The Watch - Part 23

After we had our race and I had eventually stopped dancing, we grabbed another bag of popcorn, put in one of Tom’s DVDs, The Factory’s Secrets, and pressed play. We shut all the curtains, turned off the lights so that the only light came from the TV itself, and made ourselves comfortable on the sofa. This time, Tom managed to get his bag of popcorn open on the first try, mainly because he decided not to take any chances and use a pair of scissors. Once again, I managed to get mine open without any hassle.

‘Did you say you haven’t seen this before?’ I asked.

‘I’ve been meaning to get around to it for a while now. I was going to download it, but when the opportunity to buy it presented itself, I jumped at the chance because I knew that today was the day that I can actually see it,’ Tom explained. The warning message disappeared and the film started in the woods with a man and a woman running hand in hand, happily. They came to a stop under a group of trees where they proceeded to kiss. 

They then proceeded to take a casual stroll through the woods. That’s when they found an abandoned factory that the man explained was once a thriving factory, making a profit so large there was no need for it to shut, yet, for some unknown reason it did.

They decided to leave, but the film wouldn’t be a horror and called The Factory’s Secrets if they didn’t come back. Another man and his girlfriend both persuaded the man and the woman to go back there as it would be the perfect place to get all the information they need for their project. In order to get as much information as they could, they decided to spend the entire weekend there. So they returned, and that’s when the film picked up a notch and the horror started. There were a couple of good jump scares that completely caught me off guard, especially when one of the friends innocently jumped out in front of the other, making them jump out of their skins, only to be shocked once more by the ghost of the factory. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but I will say that the ending was somewhat a shocking one. I thought I had predicted the ending, only to have everything I knew about that film completely turn on its head, without warning. That was very well written and directed film.

***

‘That was amazing,’ Tom said.

‘It certainly was a horror, I’ll give you that,’ I said.

‘You didn’t like it,’ Tom wondered if he had gotten the wrong end of the stick.

‘I never said that,’ I said quickly, ‘I was just saying that it had plenty of jump scares among other things. That certainly made a chill go down my back, I can tell you that,’ I praised.

‘Me, too,’ Tom nodded. He stretched before standing up. He looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Blimey, I had better get back.’ I checked the time on my watch and saw that it was half past eleven at night. ‘My mum and dad are not going to be too happy that I’m coming home at this time of night, especially when they have to wake up early tomorrow morning.’ He sighed, ‘Oh well,’ he said shrugging it off, ‘I’ll be seeing you tomorrow.’

‘Yeah, see you tomorrow,’ I said following him to the front door where he opened it, revealing the night life. At this time of night, the only activity you will ever see is a couple of cars every hour or so and one or two people coming back from the pub, usually stumbling about. The hot air made its escape, and was replaced by the cold, which was kind of refreshing since it did get a little stuffy in the living room, what with all the curtains being shut and the film's intensity.

Tom stepped outside, taking in a deep breath and exhaling. ‘I’ll let you pick what we’re going to do tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Have anything in mind?’

‘Not at the moment, but I’ll have something in the morning, don’t worry about that.’

‘I won’t,’ he said turning on the spot and heading down the garden path. He opened the gate and turned left, waving goodbye before being swallowed up by the darkness of the night.

I shut the front door, locked it and yarned as if my body was telling me that I should hit the hay as well. I packed away the DVDs, pushed aside Tom’s bags as I knew that he deliberately forgot them so that he could dig into them tomorrow, and made sure that all the doors and windows were locked, before heading upstairs where I changed into my pyjamas.

I switched off my light switch in my bedroom and was about to climb into bed when the door bell rung.

‘Who the hell is that at this time of night?’ I asked myself switching on the light again and heading downstairs. Maybe it’s Tom who changed his mind and came back to collect his things. I unlocked the door and opened it by a crack, calling through.

‘Who is it?’

‘You wouldn’t believe it even if you saw me,’ an awfully familiar voice said. My curiosity overpowered my hesitation and I opened the door. He was right, I do not believe it even though I am seeing him. He’s standing there in front of me and my brain is struggling to process what is actually happening.

I was standing behind that door.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for watching

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)