Phobic pt 11

Nearly twenty minutes passed before they all regained a tenuous level of control, though a heavy suspicion and quiet still overlay the small group. The only noise for a little while was the sound of Annabelle’s loud, raspy breathing as she struggled to keep back her seemingly endless store of tears.1

It was eventually decided, with subdued agreement from all but Kade, who refused to speak, that they would go to open the next door. Despite the dire thoughts of all, whether spoken aloud or not, no one could think of another course of action besides continuing to sit there and gradually tear each other part.2

They formed a semi-line, semi-cluster, with Judson at its head, once more with a fatherly arm around the slightly calmer and more subdued Annabelle. Devon and Kalah were in its middle, for Devon had said with no shame that the was too cowardly to go either first or last. Kalah, though she had sneered at him, slipped surreptiously into the middle as well. Shana brought up the rear with Kade, keeping a slightly nervous eye on him. 3

Ever since Kade’s explosion and near assault on Annabelle, the others had been wary of him, hardly looking at him. They kept a slight distance physically, very careful not to get too close, and definitely not to touch him. For his part, Kade had sank back into his former silence, but his expression this time was nowhere near as flat and dead as it had been before. Now his features were tight with hostility, his eyes narrowed in such anger that it approached hate. Devon kept glancing at him nervously, as if he couldn’t quite help himself; Shana knew how he felt. Kade’s outburst had shocked her, but she was even more concerned now that it was over than she’d been immediately during it. He was quiet now, true, but his shoulders were rigid, his expression far from calm.4

What was he thinking- why had he erupted so suddenly, so violently, and then withdrew back into himself just as abruptly? Shana didn’t want to be, but she couldn’t help but be a little intimidated, even afraid of the young man just behind her. The truth was that she didn’t know Kade Eamon- she didn’t’ know any of these people.5

Nearly all of the twenty previous minutes had been spent trying to calm Annabelle down enough to stop crying, to allow someone to get near her, to touch her. Now once more she clutched at Judson with near frantic fingers, keeping her lanky body tight against his side.6

Shana was almost holding her breath as Judson opened the door to the next room… but as the others gave out sighs approximating relief, she felt her heart leap into her throat, and she was suddenly unable to move.7

The room was empty, just a long, narrow space that was more a tunnel or closet than anything else, with a small doorway at its end. What was strange was not the room’s contents, but rather its design. Its walls were very narrow, just wide enough to walk through in single file, and the ceilings were very low. Looking at the room’s small space, Shana could already feel herself starting to breathe faster, harder, her heart pounding.8

“Yay, no scariness,” Kalah said with zero enthusiasm. “Just a really badly designed room. Whoever built this must really be biased tall fat people.”9

She nudged for Devon, who had been looking inside the room with extreme cautious zeal for anything approaching the scare level of the previous room’s clowns, to move forward as Judson called over his shoulder that the room seemed fine. But as the others began to move forward, Shana remained motionless, staring wide-eyed inside the tiny room. She couldn’t move, she physically couldn’t move… already the memories were coming to her, of rough hands, shoving her child’s body inside the closet, the scrape of the desk being moved before the door as she screamed and pounded…10

“Hey, Shana, aren’t you coming?” Devon asked her as Kade brushed past her silently, shooting first Kade, then Shana, an uneasy look. 11

The others stopped too, looking back at Shana with expressions varying between concern, impatience, and indifference. Shana shook her head, for a few moments unable to find her voice. When she finally did speak, it cracked badly, and she could feel her legs trembling beneath her, nearly too weak to hold her up.12

“I-I can’t… I can’t go in there,” she nearly whispered, the tears blurring her vision.13

“What?!” Kalah blurted in incredulity, “yes you can, Shana it’s just a room. There’s not even anything in it. Who knows about the next one, but in this one at least there’s just the Big-and-Tall-banned room.”14

“I-I can’t…” Shana choked, as her shaking intensified, causing Devon’s eyes to widen with a horrified sort of anxiety for her, and whatever threat she might be noticing that he hadn’t.15

“I c-can’t move my legs…” she said as Devon’s eyes skipped about the room once again, checking its interior.16

“What? Why not? What’s wrong, what’s going on?” Devon blurted, his eyes returning to look Shana over again anxiously. He added in a loud whisper to Kalah, who was closest to him, “Do you think she’s paralyzed? How is she paralyzed all of a sudden? Do you think there’s something in the air? Like polluted or something, or some alien thing… I know you think it’s a crazy murderer here, but I really think that this all is way too bizarre and outerspace-like to be anything else-“17

“Shana, what is it?” Judson asked, turning around from where he stood at the front of the line in the middle of the room; Annabelle was pressed up behind him, gripping his left arm with one hand and wrapping her right arm around his waist, her cheek pressed against his back as if she were a young child hiding behind her mother’s skirts. Judson looked over Annabelle’s head to the open doorway, where Shana stood shakily, the only person not yet having entered the tight little room.18

“Shana,” he repeated, seeming to be trying patience, based on his tense expression. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”19

Shana could barely make herself shake her head; no further words would emerge from her mouth, and she pressed her lips together tightly, blinking furiously in an attempt to dispel the tightening of her throat and the hot, near panicked tears forming in her eyes. None of them, based on their confused frowns and concerned, seemed to understand her fear, and she could not find the words to explain it.20

Finally Kalah’s narrowed eyes opened up a little, and understanding lit her eyes.21

“Damn… you’re claustrophobic, aren’t you? You’re scared… you’re being all freakazoid-horror-chick because you’re scared.”22

Normally Shana would have been at least slightly put off by Kalah’s wording and lightly sneering tone, but now, she was just glad that someone got what she couldn’t tell them. She nodded faintly, closing her eyes briefly.23

