Danger Kid

Chapter 14

Larry stared apprehensively down the hallway. It wasn't lit, the lights were motion detecting. The hallway was long, stretching so far that he couldn't see the end. Its sterile whiteness was hidden by the darkness, and while unlit, it had the feel of a long throat that wanted to swallow him. Larry had never been scared of the dark, but something about this building, this tunnel, gave him shivers. The shivers were not necessarily fortuitous and definitely not only figurative shivers used solely to describe his mood. Rather, they were a genuine sensation. Every time he entered this building, he would feel a crawling dread climb his spine, taking its time to creep, spending time with each nerve, so as to inspire as much alarm as possible. Often he'd scratch at his back, convinced the sensation was an insect.

He laughed at himself, a little. He'd been janitor in probably hundreds of buildings, many less clean and less professional and more deservedly inciting fear than this one. But despite the generous wages from Mr. Tag, this building had "bad vibes." Words used by Larry's grandmother.

As he had to every night, Larry began to psych himself into the job. It would only take him six hours, if he did it quickly. Within a few months, thanks to Mr. Tag's unreasonably high pay, he could move away, get a new apartment, and maybe repair his car. Maybe he'd even have enough money to go to a bar and meet a woman. After a few moments, his fear died down, and he was ready.

But just as he had fought his fear down to the deepest pits of his imagination, it happened, something that never had happened before. The building, which he thought was abandoned, echoed with a scream. A low moaning howl ricocheted down the hall at him. It seemed to represent misery and despair at their purest forms. Maybe it was how the howl wavered as if uttered among gasps that gave it this feel.

To make it worse, it didn't fall into the area of "inhuman" or "animal like" screams, as Larry had so often heard screams described when the narrator wanted dramatic effect. Rather, it was very human, too human. The fact that it was human was what made it terrifying.

No, surely he was imaging it. Larry ran forward into the hallway, desperately waving his hands. He crossed the border, which was quite distinct, between darkness and shadow.

The lights didn't turn on.

Larry was in the darkness now, engulfed by its gentle, horrifying embrace. He suddenly began to feel panic, as his mouth turned sticky and he started to quiver. He had to get back into the light. Get out of this building. Never come back to this horrid building.

But then, in delayed response to his motion, the lights flickered on, then out, and then stayed on. Larry laughed. Well, at first his laugh sounded more like a choking sob. It was a laugh partially out of shame, but mostly out of relief, and slightly as a tactic to regain his sanity. After standing and chuckling for a few moments, Larry convinced himself that it had all been in his imagination, the moaning scream. Back tracking, he grabbed his janitorial cart, and moved forward.

But in that same deep dark pit in which hid his fear, Larry knew that the scream had happened. And to every bit of reason and understanding he could muster, he could only interpret the scream as that of someone experiencing torment short only of the aguish served by hell.

Slowly, he made his way to the different laboratories and rooms. He emptied trash, and swept up dust. Entering most of the doors with his master key, and a few with special keys, and even fewer with his key card and a pass code, the work moved along. However, it was hardly necessary. His job actually felt quite irrelevant. The rooms were already kept impeccably clean. When trained, he had been taught to stay far away from most of the lab equipment, large buzzing machines with glowing lights that hummed and vibrated through the night. He didn't even remove most of the garbage, also having been instructed not to ever touch any of the toxic waste receptacles. Oh well, he did what he was told. His biggest responsibility was the restrooms, and a few break rooms. But even those parts of the building were surprisingly well maintained.