by David James
There was a loud crack as the broom handle finally gave up. But it had done its job. There was now a gap big enough for him to crawl through.
The next part he had to admit he had been looking forward to in a perverse way. The final obstacle was the glass window itself. As a child he had been through his vandal phase. He wasn't proud of it now, in fact it made him wince to think about it. But he did still love the sound of breaking glass. And here he was with a chance to relive his childhood, and there wouldn't be any consequences.
He reached down and picked up a piece of rock. He looked around him to check that no one was around, pulled his arm back and hurled the rock as hard as he could.
The glass buckled but didn't break. A small part of him was pleased; he could have another go. He drew his arm back and hurled the rock at the window. He managed to hit at precisely the same spot as before, and the glass, presumably already with a weak spot, gave way with a loud and pleasing shattering sound.
He looked around again. If there was anyone within a mile he felt they would have heard it. He used the remnants of the broom handle to run around the frame and remove any remaining glass shards and squeezed himself into the gap.
It was only just big enough for him to get through, at one point he was stuck halfway and had visions of being stuck there until Sarah had to rescue him. The potential shame gave him an extra burst of energy and he finally squeezed through and landed on a convenient desk, scattering the papers onto the floor.
He eased himself off the desk and stood up. The room was quite gloomy, the small windows weren't designed to let in much light. He ran his hand across the wall until he felt what he hoped would be a light switch. He paused for a second, preparing himself for what he might see.
He pressed it and the room was suddenly bathed in light.
He hadn’t known what to expect, but as the room lit up he was initially a little disappointed.
It had all the hallmarks of a typical office. There was computer equipment on each desk and a water cooler. He could see a small kitchen off to the side. But what wasn't entirely normal was the bank of television monitors on the walls. They virtually covered the entire surface and they were all entirely blank.
He wondered if the rest of the building was like this. Aware that he really shouldn't be leaving Sarah alone too long, he decided to have a quick scout around the building and then get back to her.
Walking across the floor he could see a doorway ahead. As he opened the door he realised that he was looking at the reception area with a chair nestled behind a larger desk. No company name he noted.
What looked more interesting to Ben was the board containing a list of what he assumed were departments in the building.
Human Resources
Logistics
I.T.
Labs
Experimental
Security
He noted the Security department; he thought it odd that a building of this size would have its own security.
He had no idea where to start, so he closed his eyes, ran his finger down the list and randomly stopped.
Human Resources it was then.
He walked up the short staircase and opened the door. The room contained the usual desks, computers and stacks of paper. He moved around the room from desk to desk, everything was pretty much what you would expect in a standard office.
On the wall was a large notice board. Pinned to it were what looked like random summaries of reports. They made little sense to him.
The documents were organised in lines moving from left to right. As he approached the board he could see that the documents were grouped by what they had called 'Cases'. Shrugging, he continued to walk around the desks looking for something that would give him a clue as to what was going on here.
He had never found Human Resources departments very interesting in the past, and this one was proving no different. As he stood here looking across the room, it looked eerily as if the occupants had all left for lunch. He wouldn't have been surprised if they had walked back into the room in a few minutes; discussing what they had done for lunch; what they had eaten; the traffic. All the normal things. There were cups of half drunk coffee on the desks, and even a half eaten sandwich. He hesitantly reached out to touch the nearest cup.
It was cold.
He had no idea what he would have done if the cup had been warm.
With a last look in Human Resources, he headed back out of the door.
The small landing helpfully contained directions to the other departments on the floor. Ben started heading towards Experimental.
He opened the door and immediately felt that he had entered an entirely different building.
Gone were the stark computer screens and standard office accoutrements. Instead they were replaced by what looked like the random pages from a home catalogue made real. There were areas of the floor with half complete kitchens; various sofas and tables and chairs.
As he walked across the room he realised that it was all beginning to feel strangely familiar. He sat down on the sofa and stared ahead at where the television should be. It dawned on him that it was a facsimile of Sarah and Ben's house. He looked across the room and could see his own bedroom and to the left of it, Sarah's bedroom. Not exactly the same, if anything their real rooms looked better; but close enough that there was no mistaking their similarity.
He sat there for a few moments trying to take it all in. As his eyes scanned the room again he saw Sarah's bedroom and he was reminded that he needed to get back. He stood up and was about to leave the room when he noticed there was a door with partially blacked out glass in it. It may as well have said 'DO NOT LOOK' to him; so he was left with only one course of action.
He walked across to the door, tried the handle and was disappointed that it wouldn't yield. He tried to stare through the darkened glass and could just about make out some shapes and the longer he looked the more distinct they became.
