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A Match Made in Hell
Horror
 Created on 2-26-07
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 Story Rating G
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“Fifteen-hundred dollars Mr. McKenzie, fifteen-hundred dollars is the price for your absolute freedom! You know she’s a beautiful piece of work and you know she’s stirring up desire in you right now,” the short car dealer spoke with an in-the-bag type grin.
Twenty-eight year old Jonathan McKenzie stared onwards with nothing less than pure animal-like lust at the finest machine ever constructed by man - a solid-black 1969 SS350 Camaro. Fresh out of a long-term relationship that had gone horribly wrong, Jonathan found himself seeking a release, a little more excitement in his life. This beautiful car was no doubt his ticket to electrified nights. He could just imagine the looks he’d catch from the ladies when driving around town. However, he was skeptical.
“I told you Mr. Cowen that I don’t know jack about cars. I just want something fast and in decent shape. But I’m not completely stupid either. I know a car like this is damn sure worth way more than fifteen-hundred dollars,” Jonathan hissed feeling like he was being had. “What’s the catch? Is it going to blow up after I get it off the lot?”
“Lord no!” Mr. Cowen assured Jonathan.
“Look at this car. If you didn’t know any better you would think it’d just rolled out of the factory yesterday.” Mr. Cowen asked.
Jonathan shook his head in agreement. The car was in mint condition. The body shone vibrantly in the sunlight and bore not the slightest hint of rust. The leather interior glossed so beautifully that the cow used to make it would have been proud. Jonathan was honest when he said he knew nothing of cars but it didn’t take a genius to know that this car was a gem and could definitely haul serious ass.
He’d been to many used car lots in the past couple of days looking for the chariot of his newly found freedom. He’d sought to propose to his long-time girlfriend Mary Raines over a vacation they had been planning for years. Instead of arriving on the beaches of a nice tropical island and asking for the hand of what he thought was his true love, he arrived home to find Mary in bed with another man.
The thought brought anger back to the surface again. With the money he’d saved for the trip and upon taking back the ring he could afford this car. There was just one more question he needed answered before he sealed the deal.
“Seeing how this is a used car lot that would mean this car once had another owner,” Jonathan interrogated. “You’d have to be crazy to give up a car in this condition, even more crazy to sell it for dirt cheap.”
“Is there a question in here somewhere?” Mr. Cowen asked, not losing that smile for a second.
“My question is did the previous owner say what his reason was for wanting to get rid of it, and how much did he let it go for?” Jonathan asked needing this answer to help determine whether he was sold or not.
“The man simply said that the car was taking over his very soul, and can’t you see why?” Mr. Cowen asked pointing to the car. This was pointless however, for Jonathan’s eyes had not been able to look at anything but the car the whole time. “Now what do you say we step into my office and sign the paperwork and have you and this baby driving off the lot in no time?”
Sold!
Jonathan knew the car dealer could read it all over his face. There was something about this car that just screamed desire to him. It called to him like some long lost lover and he yearned to be inside of it, to hear the engine give out an orgasmic roar. He could already feel it driving like a bat out of hell through his bloodstream going from his brain straight to his heart in zero point six seconds.
“Mr. McKenzie?” Mr. Cowen’s words snatched Jonathan from his daze. Jonathan looked at him puzzled for a second and a little annoyed having made him take his eyes off of the car.
“Shall we do that paperwork now?” Cowen asked while turning to walk towards the little office building. Jonathan looked back at the 1969 SS350 Camaro not wanting to depart from the sight of it. For some reason he was nearly tempted to blow it a kiss. He shook the ridiculous thought from his head and walked on behind Mr. Cowen.
* * * * *
After what seemed like forever, Jonathan had completed all the papers and been given the keys. He wasted no time in getting behind the wheel and driving off the car lot, revisiting his teenage years by spinning out of the parking lot onto the empty two-lane road. A grin spread across Jonathan’s face when he saw the road ahead was clear for what looked like miles. He felt like a kid at Christmas who’d been told he could unwrap his gifts early. The urge was just too strong to ignore and with a look of half delight and half lunacy he stomped the gas.
All the times he and Mary had made love and all those magical sounds she had made during the act were like nails on a chalkboard when compared to the engine’s purring. The smile spread across his face more and more with each shift of the gears. He found himself yelling along with the machine to mock the sound of the engine.
“To hell with the DMV,” Jonathan thought to himself, “I want to see what this Baby’s got!”
So it was decided that the nerve-wracking chore of dealing with the Department of Motor Vehicles could be dealt with at another time. There was another destination, a better destination Jonathan had in mind. He was racing down the road on a route that would take him to Mary’s new place. With no heed to his safety or worry of the police, Jonathan sped off down the road.
