chapter 17
Ugh, what happened? Feeling a throbbing pain in his head, Nico looked out, trying to see what was around him. Why am I in a car? Shaking off the drowsiness, he noticed that the seat below him didn’t feel comfortable, and he was being pulled tightly all across his body. Looking down, he saw seatbelts wrapped around his body. What is going on?
Looking out the windows of the car, he saw that he was still in his garage. Did I pass out? One of the boys must’ve thought it would be funny to pull a prank on me. I’m too tired to deal with this shit. “Okay, very funny guys, now that you’ve had a laugh can you let me down? The client will be really pissed if they see us goofing off in their car.” When did this car even come in? I don’t remember it being here before I blacked out.
Noticing the silence, he looked around to see that nobody was in the room. Why would they prank me if they’re not even going to see it? Maybe they’ll come through the office door. Looking over, he hoped to see the door open, but nothing happened. Starting to panic, he spotted a trail of oil spilled across the floor, leading up to the car.
“Good morning, Nico. Right now, you should be finding yourself in an environment that you are quite familiar with. You are currently inside a Toyota Camry that has a few problems. Gas is slowly leaking into the car, the doors are jammed, and the wires are faulty and could cause a spark at any time. Because of this, the vehicle has found itself in your repair shop, and it is your job to rectify the issues before it endangers anyone’s life. There is just one problem. You are currently on the inside of the car. You are used to breaking into cars, but how good are you at breaking out of one? Good luck, Nico.”
Hearing the engine start, Nico began to sweat. Looking around, he tried to figure out how to untangle himself. This is crazy, all I did was steal some cars. Quickly he unbuckled the two front seats, slightly relieving the tension, but unfortunately, they remained mostly in place underneath the other straps.
What kind of sick fuck would do this? Stretching back, the seatbelts strained to keep him in place, making him move at a snail’s pace. Was it someone I stole from? But how would they even know, I covered my tracks perfectly. Inching closer to the back, he splayed his hand out, trying to reach the button for the middle belt. Come on. Just a little closer.
Click. Pressing the button, some of the pressure was removed from his chest, allowing him to stretch out a bit further. It must’ve been one of my competitors. Those bastards were just jealous that I was able to keep my business afloat. It has to be one of them. Pushing the next button, the tension released from his shoulders as he stretched for the final one that was slightly further away. With a soft click, he released the final seatbelt.
Pulling himself back up, he moved to start untangling the seatbelts. Once I get out of here, I’m going to figure out which one of them locked me up in here. Feeling slightly dizzy, he paused for a moment. God damn, I must have sat up too fast. Slowing down, he fumbled as he pulled the first seatbelt off. Hearing it snap back into place caused the throbbing headache to return. Shaking his head, he continued to slowly take the belts off. The snapping of the belts made the headache worse and worse.
Wincing in pain, he paused for a moment before finally setting himself free. He fumbled to the driver-side door. Trying to pull it open, his muscles started to burn up as it failed to open. Why won’t it open? Slamming his body into the door, he started to feel exhausted as the headache and dizziness messed with his mind. His stomach churned as he vomited all over the dashboard of the car.
Looking around, he appeared lost in his own mind, not sure what he was supposed to be doing. Moving to try the front passenger door, he stumbled over the middle of the car, bumping the gear stick with his knee and causing it to shift forward.
Moving to the window, he saw sparks fly outside of the car, setting off a fire in his garage, slowly trailing up towards the car. Fuck. Shocked by the fire, his confusion cleared for a moment as he looked around for a way to escape. All the doors are jammed, and there's no way I can break the glass. Looking around, he grows more desperate before spotting a sunroof. There!
Rushing to find the button to open the sunroof, he stopped, confused. This brief moment of clarity sucked away the rest of his mental acuity, leaving it to move at a slow crawl. Luckily, he pressed the button, causing the sunroof to start slowly opening.
The fire trailed up starting to heat the underside of the car.
Starting to sweat. Nico rushed to the sunroof, trying to squeeze himself out. It got easier and easier as the sunroof started to fully open. Now with enough room to escape, he squeezed out, trying to push his stomach through. With half of his body through, he felt the heat from the flames as he continued to desperately push through. I’m almost there, just a little more.
BOOM!
The fire reached the gas, causing a massive explosion, engulfing his entire body as he screamed out in pain. The entire room burned red as everything in the room was destroyed by the explosion. Fire covered the entire room, burning scorch marks across the walls and ceiling.
“Unfortunately, Nico, it seems like your nimble hands and the skills your father taught you failed you in your final moments. As a mechanic, you used your knowledge and skill illegally, and pinned the blame on your competitors, solely because your business couldn’t keep up. Their livelihoods went up in smoke, and now so has yours. Enjoy Hell Nico, Goodbye.”
The fire continued to burn.