Shaun Blankenship

"So, what are you doing tonight, Michael?"

Mike picked up his books off of the desk and took Susan to his locker, continuing their conversation as he walked with her. "Uh, I don't know really. I'll probably just go home and call you while I watch cartoons."

Susan gently punched him on the shoulder in jest. "Always the little kid at heart. Why don't we do something?"

"I thought you had plans. I thought this was your family's night with the Mormons. Isn't tonight when they come over and talk to you? Bring you a little dish of cookies and read religious articles about 'great feats of human spirit'?"

She nudged her head down to ground but never took her eyes off Michael. "That's not nice, Mike. You shouldn't tease people like that. But for your information, no it isn't. They come over tomorrow. It's always been Friday nights, you know that."

Mike shoved a textbook under another on the top shelf inside his locker and grabbed his jacket. "Okay, what do you want? Movie? Dinner? Dinner and a movie?"

"Nah, nothing good's playing. Why don't we just… go for dinner and a walk in the park."

"Ooh, walk in the park. Pulling out the chick-flick stuff on me." He was about to put on his jacket until he stopped while his left arm had just entered its sleeve. "You didn't bring a jacket again, did you?"

She quickly reacted, "It was early and my mom had to go to work, I didn't have time to get it."

Mike rolled his eyes back and sighed. He pulled his sleeved arm out and held the black jacket in front of her. "Take it, wear it. I don't want you to get a cold."

"You sound like my freakin' parents."

He grabbed his backpack and slammed his locker shut. "It's only because I care about you so much. Now go clean your room; you're grounded until I see an A on your report card."

Susan laughed. Mike always knew how to get her laughing. "Seriously, though. What about it?"

Mike paused a moment. "Yeah, sure. Except this time, you bring a coat; I don't mean some thin little windbreaker, I mean a coat. It's winter out there and I'll need mine back."

She smiled as she donned the jacket. "Okay, I will. When are you going to pick me up?"

"What, are you just going to call all the shots in this relationship?" She started giggling and he did too. They both stopped and he became serious again. "Alright, I'll pick you up at… ooh, let's say… six. I'll call before I come over."

"Sweet!" She tightly hugged him around his waist and released. "Well, I have a bus to chase."

"Okay. Good-bye… um… we need nicknames for each other. Anything I can think of just sounds cheesy. Good-bye, sweetie."

She walked backward still looking at him and laughing. "Good-bye, honey-bunny."

As soon as she turned the corner and disappeared, Mike snapped his fingers. "I should've of thought of that one."

***

Michael and Susan walked together with their arms around each other. The night was considerably cold, and a thick fog accompanied it. Michael started to talk as they strolled along the cobblestone path, "I'm sorry about dinner."

"Oh, don't worry, it was good."

Mike looked at her. "Oh, your dinner was good? Well, lucky you." He turned his head away and mumbled loud enough so she could easily hear, "Mine sucked."

She started to chuckle mildly. "What is about you that I find so funny?"

"You know, I don't know; but whatever it is, I just hope I don't lose it. I think that if I didn't make you laugh so much, you would've left me a while ago."

The moon shone over the two in amazing glow. It was almost as if somehow the moon had become a star and now could shine on it's own. The light gave the fog a mystical sort of feeling to the couple. It swirled around in a light gray mist and was only disturbed by the lights along the sidewalk.

It was then that Mike stopped and Susan followed. He stood frozen and silent while Susan just stared at him blankly. "Mike, why are we stopped?"

He quickly raised a hand at her face. "Shh! What's that noise?"

Susan than heard what he heard too, Cloppity-cloppity-cloppity-cloppity. She started squinting into the fog, trying to see what was producing such an odd noise. Than the object pulled out of the fog and became very apparent: it was a horse-drawn cab driven by a man with a top hat.

As soon as it became clearer, Susan tugged at Mike's shoulder like a child begging for a new toy. "Ooh, let's go on it! Let's go on it!"

