She wasn’t sure if she bought that line from him, but really had no reason to think otherwise other than a seven-year-old could tell this guy was just making this stuff up as he went along.
“So, you’re married then, Steven?”
“I’m married? …Yeah…yeah. Married with kids… Three kids…”
His left hand rested atop the steering wheel where she could see he wasn’t wearing a ring; virgin knuckles sat gripping nervously without even a hint of a tan line. Under any other circumstances, she’d get the hell out of there as soon as possible. Something was definitely unsettling about this guy – she could feel it in her chest like heartburn after eating leftover Mexican – but she sure as hell couldn’t walk the rest of the way back to her house from here. And it wasn’t like she could just call for another cab…
She decided not to interrogate him further to avoid putting them at odds. She thought it’d be best if he didn’t know she had her doubts about him.
“What part of the city do you live in?” She figured a little chitchat couldn’t hurt and might help to conceal her suspicions.
This is it! the Cabby thought. He could pretend he lived near the cemetery and tell her he needed to stop by his house before he dropped her off!
“Right…right off Sepulveda. Just west of Beverly Hills?”
“Culver City?”
“No…no… Uhh, well, yeah…north…north of there, I guess… You know the area?”
“Yeah, my brother plays hockey at the Forum…”
“The Priests?”
“Uh-huh. You ever watch them play?”
“Aww, no… Not…not really a hockey fan… I’ve heard they’re a good team, though.” She seemed just about buttered up enough for his tastes. Now would be a good time to slide the main course in the oven to cook. “Hey, do you mind if we stop by my house on the way back? I’m just…you know…worried about the fam. Wanna make sure they’re ok…”
“I, uh… I’m meeting my brother back at my place. He’s expecting me any minute…”
“I’ll tell you what,” he leaned up and flipped the meter off, “this ride’s on me. I just need to check up on ’em real quick. I won’t even turn off the engine.”
Alex nodded, figuring he wouldn’t take no for an answer. If worst came to worst, she could make a run for it when they got inside the city.
The Cabby nodded back and put on a fake smile. He impressed himself with his own improvisation under pressure. He was well aware of his uncanny ability to feed his patrons fresh piles of steaming bullshit, but how he handled this fare was exceptionally notable. He was on the edge of his seat, his psyche threatening to crack into a thousand little pieces, but proved he could keep it together well enough to get the job done. Little did he know, Alex was on to him way before he ever even thought to spin his web of lies. But there wasn’t much else she could do at this point other than sit tight and ride this thing out. She could feel inside her that this whole thing happening was bigger than what she could even think to take into consideration. Her destiny would reveal itself one way or another… All she had to do was hang in there and try to make sense of it as it all unfolded.
Traffic finally thinned out on the other side of the freeway. They must’ve been nearing the end of the line – the point of no return. Strange that it died down so abruptly. It was solid bumper to bumper for at least 10 miles, then suddenly there was nothing. It was almost like something bit the traffic off at its tail-end and just gobbled up whoever was left straggling behind.
The emptiness of the surrounding highway was a cold hand gripping at her throat, squeezing just tight enough to make it difficult to breathe. She reached up for the charm around her neck but only grasped at air. She was treated to a flash of nausea fluttering in her gut, uncomfortable without the heirloom close by, but then remembered how her father could “see” the charm lying on her chest even when it wasn’t really there…
She shut her eyes with her fist closed next to her heart and imagined the charm in her hand. She remembered how its metallic surface always carried a warmth when she wore it, and how fluent and flawless the surface of the green stone felt against her palm. The thought of it in her grasp steadied her breathing and strengthened the beating of her heart. She took in a breath then exhaled calm and controlled. She repeated the pattern two more times until the imagined shape of the pendant in her mind felt like the real thing in her hand, and a green luminance bathed the outside of her eyelids in a warm aura.
It brought a smile to her lips and a surprising flicker of excitement to her heart when she opened her eyes to see the necklace in its light-form resting in her palm. She opened her grip and her jaw fell loose as the projection glistened against the dark of the cab.
The Cabby caught the glare in his rearview and tried to see what she was holding, but couldn’t spot it from his angle. He figured it was probably just her cell phone and tried ignoring it, but for some reason felt strangely at ease every time he glanced its way.
Her palm cupped the light-charm with its green chain draped over her hand until she moved it away from her chest and it slowly dissipated back toward her, sinking into the skin of her breasts. The sensation rushed through her veins, calming her nerves before ending as a glint in her eyes that the Cabby caught with his glance.
“Interesting color… Is that your phone?” He couldn’t help but bring it up. The warmth the light brought to him was so benevolent he almost forgot for a second he was most likely driving this girl to meet her doom.
Alex was still a little lost in the moment and took a second to register his remark. She took another deep breath, indulging in the euphoria of the strength within, then looked into the mirror to challenge his eyes with a piercing gaze. He seemed to feel like less of a threat to her now, like she could see him so much more clearly for the scared and confused little scoundrel he was…
“I know you’re not really married.”
“What…?” He was shocked by her suddenly being brave enough to confront his lies.
