A Sting in the Tale: A Collection of Short Stories

1

Tina breathed a sigh of relief when the clock struck home-time. Her job as a receptionist may not have been the most active of roles but it didn’t make it any less tiring. Just over eight hours of filing paperwork, answering multiple phone calls and dealing with customer enquiries — she was ready to go home and have a nice relaxing soak in the tub, maybe even with a glass of wine. And a take-away. She was definitely ordering a take-away tonight. Her husband — Tony — worked nights and tonight was no different. After the day she had had, wading through a mountain of paperwork, it was the perfect reason to order take-away — not that she really needed one.

#notworthcookingforone is what she’d hashtag, along with a picture of whatever she had chosen to order, along with a second picture Tweet of a glass of wine to wash it down with.

#Rudenotto

“See you tomorrow!” she called out as she left the office, pushing the door open with her back and stepping out — backwards — into the street, clutching onto her handbag. Once outside, she turned and headed towards where she’d parked the car — hopeful to get to it before the heavens opened. Ominous dark clouds up above threatening to unleash a torrential downpour any minute now. Always the way — beautiful days right up until home time. And then, the blue skies were swallowed up and day become a very wet night. The only exception to this being the weekends. Then the days started wet and remained wet right the way through to when she turned in for the night; the clouds only parting come Monday morning.

#Godhatesme

She reached her little car just in the nick of time. A few splashes of rainwater had splattered down but not enough to soak her. She shut herself in and slid the key into the ignition before tossing her handbag onto the seat next to her just as a message pinged through on her mobile phone. Typical. A quick ferret around her bag and she found it. A message clearly displayed on the front of her iPhone; one of her most prized-possessions.

Free tonight if bored x

It was from one of her best friends; Shelley Atkins.

Sorry — plans tonight. Catch up soon tho? xx

Having tapped out the quick message, Tina pressed send and tossed the phone onto the seat where it landed next to her bag. It’s not that she didn’t enjoy spending time with Shelley, it’s just she had been promising herself that long soak in the bath and bottle of wine all afternoon. Sure, she could have enjoyed a drink with her friend and been sociable but — tonight at least — she just didn’t fancy it. Besides, despite being a romantic at heart, Shelley was single so Tina could always catch up with her at the weekend — especially as Tony played bass guitar in not one but two bands and, as a result, gigged most weekends.

Eyes facing forward, she turned the key and the car spluttered into life; a plume of smoke from the rear exhaust. She selected reverse, backed out of the space and drove away — leaving the car park behind her in the rearview mirror. She let out a heavy sigh as she settled back into her seat and made herself comfortable. Another day done. Two more days and then it was the weekend. And then it was Monday and the week started again. She dismissed the latter part of the thought and turned her mind to looking forward to the weekend.

#dontwishlifeaway

Driving through the main part of the city, traffic was already building up. The congestion wasn’t helped by the fact the rain had started beating down heavily, causing all cars to slow to a near stop. As Tina sat at the back of yet another traffic jam — with cars piling up behind her, also queuing, she knew she was in for a rough ride home. If the centre of town was already bad, there would be a good chance that the motorway would also be backing up too. She closed her eyes momentarily and wished herself away from the jam, instead picturing herself in the bath that she so longed for. In her picture, a tidy little bottle of red was on the floor — within easy reach — and a glass (full) was already in hand. A warm, soaking flannel placed across her forehead as she laid there with her eyes closed. The driver behind hit his horn — a long, loud blast pulling Tina back to the dull reality of evening rush-hour. She opened her eyes — sighed — and drove up to the back of the car in front. She didn’t know why the driver behind was so keen for her to move. It wasn’t as though they could get much further.

#wishfulthinking

Although Tina knew she wasn’t going to be the only one to have the idea — she decided that, as soon as the turning came up, she’d take the back way home. It was a little longer but the (usually) quiet country roads at least let you get to a decent speed and stay there whereas, on the motorway, there were usually tail-backs regardless of the weather. It just so happened that bad weather made things worse because, nine time out of ten, some idiot would slide into someone else because they hadn’t left enough of a gap between vehicles. As soon as that happened, the thirty minute journey home could turn into over an hour’s worth of travel time. At least.

#learntodrive

I I

Twenty minutes passed and Tina hadn’t made much progress. Her happiness at finishing work was quickly turning into a feeling of resentment. She resented the weather, she resented the traffic — both at fault for eating into her ‘free’ time. The time she could spend in the bath was getting shorter if she wanted to really make the most of her evening with mindless rubbish on the television and her take-away.

