Loom of Doom

And there was plenty to talk about, but Anna had nothing to say. Her head rang, trying to gather simple words together. She was the shy type and did not do well socially. “What was she doing in this rich person’s house?”, she wondered. Maybe this was a sign of her future. “Better late than never!” She was already in her prime early 30s and felt she hadn’t moved a single inch on society’s ladder. She stopped swimming in her head and remembered the girl. The weird girl that drug her here for some family gathering. Anna had not seen her since she arrived, and was now being swept up in the loud conversations. She looked around her. The room was filled with well-dressed people in every corner. One older woman stood out. she had her brunette hair up in a knotted bun. She wore a fancy sparkling blue dress and had on a kiss me red lip shade. "She must be the host of this gathering." Anna tried to put the pieces together. Why was she in this random quite large house?  She held her head intensely, as if that would make a difference. As if it would make a memory magically appear out of the jittery thin air. 

The woman in the sparkly blue dress suddenly latched eyes onto Anna.

“Hello dear.” She said sweetly “Are you okay?”

Anna looked at her not sure of what to say to that. 

“Um, I got to use my phone to call someone, can I sit in your garage to do it?”

The lady nodded softly and pointed towards the garage. 

 “Sure, be my guest.” And headed back to the party.

Anna walked towards the garage and opened the door. A nice warm breeze hit her face. It must have been the beginning of Autumn. She was not sure what season it was. It is like the answer escaped her mind. Why was she having such trouble remembering? She looked around her as she returned to focus. A bunch of 4-wheelers sat along the back wall, as well as a luxurious black 4 door car on the left. A thin guy was smoking a cigarette. He sat in the very back and did not even look up. She sat down determined to figure out what was going on and call for help. She shakily held her black berry phone in her hands. Her fingers were not wanting to work. She fumbled for the numbers, continuing to type them in wrong.  Sitting there bewildered, she decided to call the one person who could always help her, Grandma Nan. She had always been close to her grandma. She worked her fingers again, finally making a connection. She sat and listened impatiently to the phone ring. A sweet voicemail came up and she proceeded to tell Nan how she is stuck and wants to go home. She hung up discouraged. 

As she was dialing the phone, a girl walked out about 5 years younger. She had on an orange bandana with some Gucci overalls and walked with confidence. The girl approached her surprising Anna.

“Hey, I can help.” 

“What do you mean?” said Anna.

    “I overheard that you are trying to get home and I’m heading out anyway.” The young girl explained.

Anna was more than ready to go home.

“Yes, that would be great actually.” She quickly replied.

She followed the girl to the car out in the driveway. Anna thought to herself, “She must be one of the daughters that lives here.” She opened the door and got into the passenger seat.

The car smelled like Capri cologne mixed with a new car smell. The seats were a nice tan leather, and looked as if they had never been sat in. It was a drop top Chrysler jeep. She buckled her seatbelt and proceeded to tell the girl where she lived. The girl nodded and headed on to the road. 

“Okay I know where that is, I just got to make a quick stop first.” The girl replied.

 After 10 minutes, the girl stopped and parked the car on the side of a small lit up road. There were many buildings, and it looked like a small shopping center.

“I’ll be right back!” the girl exclaimed and then promptly hopped out and ran into a building a few feet from where they were parked. 

Anna waited patiently looking at the clock. 12:04, a little after midnight.  Trying to busy herself, she looked down at her phone and tried to call Grandma Nan again.  No voicemail this time. 

“Dang it!” she said slightly annoyed. 

She waited a while longer.  When 12:30 rolled around, she quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car. She was curious to find out what was taking so long. She hurriedly ran to the building. As she walked into the building, she stopped mid-step. This weird feeling crept up into the pit of her stomach, and she had the urge to freeze. It felt as if something was after her or was out to get her. She frantically searched the room with wide eyes. Looking all around, she did not see a thing. An eerie feeling crawled into her throat, as she tried to gulp it down. It felt as if she was stuck in an extraterrestrial event of some kind. Breaking her thoughts up, a guy appeared beside her. He had sweat dripping off his face and darting brown eyes. 

