Work Text:
Somewhere in Texas, at the hot road.
Everything was silence until the sound of a ring coming from a cash register was heard.
"Fourteen dollars"
The woman there just give him a warm smiled and took the money out of her purse, didn't look like a place that take credit cards.
"Your no' from here. We don'see to many fake blondes aroun" the man continues, a vulgar attempt to keep the conversation. It had been about four months since the last time the clientes roots had been dyed also her eyebrows had returned to being completely black. She finally speaks "you catch me there, anyway, its not like you see to many people here to know that fact and maybe that is because this place its a piece of shit, so... have a nice day." She took her plastic bags and stars her way to the exit door.
Wasn't fast enough because she could hear the owner of the gas station "pretty and lonely women shouldn't have such a big mouth, a lot of unfortunate things happen to them around here. You see, all those missing posters in the outside wall are not there just for decoration. I can bet you my cock, they were all bitches who thought they had all the chances in the world just like you." An angry man, what a tragic event.
"You don't have much to bet then" she said it without turning to see him, she was already close to leaving then a strong noise rise. The man got up from his chair abruptly with a fast breathing. That was the noise, a chair in the floor and an angry man, once more.
She reached into her purse, now she had a pink teaser and she wasn't afraid to use it. She didn't see herself as a John Wick with a pencil but something is something. Face to face with the man. Trying not to panic.
But then for a changue, a man comes out of the halls. Tall, maybe in his late forties, almost fifties. Some beard and a few locks of gray hair. The kind of men you wouldn't want to have a physical fight with and a words fight just would not help.
"I don't think it's appropriate to be aggressive with a woman" a deep voice. A decent man at least at first sight. «Turning tables, mother fucker», she thought that as an asnwer for the creepy owner of the place.
"That's some education, you old bastard, learn from this decent man" she could afford to be a bitch now that there was a witness and he was on her side.
She just ran out of the place. She approached her car to wait for the man who saved her and to be able to thank him in an appropriate way.
But some time passed and the heat was not helping, the sun burned her skin and decided to get in the car. What was the decent man doing with the owner of the place?.
Finally came out. He raised his arm like saying Hi and the woman did the same. He started walking until he got to the side of the womans car.
"Are you okay? You looked scared back there" in a calm and soft voice, like when you're talking to a kid who just fell in the park. A father's voice. He was probably younger than her father for a few years, that's what she wanted to believe.
"Are you kidding? I was going to kill him, I took five self defense classes. He was not going to know what hit him" she said with a funny tone.
"Oh, its that so?" of course the man did not believe that but he wanted to play along.
"No, it was just sarcasm, I was pretty scared"
"Its okay, I waited for a while in there to make sure you could get into your car and have a good trip." «Ah, that's a good reason for waiting inside so long, just a decent man being worried».
"I will do that, thank you very much for everything" he just nodded his head.
The car did not want to start.
"It seems you have a problem there"
"Yeah, I put the keys where the hole is, you know, where the keys are supposed to go and it's not working and that was my only back up plan. I ran out of ideas" she closed her eyes in frustration, she wasn't lying, she didn't know anything about cars.
"I wouldn't mind taking a look" he shrugging his shoulders with his hands inside the front pockets of his jeans.
"Are you running for man of the year or something like that?" his kindness was suffocating, it was that or the heat of 3:00 pm.
"You catch me there, this year the award its a few bucks" as a response to that she got out of the vehicle.
The man began by opening the hood. Doing mechanical things, she thought. She try to pay attention but the engine was so boring. Her gaze drifted to the man's shirt, sweat appeared and for some reason that was turning her on. She discreetly rubbed her legs a little to confirm what she was thinking, yes, got a little wet down there.
«Turn around and think about something else, you are not so discreet when you think with your pussy».
Her eyes stopped on the wall of that shitty place and it happened again. The soundtrack of the whole real world disappeared, just on mute.
She was going to start appreciating every detail now, like an obsession.
