Captive

Chapter 1

The car drifted along a dirt road with the sun far below the tree line. The night sky boasted no moon, only the constellations and planets of generations passed. Headlights illuminated the path home among unforgiving darkness, and the trees were unfriendly. The driver and his passenger were miles away from civilization, but she was not his passenger. She was a captive in the world of first love and the rebirth of spring. It was May, and the days were longer and the landscape new again. The fresh green air invaded the lowered windows and filled the vehicle with the scent of budding laurel and young maple leaves. None of these happy thoughts were visible in the black void around them, which made her uneasy.

"Can we roll the windows up?" she asked quietly. She was hyper-vigilant of her surroundings.

"It was just a movie," the driver groaned. "I don't know why you get so bent out of shape about horror movies. That one had nothing to do with the woods, either."

She started turning the manual crank on the door, "I know, but I just don't like them. I've never liked them. They make me uneasy."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." His eyes never left the road. "You sound like a scared little girl."

"So what if I am?" Her window kissed the seal above her head. "I've never liked horror movies, and I don't think I ever will. My imagination can be overactive at times. There's nothing I can do about it, so please, just roll up your window and turn on the vent."

"I think there is something we can do about it," he mused as he pulled the car off the road.

"What are you doing?"

"Breaking you of your fear of the dark. You can't be scared forever."

"I'm not scared. I just don't like it. And it's not the dark so much as it's the dark woods. Anything could be out there—bears, wolves, deranged men with machetes. I know the urban legends."

"I don't know why I thought dating you was a good idea," he professed with a bitter shake of his head.

She looked at him. "Then why are you still with me?"

"I don't know. Something to do."

"God, you're an asshole."

"You're right. I am, but I'm the asshole who's going to rid you of your fear of the dark." The driver turned off the vehicle, pulled the key from the ignition, and opened the door. "I'll see you in a few hours, okay?"

"Where are you going?"

"Home. It's only a few miles back, and if I cut down through the woods, I'll be there in about an hour. I'll see you in the morning." He climbed out and shut the door.

She panicked, "You can't leave me here. My parents want me home by midnight. They'll freak if I'm not there."

"Then you'd better start walking home." He turned from her, keys in hand, and began trudging back the way they came.

"Come back here!" She stuck her head out the window. "This isn't funny!" He ignored her and kept walking, so she screamed, "Don't be a dick! Come back right now!" The driver vanished around the bend in the road. He left her alone with her thoughts and her fear. The girl began to cry as panic started to run its course. She rolled up the window and locked all the doors before she maneuvered her way to the backseat. The frightened teen sat listening to the sounds of nature; crickets chirped, bull frogs sang, and twigs snapped in the brush. Her eyes darted with each resonating crunch. Her heart raced as she forced herself to lie down on the seat.

"If they can't see me, then I can't see them," she thought nervously. The rustling grew closer before it transformed into the sound of footsteps. Her ears perked as something neared the car. She stopped breathing, hoping to hear the driver's laugh or voice, but she only heard the sound of her heartbeat. The footsteps stopped; all was still. She tried to tell herself that it was only her mind playing tricks, but the argument was disrupted by a rhythmic tapping on metal. It started at the trunk and moved counterclockwise around the car: the rear passenger's quarter panel, the passenger's door, between the headlights on the hood, the driver's side door, the rear driver's quarter panel. She dared not look, so she buried her face in her hands and refused to move with her eyes, nose, and mouth wedged between the bench seat and her shaking extremities. She tried to hold back the tears, afraid the sobs and whimpers would be audible and draw attention. In her petrified state, she closed her eyes and tried to make herself fall asleep.

She woke to the familiar sound of an unlocking car door. The driver was back, showing no expression of humor or guile. As he climbed in the car and started the ignition, he looked back at his passenger and said, "What the hell are you doing back there? Get up here so we can go. You have to be home in fifteen minutes."

"It's almost midnight?" she asked groggily.

"Yeah. Now get your skinny ass up here so we can go. Or, if you want to stay back there, put on the damn seatbelt. I've got to get you home so your parents don't ground you. We have to go to the prom next week." She shifted herself to the front of the car and buckled her seatbelt. "All that effort, and you could've just opened the door, got out, and came in the right way."

"I didn't want to, okay?"

"Still freaked out, huh?"

"How is what you did tonight supposed to fix it?"

He was quiet for a moment before he continued, "I don't know. I guess I just thought it would help."

"You left me here—alone—in the fucking dark woods." She stopped herself. "Just take me home, okay?"

"Okay," he said. "I'm sorry." It was half-hearted.

"No, you're not. You're never sorry when you do this kind of shit to me."

"I only do it because I want to help you."

"Right." That was all she said. The driver looked at her, started the car, and made for town. They rode the rest of the way in silence. He took her home and walked her to the door, expecting the usual good night kiss. Instead, she went through the door then slammed it in his face. The driver made his way back to his vehicle, and before opening his door, he looked up at her bedroom window and smiled to himself. He was triumphant: He took a girl with a slight fear of the dark and crippled her, amplifying her irrationality to an extreme. Even if she broke up with him over this, he would one day find her and finish what he started.