Up or Down...
Liminal space
Happy Trigger Warnings: scary things
Also, thanks Kayla Button for your amazing hallway/liminal space content xD Picture is thanks to Kayla. May this be a worthy offering to you <3
The blood curdles inside you.
This dream again… you think.
For a few dreadful moments, you do wonder to yourself:
This is a dream.. Right? The sick familiarity of it surely makes it seem to be so. But what if its just deja vu? And you’re really standing, right now, in real life, in a stairwell? The flaking paint… the scent of urine and stale air… These certainly do feel…
Real. Too real…
So, if this was real…
You try to recall your previous dreams of this place. For you had certainly been here before.
(Something) was waiting for you. Is waiting for you. At least… There is that vague memory.
Who is it? What is it? And are you supposed to go toward it… or—
The way your throat is tightening…
The way your breath is hitching with fear…
Your heart is fluttering, your palms are sweating. The way adrenaline is flooding your veins, your subconscious screaming for you to run—
You stutter-step forward—
You falter.
Run, yes, but…
Up… or down?
You try to think. Try to be objective. You take deep breaths, fighting to do it softly (lest the thing hear you). Try to listen for (it)… Despite the way your blood is roaring through your ears.
All is quiet. You’re pretty sure.
No, wait.
There is a… (Something.)
(Something is) shifting. A shuffling… The sound of (the thing) probing for you. You strain your ears, but the echoes confound you. Which way is it coming from? Up or down??
Then silence.
You realise you hate the silence even more than the sound of its movement. It is almost ponderous. You can almost see it… tilting its head at an unnatural angle… to the left—wait, why do you know that?
Your awareness of it sickens you. Terrifies you.
It is as though, as much as you can sense it… It can sense you too.
So, then, would it know? If you were running up or down?
More shuffling. You know you cannot stay here, in this liminal space forever.
(Because it would get you, if you did.)
You step forward, knees quaking. But you need something more than a sign. You need evidence. An objective clue.
Your stomach twists as the thing obliges you.
You hear clicking. Too much echo.
You hear clacking. (Is that teeth?) Too much echo.
You hear… tapping. The metal railings resonate with it, the sound of its claws going ping…
ping…
ping..
You reach out. You know that if you hold onto those railings, you would be able to sense where it was coming from: up, or down.
You ready your feet to run as you reach forwards.
Your heart thunders in your chest, almost leaping out from your throat.
You hold your breath as you reach out and…
Touch.
Cold.
Clawed.
Hands.
Touch.
You.
The thing was behind you all along.
This is an entry for Day 21 of Bradley Ramsey’s Flash Fiction Feb prompt. Check the rest of the entries here!