The evening sun was setting when Jonathan pulled his Camaro onto Rye Lane, which snaked like an artery through a small suburban part of town. To his amazement, walking out of the small yellow house with white shutters towards her little green sedan was none other than his ex-girlfriend, Mary. His grip on the wheel tightened at the sight of her. Jonathan pulled over just in front of the house’s driveway to make sure she couldn’t leave the house. He gave the gas pedal a stomp to catch Mary’s attention. She looked up puzzled to see Jonathan in front of her house, in a sports car at that.
“How do you like your engagement ring?” Jonathan asked with a sarcastic tone as Mary walked towards the Camaro. “I must say I think it fits me better than it would’ve you.” At that he gave the gas pedal another joyful stomp, the roar of the engine making Mary jump as she walked beside it. The sound this time had been different than previous times. Jonathan noticed it was like an animal warning another that it was encroaching upon its territory.
“What a smart car! It doesn’t like her either,” Jonathan chuckled to himself.
“Jonathan, what is this?” Mary asked as she knelt beside the window.
“I told you it’s your engagement ring, our vacation, and the future you ruined all rolled into one,” Jonathan snapped back. “So where’s lover boy?”
“Steven happens to be at work. Some people can’t buy sports cars and drive around all day you know?” Mary snapped back, looking over the side of the Camaro. “There’s no way you could afford this with just the money from that ring and our trip. This thing had to have cost a fortune. So how did you really afford it?”
“I told you already. The money for the ring and our vacation bought it,” Jonathan repeated, “I got a ridiculously good deal on this thing. I guess good things happen to me sometimes.”
Mary hadn’t heard a word he had said. The same trance the car had put him in at the lot obviously had its hooks in her now. She ran her hand across the sleek black paint of the door, captivated in sheer admiration. A slight shaking ran through the car upon the touch of Mary’s hand. She looked up at Jonathan with that look she used to give him in their early days of seeing each other. It was something he was not prepared for.
“So, is there any room for me in there?” Mary asked giving him those pleading eyes, which in a way had always turned Jonathan on a little. She had caught him off guard and before he knew better he had unlocked the passenger door and his ex-love was sitting beside him. What he didn’t realize was that when Mary climbed in the temperature gauge on the dash rose into the red zone.
Feeling like a teenager on a Friday night with his girl and his car ready for action, Jonathan unleashed all the horses the Camaro possessed, and in a flash he and Mary were racing out of Rye Lane towards the Interstate.
* * * * *
It was nighttime as Jonathan and Mary were making there way along the interstate talking about memories they’d made together years prior. Strangely, they didn’t argue at all which Jonathan found very pleasing. For the most part they sat and laughed and flirted around with each other. He’d turned the car around and was ready to head back to his apartment, and he was sure by that twinkle in Mary’s eyes that she was ready too.
Embarrassingly, there was one stop Jonathan had to make before heading back towards home. He pulled the car off at the next rest area and sadly cut the engine.
“I’ll be right back, ok?” Jonathan asked hoping not to change the mood by doing this, but he couldn’t hold it any more.
“Just hurry up,” Mary replied looking around anxiously, “You know I hate rest areas at night.”
“I do and I’ll be back before you know it,” and with that Jonathan took off towards the rest room leaving Mary alone in the car.
Mary picked her purse up from the floorboards and pulled out her compact case. She dabbed her face until she was happy with its look and ran her hands through her hair. For some reason she found Jonathan irresistible again, like she had in days long passed. She looked around to see if he had made his way back from the restroom yet. To her disappointment she saw no one. She once again looked around the parking lot and saw there were no other travelers but her.
“Jonathan did say this was my engagement ring,” Mary said, running her hand along the dash board. “Maybe he’ll take me back, and I’ll take this from him!”
Though the car was off the temperature gauge began to climb to the right. With every stroke of Mary’s hand, Jonathan’s seat belt tightened in its resting place.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you girl?” Mary asked the car. “Driving the men of this town crazy intimidating beauty?”
Mary gave a school-girl giggle as every nut and bolt tightened within the car’s framework. Mary went rigged as the metal groaned all around her. What happened next caught her completely off guard. Mary’s seat belt tightened itself around her as both car windows rolled up. Panic tore into her insides and a crazed shrill sang from her vocal chords.
“The car is alive!” Mary thought. “The car is fucking alive!”
The passenger seat rolled forward a few inches bringing her closer to the dashboard while the seat belt coiled against her throat and chest, cutting the scream to a whimper. An immense pressure settled behind her eyes, Mary waited for them to eject from her skull. She still pushed to scream but no amount of force proved successful.
