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    The Conquering Sun
    The Conquering Sun
    The Conquering Sun
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    The Conquering Sun

    By Peter Englebright

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A psychopath abducts a professional couple from outside a bar and takes them for a joyride.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFirewood Books
    Release dateFeb 18, 2015
    ISBN9781502233783
    The Conquering Sun

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      Book preview

      The Conquering Sun - Peter Englebright

      Chapter One

      I pulled my girlfriend out the booth and said, ‘We need to leave.’

      ‘We just got here,’ she protested as she shook my hand from her elbow.

      ‘Some psycho in a cowboy hat said something.  I don’t want to try my luck being macho and standing my ground.’  Frankly the bar wasn’t ground worth fighting for.  It wasn’t our local and I had no particular attachment to the place.

      Gwen glanced over my shoulder.  ‘Don’t look,’ I muttered.  She ignored me and searched for the Stetson wearing gentleman I was referring to.  The basement bar seemed full of hatless men.  ‘He’s not there,’ she said.

      ‘It doesn’t matter.  Let’s go.’  His bark may very well be worse than his bite, but I wasn’t going to hang around to find out.  Staying in the same cramped bar with him wasn’t a good idea.  The dent in my pride – my manhood – was worth it.  This retreat could be rationalised as a wise Art of War-style refusal to engage with an enemy I didn’t see any value in fighting.  My yellow streak was, if not noble, then at least intelligent.

      Gwen, a brunette with short, boyish hair, grabbed her handbag and followed me out the bar and up the stairs to the car park.  I glanced around to make sure the psycho wasn’t nearby waiting for me.  The only people I saw were getting out their cars.  We were the only ones leaving.  I took Gwen’s hand in mine and walked briskly to the car.  I could have played it cooler with a slower walk but I was too rattled to ease back on the horsepower.  Some people you just don’t want to be anywhere near.  Was there anything scarier than a person who doesn’t play by societies rules?  For example being mugged at knife point is terrible.  To be mugged on a busy city street by a noisy robber who isn’t even trying to hide what he’s doing is twice as petrifying.

      The cowboy had pulled out a revolver and said those words in full view of half the bar.  The girls in the booth had definitely seen and heard the whole incident, but didn’t react.  They were too embarrassed to acknowledge this breach in etiquette.  Probably more mortified than scared.  It was easier, less awkward and a whole lot safer to pretend it wasn’t happening.  They ignored it and hoped it wouldn’t spread to them.

      I was too embarrassed and ashamed to pull other people into it.  He was my problem.  It would have been really shitty of me to make him into anyone else’s dilemma.  So I took the initiative to make a feeble joke to try and placate the man.

      Then I got into that horrible stage where you’re trying to walk away, but not too soon that he gets offended.  So I had to stand and wait for his response to my joke.

      His reaction was unfavourable.

      I said with one word that I was sorry for the joke, for offending him and for existing.  I turned and walked away without waiting for his retort.  The man had waved a gun so I decided to get as far from him as quickly as possible.

      We got into the car with me in the driver’s seat.  Our seatbelts were on and the key was about to go in the ignition when I heard the backdoor open behind me.  The bulky man with the cowboy hat let himself in and was now sitting behind me.  We both turned back to look at him.  Before we could protest he shoved his revolver in my face.  Without a word we both turned to face the front.  I avoided catching Gwen’s furtive glances as I could tell he was the paranoid type who would see the eye contact and explode with rage.

      ‘Where to?’ I asked with as much placid calm as I could fake.

      ‘Take off your seatbelts,’ he commanded while fastening his own over his chest.  We did as told.  If I was to deliberately crash the car our chances of survival would be lesser than his.  Clever.  The airbags alone were not enough to give me confidence that we would be able to walk away from a crash relatively unscathed.  ‘Drive north,’ was his only guiding instruction.

      We left the car park and drove the night streets in silence for several minutes.

      Gwen started to noisily sob.  She’d probably been quietly crying but had lost the battle and was now openly sobbing.  She tried to get her crying under control before it annoyed him. 

      Quietly the man said, ‘Shut the fuck up.’

      Between sobs she said, ‘I can’t.’

      Redundantly I added, ‘She’s scared.’

      He leaned over diagonally to get his mouth closer to her ear.  ‘If you don’t shut up by the count of ten I’ll put a bullet right in your snatch.’  He reached his free hand out and rubbed the back of his index finger on her ear.  It was almost a tender caress.  She turned her head away to stop this violation of her personal space.  He took his hand away and leaned back in his seat.

      She put her hands over her nose and mouth to try and clamp them shut, or at least stifle the noise.  He didn’t need to count out loud as the evident effort she was making to be quiet seemed to appease him.

      She managed to subdue the violent sobs so she was only crying and taking the occasional sharp intake of breath.  She took her hands away from her face.

      The streets gave way to a long, straight forest road.  ‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

      ‘Just keep heading in this general direction.  I’ll tell you when to turn off.’

      ‘Are you going to kill us?’ I asked.  Gwen let out a little muted cry.  It wasn’t the smartest question but it seemed relevant considering our situation.

      ‘That’s currently not my plan.  But you know what they say about the plans of mice and men.  So who knows?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see where the evening takes us.’

      ‘I don’t suppose you would consider letting us go?’

      There was no response from the backseat.  I thought he wasn’t going to dignify that question with an answer.  Then some paper money floated into view in the space between Gwen and me.  He was throwing money at us.  ‘There,’ he said.  ‘I’m buying your time like prostitutes.  You’re mine for the night.’

      I ignored the money lying beside the gearstick and asked, ‘What are you going to do to us?’

      ‘We’re going to pick up some friends of mine and we’re going to have some fun.  We’ll take that stick out of your arse and we’ll have a nice evening out.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?’

      ‘I prefer my fun not to include guns.’

      After a frightening pause the man said, ‘I guess it’s more fun for me than it is for you.  But I’m a psychopath so I don’t have to worry about empathy getting in the way of my pleasure.’

      ‘Do we have to go through with this?  Can’t we just not do whatever this is?’

      ‘The mechanics have been set in motion.  If I let you go now before

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