disappeared into mid air. Burt breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t really know where the car went, but quite frankly he didn’t want to know. Burt lifted his foot off of the accelerator and the car began to slow down.

 

5.

Burt slowed the car back down to forty-five miles per hour and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

            “Thank God! We must have lost him!” He said to himself.

            ‘Did we?’ the voice asked.

            “What do you mean ‘did we?’ He’s gone isn’t he?” Burt argued back.

            ‘Think about it, how in the hell did he just disappear like that?’

            “He turned off! That has to be it!”

            ‘Don’t you think you would have noticed if the only other car on the road this hour was out?’

            “Shut up! He’s gone!” Burt fired back.

            ‘Is he?’ The voice asked as the pair of head lights reappeared in his rearview mirror.

            “What the…” Burt began as he felt something hit the back bumper of his car. He looked back up into the rearview mirror. He could see the man’s face, glowing eyes in all as he laughed. “S**t!” Burt shouted as he once again began to speed up. The man behind him continued ride his bumper as if he was glued there. Every so often, he could still feel the car behind him ram into his back bumper.

            “What the f**k are you doing man?” Burt shouted. Burt continued to accelerate more and more, but it did no good. “What the hell do you want from me?” Burt shouted. He could still see the man behind him with a wicked grin on his face. “Off the road! If I drive off the road, I doubt that he will follow me!” Burt said to himself.

            ‘You do? You don’t seriously think that he will continue on and forget about you do you? You are already too deep into this to get out now! It’s too late.’ The voice said.

            “Why would he continue chasing after me? I haven’t done anything to him!” Burt said. He gripped the steering wheel firmly and drove off of the road into the grass as he pass a sign that read NOW LEAVING LITTLE ROCK.

 

6.

Burt looked up into the rear view mirror to see if the man still followed. The man and the Gray Ghost were both gone.

            “Did he pass me? Did he keep going?” Burt asked himself.

            ‘No! No I don’t think so!’ The voice answered.

            “What do you mean no? If not, then where the hell is he?”

            ‘Where the hell was he when he disappeared earlier?’ Burt brought the car to a haul. He stuck his head out the window and looked around. There was nothing there. He got back in the car and breathed another sign of relief until he once again saw the head lights reappear this time to his left.

            “S**t! He’s going to hit me!” Burt shouted as he forcefully stomped on the pedal again and drove off and the Gray Ghost followed. “What the hell? Where the hell did he come from?” Burt asked. He looked back into the rearview and saw the man once again appear and riding his bumper.

            Burt continued to stare at the man in the car behind him. He wasn’t quite sure why, but he couldn’t help but look. It was almost as if he had been hypnotized. Burt managed to look away and through the front windshield.

            “S**t!” Burt shouted as he was quickly approaching a gas tank. He tuned the car to a sharp left and avoided the gas tank. Burt looked into his rearview mirror as he saw the Gray Ghost drive into the gas tank.

 

7.

Burt’s car screeched to a halt. He opened his driver side door and shoved the key into his right front pants pocket.

            “Damn!” Burt said as he looked on at the gas station where the Gray Ghost was parked. The car was covered in flames and man inside was nowhere to be seen. Burt smiled and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “That’s what you get you…” Burt started as the Gray Ghost began to slowly move.

            “What the f**k? How is that possible?” Burt asked. He could see the driver once again to through the windshield of the car. His eyes were still glowing red, but his flesh was almost completely melted away. There was an eyeball hanging down over his left cheek before it melted into a black liquid and ran down the cheek of his skull. “S**t!” Burt shouted as he ran back over to his car and tried to open the car door. The door was locked. “S**t!” He shouted again as he reached into his front pants pocket and started to dig around for the key. The car slowly began to make its way towards him when he finally pulled the key from his pocket.

            Burt’s hands were shaking terribly when he placed the key into the keyhole and turned it to the left. He heard a snap sound.

            “S**t!” Burt shouted again as looked at the broken key. He looked over at the quickly approaching car and began to run.

            ‘Don’t look back! Don’t look back! It will only slow you down!’ The voice said as Burt began to run down the street. But he couldn’t help but look back to see how close the car was getting to him. It couldn’t have been going no more than ten miles per hour, but that was still faster than he was running. Burt looked back at the car one final time as it ran him over. Burt’s lifeless body ignited in flames and laid there in the road as the skeleton man laughed.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams
Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS
A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

I hope you all like this one! It's one that I have been thinking about for quite some time now. Comments and reviews are welcome as always, and thanks for reading!

-CW

Reviews

[Dayran]

A man in a car moves with a certain limitation on his movements ... but a perceived presence of mind that is not identified with the physical body experiences a greater liberty with its options. In bringing the two together ... it calls for a special understanding of the way each works and to try to match the two in a complementary cooperation with each other ... otherwise its a race ... with oneself. Nice ...

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW