Friday the 13th - Big Yellow Storage

Yah! It's Friday the 13th!!! For some reason, I really like this date. It's scary movie night! I love horror in general - books, films, stories. So in celebration, I've written a story (yes yes yes, I'm super morbid). This is my first attempt at fiction so please be kind. Honest feedback would be appreciated. I don't think it's actually that scary but ... you know ...

This is a bet Vickii & I a few weeks back, to make up a story about The Big Yellow Storage. Weird I know but we came up with the idea when we went to pick up some stuff from storage one night and it was soo empty and creepy. Initially I had all these plot ideas but then I decided to stick with the truth and twist it up a little - you'll see what I mean when you read it ;-)
(Credit to Vickii for her superior editing skills. Thank you!)

I've had a sudden rush of creativity and written several things (I was up till 7amthis morning writing). Apparently seeing as I write soo sporadically, putting everything up is a waste so I'm going to pace myself. I'll put this up now as it's fitting and put the prostitute story (which I've finally completed) up next week. I've also written a new poem which I'll put up next week as well. Let's hope I get inspired to write more or you might have to wait 2 more weeks! (This is a strategy I've learn't from Vickii btw - so feel free to lynch her).

The social whirlwind continues and I think I'll start blogging about my movements. This summer has turned out to be rather interesting to say the least. I have new fodder for my memoirs ;-). This weekend, I have 2 dinners (one involving a date with a high-life band), 2 birthday parties, Pole-dancing (i learnt some brilliant dance moves last time I went ;-) and possibily some sun-time in the park if the rain lets up. (Our summer weather currently SUCKS). Hope you all have a a great weekend!

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The Big Yellow Storage

“I should be soo lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky …”

Vickii and I were singing along to Kylie’s song on the radio as we drove to the storage to pick up the futon for our sleepover. It was 11.30pm on one of those hot, still, sultry nights. The storage center was this huge building with big yellow doors that could be seen through the black security access gates. It was situated just off the highway on this lonely stretch of road.

“Good thing you guys have 24 hr access as I don’t fancy sleeping on the sofa. That thing is soo not comfortable!” she cracked as I pulled up to the gates.

I got out of the car and punched in the access code to gain entry. Once I heard the click of the locks as they slid back into place, I walked back to the car and sat, watching in silence as the metallic gate inched backwards with a low creak.

“Imagine if you were trying to escape some thieves or something” I joked as I drove into the compound and parked. “This would so have driven in with us, with these slow-ass gates!”

“Hahaha” laughed Vickii. “That’s very true, if this was Nigeria we’d be dead by now.”

I smiled, nodding my head in agreement as we got out of the car. We walked up to the doors and I stepped up to the security panels.

“x-5-1-1-3 …” I muttered as I punched in the code to undo the alarm and grant us entry into the building. The entrance to the big yellow storage was a huge metal contraption, the kind with an auto mechanism that rolls up very slowly from the ground all the way to the top.

“Actually, wouldn’t this make for a creepy horror story?” Vickii asked watching the gate as it lifted for us to enter, “Late night, creepy surroundings, abandoned building?”

“Yeaaaaahh …” I agreed as we bent down to enter - We were too impatient to wait for it to roll up completely – “… remember that scene in Scream, was it? Or scary movie? Where the girl was caught in the cat flap of the gate as it rolled up?”

“Uuuhhhh yeah I think it was scream. The first one right?”

We stepped into this corridor with bright white fluorescent lights. To the left were the lifts – the old school industrial types with fold back doors that you had to pull to enter. Next to the lifts was a door leading to the stairwell. The doors were painted a lurid neon yellow colour. They obviously had a theme going on. To the right was a glass partition cordoning off the office space – which also had its external entrance. The office was dark except for the light flickering from a bank of TV screens on the bank wall, displaying the feeds from the CCTV cameras.

I could see a man staring at the security TV screens so I waved in passing.

“At least they have security guards so we are not alone”

“Oh good and with the CCTV cameras everywhere, he can monitor everyone’s movements” Vickii added.

“Lift or Stairs” I asked looking back at her

“Stairs. We can take the lift back down”

We pushed the door to the stairwell and walked up to the first floor where my unit was placed. At the top of the stairs, we came to another bright yellow door.

“Now if this were a horror movie, the killer would have seen us and would be waiting just behind the door.” Vickii said carrying on with the earlier conversation.

“Haha! That is why you will be the one going through first.” I responded

“No, you’re the bigger one, you go first.”

“I don’t think so! You go first.”

