The Short Cut

“Baby you ain’t seen nothing yet…bum bum”

“Can you slow down?” Jennifer asked me while looking irritated with my singing.

I turn the radio even louder then start serenading the lyrics to her, my foot pushing more pressure down on the gas pedal thrusting us to about 80 miles per hour.

“She looked at me with those ‘big ole’ eyes and said b-b-b-baby you ain’t seen nothing yet”.

Jennifer more annoyed now reaches over to turn off the radio then punches me in the gut, causing me to swerve almost losing control of the car.

“Jesus, do you have to be so violent”, I playfully tell her.

“And can you slow down, I don’t feel like dying tonight”, she scolds back.

I smile at her and take a long drag from the expiring cigarette that lays tightly gripped between my chapped lips. I throw the cigarette bud out the window and blow the smoke towards her side of the vehicle. She just stares at me with an unmovable gaze, seemingly as if she were contemplating the idea of killing me.

“Chill out babe”, I tell her.

“You frustrate the shit out of me, do you know that; and you’re singing the lyrics wrong”, she tells me.

I pause for a minute; I’m I singing it wrong? I take a few seconds re-singing the song in my head; my eyes bobbing up and down to the imaginary chorus.

“Whatever, I improved the song”, I say while I reach over and give her an innocent shove. Her stoic stare breaks and a slight smile forms on her beautiful face and she giggles. I always know how to break the ice with her, I can be annoying but at the same time it’s my charm. This is what happens when we have been driving for over 4 hours, the car becomes a little smaller with each passing minute and the oxygen grows thinner causing us to burst into arguments over the smallest of things.

“Seriously, can just slow down a bit”, she demands politely.

“Babe, we’re like the only car on the road right now, its 2 A.M. I doubt we’re going to see another car anytime soon”, I explain to her.

“You have to watch out for cops, we can’t afford to get pulled over remember”.

Jennifer was always smarter than me even when it comes to the most obvious of things, I’m a person that just reacts without much thought while she is definitely the brains in our relationship. After digesting her request for several seconds I comply and my foot begins to slightly ease off the accelerator. I turn to look at her to gain approval and she stares right through me with those relentless sexy eyes, I feel my heart skip a beat, me wanting to the pull the car over and take her; hear and now.

“I know what you’re thinking about ‘cowboy’, but get us to safety first”, she tells me while she sensually plays with her hair. I chuckle and just smile at her, now feeling more motivated than ever my eyes lock in on the road as if I were some race car driver and suddenly my hands are at 10 and 2. Now focused on the road everything around me seems to fade away, almost as if I were travelling through some science fiction worm hole and time starts to drift into the obscurity of my mind. Silence begins to grow between us filling the car with a void of emptiness and I can see out of my peripheral Jennifer is fidgeting in her seat; perhaps from discomfort or perhaps from the sudden removal of any noise other than the tires screeching from underneath us. I see her reach across to turn the radio back on; I nod my head in a bit of humor.

“What?”, Jennifer asks.

“You were the one that turned it off”, I tell her.

“It just got too weird, usually I can’t shut you up but this time you got all weird”, I let out a hefty laugh from her comment.

“Babe, calm down it was just for a few minutes”.

“The heck are you talking about, you haven’t said anything for over 30 minutes”, she tells me with a almost furious tone.

I pause for a moment and contemplate that very statement. I literally felt as if only a few minutes had passed, but 30 minutes; that leaves me with a revelation of concern and the perplexed expression that is left on my face makes Jennifer grow worried. Then we notice what is being said on the radio and our once concerned looks quickly morph into terrified ones and I turn up the volume.

‘…the couple has last been seen in a black 88’Monte Carlo driving south on the interstate. The suspects are potentially armed and dangerous…’

‘Click’

I aggressively turn off the radio and begin banging the steering wheel with a closed fist and scream out “Fuck!”

“What do we do? Shit”, Jennifer starts chanting out loud to herself.

“It’s okay, I got this; we just need to cross the state line and then we’ll figure something out”, I tell her trying to calm her down.

“You just heard the radio, they know where going south”, she yells at me as if I were the enemy.

Jennifer continues to yell as I drive, then I see it, up ahead, if I didn’t have the vision of a hawk I would of missed it; most would of; but lucky for us I have been blessed with the gift of impeccable eyesight. It’s a dirt path that leads into the forest it has to be what I think it is, it’s a ‘short cut’. I pull a sharp right turn going almost 60 miles per hour surprising Jennifer, seeing her literally flying into the air and off her seat, the car barely not turning over, my heart is pounding with ferocity and I turn to look at Jennifer and her face is stone cold.

