Chapter 1

It had finally arrived. After weeks of advertising and a series of enticing trailers, the new, blockbuster summer films had arrived at the Deluxe Cinema. All over the neighbourhood kids were whinging and whining to be allowed to attend the opening matinee, careless of making the most unlikely promises for this one - please, just this one - acquiescence. Some succeeded... some did not.

The films in question were indeed questionable to some parents, the Family code rating not withstanding; a pair of science fiction thrillers with all the attendant monsters and scares that most children craved in cinematic entertainment. With consideration given to Heddy and Penny's recent good behaviour, their parents surrendered to their pleas, allowing that an afternoon with their peers and friends, even if it meant squirming in a darkened theatre scared to death, would be fine with them.

A sudden circumstance that nearly changed the girl's minds, was a request from their aunt and uncle to chaperone their two young cousins, Justin and Dillard, the adults seeking a rare afternoon of relief.

"Aw mom, do we hafto?"

"Let's just say it would be a very nice thing to do. The boys don't get to go to many things with just other kids." Mom said, leaving the implied caveat hanging.

"Rats."

"C'mon Heddy, it won't be that bad." Penny gave her mother a knowing shrug.

"That's the spirit," Dad said, grabbing the car keys from the hook over the sink, "let's go we'll meet them at the show.

The line stretched half way down the block and immediately the girls began wailing as their father pulled his van up in front of the theatre.

"We'll never get a good seat now," Heddy complained.

"Then you'll have to sit in a bad seat if you still want to go."

"There's Uncle Ted," Penny pointed excitedly. "He's already in line with Justin and Dillard."

"Yea!" Heddy shouted, jumping out of the van and galloping across the sidewalk, followed by Penny and her dad.

"Hi there!" Uncle Ted gave the girl's father a relieved look. "I thought I was going to have to actually go inside with these animals." The two fathers chuckled, looking at the wriggling line of excited children.

"Looks like you might have been the only parent; that would have been fun."

"Gawd, don't even think that, please." A bustle of hurried goodbyes and wasted admonitions saw the fathers depart, leaving the theatre management to the mercy of the kids.

"Look Penny, I brought my Monstro model!" Dillard held up the eight-inch plastic toy that resembled a muscular, ugly alien. "It shoots little plastic bullets!"

"You can't shoot those in the show, Dill." Penny cautioned him.

"I know," he said, "dad already warned me." He bent one of the model's arms up and aimed it at the theatre poster, making explosive shooting sounds.

Justin held up a similar toy for her inspection. "Mine's called Torg."

"Let's see." Heddy pulled it from his hand.

"Hey!" Justin grabbed it back and clutched it to his little chest.

"I was just going to look at it." She said, trading him belligerent stares.

A sudden roar went up from the line as the curtain opened in the ticket booth, and it seemed to get shorter as all the kids crowded together, ticket money held at the ready.

"We want good seats, but not too close to the front," Penny said. "As soon as I get the tickets, Heddy, you run and try and save four. I'll bring Dill and Justin with me."

Heddy jogged on the spot, punching her fist into her hand. "Give me my ticket right away then, okay."

Penny nodded, herding her younger cousins in front of her. When they reached the ticket booth, she ordered four and quickly handed Heddy one, watching her sister streak inside, blowing past the usher so quickly she nearly dropped her stub.

Inside, the auditorium was bedlam. Shouting, screaming kids, all waving and jumping about, scrambling for the best seats, hats and jackets quickly planted as official, claim markers. Penny hurried the two boys down the aisle to where Heddy was defending a row like some little Horatio at the bridge. Three bigger girls were trying to push past and were about to succeed when Dillard and Justin galloped up to them, growling and waving their plastic monsters.

"We were here first." The largest of the three complained.

"I was here first!" Heddy stuck out her chin, frowning, and stepping aside as Penny and the boys slipped into the row.

One of the girls gave Heddy a parting shove, and Penny had to grab her am to keep her from chasing after them down the aisle. "Never mind, we've got our seats. Now you three stay here. I'm going up to get some popcorn and drinks."

Heddy stood guard in the aisle seat while the boys hopped around, engaging in mock battles with the similarly armed kids in the row in front of them.

********

Ominous black clouds pushed across the sky outside sending a spattering rain onto the streets, increasing in intensity until the roads were awash in rivers of water. Pedestrians, instantly soaked, scrambled for the shelter of doorways and cars. A ragged finger of light split the darkened sky, followed a few moments later by an ear-splitting crack of thunder.

Inside the theatre, the children drowned out the noise of the storm with a roar of cheers as the auditorium darkened and the screen lit up with the studio logo.

"Which one's first?" Justin whispered loudly, slouching down in his seat.

"Ghoul's Night Out." Penny whispered back. "Don't spill that drink, sit up a bit." He did.

