"Big Red"

“Big Red”

By Cody Williams

 

            Stephen McDowell wiggled around uncomfortably as he sat on the couch with his legs propped up and his back against the right armrest while facing towards the front door of their home. His wife Missy quickly walked over to him and placed two foam pillows in light blue pillowcases behind him against his back.

            “Thanks baby.” He told her with the expression of pain remaining on his face. She knelt down beside him and gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran her bony fingers through his soft black hair.

            “Is there anything else I can do for you honey? Maybe you ought to go and lay down in the bed!” Missy said to him, as she looked down at his blue swollen left leg that was wrapped in a white brace. Stephen reached over and grabbed the lap desk that was sitting on the floor beside him and carefully placed it on his lap. He shook his head.

            “No! I got to get back to work! If I don’t go back to work now maybe I won’t go back to work.” He said. On the lap desk was his closed silver Apple laptop and a pair of glasses in black rectangular frames. Missy kissed him again, stood up, and started walking towards the kitchen. “Did they ever find that b*****d in the red truck that almost ran me down?” Stephen shouted just loud enough for his wife to hear from the other room.

            “No! They ran the silence plate that you gave them and they said that there is no truck with that vanity silence plate registered. Are you sure that you gave them the right one?” She asked him. But he was sure. I mean, how could you forget it? The license plate read HELLRZR. If you sound that out it sounds like Hell Raiser. He knew what it said. He knew what it meant. Stephen remembers vary clearly. It was a big 50^th anniversary special edition of the Ford F-150. Big red. That’s what he nicknamed it after the incident.

            Stephen was out on his routine afternoon walk. He was walking on the shoulder of the highway when he heard the truck quickly race over the hill and drive off onto the shoulder of the road where he was walking. He was able to dodge it before it hit him just before tumbling down a rock cliff, which broke his leg.

            He was rushed to the hospital where he stayed for about a month following two surgeries to rebuild his leg. The police visited while he was in the hospital to get the information.

            “No! The license plate said H-E-L-L-R-Z-R! I remember that clearly! It has to be out there!” He said as he spelled out the Hell Raiser vanity license plate again to his wife. Missy walked back in the living room while she pushed a black wheel chair that was folded up down the center. She unfolded it and patted the seat of it.

            “Honey, I have to go to work! I’ll help you in the wheel chair so you can move yourself around the house while I’m gone.” She said. Missy picked up the lap desk off of him and placed it down on the floor. She reached down and he put his right arm over her shoulder and she helped him up from the sofa and sat him down in the wheelchair. Missy propped his leg up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She could tell by his face that he was major pain. She reached into her purse and pulled out a bottle of painkillers and handed them to him.

            “I’ll see you after work in a couple of hours!” She told him. Missy walked over to and out the front door. Stephen sat there for a moment as he heard the engine of her car start and drive away. He took a painkiller when he heard the sound of car or truck resting in the driveway.

            ‘It must be a damn insurance f****r trying to sell me some sort of goddamn s**t.’ Stephen thought to himself. He wheeled himself over to the window beside of the front door and moved the curtain beside to look out of it. Sitting at the base of the long blacktop driveway that led up to his house was a 50^th anniversary limited edition Ford F-150 with a vanity license plate on the front of it that read HELLRZR.

            “Holy s**t!” Stephen said surprised at what he saw. Almost as if it knew that he was watching, the truck slowly began driving up the driveway. Stephen continued to look out the window to see if he could get a better look at the driver than before. As the truck grew closer, Stephen reached over to the side table beside of him and grabbed the black cordless home phone and dilled 911. When the truck reached the front porch it stopped. Stephen noticed something strange. Something that couldn’t have been. The driver’s seat of Big Red was empty. The truck backed up about twenty feet before the throttle went to the floor and the truck drover up over the step of the porch leading up to the house the through the wall where Stephen was sitting.