“Y-y-you good?” trying to hold in my stutter; a problem I have when I get too excited.

“What the fuck!” she lets out.

“You heard the radio, we have to get off the main roads otherwise they’ll spot us. I’ve been driving these interstates since I was 13 and I know when to recognize a ‘short cut”, I convincingly tell her.

She just sits there confounded, I can imagine her adrenaline most be at all time high cause I can see her lips quivering, I reach out and grab her hand to try to get her to relax.

“Babe, trust me, this road will save us”, she turns to look at me still a bit shocked and nervously smiles while nodding her head in agreement.

The road is deserted and unstable as to be expected, the only light illuminating our path forward are the headlights, the moon being obstructed by the tree line. I push the car as fast as it can go on gravel road and dirt inundates the air engulfing us in a cloud of uncertainty.

“You have to be careful with animal crossings”, Jennifer says finally breaking her silence.

“Oh you animal activist now”, I reply back a facetious tone.

“No stupid! You hit a deer it’s like hitting a tree”, she smugly says.

Huh, I think to myself; like I said she is the brains of our relationship. I squint my eyes trying to see through the mist of dirt me trying to be more observant, making sure to avoid well anything, then Jennifer starts talking.

“I grew up in similar place like this, in the back roads of the country; the town that time forgot; isolated off from any major cities. By the age of 8 I was ready to leave and find something better, I knew I had to move to a bigger city; you’re probably thinking as if that’s an obvious statement to make, but I didn’t want to move for more adventures or better opportunities, I wanted to move to get away from ‘them’.”

My eyes veer off from the road and I turn my attention to Jennifer, her head positioned down facing her lap, her sitting there as if she was giving me her last confession. I shake my head in disappointment because one thing I love about her is I didn’t know anything about her, we kept our past’s a secret from each other and just enjoyed ourselves in the moment. Now here she is telling me about something that seems intimate; my eyes return its gaze back onto the road while my ears continue listening.

“My uncle owned a small farm, not much was there; a few chickens and some cows, plenty of dogs; those dogs. I would go over as much as I could because I loved being around the animals, the chickens would run away from me as I chased them and the dogs would practically tackle me to the floor licking away at my small face, me smiling ear to ear. One of the dogs was my favorite he always gave me the most attention, I felt a special bond with him — his name was Jumper. I would go as often as I could except for in the summers I was never allowed to visit during the summers. I would ask why I couldn't but I never got an answer as to why, but my uncle was a superstitious man, he said the summer time is when things would be different, when people would act different, he always knew this because people would lose time”.

My eyes widen with surprise and I feel perturbed at her last statement, I grip the steering wheel more tightly refusing to turn to look at her.

“One thing I did notice after every Summer my uncle always had new dogs; almost as if he were trading them in at some dog pound, even for my age I found it to be peculiar and I pleaded with my uncle not to get rid of Jumper. He told me that he would never get rid of him, that he took extra care of him just for me; it made me feel special. Then one summer, as usual my uncle felt the difference fluttering in the air, he knew it was time for me not to visit and told my father to keep me away as usual. This time though I didn’t get to tell Jumper bye and I knew how much he loved me, I knew how much he was going to miss me, so that same night I went to my uncles farm late around 2 A.M. For some reason the dogs were barking intensely and the chickens were clucking; it was a frenzy. I looked for Jumper and my uncle had him locked away in some small kettle, he was elated to see me; his tail started wagging and he started whimpering for me to let him out, so I did. He jumped on top of me and started licking me as he has always done, but then the barking, it got louder the dogs became more rabid and soon Jumper joined them. I called for him but he just ignored me, they were barking at the trees and slowly I walked closer to Jumper and then, then”, Jennifer pauses and places both of her hands over her face as if she were trying to hide from her own story.

“Then, ‘they’ came from the trees, it happened so quickly; I reached out to grab at Jumpers collar and then he was gone, it was almost as if he got hit by a car and his blood splattered all over me. I fell backwards with astonishment and looked up and saw all the dogs being taken; blood flying in the air, their barking transitioning into whimpers. ‘They’ took them all, the dogs; the chickens; I don’t know why ‘they’ didn’t take me. After the shock wore off I started screaming as loud as I could and that’s when my uncle came outside and found me, by this time ‘they’ were gone along with all the animals. My uncle looked at me and didn’t say a word, he just held me. I asked him what they were and he said he didn’t know, he just knew they only came out during summer and that the only warning sign was whenever people would lose time, he said whenever that would happen ‘they’ were close.”

