Surviving sixty minutes

The man who was later missing for over a decade, screamed out loud as the thing stabbed him over and over again. The sheer terror he went through in the last forty minutes finally took its toll as his heart stopped suddenly, his body broken and cut, bleeding heavily from several wounds. The very last image he saw was the giant black screen with the large, white two digits number in the middle. Then everything went dark, and just like that, he was gone from existence forever.

Jesse opened his eyes and looked around. The place still had a new home feeling even though it was his for three months now. He and his wife Anna purchased it together, found it about a month before buying it, as they run through houses for sale in St Johns County. They decided to buy it for many reasons. They wanted to move to Florida but to a part where they get the benefit of the great weather, yet away from the massive tourism what came hand to hand with places like Miami, Orlando, or even the triangle of St Petersburg-Clearwater-Tampa area. Also a huge reason was their love for history. They visited St Augustine for many times and fell in love with the oldest city in the US, the calmness, the Castillo de San Marcos, a 17th-century Spanish stone fortress with views of the St. Augustine Inlet. They spent many hours in the Anastasia State Park and just knew this is where they wanted to live for the rest of their life.

They bought the house in Ponte Vedra Beach, only forty minutes of an easy drive on A1A to St Augustine. The best drive they ever had as the scenario was beautiful. On one side of the two lane road was the coast, the sandy beach about 20 meters away, on the other side wild vegetation grew, almost jungle like, giving the feeling of driving in the wild untouched by civilization. And as a bonus, the cost of their new home was really low, almost suspiciously low for a house in tip top condition, ready to move in.

Maybe even too good to be true they thought, but could not find any issues with it, so they took the deal. The only thing they could think of for the cheap price was the alarming amount of missing persons in St Johns County over the past forty years. They discovered this on the internet when researched the history of the house. Apparently there were dozens of people of all background, gender and age, many kids among them as well since the 70’s. None of these missing person cases were ever solved so the list just grew every year with no answers available. These people just seemed to disappear without a trace from one moment to the other.

Knowing this but not really concerned, they moved in and enjoyed it to the fullest until life decided to intervene. Two weeks after they received the keys, Anna had passed away in a car accident on I 95, crashing head on into a truck that lost control on the road going through the cordon into her lane. She didn’t stand a chance and died immediately. Jesse was devastated. To this day he didn’t know how he survived the past few months. Their dream became his trap, and even though he still loved where he lived now, she left an empty space in his life. He coped with the situation as much as he could, and as a hobby he picked up fishing and surfing to take his mind off of his loss.

He was going to do some of that today, as he recently discovered a little gem, a small beach halfway to St Augustine. He found that beach, when he was driving on A1A to south. He passed a small right turn many times before but on that day he decided to check it out. It led to a hidden parking lot, space for about sixty cars, yet empty, invisible from the road. He parked his car walked out of the parking lot, crossed the road and climbed up to a wooden little bridge on the other side that led him straight to the white sand. A small but perfectly empty part of the beach, surrounded by high vegetation, completely cut off from civilization. The only way to that section, was on the bridge behind him, or by water front of him. Since the death of Anna, he went there several times enjoying the privacy, often thinking how come he never met anyone there.

This morning wasn’t any different, virtually no traffic on the road, and he got to the empty parking lot within thirty minutes. As he turned in to park he noticed a building on the very end of the lot. A building he never saw before. Rolling closer he saw it was a small Cinema maybe fits one showing room, all empty but open. This was weird. He couldn’t remember ever seeing it, and he was sure it was impossible to miss it before as it stood right at the end where the thick vegetation started, nothing behind it but the Florida jungle. He got out of the car and just stared at the building confused. This was not a dream or a hallucination, the cinema was right there front of him, with a poster on its wall about the movie being shown today. The place looked old something you might see in the 60’s but didn’t look abandoned. In fact it looked like a fully functioning small movie theater and that did not make any sense to Jesse. He started to think he made a wrong turn and ended up in a different parking lot, undiscovered yet, although it did look exactly like the one he got used to already.

Still confused he started to walk closer when he heard the whisper. He could swear the voice came from everywhere lingering around him until a light breeze carried it away. Then again the same voice repeating the same word: ‘come ’

He stopped and turned around, but there was nobody else in the parking lot. As he looked through the glass entrance door he saw the ticket selling booth inside with someone sitting in there. He finally took the courage and walked up to the poster. It was black with a white face on it, screaming in terror. The title of the movie read on the top of the poster: “Surviving sixty minutes “.

