The last thing the crew saw was a pale face getting reclaimed by the foam of the harsh ocean waves. The clouds strangled what remained of the faint moonlight as the remaining passengers faded into the obscurity of the darkness. Against every promise, the iniquitous, salty manifest of the unexplored ocean had won.
The credits began rolling. However, the cinema lights did not illuminate to usher out the audience of the 9pm screening for the new summer romance thriller: Tasting Salt.
Elizabeth sat in silence, looking down at Gowan's hand that had slowly crept its way into hers during a much happier section of the movie. The credits finished and the theatre remained silent and still, only lit the dim glow of a projector now in standby mode. Elizabeth composed herself, letting out a small sniffle before forcing on a braver face, "I like the movies better when the lovers end up together at the end."
"I liked it this way." Gowan was still looking straight ahead, "It's more realistic."
They let the silence settle around them in the theatre. Gowan didn't let go of her hand, instead opting to jolt his head towards the screen, "What do you think this is about? Maybe the projector guy fell asleep or something."
The Southglen Shopping Centre was always open for late night shopping but the movie started at 9pm so all the stores were shutting down as they made their way up to the theatre on the 2nd floor. A cinema in the centre was great for stopping by the grocery store to get cheap cinema snacks beforehand, but once the clock struck 9pm all the retail workers were out of there.
Elizabeth could totally empathise with the workers scrambling to have the shops shuttered at 9pm sharp. She did not miss her minimum wage job at Candles n' Things when she was in high school. The downside to this was that if the few remaining cinema workers abandoned their posts during a movie and something went wrong, there wasn't a whole lot anyone could really do until everything opened again on Friday morning. Not that she would ever dream of causing a fuss over having to leave the cinema in the dark after seeing the full movie.
They craned their necks as other couples who had also braved the weather to the late night screening were also sitting in their seats with puzzled looks on their faces as the lights didn't budge. After it was clear there was no post-credit scene, and it was clearly an unintentional darkness, one couple tentatively began to edge their way out of their row towards the aisle that tilted upwards towards the exit.
Just as the couple made it to the end of the row, the lady let out an expletive as the cinema doors burst open with a loud bang. The man dropped to the ground, intentionally pulling the woman with him.
A figure loomed at the top of the cinema stairs. Elizabeth could only make out a trenchcoat and a backpack before the glint of a large blade in his hand caught her eye. The warmth of Gowan's hand battled against the chill that began to overwhelm her own extremities. Her blood seemed to dissipate from her very being. She could feel her pulse in her throat.
The stranger's voice sounded like an older teenager trying to seem authoritative, "Do not be afraid. I am here to save you. You are the lucky ones. You have been chosen."
Elizabeth's eyes began to adjust to the dim glow emanating from the standby mode of the projector. It wasn't just the blade that was shining from the light of the screen, the blood was shining too. The figure was lanky. While tall, the uncontrolled pitch changes in his voice suggested to Elizabeth that he was just a kid. A brave kid. A stupid kid. Still a kid. Probably no older than 19.
It didn't take long for a burly man in his 40s to pick himself off the floor and disarm the boy, almost casually. The woman accompanying him rolled her eyes, as if this was just a regular Thursday for him. She walked over to the seats where the man had thrown the knife, fishing for it under the seats, as her husband restrained the boy with ease.
"I'm telling you," the teen yelled anxiously, "I'm here to save you!"
"Then who did you use the knife on?" The woman walked over to the boy. "Whose blood are you shedding to save us?"
"Those who disbelieve."
The large guy looked at his wife as he continued to restrain the teen, "Amy, go figure out whose blood that is."
She nodded back to her husband. Without a word, Amy began calmly making her way down the aisle towards Elizabeth and Gowan.
"What do we do?" Elizabeth whispered out of the corner of her mouth.
Gowan simply gave her hand a squeeze.
