The Guilty Secret

The alarm clock buzzed in the dark.  Victoria startled from her fitful sleep and glared at the time, 2:58 A.M.  I didn't set my alarm; why's it going off in the middle of the night?  Just what I need, something else to keep me awake, as if the nightmares aren't enough.  I haven't had a decent night's sleep in a week.  Not since....

She turned off the nagging alarm, laid her head down and tried to reclaim elusive sleep.  Heavy lids closed over her blue eyes, but visions of that night whirled in her mind and prevented sleep from coming.

Giving up, Victoria kicked off the covers, stumbled out of bed and went downstairs to make a cup of hot tea.  Maybe it'll help me sleep; I can't keep living like this.  Why did I let Alicia talk me into this terrible lie?  A sudden surge of fear gripped her with icy fingers as she remembered the answer.  Because I don't want to go to prison!

Absentmindedly stirring her tea, Victoria's thoughts wandered back to that night, exactly one week earlier.

"Come on, Vickie, don't be such a party pooper!" Alicia said loudly, trying to make herself heard over the shrieking rock music and unrelenting roar of the bar patrons, in various stages of drunkenness.  "One more drink isn't gonna kill ya, besides, it's last call.  Check out those two cute guys over by the jukebox.  They've been looking over here for the last hour."  Alicia ran her manicured fingers through her shoulder-length blond hair, pretending not to look at the two men leering at them from the corner.

Victoria glanced in their direction. Unimpressed, she said, "You know I wasn't crazy about the idea of coming here in the first place, and now I have a splitting headache."

"I know, I know, but just one more drink and I'll go quietly, I promise.  I'm buying."  She grinned that prize-winning smile that everyone, including Victoria, found irresistible.

"Okay, one more, then we're leaving, without the guys."

"You're no fun at all, Vickie," she yelled over her shoulder, as she weaved her way to the bar to get their last drinks of the night.

Victoria finished her rum and Coke, and found her raging headache had eased.  She could feel the tingling effects of the alcohol, and wondered if that last drink had been one too many.

"Okay, Alicia, it's time to go.  It's 2:30, time for all good girls to head home to bed."

"Speak for yourself."  Alicia giggled as she rose and quickly tumbled back down onto her chair.  "Whew, I guess I had more than I thought, but I'm okay to drive."

"You're barely okay to walk!  Give me your keys, I'm driving."

She held Alicia's arm and helped her into the passenger seat.  Walking around to the driver's side, she took a few deep breaths of cool, night air, hoping to clear her head.

Victoria turned on the radio and rolled down her window.  Her favorite station played an old song, and she and Alicia sang along.  Noticing a police car up ahead, Victoria decided to turn off onto Vine Road, the one that ran by the old quarry.  There'll be no police cars looking for drunk drivers.

Just as she'd predicted, this dark, secluded path was deserted.  Few cars came down this way at night.  Victoria relaxed and enjoyed the wind blowing through her short, brown hair, as she and Alicia sang along with the oldies.

"Wow, Vickie, look at the moon.  I've never seen it so huge before."

Victoria turned to look up into the sky where Alicia was pointing.  Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of something moving.  She jerked her eyes forward in time to see a middle-aged man waving his arms at them from the center of the road.

Slamming on the brakes with both feet, Victoria veered sharply to the left as the man attempted to get out of the way.  It was too late.  The Saturn's passenger door delivered a forceful blow that knocked the stranger off his feet.  He spiraled to the ground as Alicia's scream shattered the still night. 

Squealing tires ground to a halt.  The car now faced the opposite direction.  Victoria looked over at Alicia, who was sobbing uncontrollably, her hands shielding her face.

"Are you alright?" she asked Alicia, still gripping the wheel.

"I...I think so.  Are you okay?" 

"I'm okay."  Victoria paused to give her breath and thudding heart a chance to decelerate.  "Oh, my God, Alicia!  Where did he come from?  One minute he wasn't there, the next minute he was right in front of us!"

