The Terror #wattys2017 #TNTHorrorContest

Paramedics

    I awoke on the floor looking up at the ceiling of Al's with old man Wadi and a couple of the waitresses looking down at me.  Apparently when you scream and pass out you attract a lot of attention.  

        "He's waking up." I heard a couple people say.

        "What the fuck happened; how did I get on the floor?"

        It was then I realized my head was in Michelle's lap and she was holding a cool rag on my forehead. She looked down at me upside down from my viewpoint, It was that strange upside down movement of her ruby red lips and super white teeth as she spoke that gave me an out of body kind of feeling.

        "Just be still sweetie, don't move, we got ya, the paramedics will be here any second."

        Wadi raised his arms and stepped back, and in his gruff smoker's voice said,

        "Let's give the kid some air you guys, c'mon, give him some space."

        My vision was still a little blurry and the ceiling fans were out of focus. I could really smell bacon and perfume and the floor was super cold.  I tried to lift my head but was still too weak, my whole body sort of felt like pins and needles and for some reason that squeaky old ceiling fan was really pronounced, screek, screek, screek...I could hear people talking all around me but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. 

        Then Mary Ann said,

        "You really gave us a scare there dude, do you remember what happened?"

        I furrowed my brow to try and think, what happened?  I was having coffee with Michelle, this made me smile to think of.

        "We were having coffee right...and French fries. Mary Ann brought us some fries and we...we were talking about ....I don't remember...were we talking about Dale?"

           Just then it sunk in that Michelle said, "the paramedics were coming. "

       " No, no no, no paramedics, fuck that. I don't need no stinking paramedics. Help me up Wadi."

        I reached up and grabbed the old mans arm and pulled myself up to a sitting position.

        "I don't think that's such a good idea kid...really, just stay down"

        "FUCK THAT! I'm getting out of here, I don't need my parents involved in this shit, I'm getting the fuck out of here!."

        I wrestled myself up to my feet and went for the door, Wadi was holding on to me by my arm and I yanked it out of his nubbly fingered grip and ran out the glass doors with a BANG, a little loopy on my feet but still able to run.

        'FUCK YOU OLD MAN!"        I yelled!

        I ran to the back behind Al's where there were some high bushes and behind those some old apartment buildings. I realized I wasn't quite right, that my balance was not exactly what it should have been but I kept going, tripped off the sidewalk and fell on my knees and skinned my palms. It was dark and my vision was a little compromised but I got my ass up and jumped the wall at the back of the parking lot into the bushes and down a little slope that ran into the chain link fence that bordered the rear parking area for the apartment building.  I started to feel better the further away I got, lungs filling with air, feeding my legs with all the energy I needed to make a swift escape. There was a big blue dumpster, "cool" I thought, I lifted the lid and it was nearly empty so I took a quick look around and in I went.

        It smelled like I expected a dumpster to smell like and with the top closed it was suffocating, but I wouldn't be there long.  I heard the sound of the siren pulling into the parking lot at Al's about a quarter mile away. 

        "Those guys are gonna be pissed" I thought, "I wonder if they'll come looking for me?"

        I stayed in the dumpster for what seemed like half and hour or so, peeking through the crack of the lid.  A couple cars came and went while I was there but the people went into the building.  As soon as the coast was clear I came out and started my walk up the hill to Tujunga on the back streets that had been my friends on many a dark night. 

        After about fifteen minutes I came upon Mt. Gleason Ave and thought how this was the street we took to get to the canyon that night. I stood on the corner of Summit-Rose and Mt. Gleason for a few minutes just catching my breath and feeling like I wasn't being hunted, when way down the street a saw a car coming. I could hear the exhaust rattling and off white headlights of a car that probably had a bad charging system. I stood there and waited because I had a lot of friends in town who drove old beaters like that and maybe I could get a ride. As it came and I could make out the flat black paint that started the hackles on the back of my neck rising, 

        "Was that a fucking Merc?" Repeated in my brain, "Is that a fucking Merc, IS THAT A FUCKING MERC?"

        It was impossible, but it was Dales fucking Mercury and it was coming right at me without slowing for the stop sign. 

        "This isn't possible, this ain't possible, THIS AIN'T POSSIBLE!"

        Frozen with fear and recognition, I couldn't move so I just closed my eyes, the sound of the exhaust echoing in my ears. I clenched my fists and there was fucking Dale biting my hand again and I SCREAMED STOPPPPPP!!!

        This time I didn't black out....

        Everything went quiet, nothing but the sound of the overhead street light buzz, crickets chirruping and an angry dog barking way off in the distance.  I opened my eyes and everything was fine.  Just another lovely night, a warm breeze blowing through my long curly hair as my heart was trying to escape from my chest and sweat drying from a light breeze across my brow. I still didn't move for a minute, trying to digest what had just happened. I held up my left hand.....

        Bloody fucking teeth marks.