The man began to walk with the boy back out towards the doors. The boy began writhing to get away, was almost shrieking now, "NO! STOP! THAT'S WHERE THE DEMONS ARE! WE NEED TO START PRAYING NOW IF WE WANT ANY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL."
"I survived Iraq, bud. I can take on a cinema lobby." He held the boy with one hand, using the other to press down on the large vertical bar on the door.
As the large handle pressed down, the room snapped to pitch black. The sound of the teen's struggles quickly stopped. The handle was jolted back up, the door remaining closed.
"Fuck." Another man exclaimed, sitting with a beautiful woman who could be his daughter. Although, Elizabeth had noticed they'd been holding hands the whole movie, so she highly doubted that. "Enough of this tough guy shit! I'm calling the bloody police!"
There was rustling in the theatre as the moviegoers began to locate their phones for lighting. There were a lot of confused noises, swearing, and tapping. Somehow, they had all stopped working.
"I TOLD YOU. I TOLD YOU. I TOLD YOU. THE THREE DAYS IS COMING! IT'S COMING. IT IS HERE."
"Mate. Mate. Calm down. We gotta make sense of you before you can help us, ok? When you calm down, I'll let you go," The man remained rock solid at the doorway of the cinema as the teen finally stopped resisting, "What's your name, mate?"
"WE HAVE TO SURVIVE FOR THREE DAYS!", he continued shouting.
"Ok, so we're here for three days, mate. That's fine. We better get to know each other before we can trust each other right? So what's your name? I'm Emilio. Amy, who's out there, is my wife. Now you know us, who are you?"
The dejected figure mumbled something.
"What, mate? Richard?"
"No. Victor. I'm Victor. That's what I have to be. It's the end of the days."
As everyone's eyes got used to the darkness, and Victor had stopped resisting, Emilio eased up on his restraint hold. By this point, everyone had made their way up to where Emilio and Victor were standing. While there was no light in the room, the shape of Victor's severe cheekbones cut through the darkness as he looked around for his backpack that had been tussled from him in the struggle.
Emilio noticed, snatching it from the floor, "I don't think so," He turned to Gowan and snickered, "Hey, Kobe, catch!"
Gowan caught the bulky pack, but he was not impressed with the improv, "Dude."
"Well, I don't know your name so I had to improvise, don't I?" He looked Gowan up and down, "Don't worry, it's a basketball thing, not a black thing."
Gowan worked in Youth Ministry for the last 9 years of his life. Including kids who were forced to be there by their parents and were going through their edgy stages. He kind of just expected it then, unfortunately. He couldn't believe that he was still getting this nonsense during a date that was interrupted by a knife-wielding lunatic saying the world was ending.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"Gowan. It's Gowan Daniel." He placed the backpack at his feet, "And no," He said sarcastically, "I can't dunk."
"Yeah, real funny." Emilio said, moving his sights to the old white guy whose date's age was questionable, "And you, grandpa?"
"Gideon, and I'll have you know I've only just turned fifty ni-"
The heavy doors were rattling. Like something was trying to force them open. The room fell silent. Elizabeth ducked to the floor, feeling the rough, sticky cinema carpet soaked with years and years of spilled sodas and slushies. Gowan crouched beside her, finding her hand on the floor and squeezing it reassuringly.
Elizabeth shallowed her breathing, trying to be as still as possible, even though she already felt frozen. She knew it wasn't demons, but this whole situation was surreal to her. She slowly turned her eyesight to Gowan, who seemed focused and ready to rush the door. Emilio began to get up slowly and silently.
"Don't!" Victor whispered, "Don't let them in. They will trick you."
Emilio let go of Victor, "Vic, if you try anything, you're dead either way, got it?"
Victor did not respond as he moved away from the doors.
The thumping at the doors began again, a voice on the other side was calling for help.
Once again, Emilio pushed down on the heavy opening mechanism, pulling one side of the door open and darting behind the other side for cover.
Amy sprinted up the stairs to the staggering figure who slumped at the door. She struggled to hold them up. Emilio sprung out from behind the door and helped her immediately.
