Horror 100 Volume 2

Fare

I am a cab driver. I drive midnight cabs. Sort of a freelancer. I do not belong to any agency and handle the business on my own. This is just a part-time job for me. A night job.

By day I will be hunting for fresh cabs, jacking them, designing fake license plates, repainting them, disposing off overnight cabs etc. A new cab every day. No particular cab stands. A new customer. Every night is new.

My customers. I take everything from them. Sometimes I leave them. Sometimes I make sure that they never speak of what happened last night.

This night too, I am waiting.

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A couple. A man in his early 40s and his wife. A lot of stuff for the taking. Enough luggage. Good attire. Expensive watches. A glittering handbag. Maybe a fat wallet. Credit cards. Debit cards. And the lady.

I check my supplies. Pistol. Enough ammo. Hunting knife.

The man tells the address and asks me if I know it. I say 'yes', even though I've never heard of it before. It doesn't matter.

The man asks me if it is far away from there. You should never have done that, man, you have just given yourself away. You have made the proceedings easier for me. I reply 'yes, it will take an hour.'

They hop in. I start the engine thinking where should I carry out the 'procedure'.

Half an hour later, we are on a lonely road, through the jungle. I am calculating the worth of the night's catch when I feel some tingling on my neck. A sharp object. And a voice from behind. "Turn right, smart boy. I know where you are leading us. Don't act too smart." Gosh, the man's no idiot. I look in the mirror to see what is happening to find his eyes staring at me from the dark. Cold stare. I see his palm resting on my shoulder. And I see the sharp object. It is his fingernail. The index finger is pointing at my jugular. And each time a bump or a turn occurs, the vehicle sways and my neck brushes against the sharpened polished fingernail. I can see it forming red lines on my skin. But I keep driving. My gun's way down, unreachable. If I do something rash, I am sure to lose a lot of blood. That would be bad. The hunter was becoming the hunted. I have no other way but to obey.

After a while, the man asks me to stop in the middle of the nowhere. I stop the car in front of an old house. Falling apart. The sort you see in ghost movies.

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The lady walks in front with some of the luggage. And the man follows with the rest.

"Hey" I touch his back. He turns back.

"What?" he asks.

I know I don't deserve it. But still... "My fare. The...the taxi fare."

He smiles and studies me for a moment. His eyes are not smiling though, they are cold. Same cold stare.

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I shouldn't have asked. Now I am hearing a lot of angry growls. Sounded like dogs. I see one of them materializing in front of me. Another one. They were increasing in number. It seemed as though he had ,somehow, summoned a horde of creatures from the darkness around. Looked like seriously disfigured wolves. I turn around to find my passengers gone. My car door is stuck, locked shut. I am standing there alone, being surrounded by the creatures.

I have twelve bullets in my weapon. One more round in my inside pocket. Then the hunting knife. After that ...