Panic Room

Part six; the first

Thursday 1998; The panic room; Luna; 07:28

Luna plummeted down and landed on something soft. She looked around and saw she was in the hospital room where all of this had begun. She tried to leap from the bed but her arm, legs and head had been rebroken. She couldn't see anything and heard Oliver's footsteps clicking into the room. Now that she knew the truth about him, she was incredible wary of looking at him and so pretended to be asleep. "I know your awake Luna." She did not stir and she felt him leaning over her, his breath tickling her neck. "Wake." He whispered and she felt her eyes snap open. As if she were a marionette, she raised herself and looked at him. He was holding the packet that contained the powder and suddenly it was in her mouth and she was falling asleep.

She snapped awake and stared at a black surface that appeared to be a coffin. She banged against the lid but to no avail and suddenly it was lifted off. She looked straight up and into a bright red sky laden with heavy purple clouds. She lifted herself out and looked around at the desolate waste land that was her city and...But wait. Someone was walking toward her. Growing clearer and clearer all the while. They were small with white, sown on limbs and a mouth where stitches were still visible. The small girl stopped a few yards from where Luna stood and suddenly there were children all around. They came closer and closer toward her and there was one boy, one who had half his brains splattered down his front, that came up to her and smiled. He grabbed her by the hand and placed one rotting stump behind her back and they tilted so that she could smell his putrid breath wafting down upon her. I'm finally having a dance with death Luna thought and as she watched, the boy's face melted to become that of the little girls. Luna screamed and thrust her from her body and began to run.

In the tunic, running was hard but she ran anyway and she didn't stop until she came to a building. She flung open the door and ran in. She turned and saw that the door had transformed from transparent to white and that she had not come into a shop at all but into a bathroom. It's all happening. Luna thought. All mixed together like some sick medley of torture. She ran across the bathroom, over the linoleum floor and to the sink where she looked at her dissolved face. Luna was still for a second and then, miraculously, she began to laugh. She was out of her mind, but this. This was too much to take. She ran back to the door and pushed and eventually it gave way. She tumbled out onto the street and felt carpet under her toes. She collapsed and felt warm sheets and a soft mattress. She looked and saw her maze of books, heard her brothers television and even with relief (Though she never thought she would see the day) the spider web in the corner of her window. She had dreamed it all. It had been in her head. Luna closed her eyes, not even noticing that she was still wearing blood stained clothes and a white hockey mask.

Luna opened her eyes and, even though it had felt like a second, knew that the entire night had passed. Luna rolled over in bed and looked over at the phone beside her bed. Her answering machine was beeping like crazy so she pressed the button and began to listen. There was only one number leaving messages however,0793858343, in Luna's state, an unknown thing. At first, Luna could only hear a jumble of words, but after a while she began to make it out. It was a voice. A deep, choked, scratchy voice. And it was saying something...imincomning, no wait, incoming? No, no, it was...it was...She could only make out the word coming and so listened feverishly for the first sound. It was...I'M! Yes! It was saying...But no. Who was coming? After a while, the sounds stopped and the phone began to ring. With fumbling fingers, Luna picked it up and held it to her ear. She couldn't choke out words so instead she just listened. It was the same voice. The same person who had said that they were coming. Luna listened, not daring to make a sound, but she needn't have worried. There were only two words. Two words which send shivers down Luna's spine. I'm here. Luna leaped up at the same time that she herd the front door open and locked her own. She ran back to her bed and listened but there was no sound. Suddenly, Luna herd footsteps begin to ascend the stairs and a thumping sound following. It sounded as though somebody was dragging something up the stairs. Luna turned and ran into her bathroom and slammed the door, pushing herself up against the opposing wall. She heard the thumping stop and a sound like wood splintering. Somebody was breaking down her door. Luna took a shaky breath and spoke to herself. This is just a dream. Just a dream. Just a- But she was cut short by the sound of footsteps inside her room. Whoever it was. They were in.