Victoria leapt from the car, and approached the form lying near the side of the road.  Moonlight illuminated the man's dark, unblinking eyes.  She gasped when she saw the crimson pool rapidly widening beneath his head.

"Alicia, I think he's dead.  We killed him!"

"What are we going to do?" 

"We have to call 911!  Hurry, give me your cell phone."  Victoria knew Alicia always kept her cell phone in her bra so she wouldn't miss a call from one of her boyfriends.  "Maybe he's still alive."

"He...he sure looks dead to me," Alicia said, as she looked over at the unmoving heap sprawled on the roadside.  She passed her cell phone to Victoria's trembling hands.

"The call won't go through.  Something must be wrong with your phone."

"Vickie, you know the reception sucks out here by the quarry.  There isn't a tower for miles."

Victoria snapped the phone shut and stared at her.  Alicia was quickly regaining her composure.

"We'll have to drive over to the police station and tell them...."

"Tell them what, Vickie?  Should we tell them we had a few drinks, and then ran over some guy in the middle of the road?" she asked sarcastically.  "What do you think they'll do to us?  You'll go to prison for a long time, and I'll probably be your cellmate.  Does that sound like fun to you?  Because if it does, let's hop in the car and head right over there."

Alicia's harsh words stunned Victoria.  Thoughts of spending years in prison for something that happened in an instant, made her stomach churn, threatening to spew rum and Coke all over the street.

"It's his own fault, anyway," Alicia said, interrupting the horrific images of life in a tiny cell, cavorting in Victoria's head.  "He shouldn't have been out in the middle of this desolate road, with a car coming straight at him."

"He probably needed some help or something; now he's dead because of me!"

"That's right; he's dead," she stated matter-of-factly.  "But, we're alive, and we have a lot more to lose at this point than he does.  I don't know about you, but I'd rather be dead than spend twenty years in jail!  Think about it, Vickie.  Saturns have dent-resistant doors.  I'll bet there's no damage to the car, and no one would ever guess it hit anything."

Victoria sprinted over to the passenger side of the red Saturn, expecting to see a body-sized dent.  Instead, she was greeted by the sight of a pristine car door, with no hint of the carnage that had taken place a few moments earlier.

"We can drive away from here, go home and pretend this never happened.  What do you say, Vickie?  I can't do it by myself; you have to agree to this."

Victoria wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the sudden chill creeping over her.  The night grew darker as a vast cloud passed in front of the dazzling full moon.  She looked up into the black sky, shuddered, and prayed it wasn't an omen.

She snapped back to the horrid reality she'd been living this past week.  Accounts of the hit-and-run were all over the newspapers.  His name was George Hutchinson, a forty-one-year-old, married father of two young children.  He'd been on a weekend business trip, but was hurrying back to his home in a neighboring state because his wife had gone into labor with their third child.

Police found his disabled car a few miles down the road.  They theorized he'd taken a wrong turn before his car broke down, and was walking to find help when he was struck by a car and killed.  They admitted they had little evidence, and were appealing to anyone with information to come forward.

Victoria gulped down her now-cold tea and went back upstairs.  She crawled under the covers and closed her eyes.  I wonder if Alicia's having trouble sleeping tonight.  Suddenly, the alarm clock buzzed again.  Her head jerked toward the nightstand, the clock again read 2:58 A.M.

That's impossible!  She picked it up and checked the settings; all the controls were set to the 'off' position.  What the...?  Her hands began to shake as a stark realization came over her.  The alarm clock fell to the floor with a thud.  2:58 A.M. -- that was the exact time of the accident!

Victoria jumped out of bed and yanked the cursed clock's plug from the outlet.  Oh, my God, what's happening?  An unyielding terror gripped her as she picked up the phone and hastily dialed Alicia's number.

"Hello?"  It was Alicia's voice, heavy with sleep.

"Alicia, it's me, Vickie."

"What the hell do you want at this time of night?"

"Something strange is going on here. My alarm clock keeps going off at 2:58 A.M."

"So, shut it off and go back to sleep."

