Blinking Check Engine Light And Car Shaking Novels & Stories

Shane fiddled with the car for a few minutes, and I obediently cranked the engine when he asked, notwithstanding the first time he’d caught me unawares when he’d called out to me. Glancing at the time, I wasn’t worried about being late to pick up Isla yet, but I wasn’t sure how much longer this was going to take Shane, even if I wasn’t quite sure of what he was checking. I was debating poking my head out to ask him, but I didn’t have to in the end. He came meandering back to my side, the metal of the car door the only thing separating us, as he leaned down to meet my eyes, saying, “It looks like your alternator is going bad. Have you been having any issues starting it?”

CASSIAN I don’t drive away from the hospital immediately. I couldn’t… The engine is on. The dashboard lights glow steadily. Everything is functioning exactly as it should— except me. My hands are on the steering wheel. They shouldn’t be shaking. I tighten my grip, muscles locking, forcing stillness through sheer will. It doesn’t help. The tremor persists, subtle but undeniable, vibrating beneath my palms like something alive. Alive… The word slips in uninvited.

The soft hum of the engine and the steady movement of the car began to lull her, and in no time, her eyelids grew heavy. She was almost asleep when something felt wrong. The car was moving too fast. Isabella opened her eyes and looked ahead. The speedometer needle was way too high. She didn’t speak at first. Maybe the driver was just trying to make up for lost time, she reasoned. Or maybe he wanted to drop her quickly and return home. But then she noticed his hands, they were shaking, and then he pressed the brakes, but nothing happened. Again, he pressed, still nothing, the car refused to stop.

Loaded down with four plastic bags, I packed the trunk, re-buckled Leo into his seat, and started the slow drive back toward our subdivision. To avoid the flooded main avenue, I turned down a quiet, winding two-lane back road flanked by dense pine woods. It was a dark, isolated stretch of pavement with no streetlights and deep ditches on either side. We were halfway down the ridge when the Honda made a sound that made my heart leap straight into my throat. A sharp, violent clunk echoed from beneath the hood, followed by a horrifying grinding noise of metal shearing against metal. The dashboard lights flickered wildly—the oil light, the battery indicator, and the check engine light all illumi

His deep blue eyes are filled with concern as they lock onto mine. "Y-yes," I stammer, still struggling to catch my breath. "I think so." My hands are trembling, and I grip my thighs tightly to steady them. "We need to get out of here," he says, his gaze flickering nervously between the rearview mirror and the road ahead. I nod in agreement, feeling a shiver run down my spine as I consider the implications of what has just occurred. Someone deliberately tampered with the brakes, putting our lives at risk.

He shakes his head at me through the window before coming to drive. "Do you have intention to go to work today?" He ask. I shook my head and relax on the headrest closing my eyes, only opening them when I notice the car stop. "Are we home? That was fa—" I trail off when I realized the car had stopped because of the traffic after taking a look. My eyes blink uncontrollably and I gulp hard, my body going numb when I remembered the vent or the other night. I breathe out heavily and my eyes fell on my left hand which is shaking and I place my other hand on it, my eyes shooting to the mirror and I find him looking at me - weirdly, he doesn't look taken aback, just a normal knowing look.

Thankfully I had listened to Jayce and had found a parking spot that was well lit, and it was close to the doors to my work. The drive back to work was rather uneventful, and soon I had my client dropped off and I dropped off the van at work. I called Jayce as soon as I was settled into my own car and on my way home. He had stayed up and was warming up a plate of dinner for me. Driving through town I did not notice anything wrong with my vehicle, but once I hit speeds of fifty miles per hour there was a horrible shake that vibrated the steering wheel badly. Thinking that I had a flat tire I put on my hazard lights and pulled off to the side of the road. It was dark and I felt exposed, but I

Why the heck was I sniffing his shampoo? I popped the decklid. I didn’t even need the scanner. I pulled the leads, looking at the spark plugs. My eyes narrowed. I pulled another one. Then another. I stood up slowly, turning to face him. He was standing way too close, his chest almost brushing my arm. He was shorter than me by a good five inches, so he had to tilt his head back to maintain his defiant stare. “Well?” he asked, his voice a little too high. “What is it? Is it the fuel pump? I read online it might be the fuel pump.”

The whole car jerks and all the dashboard lights flash on, blinking like it’s laughing in my face. “You have GOT to be kidding me! Ugh!!” I swear the universe woke up today and said, Let’s ruin Meeka. I pull over—if this can even be called pulling over in the middle of a storm like this, and the car lets out one last weak hiccup before dying completely. Silence. Inside the car, at least. Outside, the storm roars, alive and furious. I slam both palms against the steering wheel. “Oh my God! You stupid, unreliable, useless piece of—!”

Another sound followed…a low grinding noise beneath the hood. “What the hell…” I muttered, glancing at the dashboard. The temperature gauge flickered, then the engine light blinked red. “No, no, no. Not now.” The sound grew louder. I pressed lightly on the gas, but the car jerked instead of moving smoothly. “Come on,” I hissed, hitting the steering wheel. “Not now. Please.” The road around me was completely deserted… no lights, no houses, no sign of life. Just the sound of the wind slipping through the trees and the car’s dying hum.