Finish The Story Contest - Week #26 - Opera shoujo's ending

Hi, fellow steemers!

This is my very first time on this cool contest run by @bananafish
I hope to be interesting enough for you, guys :)

Follow @bananafish and @f3nix to see and/or participate in more contests like this ;)


First part by @bananafish
Horror Vacui

The moonlight descended on the east side of the Wagner Tower like an ancestral bone dust. The ectoplasm of a vague awareness crossed a tenant’s mind seeking for oblivion: finally, the dull blows coming from God knows what remote corner of the old building had decided to quit and he would have slept. However, between the seventy-fifth and seventy-fourth floor, a particularly fine ear could have still seized an intermittent, stifled counterpoint of voices.
"I feel that this unusual condition is helping us bring out some interesting perspectives, Mendo." In breaking the silence, the psychotherapist's voice had soon lost its initial momentum.

"..."

"I want you to know that this time won’t be billed, go ahead if you feel like it." She tried to assume a playful expression. Hidden underneath her short suit jacket, Dr. Wallace's fingers were nervously playing with a fluorescent orange rubber bracelet.

"No-one is ever suspended, not even now with seventy-four floors of nothing underfoot..."

"Well, this is certainly a positive observation..."

"Shut up, you don’t know a shit." An almost calm remark, pronounced with a firmness that hit Dr. Wallace like a bucket of frozen water.

"Have you ever thought, doctor," Mendo continued, sharply spelling out his last word, "that the fear of emptiness, the horror vacui as they defined it in the Middle Ages, is nothing but the unconscious and desperate attempt to look away from the ultimate truth?"

Since the elevator had blocked its descent, the patient had confined himself to a corner on the opposite side of the entrance. His left leg was now dancing grotesquely, animated like it had a life of its own and in contrast with the cadaveric stiffness of his other body parts.

"I never thought of that." Dr. Wallace wisely responded in brief, observing for the umpteenth time the assistance number carved on the elevator control panel.

"Mmmm...” A growing moan on the other side of the narrow cabin.

The doctor instinctively thought of her daughter that night, when the wind had hit the fixtures of the old house in the mountains so intensely that it produced an endless banshee howl. The little girl had made a sound of compressed horror, just like that.

If only she had known, she would have never asked Mr. Anatoliy “Mendoza” Volkov, an extraordinarily subtle personality, to follow her downstairs after that emergency therapy session in her office. On the other hand, he was one of her first and most challenging patients. Furthermore, he used to pay awesomely.

"Because the void swarms." Now his eyes were on the doctor, sunken out and bugging out at the same time.

"Soon they'll free us, do you think you'll keep writing that song you were talking about?" Dr. Wallace ventured. She realized that the silk shirt was soaking with her acrid sweat.

"It's the Yellow King's dominion, he comes from the void, it's him who made me do those things. I did not want to." His whine ripped open in a sinister vocal of terror.

"Mendo .." She did not know what to add. Now the doctor's hand, behind her sweating back, was pressing the assistance button convulsively.

His wide open eyes. They had stopped staring at her and now they were pointing up, right behind her shoulders.

"Mendo, what's up?"

"The Yellow King. He's here.">


Opera Shoujo's ending

The doctor start feeling a cold sweat all over her face and hands. She almost could not dissimulate her fear, since her face was tense and she could feel her facial muscles hardened. As she recovered from the impact, she quickly thought of something to say. It had to be something simple and clever so as to not disturb Mendo, in her opinión, but she could not help questioning him for her own comfort.

“Do you mean he is close, or he is actually here?” said the doctor.

“He is here, evidently.” He replied.

At this, she started feeling her knees shaking a little. This was impossible to believe, since she could not see anybody apart from Mendo, but this particular situation was beyond her control, beyond her knowledge, beyond everything she knew and thought she knew. She did not why, but she feared.

“Am I… I mean, are you some kind of… Why can you see him, and I can’t?” She asked while she was losing control of herself.

"You are not allowed to see him. Only the ones who follow him, and prepare for him.” He replied.

The elevator moved abruptly. An impossible cold wind encircled the doctor, blocking her motor skills as she felt about to faint.

“So, were you saying… doctor?” This last word sounded purposedly full of sarcasm. He had an expression of victory in her face, as if he knew exactly what the doctor was feeling.

She took a heavy breath. Then she said in an obviously disturbed voice,but trying to sound natural: “how do you prepare for him?”

“It depends.” Was the cold reply.

“It depends on what?” she asked nervously.

“Why are you so curious about it?” he said, getting closer.

“I’m always interested in what you have to say. It doesn’t have to do with me. It’s more a professional interest than a personal one. I’m curious, that's it.” Said the frightened woman, who was feeling his companion’s breath close to her face.

“It depends on many factors, you know. There are many ways to prepare for him. It depends on the individuals, (he sliced one of his fingers over her right shoulder) on the number of rituals you have done for him, on how much you care for your own life and other people’s. Now his finger touched her lips briefly, and suddenly his hand was in the control panel, his body touching hers in an intimidating way.

“Did he leave?” said Dr. Wallace trying to change this situation. Her patient answered negatively with his head.

After an uncomfortable silence, he shouted agressively: “Wanna see him, know what I know, witness his power?” He had exorbitant red eyes, his veins looked swollen as they were about to explode, and he looked paler, even skinnier than before.

She uttered crying: “Jesus Christ! What’s all this?”

At hearing what she just had said, Mendo grabbed the woman by her neck. The last thing Dr Wallace ever saw was Mendo’s wild red eyes.

Thanks for reading!

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Hey @opera.shoujo! Great build up of the tension and I also loved the fact that you kept the dialogue going..Don't forget to drop the link with a comment in the main contest post.. or else noone of the participants will see it!

Aww man! Thanks for the reminder. I had some issues with the internet yesterday and was a little frustrated, so I posted this and forgot about it for the rest of the day. He, he.

This ending would awkwardly fit just right inside of a Ghostbusters movie, would make for an interesting Ghostbusters movie if they started playing and screwing around with the Lovecraftian mythos. Resteem’d.

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Thanks a lot. So glad you liked it :)

Week #27 is served on a silver dish for you, brave storyteller!

That was fast-paced. Found myself rushing to the end to see if the doctor would get out of it...but I knew she wouldn't. "Last thing she ever saw..." kind of tells it all :)

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to the Finish the Story contest! What a great way to introduce yourself! Your story is full of tension and built in a solid climax until the bitter end. I hope to read more of yours in the next weeks :D

Resteemed your article. This article was resteemed because you are part of the New Steemians project. You can learn more about it here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@gaman/new-steemians-project-launch

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