Shadow in the Dark (chapter 2)
Here is chapter two - again, not sure what you will make of this fic, might not be to everyone's liking. Let me know what you think (I know it's not the best)
The three reached the door at the bottom of the corridor, all their senses on full alert in the deafening silence. Gary gave position of “torch holder” to Howard and with his hand that was not occupying Mark’s, he took a deep breath and opened the door. They walked in. On the other side of the door was a small hall, with stairs leading up to the main recording studio and down to the cellar. Down the side of the stairs was a short walk to reach the lift at the back of the hall; its only purpose of being there was so heavy or awkward equipment could be moved up or down with ease and without the fear that Mark would trip over his own feet and let go of the equipment, therefore, crushing the poor unfortunate who had volunteered to help.
The hall was just as dark as the corridor they had come out of; however, there was an unseasonal and unfriendly chill in the air. Gary shuddered. There was a rumbling sound to be heard, the boy’s hearts started to race; they could hear it in their ears. Then, as if in a horror movie, the lift door slid open, spilling a creepy, unnatural light into the hall which made the corners of it dark and unnerving. It reminded Mark off being a kid again as he looked into the dark corners, a feeling came over him, it reminded him of a fear that something could be crouching and watching them in the shadows, the same feeling he got when he used to lie in his bed all those years ago.
“Who called the lift?” Mark murmured shakily under his breath. Gary and Howard remained silent, neither had an answer this time.
“Whoever is here must have taken it.” Said Gary
“But why would they send it back down?” asked Howard
“I dunno.” Said Gary “Seeing as you’ve got the torch, would you run up and see if anyone is in the recording studio, please?” asked Gary
“What?” Howard’s voice said in a mere squeak “On my own?”
“Well someone’s got to babysit this one” Said Gary nodding his head in Mark’s direction “He’s shaking like a leaf.”
“Wait there.” Said Howard as he took a deep breath and took a run up the stairs. Gary and Mark held their breath as they waited for Howard to come back down. “No.” Said Howard; bombing it down the stairs as fast as he could “Not a soul.”
“Must you phrase it like that?” Mark shuddered
“In that case they must be down...” Gary paused to take in a deep breath “...in the cellar. God!” he exclaimed “You couldn’t write this shit.”
“Forget it! I ain’t going in that lift and I ain’t going to the cellar.” Protested Mark “Why did it send the lift back you ask? So it can lure its three, unsuspecting victims, down into hell and then slaughter them!”
“Stop being so mellow-dramatic!” said a pissed off Gary “Anyway” he said letting go of Mark’s hand for a moment and wiping it on his shirt “Your hand’s sweaty.”
“Well I do apologise for the impertinence of my body’s incompetence when I am scared fucking shitless!”
“Calm down you two. Arguing won’t get us anywhere. Come here, Markie.” Howard soothed taking hold of Mark’s other hand as they walked together towards the lift (secretly, deep down, even Gary and Howard wanted a hand to hold and Mark’s forwardness about their predicament brought them great comfort). Mark froze just before they stepped into the lift.
“Are you sure nothing was up there?” asked Mark “Did you check everywhere?”
“Yes” Reassured Howard “I looked everywhere, I didn’t miss anything.”
Mark breathed a sigh of relief and stood between Gary and Howard as the three watched the lift door slide shut.
It was just a shame that they had missed a shadow crouched, watching them in the corner of the hall.
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For the next fifteen seconds or so in the lift, the three breathed a sigh of relief, they felt safer now. They looked at each other with the same exasperated expressions on their tried faces, however, when the lift came to the sudden stop, uncertainty took a hold on them.
The lift door slid open again, slowly revealing an identical hall way to the one they had just left. They stepped out; the silence was louder than ever. There we a jingle from Howard’s hand.
“What’s that Gaz? Text message or something?” asked Howard
“No. The battery’s running low.” Said Gary sounding preoccupied
“Ah. That might be a problem.” Said Howard with false humour
The three stepped out into the hall, still holding hands, their clothes stuck to their sweaty skin.
“I don’t like this” Mark muttered “I don’t like this at all”
“And you think we’re enjoying it?” asked Howard, there was a pause. Gary had let go of Mark’s hand and was standing facing the door.
“After you, Gaz.” Chimed Howard
Gary took a breath and held it as he turned the handle and pushed on the door. It didn’t open.
“Shit! The bugger’s locked” he said as the jingle sound on his phone went off again.
“Hurry up Gaz” warned Howard “I don’t think you’ve got much battery left.”
“Oh. Look here, the key is in the lock” said Gary, Mark gave a tut
“How convenient” he replied sarcastically and rolled his eyes.
Gary took the key between his trembling thumb and index finger and turned it to the left and with a dreaded click of the lock; Gary was able to open the door. There was nothing unusual about the cellar, just another wall of solid darkness.
“A little light Howard please.” Asked Gary
“Oh, yeah” he said as he lifted the phone into the room beyond “Sorry, mind was elsewhere”
“Isn’t it always.” Came Gary’s reply, in an attempt to lift the mood.
Howard walked in first, followed by Gary followed by Mark, who had wrapped himself tightly around Gary’s arm.
“It smells funny down here” murmured Mark. He looked about him, the light of the phone catching objects and casting weird and eerie shadows on the wall. “I swear something moved” he whimpered
“Shh Mark! Stop whimpering” commanded Howard over his shoulder “The only time I like to hear you whimpering is when you’re naked on all fours and I’m-” he was cut off by the jingling noise from Gary’s phone.
“Hurry up, we don’t have long left until we lose light” said Gary as Mark increased the force of his grip on Gary’s arm. Gay sighed and walked further into the cellar.
“There look. Over there.” Said Howard as he made his way over to a box on the far side of the cellar wall, Gary and Mark followed. Howard flipped the box open and looked in.
“As I thought” he said chuffed to bits with himself “Someone has turned off the lights from here” as he said this, the battery in Gary’s phone had kicked the bucked and immersed the three into darkness. Mark gave out a yelp.
“Don’t worry. I’ll feel for the switch - I was just looking at it. Somewhere around here” he said. Gary flinched.
“I know it’s dark Howard; however, I doubt that the switch is in my pants.”
“Darn! It was worth a try”
“Would you two cut it out and just get the fucking lights on!” shouted mark barely louder than a whisper; although distress was clear in his tone. From upstairs there was a bang followed by the hollow vibrations of guitar chords. The three flinched.
“Was that-” Gary began
“My guitar!” Mark cut in “Howard! Lights! Now!”
With his heart racing Howard found the master light switch and turned it on. They all ran to the door where light now filled it corridor. Above them, they could hear the guitar being absentmindedly strummed. They all bombed it up the stairs, up to the ground floor, through the door that lead to the room where the havoc that night had started. They stopped in their tracks before they approached the door. The light in the room was off.
“Why isn’t the light on?” whispered Howard slowly. Steadily, Howard and Gary started to make their way to the dark room.
“Mark, come on” said Gary and reluctantly but obediently Mark followed. By now the guitar had stopped playing.
“Alright! I’ve had enough of this!!” bellowed Gary in a furry of temper. Even though at this moment in time Mark was scared out of his mind, he couldn’t help but get a buzz of pleasure from Gary’s commanding authority. Gary walked boldly across the room and flicked the switch.
“What the fuck!!!!” said Gary as Howard and Mark filtered in behind him. “No light! All of that, for nothing!”
“What? I don’t understand.” Said Howard
Mark stood quietly, arms folded, not sure what to think. Little to the men’s knowing the crouched shadow figure had entered the room as well. Whilst Gary and Howard inspected the light, the shadow advanced behind Mark - suddenly - a hand was placed on Mark’s right shoulder, however, he didn’t make a noise, he didn’t scream or yell, his eyes rolled up and he fell to the floor with a dull thud.
“Looking for this?” asked the shadow waving the light bulb it had removed over Mark’s limp body.
Gary and Howard’s heads turned to the voice and immediately they shouted out
“JASON!”
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After they had put the bulb back in the light they sat in a circle on the floor, Mark still coming round in Gary’s arms. Obviously Jason had a lot of explaining to do.
“What the fuck were you doing? What were you thinking?” said Gary, however, a certain level of anger could be detected.
“You told me you were stuck in traffic!” said Howard
“I was” said Jason “for a little while”
“Fair enough” said Gary a little pissed off “You gave us a fucking heart attack, as for Mark, you nearly killed him. Why did you do it? ”
“Well, Howard and I had planned to spend the night together but instead he decided that he would join Mark and you in a nice little threesome and just left me. It didn’t take me long to piece together where he’d be. So I thought that I would... teach him a lesson” he said with a cute boyish smile on his handsome face.
The boys started to see the funny side and soon the night would be something the boys could joke about.
“Very cleaver Jay, but I didn’t think you would of had it I you to go to the cellar on your own.” Said Howard
“What? Why would I do that?” Asked Jason with a genuine innocence
“So you could hit the lights and plunge us into darkness. Made it a bit more exciting for us.” He winked at Jason.
“I didn’t turn the lights off” said Jason in protest “I came in, I locked the door and that’s when Mark saw me. I ran and hid behind the stairs and you followed. You took the lift and I thought that I really must have played on your minds since you were on your way down to the cellar. I came back here and took the light bulb and as I reached for the guitar, I knocked it over, the light outside came on and I started to strum - just to make it just that little bit more freaky for you.”
“More freaky!” said Mark sitting up wearily “How much more freaky did you want it?”
“Hang on!” Gary cut in “If you didn’t turn the lights off - who did?”
There was an awkward pause.
“Shall we get off?” said Howard
“Yeah, why not? Come on Markie.” Said Gary helping Mark to his feet
As they hastily walked to the door, Jason couldn’t get the door unlocked and open fast enough. Gary, Howard and Mark breathed a sigh of relief in the night air.
“Well, we know now in future. Keep business and pleasure separate” said Gary
The four looked at each other and laughed aloud before Mark cut in;
“As if! The moral of the story is, don’t fuck in a threesome in your empty recording studio late at night, when you have a love struck Jason on his way to get his revenge. Oh! Let’s not forget our resident ghost. Never have sex in a haunted building - it only gets spoiled.”
“Here here!” said Gary and Howard at the same time. The four were looking back at the recording studio, glad to be out of it.
“Erm... Markie... there isn’t such things as ghosts” said Gary who’s heart stopped soon after he’d said this, as his fellow band mates and himself watched in a sickly moment of horror as light in the front room that they had left on, turned itself off.
“Night guys” wheezed Gary as the band ran away into the night.