“Ohhh…” Devon said, seeming more relieved than Shana was at Kalah’s realization. “So you’re not really paralyzed then. Good, that’s good, if there’s aliens here then at least they aren’t using super ray beams or something, it’s just like me with the clowns-“24

“Shana- it’s just a room. It’s not-“ Judson began, but for the second time, Kalah was not about to take the time to patronize or reason with frightened balkers.25

“Look Kade, don’t go all psycho on me because I have to touch you to get by,” she muttered, cutting her eyes at the silently brooding young man warily. “I’m not trying to rape you or kill you or anything, and I’m not trying to go all Annabelle on you, so just chill and let me by, alright?”26

Still eyeing him suspiciously, but not waiting for his assent, she began to squeeze past him in the room’s very tight wall space, having to make full bodily contact with him as well as having to press herself against the wall. Kade did not speak or strike out at her, but his face was very tense, jaw tight, teeth clinched together, and he made no effort to help her squeeze past him. 27

Finally having succeeded in doing so, Kalah reached Shana’s side in the doorway. Grabbing hold of her hand and gripping it tightly, she pushed her ahead of her into the narrow room, steering her forward almost roughly. When the others remained standing still, looking at her almost dumbly as Shana still barely bent or moved her limbs, needing to be propelled forward by Kalah every step of the way, Kalah glared at them, annoyed.28

“Keep MOVING, she wants to get out of here as fast as possible, and I can’t say I freakin’ blame her. Bad enough in here if you DON’T have this claustrophobia shit,” she muttered. “What’s with calling it claustrophobia anyway, it makes you sound like you’re afraid of Santa Claus or something. Keep GOING, dammit!”29

Judson, in the lead, hesitated, frowning back at Shana for a moment before beginning again to walk as quickly as was possible with a young woman entangled around him from behind. Devon followed with little hesitation, clearly none too eager to get out himself. Kade, on the other hand, seemed to be moving deliberately slowly, as if he were trying to heighten Shana’s time in the room, and therefore also her fear. Snarled threats from Kalah did not speed his pace up in the slightest.30

It seemed to both Shana and Kalah to take an unseemly amount of time to make it through the tiny room; the older, smaller woman clutched the hand of the younger one in a grip so hard and tight Kalah gritted her teeth, feeling the pain shooting up her arm. still she forced her forward, talking to her in a strained tone.31

“Hey, Shana, you want to let up a little? You can hold my hand if you have to, which you obviously do, but if I wanted broken bones I’d have latched onto Annabelle, aka Siamese Twin Girl. Anyway, it’s just a little room, it’s not gonna kill you… that’s the psycho killer who put us here’s job.”32

Shana was still shaking, barely able to stumble forward even with Kalah’s prodding. Silent tears trickled down her cheeks even as she closed her eyes; even without seeing, it felt to her as if she could physically feel the wall’s proximity, feel them closing in on her tighter and tighter…33

Finally they had reached the door to the next room, and Kalah reached past Shana, opening the door and shoving her through. Shana almost fell to her knees, tears still streaming as she tried to draw in a more steadying breath, tried to bring herself back into the control she’d had before. The others stood there uncomfortably, torn between equal instincts to talk and help her and to leave her alone. Or at least, Judson, Devon, and Kalah seemed to be. Kade stood a distance apart, the blank expression returned to his face, and Annabelle stood very close to Judson, still holding onto him with clear anxiety.34

Finally Devon put an awkward hand on her shoulder. “Uh… you okay?”35

Sniffing, Shana took a deep breath, briefly closing her eyes; now that the room was safely behind her, the door shut, all memories of her past and her emotions in the present fading, she was beginning to feel the shame and humiliation sinking in.36

“Yeah… yeah I’m okay.”37

Devon, still hesitant, almost as embarrassed as she was, offered a hand to help her up, and Shana took it, smiling at him weakly. Turning to Kalah, she said to her quietly, “Thank you Kalah… thank you for helping me.”38

“Yeah, well… whatever, if I didn’t we’d still be standing there,” Kalah mumbled a bit awkwardly. “Although what with the psycho killer ahead I don’t know if forward progress is the way to go-“39

“Will you stop talking about killers, will you STOP?!” Annabelle asked shrilly, and Kalah turned to sneer at her.40

“Why, will it make you freak and cry? Big surprise, like we haven’t seen that yet. But look… I don’t know, maybe you’re right. Maybe whoever did this is just a psycho, not a killer.”41

“What, why, why do you said that?”Devon said eagerly, clearly desperate to hear this preferable theory.42

“Well, surely none of you think the rooms are a coincidence,” Kalah muttered, rolling her eyes. “But then again you’re all horror illiterate, so maybe you do. Honestly though- a clown room, when Devon’s just happens to freak over clowns, and then a room the size of a dollhouse when Shana flips over tight spaces… no one makes rooms like that without some specific reason, that should be obvious even to you guys. Obviously someone want to SCARE us… and they KNOW what scares us,” she said her, her eyes matching her ominous tone. “Maybe it’s not just a killer…. I mean, the rooms so far didn’t have anything that could actually hurt us. Maybe it’s some freak who likes to see us or think about us being scared shitless.”43

The others went quiet, thinking about the pink-haired girl’s theory.. . somehow as implausible as it sounded, it stuck with them, something they couldn’t easily shrug off.44

“Guys…” Devon said slowly, fear shaking his tone, “please tell me none of you fears guys who carry axes and butcher knives, or bloodthirsty cannibals.. please, tell me you are all seriously freaked by kittens and bunnies…”45