The Midnight Hour (16 page)

He smiled a weak smile back and looked down at his coffee, his face feeling hot, his body squirming inside in a way it usually did only for Mary.

The hitchhiker stepped away from his table, to both his relief and his disappointment, and approached the young salesman Ron had spotted earlier. They exchanged a few quiet words and then the girl pulled back the chair opposite the man.

Guess she’s had enough of hitching rides in trucks
, he thought wryly.

He watched as she dropped the backpack to the floor and unzipped her coat. She wore a plain white blouse underneath. As her shoulders moved to shrug the coat off, the blouse pulled open slightly. It was unfastened further down than he would have expected, and the movement showed him the soft curve of a small breast. It also showed him enough to know she wore no bra. He was slightly embarrassed when he realised how disappointed he felt that he had seen no nipple.

And that slimy guy sitting right in front of her must have got a much better view than me!

He shook his head and returned to his coffee.

Ron Thomas, you are a sad, pathetic, middle-aged lech!

The salesman and the hitchhiker left the diner while Ron was eating his burger and fries. He watched them go, a little disappointed that the girl didn’t smile at him again.

Get real! At least I have Mary waiting for me at home.

Thoughts of Mary raised a feeling of guilt in his mind. Guilt at the way he had thought about the girl.

He decided he would tell Mary all about it when he got home. He always told her everything about his trips. He didn’t want any secrets from Mary.

Feeling happier, he attacked his meal with fervour.

Twenty minutes later and he was back on the road, his headlights and the pale wash of the moon the only light ahead of him.
Sally’s
had been an interesting and, for food at least, satisfying interruption in his journey. But now he was on the final stretch, the last part of the run. From now it was non-stop through to the city, and then home.

And Mary.

The CD blared out Steve Earle’s
Guitar Town
and he sang along, loud and off-key. But there was no one to hear, no one to care. Only Ron Thomas in his own cab, his own little world, and he didn’t mind one bit.

Five minutes further on he passed a black car. It was a shiny, foreign-looking car. It had pulled off the side of the road.

It’s driver and passenger doors stood wide-open.

He slowed, checked his mirrors, did a U turn and drove back to the abandoned car. He steered his truck onto the desert sand, hoping the wheels wouldn’t sink too far, and stopped.

For a moment he sat in his cab, just looking at the car. Should he get out? Should he just call for help on the radio?

She made her choice. If it was a wrong one, that’s her lookout. No call for me to get myself hurt over it.

But he knew that was wrong. It wasn’t him. How would he feel reading about the discovery of a girl’s body in the desert in tomorrow’s paper? He couldn’t leave someone in trouble.

If she
was
in trouble!

Maybe they just couldn’t wait to find a motel and went off to do it in the desert?

In the night.

In the cold.

He thought about his radio, decided against it.

Maybe I should just check it out first.

He looked for traffic, but nothing moved in the darkness, before stepping down from his truck and hurrying across to the car.

There was something odd about it. It took him a second or so to work it out.

Even though the doors were open there was no interior light on. He guessed they were either broke or disabled. Maybe this guy didn’t like people to see when he was opening the door?

He was about to check inside for any kind of I.D. when he heard a sound off in the desert. A shuffling, snuffling,
running
sound. And sobbing.

The girl!

She came out of the dark desert, half running, half stumbling. Her blouse was open, flapping behind her in the light desert breeze. He couldn’t help but look at her breasts. The way that, despite their smallness, they bounced. The darkness of the nipples. Her pale, flat belly glistened in the moonlight. The button of her jeans had popped open, the zip partly tugged down. A tuft of black hair showed.

She was crying.

Watching her, aroused and disgusted at his arousal, Ron seemed to finally realise what he was seeing.

She had been attacked. The guy from the diner had tried to rape her!

He stepped forward and she flung herself into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably, her whole body heaving.

He held her, stroked her hair, tried to calm her. Tried not to think of those bare breasts crushed against his chest.

He stared into the darkness, waiting for the man to appear, to come running after his victim. Was he armed? A knife? A gun?

