Dangerous Games

Chapter 13 part 3

By the time the door opened on the second floor, I was leaning against the wall gasping for air.

"You back again?" Beale looked surprised to see me, although she must have known the rules to the game. The man she'd been trying to restrain was nowhere to be seen – back in his flat, presumably – but other people were starting to look out of their front doors.

"God, are you all right?" She must have caught sight of the state I was in, and moved forward to help me.

I still had enough gumption even in my increasingly befuddled state to hold out my hand to prevent her. "No, no you mustn't. Stay back! Nobody must enter the lift while I'm in it."

"You're going to be sick. You're green, for heaven's sake!"

"I'll be fine. Just don't come into the lift, and don't let anyone else in. Got it?" I waved my hand at her to keep her out, then fumbled for my piece of paper.

"Don't bother," she said. "It's the tenth floor next, then the fifth."

"Thanks," I mumbled, then reached up for the button for the tenth floor. My vision was starting to swim, and in my panic I lunged at the wrong button. Thank goodness the thick layers of black plastic tape were there. That was all that prevented me from travelling up to the eleventh or twelfth floor – and ruining everything, of course.

"Tenth floor. Tenth. That one there." She pointed as closely to the button as she could without actually crossing the threshold into the lift.

"Thanks" - again. This time my lunge was a little more guided and hit its mark. The doors closed. The lift started rising fast, causing me to feel heavier and heavier. My grip on the walls was so weak that I felt myself slipping down towards the floor. In my mind I could feel the temperature going up, as it had done in my dream, thought I must have been imagining it, to the extent where by the time I fell to my hands and knees I was convinced that my flesh would burn. The moment my hands touched the floor plate I jerked them away, but that simply caused my face to fall forward, forcing me to put my hands on the ground again. To my intense relief there was no burning flesh.

I must have looked a sight by the time the door opened on the tenth floor – on my hands and knees, panting heavily. I probably looked as if I were doing an impersonation of a dog or some farmyard animal.

"Tim! Are you all right?" Claire, as promised, had taken up her post on the tenth floor.

"Don't come in. Stay where you are!" My voice must have sounded thick and distorted, but the message had got home.

"I wasn't going to, but you're on your beam ends. Take a moment to recover. You're doing brilliantly so far and you're almost there."

"Where to now?" I could barely get the words out.

"The fifth floor. Then press the button for the first floor."

"Right."

"Rest a moment. You've gone farther than you managed last night."

At that moment the lift door started to close. They do that automatically if you don't select a floor to go to. Hurriedly, she called out. "Remember the demon woman. Don't look at her or talk..."

And then she was gone. I stayed on all fours for about a minute. My joints had started to ache for some reason, as though I'd suddenly developed chronic arthritis, and I realised that getting up would be very painful. This did turn out to be the case, as there was nothing I could hold onto to lever myself up. As it was I had to lean against the wall and clumsily work my way back to upright. Every muscle in my body opposed what I was doing. It was as if my own body were fighting against me, but eventually I was back upright. Through my blurry, swimming vision, I sought the button for floor five – and found it.