Good Samaritan

Being broke is a bitch enough as it is, but being a broke college student with a car that’s nursing a flat tire, and in the middle of a move? That takes the cake. Two maxed credit cards, tens of thousands of bucks in debt for school, bills higher than what I can pay, even with a roommate, and I’ll admit that I have myself to blame for a lot of it. As it was, the value of my life was going incrementally down as the days went by. My roommate loaned me his car to help with the move, though. It would be better for us, and my friend and her brother that were moving in with us.

It was a hell of a deal, too. $400 a month for a two story house. Good to have friends, ain’t it? I had helped them with some boxes, and stayed a while until it was dark before I left. Deena and Sam stayed to make sure the pipes didn’t freeze and burst, which had just gotten fixed. I got in the car and started to drive back home. It was a route I knew, in the area I was from. On top of that, it was on a main road, off of the highway. It wasn’t that late, but it was late enough where the cars on the road were few and far between. That’s what made the broken down car off of exit 23 so weird.

A young couple was trying to push the car off of the road. The cars on both sides of the road were ignoring them for the most part, but I decided to turn around, and park a block up so that I could help them out. I have heard the stories of women faking a broken down car so they could fuck some random guy, and take his wallet. This was clearly a man and a woman, though, and the steam coming from the engine was enough for me to think it was real.

I got out of the car and ran to where the car was. The only stop I made was at a crosswalk, where a few people looked at me as if I had lost my mind. The only thing I was worried about was that couple. “Please, God, let them be okay!” I prayed as I ran.

It took me maybe two minutes to run up to the intersection from where I was parked. “What the fuck?” I asked myself out loud as I stopped. The car and the couple were gone. There was no where they could have been, no way they turned and drove off by the time I got there. It was the weirdest thing I had seen in my life, but I had no other choice than to turn around and walk away.

Which is what I did. As I walked, I saw a policeman walking up to me. “Can I help you, officer?” I shouted .

“Sir, why did you park at a fast food place only to run all the way up there?” He shouted loud enough to get over the traffic, but it wasn’t an angry shout. I walked closer before I replied.

“I saw a couple up the street with a broken down car. There’s no shoulder on the road, so I had to drive up here, and turn around. I didn’t want to see anyone get hurt, and I know what it’s like being broken down on a main road.”

The policeman nodded. “How were you going to cross the street?”

“Well, honestly, I hadn’t thought of that. I was more worried about the fact that no one was stopping to help them.”

He nodded again, this time pulling out his ticket booklet. “Sir, jaywalking is an offense. I’m going to have –”

“”Whoa!” I started. “You’re going to write me a ticket for helping people in need, even though they were gone when I got there. I didn’t even cross against traffic!”

“Sir, insubordination is only going to make it worse.”

“Really? Because I saw a police car drive by them!” I had lost it. What’s another thing I have to pay for against my principles? “Go ahead and write me a ticket! I’ll contest the fucking thing, and the judge will ask why you didn’t do anything for those people!”

He paused, giving me a glance that was both studious and cautious. “Have it your way, sir,” he said as he placed the book back in his pocket. “Just know that things aren’t what they seem tonight.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He didn’t answer, so I opened my door. “Fucking cop.”

“Sir, don’t make me pull you out of the car. Drive off, now.”

Fuck it. No need to ask me twice. I started the engine, and left, noticing the officer following me. I went a mile up the road, knowing full well that my adrenaline pumping in my ears was going to drown out the road. I pulled into the Roger’s parking lot, thinking a trip to the store would clear my head.

I first went to the grocery section of the store, so I could make my way through the store in a loop. I stopped to look at the cheese when I hear a series of metallic clicks. I turned to see one of the associates staring at me through green rimmed glasses. “Welcome to Roger’s! May I help you?” she asked in an eerily happy voice.

“No, I’m just looking. Thanks,” I said. I turned to walk to electronics. I heard the clicking behind me, following. I turned to see the same woman behind me. She wasn’t wearing heels, so I couldn’t figure out what was making that weird clicking sound.

“Welcome to Roger’s! May I help you?” she asked again, in that same disturbing chipper voice. It was grating like teeth on plastic.

“I’m fine, just like I said less than a minute ago.” I continued on towards electronics, still hearing her following me. I turned and saw her warped grin. Before she asked again, I turned towards toys. I looked at the action figures, keeping my head on a swivel for the creepy woman.

I heard an argument in the next aisle. It sounded more like a threat. A man was yelling at someone. “I hate you, you fucking bitch! I hate you, and I’m going to rape you! I’m going to rape you hard, bitch! I’m going fucking rape you in your ass, too! And when I’m done doing that, I’m going to carve my name--!”

I walked up the aisle where a man was yelling at a young woman. His skin was blood red, veins pulsing in his neck in time with his fists tightening. I felt like I was making a mistake, but I spoke up. “Dude, back the fuck off! You’re making a scene, and scaring the rest of us trying to shop!”

