Cold Blooded \\ Kellic

10

"We're going to die," I said bluntly. I was sat in the driver's seat and Vic was in the passengers. I had the car running but was too scared to make another move.

"We are on a backstreet in the middle of nowhere. There are no other cars and there's nothing to crash into. There's just a straight fucking road. And you're in an automatic! All you have to do is accelerate and turn the fucking wheel!" he was frustrated with my non-compliance to do what he wanted me to do. Sure, what he was asking me to do didn't sound so difficult, but it still scared the fuck out of me. This thing is a death trap!

"I don't see why I have to drive!" I yelled back at him.

"Because if something happens to me and you need to drive then you need to know how," he explained.

I guess he has a point, but I still didn't want to do this. We had already been driving along for half the day. He tried to get me to drive from the hotel, but there was no way I was going to drive through the town, so he waited until we were on a deserted road, but even then I had still refused to do it. It was only when he stopped on the side of the road and forced me to switch seats with him which led me to my current predicament.

"Alright, fine. Have it your way. What do I do first?" I asked.

"You put the car into drive," he said. I gave him a confused look.

"You're kidding, right?" he asked. I just shook my head. So I haven't spent a lot of time in cars! So what?! I don't need to be judged for it. Vic sighed and grabbed my hand which had been tightly gripping the steering wheel. He put it on some stick-like thingy with a bunch of letters on it.

"You're in neutral right now, okay? That means we're not moving. R is reverse. P is park. You want the D," he said.

I snickered at my dirty thoughts, but come on, he just said I want the D!

"I'm working with a twelve year old," he sighed, letting go of my hand, "Okay, D stands for drive. Move the stick up to it and then you press the accelerator slowly."

I did as I was told. I hesitantly shifted the car into drive and slowly pressed the accelerator with my foot, but we didn't move.

"Why aren't we moving? Did I break it?" I asked.

Vic sighed and I looked up just in time to see him roll his eyes.

"No, we're not moving because that's the break," he exasperated. I looked down at my feet. Well how was I supposed to know that?! I moved my foot over to the other pedal and pressed down on it. The car lurched forward at an alarming speed.

"Slowly! I said slowly!" he shouted at me.

I panicked. I totally panicked and freaked out, taking my foot off the pedal and hands off the steering wheel. The car drifted off the road and Vic took over, grabbing onto the steering wheel and straightening us back up again as the car came to a stop. 2

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are we dead yet!?" I yelled out with my eyes closed tightly.

"You're an idiot," he said. I opened my eyes, shooting him a death glare.

"I am not an idiot!" I shouted. He rolled his eyes at me for the umpteenth time today.

"Whatever. Look, just relax, okay? And press down lightly this time," he said. I groaned in annoyance but I knew he wasn't going to let me quit easily. I swatted his hand away from the steering wheel and held it again. Okay, I can do this. It's not that difficult. I pressed down lightly on the pedal and the car started inching forward. We were moving. We were moving and we weren't crashing. Success!

"Okay, now a little faster," he said.

"No," I snapped.

"Kellin, my grandmother could walk faster than this," he said. I shot him another glare before I pressed down a little more. We jolted forward a bit faster.

"Try getting up to the speed limit," he said. I nodded slowly and watched the fucking speed dial thing as it went up and up. I was so focused on the numbers I didn't notice Vic reach over to me until he was pushing my chin up lightly.

"Eyes on the road," he said. I shook away from his touch but kept my eyes on the road. I glanced down at the speed thing every so often and noticed I was going just below the speed limit but I wasn't game enough to go any faster.

"See, you're doing fine. Okay, there's a turn coming up," he said.

"What do I do?" I panicked, my heart rate speeding up.

"When we get there just slow down a little and turn the wheel. Seriously, Kellin, a five year old could do this," he said.

"Shut up," I muttered under my breath.

We got to the turn and I freaked out a little, but managed to turn, although I did go off the road a little. Vic just chuckled at me but said nothing. This was so nerve-wracking. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly and my heart, fuck my heart was beating so fast.

"So how old are you?" Vic asked out of the blue.

"Didn't I already tell you this?" I asked. I glanced at him to see him shrug.

"I can't remember," he said.

"Oh, well I'm eighteen," I told him.

"Eighteen and a serial killer. That's some good life choices you must have made," he said sarcastically.

"Like you can talk," I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him smirk and shake his head.

"I started killing for self-defence," he told me.

"Same," I said, surprised by how easy I was finding it to talk about this with him. I guess I've just never spoken about it before so it was good to tell someone who knows what it's like. Even though I told myself I didn't want to be open with him, I just couldn't stop the urge to talk about it.

"How?" he asked. I gave him a questioning look. "Like how did you start, tell me about it. I know you're dying to."

I hesitated, really, I did. But the urge to speak about it was getting stronger.

"My step father did...things, to my mother and I. I had to stop him. He was silent for a little bit and at first I thought he decided the conversation was over, but then he spoke again.

"So that's what you were screaming about last night. You mentioned ra-"

"Stop," I snapped. "I don't talk about that. I won't. Just...don't. Tell me how you got started."

"Alright," he dropped the subject. "I was in this uh...gang, I guess. My brother was the ring leader. I wanted to get out, but they wouldn't accept it. They thought I'd go to the police, even though I never would. So when I finally left for good my brother sent some of his guys after me and they tried to kill me. That's when I fought back. They kept coming after me though. My only choice was to kill every last one of them."

He finished his story, leaving the car totally silent. I can't imagine what that would have been like; to have your brother turn against you like that. So just like me Vic got into killing because he was looking out for himself.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" I asked.

"Distracting you. You're not freaking out about driving anymore, are you?" he asked. That's when I realized that I really wasn't panicking anymore. I was driving along at a leisurely speed easily. It was like riding a bike once I got the hang of it. Sneaky bastard.