Nothing about actors or any other information besides the line in small letters on the bottom that read: “horror, of a lifetime”.

It was a very hot morning already and he quickly changed his mind about surfing. He was going inside and watch this movie whatever it is about, getting ready for some chills some action hopefully a good film in an empty theatre with air conditioning. He used to go to a small cinema in daytime, when he lived in Queens New York, where premiere movies were shown. He was almost always alone in that theatre not counting the occasional homeless people hoping to catch a nap in the dark. He quite liked to watch a movie that way, having the whole room for himself, so he was getting a bit excited about it now.

The whisper came again, same word same voice. He couldn’t make it if it was a male or a female voice, it just sounded like it was in his head.

‘Come’.

It has to be that person in the booth through some sort of speaker system he thought and pushed the glass door open. He stepped inside and walked over to the ticket seller. She was an old woman dressed as she was stuck in the 30’s, long, black lace dress buttoned up neck high even though it was hot inside. The old lady was reading something and looked up as Jesse approached. He never saw someone so old. She looked fragile with white hair, wrinkled face and the blackest eyes Jesse ever saw. For a second he was sure she didn’t have any white in her eyes just the two black stones, cold as ice as she looked at him.

‘Good morning dear’, she said, her voice sounded deep and throaty for that small body, like it came from a well, not what Jesse expected.

‘Hi, how are you?’ he asked, ‘I have never seen this building here before, quite a surprise. How long is this cinema here?’

‘Feels like an eternity’ she said, ‘would you like a ticket?’

‘Yes I will take one thanks. What is this movie about? Have you seen it?’ Jesse asked while going for his wallet.

‘Oh yes dear I did watch it many times. Long sixty minutes though, very intense indeed, not many would see the end. But then again it is horror of a lifetime, the poster says it as well’, she smiled showing a set of grey teeth. ‘One ticket dear, that would be a dollar fifty’ she added.

‘Dollar fifty? I like this place already.’ He said putting two singles down.

‘By the way, did you ask me to come in through the speakers?

‘What speakers?’ she asked looking at him with no emotions on her face.

‘Never mind’ he said shaking his head. ‘I am probably mistaken.’

‘Well have a superb time dear’, she said passing the ticket to Jesse. ‘Door to the show room is on the left. Oh and sorry sunny boy but the food window is closed, we can’t serve any popcorn. Not like you will miss it’ she kept smiling while licking her dry lips. Jesse could swear her tongue was cut in the middle like a snake’s, but quickly dismissed it as a trick of his mind, and he walked towards the door that led him to the show room.

As he got in he immediately noticed the temperature being warm inside. ‘The AC must be out in the whole building, but what do I want for a dollar fifty,’ he thought bitterly. The next thing he noticed he liked much more. The room was empty, like he hoped it would be. It was a small room had only 16 rows and 10 seats per row. On the screen a silly commercial was playing already, warning people to silence their phone. He smiled as he looked around checking the emptiness, but muted his phone anyway. He took his seat in row 10, and waited for the lights to be shut off.

The commercial ended, and the screen went black. As the lights started to dim rapidly, the door on the bottom slammed shut with such a power, it sounded like an explosion and almost gave Jesse a heart attack. He was sitting in pitch black waiting for the main title to appear on the screen his heart still beating fast, when all speakers in the room came alive in a form of a terrible scream. Not just one person screaming but sounded like hundreds together in pain, screaming for long and loud ever growing until he had to cover his ears. Then suddenly the screaming ended, giving place to absolute silence.
Then, he heard something. It was some small noise, coming from behind him, few rows above. He turned to look but couldn’t see anything in the dark, yet he felt as he is not alone in the room anymore. He pulled his mobile out and pressed a button. The screen gave him enough light to see two shadows sitting three rows above his on the last two seats, looking like a couple making out. His phone then vibrated for a moment before it died, leaving him in pitch black again. The screams from the speakers came back, a lot less loud, but still sounded horrific and now was accompanied with a deep growling sound in the background, something only a large wild animal can produce.

