She jerked awake to a sudden snap. Rapidly breathes and the brisk fall air surrounded her frail and torn figure. Getting up to observe her unknown surroundings, she couldn't parse together the last few hours. She recalled sitting in her dining room eating a prepackaged dinner tray watching reruns of Hawaii Five-Oh. Mary seemed unable to remember how or why she was in the middle of a seemingly derelict structure.
Getting off the cold concrete floor, the woman noticed her top was torn exposing blood and tears through a crack in the roof; noticing the deep crimson moonlight and the deafening silence. No pain nor any other indicators would suggest this may not be her blood. In her dazed and confused state, Mary was unable to process her speech and proceeded to yell incoherent babble. After running her mouth dry and a small onset headache, she looks around to find a rusted and vine covered steel door.
She pushed at the door, sliding it open with incredible ease. The next room was partially caved in as the moonlight flooded through the now broken roof near twenty feet above. The woman proceeded to enter the room, eyeing a rusted ladder nearing the end of a sketchy looking catwalk. Below her an infinite void of darkness awaits her if she fails to secure her exit. She sighed loudly and carefully navigated the treacherous obstacle.
She refrained from looking down into the abyss as she had her focus on getting to the ladder. At around halfway to her goal, the catwalk made a loud creaking noise and shifted. The woman lost balance, falling into the void, until her quick actions allowed her to grab onto the rusted railing of the catwalk. She pulled herself upwards only to see a seemingly large figure staring at her from the collapsed roof above. The figure sat squatted on the perch, seemingly mocking her with the rapid tilt of its head.
As the woman had pulled herself to the safety, she looked back up to notice the figure was no longer present. She continued forth to the ladder with no incident and proceeded to climb. She arrived at a wheel winded bulkhead and mustered her remaining strength to open the hatch. She saw the crimson moonlight pierce the veil of her entrapment. As she attempted to climb further, she had noticed the figure immediately above her.
She could see a small glint of the figure's face and recognized the man. She could barely muster a word before she felt the hard rubber of a boot slam into her head. She fell for what seemed like an eternity before slamming through the catwalk and grabbing what remaining portion of the floor. Grasping the floor for dear life, she looked back up the ladder noticing the figure was still present. She had noticed the man waving at her before the hatch suddenly closed.
She tried to pull herself up in near darkness, however her grip was too weak as she fell into the abyss. She hit the hard surface at the bottom hearing the sounds of bone and cartilage breaking and snapping before everything went black.
The woman suddenly jerked awake in her bed. She felt herself to ensure herself she had been dreaming. Upon finding no injuries or anything out of the ordinary, she relaxed her breathing and proceeded to get up and went to take a hot shower. After the shower she proceeded to get dressed. She suddenly remembered that she wasn't scheduled to work that day.
She went out to the park near the city hall to meet up with her childhood friend. "Adrian! It's been too long!" She squealed. "You too Maria" Adrian smiled softly. "You haven't changed a bit! How long has it been? Ten, fifteen years?" Maria chuckled. "Too long... So how about we grab some coffee? I know Bakers is still open."
The two had gone to the local bakery a few blocks down the road and sat down. Adrian ordered a black coffee while Maria sat there in anticipation. "Nothing Mari?" Adrian inquired. "No, we have so much to catch up on!" Maria's childish nature brought a playful smile to Adrian's otherwise stoic demeanor. They spent the next two hours catching up on time lost, wherein Maria had taken up most of it.
Adrian payed for his coffee, hugging Maria before leaving again. Maria tried to stop her friend from leaving, however was unsuccessful. She returned home in disappointment. She was unlocking her apartment door as she heard a sound outside in the alley. She paused briefly before going to investigate the disturbance.
Maria stepped outside and walked down the alley. She covered her mouth gagging as she saw the partially deflated and mutilated corpse of her landlord lying on top of the dumpster. She reached into her pocket and dialed the local police crying.
After their arrival and crime scene lockout, Maria was questioned by an aged female detective. "Ms. Kindle, i'm detective Michelle Ramirez. Could you tell me what happened?" Ramirez looked worn and overworked. Maria answered everything the detective asked and was released back to her own devices. Maria noticed the detective speaking to someone outside of her view.
The two departed and she got a second glance before the man had entirely disappeared. She thought she saw Adrian, but he was supposed to be out of town by then. Maria went back to the Detective and asked about the man she spoke to. Ramirez looked tired and slightly annoyed. "An old coworker. We call him Maxis, but god knows who the hell he is." Ramirez spat.
Maria looked confused. She must've missed her friend alot, but to confuse the two? Maria shook the notion and went back inside. She entered her apartment and popped open a frozen dinner, heating it up and flipping over to CBS to watch some more Hawaii Five-Oh reruns.
Maria suddenly awoke and looked around. She noticed the twilight brushing through her curtains. She was annoyed to see the power went off and went over to flip the breaker. She paused and looked outside to get a gauge of the time. She noticed something peculiar as there was no traffic out. The twilight made her perception of time unusable.
She stepped outside of her apartment and knocked on her neighbor Tom's door. After sometime of no answer she banged the door and yelled "Tom you lazy shit I know you're home!" The silence was deafening as she tried the door knob. She opened the door with surprise and cautiously entered the apartment. She noticed it empty and walked outside to notice the disturbing lack of anyone else.
She walked to the back alley and saw that the police tape was up, yet no evidence of the incident was present. She walked to the hospital she worked at, noting the lack of people along the way. Arriving at the hospital, Maria is baffled to see the derelict state the hospital was in. She walked into the radiology department and noticed that the CT scan alert light was on. She opened the door against her better judgement to her horror.
She noticed a woman lying there without attendance. She slowly approached as the room lights kicked on to reveal the late woman's corpse bubbled and collapse from the chest cavity. Maria remembered the the CT dye, possible radiological effects from long term exposure, and gray's needed to cause such an effect from her training. She observed the corpse noting it had to have been there for weeks.
Maria head the door in the imaging room open and hid behind the wall. She peeked over to notice the familiar figure from her first night terror standing with a feminine figure of the same complexion speaking to each other. She hid back when the man looked towards her direction. Suddenly there was a high pitched whirring coming from the CT scanner as it booted up. The noise kept getting louder as the machine began vibrating violently.
Maria threw herself down to the ground as the machine began tearing itself apart, getting caught by a large piece of magnetic shrapnel in her chest. She began wheezing, clutching the large piece as her vision began to slowly fade. The two figures came into the room and glared at her. Her vision faded to near black when she recognized both of the figures standing before her. Before she could utter a word her vision faded entirely.
Maria awoke in her bed, grabbing her chest, noticing the absence of the foreign object embedded. She had woken two hours before her shift calling off for illness. Later that evening she had gotten a call from one of her colleagues informing her of the replacement radiologist who was killed by faulty software in the CT scanner. Maria was shaken at the idea her dream had been a premonition. Maria had to think some things over.
Maria had sat down at her office desk in her apartment and began logging her dreams. She hoped that maybe this was all a coincidence. Maria picked up a glass of George Dickel No1 whiskey and began sipping away shakily. She wanted to forget wanting her old life back. Little did she know she should be careful what she wished for.
