Sitting in traffic is by far the most boring and annoying thing imaginable. As soon as traffic slows down, the car becomes a high tech time chamber where minutes become hours and hours become days. In all honesty I’m just ready to be home after a long day of work. I have leftover Chinese from lunch and at this rate it’s going to spoil.

My imaginiation usually takes ahold of me and I go into a trance like state. My friends will catch me blankly staring out into space, slipstreaming into some wild daydream. But my brain was fried from a long day of correcting ledgers and recalculating balances. With that, I decided to indulge in my other favorite pasttime. People watching.

It’s fascinating to see what daily rituals and outrageous actions other people perform when they think no one is watching. I am not perfect either I am positive I do just as much weird shit without thinking about it.

We had been sitting in the same spot for about fifteen more minutes before I covertly attempted at looking over other people in their cars but without outright staring. That’d be a little too creepy.

On my right, a stoner dude in a bright red ford fiesta picking at his hairy chin as if there was some leftover food in it. Occasionally he would slip a finger or two inside the dark void that is his nose.

After a couple minutes we moved a few inches forward. It was one small step for my ford bronco and one giant leap to sitting on my lazy ass and not doing anything.

After coming to a stop, I rolled my eyes over to the left car trying to see using my periphery. I could make out the silhouette of a woman. Of course, being a young single man in my mid twenties, my brain automatically begins to assume the woman in the car next to me is the most beautiful person in the world and that maybe… just maybe she might give me a shot at being the luckiest man in the world. At least for one night…

Unfortunately, my preconceived idea of a beautiful woman came crashing down like a waterfall. And so did my hopes and dreams when I finally caught a glimpse of the person to my left. To my absolute horror and disgust, it was a guy with long, dark hair. He was as pale as a white sheet. I couldn’t help but gag seeing how curly and wet his hair was. A shiver ran down my back at the thought of… never mind that’s one on the board for my intrusive thoughts, zero for me.

I decided to shift my focus to my rear view mirror. I could see a couple inside their small Honda civic. Everything appeared to be normal. At a glance. The. I started noticing erratic gestures. The woman in the passenger seat was stiff as a marble slab. The look on her face told me that this wasn’t the first time something like this had occurred.

The man had a black crew cut and black neatly trimmed beard. The muscles around his neck popped out so much that it looked like he was wearing a neck brace from where I stood. He was looking straight at her. I could see the unfiltered rage in his face. It was almost like I could hear him screaming from the safety of my own car.

Then it happened. Time slowed down. I knew what was going to happen before it did. The man leaned over and smacked the woman across the face with so much force her head recoiled into the headrest. Her body lay slumped forward and her neck was bent at an awkward position. My eyes feared with tears yet my brain was still processing what I had witnessed.

He was breathing erratically and then something came over him. The flush of red slowly drained from his face and was replaced with a snow white pasty color. He began shaking her. I heard her name in my head. Jenifer? Jen? Jenifer?

The man began looking back and forth seeing if anyone had seen anything or even caught a glimpse of what had happened. But all the people around carried on.

A lightning bolt shot down my spine as the man leaned forward as if trying to see me in my own rearview mirror. I couldn’t help it. I immediately sunk my body down into my chair. I sat there for a couple minutes building up the courage to look just one more time. I inched my way back up into a my usual position and looked into the mirror. My gaze was met with a paralyzing glare of pure evil. Alump the size of a piece of charcoal invaded the cavity inside my throat.

Now I am stuck in traffic, waiting… while a cold blooded killer sits behind me knowing that his only witness to his crime is just one carlength ahead of him…. Of course I grabbed my leftover Chinese but I forgot my phone….