The Building

*** Note: This is the first thing I wrote for WDC. ***



The Building
Word Count: 1328
Featured in "Drama Newsletter (March 30, 2011)" 

Journeying through the heart of Seattle is always an endeavor. The streets with were littered with cars and there was almost always someone honking at a carefree pedestrian ignoring the crosswalks. Not to mention the daunting buildings rising from the ground and disappearing endlessly into the sky. Most people take for granted their surroundings in this city and I don’t blame them. It can be too much to take in at times, especially if you get lost in the ambiance and lose the rhythm of the street.

So when I finally stopped in the center of a sidewalk and tilted my head up at the colossal building before me, I wasn’t surprised when somebody bumped into my shoulder and continued walking without even apologizing. It snapped me out of my brief trance. See, in all the years I have lived in this city, I had never noticed the stone statues that perched high on one of the buildings ledges; maybe it was because they were gray and infused with the building so seamlessly. Even still, the harder I thought about it the more suspicious I got. I couldn’t recall the building at all.

I pushed myself past the center of sidewalk, mindfully dodging the stream of people going the opposite direction. As I made my way closer, every once in awhile scanning the statues as I could, I discovered nobody was moving in or out of the building. I couldn't even find a sign to give me some clue as to what the building was for.

I stumbled over a homeless man who had been sitting with his legs out, his back against the building.

“Sorry,” I muttered, enthralled still at the strange building before me. Tugging on the handle of the door, my arm jerked and stayed secured in place. It was locked. Behind me, the homeless man had stood up and tapped my shoulder, “Excuse me miss, are you lookin’ for somethin’?”

I twirled around and glowered at the homeless man before me, my eyes accusing him, as if he were responsible for this odd mystery.

“Actually, yes. Could you tell me if this building is condemned, or what? I mean, what is it exactly? There are no signs and I can’t see anyone inside.” The urgency of my words caught me off guard. Normally I minded my own business and I was easy going by nature. What had compelled me to be so interested in this particular building all a sudden?

The homeless man held out his grubby hand at me and slurred, “I may be willlin’ to talk if my belly had some food in it. How about a few bucks?”

Reaching into my purse, I snatched out a few loose dollar bills and handed them to the man. I anxiously waited as he rubbed his chin under his white beard. “Well all’s I know is everyone who be lookin’ in there have never be seen again,” he stated with a lilt in his voice, probably trying to scare me.

What a waste of a few bucks, I thought. I started down the alley that would likely lead me to the back.

He raised his hand at me. “Oh miss, please don’t do that...”

But I was already gone. I was going to conquer this mystery.

As I went further down the alley everything got much darker. It was not especially late but the sky was overcast with dark clouds which were half-covered and out of site. I felt like I should have been to the back by now, but the alley continued still. Finally, I came across a side door and tried its handle. It was unlocked.

I helped myself a little too eagerly in, because it was only after the door clanked shut behind me that I realized it was pitch black. The blind courage I had a moment ago seemed to wither away from me as my body tensed in fear. When I heard something scuttle along the ground I didn’t hesitate to turn around and flee.

Whatever was in the room with me laughed with a menacing voice as the handle locked in place. I was trapped. Running my hands quickly along the same wall as the door, my fingertips pressed against a somewhat slippery stone. I shuddered at the slimy feel it left on my fingertips. Then my attention quickly snapped back at my predicament. What was sharing this space with me?

“Is somebody there?”

I shivered. Had the temperature dropped?

“Yes.”

My head jerked to the left, where the sound had come from. The voice was deep and echoed past me. Then a scraping sound shuffled along the cement floor, trudging toward me. I wanted to inch away, but I could not see anything. My legs were paralyzed, numb with an unseen fear.

“You really should not have come in here.” The calm reassurance of the voice was overridden by the fact that it was closer now than before, closer still. “Now you will have to become one of us.”

I gulped so loud I was sure it would have echoed off the walls too. “One of you?” I asked, my soft voice vanishing into the darkness. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Black and white pictures flooded my head, replicating old films I had seen in the past. Movies of vampires instantly came to my mind, but I pushed them away because they were absurd. Vampires don't exist, I tried to convince myself.

The scraping sound continued, shrilling against the ground like nails on a chalk board. “Oh yes, one of us. We do not take strangers coming to our home lightly,” the voice stated again, almost delighted.

Then I saw it. Two beaded red lights in the darkness, what I imagined were eyes. They weren’t bright enough to illuminate anything. My heart thudded in my chest so hard I was sure it was about to pop out of my chest and take shelter where I could not. I silently convinced myself through a barrage of Hail Mary’s, that vampires did exist and that I was facing one now.

Steadily, still, it moved. Only now, my impending captor had eyes. Glowing, red eyes. When it gained another couple of steps toward me I screamed. I don’t remember blacking out. I must’ve fainted. Maybe I don’t remember because it had already been so dark.

I came to that same night, only much later. The dark clouds had cleared and a pitch black starless sky was trying to engulf the city. I felt the wind rush past my face as I took on the city in its full glory; the lights, the ant-like people walking along the sidewalks, the occasional sirens echoing down the streets. I felt like I was on top of the world.

The incident in the locked room came back to me and I tried to turn my head, looking for my attacker. My head didn't respond, nor could I lift my arms. My eyes danced around the edge of the roof-top where I was, but no one was in sight. The only thing I could make out were stone shadowy figures in my peripheral vision. As I tried to speak, my words got lost somewhere in my throat. I peered down, straining as hard as I could. There was a large stone torso beneath me with huge gray claws. Panic washed over me. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. As I took in exactly all that happened, my eyes, the only thing able to move grew wide with impending doom. My unseen captor only laughed loudly.

Inside my head I laughed cynically, wishing my face could express the insanity that was unleashing in my mind. As I began to lose myself in what I was, a fleeting thought slapped my dignity. I wasn’t a vampire, I was something much worse, something forever frozen in time.

“I told you little Miss, you shouldn't have come here...”