The Mall by Grey S.L

Author:Grey, S.L. [Grey, S.L.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780857892713
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

chapter 17

RHODA

Oh fucking hell.

This was a really, really stupid idea.

I’m following Hobo Dreadlock Guy through some sort of stinking crawlspace and there’s not even enough headroom in here to stand upright. We’re forced to creep along on our hands and knees and the torch he’s using to light our way is doing bugger-all to penetrate the darkness. My back is slick with sweat and rivulets of perspiration are trickling down from my scalp and stinging my eyes. And Christ, the smell! The air in the narrow concrete space is thick with the stench of sweat, diesel oil and shit, and although I’m doing my best to breathe through my mouth, it still keeps making me gag. I’d have turned back ages ago if it wasn’t for the thought of that thing with the bulbous head waiting for me back in the cinema. I’m a hair’s breadth away from a full-on claustrophobic meltdown, and let’s face it, absolutely no one knows I’m down here. This guy could easily be some deranged rapist lunatic and it’s quite possible that I could disappear down here and no one would ever find out.

He stops suddenly and I almost bash into his back. He’s scrabbling at the wall in front of him, but I can’t see exactly what he’s doing.

‘Where are we?’ I ask again, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

He hasn’t spoken since we set off. He reverses a couple of paces and I have to scramble backwards to avoid getting a mouthful of boot. He’s removing a metal grate covering a square hole in front of him, and he stashes it to one side. Anaemic light floats towards me from the opening, and a phenomenally powerful stench hits me like a fist. Fuck me; it’s horrendous. It’s a mixture of shit, the ammonia reek of urine and something else: a feral animal smell that makes my stomach plummet.

Without looking back to see if I’m going to follow him, he pulls his body head-first through the opening, his feet finally disappearing into the space beyond.

I really, really don’t want to go down there.

But if he was going to attack me, he would have done so already, wouldn’t he? Fuck it. I’ve come this far, I may as well go the whole hog.

Doing my best to swallow the burning ball of bile in my throat, I twist my body around in the tight space. There’s no way I’m going head-first and risk adding a concussion to the list of how unbelievably fucked up my life is right now. Wriggling on my belly, I squeeze myself through feet first. There’s only a drop of one and a half metres or so, and when I land I have to blink several times for my eyes to adjust to the light. Bloody hell. The smell is now almost overpowering. I pull the edge of my T-shirt up over my mouth and nose, but it doesn’t really help. I’m in an area that looks to be ten metres square or so; it’s hard to tell exactly, as it’s strewn with junk.

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