The Theater

We stood outside the old, dark abandoned movie theater. The windows were dark too. We were there to see if there was anything worth painting at all. The windows were boarded up, but the theater was doing well enough, back in the old days it was. At least until the owners took out their entire theater chain.

We pushed through the front door, carefully. I almost fell over, almost. Not that I fell, that’s not what I meant.

We walked through the dark hallway as I used my light as a flashlight as we went on. There were some old seats and some old devices all over the damned place. The lavatories too were old and had black stains and some nameless things that looked like they were made before and some movies and some single seats in the back, in the dark.

We've broken into abandoned places before to do art murals and smoke the night away. It was a great outlet for us and nothing ever went wrong. the places that we went to were either scheduled for demolition or were sat abandoned for years. any squatters we encountered left us alone once they knew we were broke and gave them a couple of your smokes.

We stopped in front of a lavatory. The door was a little ajar and I went to investigate. The stink from there wasn’t anything to get excited about for trash and excrement littered the floor. There was a few old tissues, after all, old movie flyers from old days, and a few broken sinks and stall doors.

I went back to my buddy Michael and looked at him. He was looking back at me. I could tell he was just as started as I was. I sat down on the floor to take out my cigarettes and lighter, I lit up.

There was no one disturbing us in the theater. I thought it was okay that there was no one here tonight. No one was around to annoy us, bully us, to tell us to hit the road. We were all by ourselves. If anything, maybe we could stay here for a little bit, just to ghost it out. After a bit, I and Michael decide to start our art project and began spray painting one of the walls that showed little damage.

“Come on,” I said to him, not looking down at what I was doing while holding the can.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” He said while taking the can while I was trying to get this splotching job of mine right. “You done with that then?” He asked. I turned to him and nodded.

“Okay then.” He said as he began to splatter one of the walls as well.

“Did I tell you about a girl I saw a couple of days ago or a couple of months ago?” I asked.

“No, I don’t believe so,” Michael replied with a curious look on his face.

“Yeah, I saw a girl that I think is pretty.”

“Yeah, what’s she look like?”

“Well, she has blonde hair. She’s really nice looking. I met her at work awhile back.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she’s really nice to do you think I look good?”

“Huh? What?” Michael replied.

“Oh, I was just asking. You now look sharp.” I said.

“Oh, okay. Well, I’m gonna see if I can’t start taking care of this part of the wall.” Michael said, getting up.

I told him I’d be back, and he nodded. I left and went back to finish. We were both using cans and I just needed to finish. I wanted to get this work finished up and we could tackle the other wall.

The last of the wall was done and it looked great. I went behind and looked and smiled and went and sat down on the floor again. There I sat as I finished the smoke. I reached for another one, but my lighter was missing.

“Where’s my lighter?” I asked Michael.

“I think I saw it on the floor.” He replied.

I got up, “Alright fine.” I said as I went to check the floor, but I didn’t find it.

I quickly went to the hallway again and raised the light to shine it down the hall. shining the light around I thought I caught a glimpse of a figure in the distance. I stood there for a few seconds motionless and then I took a few steps towards the figure.

“There’s someone down here,” I said.

“Yeah right,” he said.

“I just spotted someone,” I replied.

“Yeah, I doubt it, man we are the only ones in this place,” Michael said letting out a drag.

“Dude I'm not playing around, come see for yourself man.” I pleaded with him.

“Okay, fine.” He said as he got up and left, leaving the can of spray paint behind.

We went to the hallway, both of us searching with our flashlights.

“Dude I really think I saw someone,” I said again.

“Yeah, sure man was he tall and handsome?” He replied sarcastically.

"shut up man." I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

Just as Micheal was about to let out a laugh we heard a loud bang come from inside one of the showing rooms. We looked at each other just holding our breath waiting for something else to happen. after a few moments of silence, I finally spoke.

"Alright, that's enough for today I'm out man." I turn around and head back to our spot.

"Yeah let's grab our stuff and get going." He said.

I turned to look at him and nodded before walking down the side of the wall to where we left our stuff. We didn't want to leave. We wanted to stay and smoke more, but something inside of me was telling me that we needed to leave now. There was something about this place that had me on high alert as something demonic lived here. We grabbed the cans of spray paint one of us took a lighter and a backpack of smokes and a few other small items of ours and started for the door. On our way out I noticed glowing eyes staring at us from the corner of my eyes. I tried to pay them no mind as we headed out of this creepy place, but it wasn't going to be that easy. we both froze at the entrance to the building looking in horror as we read out the red writing painted on the doors and windows. "WELCOME TO THE TEATER" was written in what we assumed, well more liked hoped, in red paint. I pulled at the door handle to no avail, the doors were locked tight. I slapped my hand against them, but it made no difference. "Dude... you were right... I think there is something in here with us." Michael whispered quietly.

Down the hall, we heard a noise coming from one of the showing rooms. it sounded like a movie was playing. We both looked at each other and nodded. We walked slowly down the hall, looking into the rooms that had the lights on. Each room had its own program they were showing. one was clearly about death, it showed a black room with red lights. It showed the most brutal death of a beautiful young woman. I looked away too scared to watch, but couldn't tear my eyes off of it. Michael went in deeper to look around the room meanwhile, I stayed by the door trying not to vomit up my dinner. After a minute of standing there, I felt eyes burning through the back of my head, but as I looked behind me no one was there, but the feeling didn't leave instead it got worse and started to feel malevolent.

I couldn't take it anymore so I ventured into the showroom where my friend was. As I entered the room Michael was nowhere to be found. I asked him if he was alright and got no response. I looked around the room, but there was no one. I noticed a couple of exits on either side of the room, but as I approached the exit a ghostly-looking figure appeared standing at the door. He wore a black cloak that hid his entire body with the exception of his face which was very pale and his eyes were sunken inside of his head leaving pitch dark circles of emptiness. From any other angle this... man... would look like an everyday person, but I can tell this wasn't a person... this...thing... was something else. The thing looked at me through the doorway. He stepped towards me slowly, staring at me.

staring at me unblinkingly, unemotionally, I felt my heart pounding in my chest and my breathing became rapid and shallow. It slowly reached its hand towards me; its hand was incredibly skinny with long black curled fingernails that could have possibly been claws. My body was frozen in place as I screamed for myself to move to run away. I knew that if I didn't leave now this creature would somehow kill me. With all the will I can muster I broke from whatever trance I was in and bolted to the door I came in and ran out of there. I didn't grab my backpack it was left there or bother to look for Michael. I didn't look back as I busted through the front doors of the theater and continued running down the path.

I ran as fast as I could into the woods getting scratched by the trees and bushes in the forest. I ran feeling the eyes of the humanoid man on the back of my head and occasionally...his breath on the back of my neck...I ran as fast as I could, but couldn't outdistance the feeling of dread and fear gripping my body until I made it to the safety of my home.

I stumbled my way into the house and locked the door behind me, I ran to my room locking and barricading my door and windows. I grabbed one of my metal bats from my closet and sat crouched in the corner of my room until morning.

Word soon got around about Michael missing and it wasn't long until his body was found mutilated in the old abandoned movie theater. It was later reported to have been an animal attack due to the... missing body parts and organs... the strange thing was that there were no prints or fur from animals in the area, and no one talked about the fact that he clawed his own eyes out.

To this day I still see the man-like creature on the edge of my sleep... the only problem now was that he no longer looked the way he did then... he looks like my friend... only... his eyes are sunken black holes and wears a twisted and broken smile. He whispers my name and tells me to come back to the theater for he wants to show me something. Its been a week since I last slept...I think I'm gonna go watch a movie...maybe the theater...has something good showing right now...