‘That’s it’, he thought having enough of this. He proceeded to get up of his seat to find a way out of the row, down the stairs to the exit door next to the screen. He put his hand forward trying not to walk into the wall. The total darkness annoyed him and the scream continued from the speakers, now adding some occasional cry outs what sounded like children’s voice. He finally reached the door disoriented and slightly scared, and tried to push it open. It was locked. He tried stronger using his shoulders but the door stayed shut, it didn’t even move a bit. He turned around to go back up, thinking maybe he will be able to call for help from the couple. The temperature felt hotter than before and he started to sweat slowly. He took a step carefully, arm reached out when something flew by his face. He felt a small breeze created by the thing just passed him and noticed something had hit him on the back of his hand. Some sort of liquid, just a drop but its already started to burn through his skin, as acid would go through on anything organic. He cried out loud when the pain registered and tried to swipe the liquid off with his other hand, just to burn his palm too. He swiped both hands in his shorts but the damage was done. He felt the skin missing from his hand as he was touching where the liquid hit him. He started to panic making way towards the couple. One step after another then he tripped over on something. At the same moment the black screen came on with a loud click and a number appeared on it. A giant, white, double digit number in the middle of the dark screen that read 60.

The white number just gave enough light for Jesse to be able to look around. First he looked at the object caused him to trip over. To his horror it was a bloody sack of meat, looked like it used to be some sort of animal, a dead dog maybe. He saw the fur being all bloody and something under the skin was moving. The rotting smell hit him straight in the face and he started to gag. He looked up towards the couple. There was no one there. He quickly looked around in the room but couldn’t see anybody else, he was alone again. The number on the screen changed to 59.

He was in full panic now. He ran back down to the door, pushed and kicked it again and again, but the thick wooden door was shut thigh. He banged on it as hard as his injured hands let him and shouted until his voice was hoarse. The temperature rose even more, he was sweating profoundly now. Still in panic he ran up to the last row, climbed on the back of the seat under the small window led to the projector. He was on his toes just able to bring his eye sight to look into the small projection room. It was empty. The machine gave the steady noise of a projector, humming slightly but other than that everything was still. He stepped off of the seat and turned around to look over the whole room. What he saw hit him like a hammer. The first five rows from the bottom were almost full with people. He looked harder and he could see faces turned towards him, staring without blinking, their mouth wild open, but no noise came out. He could see the faces and a small part of the neck. But what he saw under the necks gave him chills. Under the necks there were no bodies, just a stick. The heads were on one side, and the other ends of the sticks were stabbed deeply into the seats holding them straight up. The screen now showed number 51.

Even though it was hot in there Jesse was trembling with fear. He tried to understand what was happening, but couldn’t even imagine. He just knew it was real, the pain in his hands told him that. He saw some movement in the corner of his eyes. He turned to see the same couple he saw before. This time they were in his seat, but still making out like they were completely unaware of their surroundings. ‘Hey’, Jesse called out loud. ‘I need help look up! Hey, you two!’

They both turned to him slowly and he wished they didn’t. They didn’t have faces. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, only smooth skin that looked grey in the light from the projector. They stood up zombie like and started to climb towards Jesse, row over row. As they moved they started to grow, their limbs started to get longer and longer until they reminded him of the Slender Man from pictures he saw when he was younger. They moved slow but steady, and Jesse felt the threat so strong it almost choked him. He jumped back but there was no room, so he started to run out of the top row, away from the two creatures. The number on the screen was 47.

He ran down to the door again but still couldn’t open it. He moved to the corner and just stood there for a second, looking at the heads on the seats turning towards him on the sticks, quietly staring, their mouth wild open in a silent shout. As he looked at them one by one he realized he can recognize some of them. He saw those faces just recently. They were the faces of the people who disappeared from St Johns County over the past forty years. This shocked him to the core, and his knees gave away. He slowly sat down to the floor back to the wall, face towards the room. He was tired and hot, and his brain was numb. He got used to the constant screaming and growling from the speakers, but his hands were hurting. He checked them and almost cried when he saw the white bone through a whole, where the acidic liquid melted the skin and the flash away. That also reminded him of another danger, the flying thing that did this to him. He looked around but couldn’t see it. Then he looked up and the thing was right above him. Hanging from the ceiling and look like a bat would, but much bigger in size, and instead of black the thing was wild red. It was so red he could see the colour clearly even in the semi dark room. It had large wings, and under them two small human arms ended in tiny hands. The hands were holding something and it looked like the creature was eating it. It was a bloody piece of the dead dog from the stairs. The thing stopped eating and now was looking straight at him. It didn’t move, but a visible drop of liquid was just about to depart from its mouth, aiming right at him. He wanted to move but he was too late. He saw the drop coming like it was in slow motion. He only had time to move his head out of the way, but the liquid hit him on the left shoulder. It started to burn trough immediately, first his shirt, then the skin and then deep into the flash. The pain was unbearable. He screamed out loud as the thing dropped the piece of meat and flew away towards the other end. He looked at the top rows and saw the other two monsters hugging again, like a couple in love, back to their original size, not moving. He felt as he will pass out. He fought against it but the pain won and he closed his eyes. The screen read 39.

