Expecting to Die

Calm down. Just take a deep breath. You’ll meet with him and he’ll make
things better.
She crested the top of the craggy ridge, then started downward into the
canyon. Rolling down the window, she smelled the dry forest and felt the night
air seep into the car, the wind snatching at her hair. That was more like it. Cool.
Calm. Rational.
She hit the brakes repeatedly, keeping her little Ford on the road, hugging the
center line. Still, she met no other cars, but as she rounded the tight curves she
thought she caught the flash of headlights in her rearview. Odd. The car hadn’t
been behind her on the straightaway. Had it pulled behind her here in the
mountains, or had she slowed so much that someone she hadn’t seen before, a
speeder, had caught up to her?
She kept driving, but her concentration was distracted, caught between the
empty, winding road ahead, and the quicksilver hints of headlights behind. She’d
thought the beams weren’t steady because of the trees and hills and curves in the
road, but maybe it was because the driver was turning his headlights on and off,
trying to chase her down.
No way.
No one knew she was on the road.
Except him.
And he was her ally.
Could her parents have found her out? Gone into her room and discovered that
she’d sneaked out? Even if they had, how would they know that she was on this
road? No, that wasn’t feasible. But if they called the cops . . . ?
Wouldn’t a cop use his lights? Maybe a siren?
So what then?
She kept driving, the lights behind her flickering on and off, distracting her.
Putting her more on edge.
She should never have agreed to meet out here in the middle of no-damned-
where. Why hadn’t she had him swing by and talk in the damned “man cave”?

---

Her parents wouldn’t have heard her. But, of course, it would have been
dangerous.
Nervously chewing on the inside of her mouth, Lindsay squinted into the
darkness. Her thoughts were a jumble, and she wondered if she should have just
called the cops. Told them what she knew. With difficulty, she focused on the
road ahead, where her headlights cut through the darkness and the double yellow
line was nearly mesmerizing in its snake-like path.
Again, she saw lights in the reflection of the mirror.
Distracted, she cut a corner a little tight, then swung wide and saw the S-curve
ahead. She braked, attempting the first sharp turn, pulling hard on the wheel,
seeing a glint of light behind her again, cutting the corner too close as the vehicle
behind her appeared.
Big.
Lights on bright.
Accelerating on this twisting snake of road.
“What the hell?” she whispered. “Back off jerk-wad!” As if the driver could
hear her.
She glanced through the windshield again and screamed.
In the wash of her headlights, she saw a body. Stretched out across the center
line, a human form lay, unmoving. Dead? Alive? She didn’t know.
Oh, God. Oh, dear God!
Lindsay stood on the brakes.
Nooo!
Jerking the wheel, she tried to avoid hitting flesh and bone, all the while
seeing the girl’s face turned toward her, her eyes rounded and staring blankly.
“God, no!”
Her car fishtailed.
She couldn’t slow down fast enough!
Thump!!!
She hit the body.
Thunk!
Oh, Jesus! Her tires squished the girl, rolled over her, pushing the body as the
brakes seized.
Screaming, disbelief and terror scraping through her brain, Lindsay twisted on
the steering wheel and the back tires came free, bounced over the body.
Oh. Dear. God. No. No, no! Oh . . .
Headlights appeared behind her. Bright. Glaring.
Shaking, crying, and shrieking, she saw the side of the cliff rushing at her. She
cranked the wheel. The Focus hit gravel and began spinning. The beams of her

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headlights splashed over the cliff face, then the road, then the guardrail as the car
spun around, swerving wildly. She saw the truck that had been following her
stopped on the road, its headlights glaring at her, its driver watching.
Her fender caught on metal.
Scraaaape! The Ford slid along the guardrail, metal screeching and groaning,
sparks flying until the old rail and pilings suddenly gave way and her little car
sped over the rim of the ledge.
Lindsay screamed as she plunged down, down, down into the great, black,
yawning abyss, while the driver of the pickup did nothing to help.

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