“Nooooo! You’re the older one, you go first.”

“Fine!” I snapped moving forward and grabbing the handle. But then I pulled it towards me and quickly stepped behind the door exposing her to it.

“Ahhh nice one, you think you’re smart abi?”

“Hehehehe, evidently! If there was someone there, you would have been chopped to pieces by now!” I laughed.

We stepped into a large space with a large column of yellow units parked against the wall on the left and rows upon rows of units lined opposite. The rows formed several corridors which were wide enough to stop someone from feeling claustrophobic but there was a maze like feel to the place; and I imagined very briefly that if you were stuck in an aisle from which you couldn’t see the entrance, you could run for a while trying to figure out which row led to the entrance, confusing yourself and going round in circles. I shuddered and shook it off, obviously all this talk of scary movies was getting to me. The room was painted entirely white and also had those white lights interspersed everywhere. They added an element of brightness and airiness to the place. As we walked along, I could hear a faint whinny of pop music coming from hidden speakers.

“Hiiiii Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!” I exclaimed doing my karate chop movement as we rounded a corner.

“Oh yeah, that would really scare the killer away, wouldn’t it?” Vickii deadpanned rolling her eyes at me

“Whatever! You’re just jealous cos you can’t do karate.” I retorted as I pranced about kicking and chopping the air, kung fu style.

We got to H18 and I slid in the combination key for the padlock. Opening the door, the little unit was choked with all sorts of boxes and other odds and ends I had packed away. Luckily the futon was in the middle, lying on top of some boxes. We positioned ourselves appropriately and lifted it clear.

“Now if this was a horror movie, there would be a zombie popping out from the middle where that space is” I said as we put the futon down.

“Nooo, they’d be coming from in-between all the different rows and surrounding us” she responded.

I turned and looked behind me. (Just to be sure). We were the only ones there but it felt a little creepy. Despite the false light, I knew it was almost midnight and we were the only people up there after all.

After locking up, we lifted the futon and walked back to the lifts.

“Now this is the point where the killer would be hiding in the lift waiting for us to open up the doors” Vickii cracked.

I glared at her and with a flourish, whipped back the lift doors.

“You’re opening the doors when we get down, you know that right?” I said as we got in and punched the ground button.

“Haha – funny! That’s how the killer would be waiting as we open up unawares with a knife.” she said, imitating a stabbing action.

“You DEFINITELY watch too many movies, you know that?” I said as we got to the bottom.

Rolling her eyes at me, Vickii opened up the gates. With a little (very little) sense of relief, I saw the hallway was still empty. Lifting the futon, she pressed the buzzer to let us out. The slow gate started to wind up on itself. As I punched the code to set the alarm back on, Vickii asked, “What time does this place normally close?”

“5.30pm I think, why?”

“Look at that sign …” she said pointing to the space on the wall above me “… didn’t we see a guy as we walked in?”

The sign read – For all customers coming in after normal business hours, please note that there will be no personnel on the premises and the offices will be shut. Please remember to unset your alarm codes when arriving and reset it on departure. The CCTV cameras feed into the local police and they will be contacted should the alarms go off.

The words PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO PERSONNEL ON THE PREMISES AND THE OFFICES WILL BE SHUT seemed to swim before me. I felt a chill run down my spine and shot a quick glance back at the office. It was empty. Dark and empty. The TV screens still flashed with images from the cameras but this time there was nobody standing in front of them.

Looking at each other, it felt like minutes as realisation dawned on us. We stood in shock as a combination of fear and trepidation washed over us. Suddenly, galvanised into action, Vickii slapped my arm.

“Quick! Let’s go!”

As the gate had only rolled up until knee length, we literally crawled under gate then we grabbed the futon and high-tailed it to the car. Stuffing it into the passenger seat, I turned to Vickii and instructed her;

“Run to the gates and I’ll shout out the codes!”.

Heart pounding, I jumped into the drivers seat and started it up doing the quickest reverse and turn around I’d ever done. I wound down the windows and started yelling :

“x-5-1-1-3-3-2-#.... Hurry!!!!”

She punched in the numbers and ran back to the car.

The gates started to inch backwards once again. It was the longest few seconds of my life as we sat nervously in the car waiting for the gate to open wide enough. It didn’t help that Vickii kept looking over her shoulder. As soon as I had a reasonable enough space to move, I shot through the gates as fast as I could.

As we sped off, we looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. Looking through the car mirror, I could see the compound gates inching forward to close. I couldn’t be sure but I could have sworn I saw what looked like a solitary figure standing by the big yellow sign.