I could hear Jennifer sniveling, I didn’t know what to think so I turned and looked at her and her eyes were already directed towards me and we just locked eyes with each other for what seemed to be hours me not looking at the road no longer and then I start to laugh.

“You’re telling me ‘aliens’ came down and snatched up the poor pooches?” I tell her laughing.

“You’re such a fucking asshole! No not aliens I don’t know what they were” she angrily replies back.

“C’mon it was probably some coyote or fuck a bear, obviously it was some kind of predator”, I tell her.

She crosses her arms in protest and I grab her leg shaking it trying to lighten the heavy mood that she had created.

“LOOK OUT!”, Jennifer screams.

I look up and see something running across the road and I slam on the brakes, the car screeching to a halt and me barely able to keep it from running off the road. Our bodies fly forward from the sudden stop and Jennifer hits her head on the dashboard then we pop back into our sits. My heart is racing and as the cloud of dust begins to clear I see it was just several deer crossing the road, I see them prancing back into the woods.

“Wow! Babe are you okay”, I ask Jennifer.

She nods yes while holding her head. I take several deep breaths to try to calm my nerves, I reach into my front shirt pocket and pull out another cigarette, I light it, it soothes me and with that my foot starts to step down on the gas pedal and then we hear it, a thud — coming from the trunk of the car.

“Somebody help me! Please let me go!” a girls voice penetrates through the air.

My eyes gradually lock in on Jennifer and she’s already leering at me, her eyes widen with astonishment.

“Babe…” I begin to speak but she cuts me off.

“What the hell!” she shouts at me.

“Help me!” the girls’ cries continue to travel through the abyss that is the woods.

“Babe, listen I…” she cuts me off again.

“I thought I told you to gag her, what if we were to be pulled over and the cops hear her screaming, my god!”

I feel my anger growing and I reach up to massage my eyes knowing I have to hear her disdain.

“Babe, I knocked her out with the chloroform, I didn’t think it was necessary to gag her”, I tell her.

“Oh really, then why the hell is she awake already?” she demands to know.

I pause because I simply don’t have a good answer for her, I didn’t use the chloroform; I literally knocked her out. She was getting too loud and as I said before I react, what else was I supposed to do; let her scream in the hotel so people could hear her while I look for some stupid bottle. My foot slams on the gas pedal and we propel forward dust once again surrounding us. I try to drown out the noise coming from the trunk but more so I try drowning out Jennifer yelling at me.

“I go out and look for a car for us to use and you stay back not to do your job, typical! So what the hell were you doing while I was gone?” Jennifer asks.

I continue looking straight ahead but through my peripheral I can see her just looking at me.

“Chill out”, I warn her.

“No, no, don’t tell me you, no, no, no, this is a simple transaction. We kidnap the girl and then we sell her, d-don’t tell me you…you…” she can’t bring herself to ask me what she already knows.

I finally turn towards her and smile.

“I’m telling you, chill out”.

“How could you, what is going through your head; are you some sick demented perv”, Jennifer screams at me.

My foot pushing down with tremendous force on the accelerator, I am irritated to full max, I don’t like people yelling at me never have. The car is pushing about 90 miles per hour somehow on this deserted road and I can’t see anything but brown mist, Jennifer continues yelling at me calling me all sorts of names and I feel my blood pressure begin to spike. My heart is pounding and I release the steering wheel closing my fist ready to shut Jennifer up and then…

‘BANG!’

My eyes slowly start to open and I touch my face to realize my nose has been broken; my face must of hit the steering wheel, I quickly realize we hit something. I look forward as the dust cloud begins to clear and I can vividly see the front end of the car has been pushed in, but the headlights seem to still be working. The car died due to the impact I attempt to turn the engine but nothing, it just whimpers with defeat. Finally I remember Jennifer and turn to her, she’s breathing but she has a horrid gash on her forehead with blood cascading down her once angelic face. I shake her to wake her up.

“Babe, babe, can you hear me?”

She cautiously comes through and looks a bit dazed.

“What happened?” she asks with befuddlement.

