Free Candy: Part 8
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Redding silently drove the car, Emma staring out the passenger window. The setting sun once again splintered through the passing trees. The sight rekindled Emma's old memories once more. This area felt haunted, or even cursed. It also was the only place Emma had even known, so all her good memories resided here as well. She had clung onto this place as a sort of solitude, hoping she could outweigh the bad with good.
Now she knew that might never be possible.
The car drove as the night began to settle, Redding finally breaking the silence.
"I'm sorry we have to come here. I know it's the last place you would want to be. Any intel we have on where this van might be leads us here. This is where it goes to hide." Redding said. Emma closed her eyes tightly as the car sped past the diner, the wound of the tragedy still evident within her and on the damaged building.
After another mile, Redding pulled the car over. The tires crunched over the loose dirt and debris as it came to a halt. Redding turned to Emma and began to relay all the information he could.
"We have three teams observing you. Kessel is in the van-killer, and I will be close by. We have another team in a chopper that will be circling as well." Redding said. Emma nodded and opened the door to exit. She stood up into the brisk cold air, and closed the door. She peered in through the window, making eye contact with Redding.
"I want this to end. Tonight. Make sure that happens, okay?" Emma said. Redding smiled and nodded. Suddenly headlamps illuminated the two of them, Emma reared back as in the dark road, Candy was revealed.
The van had somehow crawled up on them silently. Redding gripped the steering wheel tight. "Run. Now." Candy's engine began to growl, and Emma slowly took steps away from the car. Redding revved his engine and put it into gear.
"Now!" Redding shouted as he hit the gas and left in a plume of tire smoke. Emma started to run towards the woods, keeping the road in sight.
Redding spun the car in front of Candy, trying to make a U-turn and distract the van. Candy's tires spun violently and the van lurched forward after Redding's car.
Emma heard the engines screaming, and stopped at a tree to watch, hiding her body as best as she could
Redding's car was no match for Candy. The van quickly pulled alongside it with ease. Redding angled in to bump the van, and that proved to be a mistake.
Candy was furious. The van drifted away from Redding's car initially, then turned sharply into the back side of it, spinning the other vehicle. Candy pushed the car off the road, Redding looking directly up into the ghastly visage of the murderous van. Despite the chaos, he drew his gun and fired shots at the van as his car was flung off of the road. Two bullets managed to hit Candy's windshield, breaking the glass in spider web patterns.
Candy accelerated hard, then stopped suddenly. Redding's car slid further, his gun now only clicking as he had expended all his rounds. The terrain changed as Redding's car slid, and the heavy car tipped over and began to roll down a large hill. Redding tried to grip the steering wheel, but the world became a dark kaleidoscope of metal and moonlight as the car tumbled down the hill.
The car rolled over and over again, each rotation bending it more out of shape. It bounced and flipped, each impact an explosion of thunderous carnage and devastating shrapnel. An eternity had passed and the car still was in motion. All the way until it collided with a boulder near the bottom of the tremendous hill and became still, as smoke poured out of the wreckage.
Emma had watched it all unfold, and she now walked out from her place of hiding and out into the open.
"What the hell are you?" Emma screamed. Candy slowly backed up and turned to face Emma who was some distance away. Emma felt a chill as the van regarded her in a seemingly intelligent way. It was unnerving, unnatural.
"I'm right here! Come on! I know that's what you want! What are you waiting for?" Emma shouted at Candy, and the van seemed to hesitate. Emma threw two middle fingers its way and stomped towards it.
"Fuck you!" Emma screamed. Candy finally caved, and its tires spun maniacally as it directed itself towards Emma. She stood in stoic defiance as Candy sped across the road in her direction.
Candy was focused on a single target. Its purpose was clear. Therefore, Candy did not see the monstrous black vehicle as it emerged from the darkness, two protruding prongs impaling Candy in its side panels.
Emma jumped out of the way. The sound of metal crunching into metal echoed through the shrouded woods. The van-kill had smashed the passenger side of Candy and come to a screeching stop.
Kessel recovered from the jolt of the impact and had the prongs lift Candy off the ground. Candy's wheel's spun uselessly and its engine roared in displeasure.
Kessel looked over at Emma, and the two exchanged a relieved smile. The prongs continued to lift, but then they stopped once Candy was about ten feet off the ground. Kessel's brow furrowed, and he tinkered with the switch to no avail.
"The fuck is going on here?" Kessel muttered to himself. The buttons within the modified truck were not responding. Nothing was working. He grabbed the dispatch radio to call the chopper.
"Chopper 1, do you copy? Hello? Hello? Damn it!" Kessel slammed the broken device back down and looked up at the van, impaled on the prongs and looking lifeless for the first time.
