No matter where she went to sleep or how many padlocks and chains she used, she always woke up in front of the elevator just as its doors opened and her poor father came hurtling down the empty shaft. Their eyes would meet and she would hurl herself forwards to grab his hand and there was always someone just behind her who would pull her back to safety and let him die again.
The first time it happened she'd been yanked back by something wearing the uniform for the hotel they'd been staying in. It could have been human once but now it was something else that wore about eight humanish skins on top of each other, all sagging in different directions and as tattered as ten year old socks.
At least he was kind enough to apologise for grabbing her.
The next time it happened she was gently pulled away by what she could only describe as five gigantic sets of jaws with something long and skinny behind them. They were like a gulper eel made of cheap rubbish sacks and filled with a multitude of unmentionable squirmy things.
They gave her a blanket for her trembling shoulders and sat with her til the police came.
The twenty-fifth and final time it happened she almost made it - her fingers brushed against her father's and she was almost falling down herself but a white mist shot out of his mouth and pushed her back into the hallway. It smelled just like his favourite tobacco and the kedgeree he made every Burn's Night.
The mist seemed to smile at her as it gradually sank down to meet its body.
The next day she woke up back home - alone and knowing she had to back to the hotel.
The first time it happened she'd been yanked back by something wearing the uniform for the hotel they'd been staying in. It could have been human once but now it was something else that wore about eight humanish skins on top of each other, all sagging in different directions and as tattered as ten year old socks.
At least he was kind enough to apologise for grabbing her.
The next time it happened she was gently pulled away by what she could only describe as five gigantic sets of jaws with something long and skinny behind them. They were like a gulper eel made of cheap rubbish sacks and filled with a multitude of unmentionable squirmy things.
They gave her a blanket for her trembling shoulders and sat with her til the police came.
The twenty-fifth and final time it happened she almost made it - her fingers brushed against her father's and she was almost falling down herself but a white mist shot out of his mouth and pushed her back into the hallway. It smelled just like his favourite tobacco and the kedgeree he made every Burn's Night.
The mist seemed to smile at her as it gradually sank down to meet its body.
The next day she woke up back home - alone and knowing she had to back to the hotel.
No comments:
Post a Comment