Last Stop

Two freakin’ o’clock in the morning! I glanced at the small clock in the corner of the gas station store. I swear it had stopped. Either that, or it was going backwards. I put my head back in my hands, rubbing my sore eyes with the soggy sweat from my palms. I had been sitting here for an hour already, sometimes pacing back and forth, or else browsing the shop, but let’s face it: I was bored. The small bench next to a coffee machine offered some support, but it was short and hard. There was next to no chance I would be able to sleep on it.

Glancing out of the window, I could see my car, still smoking slightly. It was an old Toyota. Problem was, I knew nothing about cars. The damn thing had just erupted in smoke and stalled. The geeky teenager behind the counter said if I was lucky, the repair guy would drive by the station in the morning, but not before 7. So that left me here, waiting in the middle of nowhere for a repair guy who may not even show up until late in the morning. And when I say the middle of nowhere, I really mean it! I’m not talking about a slightly built-up area surrounded by farmland, nor am I talking about a small town. I mean for fifty miles in every direction, there was nothing, nada, zilch, fuck all! I don’t even really understand what this gas station is doing here, nor how the acne-riddled kid behind the counter got here. There were no other cars. I couldn’t be bothered talking to him. He had seemed annoyed that I had asked for help and stopped him from staring at the screen of his phone. He’d already told me he didn’t have a phone I could use, and that there was no service here. I’d briefly tried my phone, but the battery was dead, and I didn’t have a charger, and I’m pretty sure there was no service anyway. I could always buy a charger, for 56 bucks that I didn’t have.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: what the hell are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere anyway, Chuck? Well, to that I would reply: How do you know my name? And… well, it’s a long story.

It all started two nights ago, when… Wait a sec. I don’t know you from Adam. I’m not just going to spill my innermost secrets! At least I’d need a cup of joe first.

I got up and walked over to the coffee machine, fishing in my jeans for a couple of quarters. Glancing up, I noticed a small corner near the counter and… a pay phone!

Forgetting about the coffee, I walked over to the counter.

“Hey,” I said to the kid. The teen ignored me for a second, chewing incessantly on a piece of gum, eyes glued to his phone. “Hey!” I said louder. He looked up and blinked slowly at me, obviously using every single brain cell he had left to pay any attention to what I was saying.

“Which pump?” he said stupidly.

“No, I’m the guy whose car broke down.”

“Oh yeah, you’re still here?”

“Well, my car isn’t fixed, so…”

“So what?”

I took a breath, telling myself that this was just a kid.

“I thought you said you didn’t have a phone?” I asked, pointing at the pay phone.

Like Flash in the Zootopia movie, the guy’s head moved slowly round to stare at where I was pointing.

“Oh, is that what that is?” he asked.

I shook my head hopelessly. I walked away from the kid and towards the phone.

“How long have you been working here?” I asked him. He didn’t answer, and looking back, I saw that he was already immersed in his phone again. As I watched him, he gave an absurd grunt of a chuckle, like a seal who had swallowed computer spray.

I reached the phone, pulled off the receiver and thought for a second. Who would I even call? The first person who sprang to mind was Kylie. But I couldn’t call her, not yet, not after the way we’d left things. Would she still be mad? Probably.

My mind flashed back to some of the things I’d said, and I shuddered. I wasn’t always the nicest person, but this time I had reached the limit. I won’t tell you what I said, because I want you to like me, but I was a jerk. I’m man enough to admit that. But it wasn’t just me; she too had her fair share of the blame! Most of it, in fact. If I hadn't found that text on her phone... Stupid Jayden! Who the fuck was that jerk anyway?

It was all a bit blurry now. The shouting, the screaming at each other, the accusations, me storming out, getting into my car and driving off, full throttle. Heading away, anywhere but where Kylie was. Strangely enough, I don’t really remember much after that, until I broke down on this stupid road, luckily only half a mile from a gas station. The only one for miles. Boy, what a stroke of luck!

Deciding a call could wait, and that I should probably use the few coins I had to call a repair truck, I placed the phone back on the receiver.

The guy behind the counter hadn’t moved, so I decided to browse the shop again. I walked over to the map section. I thought I could try and work out where the nearest town was, and see whether or not it was worth it to just hike there.

As I searched, there was a loud screeching of tyres coming from outside, and a few seconds later, the bell of the door chimed. A man came in, wearing a black ski mask over his face, holding a small handgun. He didn’t look around as he entered, but headed straight for the counter and pointed his gun in the youth’s face. I immediately crouched down behind an aisle of gas station burritos and looked around carefully. I couldn’t believe it; the kid was still chuckling into his phone.