A hush fell over the audience as the screen flickered with the image of a graveyard at night. A young woman was hurrying nervously past the gates, stopping suddenly as the sound of cracking branches sounded just ahead of her. Suddenly she gasped as a black shadow crept across the sidewalk toward her. A few yelps and some giggles mingled with the eerie music from the film, and Dillard stood up, aiming his Monstro at the screen and making more shooting sounds.

"Dillard! Shhhh!" Penny pulled him back into his seat. The shadow suddenly became a looming figure, swathed in rotting rags, and from beneath its hood, a pair of burning, red eyes stared down at the cowering woman. The music soared with a frightening crash, and the woman's screams brought a chorus of wails from the audience. Heads were disappearing below the seat backs; some children were crying while others laughed and yelled.

Justin had made himself as small as possible, gripping Torg as some kind of shield, and Penny, a little lower in her seat as well, put her arm around him. Dillard was still aiming his toy at the screen and mouthing explosive noises. The scene changed to an office in a university where several people were arguing about a subject foreign to the children, and the babble of talk and noise drowned out the boring dialogue.

**********

He had watched from the safety of an alley across from the theatre as the jumbling line of children filed inside. So many plump little bodies all in one place made him drool, and he wiped a dirty sleeve across his mouth. When they were all inside, he slipped from the alley and scurried across the road, squeezing between the theatre and a crumbling brick wall. At the back of the show, he tested the fire door and found it locked, as expected. Alongside the door, at ground level, was a small window leading to the basement of the building.

From inside his grimy raincoat he withdrew a pair of wire cutters, and checking to make certain he was unseen, snipped away the screen covering the window. Held stiff from many coats of paint it pushed upward from the force of a quick kick. He wriggled through the opening, grinning as a crack of thunder hid the noise, and dropped silently to the gritty floor, closing the window behind him just as the first splats of rain appeared on the dirty glass.

Overhead he could make out the sound of the film's music and the squealing children. Feeling his way through the darkened basement, he came to corridor and, hugging the wall, crept toward the end, following the faint glow of a light.

**********

Butch Coombs hated working the matinees. He hated nurse-maiding the rowdy bunch of little brats he could hear above him, and he hated having to come down in this filthy basement and dig out sacks of corn for the popper. The bare bulb, swinging from a frayed cord on the ceiling, barely gave him enough light to find where the sacks were piled.

The sound of a scrape made him pause, and he listened carefully, shivering, and thinking about the rats that probably roamed the confines of the dirty basement. His fingers felt the rough burlap sacking, and he yanked on it, pulling a twenty-five pound bag of corn out onto the floor at his feet. Dust and dirt covered his pants legs and shoes and he swore aloud, hoisting the ungainly load onto his shoulder.

Another scrape. He stopped and looked around at the floor, hoping he wouldn't see anything moving. As his eyes drifted past the corridor entrance he saw the toes of a pair of shoes, and he let out a yelp, dropping the sack and backing away. The figure moved slowly out of the shadows, a leering grimace played about the shocking face, and in an instant, it sprang across the room clutching at the petrified usher. A thunderous roar, from the storm outside, drowned out Butch Coombs' last horrifying scream.

**********

Heddy munched her popcorn, transfixed with the image on the screen. Penny was trying to pull Justin out from under the seats, and Dill was curled in his seat, cradling his toy, eyes wide and staring.

"It's just a picture, now c'mon out of there." Penny wrestled Justin back onto the seat and handed him his drink. "It's only pretend, just like you do with Torg when you're playing." Justin just shook his head, his little mouth hanging open. Suddenly, another crash of thunder sounded, this time loud enough to penetrate the theatre.

The audience let go with a unified scream of fright as the aisle lights flickered and died and the picture disappeared, fading from silver, to grey, to blank.

Penny!" Dill shouted, "I can't see! Where are you?"

"Right here, it's all right. The power just went off." She could feel Heddy's fingers tugging at her sleeve. Children were shouting and crying, and the beams of light from the usher's flashlights swept over the panicking crowd, as the manager struggled to the stage.

"Children! Please! Please listen to me!" He paced back and forth on the stage, waving his flashlight frantically as the kids rolled out of their seats and began shoving and pushing up the aisle to the lobby.

"We should go, I wanna go!" Dill said, trying to squeeze past Penny.

"Just wait a minute. Look! The manager's on the stage. He's trying to tell us something." One of the ushers had climbed on the stage and was shining his light on the frazzled manager.

"Quiet, please! There's nothing to be afraid of, it's just a power failure, I'm sure the lights will be back on in a moment or two. Please stay in your seats and we will begin an orderly exit from the theatre." He turned to the usher and directed him to go down and open the fire door next to the stage.

"See, " Penny said, "They're going to let us out the fire exit."

©lyttlejoe 2002