Issue #82 : In Distress

The car was parked along the side of the highway. Jess leaned forward towards the wheel to get a better angle through her own windshield and unconsciously eased off of the gas pedal. Even by the light of the moon, she could see that the windows were so fogged up with condensation that it was impossible to see inside but how could there really be anyone in there. It was 2:30 in the morning and if someone was just hanging out in that car, chances were good that whatever was going on in there, she probably didn’t want to walk in on it.

As she passed, she caught a flash from the corner of her eye as the dome light inside the car came on. She craned her neck around to see, sure that she must have just caught a reflection off the moon. Her second look verified what she had seen though, as the light was indeed on. It wasn’t important. Just a car, nothing that she hadn’t seen before. Still, something tugged at the back of her mind, a need to make sure the person back there didn’t need help. How would she feel if the next day she turned on the news to find out that some guy had died from a heart attack there on the side of the road, watching cars pass him by until it was too late?

Jess took the next exit and turned onto the surface road which ran adjacent to the freeway. She drove to the next on ramp and re-entered the highway, driving slower as she watched the shoulder for the car. She saw it up ahead just before the bend and pulled up behind it on the shoulder. Somehow, in the openness of the area around her there still seemed to be an echo from the door chime of her car as she opened the door, the crunch of the gravel under her feet as she stepped out.

The car was some kind of generic sedan, reminding her of the cars her grandparents would drive them around in as children. The motor wasn’t running and there was no indication of movement inside. Save for the fogged windows, she saw no sign of life inside.

“Hello?” her call was quickly absorbed into the increasingly brittle wind and she received no answer. She stepped closer to the car, moving carefully towards the drivers door. It was as if invisible fingers were reaching out from the darkness and brushing against her neck. Her skin felt electric, as if her hands and feet were falling asleep.

“Hello?” she called out again, leaning in closer to the window and with one hand reaching out as if to rap a knuckle on the glass. It hovered there without actually carrying through with the intended action while still no response was received from within.

Jess reached out and placed a hand onto the door handle, fingers trembling against the cool, moist surface. Her breath was starting to come in ragged hitches, fully expecting something to jump out at her, to burn her hand for the offense of intruding where she shouldn’t have been.

She yanked her hand free at the sound of an air horn blasting behind her. A semi blew past her with a rush of air and sound that pushed her up against the car. She turned to glare, long enough to catch a glimpse in the darkness of a giant yellow smiley face on the backside of the rig. In the wake of the truck’s passing and in the newly found silence, she thought for a moment that she had heard someone moving around inside, an exhalation of breath followed by the car shifting slightly.

“Is anyone in there?”

Another sound, again almost too quick to hear but even that split second she had an image of them as children at a slumber party, shushing each other before the parents came in to shut down the fun.

Don’t open the door!

The voice was her own, spoken from the deepest bridge where the unconscious crossed over into conscious thought. She wanted to listen, to take heed, but it was the other part of her brain, the one that reminded her that it was more important to put others before yourself, that voice was the one that ultimately won out and made it impossible to move away from the car.

Don’t open the door!

Her hand made its way back down to the handle, was sliding on the moisture as it pulled up, hesitating at the resistance from the bolt inside the door, the scintilla of added applied force that would be needed to open the door.

Don’t…

The voice was pleading now, but also sounding resigned to whatever path she was determined to set herself onto. Another voice of responsibility was lecturing her now, on the importance of people’s privacy. You couldn’t just go around, letting yourself into whatever car you felt like.

She had to do this.

What if she was the one trapped inside the car, slowly bleeding to death, or worse? Maybe a broken leg, or having just had a stroke, the door just out of reach and unable to respond to the other person’s calls. If the situation were reversed, wouldn’t she be mentally admonishing the person for taking so long to just open the damned door?

This was stupid. Why did she pull over in the first place if it wasn’t to try and help this person? If she happened to interrupt some random person in the middle of sticking it to the nanny she would just have to live with that embarrassment. She had a momentary flush of possibility as it occurred to her to simply call the police and report it. But what would they say, really? What would happen if she filed a report on what ended up being a parked car?

Don’t open the door.

She grabbed the handle and lifted, pulling the door open and peeking inside. The door made a wet, popping sound, as if it had been stuck. From the inside, the car began to chime softly, indicating that the keys were still in the ignition. No one was sitting in either one of the front two seats, although she could have sworn that she had seen the mark of fading condensation on the leather seat, the way it looks after someone stands up after being seated for long periods of time.

“Hello?” she called out again but nobody answered. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw movement again and for the first time she heard a raspy sound of breathing, labored as if whoever it was back there was in a great deal of pain. Jess kept her hands braced against the roof of the car, ready to shove off and start sprinting towards her car if she had to, and stuck her head through the door. The backseat was also empty. She felt like smacking herself on the head for her idiocy. She didn’t understand why she allowed herself to get so worked up. Somebody had car trouble and had gone off for help, or had called a cab. Harmless. They must have just left the dome-light on by—

Something brushed past her from behind.

Jes screamed so loudly that she actually startled herself. There was no one there but she felt the distinct sensation of bodies brushing past her like in a crowded hallway. She had heard footsteps. Her panic spiked and in that moment, of needing to act, to be anywhere but here, she sat down in the driver’s seat, behind the wheel, and slammed the door behind her.

The inside of the car wasn’t merely quiet. What she felt was the complete absence of sound, a vacuum in which even just her breathing was amplified several times louder than it should have been. It was a cold feeling that she associated with funeral homes, places where you caught glimpses into things that you weren’t supposed to see in this life.

This was like being in the presence of death.

Still, footsteps sounded outside, circling the car at a slow, shambling pace, the car occasionally shifting as if someone was bumping into it as they passed. She had to repress the urge to slap her hand against the door lock, knowing somehow that it would do no good.

Her breathing was starting to echo in her head until she began to realize that it wasn’t just her own breaths that she was hearing. They could be heard beside her and from behind. She could feel the sobbing already catching in her throat, crying out at herself for not choosing to simply drive on, screaming at her to reach for the door release, to try and escape even though it was likely too late. She heard what sounded like metal scraping across a sharp edge.

Outside, a dark colored bird fluttered down out of the night sky and alighted on the roof of the parked car. It stood there for a moment, preening in the moonlight until a shrieking cry ripped out from the inside, startling it back into flight.

Inside the car, the dome light flipped off into darkness.



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