She turned on the radio and cranked up the volume, and started the long drive home. You ninny, she thought, you got fired today and you're letting crazy thoughts get the best of you. What the hell am I going to do? I needed that job, she thought. But another thought, an old phrase her mom used to use, kept poking at the edge of her consciousness. Whistling in the graveyard, whistling in the graveyard...
Annalene took a deep breath and clutched the steering wheel a bit harder, forcing the saying from her mind. She shot a glance in the rearview mirror and then tried to tell herself that it was just to check traffic behind her. Nothing to do with the pounding of her heartbeat. When she flicked her glance forward again she screamed and threw the wheel over hard to avoid...
...a hideously deformed figure hunched over in the middle of her lane. Her car's tires roared in protest as the dark figure passed her widow. He reached out and caressed the the side of her car as it passed, the nails screeching like on a chalkboard. Her car whipped around, facing the direction she had just come as it ended its slide. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked where the figure was standing but he...
appeared to be sitting at the same time, it may have been his legs where far to short for a man, or his upper body too long for a midget. either way the lopsided yellow toothed grin of the hunched back of Jersey road took a single step closer. he raised his hand to show the cars paint under his thick claw like nails then with a melodramatic style he....
hehehe ...crawled towards the damaged civic with malice in his beady yellow eyes. what the hell is this? she thought to herself as the beastly creature neared. It's hand slammed against the window, which cracked under the force. Suddenly a blast rang out, and the beast fell to the pavement, dead. Behind the monster stood Ken, a sawed-off shotgun in his hands and Skillet in his shirt pocket.
Annalene took in sharp breaths. Trying to steady herself, she looked around and saw Ken's tall figure approaching the hideous creature that lay motionless on the ground. Annalene drew down the window and he peered in with a dashing grin, 'Hi.' That was punctuated by a lazy 'Meow' from Skillet, as well as a groan from the creature beneath him. Ken kicked it and said...
"bugger! i missed, was aiming for the bloody squirrel, TEACH YOU TO BUGGER MY CAR ELECTRICS!" there was a rustle in the bushes as reply from the squirrel. He sent another round into the bush and although there was not a great deal of bush left...it did not rustle. satisfied, ken bent over the bleeding groaning hunchback of Jersey street, the shotgun bloodied up his left hip, which was incredibly low to the ground, but did not appear fatal. "god damn, your one ugly....
Annalene closed the window before she could hear more. She turned on the ignition angrily. So much for a hero he is! she thought. He quickly opened the passenger's door and leapt in. Her jaw dropped, "What do you think you're doing?" "I need a lift to..."
get the ugly into the car, we cant just leave him there! you inconsiderate woman." shock, disbelief and wonder at the total personality shift of the good looking man with the cute kitty. ken did not stay long to look at her look of many looks, but went to retrieve the soon to be corps making a mess of the newly painted road lines. he proceeded to lay the man on the back seat, then looked at her and said (oh this is lots of fun!)
...then looked at her and said, "You would have thought that we could have tried to roll the car upright by now." Annalene felt a little stupid but how was she supposed to roll a Civic back over onto its wheels? "Feel free, Ken," there was a miaow, "And Skillet," she added.
Annalene tried to feel relieved that the beast was dead. But the more she thought about it, it didn't match the reflection she had seen in the glass earlier. What the hell is happening to me? Ken heaved and strained, but the Civic stubbornly continued to imitate a toppled turtle. She started to pull out her phone to call AAA, then remembered that the battery was dead.
"Unless you have a phone," she said to Ken, "it looks like we're walking." She wondered what the police would make of finding a toppled civic with a dead...whatever-it-was inside. Of course, the car was registered to her so some awkward questions were bound to come.
Nevertheless, she decided to hit the road along with Ken and his fellow kitten, it had been a corky day after all, why stop now? "So..." he said, after a long stroll along the road, "What was your name again?" Annalene looked up at him with astonishment, and furthermore, she herself forgot the name she gave him earlier.
To tell the truth or to lie like a rug? At the rate things were going he would find out her real name soon enough anyway. "Annalene," she replied, scuffing at a bit of gravel with her shoe, "and I was fired today. What was that thing back there? You didn't seem surprised by it."
"Annalene," he echoed, ignoring her question, "That rhymes with Maybelin," he winked at her, as she stared stupidly. So he remembered? "I'm still Ken," he chuckled at his own joke, "Kennith Bradford." He reached out his hand. She smiled. Kennith was better, she thought, forgetting about the thing in her car. "I'm Annalene Rogers." Okay, why did she have to lie about her last name?
He flashed a set of perfectly even teeth as their hands touched. Eventually he would probably find out what her real last name was. She was stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with him. So why didn't she trust Ken? "Nice to meet you...again." She said, trying to cover for the weird feeling of unease.
Silence fell between them. The only sound that was heard was that of the low grumble of traffic on the road beyond as they approached civilisation. Annalene looked up at him, curiosity tingling her inside. "How come you don't have a cellphone?" she nudged the kitten's nose, fighting the urge to touch him instead. He shrugged and said, "....
He shrugged and said, "I think I misplaced it somewhere." How convenient, Annalene thought bitterly. They walked towards a building, Annalene wondering if Ken had been here before; he seemed to know where he was going. "Do you know where we are?" Annalene asked, suppressing the suspicion in her appearance.
"Annalene, you ask a lot of questions," he smiled down at her. Her face flushed and she looked away. Ken grinned and a dimple appeared, "Do you know guys don't like questions?" Annalene looked at him meaningfully, "I'm assuming you're one of them?" "You asked again." he wagged his finger. Looking up at the building, he said, "This is where I live. Wanna come up?" Annalene stiffened. "Complete Stranger" suddenly signalled inside her head.
"Shouldn't we be going somewhere to get my car back? Or dispose of that beast?" Annalene asked, procrastinating to not enter the building. "Annalene," Ken said in a warm tone, "just relax. We can go back later. It's too late to be outside saftely. Won't you come in?" "Um, well..."
Ken smiled widely and tilted his head. “I feel another question coming.” “No, nothing, I just…” She stopped talking. She just what? “Nothing.” She stared at him for a second, holding on to the kitten as if the animal would somehow protect her from what was coming. Ken’s grin widened.
It was his grin, she finally realized that made her lie to him and made her uneasy. He grinned a lot and those teeth had a predator's gleam in the failing light. Suddenly she handed Skillet to Ken, almost closing her eyes as she thrust the little feline at him. "I think I'll take my chances," she muttered, "sorry," and she began to hurry toward the sounds of traffic.
Annalene looked over her shoulder as she hurried away. There was no sign of Ken, or the cat. She was sure she hadn't heard the door open or close, either. That grin. A chill swept through her, and she shuddered suddenly. No. That was just crazy thinking. But it reminded her of that terrifying reflection she had almost decided she had imagined.
The road, when she reached it, appeared to be less busy than she had expected. A single yellow-blinking traffic light hung in the intersection, swaying dejectedly against the falling night. Annalene suddenly wondered who would miss her if she didn't make it home. She lived alone and AAA was her big plan for getting out of this mess. She looked this way and that, hoping for a car to stop and yet dreading it.
She wasn't accustomed to hitching a ride, or flagging a car down. The frustration of finding a knight in shining armor just added to the hell that was her day. Excuse me, I meant her life. A beat-up Toyota slowed up near Annalene. The windows were grungy, and the fender was bent. As the window rolled down...