Why did the traffic always have to be worse when going home? Why did it have to make you late for your free time? She couldn’t help but feel she must have really pissed someone of authority off in a previous life. The traffic was never bad enough to make her late for the morning start. Only ever for going home.

#lifesucks

What made it more frustrating was that she could see the turning she needed to take — a few hundred yards away. The cars weren’t moving anywhere fast and yet hardly any traffic seemed to be headed down the road she wanted. More than that — not many vehicles were coming out from the turning either which suggested that particular route was quiet.

“Come on, come on…” she muttered under her breath, desperate to be able to get to the turning. Once she was driving down that road — so long as it was as quiet as it appeared — she knew she’d be on the way to getting home at a semi-decent hour. Still hope for that hot bath and glass of wine yet, she thought.

Slowly she watched as the cars passed by the turning — most sticking to the same route. She couldn’t help but wonder whether they knew something that she didn’t know. Maybe the road was closed further down? Maybe they could see that — a little further down the road — it was also at a standstill? Whatever — it had to be better than this. This was just painful. Not forgetting also that it was an excellent indication as to how the motorway would be. Another thought popped into her head; maybe they didn’t know the back route as she did? It was definitely a little more twisty-turny than the standard route and — as mentioned before — it was slightly longer. That on top of the fact that it was easy to get lost if you didn’t know the route properly — maybe people were put off? Thank God her sister, Joanne, showed her the route all those months ago when they went to the shops together; a cheeky little trip to make the most of the discount Joanne got for working at the supermarket.

“Where are you going?” she had asked Joanne as she suddenly turned off the main route home.

She flicked the indicator lever and the light started flickering to the left. The cars stopped moving once more — a final fuck you from the traffic Gods before allowing Tina to be on her way. She sighed heavy. The ‘thump-thump’ noise of the windscreen wipers, the heavy beating of the rain on the windscreen, the occasional car horn sounding off out of frustration and now the tick-ticking of the indicators.

Tina screamed out loud; a noisy way of releasing the slow-building stress bubbling around the insides of her body. She put her head in her hands and screamed again — the damned frustration of not being able to get home. She looked up. Her scream hadn’t scared the traffic out of the way. She was still stuck.

#Godhatesme

2

Tina was finally able to breath a sigh of relief as she turned the corner. No cars in front of her, she put her foot to the pedal and started to relax. Finally — the feeling of making progress came over her. A far better feeling than the irritating frustration of feeling stuck to the spot.

The speed limit was thirty miles per hour and Tina was soon doing forty, despite it being a residential area. She didn’t care. Now, the only thing she cared about was getting home and going by the car behind her — practically sitting on her rear bumper — she wasn’t the only one to be in a hurry.

She eased off the accelerator a little. If she suddenly had to slam on her brake there was no way the person behind her would be able to stop in time. She muttered under her breath, it was idiots like these who tended to cause traffic black spots; all because they were in a hurry and accidentally drove into someone. The driver behind responded to her slight braking by sounding his horn in frustration. Tina muttered again and flicked the indicator down. The light on her vehicle warning the driver behind that she was about to pull to the side of the road. She accelerated a little — to give herself room to breathe — and then pulled up against the kerb, giving the car behind ample room to get by. She jumped as the driver wasted no time in speeding past her, sounding the horn as he did so.

#roadwarrior

Tina responded by hitting her own horn and screaming, “Fuck you!” at the driver, despite there being no chance for them to hear her. It just made her feel good, as though justice had been served. It didn’t matter to her that no one else knew justice had been dished out; it was strictly for her own benefit and amusement. Also, it was good stress relief — just as screaming at the top of her lungs had been when she was stuck in the motionless traffic. Still — that wasn’t how she usually dealt with people riding her arse like that. Usually — with idiots like that — she liked to slow right down to at least five miles per hour under the speed limit, just to annoy them more than necessary. The only reason she hadn't this time was because she was in a hurry to get home herself and — with visibility so poor, it would have been asking for trouble.

She waited a minute or so by the side of the road with the indicator still ticking in the background. Just long enough to give her heart a chance to calm down after being made to jump. And then — when feeling calmer — she pulled away and hit the road once more. She accelerated up to a steady speed — still higher than the enforced limit. The driver once behind and now in front — had all but disappeared with only the faint glow of his lights illuminated in the heavy downpour further down the road. The car disappeared around the next bend.

As Tina approached the bend, she eased off the gas and gently touched upon the brake. She knew these roads like the back of her hand and this was the last turning before the estate turned to hedges and bushes; city of Nottingham slowly turning to country. She also happened to know that it was a bitch of a turning and that — over the years — many a boy racer had come a cropper there, putting themselves into one of the trees and either killing themselves or the friends they carried in the passenger seats.