Confused and terrified, she pulled frantically upon the door handle but the door lock wouldn’t give and neither would the seat belt. Suddenly, the seat reclined back, her scream returned immediately.
“Somebody fucking help me!” Mary yelled and begged. Then, as if all of the car’s horsepower had been diverted there, the passenger seat shot forward like a bullet, smashing Mary’s skull hard into the dashboard. The seat snapped upright, Mary twitched violently, her skull was fractured and brain severely damaged. The seat threw her forward once again, only with greater force. When Mary made contact her head blew apart like a watermelon, a spatter of blood, hair, teeth and bones flung all over the upholstery and cabin.
From the heating vents came super heated blasts of air, turning the flesh of Mary Raines’ corpse into ashes, but having no effect on any part of the vehicle’s interior. The fiery blasts subsided and then like a vacuum the evidence of Mary’s cremation was sucked up into the vents - into the lungs of the car. The passenger seat slid back to where it had been and the seat belt unfastened itself. The windows rolled back down and the doors unlocked just as Jonathan McKenzie walked from the rest area bathroom.
* * * * *
“To hell with her, I give up,” a frustrated Jonathan McKenzie exclaimed as he made his way back to his car. He’d searched the entire rest area twice, and had even gotten fussed at by a woman when he walked into the women’s bathroom to see if Mary had gone in there. Aggravated, he settled on the thought that she had probably hitched a ride back to town from a trucker just to stand him up, just to play with his emotions one more time.
He climbed into the car feeling his blood boiling at the thought of Mary. He’d set himself up and allowed her to get one last laugh at his expense. He stared around the inside of the car and felt a strange sense of security; a feeling that no matter what he could always count on this car to be there for him and to treat him only as good as he treated it. He glanced at the dashboard in front of the passenger seat and realized something he had missed earlier.
Embedded into the glove box surface was a chrome decal that read Damiana. God, no wonder he had such weird thoughts about the car, the car turned out to be a woman this whole time. He laughed at the thought that this was the first time he’d been inside a woman in months. He put the key into the ignition and pulled his mind from the gutter.
“So Damiana, what did you think of my ex?” Jonathan spoke more to himself, but was taken back when he noticed the temperature gauge shoot from cool to hot, as if the car had replied to his question. He shook his head in disbelief.
“Probably just a glitch in the wiring,” Jonathan tried to convince himself but nonetheless he was curious to see if it would happen again.
“She was a real bitch wasn’t she, Damiana?” Jonathan asked, keeping a keen eye on the temperature gauge. Once again it moved from cool to hot and he was given his answer.
“Holy shit,” Jonathan yelled as he reached for the door handle. He’d opened it halfway before it pushed against him and slammed shut. The lock snapped into place, and not even the window budged when he twisted its handle. The seat belt wrapped around him and choked him until he quit thrashing to get out. Once Jonathan had calmed it let go.
There was no use in fighting; the car had him where it wanted him. Jonathan abandoned the pursuit of escape, and chose instead to put everything into understanding. The car had heard him and responded to him. Back at Mary’s the car had acted strangely when she touched it, and when she was around period. In an odd way Jonathan felt as if he knew it all along but this car was not just a machine but was the physical form of something else, something more.
“So, Damiana?” Jonathan halted before continuing, the headlights flashing from off to on and then off again.
“What happened to Mary?” Jonathan asked even though he wondered how the car, or Damiana, would answer that one. It did though.
Once again the temperature gauge rose, but that wasn’t all. From the glove box came a sound as if something had just been dropped inside of it. Jonathan reached over to the handle, curious as to what he would find. He opened the door and sitting inside were two pieces of jewelry he had seen many times before. The items were a gold pendant that Mary had worn for years and a ring given to her by her mother. He picked them up and looked them over, noticing a black dust that left smudges on his fingertips and the smell of burnt material.
So the mystery of Mary’s disappearance was resolved and even though he realized what had become of her, Jonathan McKenzie let out a joyous laugh. The car’s headlights flashed off and on repeatedly as if it were laughing along with him.
“Oh am I jealous of you,” Jonathan exclaimed once his laughing subsided. He was, however, unable to wipe the smile from his face. “You got to do something I wished and dreamed I could do to that heartless bitch many a night.”
“Anyways, now that I’m officially over her, thanks in large part to you,” Jonathan smiled while nodding his head towards the steering wheel. “What do you say we take a nice little drive – just you and me?”
