Or Best Offer: Part VI

Conclusion. Drive carefully.

Eric pulled up to the little ramshackle house. It looked the same, but for some reason he felt like he’d been away for a very long time. GPS under his arm, he knocked on the door. 

Eric waited as patiently as possible, mindful of how slowly the elderly man had moved. He focused on one of those breathing exercises Gina was always going on about. 

But after a solid five minutes and repeated bouts of knocking, Eric had to admit defeat. There was no car in the driveway, and the house appeared to be vacant. Eric wandered around to the side but all the windows were hidden behind thick burlap curtains. He rapped at the glass, and still got no response. 

Cursing the GPS under his breath, Eric stuffed his free hand in his pocket and walked to the car. Logically, he knew that the timing had just been off. The old man had obviously gone to town or was out running an errand, or selling other people shitty old technology. But the alert from the GPS kept playing in the back of his mind.

It had to be a coincidence. Incident at location. Or a prank. Maybe the old man was a tech genius, and this had all been some elaborate plan to fuck with Eric because… why? It made no sense. None of it made sense. Incident at location.

‘You lost?’ He jumped at the unfamiliar voice behind him. Spinning around, Eric found himself staring into a wide, friendly face with thick white hair and sharp blue eyes. The elderly woman leaned out the window of her car as it idled beside Eric’s.

‘What?’ asked Eric. The woman smiled, wrinkles lining her soft face.

‘Didn’t mean to scare you! Only you looked lost. Not a lot of people drive around this neighborhood.’ She shrugged, eyeing him as if to determine his criminal inclinations. 

‘No, I’m fine, thanks,’ said Eric. ‘I was just trying to get in touch with the gentleman who lives here.’ He gestured with his thumb to the house behind him. The old woman laughed.

‘Any gentlemen around here, I’d know about them.’

‘Excuse me?’ asked Eric politely. She grinned.

‘Sorry, it’s just funny. That house has been abandoned for at least two years! You must have gotten turned around somewhere.’ Seeing his shocked face, her expression softened. ‘It happens all the time.’

‘No. I was just here,’ said Eric. ‘There was an old man who lived here. Long white beard? Not very friendly?’ 

‘He must have lived here before my time,’ she said diplomatically. 

‘It was a month ago. He was here. I’m sure of it.’ He held up the GPS. ‘He sold me this!’ The woman’s smile faded. She pulled her arm back in through the window.

‘I think you’re a bit confused,’ she said, a touch of ice in her voice. ‘I think you’d better go back to the main road and see where you got turned around.’ She started to roll up the window.

‘OK,’ said Eric, turning back to stare at the house. ‘Sorry.’ It remained silent and still as a tomb. Behind him, he heard the old woman gun her engine.

‘Hey,’ she called. Eric turned around. Her window was rolled up so just her eyes were peering over the top.

‘You know how to get back to the highway?’ she asked. Eric nodded.

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I have a GPS.’ He climbed into his car and tossed it in the passenger seat. He turned around and tried to give the woman a reassuring smile. She didn’t return it. When Eric pulled out onto the road, her car followed his until they reached the highway.

Eric was halfway home before the GPS flashed an alert across the screen. For one confused moment he couldn’t remember if he’d actually unplugged the device or not. But there was the cable, curled up in the seat like a harmless snake.

‘Incident at location.’ 

‘I know,’ said Eric. ‘We were just there.’ Without taking his eyes off the road, he grabbed at the GPS. The screen was no longer displaying the old man’s house. The map had rerouted at some point. The directions were guiding him home.

‘Incident at location,’ the GPS insisted.

Eric pressed the gas pedal to the floor. He ran into his house, shouting Gina’ name.

Eric emerged from his home three hours later. He was soaked in blood up to his arms. His shirt was covered in viscera and gore, his face streaked with splashes of blood. He smiled at nothing as he walked unsteadily out of his house. His hair stood up in shocked spikes, slick and stained dark.

Eric waved gently at his next door neighbor, Mrs. Midi. She stared back, her face slack in horror. Eric climbed back into the car. His hands, he noticed, were shaking so hard that he had to struggle to grip the steering wheel.

Beside him, the GPS screen flashed. Eric stared ahead, unblinking. The screen flashed again. He dragged his eyes to the GPS. This time there was a new message, one he’d never seen before. One he knew for a fact wasn’t mentioned in the manual.

‘Accident on highway.’ Eric turned to stare at the device. The screen flashed again insistently.

‘Accident on highway.’ A timer appeared on the screen. Normally it would show his time of arrival. This time, it was a clock counting down from seven minutes. 

‘Accident. On. Highway.’ A route from his house to a spot in the center of the highway appeared. It ended in the middle of the center lane.

And just like that, Eric understood. A wild, mad smile slid across his face. He let out a raucous, delighted laugh. Not bothering to buckle his seatbelt, he peeled down the street. The tires screeched, and he rounded the corner so hard that an unlucky pedestrian had to dive out of the way. Eric barely even noticed. He drove faster, still grinning. After all, he had an appointment. It would be rude of him to be late.