“I don’t know, I think we hit something”, I tell her.

We both look straight ahead into the darkness trying to see what had happened and then we see it; it lying on the floor lifeless.

“W-w-what is that?” Jennifer asks.

I squint my eyes and try to make the shape out, it’s unusual, it’s big and fur-less; it looks like it has; scales.

“I think it’s some kind of deer”, I tell her.

“Are you crazy, that’s not a deer, that’s a…” then she pauses.

“Of course it is, well whatever it is its dead”, I say.

I go to turn the engine again trying to get the car to start and I see Jennifer leaning over looking through the cracked windshield doing her best to figure out what it is.

‘Rummmmm’

The car finally roars to life and relief washes over me. I then force open my door to get out; it being a bit stuck due to the impact, most likely the frame got bent.

“Whoa where you going?”, Jennifer eagerly asks me grabbing at my shoulder to stop me.

“I gotta go move that thing off the road, plus I gotta check on the girl; she’s probably dead”, I laugh out loud at the prospect.

“Are you crazy don’t go out there, that’s not a dear”.

“Jenn I can’t drive around it, there’s not enough room I have to move it, just chill”, I tell her with a serious tone as blood continues to stream off my broken nose.

Jennifer forcefully pulls me back into the car and starts yelling at me once again. I can feel my anger growing inside me, my fists begin to curl up and I try to take a deep breath to relax.

“Jenn you need to chill, I’m warning you”, I tell her.

“Oh really!”, she screams out.

She begins punching me as hard as she can nonstop and I finally blow and pounce on her grabbing at her neck with both hands. I squeeze tightly with all my strength, her clawing at my face trying to stop me.

“I told you to chill out and you didn’t listened”, I tell her as her once relentless eyes have become drained of any hope and I can tell she has accepted her fate. Her attempts slowly die down and I can see her soul subtly drift away; a pale tint grows on her bloody face. I sit back into the driver’s seat and take deep breath and reach for another cigarette, I realize I must be out.

“Perfect”, I mummer to myself as I bang the steering with disappointment.

The car’s engine keeps chugging along with little life and I know I must get back to driving before it fails. I get out of the car and walk around to the passenger side, with effort I pry open the door and drag Jennifer's body out throwing into the ditch that sits on the side of the deserted road, I shake my head in disappointment, she was pretty; oh well I think to myself. I then walk back into the driver’s seat and prepare to drive forward but then remember the deer blocking my path.

“Shit”, I tell myself; by this point I have very little energy to move this thing off the road but I know I have no other choice.

I get out of the car and begin to approach the deer, as the closer I get it looks less like a deer and a bit of horror creeps into my mind.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s just some animal”, I tell myself trying to settle my nerves.

I finally stand over the creature and realize it’s massive; its features being obscured only it’s back revealing itself to me. I contemplate how the hell I’m going to get this ‘thing’ off the road and then I notice it, the subtle palpitations; it’s breathing, this thing is still alive. Suddenly the creature begins to come through and it starts to pick itself up, me staring on with bewilderment. It first gets to its knees shaking its head and then grunts. It then stands itself up onto its two legs and I see a tail flop down to the floor with a heavy thud; it towers over me it must be about ten feet tall and stare up at it with amazement. It’s a bipedal creature and its two arms reveal a set of hideous hands with long pointed fingers that bear razor sharp talons at the end of them. My body is frozen stiff from fright and my jaw drops open and I gulp. The creature then turns its head to look at me, and finally my body reacts but not in the way I would have preferred; my knees give out and I fall backwards onto the floor and all I can do is look up at that face. It has four eyes and several horns protruding from its head, it looks down at me as I stare in horror and it grins revealing it’s never ending layer of teeth. Somehow I gain control over my limbs again and rush to crawl away but it’s too late, it pounces on me and bites down.

‘Crunch!’

It devouring my entire rib cage, it happening so quickly I feel no pain, in fact I feel nothing, I think I have just accepted my fate and I can only assume I have the same look Jennifer had as I choked the life out of her. As the creature continues dining on my insides I look up and notice the trunk of my car is opening and I see the girl escaping out, she turns to look down at the horrifying scene, I can see the fear in her eyes and I then see her lips begin to quiver tears streaming down her face but then as our eyes meet; she smiles. I can’t keep my eyes open much longer, darkness engulfs my vision and the last thing I see is her running away.

Thanks for reading!