Clay MacDonnell
04-07-2014, 06:05 AM
The taxi station was dark when I walked in. As usual, before my night shifts would begin, I turned on the lights and slid myself onto a chair in the kitchen. No one had arrived yet. I got out a pack of cigarettes and placed them on the table, getting through three before Pedro barged in.
“Eeeh bro, what the **** you think you doin’. There’s no smoking in here’.
“**** you, Pedro”.
Pedro giggled and went over to the coffee pot and turned it on. He had a wry smile like a birth mark. It was a part of him.
“Any bookings tonight, Prashnath?”
“Yeah. I got a weird one. I got to go out of Seattle. Tiger Mountain state forest. It’s not even near anything. Middle of nowhere. I’m **** scared, man. No houses nearby, I looked it up on maps. It’s scary as **** outside at this time of night, already, without getting killed by demons or some ****, man”.
Pedro was listening, pouring his coffee. He sat down next to me, lit a cigarette and smiled.
“You are ****ed, bro”
“Shut up, I am serious. I want to cancel it. Before you walked in I was going to send this guy a message. Was going to tell him to shove his creepy forest up his arse, man”.
Pedro chuckled in the tobacco of his cigarette.
“What is the name of the place again, Prashnath”.
“Tiger Mountain”.
Pedro winced. For a moment the birth mark disappeared.
“Do not go there, bro. I am not even trying to be funny here. That place is bad. There is some ****ed up stories from there. Couple of guys that worked with me back at city cabs ran into trouble there”.
“What. What do you mean. Don’t mess with me”.
“I mean if you go to this place tonight, you will seriously get sacrificed to demons or something. I swear I am not messing with you. Look at my face, bro. I am serious about this”.
“What did the guy’s at city cabs say. I swear if you are messing with me..”
“There was this big Russian guy I used to work with, yeah? His name was Vladimir or Vladislav or something like that. Anyway, doesn’t matter. This guy, like you, gets a booking at this place in Tiger forest. It was just me, Vlad, and two other guys on shift that night. Real quiet. We all head off, do our thing, and me and the two other guys are back at the station at four o’ clock.
So here we are waiting for Vlad to get back, getting really pissed off because we cannot lock up, and we want to go home. We call this guy, send him messages and everything, but no reply. Of course we start to think the worst, right. ‘****, Vlad’s hit a ****ing tree’, we thought.
Well, we were all about to start looking for this guy when he ****ing turns up. I swear to Christ bro, this guy was dirty, and had holes all over him, cuts all over his face and ****.
‘Vlad, what the ****. What happened’ I said.
Does not say a thing. Just sits down, has a smoke. Not a ****ing thing. Eventually Vlad says he was attacked, right? Now, I want you to get this picture in your head. This guy, Vlad, is huge, bro. He is a beast. He could take anyone in a fight. ****, he could take three. So when you see this guy walking in all torn up, saying he got attacked, it makes you think, bro: who the **** could do that to this guy.
So I question him. It doesn’t make sense. ‘What do you mean attacked. Who the **** attacked you’ I said.
This is exactly what he said, bro.
‘I take job in Tiger forest. It take me forty minutes to get to this place, and no one there. I wait for ten, twenty minutes, no one there. I come back. There was man on road, his car broke down. I get out, I help. I tell you, man. I got bad feeling from this guy. I don’t know why, sometime you just get bad feeling, you know? But I ignore the bad feeling, I help. I go to him, but then I hear noise from tree line along side of road. All these people wearing black, only black. They come out of the trees. Some holding torches, some holding knives. It was an ambush.’
Vlad was surrounded by a satanic ****ing cult in the middle of the forest, I **** you not. He tried to run back to his car, get away that way, but they got there before he did. They closed in on him, saying all this weird **** in another language. Vlad was lucky he was built like a house because he was able to charge one of the guys holding a torch. Knocked him to the ground. Had to run away into the forest.”
“That is crazy, man. There is no way I am taking this booking. I am not even going to message him back.”
I went to light another cigarette when I noticed the wry smirk reappear on Pedro’s face.
“Oh **** you, man. Do not scare me like that".
Pedro laughed.
“No bro, for real. Watch out”.
“Yeah, yeah”.
I finished the cigarette quickly, grabbed my coat and hopped into the car, ready to start my shift; ready to go to Tiger Mountain. Pedro was full of ****, he was always like that. I started the engine. As the car sat and quietly roared I thought about Pedro’s smile, and how it collapsed into fear when I told him I was going to Tiger Mountain. Admittedly that was strange. Very strange. But Pedro was full of ****, he was always like that..
“Eeeh bro, what the **** you think you doin’. There’s no smoking in here’.
“**** you, Pedro”.
Pedro giggled and went over to the coffee pot and turned it on. He had a wry smile like a birth mark. It was a part of him.
“Any bookings tonight, Prashnath?”
“Yeah. I got a weird one. I got to go out of Seattle. Tiger Mountain state forest. It’s not even near anything. Middle of nowhere. I’m **** scared, man. No houses nearby, I looked it up on maps. It’s scary as **** outside at this time of night, already, without getting killed by demons or some ****, man”.
Pedro was listening, pouring his coffee. He sat down next to me, lit a cigarette and smiled.
“You are ****ed, bro”
“Shut up, I am serious. I want to cancel it. Before you walked in I was going to send this guy a message. Was going to tell him to shove his creepy forest up his arse, man”.
Pedro chuckled in the tobacco of his cigarette.
“What is the name of the place again, Prashnath”.
“Tiger Mountain”.
Pedro winced. For a moment the birth mark disappeared.
“Do not go there, bro. I am not even trying to be funny here. That place is bad. There is some ****ed up stories from there. Couple of guys that worked with me back at city cabs ran into trouble there”.
“What. What do you mean. Don’t mess with me”.
“I mean if you go to this place tonight, you will seriously get sacrificed to demons or something. I swear I am not messing with you. Look at my face, bro. I am serious about this”.
“What did the guy’s at city cabs say. I swear if you are messing with me..”
“There was this big Russian guy I used to work with, yeah? His name was Vladimir or Vladislav or something like that. Anyway, doesn’t matter. This guy, like you, gets a booking at this place in Tiger forest. It was just me, Vlad, and two other guys on shift that night. Real quiet. We all head off, do our thing, and me and the two other guys are back at the station at four o’ clock.
So here we are waiting for Vlad to get back, getting really pissed off because we cannot lock up, and we want to go home. We call this guy, send him messages and everything, but no reply. Of course we start to think the worst, right. ‘****, Vlad’s hit a ****ing tree’, we thought.
Well, we were all about to start looking for this guy when he ****ing turns up. I swear to Christ bro, this guy was dirty, and had holes all over him, cuts all over his face and ****.
‘Vlad, what the ****. What happened’ I said.
Does not say a thing. Just sits down, has a smoke. Not a ****ing thing. Eventually Vlad says he was attacked, right? Now, I want you to get this picture in your head. This guy, Vlad, is huge, bro. He is a beast. He could take anyone in a fight. ****, he could take three. So when you see this guy walking in all torn up, saying he got attacked, it makes you think, bro: who the **** could do that to this guy.
So I question him. It doesn’t make sense. ‘What do you mean attacked. Who the **** attacked you’ I said.
This is exactly what he said, bro.
‘I take job in Tiger forest. It take me forty minutes to get to this place, and no one there. I wait for ten, twenty minutes, no one there. I come back. There was man on road, his car broke down. I get out, I help. I tell you, man. I got bad feeling from this guy. I don’t know why, sometime you just get bad feeling, you know? But I ignore the bad feeling, I help. I go to him, but then I hear noise from tree line along side of road. All these people wearing black, only black. They come out of the trees. Some holding torches, some holding knives. It was an ambush.’
Vlad was surrounded by a satanic ****ing cult in the middle of the forest, I **** you not. He tried to run back to his car, get away that way, but they got there before he did. They closed in on him, saying all this weird **** in another language. Vlad was lucky he was built like a house because he was able to charge one of the guys holding a torch. Knocked him to the ground. Had to run away into the forest.”
“That is crazy, man. There is no way I am taking this booking. I am not even going to message him back.”
I went to light another cigarette when I noticed the wry smirk reappear on Pedro’s face.
“Oh **** you, man. Do not scare me like that".
Pedro laughed.
“No bro, for real. Watch out”.
“Yeah, yeah”.
I finished the cigarette quickly, grabbed my coat and hopped into the car, ready to start my shift; ready to go to Tiger Mountain. Pedro was full of ****, he was always like that. I started the engine. As the car sat and quietly roared I thought about Pedro’s smile, and how it collapsed into fear when I told him I was going to Tiger Mountain. Admittedly that was strange. Very strange. But Pedro was full of ****, he was always like that..