Candy - AW Flash Fiction Challenge
I participated in the Flash Fiction Challenge again last week, and then totally forgot to post it. I have been remiss lately. This is one that I think actually has potential, and am currently working on a longer version - ie; an actual short story. Wish me luck.
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He sped down route 50 towards Eureka, consumed by the need for more. Doc had heard that his dealer had expanded his operation to there, though he didn’t remember who had told him. All he knew was that his supplies had run out, and Brisco was suddenly nowhere to be found. He hunched over the wheel, glaring fixedly into the distance as spasms wracked his body. He was sweating, despite the the air conditioning. He pressed harder on the gas, and the speedometer crept up to 90, where shuddered, as if deciding whether or not the engine could handle it.
The desert stretched out endlessly in all directions, as desolate as Heathcliff’s moor. A dust-devil danced across the highway in front of his car. Doc panicked and swerved to avoid it, consumed with terror.
To his addled mind it seemed to be a living thing, bearing down on him with nothing but malicious intentions. He killed the engine, pulling over on the wrong side of the highway, and leaned back in his seat, panting. He rubbed his chest, as if to calm his hammering heartbeat.
I should go back he thought. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the dust-devil bobbing back and forth on the other side of the road. He didn’t want to look at it, so he focused on the horizon instead, trying to calm himself and decide a course of action.
He put his hands on the wheel, but made no move to start the car. Go on to Eureka, or go back? The tank was more than half-empty, and he was closer now to Eureka than to home. Perhaps he should go on, if only to get gas. And if he happened to meet Brisco, and happened to buy another batch of it, well that would just be a happy coincidence. He looked out of the window and saw that the dust devil was gone. He reached for the keys in the ignition, then stopped. There was a tapping on the passenger side window.
The blood drained from Doc’s face, the dust-devil was back, he knew it. Knuckles white on the hand now holding the wheel in a death-grip, the tendons in his neck creaked as he turned toward the window. There was a hand resting on it, and as he watched in horror, it raised the index finger and slowly tapped the glass again.
Beyond the hand, there was only swirling dust. Doc’s head snapped back to the windshield, and he saw only dust there too - the desert was no longer visible at all, the dust-devil had consumed the car entirely.
He turned back to the hand on the passenger side window, his throat worked as he opened his mouth and tried to speak. He managed to force out a choked whisper
“Who is it?”
The hand disappeared abruptly, and the Doc let out the breath he had been holding. He caught it again when he realised that the hand was now trying to open the passenger-side door. He was suddenly glad of the paranoia that induced him to lock all the doors. He swallowed, and his throat clicked.
“Go ‘way. Go ‘way, man”
The door rattled as whoever belonged to the hand pulled harder on it. There was a thump., and the car rocked slightly. Suddenly two hands appeared on the glass, and now a face materialised out of the roiling sand, pressed against the glass as it looked in at him. He jumped, and bit back a scream. It’s eyes, locked on his, were as dead and black as old stones. It spoke, and even though it was outside, seemingly in the midst of a sandstorm, Doc could hear the words as if it was inside the car with him.
“Hey dude, let me in, I wanna talk to ya”
The thing outside was Brisco.
Doc’s breath whistled in his throat as he tried to reply.
“No. You’re supposed to be in Eureka.”
It laughed.
“You know that’s not true. Let me in, brother”
“No…please….I don’t want to”
“Well then come outside! You know what I want, it’ll only take a second, just give me back what‘s mine”
Suddenly, Doc remembered what this was all about - it was as if a cloud cleared from his mind. He cleared his throat and spoke again, louder this time.
“That Candy was mine. I paid for it. If you didn’t have it, you shoulda never taken my money. I just wanted what was owed to me”
“Well you’re not going to find your Candy in Eureka. You won’t find it anywhere. I was the only one that made it, I was the only one that knew how, and you killed me.”
Doc’s eyes widened in shock
“No. No. I didn’t! You went to Eureka, man. You went to Eureka!”
“If that’s true, why don’t you look in the trunk?”
The Brisco-thing laughed at this, and disappeared back into the cloud of dust. He felt the trunk pop and heard it go up. The memory came rushing back. It was true, Brisco was dead. Doc was responsible. It was all for the Candy that had taken hold of him, body and soul - and he realised that the other Brisco was right. Nobody else knew how to make it, nobody else could get him another hit. In a panic, he reached into his fanny pack and withdrew the last of his stash. He had one left.
Feverish now, he unwrapped it and shoved it in his mouth, swallowing it whole. The dust-devil was receding, and that meant that Brisco was leaving with it. Doc unlocked the doors and leapt out of the car. He hurried to the trunk and looked down and body that was slowly desiccating in the desert heat.
“Where did he go? Which way?”
He hopped from foot to foot, waiting for an answer. The corpse didn’t give one, but seemed to point west, towards a huge pillar of rock in the distance. Doc squinted in that direction - he could see it! The dust-devil with the other Brisco inside it was indeed heading that way. He reached into the trunk and removed the rings and necklace that the body wore. If he gave these back, Brisco would have to forgive him, would have to make him more Candy. It was only fair.
Doc stepped off the highway and walked into the desert.