#theyneverlearn

Tina navigated the bend and drove on passing a car, parked up on the side. She noticed it was the idiot who had earlier overtaken her. She didn’t understand his hurry to overtake her if he was only going to pull up around the corner and yet she couldn’t resist… She thumped her hand down on the car’s horn with a satisfied giggle and a hope that she’d scared the shit out of the driver just as he had scared the shit out of her when he did it. Mission accomplished — she pressed her foot down on the accelerator and — once again — started to gather speed.

#winning

I I

On a quiet day Tina loved this road. The majority of the corners were gentle with great visibility meaning you had plenty of time to respond if you suddenly needed to slow for anything; such as other traffic or even animals in the road as had been known to happen. Along with the gentle curves, there were also plenty of long, uninterrupted straight parts too. Parts where you could really put your foot down — so long as you were vigilant about keeping an eye out for the speed-traps that had occasionally been put in place as a deterrent. Still, with the rain beating down heavily (still) — the chance of the police being out with their little speed cameras was slim to none. Most would be too busy dealing with whatever traffic accident had taken place — as was always the case when it rained. The rain comes, the drivers slow down and yet — somewhere — someone still manages to have a collision.

This road wasn’t perfect though. It was still longer than the other route home so you were doing unnecessary miles and there was always a danger of getting stuck behind a learner driver or — worse still — a tractor. Both were annoying in their own way and — if you found them — the journey would become that much longer and certainly more frustrating as you’d look for spots to overtake them.

A loud thumping noise from somewhere under the front of the car suddenly pulled Tina from her thoughts with a sudden jump and the steering wheel tried to snatch itself from her hands. Immediately she took her foot from the accelerator and let the car slow down at its own pace — too scared to press the brake pedal. The way the steering wheel was shaking in her hand, and the fact the car was trying to pull to the side, she knew straight away she had a flat. It hadn’t been her first. She also knew that — since last having a flat and having the tyres changed — she hadn’t replaced the spare.

“Shit,” she muttered as the car eventually stopped. “Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT!”

She sat there a moment. She didn’t want to get out and look at the damage. Not least because it was raining but she knew there was nothing she could do about it — other than call for help and hope they wouldn’t take the whole night to get to her. The perfect end to what had already been a stressful day — not helped by the fact that it was getting darker outside, something which — in itself — was not helped by the big black clouds still hiding the heavens above.

Tina screamed out loud again. Another burst of frustration spilling out from within. She stopped and sat there a moment. A heavy sigh and she reached for the mobile phone. The good news was that the battery had 23 % remaining — more than enough to get someone out to come and rescue her. The bad news was that there was absolutely no signal. Of course not. She was in the middle of country roads. Why would there be signal. She tossed the phone back onto the passenger seat and sighed again. So much for that bath.

Looking around outside, she saw she was in a section surrounded by trees. A few hundred yards, further down the road, and she could see the trees just stopped. All she could think was that — maybe — the signal might be better down there. A second, sneaky thought that she didn’t have a coat with her. The morning had been overcast but it had still been warmish. She hadn’t expected the downpour and so hadn’t dressed appropriately. She looked up to the black clouds above. Unlike the trees, there was seemingly no end to them. They just stretched on and on, right into the distance. She screamed again.

“It’s fine. Just give it five minutes,” she said to herself. “Five minutes and hopefully it will ease off a little. Just a little. Please. I don’t expect it to stop. I just don’t want to get as drenched.” The thought of the warm bath waiting for her continued to tease her. She wanted a warm bath. She was getting a freezing cold shower.

#notthesamething

She put her hazard lights on and patiently sat there, looking up through the car’s sun-roof. The rain not getting any lighter, despite her wishes. If anything, it seemed a little heavier. Car lights distracted her via the rear-view mirror. A car approaching. Maybe they would stop and help her out? She opened the car door and clambered out into the pissing rain — the heavy droplets immediately soaking her blouse.

“Gah! For Fuck sake!” she screamed as she jerked her body at the sudden coldness of the water. She quickly stood up straight and turned her attention to the car coming towards her. She raised her hands up in the air — signalling for them to stop. It drove past at speed, splashing the road’s collected rainwater over Tina. She screamed again. Same bastard car that had sped past her earlier. “Fuck you!” she screamed.

