The cab was stuffy and hot. Not the kind of hot you could enjoy in the sun but instead the kind that made the sweat trickle down your back. The small particles of water dripping down Joshua were unmistakable sweat. Whether it was because of the temperature of the cab or his predicament he didn’t know. How had he, the nerd of his small high school, ended up in a cab heading for the largest party he had ever been to. Which wasn’t saying much as the last party he went to was his S1 school dance. However, minutes after entering the cab he knew that the last place he wanted to be was precisely where he was. 

Five minutes later and the cab was pulling up to an old rundown building. Once out the smell hit him like a car ramming him. The overly sweetened alcohol smell seemed to leave a sticky trail after it. No one was outside, but through the looming door he could hear booming music and it was obvious that the party had been out but retreated in when the sky painted itself in black. The smell and litter lingered on outside, like an oil stain. A tipsy girl stumbled out onto the pavement and walked straight into him. She looked up and smiled apologetically, before rather drunkenly crossing the road. 

The door was intimidating and overly heavy for the timid, narrow frame that was holding it in place. He dropped his gaze and walked in staring at the stone floor. There were tables dotted around the densely packed dance floor. A long bar emerged out of the black. 

He had three options: One. Go join in the dancing. Joshua had two left feet. No, dancing was out. Two, go join in conversation. He found talking to people awkward unless he knew them well. He tended to accidentally offend people without knowing it. No, talking was out. Three, go buy a drink. That seemed like the safest option. Despite that, by the time he had made it across the floor to the bar he had re-evaluated his decision and decided all three options were awful. The bar man in front of him was seven feet tall, with facial hair like a dragon, a lazy eye that consistently hung to the left and a large frown on his face like he had already been pissed off four times and you didn’t want to make it a fifth. 

Joshua mumbled something about having a beer. He reached into his jacket pocket and found no wallet. He had picked it up, he remembered checking before the taxi pulled up. He also remembered that girl and the way she had apparently absently fallen into him.

In minutes he was on the pavement. He could see her at the other end of the long street walking slowly. He ran after her and had almost reached her before she turned and saw him. Immediately all signs of drunkenness vanished. She ran down the street before turning left down a small alleyway. They rounded another corner coming out on to a big grassy park where she picked up her pace and headed for the woods on the opposite side. Joshua spontanlesly bolted after her not knowing where he was heading. 

The trees were pushed together as though they were cars piling out of London city centre during rush hour. They blocked out all the noise. He came to a stop. This silence was cold, lifeless, dead. He felt like he’d just walked through a wall of ice. He was the only living thing in this forest. 

Joshua kicked himself. He had an overactive imagination and was being stupid. He shouldn’t have chased this girl and now he wanted to go home. As he was about to retrace his steps he heard a blood curdling scream. He had read about blood curdling screams and to be honest never really understood them but now they made perfect sense. The scream not only curdled his blood but scraped his bones. Part of his mind was telling him to run, the more curious and bigger part turned him 180° round. His eyes fell on the girl that had only recently stolen his wallet. More precisely his eyes fell on the girl’s hands. They were soaked in deep red blood, it ran down her fingers, sliding over her nails and dripping onto her black shoes. Leaving crimson stains…

As his eyes moved up to see her face, he realized that he hadn’t ever really noticed her at all. When chasing her he had been too focused on his wallet to actually look who he was chasing. She was unnoticeable to the point of being invisible. This was probably exactly how she wanted it. Now his brain was being forced to consider who this girl was. The dark black hair that fell over her olive skinned shoulders was straight as a ruler. The thickness of the hair meant that it could cover her face as well as leaving plenty to fall down her back. 

Running down the right side of her face was a burn. It was as though someone had held up a lighter to the side of her face and watched as the skin turned red, getting brighter then coiling away from the flame, in a desperate attempt to escape. An open erasable tearing wound. It ran from her eyebrow down her eyelid and finished just above the lip. 

She walked off into the forest before turning around and looking intently at him. She wanted him to follow. 

He could smell it before he saw it. The stench of decay made him gag. The smell seemed to sting his eyes, throttle his breath, ring in his ears and threaten to reincarnate him with his recently eaten dinner. It invaded his senses, an army leaving no place untouched. However this was nothing compared to what he felt when he saw it. It may have been a she a few hours earlier but now it was it. Lifeless, pale, white as a sheet. The brown hair though still brown was colourless. The nails had dirt, hair and blood buried deep under them. Nike leggings and a tight blue top over the torso, so thin it seemed to be on the same level as the ground. You could already see the bone. The vivid blue eyes were open, staring intently at Joshua. Joshua could not bring himself to close them. 

Joshua vomited. He looked up, made his decision and took a step towards her. 

 

By CATRIONA SMALL