College students Anna and Ainsley have a final year project, an interview with twenty first century multi-billionaire businessman and entrepreneur Calvert Ghislain. An established Englishman who made his name in the top ten Forbes of America.
But w...
The ride back to 37th Wall Street was disturbingly silent. Ainsley had come out of the stall spoked like as if he had encountered a ghost. He hadn't said anything, and I could tell something was eating him up from inside. Due to the unfortunate accident that occurred earlier, we were forced to take a different path, a more deserted one. It was along a highway with unending patches of sand and greenery, he took a turn to his left, and I became aware of the surroundings, the time read 5:40 pm, we had been out the whole day.
"Ainsley?"
He responded with a "Hmm?"
My gaze was still outside. "Stop the car." He looked at me a minute or two then looked back the review mirror, was someone following him?
He parked the car by the side of the road, and I walked out. The sun had gone down but the weather was still hot. Gravel crunched under my shoes. I stood in front of what I had seen as a gate.
"Ainsley?" I called out to him. He walked up to me and stood there just staring at the empty piece of land. He placed his hands on his hips. "Yes, some nice plot one good enough for building and living over a thousand kilometres away from people." He nodded to himself.
"Perfect, just perfect. Society is a menace."
I looked at him confused, that means he didn't see what I saw. "Don't you see it?" I asked, he looked at me then back at his watch. "Anna it's getting late. I do not want to be on the road by the time it gets dark." He turned his back on me and started going towards his car, I grabbed his hand and pulled him back.
"Just look, don't you see anything?"
He looked yes, he did, he even squinted his eyes but didn't see anything. "Anna." I still led him through the gates and then to the parking lot exactly how he had done it on Friday, then we walked through the double doors and stopped short of the distance next to the receptionist's desk. I brought him back towards the area that had held the grey sofas and we stood there for about few minutes, he still looked at me.
"Don't you see, this is the building, well at least it was."
He shook his head and walked towards the entrance but not in the same direction we came from. "For crying out loud Anna I do not have time for childish- oof"
He held his forehead and moved back. We both exchanged looks. He placed out his hands and slowly moved back to where he had hit his head. "Anna come check this out." I was at his side in an instant. As much as there was nothing not even a building but a vast piece of land, there was some kind of invisible wall that could not be seen but felt.
I moved in the opposite direction as him. "Found the exist." I said, he continued moving till he was directly opposite from me but on the furthest wall. "Okay, well, I think it is official, we have gone mad."
I shook my head. "It was real Ainsley, it felt real on Friday and the strange encounters did to, there is something beyond us that's going on." He moved a few inches to his left. "Found a window." He said. "Then I think the elevator would be around here." I ignored him.
I had some uneasy feeling about the place. "This explains why the cops didn't know about the address." He nodded.
"Probably because it never existed."
"But how?" I asked. "How could it not have existed, yet this was our project, he, Calvert Ghislain. Don't tell me just disappeared out of the blue never to be seen again, we saw the videos, his photos, we even had a live presentation from him. So how come it feels not there suddenly?"
Wind blew against the sand, it came in a strong breeze, and I had to rub my hands together to keep myself warm. I had gotten goosebumps. The sky was darkening very fast, we had to go soon. Ainsley made his way towards me but stopped when the shatter of glass sounded. He looked down and lifted his feet from it. He got to his knees and used a handkerchief to clean off all the sand.
It was a standing mirror; the same one we had seen in Calvert's office.
I felt another uneasy feeling settle in my gut and I looked around. We were the only ones, and the car was not more than a stone throw away. I removed my shoes and placed them by the entrance and walked over to him. We both lifted the heavy object out from under the sand and when we turned it around so we could look at it, it was too dusty. Ainsley used the same handkerchief to clean away the dust all the while I looked back. My shoes were still by the door, but the sun was setting, and the chilly breeze was starting to welcome itself. I looked at the mirror, I was right when I said it was the exact same mirror from Calvert's office.
It was the one Ainsley had goofed around with, the one that made you look slim and gave you a weird shape. I got to my knees and scraped off the mud that had gotten stuck to it, but then ended up cutting myself.
"Anna." He said frustratedly. Carefully he used the now brown cloth to break the mud pieces free. The hairs on my neck stood on edge and I looked back. Small termites climbed my body and I got to my feet. I could not believe what I was looking at.
"Hannah?" The last piece of mud fell off and we both looked at the mirror, on it in blood letters read "AINSELY."
We turned back to look at the creepy figure of the young woman. She ran towards us and then in a guff of wind disappeared.
I looked at the mirror and the crack that had formed from where he had stepped on it, black substances were dripping from the scratches and cracks.
"Ainsley, what did you do?"
The mirror shattered into pieces.
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