The car park was cold, and dripping could be heard coming from the roof of the top floor, Kirsty looking up was expecting to see a gaping hole and rain pouring in but there wasn’t, just pipes and concrete.
Kirsty didn’t have a habit of walking in a dark creepy car park after dark but her car wouldn’t start and she was on edge. lonely and hungry she kept wondering close to the car to keep the circulation going, and thinking should she leave to get food or is the car breakdown person going to turn up any minute, they said 10 minutes 1 hour ago and she was getting fed up, she wanted to go home. She started to wonder what she was missing on the TV, it was a Saturday night in October so probably missing strictly come dancing, damn she’d forgotten to tape it, she did love losing herself in frivolous glitz and glam, and Giovanni with an open shirt.
She gave in and started walking towards the stairs and shops, at least there was better lighting and chocolate waiting for her. The drawback was she would have to walk down the dank creepy staircase in almost pitch black as they were the only way out, good job she hadn’t just watched a horror film in the cinema with a friend. Her friend Beatrice had decided to drag her to her favourite horror movie sequel, it turned out to be a decent slasher flick with an actress from Eastenders putting on an American accent and Michael Madsen from Reservoir Dogs, this helped as at least she could fancy someone and not come across as a cougar.
Kirsty took a deep breath and descended the concrete staircase with the cobwebs and suspect stains on the walls, she did internally speculate on what the stains were and how the hell they got there, presumably boys thinking it was a good idea and thinking someone else would clear up after them, when actually the council didn’t have the time or the inclination to go anywhere near them, this also included these stairs and this building in general by the look of it. The stairs smelt of something she couldn’t place and she didn’t dare touch the rusty handrail, a noise came from above her, it made her jump – it was probably an animal trying to get out of the rain, she didn’t blame it. As she looked up she looked down the middle of the stairs, and she saw it, only for a minute then it disappeared again, it looked big, like a big hairy dog but on its hind legs, it scuffled about in the dark below her, Kirsty stopped in her tracks and immediately held her breath, so many ideas going around in her head, a figment of her imagination? A werewolf?.
She came to the conclusion that she was just being silly, werewolves weren’t real, and if they were what on earth would they be doing creeping around at the bottom of a car park, surely they had better things to do, like howling at the moon or seducing teenagers. Even so as she kept descending she was a lot more tentative and quieter than before, just in case. As she got to the landing above the ground floor Kirsty looked down again and listened intently for any more noises relating to animals, or humans, there was nothing. Then there was a noise coming from above her, confused she looked up and saw a similar shape of a hairy upright dog disappearing into the level she came out of, she shivered and ran down the stairs and out of the building into the belting rain, she hadn’t realised it had got that bad, but right now she didn’t care. The rain was actually nice, and the noise of the thunderstorm above her was actually quite therapeutic, she was soaked to the skin very quickly, but right now she couldn’t give a toss. Kirsty dared to look through the murky glass on the door she had just come out of and the face of a hairy, scary beast, was staring back at her with crestfallen eyes. Had she denied them dinner? or was it genuinely scared or miserable, she couldn’t tell? She withdrew and decided to get food from the nearest supermarket, there was one around the corner.
The Tesco’s was quite a big one with a separate floor for clothes and a café, she headed for the sandwiches and caffeine, a nice filling chicken salad sandwich, chocolate, and something diet with caffeine soon perked her up. What staff there was past 7pm on a Saturday let her eat them in a dry café with the musac playing. Kirsty knew she had to go back to her car at some point, but she didn’t want to bump into the ‘monsters’ again. She had an idea, maybe they were just hungry, so she went to the meat section grabbed a load of cheap meat and braved the rain again.
Outside the full moon glistened off puddles like they were spotlights coming out of the floor lighting her way. The rain had eased and all the black roads looked like rivers of oil, Kirsty was just glad she couldn’t hear ‘wolves’ howling at the moon.
The doorway was clear so she crept into the dark lobby slowly and as quietly as she could, looking up there was nothing, but that had been deceiving earlier. She left the door open behind her just in case she had to make a quick getaway and slowly ascended the stairs, some noises of bumps and scratches echoed around her, but trying to stay calm and focused she kept going. The outside door slammed shut, it made her jump, and then the growling started, looking around she couldn’t work out where it was coming from, she looked up and down but nothing, weird. On the next landing, there was a message written on the wall, she put this down to graffiti that she didn’t notice on the way down, but then she realised it was fresh, it was red and dripping, it simply said ‘Beware the Dark’. OK now she was past crept out and full-on scared, Kirsty didn’t stop, she ran up to the third floor where her secure car was and closed the door with a loud thud that could almost have vibrated the building, at least she felt a little safer knowing that she was behind a locked door, she sighed with some relief.
Looking out again at the desolate car park she could see those ‘monsters’ by the door to the stairs, they were pointing past her. Looking behind her all she could see was 2 cars in a dark corner, they looked like they had seen better days, one was a beaten up old Ford Fiesta and the other was a scratched VW Polo, looking back the ‘monsters’ had gone. Getting out of the car she pondered this, she also remembered and got the meat that she had brought and threw the bag towards the stairs then walked in the direction of the abandoned cars, the closer she got the more she felt that there was something between the cars, but couldn’t make out what it was. Too close she realised that 2 big red eyes were looking out at her, she turned to run and was swallowed by the dark. She awoke to blackness upside down in the dark, with the sound of heavy breathing in her ear and the smell of rotting meat.