Saturday, May 23, 2015

The Succugrub, Part 3

Your shower cubicle opens before you, spacious yet snug, the fluorescent light giving a vaguely clinical cleanliness to the white floor and walls, their unified colour unbroken and unspoiled, forming a perfect whole that invites you home. At least it would, were it not for the black hole in the wall! Right before the open cubicle-door, a small, black, hole, so round it could only have been made by someone taking a power tool to your wall!

You close the cubicle door, open it again. The hole is still there, much to your annoyance. You close the door again, open it, close it, open it, slam it closed and … hesitate. Very, very slowly, very carefully, you open the door halfway, hiding your naked body behind it as you quiver with realization. The hole is in the tiled wall of the bathroom itself. Meaning it could lead - to the next room? To a camera?

The possibilities race through your mind. Suddenly the thought of being watched is the least exciting thing as you struggle just to breathe. The air seams cold and somehow heavy. You step back. The door swings closed to a loud CLANK-K-k-k! The echoes and your eyes dart around a room that's no longer yours, no longer safe! But why? Why would they... they wouldn't, your own voice of reason asserts. No-one would drill a hole in the tiled wall of a shower just to put in the most obvious spy-camera ever! But still…

A minute later the cubicle-door reopens with you hiding behind it, holding your phone before you as if it were a weapon. The hole watches, as you awkwardly dart into the cubicle and spring against the far wall, treating the hole to a loud fleshy smack, followed by a hushed but emphatic: “ow!” Feeling equal parts silly and terrified, you sidle along the wall towards the hole, and carefully lower the phone before it. You press a button - frown, press the correct button, and hear the digital click of the phone’s camera.

You hand darts back, the screen showing a picture of a watching eye, a spy camera, a... an empty black hole. Your mind sorts your fears from reality, and you see an empty black hole on the screen. But still - you frown, and mainly to make your phobias shut-up, you turn on the camera’s flash and lower the phone to take another picture. You click the button, see the flash, and hear a screech.

You hand is already back at your heaving chest. You stare at the screen, see… a black hole. You mentally kick yourself - camera’s in the wall, screeching sounds, your jumping at nothing! The screeching must have been the pipes, and the hole... okay no idea why the hell it’s there, but it’s EMPTY! A small voice at the back of your head is wondering why the flash didn’t illuminate the darkness, still showing you a pitch-black hole, but your aggressively-asserted reason shuts the voice down before it can be taken seriously.

To prove your resolve you thrust away from the wall, stand directly before the harmless hole, and defiantly stick out your tongue. Part of you swears you hear a low grumbling sound in response, and the rest of you steadfastly ignores it, as you place the phone on the small wooden bench, and turn on the shower.

1 comment:

  1. Great story, but man, so many typos and errors. Shame.

    ReplyDelete