“Where are we?” he asked suspiciously.
“Just give me a minute,” she snapped.
“What? Are we lost? I thought you said you told Jill how to get here,” he demanded.
“We aren’t lost I just need to get my bearings,” she said angrily. “I’m sure your precious Jill is safe and sound. Now would you shut up and let me think?”
Just when Jim was resigning himself to being lost in the middle of God knew where she told him start driving again. Almost immediately after that she had him take a left. As he spun the wheel trying to avoid a tree that loomed out the darkness he thought he saw the headlights pick out the form of a person standing not twenty feet away.
“Who was that?” he asked as he hit the brakes.
“Who was what?” Maria answered.
“That,” he said pointing. “I saw someone standing a little ways that way.”
“I didn’t see anyone,” Maria said spookily. “Maybe there’s some sort of monster out there or something. Who knows, maybe it already got Jill and now it’s coming for us.”
Her words brought images of the Goatman flooding into his head. This was crazy. He was out in the middle of nowhere, with one of the weirdest people he’d ever met, looking for a girl he hoped liked him and oh, by the way, the Goatman was after him and his only remaining living friend. Pete wasn’t the only one that needed to have his head examined.
“Maybe there wasn’t anything after all,” he stammered.
“Course there wasn’t, sweetie. You’re just excited. That’s all. You know, I could take your mind off all that stuff.” He glanced over and saw her unbuttoning her top. She’d already gotten it down far enough that he could see a little bit of some dark colored lace from her bra in the light from the instrument panel.
“How much longer?” he asked as he quickly looked back in front of them. Whatever answer she might have said, he didn’t hear. Just out of reach of the headlights he saw a big shadow move across the road.
“There it was again!” he yelled.
“There’s nothing out there,” she huffed. “If you’d just look over here long enough you wouldn’t even care what was out there.” Before he could catch himself he looked. The buttons on Maria’s top were undone and her bra was in plain view. The lace he’d seen ended up being just about all it was made of. He knew he should look away but he couldn’t. He was a man after all. His eyes seemed to strain to see what was hidden underneath the lace. He was sure if it was lighter he’d be able to see everything. He was just reaching for the interior light when something struck the car. Startled by the impact Jim snapped back to reality and looked around.
“It was probably just some animal or something,” Maria said trying to swing his attention back to her. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got something much better for you to look at.” “Maria I’m out here to find Jill, not to watch you act like the whore you are,” he said as he fought to keep control of the car and himself. He refused to give her the pleasure of making him look at her. He regretted doing it the first time but he hadn’t been able to help himself. It was just a natural male reaction, he told himself. “Put you damn clothes back on and tell me where to go and no, hell is not an option.”
“You know you want me Jimmy,” she purred. “I saw you looking. You liked it, didn’t you? If you’d just look again you might see some more things you like.” He could feel her inching closer but he’d had about enough.
“Look you stupid bitch,” he yelled as he slammed the brakes, “I’m not going to do anything with you. I thought I got it through that thick skull back at the restaurant but I guess not.” He’d held himself in check long enough. It was time to vent a little on the target of his anger. “You’re here to help me find Jill. End of story. After that you can go back and live in your little fantasy world. Right now tell where the hell I need to go. Other than that keep your damn mouth shut.”
Before when he’d yelled at her she’d looked almost ashamed of herself. Now she just returned his stare almost like she was challenging him to do something more. He was sorely tempted too but instead just held her look. He refused to be the first to look away. After a few more seconds the contest of wills seemed to be over. Maria looked away and started buttoning herself back up.
“It’s right up here,” she grunted. “Keep going up over this hill in front of us. It’s on the other side.” She was back to her pouting routine. Jim started forward again thanking god this ride was almost over.
“It’s about time,” he said anxiously trying to fill the silence in the car.
They topped the thing Maria called a hill and started down. At first Jim saw nothing but after a few seconds of searching the area spread out in front of them he did see a faint light a little bit further down the road. Bouncing and thumping their way down the hill they slowly got closer and closer until they were almost there. It was a good thing too. He didn’t know how much more of this his poor rental could take. The return trip might be it. All they needed to do was stop long enough to get Jill and then hightail it back to town.
Thinking about driving back he found he was actually happy Maria was there. She was the only one that knew how to get back to town. Jill might know, but then again maybe not. She’d come out here during the day when it was easier to see land marks and other things she might’ve used to navigate. It was pitch black now. There was nothing to see but what the headlight could pick out. That wasn’t enough to find their way back. Even though they’d just drove out here he was totally lost which meant Maria was their only hope.
Concentrating on navigating his way down the small hill he was only able to catch quick glimpses of their destination. The house if that was what you wanted to call it stood lost and alone surrounded on almost all sides with trees. The forest was slowly taking back its own. During one of his glimpses he noticed something that sent chill down his spine. From what must have been the front door drifted an eerie glow. He wasn’t even sure he actually saw it but the closer he got the more he was sure it was there. The glow became the center of his world as the car seemed to bounce from one side of the road to the other. It kept getting closer and that was all that mattered.
They finally came to a stop no more than thirty feet from what passed for the entrance. The glow was still coming from the door but now it had a slight flickering quality to it. For some reason this made it seem spookier than when it had just been an undefined glow. As the dust settled down around the car and Jill bounced from the passenger side Jim took a moment to study the place he’d worked so hard to reach. When Jim actually parked outside it he saw that he had been partially wrong.
It wasn’t what he expected. He thought they were coming to some place far off in the woods somewhere not an actual house. What stood before him would’ve almost been livable if not for the fact that half of its upper floor seemed to have been burnt away at some point. The house was fronted by three frames where windows must’ve once been. Above these was an overhang that brought to mind cool summers sitting in the shade but was now nothing more than dirt and decay. Above that, as he saw when he first arrived, was what was left of a second floor. The part that was still standing had one blackened window looking out into the night. He looked over at the burnt part but saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Something had moved in the window. He saw nothing there a second ago, but as soon as he’d turned his head he’d seen something. The creepy crawly sensation of being watched settled over him again. He strained his eyes trying to pierce the darkness but after a few moments gave up. It was just too dark for him to see anything. Shaking his head he noticed Maria standing on the front porch waiting for him.