LKI -  SAMPLE 4 FLASH SAMPLE


It’s late, the clock is ticking the last dying seconds of my shift away, only one more film and the cinema shuts down. Amongst the employees there’s a shared air of tired melancholy, under the dim orange lights we yawn and stretch and dream of the moment we step out of this door and through our front. The customers don’t seem to notice, they fill the air with laughter, crunched popcorn and the clinking of glasses. I’m so tired that they become a single blur before me, a grey hubbub of cheerful noise. It’s so very late that the place should be empty, a single film student or a couple or two would be acceptable but I’ve been cursed with almost packed 500 seats. We’re airing something new, I think but I’m neither sure nor do I care.
I lean against my mop and look out the large windows where the world hurries past, people in suits head home, their collars up and hats down against the rain. Momentarily I wish I were a smoker so I’d have an excuse to go and stand out in the cold and taste the wind. There’s a single AC for the entire cinema which recycles the same old dry mess into a harsh arid air. I can see my reflection in the mirror, my eyes are small white dots under. Jesus, I barely look alive.
My mouth is pursed into a scowl and my red usher's uniform is just as obnoxious as ever.

“ Hey” I get tapped on the shoulder and jolted out of my self-pity

“ Hey back”,

“ We’re starting in twenty minutes so you better get ready”, Lucy pokes me playfully, she’s like an unending ball of energy. Constantly bouncing on her feet and always smiling. Customers love her more than me which is understandable. As she starts heading towards the screen I hang back so I can get a good view of her brown ringlets bouncing hypnotically on her shoulders.

The line seems unending as we rip their tickets and let them into the screen which blares commercials at my back

“ Thank you, enjoy your movie”

I hear Lucy smile at everyone. A couple teenagers walk past me and feign ignorance when I ask for an ID, thinking of my bed I wave them in. Hoping that their souls won’t be corrupted to badly.

“ Projector room or seat today?”, I’m asked when everyone's inside

“Well I was thinking I could take the projector today?”, the small dark box where I could enjoy two hours of sleep sounds like bliss right now but..

Lucy turns on her feet, leans sideways and smiles playfully at me, “ Please”. She knows exactly how to play me. I pretend to get angry and shake my fist at her before finally admitting defeat. Even in my darkest moods, she can raise me a little...maybe I’ll actually ask her out soon.
I take a deep breath and enter the room, my soul shrinking away as I see every packed seat crammed with wriggling bodies. Whenever my flashlight hits them they fall briefly silent. I take my reserved seat at the very top and listen to the clicking of the film as Lucy starts the projector. The lights dim and the audience finally shuts up. I watch the credits roll and perk up just a little, I’ve heard of the movie before and it’s a Scorcese maybe I’ll get to enjoy it.

Of course not, not a minute later the door creaks open and a latecomer shuffles his wave down the steps. He takes the seat in front of me, heavy cologne hitting me directly in the face. Not only is he tall but a large hat is perched on his head, completely blocking my view. I slump back in my seat and sulk, well at least I’ll be able to sleep a little in the dark. The audience around me bursts into shrieking laughter. God damn it, I forgot this was a comedy.

I begin to drift away, my body floats away and as my mind prepares to depart the world around me grows faint and dimmed. Just before my eyelids slam down I hear a hollow pop and the smell of fireworks wafts down towards me. Then I’m dreaming

When I wake up it’s to silence, the man in front of me is gone. In fact, everyone is gone, the cinema is empty and the film hangs on a final credit. Except not totally, two seats in front of me a bald man is asleep in his chair. I shudder myself awake and move down to him beaming my flashlight.

“ Sir” I croak

From the projection window, I see Lucy smiling face peer out, “ Hey that’s us”

“ Not quite there’s still one more”.

He doesn’t react to me, gently I shake him but he remains clasped to the seat in front of him. I hear something dripping very slowly on the floor. There’s a heavy smell of iron in the air...I force the man over to his front. Two vacant eyes stare up at me and tearing out from where his nose should have been was an exit hole the size of my fist. I start screaming.

The two police officers seem to disinterested to soothe me but despite that, they’ve draped a thin blanket over my shoulders and given me a cheap cigarette. The body is still there, between us. Lucy is by my side grasping my arm and our manager is on the other scowling. At what I’m not sure, me, the police or the body.

“ Now Mr Schmidt, you wouldn’t know who this man is would you ?”

“ No, of course now”

The officer taking notes yawns, “ and you wouldn’t be aware of any organised crime happening in this area would you “
The questions, just keep coming and coming and one by one I shrink away. I want a cigarette, I want them to leave me alone and to take the body away and most of all I just want to crawl into bed and sleep. But after the first set of questioning is done I’m invited down to the station to give myself up for another. Just before I shuffle out like a walking corpse to the police car I’m grabbed by my boss. My eyes refuse to focus on his moustache and the only words I catch are, “ You’re fired.”