"Sue, do you know how much those things cost?"

She then gave him a sad, pouty frown. "Please, can we go?"

Mike looked at her and gave up. "Fine, but you owe me for this one!" He pulled the driver over and they filed inside of the cab. He turned to Susan. "So where do you want to go?"

"How about to the front of the park? We've walked far enough back here, and then you can get me ice cream."

Mike rolled his eyes back. "You know you're going to drive me to bankruptcy. You know this, right?"

She hugged him and smiled, "Yes, but I'll still love you when you're broke."

He smirked. "We'll see about that." He tapped the cabby on the shoulder. "To the front of the park, sir."

The cabby never turned around, but just rose an open white-gloved hand towards Michael. "That will be fourteen dollars."

Mike opened his wallet up to get the money and turned to Susan. "You're just lucky I haven't been fed up with you yet."

Susan smiled as he handed the money to the driver. "That'll never happen and you know it."

"I know and it's hurting my pockets." He turned back to the back of the driver's head. "All I have is a twenty. You keep the change."

The man grasped the money gently and slid it in his own pocket. He replied, again without turning his head yet again. "You are most generous."

"Well, it's worth it." The cab then drove off into the dark night.

Susan pulled her jacket around her as if trying to protect her body from sort of unseen danger. "There's something spooky about these kind of nights. I don't know what it is, but they're just creepy."

"That's because this is when all the great, scary urban legends take place: on dark, foggy nights. Have you ever heard the one about the Haunted Carriage?"

Susan looked suspiciously at her boyfriend. "No, and I don't think I want to."

Mike put his arm around Sue's shoulder. "Oh, you have to, it's great. See, a long time ago in the twenties or something, this married couple was walking in this exact park on a dark and foggy night."

Susan's eyes grew wide. "I don't think I want to hear this anymore."

"No, it's great! See, the couple hitched a ride on this horse-drawn carriage and asked to go home. While they were in the carriage…

Susan put her hands over her ears and repeated, "I don't want to hear this, I don't want to hear this…"

Mike put his hands around her wrists and slowly had her pull them away. "Look, it's the perfect occasion to tell this story and I'm almost done. Can you at least let me finish? Besides, it's just an old urban legend; it's not real."

She sat up from a slouch she had formed in the seat. "Okay, but hurry up with it."

Michael cleared his throat and continued, "As I was saying, they were in the carriage and they noticed that they had passed the front of the exit. The woman shouted to the cabby that they had gone to far, but the man seemed not to notice. Instead, the carriage just started going faster. The man then yelled out that they were going too far and fast, but the cabby ignored them and the carriage's speed increased. Faster and faster, the horses ran and carriage shook on the cobblestones. Until finally, the horses became detached from the cab and broke free. The carriage smashed into a tree and the couple inside were killed. The driver's body was never found. It's believed that the man had escaped from an asylum earlier that evening and had stolen the carriage; and now his spirit, or probably the man himself, haunts this park. They say that he steals horse-drawn cabs to…"

Susan raised her hands up. "That's enough, I get the point. I don't want to hear anymore about it. You're creeping me out."

Michael smiled. "It's just a stupid story. Hey, here comes our stop."

The cab had approached the front gate of the park and began to slow down. Mike had stood up early, prepared with his foot out to step off of the cab. It was then that the cab had jerked forward, forcing Mike to be thrown back in his seat sideways, and rolled past the entrance.

Susan stared at Mike. "Tell him to stop, Mike. This isn't funny."

Mike tapped the cabby on the shoulder. "Excuse me, sir. You passed our stop." The driver seemed deaf to his words, and instead whipped the reins to quicken the horses.

Mike tapped on the driver's shoulder again immediately. "Um, I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say go faster, I said you were supposed to drop us off at the front of the park. You passed our stop." The driver once again ignored Mike's pleas and sped up the horses.

