Phantasm

Phantasm

By Phobias

Gritty steps echoed down the alley as the couple walked hand in hand. The air stank of garbage and urine and the ground under their feet, comprised of gravel and sand, damp from recent rain, crunched with every step. Somewhere above a pipe was steadily dripping on to a metal surface, a noise that rang out like a broken bell, but neither of them seemed to notice as they walked towards the bright street lights.

“You know, I thought we would never get the chance to go out,” the tall man said to the much more petite woman, his hand intertwined with hers,
“I know, it’s been a while,” she replied simply, giving his hand a light squeeze as they stepped on to the sidewalk.
Walking down the deserted street they didn’t notice how devoid of anything it really was, no cars moved and no people were talking, just a strange yet refreshing silence filled the air.

As they continued to walk they approached an old building, its doors and windows boarded up. Suddenly Rowan stopped, her red hair swirling around her in the light breeze.
“What’s that over there Siggy?” she asked, pointing to a moving bundle in the corner,
“It’s probably just a rat or something, c’mon,” Sigmund said, trying to pull her onwards,
“No, it’s too big for a rat, it might be a dog or something, we can’t just leave it here,” she replied and moved further towards the wriggling bundle.

She slowly inched closer to the red rags, crouching down with her hand outstretched and her palm facing her body,
“Hey little puppy, what are you doing here?” she asked in a steady even tone so as to not scare the animal. As she slowly reached out to pull back the rags the bundle spun around towards her and gave out a low steady hiss. Pulling her hand back, startled, she stared in horror at the thing in front of her. Instead of a cute little puppy the moving bundle had a human form. What she had taken to be rags was actually crimson clothing hanging loosely from the figure of a small child aged no more than five.

It wasn’t the fact that it was a child that horrified her, but the covering the child wore over its face. Instead of the cherub roundness and innocent eyes that most children have, a porcelain mask covered its face, chipped around the edges and tinged yellow with age. The mouth of the mask was puckered, lips painted black with a small opening for air. Thin black eye brows had been crudely drawn above two holes allowing the wearers eyes to shine through.
Two black pits, unreadable and wild, stared back into Rowan’s eyes. She was frozen in her crouching position looking at this strange little being, as if she had been hypnotised or placed under some kind of spell.
“What the hell?” Sigmund said, trying to pull Rowan away from the child. It looked up from her and glared at Sigmund, eyes full of rage. The tortured little creature let out a high pitched screech and darted into the street, heading towards the ally.

“Christ, what was that?” Sigmund stammered, pulling Rowan to her feet,
“I think it was a child,” she replied, her voice cracking,
“Do de do do, Do de do do,” Sigmund hummed the theme to the Twilight Zone,
“That’s not funny!” Rowan yelled at him slapping him on the arm,
“God, are you ok? You seem a little shaken up,”
“I’m ok, it just rattled me a bit. I just want to go home,”
“Yeah, I know, we’ll be home soon. You know, that kid couldn’t have been more than seven,” Sigmund said, rubbing her back to comfort her.

He entwined his hand with hers once more and they continued on their path. After a few minutes of walking a light shower of rain began to fall, the air becoming foggy, thick and humid. Little droplets of water clung to their hair and landed on their faces, covering them in a fine mist,
“We better run for it!” Rowan said,
“The lights are on over there, it must be open,” Sigmund replied, pointing towards a high rise in the distance, the awning covered in red blinking lights reminiscent of a landing strip. They let go of each others hands and began to run towards their only refuge in an otherwise empty city.

To reach the building they were forced to run through a pitch black park. The muddy ground splashed back on their legs as each heavy step connected with the ground, the two figures weaving through the tall black gum trees like children playing tag. In the center of the park they could just make out a clearing where the big square asphalt court lay. As they reached the edge of the court they slowed down as the rain stopped, a symphony of drips filling the air.
“Some night this has turned into,” Sigmund said, laughing, as he turned around to face Rowan. He reached out and hugged her close to him, the two embracing figures swaying from side to side in the shadows.
“Hey look, the moon is out,” Rowan said suddenly, looking towards the sky. Above their heads a plump full moon shone, its silver rays illuminating their surroundings,
“Finally some good luck!” Sigmund said, kissing Rowan on the forehead and breaking their embrace. Slowly they began to stroll through the abandoned court, beginning to enjoy their night again.

As they crossed half way through the court they were startled by a low, menacing growl coming from the surrounding shadows.
“What now?” Sigmund sighed, exasperated at the further deterioration of their night,
“Look,” Stammered Rowan, her voice high pitched and panicky. Sigmund gazed in the direction of Rowan’s pointing finger. In front of them in the dense shadows of the park the light of the moon reflected off a gleaming eye.