The headlights flashed numerous times, agreeing to the date proposal. Jonathan placed his hand on the clutch backing up from the parking space and then hammered the gas out of the parking lot; a cloud of ashes erupting from the exhaust pipes behind him.
* * * * *
Three hours later Jonathan was pulling up in front of his apartment building. Having just talked of his childhood memories, his troubled relationship with a very recently deceased, and his life aspirations, he felt more attached to Damiana and more security than he’d ever felt from anyone in his life. The strange thing was that this security came from a machine and not a person.
It’s nothing odd for a man to love his car, for he depends on it. Whether he depends on it to carry him to work so he can provide for his family or depends on it to help him gain better social status, numerous amounts of males love their cars. None of them however loved their car with a passion that Jonathan felt for his. This wasn’t a car but rather his long lost love, his soul mate.
With a heavy heart he put the car in park and was building up the strength to get out, wondering if it would even allow him to exit. It was like the perfect date that had to come to an end. A tear slid down his cheek upon realizing he had to leave Damiana for the night.
“I’m sorry, Damiana,” Jonathan apologized. “I hate to do this but the date has to come to an end.
He ran his hand around the steering wheel, watching the lights dim as if they were saddened eyes.
“I’m never letting you go, Damiana,” Jonathan declared to the tachometer. “I love you!” He knelt forward and kissed the steering wheel. “Time to go.”
The car, however, wasn’t ready for him to go. When he attempted to move his hand away from the gear shifter he found his fist stuck to it, as if it were glued. He tried again and again but it just wouldn’t give. He’d anticipated the door not to open but this was far beyond anything Jonathan had thought.
“Come on Damiana let me have my arm,” Jonathan demanded as if talking to a dog that had taken his house slipper. The car’s hold though, did not give any.
“Please Damiana, let go!” Jonathan stammered, growing more and more worried. “I said I was sorry but I really do have to go now!”
Suddenly the resistance vanished and Jonathan’s head rammed into the window. He looked down at the gear shifter and saw his hand still clutched around it, and his arm held up as if he was still driving. So what was it that gave? The truth made Jonathan scream in horror as he realized his arm had detached from his shoulder.
Miraculously, there was no blood. In fact, there was no wound either. It looked as if it could just reattach itself like the arm of a toy when it gets broken off. Damiana was playing the part of the stubborn dog with the house slippers to a tee. Jonathan brought his shoulder up to his severed arm and watched it affix itself back onto him. When he attempted to move his arm from the clutch it detached from the socket once again with a disgusting wet pop.
He brought his left hand over to the ignition in an attempt to remove the key, but watched his index and thumb shocked by a bolt of electricity.
Ouch!
“Why are you doing this, Damiana?” Jonathan asked desperately with burnt fingertips and a severed arm. “You’re not going to let me go, are you?”
Jonathan jumped as the radio turned itself on and the dial began to move, catching a lot of white noise, and the occasional country or rock station until it was dialed as far as it was supposed to be able to go. The radio however, still continued on well past normal broadcast network numbers. It finally stopped dialing itself and the car was filled with silence. Jonathan listened, waiting for something. Nothing came.
What was that about?
Suddenly, a voice cut through the silence and a familiar voice at that. It was the voice of the man who had sold Jonathan this very car earlier that day - the voice of Mr. Cowen.
“Why should she let you go, Jonathan?” Mr. Cowen asked. “Did you not just say to Miss Damiana that you would never let her go?”
“Well yeah, but...”
“Then why Jonathan are you wanting to let go of her?” Mr. Cowen continued. “Never means exactly that, never. Not for one second will you leave her, and she is making sure you hold your promise.”
“But it isn’t like I am leaving her forever,” Jonathan retorted at the radio. Any other day this would have seemed strange but today definitely hadn’t been any other day.
“You are still leaving her,” Mr. Cowen shot back. “You are going back on your word that you gave her, which is something you are bound by contract not to do.”
“Bound by contract’?” Jonathan asked puzzled. “What are you talking about ‘bound by contract’?”
“Let me ask you something first, Mr. McKenzie,” the car dealer-turned-radio-DJ demanded. “Why do you think a nice car like Damiana is so cheap?”
“I don’t know,” Jonathan yelled. “How ‘bout you finally tell me.”
“The reason is because we are not interested in human money,” Cowen spoke. “In fact, we use that mainly to keep the fires burning where I’m from. A car like Damiana is so cheap because the human soul is a greater price than money can ever afford.”
“The human soul?” Jonathan asked, now more confused than ever.