"No, you don't understand.  The alarm isn't set; it just keeps going off by itself!"

"It's obviously defective.  Throw it away and buy a new one tomorrow."

"Don't you get it?  It's George!"

"George who?"

"George Hutchinson, the man we ran over last week.  It keeps going off at 2:58, the exact time of the accident!"

"Oh, come on, Vickie, that's so Freddie Krueger-ish.  I'm sick of you wallowing in all this guilt.  Just take a sleeping pill and go back to bed.  I'll talk to you in the morning."

Victoria threw the phone down on the bed and ran to her closet.  I have to get out of here.  I'll go to Alicia's house and make her listen to me.  We're probably both in danger!  Oh, Lord, what have I done? 

She jumped as the unplugged alarm clock started buzzing again.  Bright red numbers flashed 2:58.  She picked it up and hurled it against the wall.  As the clock broke into pieces and fell to the floor, the incessant buzzing continued.

She grabbed her purse and keys and dashed out the door.  Her hands were shaking so badly, she had to take a few deep breaths before she could get the key into the ignition.

The car roared to a start and Victoria sped away.  Without warning, the radio came on.  Oldies came blasting from the speakers, just like that night on Vine Road.  Victoria reached to turn off the radio, and her eyes locked on the car's clock.  The yellow digits read 2:58.  A muffled scream caught in her throat, and hot tears flooded her cheeks.

Her pulse quickened as she continued out of town, toward Alicia's house.  Victoria slowed to turn right on Allen Road, a few miles from her destination.  The steering wheel was jammed; it wouldn't turn.  She tugged with all her strength, but the car kept going straight as it picked up speed.  Terrified, Victoria stomped on the brakes, but the car only went faster.

Reaching for the door handle, she heard the unmistakable sound of the power door locks.  She tried the unlock button and got no response.  She yanked the handle while pushing on the door with all her might, but it refused to budge.

She covered her face with trembling hands, and began reciting The Lord's Prayer through ragged sobs.  Victoria's runaway car began to slow, but when she looked up, it was turning left onto Vine Road.

A few miles down the deserted road, the engine abruptly died.  The car coasted to a stop.  Victoria looked around nervously, expecting something horrible to happen, but her fears were met with silence.  She unlocked the door and exited with ease.

The moon was shining almost as brightly as it had the night of the accident.  "Why am I here?  What do you want from me?" she screamed.  Her questions were answered with faint sounds of a newborn baby's cry.  "I'm sorry, George, I'm so very sorry," Victoria whispered, through gut-wrenching sobs.  The still, night air conceded no sounds of forgiveness.

A ghostly symphony played all around her in the darkness.  Sounds of a woman's mournful cry, accompanied by an infant's wail and children calling for their lost father surrounded her.  She broke into a run, looking over her shoulder, expecting to see someone chasing her.  Unable to outrun the eerie sounds echoing through the trees, she stopped to catch her breath.

Still gasping for air, Victoria saw a distant glow coming toward her in the darkness.  She ran to the luminescent savior, waving her arms to make sure the driver saw her.  As the car got closer, she moved over to the side of the road, still waving wildly.  She knew all-too-well what could happen if she stayed in the middle of the road.

The speeding car was fifty yards away when Victoria felt the icy touch of cold fingers on her back.  Before she could react, frozen hands pushed her violently forward, and she fell headlong onto the road.  The bright headlights rapidly grew larger.  Victoria's scream pierced the night, as a ton of rolling metal crushed the life from her tortured body.

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Alicia tossed and turned in her bed trying to sleep.  Victoria's funeral had been almost a week earlier, and she still couldn't get their last phone call out of her head.  She said something about her alarm clock, and the time of the accident.  What the hell was Vickie doing on Vine Road in the middle of the night?  The guy that hit her said she literally jumped out in front of him.  Poor girl must have lost her mind from the guilt.  Alicia looked at her bedside clock, 2:57 A.M.  One minute later, she bolted upright as her alarm clock buzzed in the dark.