He said to her abruptly, “Get down.” 

    “They will see you!”

Anna looked around for her boogie man. "What was this guy talking about?" "What was coming after her?" Why did she feel it so strongly? It was as if whatever it was, it was not human. She swiftly followed the guy’s instructions, as she thought to herself “After this no more doing what strangers tell her.”

The guy seemed to know where he was going. Running ahead up some stairs, she followed. 

 “Hurry!” he said again, more urgent this time.

She watched as he entered a small bare office room. He then made haste towards a large rectangle glass window. He pulled it up hastily and then continued to climb out of it. Anna couldn’t believe her eyes. What was he up to?  She went to the window and saw him hanging off a thin scaffold, his feet firmly placed on some divot’s underneath. The heights seemed to not faze him. She firmly looked down below. It was a nice long drop. She felt though that this may be the only way to hide from whatever was after her. She clung to the slippery rock, her hands turning sheet white. She held on for dear life gritting her teeth. It must have been only 5 minutes, but it felt like hours. 

“What are we running from?” she tensely asked the guy.

 He didn’t answer.

“Man of few words.”, she thought. She hung there in silence.

The guy then made a noncommittal noise and grunted his way back up into the window. She did the same, pulling herself back up to safety. Looking around her she was astonished. “Everything was thread?” It was like a silk tapestry had slowly been unwinding itself onto everything. Desk, Chairs, the floor, pieces of paper. All thread. There was no real matter anywhere. She had never seen anything like it. She looked around confused. The guy was no-where to be found. She pulled herself together. “I just got to get out of here.” 

She ran out of the office and into a long dark hallway. Suddenly like a flash it was like she got teleported. She could not believe it. She was back in the big rich house, but this time it was different! Like the office building, here everything was also thread. Not a soul in sight. What was going on? It did not make any sense. She was just in the office, how was she back at the house? She ran towards the garage only to find it empty with threading everywhere. Maybe if she got away from the house things would start to turn back to normal, but she found out shortly that it would only get weirder. She trudged further out, beginning to walk up what felt like a steep hill. All she knew is the further away she got from that house, the better. Reaching the top, she peered down and saw a gully way beneath her. For some odd reason inside her, she felt the urge to jump into the rapid waters below. She had already hung off a scaffold, this couldn’t be any scarier. She held her breath and quickly jumped feet first knees to her chest. “This has to be one impressive cannon ball!”, she thought to herself. 

Anna ferociously started swimming, cold water in her eyes as she hit the rough surface. She kept feeling this pull to swim forward. In front of her was a strange looking parking lot with a towering old castle. There was no time to ask questions, all she knew is that she had to keep moving forward. She swam a long distance, exhausted her arms hurting. As she neared the bank, she saw a parking lot with a white car parked in a space. Inside she could make out a familiar face. Shockingly, it was her boyfriend Briggy. Excited and overwhelmed, she shook off the cold water and approached the white shiny car.

He was surprised to see her and quickly let her in. She had so many questions, but before she could open her mouth her boyfriend leaned towards her with a fragile single flower in his hand.  Gently he handed her the pink orchid along with a small mysterious grin. She reached out and took the flower staring at it confused and mesmerized. He then to her surprise, slipped out of the passenger seat quickly and started running towards the castle. 

“No wait!”, Anna cried.

She got out of the car and ran after him.

Suddenly, it was as if someone took a child’s pop-up book and closed it.

The castle, the gully, the car all of it was gone! 

Fighting the looming darkness Anna opened her eyes even more puzzled. She was in her bed. She looked over at Briggy sleeping, snoring loudly. She clasped her chest and sighed in relief. It is only a dream. But something still felt off. In horror she looked around her. Feeling panic set in, she took in a deep breath. She looked up. The ceiling was untangling into thread!! Her boogie man had been in her home. This was not a dream, this was a nightmare.  She was still stuck in it and now Briggy was too.