“Yes, the human soul,” Mr. Cowen continued. “Think of it as a game of Monopoly for context. Whoever controls the most on the board pretty much wins. We control every last vice, every last thing that man derives pleasure from. Whether it be food, drink, art, the famous sex and drugs, guns, jewelry, cars, anything and everything man takes pride in and enjoys, we control it, and we give some items a personal touch of ours. We make them irresistible to man, much like a naked prom date with her hands down your pants. So we dominate the board bringing in fresh profits by the thousands everyday. And Heaven, well those dumb bastards should have bought a little better stock instead of just Bibles and churches.”
A twisted little chuckle filled the car speakers.
“So you’re from Hell then?” Jonathan asked piecing together the puzzle. “And Damiana is a demon?”
“Yes and no,” Cowen exclaimed. “I am from Hell, a proud merchant for many decades now. When technology advances my products change but the mission statement remains the same. Damiana however, isn’t just some demon. Her stance there is among the top. She is the unspoken and unwritten daughter of the big man himself.”
A lump the size of Texas seemed to have settled in Jonathan’s throat. He had declared his love and made a promise to never leave the daughter of Lucifer himself.
“Earlier when you signed the paperwork in my shop you really should have read the fine print,” Hell’s very own merchant confessed. “You would have seen that the price of the car you purchased was nothing less than your own mortal soul. That’s re-enforced even more now by the fact that you claimed your love to Damiana.”
Jonathan laid his head on the steering wheel feeling as if he could vomit. The world was spinning so quickly around him that it was coming undone. Still Mr. Cowen was not finished with unveiling information to him.
“Look at it this way, son,” Cowen continued on. “Do you really want to break a promise to the Daughter of Hell Himself? Not a very wise choice in my personal opinion. Plus, look at what all she’s done for you. She helped you find excitement again, something you lost after years of an average drone-like human existence. She helped you get over the past, especially that cheating bitch Mary, by eliminating her completely. You and her were made for each other. My advice is to give it a shot and see where the road takes you.”
Jonathan weighed his choices carefully. He knew Cowen was right. He and Damiana were made for each other. In a single afternoon he had grown to love a car more than he had ever loved any human being in his life. He found it did not matter who Damiana really was or where and whom she had come from. All that mattered to him was her, a car named Damiana.
Jonathan sat upright and moved over to reattach his right arm with the rest of his body. From the radio he heard Cowen assure him the wiser decision had been made and he departed to give the two lovebirds their time alone.
In a strange marriage of sorts Jonathan and Damiana were made bound to each other permanently. From the gear shifter Jonathan felt a tube puncture through his palm and slide up his arm, slithering like a snake through a network of veins and arteries until he felt it slide into his heart. He winced under the intense sensation that coursed through him, not knowing if he could handle what was being done to him. Luckily for him the uneasiness passed and he found the experience to almost tickle.
He placed his left hand upon the steering wheel and felt another tube puncture his left hand and traveled inside of him until he felt it slip inside his skull and come to rest in his brain. Tubes ran up his legs and attached themselves to his loins, the immediate feeling of a hand being placed there catching him a little off guard. And the romance manufactured in Hell became a sealed deal.
In his head an angelic voice sounded. Even though he knew the person it belonged to was from a place far south of Heaven, to him it belonged to nothing less than an angel. ‘I love you’s’ and ‘forever’s’ stirred around his head and he smiled widely at each one.
Staring down the highway the road seemed to go on forever. However, Jonathan knew it wasn’t eternity that awaited him at the end. This ride would some day come to a halt, and there would be Hell to pay. But more often than not, hell is often the price that all pay.
Comments
Please Login to post comments| On May 13th 2007 Lillette087 Said : | |
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pretty good makes you think that men shouldn't love to death.... |
| On May 1st 2007 lal0ka86 Said : | |
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wow nice interesting man!! |
| On April 29th 2007 cutechik94 Said : | |
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wow. this story is really good! you use great personification and stuff. ur gonna be a famous author someday. |
| On April 2nd 2007 brittmoir Said : | |
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Nice work on this one you are a born author keep it up |
| On March 18th 2007 Lissamichelle Said : | |
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I thought it would be the same as Christine also but of course your wonderfully wild imagination proved otherwise. |
| On February 27th 2007 onaipwolf Said : | |
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I really liked this one. At first I thought it was just going to be Christine reinvented, but you proved me wrong with an amazing twist at the end. |
| On February 26th 2007 xxcassiejayxx Said : | |
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this is really good, probably my favorite of yours so far :) |
| On February 26th 2007 ofloveandblood Said : | |
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Another older story. I'll have some new stuff up soon, I hope! If you haven't yet, check out my other stories "Of Love and Blood", "Decapitation, a Cure for Headaches", and "Lament of the Damned". Thank you! |