"Oh shit." She said. "OH. SHIT." She yelled, yanking off her t-shirt and pressing it down against the wound on the abdomen of the cinema worker. "Help me get him down to the front, the floor is flat. We can lay him down."
Gowan arose from where he and Elizabeth had been crouching, and helped the young worker to the flat floor in front of the first row of seats. Everyone in the room began to follow them down, besides Victor.
After helping the worker to the floor, she began to examine the wounds as best she could in the dark. Amy and the worker spoke softly to each other as she tried her best to assess the damage.
She looked to Emilio, "From what little I can see, it looks like Sweeney over there got a good slash or two in, but he missed anything important."
Emilio took off his jacket to mop the cold sweat from the boy who looked around the same age as Victor, "What do we do now?"
"Call the fucking cops!" Gideon spoke up again, just as angrily as the first time.
Amy passive-aggressively ignored the old man, still only addressing Emilio, "I'd suggest an ambulance but I have no signal... No battery, my phone is flat."
A shy voice spoke up, "They all are." It was the woman who had been accompanying Gideon.
"... Shit." Amy paused to think, "Well then the next thing we need is drugs. For an abdominal wound you need ... What's the pneumonic? Shit." Her mind went blank, "We need ... Kef... Sero... Ceta... Shit. I don't remember." She sighed in defeat, "Fuck it. When in doubt, we used amoxicillin and doxycycline. If someone's still at the pharmacy it'll be easier to get drugs and get back here than to go outside to find help."
"NO!" Victor cried again, "We can't go outside! That's where they are! They'll get in!"
Emilio rolled his eyes, "The last time you claimed a demon was coming to get us it turned out to be," He gestured to the worker on the ground.
"Matt." Amy answered for the worker.
"Matt, Victor. Victor, Matt. I'm sure you too are best friends." He pointed around the circle, we also have "Gowan, Gideon... That's as far as we'd got."
"Elizabeth." Elizabeth said, as she took off her cardigan to give to Amy who was still in just her bra. Amy thanked her and let Emilio take over applying pressure as she re-dressed.
Gowan had a knack for looking out for the ones in a group who were quiet or feeling left out. He turned in the general direction of the meek woman who was half-hiding behind Gideon. He softened his voice, "Who are you? Are you Gideon's wife?"
"No," Amy answered for her in a somewhat monotone fashion, "He's got a wedding ring. She doesn't. That handbag is about $900. Do the math."
The lights didn't need to be on to feel the woman blushing from embarrassment, "I'm Violet."
"That's a nice name." Elizabeth tried to break the tension.
Gideon let out an annoyed sigh, "Fuck this shit. One of my cars is being detailed in the shop across from here. I'll go across the road and we can drive him to the hospital."
"The carwash would be closed by now." Emilio pointed out.
"Son. If I need to break the fucking windows of the shop to get to my car, I will. 'Restitution' is just a fancy way of saying 'inconvenience fee'. Just call me Sugar Daddy Do-Gooder." He began muttering to himself as he walked towards the cinema doors, "Getting some kid's blood on my freshly detailed seats. Fuck."
Victor rushed to follow Gideon. "You can't leave!"
Gowan tried to help Emilio get Matt to his feet, but he kept writhing in pain.
Gideon kept walking, brushing Victor's hand from his arm, "Listen, you rejected Tim Burton sketch: I don't care what bullshit you read on some forum about radio active water turning frogs gay. It's just a fucking storm." He turned to face Victor, while still walking up the slanted aisle, "And guess what? Storms have electricity. When that electricity hits shit... Blackouts happen." He opened the heavy cinema doors out into the foyer, "Next, I'll explain magnets to you!"
Even in the dark, as their eyes adjusted, Gowan and Emilio exchanged a glance. They had given up trying to move the worker, but knew Victor couldn't be left alone with anyone. Elizabeth followed them out, while Amy continued to apply pressure and her crumpled t-shirt to the wound. Violet kneeled beside her impotently, trying to see if there was anything she could even do to help.
"Stop!" Emilio ran after Gideon who was making his way down the stationary escalator to the ground floor of the shopping centre, "Even if the kid is bonkers, what the fuck do you think you're going to do? Save the day?" He pointed at the big glass windows covered in masking tape and paper. "Look at all the windows. You think they're like that for some kind of new trend? No. It's because they're anticipating flying branches. Hail stones as big as your fucking head. So why don't you use yours?"
Emilio was right. Even though all the couples had chosen to brave the weather, hardly anything remained open after the storm that had been hitting for the past few days. It had been rough. There had been flooding. Stores and houses alike had been taping their windows and covering them in old magazines and newspapers to try and mitigate any damage in the off-chance that the glass was shattered. While today's weather had been less wild, the paper was still up to cover the view to the outside world. People had already gone through the "Panic buy" phase, so unless someone was out to see a movie or get some knick-knacks, it was unlikely the store would be packed and anyone would be too concerned about the less-than-aesthetic window decor being up an extra day.
Nonetheless, Gideon continued charging through the dark down the stairs. There wasn't much light, but it looked like some light of the moon may have bounced through the undercover parking area as the doors seemed to have a faint glow behind them that could be seen from afar. The escalators from the cinema level lead down to an atrium, however the skylight was made from milky glass to stop shoppers knowing exactly what time of the day it was. During the day, this helped keep the shoppers lost in a frenzy of deals and the cash registers ringing. At night, with no additional lighting except for the exit to the carpark, it appeared almost liminal.
Emilio, Gowan, and Elizabeth had caught up to Gideon who was still swatting Victor away like a fly as he tried to pry open the doors with his hands, after failing to activate the regular sensor that would open them.
"This is bullshit!" He spat at Victor, "You stabbed someone! Do you get that? You fucking put a knife in someone's gut and told us God told you to do it." He continued to shove him, "Do you understand how god damned insane that is? I won't be sat in this shithole getting told what to do by some lunatic kid!" He smashed the green button one would normally use to exit the shopping centre into carpark. The doors remained closed. He let out a frustrated noise and fumbled around the edge of the door until he was able to find the safety lever that allowed the doors to loosely glide along their tracks manually.
"Don't!" Victor exclaimed once more.
"Catch! Here are the spare keys to the car across the road. You know, just to be on the safe side once I get struck down by lightning for walking outside," Gideon sarcastically remarked as he threw his keys at Elizabeth.
She flinched in just the right way that the keys jangled on her chest and dropped to the ground. As she scrambled to pick them up, Gideon had already opened the door. The keys felt jagged and cold in her hands, but at least she felt something. Everyone squinted, barely able to see him as their eyes still adjusted to the darkness.
He walked out into the carpark before turning around. Facing the group with his hands triumphantly on his hips he announced "See, I'm fine! "
With almost divine timing, his skin began rising upwards. Charcoal flakes peeled from his body and floated in the air while the remnants of his corporeal form began to melt into a weighted slush on the ground. The noise he let out was not a scream, it was the sound of air being forced out of his lungs as they were ripped apart. In mere moments, the ordeal was over. Every cell in his body had been reclaimed by the black depths of the parking lot.
"I think the fuck not." Emilio yelled, as he dashed toward the door, closing it back up and flicking the manual latch to reinstate the locking mechanism, "Run!"
They all darted back through the first level and up the escalator stairs before slamming closed the cinema doors behind them.
For the first time, there was a shake to Emilio's voice. "Is everyone else safe?"
Gowan, Victor, and Elizabeth all identified themselves in the dark.
"What... Was that?" Elizabeth asked, trying her hardest not to simply freeze again.
"Whatever it is, it's outside for now." Gowan squeezed Elizabeth's shoulder to try and comfort her.
Victor scanned the door to ensure that the cinema doors were properly closed. "I told you. We need to stay in here." He was much more certain they believed him now.