The Crown Victoria
I worked hard to be where I was. I started out as a carpenter, and over time, moved all the way up to superintendent of the company. I liked my job. Sure, it was day to day, but it was an income, a desk job, and respectable. Through my journey up the company, I gained a lot of self confidence, and saw the world as an open book full of possibilities. I never let those terrible news reports bother me, and always focused on the good side of things. Sure I wasn’t perfect, but I wasn’t going to let a few details from my past hold me back. That was until that day that black car showed up.
I had just gotten home from work when I noticed a black Crown Vic with windows tented even darker than the paint of the car. They were the type that were so reflective that you couldn’t see the inside at all, just an image with the neighborhood houses with the cloudy blue sky above. I glanced at the license plate and memorized the sequence in my head, just in case anything strange happened. It was a custom plate. G1LT-E4. I took a glance at it and thought out loud, “Hm, that’s weird, I wonder who’s car that is?” I went on with the day, quickly forgetting the strange crown victoria. I went to the fridge and grabbed a beer, the blue mountains on the can told me it was, “as cold as the Rockies.” I flipped the TV on and scanned through the channels and found some cheesy police chase show. Just another relaxing Friday to myself, as always. “Ah, forgot to check the mail,” I remembered. The car was still there. As I walked out the house down to the street and to the mailbox, I thought I saw a light turn on and off in the Crown Vic. I thought, “Is someone in there… Am I being watched? Am I in trouble?” I quickly and inconspicuously tried to grab the mail, and walked as casually as I could into the house, trying to pretend like I hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
That car stayed there all day long. I peeked through the blinds at it from my bedroom window every ten to fifteen minutes. As I sat there, waiting and wondering, I began to look at my life over the last few years. Had I done anything wrong? Every instance of me doing anything questionable flashed through my head. There was the time I found $100 bill on the floor of a restaurant and I picked up and kept it for myself. Or the short span of time after high school that I sold drugs. Only marijuana and small time. But I made a good deal of money. It was easy money. And then I told myself it was just my paranoia getting to me. I thought, “How would anyone find out?” I thought, “and why would they care?” But then as my thoughts continued, I remembered something that I had forgotten. I had been drunk, and done something terrible. But I couldn’t distinguish whether it was part of some dream or something real. Why would this just come back to me at this moment, how could I have forgotten about it. The phone rang, interrupting my thoughts.
“Hello,” I said, panic in my voice.
“Hey bud, its Tyler,” he said. “What the hell’s wrong with you, you’re breathing really hard.”
“You know man, it’s probably nothing and this is going to sound crazy, but there’s this black car in front of my house and it’s just kind of odd you know. I even thought I saw a light go on and off.”
“Well I’m sure it’s nothing, your neighbor probably just got a new car,” Tyler said.
“Yeah you’re probably right,” I remarked, a little ashamed but comforted.
And then I heard a car engine turn on and peeked through the blinds of my front window, the black Crown Vic turned the corner and a feeling of relief moved through my body.
“Patton,” it was faint but grew louder. “Patton,” he said again, louder.
“Oh, sorry Tyler, I was watching the car. It drove away.”
“Ah see, you big wimp,” he laughed, “Well anyway, I was just calling to see if you wanted to come grill tomorrow night with us.”
“Yeah definitely,”
“Great well come over around 7:00, the kids and the wife are looking forward to seeing you.”
“Alright, have a good one Tyler.”
“You too bud, later,” Tyler said.
As the night went on, my comfort diminished as I continued to think about the black car. “What if they were monitoring my phone and knew I was on to them, or what if they saw me looking at them? I’m sure I saw someone in there.” After tossing and turning for a few hours I finally managed to fall asleep at 1 o’ clock.
I woke up to the sound of a car driving down the street. “Shit,” I thought, “is the car back?!” I looked out the window. Two men in suits stood outside the car, looking up at me.
RING RING RING! The doorbell rang. I stood stupefied for a moment. RING RING! “What do I do now?” I frantically questioned myself as my heart raced, beating at what felt like 500 beats a minute. “They know something, I don’t how, but they do!” I opened the door and slowly crept down the stairs, taking each step as quietly as I could, but the stairs seemed to crack and moan louder than ever before. Facing me at the bottom of the stairs was a mirror, and I saw myself, but I didn’t recognize myself. The person in the mirror was a Pale, large eyed, and rigid version of myself. I made it to the front door. I looked out the peephole. No one was there. “What the Hell?” I thought. “I’m really losing it.” I sat down in front of the door shaking, and fell asleep sitting with my back against the door.
I woke as if an explosion had gone off. The door was being pounded upon. “We just need to talk to you for a second Mr. Williams,” came a low voice but in a strangely calm manner.
“We’re investigators with the police and heard something about a friend of yours,” the right man quickly remarked afterward.
“Why the hell would you come here this time of night?” I asked, still sitting against the door.
“It’s 10:00 in the morning Mr. Williams.”
All of a sudden light crept into the window next to the door and filled the front room of my house. “It wasn’t just…. That just happened!” I stood up and looked out the peephole again. There were two men standing there, both in black suits.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Williams. We’ve just heard a few rumors that we hoped you could clear up. If you could just let us in and we can talk it over, and clear up this mess,” the man on the left stated.