There was a central chair, which reminded Ben of a large dentists chair, and it was surrounded by complex looking electrical equipment. No matter how hard he tried to strain his eyes, he couldn't see enough to even guess what they were for. Maybe Sarah would have some idea.
He hurried back across the room and out of the door. He walked quickly down the stairs and back into the room he had broken into to get in. He was about to climb back out of the narrow opening in the window when he noticed that the power light on the front of a computer was glowing.
He pressed a key on the computer. To his amazement it started whirring and seconds later the screen came on and there was a message displayed on it.
Please enter your password Steven.
He wondered how long it had been since ‘Steven’ had last logged on.
He just had to guess the password now.
As he looked around the desk his journalistic instincts cut in. People were predictable creatures. They tried to pretend they weren't; but in his experience they were. They were also usually predictable when it came to creating passwords. Birthdays; pet's name; children’s names. That was as far as their imagination went, after all they had to actually be able to remember the password themselves.
He looked around the desk, there were pictures of a dog and a young child. He picked up both photos. He deduced that in the emotion stakes the child would take precedence over the dog; usually, but not always. He turned over the photo and there it was, the date of birth. 'Abigail at 0 years old – 12/05/2009.
He tried the first combination; no luck.
Never mind, the next combination should do it.
It didn't.
Had his instinct failed him? He felt a slight feeling of desperation as he tried his last combination. He was also aware he would likely be locked out if he got it wrong again.
His finger hovered over the key and slowly dropped onto it.
The screen changed and the screen began to fill up and displayed the message WELCOME STEVEN.
He was in and felt immed
iately like the imposter he was.
On the screen was a large icon. Its position on the screen suggested it was important to the user.
He clicked the icon. What was the worst that could happen?
Nothing happened.
He had a sense of both disappointment and relief. He had seen enough of the building already to sense that if he wasn't careful he might accidentally do something catastrophic.
He started to prepare to climb up and out of the window when the room was suddenly bathed in bright light.
Every dormant monitor screen on the wall suddenly lit up simultaneously.
He turned round to look and couldn't believe what he was seeing.
On the left screen he could see the still sleeping Sarah. And to the right was Ben's empty room in the house.
Chapter Fifty
Sarah was back in her father’s house. Her father smiled at her, holding out his hand he beckoned her towards him. She followed willingly, clutching his outstretched hand. A feeling of warmth and well being spread throughout her body. As they walked blissfully down the corridor towards the door, she resisted, but her father gripped her hand more tightly. Her eyes returned to his and she relaxed a little.
As he opened the door something flashed across Sarah's peripheral vision. She turned her head towards it, but all around her she could hear the sound of a gathering storm. The air around her seemed to swirl with shapes and movement, until she felt she could almost make out forms in the confusion. She was feeling frightened now. The warm feeling had gone. She looked towards her father, his kindly expression had been replaced by a concerned look. And his image was fading.
The shapes began to swirl around her head. She wanted to run, but her feet were rooted to the spot. The shapes were now swirling into and out of focus, each time it came into focus it seemed to be more distinct and frightening. And each time it was nearer to Sarah.
She threw her hands up to protect herself, the image became more distinct than ever now. It hurtled towards her at terrifying speed; she turned to look for her father but he was gone. She flung her hands around in terror, waving her arms around to protect herself from the gathering shape.
She woke up with a jolt. She was disorientated and had no idea where she was. She was surprised to find that she was already sat upright in bed. She felt a stinging sensation in her hands and as she looked down she saw that she had scrape marks on her hand.
Ben could hardly believe what he was looking at. He looked around the room and on each monitor was a different image. A different part of the village.
He could see the post office. Not just the post office that the 'public' might see, but behind in the store rooms as well and even into the various other rooms attached.
The restaurant was displayed in its full glory.
The pictures flicked over to periodically display different views of the village. Now he could see the front room of their house. Now the front of the post office.
The monitors continued to flicker and change their view every thirty seconds or so. There were views of the village that he hadn’t seen before. There was a view of a part of the woodland, he stared at the screen to see if he could make out anything in there, but the image was replaced by the restaurant again.
It was like trying to watch several movies at the same time. He would just get used to one and then another one would flick up. He sat down on the desk and decided to try and make sense of it.
Restaurant; post office; woodland; Sarah's room – still sleeping; post office again.
He turned round and located a chair and sat down, he felt like he would be here for a while.
Village green – hadn't seen that for a while; post office, again; Sarah's room – what was that?; restaurant; woodland.
'No, go back to Sarah's room,' he shouted to no one. The monitors continued their journey oblivious to his protestations.
Restaurant; post office; Ben's room.
They seemed to be taking even longer to change than before.
Then suddenly Sarah's room came into view again and his blood ran cold. She was no longer sleeping in bed; she was upright and her arms were thrashing around in front of her. The image disappeared. Post office; restaurant.
