The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Thirteen

  Now the Deep Purple is blaring, "Nobody gonna take my car, we're gonna break the speed of sound!"  fuck'n Dale has the pedal to metal and the whole world is spinning around.  Broken mufflers screaming, dust rising in the headlights and small rocks and debris clattering on the floorboards of the rusting heap. If that wasn't enough random cacophony, top it all off with Dale raising one hand in the air and hollering like a cowboy, 

     "YE-HAW!"

     Marlboro filter king in his driving hand, holding the giant steering wheel cranked all the way right, leaning against the driver's door with the cracked window. Steve just fell over in the back and he's back there laughing, tumbling about, while I'm watching the headlight beams as they illuminate the floating particles of dust that are making patterns that are looking a lot like dinosaurs.

      I slide across the seat and get cuddly with Dale from the centrifugal force and kicked his foot off the gas pedal. Instantly the car stops and rocks in place for a moment as the engine stalls.  Deep Purple's rocking from the cracked speaker, "I love her, I need her, I seed her!" while we all look out the windshield and watch the dinosaurs dissipate.

     Dale has his arm around me like were on some kind of date and say's,

     "Guess I got a little carried away."

      Steve pops up from the back saying,

     "You better let me out, right now, let me the fuck out of this car"

     He's pushing Dale's seat forward and reaching for the door handle. Dale lets him out and as soon as he was free from the car, he spewed like a puke fountain. Knowing if I got too close to that action, I would be next and I was pretty sure heaving your guts up on acid was not a good time.

     So, I scooted over and got out the other side and just walked out into the darkness. As I said, it was a full moon, so it wasn't hard to see where I was going.  As Deep Purple faded behind me, I began to hear the wash babbling in front of me. The hard part was passed now, peaking was over and now everything sort of took on a pleasant if not magical glow.

     I looked up at the moon and instead of looking like a planet, it seemed more like a hole in the sky letting the light in, then I thought, maybe it's God with a flashlight keeping an eye on all us fools. The boulders that looked like coiled snakes when we came in now looked more like Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Alice in Wonderland. 

     "Go ask Alice, I think she'll know." came directly to mind and I began humming it to myself as I made my way to the water's edge. I crouched down on my heels and looked at the moon's reflection in the passing water. 

     "I will be taking some more of this stuff in the future." I thought to myself, "There is something, I need in this."