Greetings and salutations, faithful followers of this blog! I’m Timothy Scott Purvis and THIS is another installment of Story Time With Tim, an ongoing series showcasing my works that I’ve either self-published or have never gotten it further than the inquiry phase and is now gathering dust in the corners of my digital drawers. I’m trying to make the navigation of these stories on this site more manageable and able to navigate easier. Of course, there is just so much I have up already! Hope you haven’t tapped out yet…
Anyhow, this is part two of a story I wrote a few years ago called Mr. Psychopath. It’s based off of an idea I had for an animation once upon a time. The soul of a road rage driver seeks to take revenge on those who can’t drive or refuse to follow the rules of the road. Thus, this tale was born.
Hope you enjoy and come back next week for another Story Time With Tim!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out Mr. Psychopath Part One by clicking this link –> Mr. Psychopath Part One
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MR. PSYCHOPATH PART TWO
#
THE GTO GROWLED as he made his way through the small town of Macon’s Mills. The town was so small it wasn’t even on any maps and few people outside of the ten thousand or so denizens that called it home had ever heard about the place. Still, the roads were modern enough and they had cell phone towers, so that was something of a plus.
He pulled up behind three cars waiting on a red light. No other vehicles were coming from the other way and he was beginning to get irritated. Yeah, he’d go to the stupid job fair, bring home a few fliers showing he’d gone. But he rather preferred working at McMahon’s for three or fours hours and then having the rest of the day to himself. Why his father was being such a hardcase about everything, he couldn’t say, but it was infuriating.
So much so in fact he’d pretty much forgotten about the prior night’s events as he revved his engine and then pulled to the right side of the three cars waiting, and zoomed around them and through the red light. Honks followed him as he turned left onto Emerald Plaza and made his way down the street. At that moment, one particular Plymouth decided to go through the light even though it’d been empty only seconds before. Jacob laughed as the motorist screamed out of his window at him and let loose a series of curses. The three cars still waiting for the light to change offered much of the same sentiments.
Jacob flipped them all off and continued on his way. He looked to his left, the grin on his face broad and exceptionally merry that afternoon. That’s when he saw a silhouette standing on the street corner glaring at him. It didn’t have a face and looked every bit the person. Only, the clothing was nondescript and almost seemed a shadow in and of itself. He slammed on his brakes and stared at the being. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and, when he looked again, only saw five people waiting to cross the street gawking at him in disbelief. Behind him, the Plymouth had caught up and blared its horn.
Jacob rubbed his eyes again and then continued onward trying to ignore the strange shadow man on the street corner.
#
THE JOB FAIR was a farce, Jacob considered. Nothing of real consequence. Some guys trying to convince him he’d make a good construction worker with a strong chance of becoming a foreman within five years. Some others hocking the very real possibility of his becoming all that he could be by joining the army. And still others positing the idea of some IT work. It was an up and coming field with new potentials popping up within the next few years.
Yeah, right! More nonsense from those trying to keep an independent person part of the system. Doing the 9 to 5 for the corporate bigwigs and making them richer while you just become poorer and more in debt! No thank you, man. I’ve got my own way. Okay, maybe I’ll need another job at some point. Make more money if dad really does kick me out. But, I gotta be me, man. I can’t just be one more cog in that unholy capitalistic machine. Ain’t no way!
Jacob returned to his car. The fair had been a bust for the most part. But he wasn’t concerned. He could probably just ask Mr. McMahon for some extra hours. Maybe even teach him to start making some of the recipes they served in the restaurant. In all the time working there, he’d never actually tried Mr. McMahon’s food. That might have to change, he considered.
He got in behind the wheel of his GTO. Ran his hands along the bumpy surface of the smooth plastic melded steering wheel. He felt at home there. Felt important. Like nobody could turn away from how amazing he was and how powerful his engine sounded. He turned the ignition on and pulled out of the parking lot to the fairgrounds. He wanted to do some serious driving. Yeah, it was the middle of the day, sure. But his night had been ruined previously and maybe it was time to get back out onto his road. That accident has to have been cleaned up by now, right? It was in the papers, after all.
All right. Driving it is! He smiled and then saw that the road he’d need to take out of town towards Route 19 was two lanes over from him. Five cars were coming up but he figured he had more than enough room to make the shot. So, he pulled a hard right and darted across several lanes to the angry blaring horns.