He stood up ready to rush back to her. But he stopped. Should he wait until the image reappeared again? He might see something that would let him help her or might be useful. He hesitated, waiting for the image to reappear. His mind was screaming for the image to reappear.
Village green; restaurant; woodland; Sarah's room.
He pressed his face as close to the monitor as he dare. He couldn't see anything in the room.
There was then a view of the hallway outside Sarah’s room; that was new.
Post office. Restaurant. The hallway.
He stared intently at the image of the hallway as he waited for Sarah’s room to reappear, it looked perfectly normal. Except; perhaps a shadow in the corner? He screwed his eyes up, but he couldn’t make it out.
'Damn!' he said shouting as the image was replaced again. His mind was made up, he needed to get back to Sarah. He scrambled out through the window with less care than he came in; he felt the sharpness in his side and looked down. He had caught himself on some glass and was bleeding. He would worry about that later; he threw himself out of the window, landing heavily on the ground, picked himself up and ran back to their house.
He half ran and half stumbled across the green; he looked almost drunk as he tried to run faster than his body was capable of. He reached the front door of the house and hesitated. He took a deep breath and pushed at the door slowly. It seemed to make an exaggerated noise as he pushed it, but the room looked as he had left it.
He walked slowly and carefully across the room and placed his foot on the first step of the stairs.
He paused; there was silence in the house. He started walking up the stairs, stopping every few steps to see if there was anything to hear. All was still and quiet.
Reaching the hallway he hesitated, remembering what he thought he might have seen on the monitor. He could see that Sarah's door was half open. He stopped walking and looked through the gap. He could see Sarah's legs and half of her torso. It was perfectly upright and perfectly still.
This didn't feel right; he tried to reconcile it with the thrashing body he had seen on the monitor. He was now more worried. She didn't appear to be moving.
He pushed slowly at the door, until it was fully open and he could see the figure of Sarah upright on the bed.
Ben waited for her to move. But she remained motionless.
Ben walked towards her, she still didn’t move. He reached out his hand and slowly and gently grasped her arm.
To Ben she looked as if she was in a trance. She still didn't move as he held her arm. He took the opportunity to look around the room quickly. There was nothing unusual to see. Relieved, he turned around to look at Sarah again.
Her face had turned and she was now looking directly at him. Her face inches from his.
Chapter Fifty One
Ben stood over Sarah. He had so much to tell her, but looking into her eyes he could see that she wasn't ready to hear him.
He stood there feeling uncomfortable wondering if he should just go back downstairs and wait until she felt more able to speak. But that may look like he was abandoning her. He was sure that was not what she wanted right now.
'Ben,' she eventually said. 'Did you have a good time?'
Her tone was bizarrely normal. Ben couldn't reconcile this with what he had seen on the monitor.
'Are you okay Sarah?'
'I'm fine Ben. Just a bit tired. I had such a good sleep.’
It hadn’t looked that way to Ben.
‘Shall we go downstairs,' she said slightly robotically.
'Yes, okay,' said Ben, 'I'll just let you get dressed then.'
He left the room completely confused. He had expected to have to burst in and rescue Sarah. But she didn't look as if she needed rescuing.
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br /> As he sat waiting for Sarah to come downstairs, he looked around the front room. He now suspected every lamp, every appliance contained a camera.
It made him feel very uncomfortable; his only relief was that he knew no one else was viewing it at the moment. Should he tell Sarah about the monitors?
He didn’t want to alarm her, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that if he told her what he had seen on the monitor, she may think he had been spying on her. Which, he supposed, in a bizarre way he had been. Maybe he would wait until tomorrow.
Upstairs Sarah was still sitting in the bed. In her hand she held the pill in front of her mouth.
But she hesitated.
Did she really need them whilst she was here? After all, no matter how terrifying the dream, she seemed to feel closer to her father now. The pills were to help her cope with the loss of her father. But now in a strange way she almost felt as if she had him back. Why would she want to block that out?
She dropped the pill back into the container and put it back in the drawer.
Eventually Sarah joined Ben downstairs. 'Did you have a good day Ben?' said Sarah.
Ben was surprised by the relaxed tone of Sarah’s voice. 'Interesting. I've seen a lot more of this place,' he replied. He was struggling to think of normal things to say at the moment.
At times like this Ben missed the television; it could fill the silence whilst he worked out what he would say to Sarah. The only screen he knew about was in the other building; and he knew what was on most of those channels; very soon it would be Ben and Sarah.
'I bet there are some games around here somewhere,' said Sarah as she proceeded to start opening various cupboards.
Ben joined her and they then proceeded to rummage through the various cupboards until Ben produced a pack of cards and held them aloft proudly.