He turned to me, and, oddly, started to walk away. His skin turned back to normal as he slinked off to the other end of the store. That was the second time something seemed too easy to be true. I turned and looked at the woman. She was crying, but she was pretty. Her eyes widened as she looked at me. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She said, groping for my arms. “I need a ride home, and when I get back,” her voice changed to a frightening growl. “I’m going to fuck you like no one has fucked you before.”

I backed away, seeing a ravenous glare in her eyes. “No, it’s fine. I don’t need you to repay me or anything. I’ll take you home, but we don’t need to do anything--!”

“No!” She screamed. “We’re going to fuck! We are, and you’re going to like it! Take me to your car, take me home, and we will fuck!”

My eyes had widened to the point where my eye sockets felt like they were going to split open. “O-okay, fine,” I said. “We’ll go to your place, and fuck. Fine.” She wrapped her arm around mine, and we walked to the car.

We got to the parking lot when I got an idea. “I have to unlock your door from my side, so I’ll get in, get the car started, and I’ll let you in.” She nodded, a psychotic grin crossing her face. I opened my door, buckled in, and started the car. Before she could react, I put the car in gear, and drove off. I checked the rearview mirror, seeing her chase after me and screaming. I sped out of the parking lot, and onto the road. Watching as she ran towards me until she was less than a speck in my mirror.

“Fuck, what the hell is going on?” I shouted at myself. I was going to hit the back roads, but with the way the night was going, I felt it was only slightly safer to stay on the main roads. I got to the next intersection, and waited at the red light. Before it could turn green, the van next to me sped off. I went when it turned green, keeping an eye on the van in front of me.

At the next intersection, she stopped and sat as the light turned green. I went, and drove down the street to the next intersection. As I stopped at the red, I felt the car lurch forward as something slammed into the back of it. My head hit the steering wheel hard enough that I heard a loud “crack.”

I lifted my head off of the wheel and looked into the rearview mirror. It was the van behind me, and it was backing up. “Oh, shit!” I uttered as I lifted off of the brake. The van was now going full speed forward towards the back of the car. I pressed my foot down on the gas, forcing it to the floor. The van followed me down the street, matching my speed.

I made the first left turn that I could, which she followed through as well. Her interior light came on, and I saw her face, warped in that strange way I had seen all night. I swerved as much as I could, hoping to fake the van into a turn, or flip it over, but to no avail. I then saw what could be my salvation: the police station. I sped by it and a stopped police car. She did too. Shortly after she did, I saw the police car pull out, sirens blaring.

I laughed as I looked in the rearview mirror. My laugh turned to panic as I saw the police car swerve around the van, and next to me. It was the same policeman from earlier that night, that look on his face forming as fast as the car was moving. He turned his wheel sharply towards me. I slammed on the brakes as he went in front of me, crashing into a light pole. I drove around the crash, watching for the van.

It wasn’t in sight, luckily. I watched as the accident disappeared from view. I drove that street the rest of the way home, keeping an eye out for that damned van.

As I parked in my space in front of my apartment, I looked back. Nothing still. I stepped out of the car, closing the door as I stared at the street. I kept my eyes out as I walked up the steps, unlocked the door and went inside. Nada.

I collapsed upstairs on my bed, and turned on the TV. The station was blank. Cable probably went out, I thought. I switched to the antenna, and turned to a local station. The news caster had that twisted grin on his face. I listened to what he said though. “Tonight, a car was abandoned in a church parking lot on North Watchwood Street after a couple was sighted pushing it down the street after they were struck by another car. The police are looking for a man who attempted to help, but fled the scene once the car was abandoned. This ‘Good Samaritan’ was also sighted in Roger’s on the same street, as he helped a woman in an argument. If you see him, he is to be considered a threat to our way of life, and killed at once!”

I stared at the cold light of the television for a while, and then locked the door to the room. I didn’t sleep, staring out the windows until the sun came up. That was when I fell asleep. After a few hours, I woke up. My head had bled onto the bed and pillow. I got up and looked in the mirror in my bathroom.

My cheeks were inflated as a smile was traced across my face. My eyes narrowed in a terrifying glee, as blood poured from my head, I tasted the iron and sweat mix in my mouth. It was the disease, spreading through the air, and into my blood. I had finally felt it. It wasn’t that I helped those people, or tried to. It was setting in on them by the time I got there. Those people with the car were probably already far gone, rictuses crossing their faces.

It was the trauma of the events that was warping them. And it was warping me, too. I grabbed a straight razor rom the medicine cabinet, and knocked on my roommate’s door. He answered, holding his pants up in one hand. Before he could speak, I slashed across his forehead, and then his neck. He didn’t scream as he choked on his blood. Instead, he looked strangely horrified until his smile took hold before he died. The trauma had spread, and all the good I had attempted to do was finally met with its reward. I had finally done a good deed.

As my smile grew, my cheeks started to split open, causing pain to run through my face. And I had never felt better.