            Stephen dropped the phone when he was stuck and big black Michelin tires tan over it. The truck drove through the living room and pinned Stephen up against the wall. The truck stopped and then slowly began to retreat. Stephen fell to the floor barely breathing with his blood covered skull drooping over his torso. Big Red stopped again then floored it once more at the not quite dead Stephen McDowell. The truck’s bumper hit where his head was and splattered blood and brains allover the wall and front bumper of the truck. It looked as if a stick of dynamite, which had exploded splattering the remains of his cranium everywhere, replaced his brain. The truck back up for a final time as the sheet metal began to shape itself back up to its former form. Big Red backed out of the house and drove away only to disappear into the fog leaving behind the bloody remains of Stephen McDowell.

Copyright 2014 by Cody Williams
Courtesy of TRUE TERROR PUBLICATIONS
A division of TTP Entertainment

Author's Note

I first got the idea for this story when I heard a story my parents told me about the people who rented the house that we now own driving their car through where my bed room is now located. I began thinking what if this was big red truck that nobody was driving. What if it had a motive to kill this man that it had already tried to kill? And the man should have died then. That's how this tale was born. I hope you all like it!

Thanks for reading! And as always comments and reviews are always welcome!

-CW

Reviews

[SmittyJas]

Great write I'm Steven King Fan and this sure could be an Idea for his next novel a sequel to Christine Could apply for post script and footnotes always a dream of mine to be a mystery writer better than the love crap I write all the time. Somethings missing in my love life.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks again for reading Smitty!

-CW

[Stephanie M]

Well written. Your story reminds me of Stephen King's, "Christine."

[Lyn Anderson]

Cody, you know I like your stuff. Please take heed as mentioned with regard to editing and proofing before publishing, and be careful with regard to similarities to Stephen King. You have many original, solid ideas, that would do well with more polishing.

[Cody Williams]

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for reading KL!

-CW

[NoelHC]

An interesting premise, maybe a little too close for comfort to Stephen King's "Christine"?

Others have mentioned it, silence in place of license, and numerous other typos, and errors.

Cody, you need to slow down, smell the roses, re-read your work and correct it before you hit "publish"

[Sami Khalil]

" The truck’s bumper hit where his head was and splattered blood and brains allover the wall and front bumper of the truck. It looked as if a stick of dynamite, which had exploded splattering the remains of his cranium everywhere, replaced his brain. The truck back up for a final time as the sheet metal began to shape itself back up to its former form. Big Red backed out of the house and drove away only to disappear into the fog leaving behind the bloody remains of Stephen McDowell."

A thrill filled story with great anticipations to the reader. I love monster trucks. You have a great story lines...Bravo...............

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Sami!

-CW

[Dayran]

A subject that I've been trying to come to grips with. Someone wants to do us in ... we don't know why ... we don't recall doing anything wrong. Put together ... it illustrates a situation in which ... we have got the view entirely wrong. Like a man with amnesia who is trying to outrun his killers ... but doesn't know who. But how did we land on the spot? A quiet thriller ... that grows.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading Dayran!

-CW

[Pure Innocence]

A little creepy for my liking (but that is just me), but seriously a great write. I really loved how you laid out the whole story, well done. The ending was a real shocker,which I am sure is what you were trying to do. Great job!

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[Pure Innocence]

For sure! You have an awesome talent.

[Masked Girl]

This was so good. I actually got the imagery. Great work.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading!

-CW

[Heaven]

WOW! Hot story! I love this and it had me captured by the first paragraph. I love a short story that can keep me engaged and interested. Not many can. I applaud you!!

This also reminded me of Christine and I also would like to know the motive of his death. Is it real or in his mind? Will his wife come home with a huge hole her in the house or just Stephen dead, laying in the house the way it was when she left? You should definitely add on to this or create a book!

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading. I may go back to it and add a bit. And no, it was not in his mind. Big Red is just a bad truck.

-CW

[J. K. Beach]

Cody, I liked this story. It's like "Christine" met a monster truck to spawn the F-150 from hell. I may have missed it, but I do wonder what the initial motive was to run Stephen down? The dialogue is believable, and the tone just right for a man in pain. I liked the ending... but, like I said, I would like to have a reason for the initial attack. Also, just FYI...I noticed the word silence in a couple of spots that seemed to be typos of "license"--not sure, but thought I'd let you know. Overall a good read. I'm not usually into horror, but this one drew me in. Good work.

[Cody Williams]

Thanks for reading J. K. I'll go back and take a another look at it.

-CW