Catacomb Tales
Page 5
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The Elevator.
My head thumped an agonising pain, like someone was beating out rhythm on a kettledrum inside my head. My eyes felt tired as if I hadn’t slept for a decade; they stung like they had just received an acid bath. Why I felt this way I do not know; my only real memory was leaving the office at seven this night and walking down the street towards my home. But now I’m here, in this strange building with two elevators before me. I reasoned with myself to simply turn and go home, but each time I turned round there were the elevators. Nothing else existed for me at this time, no sound, no smell, only two elevators with their doors closed.
“You need to choose,” a voice sounded from behind me.
I swung round to see an elderly gentleman stood there.
“Pardon?” I asked.
“One or the other, it doesn’t really matter as long as you press the call button,” he answered in an aged tone.
His voice seemed to suit him well. He sounded his age, which I’d have guessed at seventy judging by his wispy whitened hair and deep-set wrinkles. He was portly in stature standing just short of my own height.
“Where are we?” I inquired and reached out to steady myself from falling.
“Steady there fella, I know it can be disorientating, but it should pass in a few moments. But you do need to call the elevator,” he said as he gripped my arm.
I was surprised at the strength in his old hand; he gripped like an iron vice, holding me up just with his one hand.
“Press the call button,” he said more forcibly.
“What…why?”
“Time grows short; you need to step into the elevator. Press the call button.”
The old man manoeuvred my arm towards the call buttons. “Press it!” he demanded.
“Let him go,” a feminine voice interrupted.
Instantly the old man removed his hand, and I slumped against the wall between the elevators. I felt like I was dying, my whole body ached; all I wanted to do was close my eyes and sleep. The old guy backed away a few steps and in his place stepped a woman. A woman dressed in a floral dress that gave her a homely appearance. She was as old as the man, but her eyes seemed to glow with youthfulness.
“It’s alright, everything will be fine. But he is right, you do need to take an elevator,” she advised me in a comforting tone.
“I…I can’t, I’m too tired. What…what is happening…to…me?”
“Time is running out, he must choose now!” demanded the old man.
“The choice is his, choose or not, we cannot interfere,” replied the woman.
Their voices were faint as if there were far away, but in reality they were no more than a few feet away. I thought maybe I was losing my hearing, and my sight was beginning to fail as they became blurred to me.
“This night demands he is mine!” the old man stated with firmness.
“This may be your night, but he has the right to choose. You cannot sway his decision, nor can I,” countered the woman.
“What night?” I mumbled.
“The time is near,” he remarked.
My strength was returning, hearing and sight too. For some reason I now felt fine. I stood up straight, again feeling my old self. “I asked a question,” I said.
“Yes, yes you did,” answered the woman.
“He is my soul to take!” snapped the old man.
“Soul!” I said.
“He is not. He has not made the choice,” stated the woman without so much as raising her voice.
For the first time I noticed the large white-faced circular clock above the elevators, the time showed two minutes to midnight.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
What happened next made me think I was going completely insane, both the man and the woman’s bodily forms began to shimmer, they became fluid for a few moments. I staggered backwards when they both solidified. The man wasn’t a man; he was some deformed beast with mottled red skin. Gone was his wrinkles and white hair, now replaced by leathery skin and hairless head that several stubby horns protruded from. I looked at the woman; her floral dress had been replaced by a pure white gown that looked like it was made of dense cloud. Her homely features had gone and had been replaced by a serene youthful complexion. But the shock came when two large feathered wings expanded outward to her sides. The clock sounded out midnight.
“The time is here Beelzebub,” said the angel.
The elevators doors swished open; one was consumed in fire, the other in light. The beast stepped into the flaming elevator. “Next time he will make the choice, Gabriel,” he stated as the elevator doors closed. The angel move towards the other elevator, the light nearly engulfing her fully, as they became one.
“Wait, what is going on?” I asked.
Although I could only just distinguish her from the light, she said, “This night, this Halloween, you did not make the choice between dark and light and in doing so you have chosen life.”
“What?”
“You have to choose your own path between light and dark, even we do not know which elevator goes up and which goes down until they open. You have a life to live, go live it well,” said the angel as the elevator doors closed.
“Clear!” announced a new voice.
I felt a shock shudder through my body, a high-pitched whine turned to a steady rhythm and my surrounding changed.
“He’s back…now let’s see if we can remove this bullet,” said the surgeon.