XXIV - Josh
“Help! Help me!
Someone, please!”
The
creature was right behind him, he could hear its terrible un-noise, feel its
heavy, damp presence. It would only be
a couple of seconds before it reached him and then… then didn’t bear thinking
about.
“Help me,
please!”
Paige was
out there somewhere. And Charlie. Someone ought to hear him. Someone ought to be able to open this door
from the other side and save him from…
There was
something like the sound before a roll of thunder and Josh knew that the
creature was very, very nearly upon him.
Oh
god, I’m going to die, he realised.
XXV - Paige
Paige
pounded along the corridor, her mind afire with horrible thoughts. What if I’m not quick enough? What if that thing can get in here? How can I be so selfish? Oh, Josh!
“I’m
coming, Josh! Please hold on, I’m
coming!”
She could
see the door ahead of her, watched, with eyes taking in so much detail that
time seemed to slow, as the door shook once, twice. She heard Josh scream a horrible, unnatural, twisted scream and
then there was silence, true silence, as she slammed into the door and it flew
open to reveal an empty courtyard.
Momentum
threw her forward a few steps into the dark, foggy void, so unlike the corridor
she had just left. Once more it seemed
she was in a ruined factory and Josh was nowhere to be seen.
Oh,
god, Josh, what’s happened to you?
She
scanned what little she could see of the courtyard, but there was no sign of
Josh, or of the creature that was attacking him.
Maybe
he got away?
But that
made no sense. He had been right on the
other side of the door. She had seen it
shaking as he tried to escape and she had heard his scream. He could only be…
Maybe
it’s another hallucination, or nightmare or… or something.
She
couldn’t bear any of the alternatives.
They were just too horrible. And
yet, even as she tried to avoid them the thoughts came flooding in regardless
and she fell, helpless to the rubble-strewn ground of the courtyard.
“Oh,
Josh,” she said, sobbing, “Oh, Josh, I’m so sorry…”
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