Now she had to know how many posters there were, how many of those people were women and how many were man or children, how many papers seemed old and which seemed new and she needed to know more than anything, how many papers were on that wall in case someone ask. Sure, that made a lot of sense. She never completely got over that slight obsessive-compulsive disorder that affected her so much as a teenager.
It was something really exhausting, instead of spending her time chatting with the attractive man who was fixing her car in good faith, she was just memorizing useless data. It was a relief for her to hear a manly voice again.
"Its done, like brand new"
"So its true, women disappear around here" she was sure her tone of voice sounded worried.
"Sorry, what were you saying?" He ask confused with a frown.
"Nothing, just the missing posters"
The man pointed his finger at the wall with all those papers "don't let all that affect you. Keep that information on the surface, not deep enough to harm you." A good advice but it didn't work for her. The things on her mind were either always very on the surface or very deep.
She gave him a yellow post-it with her name and some numbers engraved on it.
"Hey!, this is my phone number. I work in a hospital in the city, if you ever need anything Im your nurse. I owe you that"
"If I put aside the bad words and the intimidating pink teaser... you are a sweet woman" she hoped the heat would go unnoticed her red cheeks. She always had a thing for older man even now as an adult woman.
"See you later then" she made an effort to give him a flirtatious smile.
"I hope so"
After driving for three hours the rain started, that was a bad thing. She hated the rain, the heat and humidity made her glasses fog up and that was not a good thing at a rainy road. Noises began to be heard in the engine until not. Just stop.
"If something can go wrong, it will go wrong." The cell phone had no signal. «What a cliche».
She put both hands on the wheel and hung her head for several minutes. She thought she wasn't much of a great fighter when it came to these things. A days ago she was leraning about Stoicism, we cannot control what happens around us, everything is cause and effect, we can only control our decisions and her decision at that moment was to surrender.
Then the sound of a car parked behind hers woke her up. Chills on her skin. With the rain, the night and her glasses she couldn't see who was the stranger who was approaching her window. She took off her glasses and rubbed them against the material of her blouse so she could see better.
Two knuckles stuck out her window. knock knock. She press the button to lower the window.
"You're not having the best day, eh." Again, an angel. The tall men that fix her car a time ago.
"It can't be so bad if you are here" she wasn't trying to sound flirty, it was just something that went through her brain and didn't filter enough so it ended up coming out of her mouth.
Without saying more, he began to do the same thing he did at the gas station. Again the hoot and the mechanical things.
She sat for a few minutes until she thought the scenario wasn't fair, she was very comfortable inside her car while the kind man faced the rain and darkness. A thought came, she took her lamp out of the glove compartment and got out of the car to help this time.
"A teaser and a lamp, you are a cautious woman, I give you that." The heat in is face, they had barely been together for a few minutes and she already needed a break.
"I'm sorry you have to listen to this but it won't get you anywhere" referencing the car.
"Well, I tried to call my dad or a tow truck but there is no signal on my cell phone. How about yours?" Left had on her waist and the right behind her neck trying to release the accumulated tension.
"Look, my house is not that far from here and I have signal there. I can drive you and we'll call a tow truck. You will put warm clothes and I will prepare you a nice dinner"
«Oh no shit, this could goes Hansel and Gretel but modern. Instead of candy it would be a cell phone signal and instead of an ugly witch it would be an attractive man, a dilf. A kind of version taken from a porn movie» She was beginning to worry about the kind of thinking she developed in serious adult situations.
"That sounds good but I don't want to upset you and your wife or something"
"I'm single, no wife, no kids" since she saw him for the first time, she began to look for some sign of commitment, but she couldn't find it. He wouldn't be the first man on earth to hide a wedding ring. She learned that at job, something very common from doctors.
"You seem like a really nice guy, but I'm in a very questionable situation right now because I don't know you" she tried really hard this time to appear coherent.
"We'll do this, if you don't want to get in my truck or come to my house I'll stay with you, here in the rain all night so you won't be alone"
Now it was more difficult to identify if there was sweet water between her legs or it was just the rain soaking her underwear. Maybe the heat could confirm it.