#karmaisabitch

The car slammed on its brakes and screeched to a halt. Tina just stood there, watching it for a moment. Maybe the driver hadn’t noticed her in the rain? Maybe it had been an accident — splashing through the puddle like that? The car didn’t move. It just sat there where it had stopped. Maybe they were waiting for her to approach them for help? It made sense. Had it been Tina in the car, and a stranger by the side of the road, she wouldn’t have got out either. She started walking towards the car. The driver revved the engine when she was close enough and then wheel-spun away. The little prick. Tina screamed and put her finger up in the air — a gesture of ‘fuck you’ to the imbecile, asshole driver.

“I hope you fucking crash!”

#cunt

Again, further up the road, the car slammed on its brakes and skidded across the wet concrete to a halt. The engine was ticking over, occasionally being revved. Tina just stood there watching them. She knew, if she walked over, they would drive off again.

“What do you want?!” she screamed out. The engine revved and — again — the car pulled away. No wheel-spin this time though. A deliberate and slow action. Tina still didn’t move. Not until the lights disappeared from her sight. “Yeah, fuck you!” she muttered under her breath.

#freak

3

Cold and wet, Tina leaned back into her car and reached for her mobile phone. The way she saw it, she couldn’t get any wetter now so she might as well have walked to where the trees stopped in order to check for her network signal. Keeping the phone as close to her body as possible, to save it getting too wet, she folded her arms and made a run for it. Each drop of rain stunning her face as it lashed against her — made worse by the fact she was running into them.

As soon as she reached where there were no overhead trees, she stopped and looked down to her phone. Still no signal.

“Shit!!” she screamed.

Desperate — and ignoring the rain — she held the phone up into the air. A hope that — somehow — it would magic at least one bar of signal. Tricky to make a call in this position but easy to send a text. A desperate plea to either Lee or Greg — both friends who would come and help her out. Both friends who were also of large builds, should that driver have decided to come back too. She couldn’t help but wonder whether the driver would have been such an asshole had either of her friends been there but especially had she been with Greg, a six foot rugby player.

Still no signal.

Tina dropped her phone and looked in both directions hoping that she would see something, or someone that could help her. This was one of the worst things about breaking down on the back roads; the distinct lack of help. At least the motorway had phones staggered down the sides of it in case a driver found themselves stranded. Ironic really that they put the phones there where there were frequent police cruisers going past, not forgetting hundreds of other drivers — all of whom were capable of stopping and helping, should you need it. Yet out here, where it is quiet, they tend to leave the drivers to fend for themselves. It is worse when you consider the fact cars have been around a lot longer than mobile phones…

Headlights on the horizon and a little wave of relief. Knowing visibility wasn’t the best — and the fact she wasn’t really dressed in suitable attire to be standing in the middle of the road — Tina stepped to the side. She pressed the screen of her iPhone and flicked the torch app on before turning the bright light towards the oncoming car. The car stopped some way away and immediately Tina’s heart sunk. It was him again. A sudden revving of the car engine just confirmed that.

#psycho

She about turned and ran back towards her own car. She didn’t know who this person was, or what their problem was, but clearly they had issues and the worst place she could be was standing out in the open. She reached the car and opened the door, jumping back inside and slamming the door behind her. Not that she expected the driver to stop, she locked the door. A false sense of security. Had they wanted to get in, she knew a locked door wouldn’t have stopped them. All they had to do — and she knew this — was to smash a window.

She looked down at her phone again in the hope that — somehow — she had managed to source a little signal from somewhere. Still nothing.

“Fuck!” she screamed.

She looked behind her — ever hopeful that she would see another car headed in this direction. She had lost count of the number of times she had driven down this road wishing for no traffic, only to get stuck behind someone. And — now — here she was wishing for traffic and there was nothing other than this idiot.

By the time she faced forward — the car was speeding towards her. Not just that but it was speeding towards where her own car had stopped. She kept telling herself that it was okay. They would stop. They would leave it as late as possible but they would stop. They weren’t going to just ram her. Why would they do that? They’d damage their own car as well. No sane person would do that.

A panicked thought — the fact this person had come back for her and was toying with her… This wasn’t a sane person. Quickly, she fumbled for the lock and undid it. A second later and the car door was open and she was running across the road — towards the trees.

Her legs made short work of the embankment of earth as she scrambled up and out of the road. She turned, expecting to hear the car slam on the brakes at any minute, but there was no sound of it slowing. And now she was watching it — there was no sight of it doing so either.

She watched in horror as the car ploughed headfirst into her own, pushing it back as it stuck to the bumper. The damaged front wheel — and the way Tina had left the steering wheel — caused both cars to career off the road, opposite Tina, and crash into a tree. Loud bangs of twisted, clashing metal with each impact — first where the cars came together and then when they hit the tree. Tina screamed — sure that she’d just witnessed someone kill themselves and — not just that — try to take her life too.

