*This is a continuation of another story I wrote but the only relevant info is the MC's friend, Sarah, kicked her out of her house because freaky paranormal stuff was going down*
I paid for fuel and turned to leave. Outside I saw there was a tall man in my passenger seat. His shoulders and neck were bent at uncomfortable angles to fit inside the car.
He was staring back at me.
He continued to stare as he stepped out of the car. His limbs straightened and his neck unbent as he stood at full height and walked towards me.
I ran to the back of the store and hid behind a row of shelves. The man ducked inside. He could see over the aisles and looked right at me.
The cashier ran.
I panicked and did the same. The man stood there and watched me run by. I threw myself in my car and sped off down the road. I saw him slowly following behind me. He soon disappeared from view.
I drove until dark. I hadn't slept in days and I was exhausted. I told myself I would pull off to the side and get an hour of sleep. I could only afford one hour.
I don't even remember pulling off to the side.
I was curled up on the reclined drivers seat when something woke me up. My car was parked in a dense patch of bushes. The moon was high overhead. Illuminated in the moonlight was the figure of a tall man. He stood a few feet in front of my car.
I stared at him for a few moments but didn't freeze. I was still scared but more so I was angry.
I screamed. I demanded he leave me alone. I yelled until my throat hurt. He didn't reply. I sat there breathing heavily and glaring angrily at him.
He began to move and walked around the side of my car. He bent down until his face was only a few inches from the glass and my face on the other side.
His skin was pulled so Tight every detail of his face was defined. His eyes looked small in the large sockets.
I could hear the muffled sound of his raspy breathing and he fogged up the glass.
I screamed again. I pounded my fist on the glass. He didn't move. I demanded to know what he wanted. I asked why he was doing this.
I sat there in the dark and stared at him.
He did something he hadn't done before.
Usualy he stared at my chest or some point past one of my shoulders. This time he looked me directly in the eyes. I don't know how long we held eye contact before he spoke in a drawn out whisper.
"I watch,"
Each word was accompanied by a wheeze and sounded like it took great effort.
"Or they eat."
I didn't reply. I didn't look back at him. I started the car in reverse and floored it back towards the road.
I hit something.
It gave way but I heard a sound of metal scraping against something it shouldn't. I made it to the road anyway and sped off down the road.
My car wasn't breaking on the back wheels.
It wasn't an imdiate issue as I wasn't stopping often but the longer I drove the worse it sounded. I decided to stop when I came across a town the next morning.
It was a small town of about three thousand people.
After failing to find any listings for mechanics online I decided to ask around. After trying the bar and finding it closed I settled on the cafe. A man with long hair and southern accent took my order, a black coffee.
I asked if there was a mechanic in town. He gave me directions. I thanked him and left.
I drove through a suburban neighbourhood and came across a regular house with a metal sign out front,
ALEX'S AXEL REPAIRS.
I knocked on the door and a blonde man with wild hair and a mustashe answered the door. He shook my hand and had a look at my car.
He asked if I had been attacked by a bear. There were deep gashes on the underside and back left door. The rod connecting the tires had a chunk missing.
I told him I had no idea what happened. He gave me an odd look and asked if I would be paying by cash then. He said it would be a few days of work to get it fixed.
He offered me a room to stay in.
At first I went to refuse but decided I had nowhere else to stay and accepted his offer. It had worked for a few nights when I first stayed at Sarah's.
She hasn't answered any of my messages since kicking me out.
At night when Alex had finished his work we talked. I told him I was on a road trip. He noted I was packed awfully light and I told him it was a spontaneous trip. This answer seemed enough for him and he changed the topic.
On the third night we had a few drinks. I asked him why he was a mechanic. He told me he always thought cars were beautiful and idiots like me damaged them far too often. I laughed.
It was late the next day he finished my car. I decided to stay the extra night and leave in the morning.
After Alex went to bed I crept through the house and locked every door and window as I had every night. I went back to bed and woke up a few hours later to a knock at the door.
It was more of a banging.
I got out of bed slowly and crept through the house towards the door. It was quiet again. I looked through the peephole and there was nothing there.
The door handle began to rattle. I stood there in the dark watching it get more forceful and the door itself begin to shake in its frame.
Alex came down stairs about this time. He had a shoutgun in hand.
He told me to step back and walked towards the door.
I told him not to open it.
He stopped and turned to look at me. He looked confused but instead called out for whoever was on the otherside of the door to stop.
They did.
In the silence I could hear the sound of something breathing. It sounded like a dog panting but lower in pitch and coming from deeper in the chest of the animal. It made a gurgling noise with each breath and I could hear water dripping outside.
Alex shouted again. He demanded to know who was there.
No reply came.
Alex stepped forward and opened the door. I was too far away to stop him. I was to the side of the door so I didn't see what he saw.
I could smell sulfur and something dirty.
All I saw was a thick, muscular hand reach out and wrap around his head like an apple. Alex fired a round and stumbled backwards. He slammed the door shut and led me towards the garage.
All I could hear was ringing in my ears and the sound of something wailing.
Alex pushed the door connecting to the garage open and ran towards his truck. I ran to my car and had the door open before I noticed the tall man hunched over in the backseat of my car.
I screamed and backed away.
Alex ran over and raised his gun. A thin hand shot out of the now open door and yanked the gun from his grip. He broke his trigger finger.
We both scrambled towards Alex's truck and sped off down the road. I watched the man in the rear view mirror as we pulled away.
He was shaking his head.
We drove in silence for awhile. Alex was the one to speak first. He asked me what the hell that was. I told him I had no idea and he asked me,
"Miss, why did you tell me not to open that door?"
I told him everything that had happened. About how the man had kept apearing and watching me. I told him about what he had said to me that night. He asked if he was who had been in the back in of my car. I said yes.
We drove until morning and didn't stop when the next sun set. We swapped places every few hours and stocked up where necessary.
After a few more hours had gone by I asked him a question. I asked why he was helping me. He told me at first it was because I was paying him. Now he wanted to get as far away from that thing as he could and he couldn't leave me for it to eat.
I asked him what he saw.
He didn't reply for awhile. I thought he wasn't going to at all.
He said he could feel how hungry it was. It was drooling at the thought of eating him. Its breath had smelled sickly sweet and like something was burning.
We've sat in silence since.
I placed my hand on top of his and he didn't say anything but he doesn't pull his hand away either.
I tried to put the uncomfortable thought that the road wouldn't go on forever out of my mind.
The silence made it diffiuclt.
We slept in shifts when we finally did sleep we kept the keys in the ignition. If we heard anything we left and were back on the road.
I can't see outside. The windows are covered in fog. I can hear something walking outside.
The car won't start.