She would have stayed there all night with the stranger as long as she didn't get in his car but the rain began to turn into some kind of hurricane, a slight one but still. Thunder and lightning made an appearance, something very typical of the beginning of a horror movie she smiled at the thought, she was a huge fan of those movies.
"Fine" the woman got into her car and began to look in her front seat for some items; her purse, her cell phone and her keys. Making sure not to forget anything.
"Do you want me to help you with something?"
"Theres a suitcase on the back seat, it is a little heavy" he lift the suitcase easily, used to lifting heavy things. Then he opened the door of his truck and gave her a welcoming gesture with his arm, inviting her to get in.
"The man of the store" he broke the silence.
"What about that great citizen?"
"You gave him some attitud" a side smile appeared on his face.
"Guilty of that but in my defense, your honor, the personalitty comes with the hair color, a fake blonde's thing. When I want to be nicer I just dye my hair brown. Im not a bitch on my daily basics, Im a good person"
"What makes a good person?" he seemed really intrigued.
"Well, maybe; do taxes, go to church on sundays, participate in charity events, be a kind husband or wife, water your neighbor's plants from time to time..." she was going to say more examples but was interrupted with a "John Wayne Gacy was all tha'. I have my doubts abou' the plants but I'm sure he did the res'."
"Oh, I forgot to bring to the table that you also have to murder over 30 young man like Gacy did"
"A serial killer fan?" He ask.
"More like I have a friend who works whit serial killers/ psychopaths, not like he help them to kill people, I mean he studies them so I learn a lot about twisted people in crime history. And every time I say hi he is like did you know that most of the murder victims knew their aggressor at least once in their lifes, maybe a neighbor, a relative, a friend or a co-worke and then I'm like wow that's comforting"
"I would like to be her friend, sounds like an interesting person"
"If you put the weird stuff and crime scene talk aside, he's just peachy"
"What you have learned about those psychopaths? I'm curious"
"I am not the expert but I understand like if you go to Rome do what the Romans do. They are not supposed to process emotions like the average person. The most intelligent learn to imitate beneficial behaviors for them, usually they are charming. A chainsaw is not something that is essential for them like most of the people think and..." she was interrupted by the man once more "quick question, Friday the 13th or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a solid argument"
"Easy thing: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The chances of something like that happening in real life exist. Terror: fear of something that may happen"
"I'll take that, continue with the psychopaths"
"They remind me of the false empaths, those people who pretend empathy for you but only take advantage of your vulnerable situation and they hope to hit the exact spot so you can give them what they want. Something like that, I'm not his best student"
"What a thing" he limited to saying while he continued with his eyes focused on the road.
The rain began to sound louder allowing a deep silence inside the white Toyota pickup, maybe a 1982 model, she wasn't that good with cars but tried. The silence was starting to build tension so she decided to speak again "so, you have a name, tell me about it"
"At this point, why is it important for you to know my name?"
"Because in case you were to murder me I want to be part of that percentage of victims who died knew who their aggressor was"
"If thats the case, its Joel Miller" there were no laughs, the joke did not turn out as she expected.
"It was a joke, a pretty bad one, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable with that comment"
"No, that was a nice comment to hear while taking a woman to a place she doesn't know" she turned to see him, his friendly face was back.
"And now you turned this into something scary"
"I thought that the fact of being inside a stranger's car heading to an unknown place was... you know... already something scary"
"If you put it that way, all those hours of slasher fimls didn't help my survival instinct" she laughed.
"You laugh a lot, that's kind of cute"
"Laughing is my defense system"
"You feel under attack right now?"
"Not yet" she was lying. Bad things can always happen and if they can happen they will happen she lived with that constant mantra.
"Tell me something, what kind of protagonist would you like to be? You know, in a terror movie, like those slashers that you like so much"
"The one that survives the end of the movie but doesn't return in the sequel" Joel let out a genuine laugh. He was going to have a lof of fun this time.