It’s Not Cement Boots, but it Works in a Pinch
By
Veronica Smith
“Where the hell is Caid?” Bryce asked Tristan as he was leaving the house. “He was supposed to drive today.”
“I don’t know.” Tristan answered, watching Bryce get into his Charger.
“I’m sorry I’m running so late, or I’d give you a ride.” Bryce told him.
“No worries.” Tristan replied. “I already called an Uber. And it looks like it’s already here. Later dude!”
The small red Ford car had pulled up to the curb and idled as it waited on Tristan.
"Hi!" he said, as he opened the back door and looked at his phone. "Are you Jane?" He climbed in without waiting for her answer, sitting behind the passenger seat.
"I sure am." She replied, pulling away into the street once he'd put on his seatbelt.
"I know this is kind of a long drive, but my buddy didn't show up for us to drive in together. My car is in the shop, so I have no way to get to work."
"You're fine." She replied. "That's what Uber is for. Don't worry. I'll get you there safe and sound."
She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw he was already scrolling on his phone, completely ignoring her. Which, as it turned out, was exactly what she was hoping for.
"There's a small ice chest on the seat next to you with bottles of water if you want one." she told him.
Tristin thought for a moment. What he really wanted was an Iced White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks.
But he didn't think he could ask her to pull over for that.
Maybe if he offered to buy her one too. He looked at her profile as she drove, but she didn't seem to pay any attention to him.
Her job was to drive him, not entertain him, after all.
Maybe he better not push it. Water would suffice until he got to work.
There was a coffee shop around the corner.
He could wait until then for his coffee fix.
He opened the small cooler and found three bottles of water, along with two ice packs to keep them cold. He opened one and took a quick drink.
Ice cold. Just the way he liked it. Bryce and Caid could drink water straight out of the faucet, but Tristan would only drink it if it was very cold.
He knew they had at least a thirty-minute drive and the inside of the car was uncomfortably silent. She didn't even have the radio on.
As if she was reading his mind, she asked him without turning her head. "Do you want to listen to music? I have several of the local radio stations programmed in. Just let me know what you like to listen to."
Tristan thought for a moment. He really wanted to listen to some metal but that wasn't everyone's cup of tea.
"How about some classic rock?" he asked, taking another sip from the bottle.
"You got it." she said.
ZZ Top flowed from the speakers, singing about a sharp dressed man.
Tristan looked at his texts again. He'd been texting Caid for hours. He was worried when he didn't come home on a work night.
Dude, where are you?
Did you get lucky or something?
Caid, you're scaring the hell out of us now. Let us know you’re okay.
He dashed off a quick text to him again, adding to the dozen or so already gone unanswered.
I called an Uber to get to work. Hopefully I'll see you there.
He took another swig of the water and set down his phone.
Out of the blue Jane asked him a question.
"If your buddy didn't show up to drive you to work, why didn't your other buddy take you?"
Tristan laughed.
"Bryce is cool but he works in the other direction.
He's never been late for work ever and he probably never will be.
All three of us are sharing the house for now with a couple of others.
So, whenever my car craps out, which is often, I can usually get a ride with Caid.
We work in the same building, so we usually alternate who's driving. "
Jane nodded, although she already knew all the answers. In the mirror, she saw Tristan lean back into the seat with a huge yawn. She smiled just a hair and kept driving.
Tristan was getting tired. He figured it was from worry about Caid.
Tristan tried not to treat him like a child but the three of them were all fast tracking with their companies and none of them would ever jeopardize that.
They may party hard on the weekends, but they were completely professional during the week.
His mouth felt dry, so he finished off the bottle and sat it on the seat.
Yawning again, he realized that his vision was beginning to blur and he was getting lightheaded.
"Maybe we can pull over somewhere." he asked her. "Suddenly I'm not feeling so great."
She just smiled and kept driving. He leaned forward and if the seatbelt hadn't caught him, he would have gone face first into the back of the front seat.
"What the hell?" he murmured as he felt himself getting closer to passing out.
He pulled out his phone and saw there was still no answer from Caid.
"He can't answer you." Jane said with a large grin. "He can't answer anyone. Not anymore."
"What? What are you talking about." Tristan's words were badly slurred.
