Cab Driver Read online

-1Cab Driver

  By Matthew Stephens

  Copyright by Matthew Stephens 2009

  Samantha Simmons was glowing. The love of her life and boyfriend of three years proposed three months ago. The special day was less than a month away and she stood in a bridal shop looking through wedding dresses with her best friend, Tammy. They were giggling like school girls, excited about the upcoming event.

  "Ooooh! I really like this one." Tammy said pointing it out to Sam. After ten minutes of gaping over the dress, Sam decided it was the one. She took it up to the desk, tried it on, and amazingly enough, it was a perfect fit. She stood there admiring herself in the mirror. She had dreamed of this day her whole life and she supposed she was still in some dream-like shock. Tammy came in and told her she was beautiful and they both hugged each other crying happy tears.

  When the tears were dried up and the dress was back on the hanger, she took it to the desk. "That will be three thousand, two hundred and eighty with tax." The lady behind the desk informed her and Sam wrote the check without hesitation. Money was not a problem for her. Rick, her fiancé, was a very popular architect. He had been responsible for some of the most celebrated and honored buildings in Las Vegas and he spoiled Sam rotten.

  The girls walked out onto the Vegas strip. It was a hot day and sweat ran from their foreheads almost instantly. They walked to the curb and started flagging for a cab. It didn't take long before a yellow car pulled up. The girls hopped in the back and set the dress between them.

  "Where can I take you lovely ladies?" The bearded driver asked. His voice was deep and scratchy. Sam assumed it was probably from years of whiskey and smoking.

  "302 Addison Avenue." Sam said still glowing. The driver nodded and pulled out into the heavy traffic. As they drove along, Sam noticed the driver trying to check them out in his rear view. She didn't mind. She was used to it. That's what you get when you're a blond with big boobs and you're friends a brunette with the same thing. It was in a man's nature to look, but this guy was almost staring, and just as she was about to tell him to knock it off, the car hit something hard.

  Sam and Tammy were thrown forward. When they sat back, the cab was stopped. Sam looked out her window and saw a man sprawled out on the curb with blood trickling from his nose.

  "We hit someon-" She was trying to say as she was thrown back in her seat. The cabbie had floored it.

  "What are you doing? We hit someone! You can't just leave him there to fucking die! Go back! Go back, you ass-"

  "Shut up, bitch." The driver barked, cutting her off. He was recklessly weaving in and out of traffic. Sam and Tammy were banging on the protective cage that separated the front seat from the back. The driver paid them no attention and proceeded on at a lunatic speed. When they came to a congested stoplight, the girls tried exiting the cab, but before they could get the door all the way open, the driver floored it again. He was driving into oncoming traffic and then took a quick left.

  "Where the hell are you going?" Sam whined at the driver.

  "Not back to prison." He answered and Sam could see a half grin on his face. It was as if he was enjoying himself. This made Sam and Tammy even more frightened. Five minutes later, they were out of the city and the speeding cab was surrounded by a lonely and eerily quiet desert. Little sand devils spun around the giant cactuses. They could see the air rippling from the afternoon heat and then began banging on the cage once again.

  "Stop!. Let us out. We won't say anything. I swear, Just please don't hurt us!" Sam was pleading as little trails of tears ran down her cheeks. Tammy had spent up her energy and sat back in the seat watching her best friend beg for their release.

  "I know your name. It's right fucking there on the dashboard!" Sam angrily screamed at the driver, regretting the words that sprang from her mouth. The cab peeled from the pavement into the open desert. A thick sand cloud bolted from the back of the cab.

  "I'm afraid I can't let you go. It's too much of a risk. You know too much, like my name for starters and that, my dear, is why I have to kill you." The driver spoke with a devilish grin. Sam sat back in her seat and her face filled with horror. She looked at Tammy who looked white as a ghost. They both held each other crying, only this time it was out of fear.

  "But I told you, we won't say anything." Sam whined.