“You probably don’t even have any kids.” She stared deep into his eyes with a knowing smirk on her lips and he turned a new color of pale at the sound of her voice. “What is it you want with me?”
“I… I don’t… I don’t want anything… I’m just the driver…”
“You waited for me back at the Reservation… Why?”
“No… I didn’t… I mean, I did… I just thought you…thought you might need a ride… I…”
His falsehoods were so transparent she felt like she could see right through his skull and out the front windshield.
“You don’t really live in Culver City, do you?”
“Look… I can’t… I’m sorry… I have to do this…it’s…”
“Do what?”
“The…the c-cemetery… I have to take you to the cemetery… But that’s it, I promise…”
“The cemetery? Is that where she’s waiting for me?”
“W-who?”
“My Aunt.”
“Your…? Look… I don’t know what’s waiting for you, okay? I… I just know I have to do this. …If I don’t, I’m dead, you understand? I’m fucking dead.”
“Says who? Who told you that?”
“That thing… That fucking thing…god… I don’t know what the hell it is… Just… I just gotta do this, then I’m done…and it’s over. I’m… I’m sorry…”
Alex mulled over her dilemma, ruminating the unveiling of her future, and then decided on doing what she thought to do from the beginning: just go with the flow of fate and see where the current would take her.
“…Alright. We’ll go to the cemetery.” She’d have to face her Aunt sooner or later. There was no sense in putting off the inevitable. She knew Marty would find her. It wasn’t even a question in her heart. At least this way she could get some answers. And in the meantime, “I want you to tell me eve
rything you know about the thing that’s forcing you to do this.”
The Cabby laid it out for her, pathetically spilling his guts along with a touch of waterworks for sympathy. He told her about how Tessura appeared at first as a store clerk to get information from him, then dropped its façade just before it was about to put him to an end. He described the blood-splattered convenient store and the size and smell of the beast that looked to be beyond any sort of reason, and how it found a use for him and spared his life in exchange for him doing its bidding. He told her how it spoke to him through his mind and its voice was like how you’d imagine a beast’s sounding, only more powerful and cunning. It hadn’t said who it was or what it wanted her for, it only promised to let him live if he drove her to the graveyard.
“And you believed it?”
“It’s not like I had a choice…” He let out a choppy breath, wiping the wetness from his eyes. “D-do you think it was lying? You think it’s gonna kill me anyway?”
She sighed. “I don’t know… I have no idea what it’s capable of… If it cares at all for integrity or if it even has a mind of its own…”
“It does. I’m sure of it. I’ve looked in its eyes… It’s not some savage beast. It’s smarter than you’d think.”
“You might be right…”
“I am. I know it.” He boasted certainty, then tried to explain. “I don’t know how… But it was like I could feel its presence when it spoke to me… It’s ancient…centuries old… Maybe older…”
“What else?”
“I-I’m not sure… But it seemed aggravated… Trapped, I think…against its will. It was bitter… It doesn’t like being here.”
“Hm.” She was surprised to hear that. She thought for sure it wasn’t much more than a cunning pet. She stayed wound up in thought for a moment, then dug up a genuine stare. “Thank you, Steven… And… I forgive you. I know you don’t have a choice.”
“…It’s, uhh… It’s, Todd, actually… I lied about the ‘Steven’ thing too…”
Alex smiled. “Well, I hope you make it out of this alive, Todd. Maybe one day you really will have a wife and three kids.”
“Th-thanks…” He was saddened by her selflessness. “…I am really sorry about this… I wish… I wish there was something I could do…”
“There isn’t. Don’t let it get to you. This isn’t something you have any say in. I’m supposed to go to the cemetery with you. I’m sure of it.”
“What about your brother? Do you…do you want me to go by your place after I drop you off? Let him know where you are?” He was hoping she’d say…
“No.”
Oh, thank god.
“If that thing is half as smart as you think it is, it’d know what you were doing. You’d never make it. The only thing I want you to do is get as far away from L.A. as you can. …I want you to live.”
“…Why?” He was having a hard time with her being so nice to him. He didn’t feel he deserved her thoughtfulness, and he was right, he didn’t.
“Because, pretty soon the ‘living’ will be in short supply. The more people who survive this, the better chance we have of taking back the planet…”
“The planet? I-I-I don’t understand…”
“And…I hope you’ll never have to. But just in case…” She let out a deep breath and decided to fill him in on what little she knew. “The world might not be the same after today. Hell’s coming…and I don’t know how to stop it… But I think that, in time, maybe we can learn to fight back. And I think it starts with me coming face-to-face with the royal Bitch-Queen in all her glory and seeing for myself what we’re up against.”
“And that doesn’t scare the shit out of you?”
“Yeah… It does. But it’s supposed to. It’s what separates us from them.”
He was taken by her maturity and strength. He’d never met anyone like her.
“What…what’s your name?”
“Alex…”
“Alex what?”
She never knew her real father’s name until tonight, but somehow it felt so more real than the one she’d been carrying around for years like a disfigured hump on her back…
“Alexzandra…Cohotehe.”