The speakers went quite, the screaming stopped. There was silence again and Jesse opened his eyes. He didn’t know how long he was unconscious, but when he looked around the room was empty. No monsters no giant red bat with human hands and acid for saliva, and no cut off heads on sticks looking at him. The wall he leaned against felt softer than before and a bit slippery. He looked at it and saw the wallpaper has changed from the original lovely purple flowers into something entirely different. It changed into mould, black and dark green. He jumped on his feet and took a closer look. There was movement in the mould, small faces started to appear, the same faces from the sticks, all of them yelling in tiny high pitched voice repeating the same word over and over ‘Come, Come’. He stared at them in terror, and then jumped backwards away from the wall, from the small faces. He just couldn’t stop to look at the moving mould. Jesse was mentally strong but at that moment he was close to lose his mind. As far as he could see the wall was swarming, moving like there were ants under the wall paper. Then he felt a hand on his good shoulder, squeezing it slightly. He wanted to jump again but the constant fear was taking its toll and he couldn’t move. Somehow he shook the hand off of his shoulder and faced the person standing behind him. The number on the screen changed to 21.

As soon as he realized who stood there he knew he was lost. He broke down and started to cry. The person front of him was Anna, his dear wife, the woman who passed away less than three months ago. She was as beautiful as he remembered.

‘Anna, oh my God, Anna! What is happening to me?’ he asked her, tears running down on his face, ‘I can’t take this anymore.’

She smiled at him with the same smile he fell in love with. Her green eyes sparkling as always, her long dark hair framed her face. Then her smile disappeared and she raised her arm her index finger pointed at Jesse. Her perfectly manicured nail started to go rapidly and stabbed Jesse in the chest. It felt like a long ice stick penetrating his body still growing inside until the end came out of his back. Her skin started to discolour to a rotten grey and her hair started to fall out. Her once beautiful face aged quickly and changed into the old woman’s face from the ticket booth.

‘Who is Anna?’, she laughed and stabbed him again, this time in the stomach. Then she grabbed his neck and pulled his face close to hers. Jesse could smell her breath. It smelled like death, like rotten meat like decay. She laughed in his face, lifted him up by the neck and threw him back to the wall with such force the impact broke his shoulder blade and cracked the wall where he landed. From the wall hundreds of small hands grabbed his shirt not letting him move. The terror was overwhelming. His body was a mess of broken bones, burns and blood. The high pitched voices echoed in his head ‘come, come’. Some small hands from the wall started to pull his hair, forcing him to look where the old lady stood a moment ago. She wasn’t there anymore and the number on the screen changed to 14.

With an enormous effort he shook of the tiny hands and slowly pushed himself to his feet. His body ached and his mind was racing. The room was empty again no visible threats besides the walls. First he didn’t notice the low rumbles, only when it grew shaking the floor under him. The walls started to crack and shake and the voices died down into a deep hum.

The first stream of water broke through the wall under the screen. Then another crack gave way, then a third one, and soon Jesse stood in ankle deep water quickly rising. He run to the door and pushed it with all the power he had left in his broken body but the door wouldn’t move. He looked up to the other end of the room and saw the small projection window, water pouring out of it like a waterfall, soaking the upper rows, running down towards him. He was knee deep now, getting harder to move around. Soon the first cracks appeared on the ceiling, water falling down on him. Jesse was forced to move higher, row after row, but the water followed him. The screen showed number 9.

He made it to the top row and climbed on the first seat. The water level now covered the whole theatre and reached his chest. He tried to climb up on the back of the seat but couldn’t find anything to hold onto and fell backwards. The water was cold and dark. He now had to thread to keep his head above. There was still about two meters to the ceiling but the level rose quickly. He felt his energy fading and he knew he won’t be able to thread much longer. One meter left to the ceiling, then a half. He knew he will die, but he didn’t care anymore. The past hour had more pain and suffering he could ever imagine, truly a horror of a lifetime. He did touch the ceiling and took one more deep breath, then the room filled up completely. Jesse held his breath as long as he could, and just before he passed out he heard the same loud explosion like the noise he heard when the door slammed shut an hour ago. Then the blackness came and he missed to see the door opening up, the massive amount of water going out carrying his broken body outside through the lobby to the parking lot into the sunshine as the number on the screen changed to 1.

