The V8 in Carlton’s ’71 Plymouth Hemi purred as it rushed the red light and flew through the intersection. A blur of a man shouted, ‘Hey!’ and flipped Carlton off. The passenger door had missed him by inches.
“GET UP OFF YOUR KNEEEEES, GIRL!” A rock singer wailed through the car speakers, his pain joined by a bone-vibrating drumbeat.
Carlton upped the volume to 8.
Seconds later, his triple-black-matte hood smashed into the hip of an airbud-wearing Gen Z’er who leapt too late. His body spun flat in mid-air, his head smacking against the side window, before falling onto the street to tire squeals and people screaming.
Volume to 9.
Carlton eyed his cross dangling from the mirror. “So cheap,” he disdained. He pulled the emergency brake and drifted through the next crowded intersection, screaming the lyrics, “Stand face to face with your god!” while just missing a couple pushing a baby.
“HELLO! MY NAME IS HUMAN!”
His eyes were on the next crosswalk. A tubby old man in cheap overalls was trying to beat the yellow. Carlton hit the gas.
Kaboom!
The man’s legs were sheared from his body and the Hemi’s tires ran up and over them. His stomach splattered bloody fat across the windshield in a gruesome smear while his head ricocheted off the roof with a high-pitched ping.
Still Carlton felt nothing.
He pleaded with the void inside himself, yelled with all the desperation he could invent, praying it would excise the emptiness.
Nothing.
Seeing the highway overpass, Carlton took his hands off the wheel and let the car drift towards its cement supports.
“I CAME DOWN FROM THE STAAAAARS!!”
Up to 10. He closed his eyes.
“I’M UP OFF MY KNEEEEEES, GIRL!”
His heart raced… what?! He could feel this? Yes! Wonderment… then bliss! Then panic. His eyes darted behind their lids then shot open. The bridge was just a few car lengths away. Carlton slammed the brakes but they merely dulled the inevitable. The muscle car crashed into the cement structure with an oppressive crunch.
Bleeding, Carlton came to and wept, not from still being alive. He could feel the emptiness returning, filling him again. And now it had a companion… cowardice.