Night Three
The friends entered Emily’s room, Lizzy practically leaping into the living room before Emily could shut the door, “Where is it?” she asked like a child on the hunt for ice-cream.
“My room, just wait a second.”
But wait Elizabeth did not. In a flash of purple she’d burst into Emily’s room and was searching around wildly, “Where!?”
“Just wait!” Emily snapped as she entered the room, got on her knees by her bed and pulled out the box from underneath the already semi-dusty frame.
She placed it on the bed and Lizzy began hopping from foot to foot, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my Gawd! It’s real! Just like I imagined!”
Emily looked at the box fearfully and watched as the inscriptions almost glowed, “Yep. Sure is.” she said cautiously, as if to avoid offending it.
“Well. What are you waiting for? Open it up!”
Emily’s head shot around to look at her friend, “Are you crazy? I’m never opening this box again. It’s better that way.”
Elizabeth’s face fell, “Maybe just a litt-”
“No! We’re not opening it and that’s that.”
“But…” Elizabeth said, waiting for Emily to change her mind, “Fine. Can I at least get a drink? I came all the way out here.”
Emily was suspicious but nodded and put the box back under her bed, “Of course, two secs.” she said as she got to her feet and walked out to the kitchen.
She waited for her friend to follow, but she never did, “Lizzy?” she called out, “Lizzy, if you’ve opened that bo-”
“No trust in our friendship!” Lizzy shouted back, “I’m just in the bathroom!”
Emily sighed and accepted that Lizzy was telling the truth while she filled a glass with water from the tap.
Elizabeth had always had a talent with words, it’s how she got her job. She’d taken seminars on manipulation and in her first one there was a very simple lesson taught, ‘Turn your “victim” against themselves, convince them that they’re in the wrong for not trusting you.’
Unfortunately Emily was quite used to feeling like she’d done the wrong thing, so it was a genuine shock when she returned to the room to discover DilDozer’s box open and empty on her bed.
“Lizzy no!” she cried as she dropped the glass to the floor and ran for the bathroom door, “Lizzy!”
But Elizabeth didn’t respond, instead all that came out were choked breaths and the sound of suede boots dragging on tile.
“Lizzy!” Emily cried once more before barging through the door, destroying the lock, and immediately regretting it.
There it was, the DilDozer, coiled around Elizabeth’s neck while she desperately clawed at it as she was held to the ground. The woman couldn’t even call for help as the DilDozer tightened quickly one last time and cracked her neck.
For a moment Emily stared on in mortified disbelief as the DilDozer slowly rose like a cobra, its head swaying from side-to-side. Then she recognized the behaviour and gasped, slamming the door shut as DilDozer shot toward her at incredible speed.
“No!” she wailed while the creature slammed into the door over and over again before finally, with a heavy cracking sound, broke through head first.
The head flailed around in search of its prey from the splintered hole it had made and Emily frantically tried to force it back into the bathroom.
Then she heard a knock at her door, “Emily!?” Aaron yelled through the locked door, “Emily? Are you alright!?”
“It’s DilDozer! It’s escaped!”
Without saying a word the pot-smoking landlord began smashing into Emily’s door.
It was at that moment that Emily gave up on holding the door any longer and made a desperate scramble for Aaron, “I’m coming!” she cried.
Almost simultaneously Aaron and DilDozer broke through their respective doors and both made their way for Emily. Aaron reached her first, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her the rest of the way out of the apartment, Emily pulling the door shut in the process.
“We have to keep going.” he said as DilDozer slammed into Emily’s door, “It won’t stop, we need to trap it in the building.”
Emily nodded, the thought of her dear Lizzy dying at the hands of DilDozer not having quite sunk in, “We need to warn the world.”
DilDozer cracked through the door and, after a synchronized scream, the landlord and his tenant ran toward the end of the hallway in the opposite direction of the elevator.
“The stairs!” Aaron shouted between heaved breaths caused from years of marijuana and cheeseburger abuse, “It’s the only other way!”
The two bounded around the corner which led to the fire escape while DilDozer slithered toward them.
“It’s gonna catch up with us!” Aaron cried as he caught a glimpse.
“Not if we just keep running!” Emily shouted back. She knew that that wasn’t the case though, the DilDozer had been right on their heels but, even though it had lost a lot of its momentum at the corner, it was going to catch them at any moment.
Aaron wasn’t going to let that happen, as they reached and pulled open the fire door he stopped, “You go ahead,” he said, trying to hide the fear in his voice, “I’ll hold it off.”
“That’s suicide!” Emily pleaded as she tried to drag him by the arm.
Aaron looked her in the eye and nodded, “I know, but only one of us is getting out of here. You need to warn the world, Emily, in case it escapes.”
Emily went to argue but Aaron pushed her through the door and slammed it behind her, “Go! Go now-ah!”
Emily’s eyes locked shut as she winced at Aaron’s cries, “It’s in me!” he screamed as she turned away and ran down the stairs, “Oh God! Oh God! It’s docking! It’s dockin-!” the sound of tearing flesh cascaded down the stairs as Emily smashed through the ground floor’s door, tears filling her eyes.
She refused to imagine what DilDozer was doing to Aaron’s poor body as she broke out onto the busy Manhattan street and slammed the doors behind her.
It certainly didn’t feel like it, but she’d won. She knew that as she slid down the door and started lightly rocking back and forth.
Emily stayed there on the cold concrete for a while, flinching as people came over to her, asking if she needed help as she silently bawled. She was waiting for the thump thump thump on the door, for DilDozer to crash through the glass doors and wreak havoc on the world. But it never came, and her bawls soon became laughs.
She’d done it.
She’d trapped DilDozer.
She thought.
In the coming weeks Emily Schmidt would be committed to an asylum after assaulting an officer and babbling about how the mysterious ‘DilDozer’ had killed her best friend and her landlord.
Four investigations of 351 Bertherwick Avenue were conducted and the bodies of Aaron Blaustein and Elizabeth Cromwell were never found.
On the day of the first investigation one bystander reported an officer, who was later identified as Jeannie Potts, leaving the building in a rush. According to the onlooker she looked both embarrassed and exhilarated while carrying something wrapped in her blazer.
It was hard to tell at first, but as an unusually cold gust of wind picked up the bystander said he saw what looked like a box;
A long and beautiful oak box.
If you enjoyed this be sure to check out Zachariah Dracoulis’ other works:
The Mulligan Planet
The Mulligan Planet 2
THE WASHBURNE CASE FILES
And More!
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