  "I don't believe you. Besides, you want to know why I was in prison? Murder! Lucky for me, they believed it was self defense. I still got unintentional manslaughter because they found drugs in my system, but I did it on purpose. He knew too much." He paused to light a smoke before continuing. The girls could no longer see the road behind them. The cab was now speeding deep in the hot desert.

  "This story is a little embarrassing, but seeing how you'll be dead shortly, what the hell." The driver seemed to be amused with himself as the girls fear doubled. "See the man I killed was my best friend, poor old Benny! He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like you ladies I suppose. Anyways, I was home one night drinking whiskey and snorting a lot of coke. My girlfriend Sandy was working that night bar tending. I went up to our bedroom and began looking in her underwear drawer. There's just something about the silky feeling I really enjoy. So I undressed myself and put on her bra and panties. I was standing in front of a mirror stroking myself when Benny just helped himself in. You should have seen the look on his face!" He stopped and seemed to be playing the events over in his mind.

  The driver flicked his cigarette out the window and looked in his mirror to see if they were listening, Then he continued, "Where was I, oh yeah! So he turned to leave and I chased him in to the living room. I tackled him to the floor with my erection still protruding from the little pink panties. Then I grabbed a lamp and smashed it over his head. I think he was knocked out after that, but I slammed the broken lamp on his head again, driving one of the broken shards of glass into his temple and that was pretty much it for old Benny."

  "You're one sick fuck!" Tammy informed him. The driver kept speeding through the desert acting like he didn't hear her.

  "When the police came, I had changed back into my street clothes and told them I thought it was a burglar and pretended to be really upset it was my best friend. They believed me, they fucking believed it and I only got a couple years." The driver was laughing. "Well that's enough of story time."

  He slammed on the brakes, sending the cab in to a one-eighty. A giant sand cloud formed around the car. As soon as the car was completely stopped, the girls exited the car, running together in the wide open desert and trying desperately to get away from the cross-dressing, cab driving psycho.

  They made it about twenty feet from the car before a popping sound of a pistol rang through the air. Tammy fell to the ground screaming in agonizing pain. She was clutching her lower calf as a circle of blood formed on her jeans. Sam bent down to try and help her up.

  "Go, run! Save yourself!" Tammy screamed at her as a bullet whistled past Sam's head. Just as she was about to take her friend's advice, a burning pain slammed into her thigh and sent her to the ground. Sam and Tammy were lying side by side on the dry desert floor, clutching their wounds. The driver walked to them with a pistol in one hand and he was still holding that devil grin. A big shadow covered the girls as he stood examining them.

  "I'm gonna make this real quick for ya!" He said as he pointed the pistol at Tammy's head. He was about to squeeze the trigger but Sam drove her good leg into his crotch. He bent over in pain and Tammy kicked the pistol from his hand. Sam crawled to the gun, dragging her wounded leg. When she turned around to shoot, she saw the bearded man snap her best friends neck with his bare hands. In a fury of rage she pulled the trigger and struck him in the shoulder. He fell to the ground and another bullet struck him in the side of the head, sending
a sprinkle of blood in the air. He toppled over and didn't move. She crawled back to Tammy who was laying lifeless and cried.

  When she was able to gather herself, she staggered back to the cab and began driving back to the highway, leaving her best friend and the maniac cab driver to rot in the desert sun. She drove straight to a police station and told them the entire story.

  ***

  It was a cloudy, humid day. The rain had come and gone. Sam was dressed in her amazingly beautiful wedding dress. She walked down the aisle toward her future husband with a slightly noticeable limp. A kind of gloominess feeling had overtaken her special day. A mutual friend had taken the place of her fallen maid of honor. She missed Tammy horribly, but nothing was going to stop her from marrying Rick. She walked to him and they held hands. They stared into each other's eyes through the entire ceremony.

  After the preacher ran them through their vows and informed Rick he could kiss his bride, they turned to face the attendee's. They all stood up and cheered and clapped as they were pronounced the new Mr. and Mrs. Matthews. Sam had a cold tingle run up her spine and goose bumps formed on her skin, not because of the ceremony, but because she spotted a familiar bearded man standing and clapping with a bandage on his head and an evil grin.

  Matthew Stephens 2008