The named rolled off her tongue like it’d always belonged. She wasn’t even sure how to pronounce it when she saw it on her father’s tombstone, but knew she’d spoken it correctly when it left her lips to greet the air. Co-HO-teh-heh. It invigorated her to speak it. …Somewhere, safely tucked behind a cloud in heaven, her father was smiling.
“You’re…you’re an incredible person, Alexzandra.” He didn’t know why, but her presence gave him a growing courage. Her aura was like a counterweight, balancing out the affliction bubbling in his heart. “Besides this enormous cluster-fuck I got stuck in the middle of by picking you up, talking to you tonight’s made me realize the world might have some hope left for it after all.” She smiled the slightest bit at his compliment. “You know…‘Alexander’ is originally a Greek name. It means ‘defender of humankind’.”
How embarrassingly pretentious… she thought. “I didn’t know that…”
“Well, maybe someone did when they named you. I gotta say, I don’t know what the hell is going on right now, but for some reason…you’ve made a believer out of me.”
She lowered her head and shifted her eyes. “Thanks…” His faith was appreciated but not very inspiring. It just made her feel the pressure she carried on her shoulders that much more. “But I have a long way to go before I feel the same way about myself…”
The Cabby finally let a real smile find his lips. It was subtle, but genuine. “Be patient. You’ll see it soon enough.”
He didn’t know where his words were coming from. It was almost like someone else was speaking through him, telling him exactly what to say. He’d never been one for words of encouragement. He was usually too pissed off at the rest of the planet to think to say anything genuinely nice to anyone… But there was something about this girl… She made him feel like he could be so much more than just a pervy little cabdriver who specialized in terrible pickup lines and shrugging responsibilities.
“Jesus, Mike and Mustafa! Are you seein’ this?!”
Alex was letting her mind wander when the Cabby recaptured her attention. She looked out the front window and gawked at the wall of reddish fog encircling the city in front of them. There was a blockade of police cars, low-flying helicopters, and well armored military vehicles what looked like a quarter-mile away. Choppers patrolled the area on the sides of the freeway with roaming searchlights while the cops had the road blocked behind the military’s posting.
“Shit…shit, shit, shit… Whatdowedo, whatdowedo?!”
“Turn off here… We’ll go around.”
“Fuck…goddamn…shit, shit…what the fuck am I doing…?”
The Cabby found time in between his swears to actually drive the car and pull off onto the exit before they reached the blockade. They were still a good fifteen miles away from the cemetery. Taking the back streets, even without traffic, would take a lot longer than they were expecting to share a cab together…especially with how dense the fog had settled up ahead.
“D-d-did you see that?”
“Yeah…looks like the military’s trying to make a move into the city…”
“No… I mean the fog…the red fog! Shit… I thought the clouds were fucking creepy… I had no idea I’d have to drive through that shit…”
“You can always stop now, let me out – take your chances…”
“No fucking way.” He rapidly shook his head. “I can still feel that thing watching us… I don’t know how, but it’s been with us this whole time, I know it.”
“Yeah… Stupid suggestion…sorry…”
Knuckles like snowcaps gripped the wheel while wide eyes gazed. “You think they got military stat
ioned around the whole city?”
“I’d think so… I would if I were them.”
“How the hell are we gonna do this?”
“Just…just drive slow. You know these streets better than they do. We’ll find a way through.”
A thought occurred to him he wasn’t completely comfortable with but had to address before it became a downright delusion of paranoia.
“You’re…you’re not gonna try an’ run on me, are you? … With us drivin’ so slow through the city?”
“It never crossed my mind…” He almost smiled knowing she was being facetious. “I said I wanted you to live, remember? If I run, and you lose me, that beast will kill you for screwing things up.” She looked steadily into his worrying eyes. “I promise… I won’t let that happen.”
“Okay…” He nodded thankfully, able to breathe easier having her word. “Let’s just take this one backstreet at a time then.” A nervous sigh eased his tensions. “…Fuck, I hope this works…”
“Don’t worry…we’ll make it through, somehow. We have to.”
Her Own Little Corner of Hell
“So, is it just me or is Kitty super fucking hot?”
Jimmy and Terry loaded their guns with the ammo Tara found while the girls rummaged through weapons-accessories, picking out gun-belts and slings for their rifles.
“She’s cute.” Terry figured he’d give him that much at least. “But it’s mostly just you.” He looked over at the two girls and couldn’t help but stare at Tara’s hips and ass when she bent over to cut through a sealed cardboard box. “I like my girls with a little more shape to ’em.”
Jimmy noticed his salivating gaze and gave his buddy an earful.
“Oh, I know yur not checking out Marty’s girl…”
Terry didn’t bother to stop even when he knew his friend was on to him.
“I know you know I am.” He laughed a little then traded in his grin for grim. “You tell Marty and I’ll sock you in yur fractured ribs, you little bitch.”
Jimmy laughed with a painful wince, then smirked slyly, thinking he might have some dirt on his friend to exploit at a later time. “Better start treatin’ me right, dickhole, or I will narc on yur ass.”
Blood Magik- A Cold Day In Hell Page 31