“Yeah, yeah. Cool your jets. I wasn’t going to hit you. Impatient asses.”
He darted down the two-lane road of Ruby’s Rest towards Junction 9 that was somewhat of a four-lane freeway leading to the main highway of 95 some distance away. Route 19 was well before then, though.
Jacob gunned the GTO up the onramp and onto Junction 9. He was up to eighty within a matter of seconds with hardly a soul in sight. Route 19’s exit was only two miles further up the road as he pushed his GTO ever harder and listened to the roar of his engines, the transfixing on its soothing constant thrumming filling him with the sort of peace he just couldn’t find anywhere else.
About a mile inward, he saw a single sedan puttering along the slow lane. His exit was coming up fast and it was more practical to slow down to make it smoothly, but he wasn’t feeling that sort of commitment to the rules of the road and gunned his vehicle until he was behind the sedan. He saw his exit ramp coming up and zoomed around the solitary vehicle along the driver’s side as he angled in front of the car and then darted towards the offramp. The sedan honked for a long moment as he found himself having to cross the painted median to make his exit in time. He drove up the offramp and saw another vehicle on the exit moving towards his personal route.
What is this, man? Why is everyone always horning in on my personal retreat? Come on, man! 95 goes where you want! Stay off my turf! He grimaced and decided to push his car to ninety and came up along the lone car’s passenger side along the edge of the shoulder of the road and zoomed by the unsuspecting vehicle. It veered off to the left almost losing control and he laughed heartily.
“That’s what I’m talking about, son! Stay in your own lane and stop encroaching on mine!”
Jacob shifted into fourth and let the GTO loose into full drive. It roared as he entered onto Route 19 and he pushed harder towards one hundred. The laughter grew louder as the warm summer wind grew harder and he continued along the deserted road, pushing to the back of his mind his father’s threats and the need to find some greater drive in life. This was the greatest drive and it was all that mattered at the end of the day.
He was halfway down the route when a station wagon came driving down the opposite side of the street. He panicked at first but then thought there was no way it was the same vehicle. That station wagon had been destroyed and that was all there was to it. That was what he thought, until the station wagon shot past him and he saw it spin around in his rearview mirror, the vehicle clearly visible in the daylight. Tan and brown with false wooden strips along its sides. Its spin complete, the station wagon was already catching up to him
“No, no, that’s not possible! You’re dead!” Jacob screamed not realizing he was shouting. Sure, he didn’t tell anybody what had happened. But the newspaper article made it clear, it had been an accident and, I wasn’t there!
The station wagon hit his bumper and he felt the force of the vehicle as it pushed the GTO further along the road. Felt the power of the other car as the silhouette behind the wheel seemed to smile at him.
“He can’t be smiling… he’s just a shadow…”
Jacob swerved to the left as the station wagon attempted to come up beside him. And then back to the right as it attempted the same maneuver he’d done the night before. Only, this time, Jacob was able to block the maniac driver from getting around him. He laughed, his features manic in the rearview mirror as he glared at the driver of the station wagon. The grin on the silhouetted man was broader. Almost glowing in the gloom of the station wagon interior.
“You can’t beat me!” Jacob screamed, his mouth contorted into a fit of mania. “You won’t! You’re dead! You’re dead! I’m alive! And you don’t exist!”
The station wagon rammed into his bumper. Jacob looked down at his speedometer. He was doing better than one hundred and thirty.
A little faster, and I’ll escape him! A little faster, and he’ll be left in my well-maintained dust!
He dropped the accelerator all the way to the floor at the same time as the station wagon rammed through the driver’s side of his bumper. The GTO went flipping end over end and rolled into the ditch at the side of the road. The car came to rest upside down. The vehicle settled with the creaking and cracking of bent metal seeking its former form. There was a smoky smell, charred wiring, and the popping of glass falling towards the ground. Jacob groaned and reached out to the driver’s side doorframe to grip it with his hands. The shattered glass there lacerated his palms.
No, the window was all the way down, man! It can’t be shattered! It ain’t like that, man! Glass reached through the recesses of where it had been housed, seeming to claw at Jacob as he pulled himself through the crunched framework of the door. Blood cascaded down his arms and onto his brow, dizziness wracked Jacob’s head. The whole world was almost unreal, like a vague sensation of déjà vu when the mind pulls in on itself and it’s like one isn’t in the moment, but in several moments at the same time. He inched along on his back away from the wreck.