She was furious. Hungry and disappointed, she couldn’t remember the last time this has happened. She knew how many escaped through the long years since she was doing this. Four of them and they all lost their mind, only their bodies survived. This last one was her mistake. She was getting careless, played with her victim far too long. She knew she had sixty minutes to take and feed on a soul then throw the remains of the physical body to her creatures, but lately she enjoyed hurting them more and more. One soul every year until all her seats were filled.

It started in 1968 when she was built. A small cinema in a sleepy town in Florida, only one showroom with one hundred and sixty seats. Brand new projector and the best audio system available at that time. The opening day was a typical summer day, hot and bright. The movie to be shown was a cheap horror flick with unknown actors bad directing and only an hour long. It was destined to be fail, but the only movie available for the money the owner had left after the cinema was built. The food court wasn’t completed yet but everything else was ready for attendance. The sparkling clean, glass ticket booth in the lobby was open, and the large glass entrance door on the front was inviting. All outside lights were on even though it was daylight. She stood proud and beautiful. Sadly, no one came for the grand opening. The movie started in front of an empty room, empty chairs, seat after seat and row after row. About halfway into the flick the engineer stepped out for a few minutes. That is when the accident happened. The celluloid film somehow got a sparkle and started to burn. Within five minutes the whole building was on fire, and within twenty it burned to the ground. The investigation never found the source and it was written down as a freak event without explanation. The newspapers called it a lucky accident, because the place was empty at the time, apart from the only victim, the ticket seller who got stuck in her glass booth unable to escape the smoke and later the flames. She was an old lady small very friendly, dressed always impeccable in a long black dress. If the building had a human body she would look like her, a nice old lady. But she was a building who died before she could even live a little. Since then she came back every year to collect admission, one soul every year, then destroy herself by fire, water, lightening or earthquake, just to reappear the next time in her full beauty yet again. She liked to punish them not showing up on the big day, wanted to hurt them physically and mentally. But now she had to repair herself while invisible and come back within days.


They found Jesse two days later by accident. A few surfers found his body in the end of the empty parking lot not far from his car. Officer Lou Simmons was first on the scene, and he went to work on Jesse immediately. His body was badly broken burned and stabbed, he was dehydrated weak and unconscious but alive. Within minutes a helicopter arrived and airlifted Jesse to the hospital, and the police towed his car to a compound. A few days later, Officer Simmons went back to the parking lot to have a look around, still looking for answers to what happened to Jesse. He saw the building immediately as he turned into the car park. He could not believe his eyes. This building was not here a few days ago, of that he was sure. He looked at his GPS to make sure he is in the same place, and slowly got out of his cruiser. He just stood there for a minute not knowing what to do. He tried to look through the glass doors but couldn’t see inside because of the strong sunshine. The whisper came suddenly and it came from everywhere. Just one word but it gave him goose bumps.

‘Come…’

He turned around quickly to see who was whispering, but he was alone. He shut the car door and started to walk towards the building. As he got closer he saw it is a small movie theater, with a poster on the wall advertising the movie that was on today. It was a black sheet of paper with an ugly white face in a scream. As a cloud covered the sun he saw an older lady sitting in the ticket boot dressed in a long, necked high black dress, looking at him. He put his hand on the butt of his gun, slowly walked up to the glass door, opened it and stepped in. Inside the showroom the dark screen come to life with a click and a white number appeared on it. It was number 60.

The End

Great writing and great story .

a reply to: szino9

It was just fantastic really!
I was hooked immediately and loved the ending.
I am familiar with the area and could picture it in my mind which, for me, made it even more fun.

Bravo!


I hope to read more from you in the future.
The dark is my favorite

a reply to: VengefulGhost

Thank you for taking the time to read it

a reply to: TNMockingbird

Thank you

I can tell you exactly how to find that parking lot. Well if its still there, been twelve years now.

Pretty cool story , I have things in my head i wish I could write but have trouble making it readable . you don't seem to have that problem though , very cool story

a reply to: szino9

Thank you szino. Good reading. Fine plot.

so the more skills you have, the more chances you have of finding a job or starting your own business.

a reply to: calwoodbutcher

Thank you for reading it