"Did we kill you?" Kessel asked out loud. Suddenly, intense pressure seized Kessel on his chest and his waist. He tried to shift out of his seat but the seatbelts had begun to tighten and they were not stopping. Kessel fought against the stifling pressure finding it hard to breathe.
The radio then clicked on. Kessel stopped struggling for a moment, as a song began to fill the interior of the car.
"...Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight. Must have been something I said..." The radio then cut out and began to spark, as did almost all the electronics in the truck.
Kessel realized all too late what had happened. He looked at Emma, who had begun to approach the truck. He mouthed the words "go" and "now". Emma shook her head, confused. She mouthed back "what?"
The dashboard in the truck sparked and crackled, and fire burst from the vents. The interior of the truck began to burn, and Kessel felt his ribs cracking and his organs rupture as the belt squeezed even tighter. As smoke filled the cab, he screamed at Emma.
"Run!" Blood spraying from his lips as the flames began to engulf the seat. Emma started to retreat as the cabin of the truck became an inferno. The fire filled the inside of the truck, the prongs began to descend once more.
As Emma watched as the van-killer, ablaze and backing up, pulled its prongs out from Candy. The van’s headlight shined a spotlight on Emma. The van-killer continued to roll back down the road, now a huge bonfire of light in the darkness. Candy's engine roared to life, and the van shuddered and lurched.
Emma turned her back to the van to run into the forest, but she found herself unable to move. She instead looked at the giant trees in front of her, partly lit by Candy's headlights, and the rest visible in the wavering orange glow of the burning truck.
Two giant trees that intertwined at the top stood before her. The Ancient Lovers.
Emma knew where she was. She knew where to go.
With venom in her eyes, Emma turned once more to face Candy.
"Come and get me, you bitch!" Emma yelled as she spun on her heels and took off into the woods. Candy reared back on its back wheels as black smoke poured off the exhaust. The chase began.
Emma ran with intently. She knew these woods well, so she easily darted between trees and hopped down small drops as the sound of the enraged van followed close behind.
Around her, memories of her and her Father swirled; Their trips through these woods, their time spent exploring. Her mind was flood with them and guided her forward.
Candy sped through the woods behind her, Emma's silhouette always somewhere within its headlight's reach. Trees and rocks dented and smashed into the van, but it did not relent.
Candy was getting close, Emma could feel the splintered wood from the van's charge hitting her as she ran, but she did not look back. If she did, she knew she would not make it out.
Candy was just feet away, barreling through the foliage, and Emma used the lights from the van for her last few steps. Candy roared once more, and Emma reached out and jumped.
Her hand's caught onto the chain of the old chair swing that overlooked the cliff side and the bay below. It had been a place where she and her father had sat years ago. A place she had wanted to take Cassie. Her favorite place in the entire world. It was her solitude, and now it was to be her saving grace.
Emma's hands burned with friction as she swung herself around and Candy flew past. Emma hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of her lungs. The brakes on Candy shrieked and turned red hot as the van tried to stop. It had spun a full one-eighty, and the back wheels of the van slipped off the edge of the cliff. Dirt and rocks fell down the huge cliff side, but Candy had managed to stop just in time.
Emma began to cry silently. Everything she’d tried, Candy had beaten her. She only saw her own death in front of her. Candy slowly pulled its back tires back onto solid ground. Emma stood up, trembling.
"I'm not running. Not anymore. Do it, then." Emma said to the van as its engine hissed and growled.
"Do it!" Emma screamed, and Candy reared back once more. The front of the van lifted high as the rear wheels spun.
As it did, the ground at the edge of the cliff gave way.
Candy fell, its front wheels catching on the cliff's edge. Its headlights flashed in a panic and the front tires spun furiously to try to pull itself back up.
The engine squealed as the front of the van continued to slide. Then it was swallowed by the darkness. Candy tumbled down the cliff side, it hit sharp rocks that jutted out, pieces of the van flying through the night sky. It plummeted to the shoreline below.
The impact was ferocious. Candy hit the ground with such force that it both flattened and exploded. Metal scraps and fire burst out of the crater it had created, sending the sound of its death reverberating up the cliff side to the ears of Emma.
She had peered over the edge to watch the van die. Her ordeal had finally come to an end.
Emma walked slowly back to the chair swing, and sat in it. Her emotions took over, and she wept as the distant sound of a helicopter filled the night sky.
************************************************************************************
The next day, a black helicopter from the FBI was sent to survey the damage and recover the pieces of the van to be processed and melted down.
The pilots reported the huge crater on the shore, but found no remains of any type of vehicle at all.
Don’t want to miss anything on the site? Sign up for our newsletter HERE
Want more original short stories? Just search below:
