She shut her eyes tight as she turned slightly, something in the back of her mind reminding her that she hadn’t parked where she usually did today. Like a post-it note on her subconscious.
The car was in sight now, its chipped off-white paint standing out like a beacon in the dark night surrounding it. It was a 1993 Rover 400 series that had seen better days. The driver’s side window shook as though it was about to fall out every time it was hit by a stern gust of wind and the original hood had been replaced by a deep forest green one. There were already nine hundred thousand clicks on it when she bought it a year ago for two hundred dollars and since then it had been in the shop three times and cost her almost double what she’d paid for it. Moreover, it ate gas like it was going out of style.
She reached her forefinger into her pocket and found her keyless remote in the jumble of the tips change and keys. Holding it high, she pressed the green button on it once.
The car chirped to life with a two identical beeps as she got closer to it, slowing down a little as her heels started to scream out with the pain she’d managed to ignore for most of the day. The keys still clinked, swaying back and forth as she pulled them out of her pocket, sending pennies and other loose change scattering to the ground with more ringing clicks. The sharp, metallic sounds were beginning to annoy her after listening to the band practice their solos for the last few hours, so she reached out suddenly and grabbed her keys together into one big lump. She almost cursed as one of the pointy pieces of metal poked at her palm, but deemed it to be worth the pain if the noise would stop.
The clicking continued.
-clink-
-clink- -clink-.
“Hello?” she called out, wrinkling her brow as she squinted into the sheet of blackness all around her.
She stopped walking, the sound of her heels no longer pulsing out into the night air. A second later, one last echo came back to her from the side of the Factory, then there was nothing. She waited, her green eyes looking all around even though she couldn’t see anything except her car, as bright as a ghost compared to everything else. She couldn’t even see the ground.
A gust of wind blew her hair back and the clicking continued, this time even more rapid and clambering than before. It was louder, now, and sharper too. The cold sound of metal on metal, something she remembered from all the stories Mike had told her about the night he and Cathy were attacked. But Genblade’s in prison, now, she reminded herself. Somehow, it offered her very little comfort.
She listened to the sound, her eyes growing wider in their sockets with each passing note.
The stone bricks on either side of her ricocheted and amplified the sound, making its source impossible to locate.
The wind gusted and she thought she felt something pass along next to her shoulder, yelping. She spun quickly to see who was there, almost tripping and falling on her ass as she did, swearing that this would be the last time she wore heels to work.
Nothing.
There was nothing behind her and the more she strained her ears, the less she heard the metallic sound that had been driving her insane since leaving the club. Still, she refused to move. Somewhere inside her, she knew that the second she turned around, she would feel the metal that she had spent the last few minutes listening to.
Finally, a smirk spread across her lips as a thought occurred to her. She moved her thumb over the keyless remote she still clutched in her right hand, applying pressure to the yellow button in its centre. The old Rover’s bright headlights flashed on, illuminating the alley and banishing all shadows into the darkest corners of the alley.
She took a good look around, inspecting every nook and cranny of the stone walls. Satisfied, she turned around and walked toward her car, raising one hand to shield her eyes against the light.
The front door nearly fell off when she pulled on the handle, but she pulled it up and slammed it quickly. She was almost already back into her routine daze again now, her mind already starting to relay the band’s cover of a song by Matchbox Twenty. She started to bob her head to the beat in her head even as the car started with a hacking roar and she pulled out of the parking lot.
As she picked up speed, for no reason that she could see, the clicking started again as she hit Main Street. It was faster now, each click almost indistinguishable from the next. She glanced up into her rearview mirror, seeing nothing but empty streets and light poles that whizzed by. She looked at all the lights and dials on the dashboard, making sure the check engine light wasn’t on. She’d heard the car make sounds like this before, but these didn’t sound like they were coming from the engine.
The more she listened and looked around, the more she became convinced that they weren’t even coming from in front of her. She bit her lip, glancing away from the road long enough to see her cell phone laying on the far side of the passenger seat. Gripping the wheel tightly, she leaned over and grabbed it, flipping it open to make sure the battery wasn’t dead.
When she turned her attention back toward the street, the red light that intersected Laird Street glowered down at her like one evil, demonic eye.
“Fuck!” she yelled as she slammed on the breaks, forcing the car
