THE SANDMAN - PART 1

Alyson McBride picked up her phone and made a call she’d been putting off for too long now. It had taken a while for her to muster up the courage to do so. She was still a bit scared. Her fingers frantically found the contact info in her phone and pressed “Dial.” The phone on the other end rang only once before being answered. “Hello,” came the voice of the man she had avoided calling for so long. He said it calm and collected. He was always in control of the situation even when those around him lacked such confidence.

“Listen,” said Alyson. “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to be a part of this. If you want it so bad you’re going to have to find someone else. I’m going to turn myself in first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Listen, Alyson. There must be something I can do to convince you not to do that. Look, I promise that if you wait just two more weeks I’ll turn myself in with you.”

“You’ve said that before. It’s over.”

“You know I don’t like to have these conversations over the phone. Too impersonal. Let’s meet tonight in the parking lot of the Wilkinson center and we’ll talk. Just give me a couple of hours to get ready.”

“Fine. But if you don’t show, you’ll be hearing from someone that has more authority than you do tomorrow morning.” She wasn’t angry with him, she was just nervous for the both of them. He didn’t even say goodbye before hanging up.

After a few hours had passed she put on her fall jacket, and grabbed her keys and her purse. “I’m going out. I shouldn’t be long,” she told her roommates watching TV in the front room of their small apartment. As she walked to her car she felt the cool rain of late September. It was still technically summer, but fall was definitely on its way.

She got into her 1992 Honda Civic and started the engine. The engine belts squealed as the engine came to life. She needed to get new ones but was a starving student. Consequently the belts were ignored month after month. She figured they were okay as long as she could just get to and from campus every other day.

Alyson pulled into the empty parking lot of the Wilkinson Student Center. Campus Parking Enforcement had just installed new sensors that could sense which license plates were allowed to park there and which weren’t. The printer inside the parking booth printed out Alyson’s license plate number and the time of entry: 12:43 AM.

She was currently the only car in the lot. She pulled into a parking spot and looked around nervously as she turned the engine off. The heavy rain made it hard to see, but there didn’t appear to be a soul in sight. As she was gazing out of the driver-side window the passenger-side door opened, startling her. She gasped. “Oh my gosh, you scared me.”

The man from the other side of the phone call opened the door and sat down next to Alyson. “Thanks for coming,” he said in his ever-relaxed and confident voice.

“Whatever it takes,” said Alyson. She began the same conversation they had on the phone as the man put on a leather glove. He kept nodding in agreement and saying he agreed with everything she was saying but he was rather insincere about it. He reached into the glove compartment as she was talking and pulled out a pad of paper, a pencil, and Alyson’s very own hand gun her father insisted she keep in the car for protection. “What are you doing with that? Put it back!”

Alyson was frozen. The man remained calm but menacing as he put the gun to Alyson’s right temple. “Just do what I say and nobody will get hurt.” He tossed the paper and pencil into Alyson’s lap. She began to write.

“This isn’t helping your situation,” said Alyson. “I should’ve known this would happen eventually. I shouldn’t have trusted you.”

“You know, you’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

BANG! He pulled the trigger. Alyson’s body fell limp against the driver side window. The man casually put the gun in Alyson’s right hand, opened his door, and left.

Continued in PART 2