Chapter 19: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
From the corner of her eye, Lisa sees E’lisa coming from
around her back and she wants to scream to her to run away as fast as she can,
but E’lisa lifts the rock she is holding, high up over her head and smashes it
down onto the woman's head.
The woman turns slightly towards E’lisa and then laughs a
frenzied laugh.
She lunges for E’lisa, who jumps out of the way just as the woman grabs for her. Growling deep in her throat, the woman plunges down into the hole and into the fire.
Lisa looks down at the horrific sight as if mesmerized,
while E’lisa helps a hysterical Adèle out of the hole in the ground.
With Adèle safely out of the hole, E’lisa hugs Lisa tightly,
“Come Mom, let's get out of here. It is over.”
Lisa sighs with relief as she holds E’lisa close to her,
unable to drag her eyes away from the fire and the now blackened shape of the
woman.
Stumbling back through the forest, with their only light the
moonlight, they could still hear the woman's laughter bouncing off the
surrounding trees.
The return journey is quicker, but it is as if the
continuing laughter is following them. They walk faster and faster, more
light-footed.
Nobody says a word.
*
Andrew, a stockbroker from New York, stumbles out of the
taxi while he considers pleased that the social gathering, he had attended was
a great commemoration for his deserved promotion.
He walks into the lobby for his apartment block and greeting
the security guard, a bit too loudly, he walks towards the lift.
He slants his body precariously against the wall as he waits
for the lift. When it arrives, announced by the soft ‘Bing’, he walks through
the doors as they slide open. In the lift, he leans against the back of the
railing, looking up at the numbers as they light up one at a time, going up.
The lift makes a slight jerking movement and Andrew loses his balance for a
moment. From both sides of his peripheral vision he sees a shadow reflecting
off the mirror into the other mirror. He looks towards the mirror, with a faint
frown between his eyes.
In the mirror there is a woman. Her dark hair is hanging
over her naked breasts, a loincloth wrapped around her lower body. She is
grinning at him cruelly.
For a moment he considers amused that he must have had more
to drink than what he thought he had. The reflection of this strange woman
moves towards him from out of the mirror. One moment she is only a creepy
reflection in a mirror and then the next she is standing in front of him,
living flesh.
He reaches towards her and touches her. She feels solid.
“How is this possible?” He voices his thoughts loudly. His reactions are
unhurried; this is after all just a drunken delusion.
He wonders if he is recalling a fantasy, he might have had
at one time or another involving him and a jungle woman, because she does look
vaguely familiar. He starts to smile slowly.
Then the woman opens her mouth. He hears, first from a
distance, but then closer and louder a scream so wicked, the sound makes his
blood curdle in his veins. The woman stares at him and in her eyes, he sees
death. He sees his own death. He sees her purpose.
*
Charlie, an accountant from Sydney, arrives home from work
and his children come rushing to the door to meet him.
The smell of delicious fragrances from his wife's
mouth-watering cooking greets him from the kitchen. With a child hanging from
each arm, he dangles them after him towards the kitchen.
His wife smiles at him when he walks through the door and
into the kitchen. They greet each other, while his wife tells the children to
set the table. They sit down to dinner and as every night, they say grace and
then they start to eat with everyone getting a turn on discussing their day.
Charlie's wife sits at the end of the long table, with her
back towards the window. As he looks up at her, he notices a reflection in the
window. The window that turns into a mirror once the lights are on and the sky
has turned black outside.
His wife is busy talking, but he does not listen. He is
mesmerized by the reflection behind her. His wife is concentrating on cutting
his son’s meat into tiny bite-size strips while she talks, not looking up at
him.
At first, he thinks the reflection is something outside.
Perhaps a white paper bag scooped up by the wind and is now travelling to new
and different locations, but it is not. In the mirror-like window he can see
the reflection moving towards him and he can also see the rest of his house,
his furniture behind this figure. He sees that the reflection is that of a
woman who looks like she had escaped from the deepest, darkest corners of
Africa.
He opens his mouth to say something, recalling the email he
deleted today, but this reflection opens her mouth at the same time. It looks
like a big, gaping black hole.
Then he feels it. A sudden panicked feeling and a tingle in
his pinkie travels up his arm and into his armpit in a split of a second. His
eyes are fixed on the reflection and he sees her swallow him. Her mouth folds
over his head and fear boils his blood, as the last thing he sees is the malice
in her eyes.
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