“Gimme the money!” The new man growled.

The kid finally looked up and screamed. He put his hands in the air and kept on screaming. The man yelled for him to shut up, but when the teen went right on screaming, the man fired a shot into the wall, inconveniently hitting the very pay phone I had just attempted to use.

This was apparently too much for the kid, who fainted onto the floor, smacking his head nastily on the edge of the counter on the way down.

The armed man swore several times and seemed to be thinking. Finally, he made his way to the other side of the counter and attempted to open the cash machine. If I just stay right here, I thought, then he can get his cash and leave and be none the wiser that I was here.

Of course, just as I thought this, the stupid man looked up, and because I am also a stupid man, I wasn’t crouching down hiding, but was looking face-first at what the guy was doing. We stared at each other for half a second before the guy pointed his gun straight at me.

“Come out!” he growled.

I got up, hands in the air. Man, I wished I’d been to the bathroom before all this. There’s something about being at gunpoint that makes you need to go in a bad way. Luckily, my pants were still dry! For now.

“Listen,” I said, my voice at least one octave higher than usual. “I don’t want any trouble. I haven’t seen your face, I don’t know what you look like, who you are or anything. So, you know, you can just take your money and leave.”

I thought I sounded pretty cool, tough, calm and collected. I also believed my reasoning to be sound. But all that came crashing down when the guy spoke next.

“What?” he shouted. “Stop blubbering and speak in a clear voice!”

That’s when I realised that I was actually crouching on the floor, tears flooding my vision, snot pouring from my nose, and I was whimpering incoherently and, most importantly, I had in fact soaked my jeans after all.

Shit.

The guy took a few steps closer to me, and as I looked up at him, something changed in his expression. I could only see his eyes, but I was sure they widened. A fact confirmed by his next words.

“Chuck?”

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘Ah ha, the plot thickens, the main character knows the mean guy with the gun!’ But no, you’re wrong. I didn’t recognise the voice at all. Obviously, I couldn’t see his face, and yes, one could argue that basing knowing this person on his voice alone is ambitious, and yet, I was one hundred percent positive I did not know this guy.

“Who are you?” I asked, less scared and more curious now.

The guy didn’t answer immediately, but he did lower his gun somewhat. He seemed to be hesitating. I took the lowering of the weapon as a good sign. I stood up and stared at him, vowing that I would wait for him to speak first.

“Dude!” I said after three seconds. “How do you know my name? Who are you?”

The guy sighed, then pulled off his mask. I was still scared, but I must admit my face crinkled when the mask got stuck and the guy flailed around for a few seconds like the Tasmanian Devil, grunting and swearing until the damn thing came off. And then, the big reveal. The face, red from the effort of taking off the mask, was... Nothing special: a white dude with dark hair and brown eyes, and a slightly large nose. I didn’t recognise him. I would go so far as to say that he looked completely ordinary, with no distinguishing features at all.

He, however, was looking at me, slightly abashed, which was odd in itself. He looked guilty, and well, I suppose he was. He was holding a freakin’ gun, after all. But he looked guilty in a different way. He looked guilty because I was there.

“I don’t know you,” I said.

“Well, I suppose you’ve never seen me.” The man’s demeanour had changed completely now. He didn’t look remotely threatening, but more like a schoolboy who had been caught doing something wrong. “My name is Jayden.”

I entered a tunnel. Everything around me seemed to squeeze in upon itself, so that I could only see the asshole in front of me.

“You,” I growled, not recognising my own voice, but definitely recognising the name. “What the hell are you doing here? Now?”

And as I said these words, I really thought about the question. Jayden had been mentioned hours earlier, during my fight with Kylie. The texts, those damn texts, their explicit content leaving no doubt as to what was going on between them. A red mist had descended on me then, and I found myself hurling the worst insults I had ever muttered in my life at the woman I love, irreparably damaging our relationship. And I had stormed out, and got in my car, and… Damn, what happened after that? A black hole filled my mind, a gap in everything I knew. I’d lost time and had no idea where it had gone.

Looking into Jayden’s stupid face, the red mist was back again. In that moment, I didn’t care if he had a gun; I wanted to hurt him, but before I could even move, the door chimed again, and I knew who it would be before I even turned my head.