He tried to keep his voice calm. He didn’t want the girl to know how afraid he was.

“Where is he?”

Through her sobs she managed to answer him.

“I… hit him… With a rock… I think I… I might have killed him!”

Ron held her tighter as her sobs grew heavier. If the man
was
dead, as she suspected, then at least he didn’t have to worry about being attacked. But not knowing for sure was dangerous.

I need to know. I don’t want him sneaking up on us later.

“You stay here. Go over to my truck. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“No!” She grabbed at him as he tried to pull away. “Where are you going?”

She sounded desperate. Terrified.

“I have to know for certain that he’s dead. It won’t take me long to check.”

“You don’t even know where… he is.”

Ron looked into the darkness once more. Whether he could find the body had concerned him, but he presumed to his luck. And if he had found nothing in a couple of minutes he’d give up.

“I’ll manage.”

She hesitated, still holding on to him.

“I’m coming with you.”

“But…”

“No. I can’t stay here alone. I’d rather stay with you. Anyway,” the first hint of a smile showed through her tear-stained face. “I need to know for certain too.”

Within seconds they had lost the car. It could no longer be seen. But Ron had left the lights on with his truck and they could still see those. It allowed them to keep a fairly straight trail as they walked into the desert.

She held on to his hand. He wasn’t sorry for the slim, cold feel of it in his fingers.

He was cautious. It was just as likely that the man was still alive. Even if she’d hit him good with the rock, it didn’t mean he was dead. Maybe just stunned for long enough to let her get away.

He could be waiting for them. He could be watching them, listening to them move. Right now. Any moment he could jump them, from any side.

“Was he armed?”

“What?”

“Did he have a knife, or a gun, or anything?”

“He had a knife.”

Ron nodded grimly, wishing she’d grabbed the weapon before running off.

So, now he could be out there, watching them, listening to them, with a knife in his hand. It was not a comforting thought.

They had been walking for less than two minutes when Ron felt the girl tug on his hand. He stopped.

“This is far enough,” she said, letting go of his hand and stepping away from him.

Ron turned towards her.

“What…”

Something hit the back of his head with a deep, sickening crunch, and he fell unconscious to the desert floor.

He woke, with a pounding in his head, to find himself staked out on the sand, spread-eagled. His wrists and ankles were tied. He could move little but his head, and that hurt if he tried to lift it.

It was still night. He was naked. He was cold.

He was terrified!

“What’s going on? Let me go!”

“I don’t think so.”

The girl sat nearby, cross-legged on the ground. Her blouse was fastened now and she wore her coat. Next to her was the salesman, uninjured and grinning.

I’ve been had!

“Listen, if it’s money you want, take it all. Shit, you’ve got it already, in the wallet in my coat pocket.”

He thought quickly, desperately.

“Take the truck. There’s a lot of money in a truck like that. I won’t tell. I’ll say you bought it from me fair and square. How about it?”

The pair listened in silence. They both smiled.

“Just untie me, ok? Then take the truck and the car and I’ll walk out of here. There’s no need for this. There’s no need to hurt me!”

“Oh, we’re not going to hurt you.” The girl’s voice was light, amused even.

She pointed into the darkness the other side of Ron.

“
They
are.”

For the first time, Ron noticed the movement in the dark all around him, as if the night itself was shifting, rustling. And now that he listened, there were sounds too. Grumbling, growling,
slobbering
sounds. Small, misshapen parts of darkness seemed to detach themselves, rush forward, too fast for him to see any detail.

He felt a sharp pain in his leg, his arm. He could feel blood run from fresh wounds.
Bites!

He struggled against his bonds but could not loosen them.

“What are they for God’s sake?”

The salesman laughed and spoke for the first time. His voice was almost as high and feminine as the girl’s.

“They’re our friends. They don’t normally like to show themselves, but you killed one of their family. Ran him down with your truck and didn’t even have the courtesy to stop and see if he was still alive.”

