** Today is Letter T of the 2015 A to Z Blogging Challenge **
Freightliner: Evil sits behind the
wheel.
Excerpt:
Of
course that was why he had not come out to check on her, she thought with a surge
of relief. He probably thought it was an abandoned car. But now--she stepped
out onto the gravel, hearing for the first time how loud the crickets sang. She
smelled the strong scent of the cooling air. Too early for snow. Too warm,
still anyway, though she cursed herself for not thinking to put on jeans before
making her big exit. She peered at the cab, but nothing moved.
“Hello!”
she called, moving closer. She could not make out a logo on the truck. It was
dark, dark paint. She had an impression that the shape was--not wrong exactly,
but not usual. It was an older model, she decided. An old truck.
She
had reached the door.
“Anyone
there?” she called, hesitating to step up and look inside. What if something
had happened to the driver? What if he were dead? What if she opened the door
and a body spilled out onto the road?
But
that was silly. He had just pulled up. Probably he was rummaging around in his
berth for some tools.
But
what if he was dead? What if she took hold of the door and--and what if
he was right there, watching her?
She
had almost decided to go back to her own car. But the thought of the semi
parked behind her, silently cutting its chunk from the sky, was in some strange
way even more frightening than opening the door. She reached up for the handle
and pulled herself up level with the window.
The
handle turned in her hand.
It
was then she knew she had done the wrong thing. If only someone else had
come--she prayed for someone else. A cop. Even a car full of good old boys. Anyone.
The
crickets fairly screamed their shrill and mindless song, the scent of the
Russian knapweed was overpowering. But it wasn’t strong enough to hide another
smell, a dark earthy smell. A smell of death mellowed by long usage.
The
door opened.
Reba
froze, clutching the handle, balancing there with the driver’s seat in front of
her. She tried to speak, to call, but nothing would come out. She hung there,
thinking of death, while the night passed and the stars moved and the moon
looked in over her shoulder. Finally, she climbed into the truck.
“Daniel,”
she whimpered. She was ready to forgive the new pickup, but it was too late.
Something moved in the back and she turned in the driver’s seat and saw a pale
face, caught in the moonlight, eyes gleaming. She had an impression of lank
hair, grizzled beard. And then two hands reached up to take her shoulders and
she saw the mouth open.
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