Part One

The road was hypnotic and sedative, leaving Emma no choice but to entertain her sweetheart to keep him focused. The highway’s vacancy was no surprise to James and Emma, considering they were on the road at one in the morning. Four lanes total, two going north, two going south and not a single car to accompany them.

            They drove home after cheering for the home team in a game-winning home run. The ballgame was over at ten, but the congestion in the stadium parking lot produced an hour worth of traffic. Of course like every young couple, their hormones ran high and they had a little adventure in their car immediately exiting the parking lot.

            On the road, Emma had a big blue foam finger in her left hand and a souvenir miniature blue baseball bat in her right. The radio played their favorite tunes and Emma swayed that big foam finger to the melodies. James, trying as hard as he could to focus on the road, couldn’t help but constantly look over at his gorgeous Emma.

            “Hey!” chuckled James as he swatted the foam finger away from his nose, “I’m driving!”

            “I thought you needed to pick your nose!” Emma laughed. She tried to pick his nose one last time. James playfully evaded and Emma retreated.

            “Ok, ok,” said Emma, “I’ll stop.” She broke into song and dance once again. In between verses, she dropped the bat and foam finger under her seat and reached over towards James’s neck.

            “Ooh,” moaned James, shifting his head to the left to give Emma more room to suck on his neck, “I’m definitely never falling asleep behind the wheel with you as my co-pilot.”

            “Just make sure you focus on the road,” flirted Emma, “If you’re real good, you’ll get a little extra surprise later.”

            Call it lust or call it love but whatever it was, he was drowning in it. He moved his head just a little more, and closed his eyes for what seemed to be a split second. As the young couple was lost in ecstasy, James’s Civic deviated into the right lane.

            Head still tilted, James opened his eyes and saw a white Jetta’s trunk dangerously close to the corner of the right side of his hood. He tried to react but it was too late. He sideswiped the Jetta and sent it crashing into the railing on the right shoulder of the highway.

            James managed to pull left as he slammed on his brakes. Emma was forced towards James then thrown back to her seat as the car came to a screeching halt, positioned horizontally on the highway.

            “Emma!” yelled James in panic, “Are you ok?”

            “Yea I’m fine, I just burned my neck a little with the seatbelt. Oh no!” shrieked Emma pointing to her left towards the Jetta, “Look at the car!”

            After scraping its side against the railing for a few yards, the hood of the car was bent upward and the trunk had flown open. James drove his car from what could possibly be another accident and parked on the shoulder, a few feet away from his victim.

            The driver’s side door of the Jetta swung open and a man in his mid thirties stumbled out. He held his head a little then stood up straight. James’s headlights were pointed in the man’s direction.

            James opened his car door, stepped out halfway and yelled, “Hey man, are you alright?”

            The dazed man brought up a hand to cover the beam of the headlights to see who was talking. Before he could respond he observed the wreck. He glanced over to his trunk and saw that it was forced open. Almost instantly, he broke into a sprint and disappeared into the darkness.

            “What do we do now? Do we just--”

            “Oh my God!” shrieked Emma.

            “What is it?”

            “Inside the trunk!” yelled Emma as she inched towards the crashed car. “Oh my God, I think it’s…it is!”

            James ran towards the trunk then stopped abruptly.

            “It’s a body James…a body!”

            James ran towards Emma and held her tightly. “It’s ok baby, it’s ok. Calm down just breathe a bit,” he said as he caressed Emma’s back.

            “I think it’s a kid,” said Emma, her tears falling furiously.

            “I’ll go check it out, you just wait here,” said James.

            He walked slowly towards the car, trying to prepare himself for the worst. He imagined seeing a body chopped up into pieces being eaten by maggots or a body speaking to him asking for help through a raspy voice as it reached out an arm.

            He swallowed hard as he approached the vehicle. Nothing could have prepared him for what was actually in the trunk. He saw a boy, no older than eight years old, lying on his back in the trunk. His cheek was scraped and there was fresh blood on his temple...

 

-End of Part One-