Hot Rod

A Short Story


A short story; “Hot Rod

“As I made my way slowly down each step, a neon green colored hot rod with pink flames on the hood flashed before my eyes. It happened so fast I don’t even know where it came from. I was heading toward my bedroom when I noticed something overwhelmingly odd. Suddenly, something didn't feel right, in fact it was rather terrifying to tell the truth, I wasn't alone — but for some reason I decided to continue. My curiosity took over and I was at its mercy.

Once I opened the door our street was obscured, nothing made sense — there wasn't a single sole in sight. I heard a crackling sound and a strong smell of meat — as you would the smell of bacon frying on a pan in the morning. Suddenly everything stopped and the pleasant smell had dissipated to something faint, burnt and rotting. There was a clap of thunder, a banging thud of what sounded like a crash behind closed doors. Immediately following, my ears popped, my head was pounding and I felt dizzy — yet it all disappeared as quickly as it emerged.

It was impossible to locate the direction the noise had come from. All I could hear — was someone crying far off in the distance. Sirens screamed as they headed to the location; which I can only assume involved the car that rocketed passed my way earlier.

As I made my way further down the road there was a red stoplight, glowing, like a floating orb that ascended directly in front of me — pulsating and humming as if it were studying me. I tried to step backward, but it wouldn't let me go, it seemed as if it wanted me to move toward it. When I reached out to touch it, I heard a loud single unmistakable word — “CLEAR!”

I jumped and my body jerked on instinct as if to avoid the accident that had already occurred. With no one around I felt such a strong sensation of helplessness and quickly ran home. Just as I was making my way back up the stairs….

The room turned cold, pitch black and it felt as if all the energy in my body instantly drained away. Suddenly and without warning, a flash of light burned my eyelids and I awoke to a humming — it became louder and more electrifying to the point of a deafening crack of thunder. I could no longer hear and all that I could see was what could only be described as waves of pink and turquoise light washing over me, each blast warming my body in the cold endless void I knew as my home. Suddenly as if with the flip of a switch, the colors, the humming and putrefying smell were gone.

Slowly light began to pour back into the empty space — things started to unravel and make sense again; shedding a glimmer of hope.

I heard mumbling, machines beeping and a young kid’s voice. Light began to pour into my sore tired eyes, a woman crying said “I love you, don’t leave me” and there in front of me was the kid holding a toy car. He said “I’m sorry daddy, I’ll never leave it on the stairs again” and he placed the hot rod on the desk next to the hospital bed.”

Mike Corriero —

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