We heard a clatter from the other end of the long, virtually empty room. More metal, it seemed. I wanted to call out but thought better of it. Confused and panicked as a caged feral cat, my breath quickened to a pant. I caught myself about to hyperventilate and slowed my breathing by staring at the single blazing halogen light bulb. I let its solitary illumination burn into my mind, obliterating all else until I noticed Jackson's hand slip out of my own. I leaned in to him.
"Are you OK?" They were the first words I had whispered since we'd arrived.
"I need to sit down," he said, just as the bulb extinguished itself with a dreadful pop.
I need to sit down was such a mundane sentence, but I hadn't heard Jackson say those words since his grand mal seizure by the river years before. Had it been years? I was uncertain of everything.
"Okay, honey" I said, as I had that day in the riverside woods. This time, though, we were in a raven black room, and we most certainly were not alone. But we're together, I reminded myself. He is with me. We had recently been apart for what felt like days, and what might have been years or an unquantifiable amount of time and distance. I needed to keep him safe; to keep him by my side.
Just as I realized how much I yearned to feel his strength, he grabbed my hand tightly. His grip was not without panic, but I knew he was still with me for the moment. We heard a dramatic scuffling above us once again. Whatever made the sound was alive. It was an organic shifting of the weight of some large and impatient creature.
What was it waiting for?
"I think we need to run-" As I spoke, the Thing hiss-screeched. The sound was mortifying. I felt undressed and bent over. Our vulnerability seated on the hard laminate covered floor was too risky. This realm in which we found ourselves – a bankrupt department store turned a propos meeting room turned lair of a hellish creature – was not our home. We must have stumbled into this place in error. Opened the wrong door. We needed to move.
Jackson jumped up from his seat and mercifully lead the way as we began to run. Instantly I felt a flood of relief as I felt his vital body rushing, moving: staying alive. We ran towards the door I remembered turning into a concrete wall but found nothing in our way as we continued to move. The creature traveled with us. The darkness was that of an underground crawl space with the trap door sealed shut. There was no respite and our eyes did not adjust, so we clung to each other hand in hand and we ran.
The Thing screeched again, and through the blackness I caught a mental image of its position. It clung upside down from the pipework which hung from the ceiling. It seemed to be a bald, humanoid thing. It gave me a shiver of recognition as one feels when one looks into the eyes of a soulful pet dog. There's a person in there, I thought, as we ran, and ran. The darkness suffocated me. I began to pant and gasp for breath again, but the clattering of the thing up on the ceiling was so threatening that I couldn't stop running. Neither of us could.
Jackson seemed to be alright, but what did I know? We gripped one another's hands like they were attached to lifeboats. In fact, it was quickly beginning to feel like we were adrift in a blackened sea. I could imagine powerful winds and waves hurling us underwater at any moment. We might die a painful death. I didn't imagine drowning to be pleasant. Alternately, we might end up living out another lifetime together deep within the ocean. We might live as Mother and Father of God. Keepers of waves, makers of thunder. We could survive on waving strands of kelp and reproduce like genderless, asexual sea creatures.
As I pictured us, transformed physically into jellyfish-snail hybrids thousands of metres below sea level, I was awash in bliss. The euphoria lasted a few seconds longer as I drifted formlessly through the blackness until my foot caught something on the ground and I abruptly found myself face-down on a hard surface.
I heard a creaking scraping crack.
Floor.
Back on Earth.
The Thing and Jackson were with me.
"Honey are you OK?" Jackson said, and then hissed "COME ON!" I knew then that the Thing had gained on us.
I stood up, seemingly unhurt, and the lights went on.
My eyes narrowed, pained by the brightness, and I caught a glimpse of Jackson's silhouette. Behind him, high up on the ceiling, the Thing crawled quickly towards us. I wanted to stop running. I squinted at the thing and it appeared angry, russet-coloured, sinewy, and shiny.
"Let's just stop."
Jackson said nothing.
I looked at the Thing as it approached us with confidence. I saw its lips pulled back to reveal its fangs. I felt no fear. It reached us in what must have been mere seconds.
We seemed to meld with the ceiling as the creature rushed unabated toward us. Flooring entwined with steel pipes and bewildering fluorescent light as the Thing entered both of our bodies simultaneously.
Wow! Is there going to be a sequel? 😱