It wasn’t long before the smiling shadow was there and standing over him staring down into his soul. Even with the bright of daylight behind the being, his features were formless. Impossible to see. But that smile, though, that smile gleamed broad and bright. A white crescent in a dark void. Remnants of the Cheshire Cat after finished mocking Alice.
Jacob cried out. “Who are you? What do you want! Leave, leave me alone!”
‘Oh, but, Jacob. You’re exactly who I’ve been waiting for. Waiting for years. Oh, Ethan was a lovely, lovely pawn. But useful. You, however, mmmm…’ the shadow smiled even deeper, the grin touching where ears should have been. ‘So many chances to confess your crime. Yet, you ignored it. Just one more driver of rage carelessly ignoring your fellows’ need for respect and dignity. One more cruel being seeking out his own narcissistic tendencies and pretending he’s the only important individual on the face of the planet. Oh, how I love people like you! You fuel my drive!’
“Who, who are you?”
‘Just a wraith, son. Some call me a psychopath. At least, they did in life. But that’s ‘Mister’ to you, my friend. You know, I really like your face. I like the arrogance and certainty of it. It’s been quite some time since I found the right fool to satiate my own needs. And it’s a well-known face, at that, yes? Oh, how delicious that fear will be!’
The being placed his right-hand palm across Jacob’s face and Jacob’s entire existence began to burn. He screamed. Screamed in a way he’d never done even in birth. Smoke poured off of his skull, the smell of cooking flesh strong in his nostrils. The charred flesh of a barbeque. His scream grew louder, but the hand over his mouth muffled it to a silent grumble.
‘Oh, don’t struggle so. The truth is, I really like your car, too. I think you and I are going to get along quite nicely. Oh yes. You’ll learn, of course, that certain rules are not to be broken. Ever. Now, together, we’ll make sure the message gets across.’
Jacob looked up through the cracks in the fingers holding his face towards the ground and saw the silhouette growing more distinct. His face became whole and his body took on his own form. Right down to the plaid shirt and Levi jeans.
The face was his face. Grinning back at him with the sort of maliciousness one might find out of a demon, a devil, evil itself. And then there was only the darkness of vision as he went lifeless on the ground. He wondered briefly if he would make the front page of the newspaper.
#
THE MIDNIGHT BLUE GTO spun around from where Jacob had briefly lain and took off back towards the town of Macon’s Mills. A laugh echoed out into the dark night as the moon shone brightly upon an empty road and an empty ditch. A growl of joyous rage emanated from the car being pushed to its maximum limits.
#
EMILY LOHAN SPUN the car around a series of vehicles waiting for the light and made a beeline for the highway onramp. Her friends in the backseat of her brand new Camaro laughed haughtily and without reservation as the car made its way up Junction 9 doing just over seventy.
“You all ready to see what a Camaro can really do?”
“Oh, come off it, Emily! Who you trying to impress, huhn? We all know you aren’t any sort of rule breaker!”
“Oh, please! If you’re not out livin’ you’re dying in a small town! You ever heard of Route 19?”
One of her friends, Trevor, leaned forward, his laugh diminishing but still sounding like he was amused, “Isn’t that the road where all those grizzly accidents keep happening? I heard there’s this demon car taking people out going too fast… I heard the tale that the driver is a local kid. Guy who disappeared a few years back. Drives this serious looking GTO with a massive chrome hood scoop.”
“Seriously? Damn, Trev! I didn’t know you were such a pansy!” Emily laughed as she saw the onramp to Route 19 and made to turn off onto it. “‘Sides, all of that is just an urban legend. Told to frighten the kiddies into staying home and striving to live happy little Mary Poppins lives. Would never have guessed you’d buy into those stories, Trev!”
Her other friends, Tabitha in the back seat with Trevor and Nita in the front seat, laughed with her. Nita turned to look at Trevor.
“Yeah, Trev! Didn’t know you were so easily frightened!”
“I’m not easily frightened,” Trevor said trying not to let the frown crease his lips. “I just think maybe there are better things to do with our day, is all. Rather than, you know, risk getting a speeding ticket out on the freeway.”
