Matt Shaw - A Sting in the Tale - A Collection of Short Stories

“Shit!!” she screamed.

Desperate — and ignoring the rain — she held the phone up into the air. A hope that — somehow — it would magic at least one bar of signal. Tricky to make a call in this position but easy to send a text. A desperate plea to either Lee or Greg — both friends who would come and help her out. Both friends who were also of large builds, should that driver have decided to come back too. She couldn’t help but wonder whether the driver would have been such an asshole had either of her friends been there but especially had she been with Greg, a six foot rugby player.

Still no signal.

Tina dropped her phone and looked in both directions hoping that she would see something, or someone that could help her. This was one of the worst things about breaking down on the back roads; the distinct lack of help. At least the motorway had phones staggered down the sides of it in case a driver found themselves stranded. Ironic really that they put the phones there where there were frequent police cruisers going past, not forgetting hundreds of other drivers — all of whom were capable of stopping and helping, should you need it. Yet out here, where it is quiet, they tend to leave the drivers to fend for themselves. It is worse when you consider the fact cars have been around a lot longer than mobile phones…

Headlights on the horizon and a little wave of relief. Knowing visibility wasn’t the best — and the fact she wasn’t really dressed in suitable attire to be standing in the middle of the road — Tina stepped to the side. She pressed the screen of her iPhone and flicked the torch app on before turning the bright light towards the oncoming car. The car stopped some way away and immediately Tina’s heart sunk. It was him again. A sudden revving of the car engine just confirmed that.

#psycho

She about turned and ran back towards her own car. She didn’t know who this person was, or what their problem was, but clearly they had issues and the worst place she could be was standing out in the open. She reached the car and opened the door, jumping back inside and slamming the door behind her. Not that she expected the driver to stop, she locked the door. A false sense of security. Had they wanted to get in, she knew a locked door wouldn’t have stopped them. All they had to do — and she knew this — was to smash a window.

She looked down at her phone again in the hope that — somehow — she had managed to source a little signal from somewhere. Still nothing.

“Fuck!” she screamed.

She looked behind her — ever hopeful that she would see another car headed in this direction. She had lost count of the number of times she had driven down this road wishing for no traffic, only to get stuck behind someone. And — now — here she was wishing for traffic and there was nothing other than this idiot.

By the time she faced forward — the car was speeding towards her. Not just that but it was speeding towards where her own car had stopped. She kept telling herself that it was okay. They would stop. They would leave it as late as possible but they would stop. They weren’t going to just ram her. Why would they do that? They’d damage their own car as well. No sane person would do that.

A panicked thought — the fact this person had come back for her and was toying with her… This wasn’t a sane person. Quickly, she fumbled for the lock and undid it. A second later and the car door was open and she was running across the road — towards the trees.

Her legs made short work of the embankment of earth as she scrambled up and out of the road. She turned, expecting to hear the car slam on the brakes at any minute, but there was no sound of it slowing. And now she was watching it — there was no sight of it doing so either.

She watched in horror as the car ploughed headfirst into her own, pushing it back as it stuck to the bumper. The damaged front wheel — and the way Tina had left the steering wheel — caused both cars to career off the road, opposite Tina, and crash into a tree. Loud bangs of twisted, clashing metal with each impact — first where the cars came together and then when they hit the tree. Tina screamed — sure that she’d just witnessed someone kill themselves and — not just that — try to take her life too.

But something was wrong. The car’s engine was still screaming — as though a foot was stuck on the accelerator but now the cars had stopped… She could see that the driver’s seat was empty. There was no one in the car.

She turned in the direction the car had come from. They must have got out and rigged the car to speed up here and crash into her. But — had they done so — that meant they were still out there somewhere and, more than that, they wanted to hurt her.

Tina looked to the horizon, where the car and stopped, and saw nothing. The heavy rain didn’t help but she knew someone must be out there. They were out there watching her just as she was watching for them. The only advantage they had, over her, was that they’d have seen her leap from the car. They knew where she was likely to be. A panicked thought that — not only that — but they could be on the way over right now, angered that their plan had failed.

Without further hesitation Tina turned back from the way she had initially come and started to run.

I I

Tina collapsed with her back against one of the many trees. Still no traffic to help her, still no sign of other human life. It was dark now and the moths had come out, along with the small little flies which seemed to fly together in small clusters between trees as though serving some purpose only they know about. She hated all flying insects as much as she hated spiders. Trapped in her own living nightmare, being stalked by some nutter and dive-bombed by insects.

There was a need to scream out — asking for someone to come to help her — but she knew she couldn’t say a word. There was a strong possibility that — by running through the woods — the other person may well have lost track of her. If she called out, he would find her again. Stay silent and he might not. She wanted to break down and cry, curl up into a little ball and hope and pray that morning came but she also knew that would do her no good either. She just had to keep moving and hope that a car would reveal itself in the distance. If they did so, she could run down the embankment and wave them down. If no car came then — by keeping moving — sooner or later she would have got back to civilisation anyway and, more importantly, safety.

She pushed herself away from the tree and continued on shaking legs. She was only five foot 2 and of a petite build. Her day job involved sitting on her backside, her hobbies — Twitter, reading and any kind of shopping — were also not strenuous. She wasn’t built for this and couldn’t recall the last time she had done this much psychical exercise.

#joiningagym

To distract herself from what was happening — she tried her best to change her thoughts to that of the warm bath waiting for her. That promised bath and bottle of red. And the take-away. The hot food — maybe Chinese?

“Not much further to go,” she kept telling herself. “And then you’ll be in that bath, with that treasured glass of wine and you’ll be laughing about all of this.” Of course she knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. She knew that she’d need to contact the police and tell them what had happened. And then she would have to contact the insurance company; two more tasks that would eat into her evening.

#callinsicktomorrow

Tina felt a flutter of hope as lights appeared further down the road. A car was coming in her direction. Quickly, she scrambled down the embankment and back onto the main road. A quick check behind her to make sure whoever was following her wasn’t right there, ready to snatch her back into the woods. No one was there. She was alone. A sigh of relief.