"Don't fight it." Jane said. "You can't anyway. Happy happy joy joy!"
A glimpse of a memory popped into Tristan's head, just as he was on the verge of passing out.
Joy?
I love that cartoon too.
What the hell was that from?
Tristan fell over on his side, knocking the ice chest onto the floor.
"Nighty night!" Joy giggled.
Tristan came to slowly. His eyes felt puffy and swollen and, even though it was dark, he had to squint. He could tell he was lying on his back, and it was uncomfortable enough to assume it was in the dirt. But he felt like he was lower than the ground. Not a lot, just a bit.
Slap!
"Wake up sleepyhead!"
He blinked a few times and tried to turn his head in the direction of the voice but found he couldn't move, not even a finger. Panic began to set in.
"I'll oblige, since you can’t move."
A woman's face came into view above his. It was his Uber driver, Jane. But she looked vaguely familiar from somewhere else. Since she obviously did this to him, it was extremely important that he figured out where he'd met her before.
Mmmm.
He could only make sounds from his throat but couldn't move his mouth.
"I know. I know." Jane said with fake sympathy. "You want to tell me you're sorry. But do you even remember why you are sorry? Do you even remember what you did to me?"
She was getting angrier and Tristan knew he was in deep shit. Then he remembered what she'd said about Caid.
Caid! Holy shit, did she do something to him too? Is that why he disappeared?
"Nope." she said, giving him another slap on the cheek. "You still don't remember. But you will. Before this night is over you will remember that night."
That night? Oh my God! What did we do?
He wondered what she drugged him with. Now that the drugs in the water bottle had worn off, he was completely alert. He felt the pain of her slaps, but he couldn't move a muscle.
"It was a paralytic.” She told him, as if she'd read his mind.
"It prevents your body from moving while letting all your senses enjoy all the feelings.
Fear, pain, panic. Especially pain. Whatever your pathetic little brain can feel, you will feel.
You won't really enjoy it, but then I fucking didn't enjoy what you and your bastard friends did to me! "
She punched him in the nose, and he could feel blood trickling down his cheeks.
“Now that I enjoyed!” she said with a chuckle. “I’m going to enjoy everything about this night.”
Joy stood up and brushed off her legs. She walked toward Tristan’s feet and stopped, putting her hand on a large object. In the dark Tristan couldn’t tell what it was. Joy pushed a button on a control panel and the large object started spinning slowly.
Tristan blinked several times and squinted to see better.
“Well, hell.” Joy said, walking to the side and picking up a flashlight. “If you don’t know what it is, it takes all the fun out of it. The joy, so to speak.”
She turned on the flashlight and moved it slowly around the large thing so Tristan could get a good look at it.
Oh, fuck no!
The large item at the end of his plot of land was a cement mixer.
Tristan wanted to scream, move, anything, but he couldn’t.
“Since I let you see this, you might as well see it all.” Joy told him.
She walked closer to him and shined the flashlight around him.
He had a limited view since he could only move his eyeballs slightly.
He was laying down in a cut out area in the dirt.
Based on how tall he was, he guessed it was a twenty by twenty-foot depression that was about fifteen or eighteen inches deep.
Now that he had light, he could see rebar crossing vertically and horizontally around him.
She’s going to bury me in fucking cement!
“Oh look!” she exclaimed. “It looks like you have some movement of your eyes. I hope that’s all or I’ll have to give you another injection. That might actually stop your heart, and I really don’t want this to end too quickly.”
With a snarl, Joy reached down and ripped off Tristan’s shirt.
“You tried to rip off mine.” She growled. “It’s only fair I get to tear off yours.”
Tristan’s eyes widened just a bit. He remembered something. He and Caid and Bryce. They were somewhere … getting a hooker. He looked at her in recognition.
She was the hooker. The one called Joy.
“Aha!” She spoke. “A light bulb just appeared over your head. Now you know me. Happy happy joy joy.”
Oh shit! Oh shit!
More of his memory was coming back in jumbled pieces. He remembered being with Caid and Bryce in Bryce’s Charger. They were drunk as shit and came looking for a hooker.
No. No. Not a hooker. A Lot Lizard. That’s what Bryce called her.