Road Kill

The Welsh countryside was layered in a thin strip of fog, and rain poured down from the heavens, pounding heavily against the windscreens of Katie’s car. She hummed softly along to a song on the radio, as she lent further forward trying to see through the mask of the typically-wonderful-welsh weather. As the song came to an end, the annoying voice of Gina Kay echoed around the car, irritating Katie’s mind. She scowled and flicked the switch on the radio to turn it off, engulfing her in a peaceful silence. As Katie carried on driving, the weather began to clear up, and the rain eventually stopped. The comfortable silence was quickly broken by a shrill wolf-whistle coming from the passenger seat. Katie jumped slightly before reaching for the mobile phone and blindly flipped it open. By the tie she’d pressed it to her ear; her boyfriend was already half way through his sentence.

“—So I said to him ‘you can get your own girl mate, she’s all mine.’ So, how’re you love? Any idea what time you’re getting home at?” He questioned, speaking at a mile-a-minute like always.

“I’m fine thanks, and I’ll be home in about half an hour.” She replied, chuckling softly.

“Great, great! I’ve cl—” her boyfriends voice cracked, as the signal on Katie’s phone started to fade.

“I’ve got to go honey. I’ll see you soon, love you!” she yelled into the phone, before hanging up without waiting for a reply.
Placing her phone back onto the passenger seat, she flicked the switch on the radio to turn it back on. ‘Monster’ by The Automatics blasted through the once quiet car, making Katie grin and crank up the volume.

A few miles down the road, the orange-yellow headlights on Katie’s car drifted over a lump in the road.

“What the—?” she whispered, slamming her foot down on the brake pedal, causing the tires to squeal as they froze and slipped slightly on the wet road.

Katie lent forward and squinted through the murky windshield at the peculiar shaped lump. It wasn’t moving. Swallowing her fear, Katie sat back in her seat, and let her hand wander down to the baseball bat she kept in the side tray of the car door. She grasped it with one had, and opened the door with the other. She stepped out of the car and cautiously made her way over to the figure, her pointed heels clonking against the hard tarmac as she walked.

“H-hello?” she called as she neared the figure, “can you hear me? Are you okay?”

She could see the figure perfectly now. It was a man. He was dressed in a deep grey hoodie and dark blue jeans. He was laid on his side, head turned away from her, arms and legs splayed out around him.

“Hello?” Katie called again, her grip tightening on the baseball bat in her hands. “Can you hear me?”

Katie tightened her grip on the bat once more before slowly reaching out and jabbing the man again, harder this time. Her breath hitched in her throat, and her balance faltered as she toppled slightly on her heels.

“What the hell?” she cried, as a football rolled out from the hood of the jacket, and the part where the head should have been, crumpled flat.

Katie swallowed; panic flooding her senses as she turned away, and ran as well as she could in heels back to her car. She scrabbled inside, throwing the bat on the back seat, before slamming the door shut. Her fingers frantically scrabbled for the locks as she forced them down, watching them disappear into the car doors. She squeezed her eyes shut and leant back into the soft seat of the car, waiting for her heart to stop pounding. Eventually she sat forward again and reached for her keys.

Her fingers enclosed on nothing but air.

Her keys were gone.

Her bright blue eyes widened in panic as she searched her car in frenzy, hoping they had just fallen on the floor or something.

She couldn’t find them.

A deafening thud on the roof of the car made Katie stop dead in her tracks. The car began to rock and creak as whatever was on the roof began to move.
Katie sat stiffly and still, thanking god that she’d locked the doors. The car lurched violently as the thing jumped off the car, and landed heavily on the ground. Katie’s heart-rate rapidly increased as she heard the thing shuffling around by the back of her car. She swallowed, every muscle in her body had tensed up with fear, and the hairs on the back of her neck had begun to stand on end.

The shuffling sound was moving.

Then, just like that, it stopped. Katie let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding in until now. She ran a hand over her face, and sighed more out of relief than exasperation. She didn’t really take into account how long she was sat there, un-moving, un-blinking and staring off into space, in her own little world. She came crashing back down to earth with a sickening thud as a rather peculiar clicking noise brought her back to her senses. Fear built up inside the pit of her stomach, and her muscles became tense once again. Her breathing quickened, and her heart-rate sped up, as the back door of the car opened, and something slipped inside.

“Oh god, no, please god no!” she cried, her chest constricted with fear and panic as she realised her mistake. She’d forgotten to lock the back doors.

“Shh,” a soft rasping whisper breezed into her ear-drums, and made her shiver. “Shh, don’t be afraid, it’s only me.”

“Who the heck are you?” Katie managed to choke out, her words catching in her throat.

“I—” the voice mumbled, “I my dear, I am the reason your boyfriend wont let you walk down the dark, empty roads. I, my dear, I am the person your mother warned you about.”

“N—no! Oh, no please not this! Anything but this, please, no!” Katie cried, twisting around in her seat and scrabbling for the door handle.

“It’s locked my dear. You’re trapped.” The voice whispered, before an arm enclosed around Katie’s neck, and a grubby hand pushed a cloth over her nose and mouth. Katie couldn’t even scream.
Black splodges swarmed her vision, and everything faded to black.

Katie didn’t know how long she’d been sat there, blindfolded with her wrists tied up behind her and her legs bound together.

Was it minutes, hours or even days?

There was no way for Katie to find out. She’d come around from being drugged ages ago, or at least it felt like ages ago. The soft sound of footsteps caused Katie to jump slightly, the sound bounced off the walls and echoed around the room. The footsteps stopped in front of where she was sat, and she felt a pair of hot hands scrabble around her neck, untying the blindfold which covered her eyes. Katie blinked a few times, letting the room around her come into focus. From what she could make out, the room she was sat in was poorly furnished, with just a single cupboard and for some reason, a refrigerator. Katie let her eyes wander to the figure that was looming over her. He was a tall, thickly built man with small eyes and short black hair which was plastered to his head like a second skin. He wore mucky blue overalls which where stained with odd coloured patches. Katie didn’t even want to think about what they could be. She raised her pale blue eyes to his dull grey ones and just stared at him. It was a while before she managed to gather up enough courage to even speak.

“W—who are you?” She said, stuttering slightly, her obvious fear showed through in her voice. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“Well, if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.” the man muttered, smirking at her. “First, I want to kill you. Then I’ll skin you, then eat your flesh…then maybe, just maybe I’ll start eating your brain.” His smirk had now turned not a sick and twisted grin.

“Why!” Katie yelled, “Why are you doing this to me?” Tears flooded her blue eyes, falling over the lids and making there way down her cheeks.

The cannibal leaned in closer to her, his lips almost touching her ear, his putrid hot breath tickling her neck.

“Because,” he whispered, “because it makes me happy.”