Tilt

A Trip to the Lake

Tyler was practically bouncing in his seat. He'd heard them. The fireworks. But he just couldn't see them yet. Despite scrambling to look out his window, he couldn't locate the source of the sound. Every year, the Fourth of July meant a week spent by his grandparents' lake house. All the swimming, hiking, and fishing a boy could ask for in addition to a whole night of fireworks over the lake. This would be the first year Tyler and his mom would bring Dave up to the lake so he could meet grandpa and grandma. Dave was nice and mom really seemed to like him. Tyler liked him too, but not in the way him mom did obviously. 

After five or six, the bangs of unseen fireworks ended and he settled back into his seat. No more noise meant no chance of finding them anyway. Mom and Dave always seem to take an eternity to do something when he was excited and after a few minutes of sitting in the quiet car, Tyler was bored and wanted to play with his Gameboy. Might as well, he brought plenty of spare batteries and Dave even got him a new game for the road that he hadn't even taken out of the package.

The boy unbuckled and rolled over the seat into the packed trunk to reach his game. He was laying on the luggage and just turning on the device when he heard his front door open and close. Tyler giggled and turned the game off. If he didn't make any noise, he could hide in the back of the van and pop out. It would be funny; Dave always pretended to faint even when mom rolled her eyes. After stifling his amusement, he ducked so he was out of sight a moment before the front door opened and shut with a slam. Only one door, he'd have to wait until his mom got in or it wouldn't be as funny. 

But the second door never opened. The engine started and backed out of the driveway. Tyler watched trees fly past the back window of the van and tried to remember if there were any last minute errands they needed to run before they drove through the night but came up blank. Unsure of what else to do, he remained in the trunk, afraid that either mom or Dave would be mad that he was out of his seat while they were driving. While unsure of how much time he had actually spent sitting in the trunk, he was sure that they would've reached the store by now. 

Tyler poked his head over the back row of seats and caught a glimpse of green hair driving the van into a gated entrance. After a second of shock, the boy returned to a crouch. Who the heck was THAT? The windows showed they were behind a building of some sort. He saw a set of eyes in the rear view mirror and watched them crinkle as if the figure was smiling at the sight of him.

The van suddenly stopped short and Tyler felt his face press into the fabric of the back of the seat. The figure wore no seat belt and just turned around in his chair. He was in fact smiling, but the boy really wished he wasn't. 

"Hey Ty, hold this for a sec will ya?" The pale man tossed what looked like a can of soda into the trunk just past the kid still staring wide-eyed at the man. Tyler coughed and took his eyes from the now giggling man; the can was pouring a thick white gas into the air. Everything felt too heavy to move. The kid couldn't breathe but still tried to move his lead arms. He could hear someone laughing loudly, the sound in sync with the jerky movements of his own chest. Why was he laughing? The front door slammed again but it sounded very far away. The white cloud around him slowly darkened to a black.