THERE'S SOMETHING OUT THERE

Genre: Horror

THERE’S SOMETHING OUT THERE

By Randy Romero

Darkness was all Douglas Jones could see.

It took him a moment to realize he was upside down in his black Dodge Ram. There was a huge spiderweb crack in the windshield. The passenger window was busted out.

He tasted copper. Like sucking on an old, dirty penny. Blood from the gash on his forehead. He was still buckled in but he lacked the strength in his hands to reach up and unbuckle himself. He didn’t know if anything was broken, but his left arm sure felt like it. His legs were useless. He couldn’t move them at all.

The last thing he remembered was swerving to avoid hitting that dog that darted out into the middle of the road. And a big dog, it was. He skidded off the road and rolled into a ditch. He must’ve passed out after that from the pain.

He was awake and alert now, and feeling every bit of the pain.

It was a full moon but no light seemed to touch that pitch black ditch. There was little chance any passing drivers would see his dark truck from the highway. Not at this time of night.

He needed to call for help, but he couldn’t remember where he put his cell phone. He wasn’t exactly sure where he even was. Somewhere near Exit 53 on Sunrise Highway. But if he could get to his phone, he could call 911 and have them trace his location.

Stay calm, he thought. You’ll get through this.

Vickie is probably wondering where I am, he thought. Maybe she’ll call the police when I don’t come home. Maybe they’ll come looking for me. Douglas, or Doug as he preferred, was trying to be optimistic. But he’d heard stories about people being trapped in their cars for days. It was mid-December and the weather was unpredictable. One surprise snowstorm was all it would take to make his truck invisible. Terrifying scenarios were running through Doug’s head, and he couldn’t make it stop.

He tried his best to take his mind off of it. He thought about Vickie. Thought about the guys back at the office. They always called him Dougie which he hated. But he still enjoyed grabbing a beer with them after work and playing a few rounds of pool. He thought about his mom and dad in Fresno. His sister in San Jose. He thought about Madeline, his secretary.

What a mistake this had been. He had never cheated on Vickie before. Not until tonight. He skipped the after-work beers with the guys and met Madeline in a cheap, seedy hotel off exit 45. She wanted him to spend the night. But he didn’t want Vickie wondering where he was all night. What must she be wondering now, he thought. How am I going to explain this to her?

The glove compartment. That’s where Doug’s phone was.

With his one good arm, he tried to get to the glove compartment, but it was just out of reach.

Through his shattered passenger window, he heard sounds emanating from the nearby woods. A rustle of leaves. Twigs snapping. Footsteps.

There’s something out there.

Then he heard growling.

The dog, he thought. But this didn’t sound like any dog he had ever heard before. The sounds were deep and guttural.

A prolonged howl echoed through the woods, and it chilled Doug to the bone.

He could barely see, but he could hear something approaching rapidly. He caught just a glimpse of the hairy, bipedal creature through the passenger window. It dug its razor-sharp claws into the passenger door and ripped it from the hinges with ease.

Its eyes were yellow and glowed like the moon. The last thing Doug saw was its wet, dripping snout and two rows of jagged teeth.