Dark Bend

Chapter Two

She is answered with silence—no, not total silence, for there is still the uneasy whirring of the engine, but that means nothing.

“Hello…?”

Paula continues her slow approach.  She can see through the windshield inside the cabin now.  The space within is empty.

They’re gone.  Whoever was in there is gone.

So what are the possibilities?

Well, let’s start with the least disturbing scenario:  the driver ran off the road, got out of the vehicle, and decided to go off and seek help.

Maybe, but why leave the door open and the engine running?  Even if the car was immobilized, that doesn’t seem very commonsensical.  Then again, the driver might have been shaken up, not realized he or she was abandoning the car in an unsecured state.

Let’s get a little more disturbing now:  the driver fled.

That would explain the open door and the running engine, wouldn’t it?  Something frightened the driver, causing that individual to swerve off the asphalt onto the soft ground, get stuck; the terrified driver then exited the vehicle, ran.

Question:  if that’s the way it went down, was the thing that frightened the driver inside the vehicle or outside the vehicle? And, assuming it was inside before, what if it’s outside now and still in the vicinity?

That thought got Paula to stop.

Maybe you’d better turn around and go home, honey.  There’s nothing to see here but a car with nobody in it.  You don’t know what happened and maybe you’re not equipped to find out.  Go back to the house and call the police.  They’ll handle this.

But, surprising even herself, Paula resumed walking toward the Lexus.  She had to see.  She had to know.

In front of the vehicle, Paula notes that while the front tires have sunk somewhat into the earth, they do not appear stuck, and the back tires are still on solid ground.  This vehicle is not trapped.  What that tells Paula is, for the mystery motorist, staying within the Lexus was either unbearable or impossible.

She is coming around the driver’s side door now.  She draws a very deep breath, her deepest yet, and—well, there it is:  a vacant driver’s seat.

Paula bends down, peers inside.

Let’s see what we’ve got here…

She notes a pocketbook on the floor, in front of the passenger’s seat.  The pocketbook is lying open on its side, with some of the contents have tumbled out.  Leaning deeper into the cabin, Paula is able to take a quick, visual inventory of those contents:  lipstick, a small, elegant Cartier wallet, coinage…a baby blue pepper spray bottle.

Paula’s throat goes dry.

You reached for that pepper spray bottle, didn’t you, Miss Driver?  Your pocketbook was sitting in the passenger’s seat and the pepper spray was in the pocketbook and you went for it but you couldn’t get it and the whole thing just went tumbling over.

But there is more, and worse.  Studying the leather of the seats she notices a smattering of tiny dark spots, especially on the front seat.

Blood.

Paula is trembling now.

There’s blood in this car, still wet, little droplets everywhere.

And now she knows she should not be here; that she must get away, back to her house, telephone the police.  She does not want to learn anymore.

Go now!   Go!  Go!

As Paula backs out of the cabin she looks up, through the passenger side window.  The window is blacked out, but not, as she first assumes, by the waning night.  Rather, it is a living thing that peers back through the glass at her, a thing that wears a mask forged from darkness.

What—

Its eyes are like jewels of red fire.

—is—

Its lips draw back in something like a sneer, to reveal battalions of white teeth.

—it?

Paula opens her mouth to scream but no sound comes.