My Short Stories

The Killer and The Boss

Driving on the back road alone late at night was spooky enough, but running out of gas was more than Sarah thought she could bear. Her excitement at having a car pull up behind her soon turned to panic as the car’s lights quickly turned off. In the pitch dark, she heard the car door slam and the shuffling of feet. Then everything was silent again, and Sarah’s heart raced. It was then that she heard the sound of sharp metal scraping against the side of the car.

*       *       *

“Another murder last night!”called James Marks from the kitchen.

“Another?” yelled back the surprised Mary Rider. “Where was it? Who was it?”

“It was down in Indiana. Some girl named Sarah Smith ran out of gas on a backstreet and the killer found her I guess. If it’s just one killer, killing all these people, then he sure knows how to travel fast. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri and now some tiny town in Indiana. Let’s just hope he decides to go out east to the capital or New York instead of coming here to Chicago.”

“Don’t think like that James. They won’t come anywhere near us. Now I better get going off to work, and I recommend you do the same,” called Mary from the lounge.

James walked through the lounge room on the way to the front door. “Okay. I’ll see you tonight. I love you and don’t forget to watch out for any killers on the loose,” he said with a wink before kissing her on the cheek.

“I love you too. I’ll call you.”

“Okay, bye,” he said as he shut the door behind him.

*       *       *

I was waiting for him outside the cinema where I knew he was. I didn’t know what movie he was watching, and it didn’t matter to me, my boss or the job I had to do. The movie should have ended five minutes earlier. He was probably watching the end credits. Three minutes later he left the cinema with a short, slim woman with dyed blond hair. He was a tall man with very light brown hair and a nose, too big for his face. I expected Danielle Hunter to be there with Lucas Angulo, but it was still an inconvenience. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll just have to kill them both.”

*       *       *

I felt as though I was being watched. But I didn’t tell Danielle this. We saw the car in the distance. Danielle’s yellow Porsche looked brand new. We were only about 15 yards away when I noticed someone in the shadows of the building across the road. He was watching us. He was staring at us. Danielle had noticed him too.

“Come on Lucas. Let’s go home,” she whispered. We got in the car. Danielle tried to start it up but it wouldn’t go. I hadn’t forgotten the man in the shadows. I checked the side window. He was gone. The street light went out. Everything was dark and everything was silent. And then I heard it. It was the sound of metal scraping against metal. The man from the shadows. He was outside my window.

 

*       *       *

“Hey, how was your day?”

“Mine was okay. How was yours Mary?”

“It was good. You know that bit of work that I’ve been working on for months? Yeah I finished that today. So it’s a good day.”

“That’s great. Well done”

“Thanks James.”

“Oh by the way Mary, I heard there was another death. Actually two. A couple in Aurora. He’s getting closer and he is definitely not headed out east. He is coming here Mary. He is headed for the city of Chicago. Maybe we shouldn’t go out for dinner tonight.”