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coat sleeve, I sniffed and sighed, wondering
if she had used the car yet.
    Without warning, the
sky rained her tears down on me. I now had a choice between getting
soaked to the skin and possibly contracting pneumonia, or taking
shelter in the abandoned building. Sighing again, I entered the
grimy front doors, which swung open a little too easily, I thought.
Shouldn’t they have been stuck shut with dirt or something? The
lack of a lock and the ease with which I had gained access to the
building put me somewhat on edge.
    The dust inside
immediately invaded my nostrils and I sneezed. Sniffing, I turned
to gaze out at the rain; it didn’t show any sign of stopping soon.
I really didn’t want to be stuck inside an old, musty building all night. I decided to wait it out for
no more than ten minutes, and then just risk getting ill if the rain had not stopped.
    Turning my back to the
entrance, I examined the interior. The reception desk stood empty,
which depressed me even more for some reason. Behind me, the doors
blew shut, the grime coating effectively shutting out what little
light there had been. I had always been nervous of the dark, and
the darkness in this place awakened my paranoia and made me feel as
if I should run without looking back.
    I contemplated going in
search of the child I had seen from outside. I was in even less of
a mood to stand around doing nothing than I was to go exploring.
Especially not on the dirty grey carpet, worn almost to the cement.
My feet felt filthy just standing on it, even with shoes on. I
would go mad if I stood still; I was sure of it. Despite what
Claire had done to me, I felt guilty about my murderous
reaction.
    I wiped away the dirt
on the doors with the sleeve of my coat, allowing a small amount of
light inside. With one last look outside to make sure that the rain
hadn’t stopped yet, I fumbled for my cigarette lighter in my coat
pocket and, finding it, flicked it on. I made my way towards the
staircase to the left of the reception desk, trying to ignore my
menacing shadow. The lift doors to the right of the reception desk
stood open, displaying the dark interior of the lift, but I wasn’t
prepared to risk getting stuck in an old lift where nobody would
ever find me – not with skin on my bones, at any rate. Besides, it
probably didn’t work anymore. I thought of Claire’s
soon-to-be-swollen stomach and started up the dark staircase.
    I was irrationally
convinced that the rain would hide any furtive movements behind me,
and turned back to hold my light out behind me… just in case. The
shadows were somewhat deeper in the narrow stairwell, and I jumped
as I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. My back against
the wall, I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I realised I had been
scared by my own shadow.
    Taking a deep breath, I
said a silent prayer of thanks to nobody in particular that there
were no cobwebs blocking my path. I hated spiders. Claire had
always laughed at me for that, since she thought it was a
ridiculous fear for a man. I cringed at the memories. Although the
stairs were cement, I imagined I heard them creaking under my
weight. Something rumbled, seemingly from within the building, and
I climbed faster, not enjoying the growing sense of creepiness that
rapidly threatened to snap my sanity.
    Reaching the third
floor, I stepped into a narrow passageway with doors on either
side. Although gloomy, some light filtered into the passage from
the open doorways. At the other end, the lift doors stood open. The rumbling I’d heard… I blinked again. Was that possible?
The lift had been in the foyer downstairs, so how could it possibly
be up here, too, unless someone had used it during my walk
upstairs? A chill crept through me and I decided I didn’t want to
find that child, nor did I want to stay dry. I half ran, half
stumbled back down the stairs.
    As I fled, I had a
terrifyingly clear vision of a hand reaching towards the back of my
neck and I thought Claire