Last Stop Part 5... and I'm a winner!

I'm a winner. And this isn't some self-affirming, confidence building scheme.(Well, maybe a little). Earlier this week I submitted to a contest on another blog I follow. The gentleman offered a mad libs type competition and so I sent my options. I was notified then, that I won! Granted there were only three submissions, and I honestly didn't expect to win, and I really liked one of the other entries, so imagine my surprise. For my effort he gave my blog special recognition and I truly appreciate it.(He's got a lot of followers!) So let me return the favor to Mr. Vincent Kale, fellow writer of things macabre, sick, and scary. Check out his blog Crawlspace, based upon his novel Crawl(which I have not yet read but is on my to-read list). Thank you Mr. Kale. Now... a little shorter but another installment of Last Stop.

Last Stop Part 5



David bounded up the stairs and was approaching the door to the room that he and Carrie had been assigned when he noticed the door that had been closed and locked was now standing slightly ajar. His heart dropped at the sight and his only thought was that he had to get to his wife. It proved to be a vain thought when he pushed the door open to discover the room vacant. David shot a glance to the bathroom door, praying it was closed and she was merely using the facilities but discovered it standing wide open with the light off.

            “Oh my God,” David said with growing concern taking hold of him. Where did she go?

            Now he began to panic, looking around the room, unsure as to what to do. Perhaps she just left the room, looking for him. The place was certainly a maze and if she had taken a different route than he, they could easily miss one another.

            David went back out of the room and into the hallway. It was quite dark as there were no windows in the corridor and it took his eyes a moment to adjust. She was obviously not further down the hallway, so he turned and headed back down the stairway. He was desperately trying to remain calm although with his wife gone and the thing he was certain was a human tooth he had discovered, it was proving futile to try.

            He hurried down the stairs, no longer concerned about making any noise, and thought that if he were to come across anyone besides Carrie he would bash them in the head with his bare hands. David roamed around the house, not finding Carrie or anyone else for that matter. Where was Muriel? Or William? And what about Mr. Wright? Was he merely fictitious or did he truly exist? David had certainly seen no sign of the man.

            As he turned a corner, David found himself once again in the great room. It continued to be empty and quiet. He glanced over to the cavernous fireplace and he nearly screamed. There were several small hooks lined up along the front edge of the mantle, something one might hang Christmas stockings from, only these hooks were void of any such good tidings. Only one hook was occupied, and from it hung a necklace and pendant David recognized, which he should since he had given it to his wife.

            “Oh my God,” he said again, now completely terrified at what he could only assume was a message claiming that Carrie had possibly fallen victim to the furnace. But that was impossible. He wasn’t gone that long and it seemed to want to make sense to him that no one could have abducted his wife and placed her inside there so quickly. And so quietly. Surely she would have put up a fight or screamed or something he thought. David swallowed hard and refused to believe that Carrie had been incinerated.

            And although he was in the process of convincing himself of this, his knees buckled and wobbled and he found himself wanting to collapse. He steadied himself against the mantle, then snatched the piece of jewelry from the hook. David regained his composure and was about to exit the room to continue his search for Carrie or anyone else that he would certainly beat some answers out of when he heard a noise in the corridor outside of the great room.

            “Carrie?” David questioned, but there was no reply. He entered and discovered the hallway vacant. Somebody was obviously toying with him and David had no doubt it was that creepy William and if he found him he was going to crush his skull.

David was passing the door that he and Carrie had discovered earlier that led downstairs, presumably to the kitchen when he breathed in a familiar scent. Carrie’s perfume that, like the necklace, he had given to her. It was her favorite and he had ensured he knew what it was. The odor was unmistakable, but, had she gone down to the kitchen? For a bite to eat perhaps now that they knew where the room was located?

David opened the door and stared down the stairs. The same cold light that they had witnessed earlier was still shining. He bent down trying to see more of the room at the bottom of the stairs and could see the lower half of a stainless steel cabinet on wheels. Slowly, he forced himself to descend the stairs praying to God that he would find Carrie there snacking and they could laugh about the whole situation and then get the hell out of the Last Stop.