The stairs creaked with old age.Shadows loomed in the rotten doorways hiding rooms open to the rain.Webs hung from the ceiling,stroking the face of the climbing individual.She waved them out of her way and continued climbing,hesitantly avoiding rotten steps.Below she could see the lower floors,empty light sockets hung from below decayed wooden ceilings like skeletal outstretched hands.
Laney shook her head trying to suppress her over-active imagination.
A step creaked.the girl jumped aside quickly and stepped forward.She brushed cob webbed blonde hair out of her face and scrutinised the surroundings.Below her, three floors of ancient house decomposed slowly.The only sign of habitation was the worn path leading upstairs due to the almost incessant trek of people she had seen enter the house.She pulled her jacket about herself and shivered.The stairs were dark,despite the evening sun outside,and it became increasingly colder as she reached the top.'All this for curiosity'she chided to herself.The top floor was sparse.A few empty crates lay haphazardly on the floor.Beer cans lay like overturned gas tanks,their poison already drunk.The windows were cracked and open to the elements.Laney turned around puzzedly."What's so good about this?"she muttered.In the corner of her eye she noticed a window with a plank leading out of it.
On walking to the window she saw the plank led to an opposite window in an abandoned warehouse.The plank was wide enough walk across on.She got a sinking feeling that this led to the place that all the people went,and began to have second thoughts about coming here.
After all,the people she saw were mainly stoned out of their heads,and bad tempered.It probably was just a place for druggies,and it hardly would be safe for her.But still,the Dunlan curiosity took over and she had to know.Why here?in the edge of town in the disused old buildings.No one normal came here anyway,why not use the door.Laney sniffed.No one was supposed to be here,which is why she came with her camera trying to locate some paranormal evidence of some kind.She had been taking photos of some empty streets(trying to film ghosts) when the activity around this particular building caught her eye.Her friend Tobey jokingly said they were probably aliens of some sort.(he was as much of an x-file freak as she was.Almost) It was today that the curiosity overtook her and she had gone inside.
Chewing her lip and looking at the plank she decided to have a look.She had come this far hadn't she.Gritting her teeth she stepped on to the plank.It seemed steady enough.She stepped across the wide gap carefully.
Below the plank was a pile of rubble:assorted bottles,papers,junk and shopping trolleys.A little dizzy,she reached the other window.It led to a dark warehouse.She stuck her head in the window to see more clearly.
Suddenly a wall of noise reached her.The day grew dark and the plank dissapeared from under her.She fell,yelled,and grabbed the ledge.She climbed breathlessly on to the ledge.Below,where the rubble had been,snaked a grimy river.Bits of trolleys,bottles and junk lay here also,just emmbeded in dark mud.From as high as she was,she swore she could see creatures moving on it.She turned her attention back to the warehouse.She sat in a high windowsill overlooking a large factory floor.Everywhere she could see,people were lying or sitting around.There was less noise than one would imagion with this amount of people.Most lay with their eyes closed.Laney experienced a moment of horror before she noticed movement.Others wandered around slowly.Most were smoking strange substances which,she presumed,accounted for the unusual odour in the air.It was dark,strangely so,since it was only about half six in the evening.Laney looked behind her and gasped.The old house was gone,in its place was a sprawling town.Thick smoke hovered in the air above the buildings originating from almost every space.This blocked out the light and created a foreboding atmosphere for the town.She could still see some of the same structures from her home town,but they were considerably dirtier,and damaged.People were wandering around aimlessly.From her height,she could see numerous trains moving around.She crained to see out of the town,but there was a thick mist blocking any view of the surroundings.
Laney swallowed.She was extremely disorientated,and was becoming increasingly dizzy.Still-she grinned-this was definatly out of the ordinary,and she had her camera with her!She leaned over the ledge into the factory.Below her was a ladder.She put her foot out to climb down,when someone pulled away the ladder.Looking down she saw someone grinning up at her.A young man with a filthy face gave her the finger and sat the ladder on the ground.She made a face and swung herself over the side.She landed with a thump,but upright.She raised her eyebrows triumphantly at the boy and walked away.
She stepped between people.They mostly ignored her,preoccupied with their business.She walked towards the large doorway looking around dazedly all the while.She saw glimpses into lives:a man,the same age as
herself and tobey,was inhaling a large joint.He caught her stare and scowled at her.Moving on she saw a whole family swathed in filthy blankets.The parents were arguing over a cigarette.A small child peered at her from the covers.His eyes were big and round,and his face thin and dirty.She chewed her lip uneasily.She hesitated and rummaged in her pocket.Laney pulled out a melted mars bar and held it out to the boy.His parents never noticed.The boy stared,then grabbed the bar.He gobbled it immediately.She moved on.Over and over she saw people in the same situation.Luckily there were few children,mostly adults.One she recognised.It was the man who worked in the library,she usually saw him reading quietly in the corner.Now he was staring into space,sitting on a box.He was relitivly clean looking.He even had a mobile clutched in his hand.All of a sudden she heard a scream.To her left a man and woman were fighting.The man slapped the womans face.Hard.She fell over on to a nearby druggie.The druggie pushed her away.The man picked up the woman and shook her violently.The woman made no attempt to ask for help,and no one gave any.She watched sickened as the mans face contorted in rage.The people around them moved away,but other than that,no one gave any sign they heard.Laney breathed in and said timidly,'stop that!'The man turned to her and spat," I would back off bitch if I were you,or you'll be next.'He continued hitting.Laney,sick to her stomach,ran out of the factory as fast as she could,stumbling over people as she went.