“What the hell? I haven’t done anything!”
“Well then you have nothing to worry about. But if you don’t let us in, we will have to use force, and that will cause a huge scene. You don’t want that, do you Mr. Williams?”
I was dialing 911 before he was finished speaking and quickly walked into the other room.
“Hello, emergency service, how can I help you,” A soothing woman’s voice came over the small speaker in the phone.
“There’s two men here at my house that claim to be investigators, my address is 302 Longflower. Should they be here? Something is weird here, I think these guys might be trying to rob me or something.”
“Yes sir, a police officer is on his way to check out the situation,” the woman responded.
I stumbled over to the door and looked out the peephole, the two men and the black Crown Vic were already gone. I waited in the chair by the front door for the police to show up, it only took about 10 minutes. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK, I opened to door.
“Hello sir, we got a call about some suspicious characters,” said the officer, a big man with short dark hair and a tiny mustache. He looked exactly like any cop you would expect to see in a crime drama.
“Yes officer, two men showed up in a black Crown Victoria, they were sitting outside my house all day and knocked on my door about twenty minutes ago, claiming to be part of some sort of investigation. I refused to let them in. I called you and then they took off.”
“Ah,” the officer replied, “probably just some guys trying to rob you, they’ll post out and watch the habits of a house pretty often. They’re definitely not with us though. We’ll be on the lookout for these guys, thanks for your information.”
“Thank you, but I’m worried there might be something more to this,” I stated.
“Probably just being a little paranoid sir, just give us a call if you see anything else.”
“Ah ok,” I said, frightened. “Thank you officer, have a good night.”
I watched him drive away from the front window, and stood there watching for about five minutes looking through my screen door, and all of a sudden, I saw the Crown Vic pulling down the street, followed by two Escalades. “Oh my God, they’re back.” I slammed the door shut and locked both deadbolts. I tried to make a call on my cell phone it was completely dead. I only saw a black screen with a reflection of myself, looking worse than I could ever imagine. The next part is real hazy in my memory. I don’t even know how many men were there this time, but the two original men led them.
“We gave you a chance to comply Mr. Williams. We know everything.” The man on the left said coldly. “We’re going to have to use force now.”
“Who are you? What did I do?” I yelled as my body tensed up and I could feel the adrenaline rush through my body. I couldn’t even move. The rest is like a series of still images in my mind. The door was busted in. 5 men came in and grabbed me and restrained me, one frame at a time. They held me down and I thrashed wildly. The man that was on the left pulled out a huge syringe and injected it into my thigh. I screamed out but there was no sound. I must have passed out or there was something in there to screw up my memory, because I woke in my bed. I looked at the clock in my room, flashing showing 3 o clock am. The power must have gone out.
I woke up with a startle, and looked at my leg, there was no hole or bruise or anything. I walked down the stairs and again at the mirror at the bottom. I looked normal again besides the idea of being a little sleepy. I looked at the door. No sign of a struggle. But when I looked out that same window, I saw that same Crown Victoria. All hopes of it being a bad dream were gone. The reflective window rolled down, and the driver, the man who was on the left, gestured with his hands and lip signing “I’m watching you.” The car drove off. “What do I do now?” I asked myself as began to panic.
I drove to the hospital and told them someone had injected something in my leg, they told me there was nothing there. I insisted. I couldn’t take it anymore. I went straight to the police station and told them everything. I told them how I had hit that guy when I was driving home drunk 9 years ago. How I stopped to look at him, but was too scared of the consequences. I told them how I drove away, and managed to forget about it for these 9 years, but I couldn’t suppress the memory in anymore. Someone’s body had been found 9 years ago, a 15 year old girl named Theresa, who had run away from home. It was on the highway right by my house. I confessed to the crime and went to court. I couldn’t stand to be terrorized by the men in the black suits and that freaking. They ruled me not stable enough to stay in jail so they sent me here. And that’s the whole story Dr. Terry.
“Mr. Williams, you have a problem, but it’s not your fault, you suffer from a disease of the mind. You need to realize you have a problem.” Dr. Terry said calmly. He was a strange man with a monotone voice, grey hair, and glasses. He was exactly the way you would picture a shrink.
“I can’t believe this!” Patton yelled. “There is something crazy going on here, but its not me! I can’t just make stuff up like this, can I?! It’s all real, it’s all real. I don’t know what these guys wanted with me but they injected me with something and I’m either some sort of weird experiment or their tracking me or something but I know I’m not making this up!”
“Mr. Williams, you need to calm down.” He said as he pressed a button on his desk. Two men came in and grabbed Patton, injected him with a shot and took him to a small cell like room.
He woke up.
“I can’t believe this,” he said to himself as he got out of the tiny cot. He looked out the tiny window with the black iron bars. A reflection of himself stared back at him in the mirror. He didn’t recognize himself. His eyelids drooped down, he had dark circles under his eyes, his hair was disheveled, and his skin paler than ever. The bars behind interacted with the reflection to give him a clear picture of his captivity. “At least I’m safe here,” he thought as he followed the road away from the mental asylum with his eyes. But as he followed the road his eyes got bigger and a panic-stricken look came across his face, reflected back at him through the window. A black Crown Victoria was driving up the road, towards the asylum. The license plate read G1LT-E4.
No comments:
Post a Comment