The Stranger

"We drove up the snowy, winding road towards the cozy A-frame cabin."

I had made that drive a thousand times before. Ski trips, hiking, camping and parties but mostly just relaxing. Anytime I needed to get away and reflect, I found myself drawn there.

It was the only place I could think of to go, and tonight, it would be more than a refuge, it would serve as a hideout. Although I couldn't remember why, what or from who.

My best friend Tommy was driving that night, so I piled my 6.5, 250# frame into shotgun position, throwing my backpack into the back seat of his Porche. We had been out on the town, doing what single guys do, when we noticed her saunter into the bar. She was followed by an entire entourage, girlfriends', cameramen and what seemed to be bodyguards. We must have been easy marks as she scoured the room and decided to choose our table to occupy.

Without exchanging names, she added us to the list of people on her tab, and we proceeded to get completely wasted. As we were showing off our dance moves with a few of the girls from the group, a large man approached the table. We couldn't hear what was being said, but the body language was enough to indicate things were getting heated between she and the stranger. As her bodyguards approached him, he raised his hands and backed away from the table. As he exited the back of the bar, she was escorted quickly out of the front.

It was like a balloon being deflated. The entire bar completely emptied, and everyone was gone.

Everyone but the stranger. He approached us with the smile of a 100 sleezy salesmen. "Hey guys, do you happen to know where Steph and her crew were going, seems like they left without saying goodbye," he said sarcastically. "That's so rude, and I really HATE rude." he growled, pursing his lips - as the smile slipped away from his mouth.

Tommy, being too impaired to use his better judgment, smirked and said, "yeah, maybe that should have been your first clue, Einstein." Not a great comeback, but just snarky enough to stir the ugly in him.

"Keep up the jokes, funny guy, we'll wait and see who has the last laugh," he said, as he shoved the table into Tommy, knocking him into the wall. "I'll give credit to Steph, though,” he teased," she sure knows how to pick the perfect patsy." He laughed as he walked away, throwing a faded hundo on the table.

Tommy ran his knuckles up under his nose wiping away his embarrassment. Shrugging the insult off, he laughed aloud and taunted, "I'll take that money," grabbing the bill off the table and cramming it into his pocket.

Sensing that the proverbial and literal party was over, we headed for the car. As Tommy eased into his seat, a shadow emerged from the alley, completely consuming the car.

I awoke in the backseat of Tommy's car. He was talking to himself, mumbling, shaking his head and drooling. He was making no sense at all, rambling about the hundo being laced, and how he had no control over what happened next. We need to get lost for a while, Tommy kept saying over and over, his voice becoming more paranoid and scared, you have to help me, he insisted. He pleaded with me to help.

I didn't know what to do, or what had happened, when I blurted, "the cabin, let's go to the cabin, no-one will look for us there!"

He was driving entirely too fast, swerving uncontrollably on the ice and snow-covered roads. When I realized that we were both completely covered in blood, and for the life of me, I could not remember what happened. I began blasting the radio, masking the hundreds of voices now flooding into my head, including Tommy's.

“What had we done?” I mumbled - covering my eyes trying to escape the random flashbacks of the evening's events.

It was then that Tommy let out a blood curdling scream, swerving hard to miss something standing in the road. The next thing I remember, we were careening through a grove of pine trees, each branch taking turns pummeling the car with its frozen needles.

I looked up in time to see we were quickly approaching the edge of the mountain road.

Inches from plummeting over the steep cliffs into the raging river below, the car crashed to a stop, mangled onto a large bolder. We sat perfectly still, barely breathing, music blasting almost perfectly to the racing of our hearts. The powder from the air bags wafting in the air, in slow motion.

Tommy turned to look at me, glancing up into the rear-view mirror he said, “we aren’t alone.”

His face contorted with fear as a familiar voice drowned out the music, blaring through the speakers.

“Now that I have your full attention, would you like to know the details about the body in your trunk?”