Overtime

         As her tears dripped over the duct tape keeping her quiet he put the car in park for a moment and got out. She frantically tried to think of a way to free herself in his absence while he dragged the road closed signs out of the way. He got back in the car, oblivious to the useless escape thoughts that had just raced through her head. They left behind the orange blinking lights and started driving out over the water.

         Her thoughts changed back to bleak heart pounding terror. The two of them had opposite intentions, but both their hearts were racing. He didn’t say anything and she couldn’t say anything. No matter what she would say would only make it worse, and to try to put in words what he was feeling would be futile. He kept his eyes on the road.

         They pulled up to the construction site a half a mile away from land. In the faint light from the moon he looked at the surrounding trucks, equipment, and materials. He shut the car off and jumped out, leaving her behind in what would be her last moment alive and alone. Her head filled up once again with hysterically jumbled thoughts, ways to possibly save herself. She wrestled with her constraints around her hands and feet with no success. The few minutes that he was gone seemed to fly by, and soon she saw his silhouette pacing back towards the car. She quit struggling and sank down in her seat.

         He dragged her past the still gray trucks, further into the mess of metal poles and concrete. Once they were through the clutter, she stopped and looked out over the dark cold water expecting to be in it momentarily. But he had other plans for her and jerked her to the right, towards the sound of a worn out engine moaning. At first she couldn’t make it out in the dark, but when the smell of wet concrete hit her she understood. They stopped and stood over a gaping hole, watching the liquid concrete slowly sludge down and splatter, leisurely filling the hole. One day it would be a solid support holding thousands of people, but right now it was her grave.

         Watching the abyss he became entranced by the sluggish concrete and his rage calmed for a moment. He contemplated what he was about to do. His eyes glazed over as his head flooded with doubt. Traces of uncertainty surfaced and he began questioning himself.

      “Should I really follow through with this?” He thought to himself. “I’ve probably given her a good scare already...”

        A particularly large glob of concrete slid down the chute and slapped the concrete pool below, snapping him out of the trance of indecision. He remembered why he was there and fury and resentment made his blood boil. He blocked out the doubt, he had made up his mind. He hoped she wasn’t thinking of what her last words would be because he wasn’t going to let her have any.

         “This probably won’t fix things,” he said and looked up and met her eyes, “But it’s a start.”

         Her eyes widened as he stepped towards her. With a hard shove and a murmured scream she blindly tipped over the edge like a falling tree. The free fall wrenched her stomach and her disability to move made the descent even more terrifying. He heard the wet smack as her body slammed into the thick concrete below and she slowly began to sink as she fidgeted. She tried to fight it at first but more fresh concrete slopped down on top of her and she knew it was hopeless. This would be a slow death at the rate the concrete was being poured.

        As time passed, what started as an irritating rash from the reacting concrete chemicals gradually felt like itchy burn covering her skin, building in intensity. She tried to ignore it. After all her racing thoughts tonight, she was finally overwhelmed and wasn’t thinking of anything.

         Sinking deeper she looked up at his towering silhouette watching her beside the concrete waterfall. The heavy sticky concrete soon entered into her nose and she choked down the suffocating gray liquid. It filled her lungs and started burning her from the inside out. She felt like she was drowning while being burned alive.

         He shut the pourer off and got back in the car. Work would continue tomorrow.