But something was wrong. The car’s engine was still screaming — as though a foot was stuck on the accelerator but now the cars had stopped… She could see that the driver’s seat was empty. There was no one in the car.

She turned in the direction the car had come from. They must have got out and rigged the car to speed up here and crash into her. But — had they done so — that meant they were still out there somewhere and, more than that, they wanted to hurt her.

Tina looked to the horizon, where the car and stopped, and saw nothing. The heavy rain didn’t help but she knew someone must be out there. They were out there watching her just as she was watching for them. The only advantage they had, over her, was that they’d have seen her leap from the car. They knew where she was likely to be. A panicked thought that — not only that — but they could be on the way over right now, angered that their plan had failed.

Without further hesitation Tina turned back from the way she had initially come and started to run.

I I

Tina collapsed with her back against one of the many trees. Still no traffic to help her, still no sign of other human life. It was dark now and the moths had come out, along with the small little flies which seemed to fly together in small clusters between trees as though serving some purpose only they know about. She hated all flying insects as much as she hated spiders. Trapped in her own living nightmare, being stalked by some nutter and dive-bombed by insects.

There was a need to scream out — asking for someone to come to help her — but she knew she couldn’t say a word. There was a strong possibility that — by running through the woods — the other person may well have lost track of her. If she called out, he would find her again. Stay silent and he might not. She wanted to break down and cry, curl up into a little ball and hope and pray that morning came but she also knew that would do her no good either. She just had to keep moving and hope that a car would reveal itself in the distance. If they did so, she could run down the embankment and wave them down. If no car came then — by keeping moving — sooner or later she would have got back to civilisation anyway and, more importantly, safety.

She pushed herself away from the tree and continued on shaking legs. She was only five foot 2 and of a petite build. Her day job involved sitting on her backside, her hobbies — Twitter, reading and any kind of shopping — were also not strenuous. She wasn’t built for this and couldn’t recall the last time she had done this much psychical exercise.

#joiningagym

To distract herself from what was happening — she tried her best to change her thoughts to that of the warm bath waiting for her. That promised bath and bottle of red. And the take-away. The hot food — maybe Chinese?

“Not much further to go,” she kept telling herself. “And then you’ll be in that bath, with that treasured glass of wine and you’ll be laughing about all of this.” Of course she knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. She knew that she’d need to contact the police and tell them what had happened. And then she would have to contact the insurance company; two more tasks that would eat into her evening.

#callinsicktomorrow

And so…

Tina felt a flutter of hope as lights appeared further down the road. A car was coming in her direction. Quickly, she scrambled down the embankment and back onto the main road. A quick check behind her to make sure whoever was following her wasn’t right there, ready to snatch her back into the woods. No one was there. She was alone. A sigh of relief.

She put her hands up in the air and waved the car to stop. Her heart sunk once more as it drove past at a sensible speed. Too many horror films depicted hitchhikers, or stranded people by a roadside as trouble, and she could understand why they didn’t stop. Had roles been reversed, she wouldn’t have stopped. But it didn’t make it any less frustrating.

To her surprise the car suddenly slowed to a stop. She turned and looked for a moment, wondering whether the driver was going to speed off — as the previous one had. A cruel joke aimed towards a desperate woman. The driver’s door opened and the driver — a man — stuck his head out.

“You need a lift?” he shouted out.

“Yes! Yes please!”

#myhero

Tina ran towards the car and jumped into the passenger side.

“Nasty night to be out for a walk,” the man said; a smart gentleman dressed in a business suit. Before Tina had a chance to explain what had happened, he continued, “Where do you need a lift to?” he asked.

“Anywhere away from here,” she said. “If you could just drop me off at the nearest hint of civilisation I’d be grateful,” she finished. From there she could phone the police. They could then come and meet her, she could show them the crime scene and then take it from there — maybe they’d even give her a lift back to her house.

“No worries,” he said. “I just need to wait for my brother, though.” The stranger continued, “Silly sod had an accident.” A slight pause. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen another stranded driver out here?” he asked.

Tina’s heart sunk and then skipped a beat as the rear door opened and someone climbed in.

“Ah — speak of the Devil…” the driver said.

Tina spun around in her chair. There — sitting behind her — was another man. He was soaked through to the skin and his eyes were seemingly black and soulless. He clocked Tina and smiled before he reached his hand forward between her seat and the side of the car and pressed the lock down.

Tina screamed.

The driver laughed, and addressed his brother in the back, “Wait a minute — is this the person you were telling me about?!”

T H E E N D