“I haven’t run
anybody
down. I’d have stopped if I had. You have to believe me. You have the wrong…”

He fell silent. He remembered the small shape he had seen on the roadside. The small animal he had run over. The small animal with two arms and two legs.

Only it hadn’t been an animal after all.

More of the things were moving in closer now, as if pulled by the blood the first had drawn. Small, hunched creatures, with two arms and two legs and outsize heads.

And teeth.

Sharp, bright, almost metallic looking teeth.

These are fairy folk. They are kind and gentle and caring. They won’t hurt you.

He could almost hear his mother saying it, calming his fears before he went to sleep.

But another voice, a treacherous, damning voice, spoke up in his head. His
own
voice.

I killed one of their family. They have sharp teeth. They look pissed off enough to eat me
!

Ron Thomas was right!

BONDING

“What say we go shopping? What better place for two girls to ‘bond’?”

Linda looked up at Jill, not sure if she should take her seriously.

“Look.” The taller girl leaned closer and lowered her voice. “The boss has given us this £150 each to go for a big meal and get to know each other better. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not
that
hungry, but I
could
do with getting some new clothes out of this!”

“I guess it’s ok.” Linda hesitated slightly. She wasn’t comfortable with Jill’s suggestion, was never comfortable not following exactly what the company wanted, but she didn’t want to be seen as scared either. “He didn’t say we
had
to go for a meal.”

Jill smiled a broad toothy smile with all the sincerity, or lack of, that Linda would have expected from her.

“Great! Let’s take our own cars and meet at the mall in, say, half-an-hour. Ok?”

Linda shrugged an ‘ok’. She didn’t like to argue.

She watched as Jill grabbed up her coat and marched out of the office. Yes, that was the right word. Marched. Jill never
walked
anywhere. She marched, her high-heeled shoes thumping on the floor, back straight, head held high.

When Linda walked across the office most people weren’t even aware she was there.

Except Tom.

Tom was the office manager and he seemed to know every move that Linda made. He watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She didn’t mind. She’d watched him a few times as well. Maybe one day...

Linda checked her watch. She would have to get moving soon. She didn’t want to keep Jill waiting at the mall. Jill, who was so much taller, stronger and certainly bitchier than she was. Jill, who hated her, although she had no idea why. Jill, who was her immediate colleague in the Sales Department.

Linda hated Jill too.

“Are you ok?”

Linda looked up, startled, and smiled at Tom. He stood in the doorway of the Sales office, a look of concern creasing an otherwise youthful face.

“I’m fine, really.”

“Listen, I know you’re not looking forward to this thing with Jill, but just get through this and Personnel will be happy.”

Linda nodded. Tom was right, of course, but it didn’t stop her feeling nervous.

Tom sighed, wishing he could take Linda in his arms and hold her, comfort her, but knowing it was not possible. Not here. Not in the office.

“It had become a bit obvious how much you two hate each other. Show the bosses you’ve made an effort and that will be the end of it, I’m sure.”

She smiled at Tom. He was trying his best to make her feel better about the whole affair. It wasn’t his fault he was failing.

She looked at her watch, holding long light-brown hair away from her eyes as she did so.

“I’d better get going. If I’m late it’ll piss Jill off even more, and that will ruin the day for both of us!”

Jill was in a hurry when she unlocked the door to her apartment and strode in. Even so she took the time to carefully hang her jacket up in the tall, almost full wardrobe that stood against the wall in her bedroom. She spent a lot of time and money choosing clothes. She was careful how she looked after them.

Just as carefully she stripped off her blouse and her skirt, also hanging them in the wardrobe, until she stood before the bedroom mirror in black bra and panties. She turned to the side, admiring herself, her small high breasts pushed into a cleavage by her bra, her flat stomach, the long curve of her thigh shown in its entirety by the high side-cut of her panties. She flicked her long blonde hair and smiled. Linda might have larger breasts, but she was also shorter, wider in the hips, bigger in the backside. Jill knew she was the sexier of the two, but still she felt threatened. There was just something about Linda that annoyed her, challenged her, awoke the bile and hatred that was always bubbling close to the surface within her.