Kylie entered the shop, wearing the same pants and blouse she’d had on when we’d argued, but she’d untied her hair, which reached down beyond her shoulders. My heart ached so much, it felt like it might explode. Jayden wasn’t looking at her, but at me, the gun still by his side. I, however, could not take my eyes off her. My mind was struggling to comprehend how these two people, who had ruined my life just hours previously, happened to both be here now, in this deserted gas station, in the middle of the night.

“Chuck, stop!” Kylie had not raised her voice, but spoke in a pleading tone. What could I do? The red mist dissipated, and was replaced by a harrowing sadness. I went limp; I was surprised I didn’t fall to my knees.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, bitterly.

“I’m here for you, and he is here for me.” She pointed at Jayden, still looking at me. “The real question, Chuck, is what are you doing here?”

Something about her tone was off. She was speaking normally: it was her voice, her face, but it didn’t sound like her.

“What do you mean?” I said. “I drove away from you when I found out you’d been cheating with this jerk.” I pointed at Jayden, who didn’t move or speak. “And then my car broke down in this dump.”

“How far did you drive, Chuck?” Her tone was calm, but it sent a shiver down my spine, and my vision blurred for a second. I put a hand to my face and realised I was soaking with sweat. I know, I was in a strange and stressful situation, but even so, I was shocked. In fact, I actually felt feverish. I struggled to concentrate on Kylie and on her strange question.

“What the fuck do you mean?” I said, realising I was shouting now. “I drove here.” Why was I sinking to the floor? I could no longer stand up straight. My heart was pounding furiously in my chest. “Why did you come here?” I was struggling to speak. My voice was a moan now.

“Did you drive straight here, Chuck?” For some reason, her using my name so much irked me. Maybe it was the fact that she rarely called me Chuck, or maybe it was this bizarre tone she was using, but something was really wrong.

“Yes, I—” but I stopped speaking. I drove away from her apartment. And I drove straight to this gas station. But did I? Where was this place? Where was I driving to? Why can’t I remember?

Jayden stepped forwards, slowly raising his gun, but not pointing it at me. Instead, he pointed it at Kylie.

“What are you doing?” I half-screamed, still sinking lower on the floor. I stared at Jayden. And for some reason, I couldn’t get over the fact that he looked so bland. Like a random person.

“You have a choice to make,” Jayden said. He swung the gun towards me, then back at Kylie, in a slow arc. The fuzziness was getting stronger. I turned towards Kylie. I noticed that her blond hair had red streaks in it. When did she get highlights? I don’t remember that. Concentrate, you idiot!

“What is he talking about?” I said to her. I was amazed that she showed no fear at having a gun pointing at her.

“He is right, you have a choice to make.” Her voice was soft and sorrowful. “What happened when you left my apartment, Chuck? Come on, concentrate!”

She looked so sad and pleading. I closed my eyes and tried to remember.

“I left your place,” I said without opening my eyes. “I got in my car and drove away.”

“What happened before you drove away?” My eyes shot open, ice in my heart. I stared at her. The red streaks in her hair were growing.

“You ran after me,” I gasped, remembering. “You got in my car as I drove away.”

“Yes,” she said sadly, and I saw a tear run down her cheek. Her hair was mostly crimson now.

“I drove off fast, and you… you screamed, and—”

I put my head into my hands and sobbed. I couldn’t control it. I saw it then. The whole thing flashed in my mind.

I’d run out of her apartment, but Kylie followed me. She got in the car with me as I floored the gas pedal. She screamed. Her street ended in a stop sign, but I was doing more than sixty mph. The semi came out of nowhere.

I looked back up at her. She raised a hand to lift the hair out of her face and revealed the gaping hole in her head.

“You have a choice to make,” Jayden repeated.

I looked at him. His oddly bland face showed no emotion. I lifted a hand to my own head, and now I wasn’t surprised when I felt a sticky substance under my fingers. I didn’t need to look at them to know that it was blood.

I looked at Kylie again, tears on my own face.

“What is this place?” I said, understanding at last.

“You know,” she answered, and I nodded.

“Who is that?” I pointed at Jayden.

“Just a representation of who you think Jayden is. But he is the judge.”

“What do I have to decide?” I said, already knowing the answer.

“You know,” she said gently.

“But why?” I wept. This was insane. But I knew it was true.

“Only one of us gets to survive, Chuck.”

“But this is my fault.”

She smiled at this.

“We share blame.”

I sighed. The dizziness had subsided and my head was clearing.

“I was driving,” I said, then nodded at Jayden. “You know what to do.” I turned back to the most important person in the world to me. “Have a great life, Kylie. I love you.”

Tears were flooding down her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said. I looked at Jayden and nodded.

There was a bang, and then darkness.