“Sh—t!” Emily said. “We’re on our way to the Mayfield Mall, buddy! And Route 19 is the quickest ticket there!”
“Emphasis on ticket. But, whatever, Em,” Trevor said leaning back into his seat, his brow furrowing as he glared out the window and crossed his arms. “Just don’t wreck us, alright.”
“You worry too much, Trevvy,” Tabitha cooed rubbing one hand across Trevor’s cheek.
They continued on speaking to one another of inane things going on in their small lives while Trevor felt a welling despair growing in his gut. He looked towards the rearview mirror. Somehow, it was growing darker outside, the moon rising high into the sky casting an eerie blue glow across the carpet of forest surrounding them on both sides.
“When did it get dark?” he muttered. The girls ignored him. Then he saw the lights fast approaching from behind. “What kind of car is that?”
“Huhn?” Emily started and looked in the rearview mirror. It was still light enough for her to make out some details. “It looks like a sweet GTO if I haven’t gone blind.”
“We have to get off this road!” Trevor shouted and reached for the door handle. Tabitha grabbed his hand and pulled him away from it.
“What are you on about? You can’t just jump out of the car doing ninety, Trev!”
“We can’t be here! We can’t be here! We can’t be here! He’s here! He’s angry about anyone on the road who can’t respect the rules!”
“What rules are you talking about, Trev?” Nita asked, her own brow furrowed and the uncertainty clear in her voice.
“The rules of the road!” his eyes wide, Trevor stared right back into her gaze. “The rules of the freaking road!”
The GTO zoomed around them and cut them off, slowing down to about sixty. Emily cursed out loud and stared at the vehicle in front of them. She saw a broad, brilliant grin in the rearview mirror of the GTO and its eyes fixated on her own.
Emily screamed a deathly wail as the brake lights of the GTO came on and the vehicle came right at them. Trevor saw it and screamed as well prompting both Tabitha and Nita to raise their arms over their faces and join in on the symphony of terror.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading and hope you had fun! There will be more to come next week! Until then, have a good week!
~Timothy S Purvis
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION STARTS!
I would appreciate if you have Kindle or even if you want some paperback goodies if you’d head on over to my page and maybe show me some love there. I mean, if you’ve been reading a while and see something you like, wouldn’t you like to have it in your personal library? I have some cool short stories available for cheap. Also Tales From A Strange Mind that collects my short stories (there’s also a Kindle edition but, for some reason, Amazon wouldn’t let me link them together) , Tales From A Strange Mind II which collects my old novellas, Red Star Sheriff (Which also has a Kindle edition but Amazon, am I right?) my first novel ever released, though, yes, it does have some grammatical errors and drags on for way too long, sigh. But I still love it and I will be writing a follow up sometime within the next few years. I have a collection of my poems called MisAligned: The Heart Waxes Poetic which collects my old poems but not some of my newer ones included those flash fictions! I’ll probably do that in the future as well. And if you love the perfectly inane, why not check out my Star Cloud scripts presented in book form? Star Cloud The Original Scripts. Another one where Amazon was being difficult with me in connecting the Kindle and PB versions. Still, the paperback they let me sale for cheap and it’s well worth a look if I say so myself. Or, if you don’t want to click on individual links (all of which will take you to my author’s page anyway), just click on my author’s page directly by tapping my name: Timothy S Purvis See for yourself what all I’ve published since I began this venture in 2016.
I mean, if you like my work, of course. No pressure. Just trying to find my way in this world without working menial tasks and suffering physical and mental issues as a result. If only I could merely stay home and write. That would be my most epic fantasy brought to life. Well, if you don’t want to do that, you could also donate to my cause down below after all is said and done. It would help. You know, if you liked what you saw and all. Up to you. I don’t have a lot of reviews on my materials because of low sales. I mean, very, very low sales. In the single digits. Right now, I have to rely on Pubby for reviews and those people only read your synopsis and recap it for a five star review. I want honest opinions. Not mean ones, but honest. So, if you ever find yourself buying some of my work, I’d certainly appreciate some feedback. Again, up to you.
Also, I’m selling my work for cheap over at Smashwords.com! Check out that page here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TSPurvis
End Shameless Self Promotion!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
iCentrist 