The growling grew louder as the animal emerged from the shadows, the eye still shining. They both gasped as the figure became clearer to them. In front of them stood a Doberman, its muscular front legs in a wide stance, head lowered and its ears pulled back. The dog’s lips were curled back into a rabid snarl displaying two rows of sharp yellowing teeth, saliva running down both sides of its mouth.

“Oh my god, look at its eye,” Rowan whispered, absolute terror in her voice. Sigmund had been to busy looking at the dogs mouth to pay attention to the rest of its head, but as he looked at it fully in the face he could see that while on the left side of its head there was a perfectly normal, if narrowed eye looking at them, on the other side the eye was hanging out of its socket, resting against the dogs cheek.
“Oh Christ!” gasped Sigmund taking in the full horror of what was standing in front of them.

“What do we do?” Rowan shirked in a state of panic. At the sound of her voice the dog began to bark at its two helpless captives, its body jumping forward with every bark; hair raised down its back,
“Be quiet, don’t startle it,” Sigmund quietly said to Rowan,
“Don’t run,” he continued, “If you run, it will chase you down. You’re going to have to go and get help, I’ll distract it from you,” he said looking around for anything he might be able to use against the animal but finding nothing.
“That’s a bad idea, it will bite you. If we stay still it might go away”
“That’s not going to happen, it will attack us anyway,” he replied, “When I count to three I am going to run to the right, when it starts chasing me, you run to the building,”
“I don want -.”
“Just do it!” Sigmund yelled at her, cutting her off.

He took a few deep breaths and then, in an even voice, counted to three. The moment the last word left his mouth he darted to the right and within a fraction of a second the dog was after him, its hideous eye bobbing like an apple in a barrel with every step. When the dog had passed her Rowan sprinted toward the building with the red flashing lights. Half way there she heard a blood curdling scream from behind her and she knew that the dog had caught Sigmund.

“HELP!” she screamed over and over as she entered the main hall of the big building, “For Christ sake, someone help me!” she screamed again into the empty room. No one replied and no one came to see why she was yelling. Frantic, she ran further along the long hall way towards the security desk and thumped her open palms down on the marble surface in frustration, the thuds echoing down the hall. Glancing up she noticed the elevators at the end of the room, tucked behind the security desk wall.

As she ran towards the elevator her footstep sounded heavy on the marble floor. She realised how cold everything looked in the creamy coloured stone. Looking on the elevator wall she could see the floor lights blinking in descending order as it approached her level.
“Oh thank god,” she cried, bouncing on her feet and flailing her arms in impatience. As the elevator reached her a loud DING issued from the wall and the doors slid open.

Inside the metal cage stood four figures, all young children wearing the same strange mask she had seen on the little child earlier. For a moment she could not believe what she was seeing. Although she didn’t know why, Rowan had a feeling that this was the last place she wanted to be and these masked figures were not people she wanted to be with.

She cried something unintelligible and stumbled backwards trying to run. The tallest of the children skewed its head to the side and looked at her, then let out an eerie giggle that filled the hall. Rowan turned and began to run away from them, the children pursuing closely behind.

As she got in eye sight of the main doors she could see the Doberman from the park staring at her, its muzzle stained red, eye still hanging against its cheek. It opened its mouth and began to bark, its body jumping forward with every savage movement of its mouth. Pink froth pooled at the edges of its mouth and she realised that the pink had been added by her Siggy.

Breaking in her tracks she spun in a circle. She saw the children coming towards her, though they weren’t running as they should, but were bounding towards her on all fours. She stared at them, her mouth hanging open as all four children began to hiss at her in unison The sound seemed to be coming from all around her, from the children, the walls, everything, “I don’t understand,” she moaned turning back towards the door. Now the dog stood inside the doors in front of her, its eye jiggling with every bark. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. She could feel a scream welling inside her and was ready to succumb to her urge until she felt a hand rest on her shoulder.

Every muscle in her body tensed, her heart beating in her throat. Slowly she turned around to see the face of the mask inches from her own. Two small but strong hands grasped the side of her head,
“Shhhhhh,” the creature rasped at her as it began to remove its mask with one hand. Suddenly light rushed into her eyes, her body felt hot and wet and her breath caught in her throat. She began to scream but couldn’t. She stayed still, fear overpowering her wish to run. Everything was so bright, she was blinded, but then everything just went black.