Susan then shouted at Mike. "This isn't funny, Mike!"

He turned back to her. "I know, Susan! This isn't a joke!" Mike turned back and smacked the driver in the side of the head. "What's wrong with you? Stop the horses! STOP!"

Instead, the reins cracked again and the horses began speeding across the cobblestones. Mike sat back in his seat, defeated by the driver. Susan looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Please tell me this is a joke. Please?"

Mike looked back at her and said nothing. Susan then hugged him with her hands around his opposite shoulder. "Please, tell me this is a joke!"

The scenery flew by them in a blur of black, gray, and the yellow form the street lamps. The fog made it almost impossible to pinpoint where they were, but it seemed as if the cab was circling back through the paths of the park. Mike shook off his quivering girlfriend and leaned toward the cabby again. "HEY! STOP, YOU STUPID…"

Before he could finish, the cab hit a rock and bumped Michael back in his seat. The cab started to slow down. Susan glared wide-eyed at Mike. "What's going on?"

He looked back at her; "I don't know, Sue."

The cab sped up again quickly. Susan and Mike could do nothing but sit up frozen in their seats. While they sped crazily to their own doom, Susan could think of only one thing: I don't want to die this way. I don't want to die this young. I don't want to die in this park.

The horses neighed and the cab came to an abrupt halt. The force from the stopping pushed Mike and Susan forward out of their seats and leaned them over the sides of the cab. Susan came to the realization that they had finally stopped and moved towards the driver. She forced him to turn his head around and shook his coat vigorously. "Why? Why did you do that! Answer me!"

The cabby just stared at her and said nothing. The driver's mouth had no expression, but his eyes carried a grim darkness. His eyes looked like death itself, cold and unforgiving. Susan, terrified, sat back in her seat. The cab turned even more towards her. His dark eyes burned on her as he stared. The stubble on his face made him look even crazier, and his slicked down jet-black hair made him look like a serial killer.

The driver started to stand up, never taking his eyes off of Mike's petrified girlfriend, and pointed a bony finger at her. His emotionless lips than opened slowly in a bleak fashion, and he proceeded to laugh. He laughed loudly at the terrified girl in a joking manner. He then dropped his hands at his knees and stood back up. "You need to talk to Mike over there."

Susan turned to Mike and he too was grinning. "You don't think I'd give him a seven dollar tip for nothing, do you?"

Susan fiercely punched Mike in the arm and growled at him, "You did all of this on purpose! You scared me to death!"

Mike started to snicker himself. "Yeah, I know. You were so scared…"

She punched him again in the same spot. "I was so worried! How could you have done that?"

He raised a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, calm down. Joke's over, I'm sorry I scared you so much. I just thought, you know, it'd be kind of funny. You're gonna look back and laugh eventually. Come on, it was pretty good. I had you going for a while."

She turned away from him and crossed her arms. "That was not funny."

Michael stepped off of the carriage and lent a hand out to help his girlfriend. She rejected his offer and helped herself off. Mike waved a hand at the driver. "Thanks, Roger."

The man tipped his hat and smiled at Michael. "Anytime, nephew."

Susan turned to her boyfriend. "That's your uncle?"

"Yeah. I take all my girlfriends on this spooky little ride."

"But I suggested that we go out walking tonight."

Mike turned to Susan. "And if you hadn't, I would've. Are you still mad at me?"

She glared at him crossly. "Yes."

Mike threw an arm around her. "Do you think I could maybe make it up to you with ice cream?"

She still glared at him but turned away to hide her face. "We'll see about that."

Mike laughed and walked with her through the exit of the park and down the street. "Dairy Queen or Ray's?"

"Ray's, the real stuff."

"The real expensive stuff. You're hurting my wallet, Sue."

She finally smiled back at him. "You disserve it."

Mike moved his arm toward her waist and hugged her from his side. "This is why I haven't become fed up with you yet."