I just stood there, staring at the photo. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I couldn’t call for help. I couldn’t even move my head. The entire room had become silent and still. It was as if everything had been sucked into some kind of vortex. Then slowly, time began to speed up again. At first, it only ran at half normal-speed, so that when I turned my head, it seemed to take a long time. As I did so, I saw everyone else in the room moving really slowly. The guide raised her arm, pointing at something. It seemed to take a long time to reach its final position. All the visitors turned their faces upwards at half speed, following her movement. The sound track to this event was a low groaning noise, like an old-fashioned tape machine, its batteries running low.
Then in a flash, everything returned to normal. Charlie was by my side and the door was closing behind the weird man. ‘You alright Iago?’ asked Charlie. ‘It’s just - you don’t look OK!’ My mind raced. We had to follow him. I didn’t have time to explain. ‘Charlie, just trust me, we really need to go outside right now.’ I looked a bit embarrassed and Charlie stared me out. I had upset her with my comments about Mie and I was worried that she wouldn’t forgive me. I didn’t have time for any silly games but she looked so lovely, standing there in front of me, an angry little look on her face. I couldn’t take any more. I took her face in my hands and I kissed her on the lips. As I pulled away, I looked deeply into her blue eyes.
‘Come with me Char’,’ I pleaded. She bent her head, taking my hand and I followed her to the door.
‘Don’t do that again!’ Charlie spat, as soon as the door closed behind us. I was confused; I thought she liked it! Obviously, I was wrong. Maybe I was just imagining things. I was about to ask her what the hell was going on, when she suddenly circled her arms around my waist and laughed. Had she been just teasing me? I looked down at her face and then I realised that she was acting again. She was still smiling, but through gritted teeth she whispered, ‘He’s coming this way. Kiss me!’
I wasn’t going to argue with her about that. I bent my head to kiss her. This time Charlie’s kiss was mechanical - like something you see in a film. I was disappointed, but I had a role to play so I kissed her back and ran my hand through her hair.
His smell grew stronger as he approached us, and instinct made me turn my back to him. Charlie was now shielded from his horrible presence. But she could still just see him over my shoulder. Charlie lowered her head and I let my lips settle softly on her silky hair. Then she looked up. I could see the look of horror in her eyes as he walked past. He was still twittering to himself and sniggering about something. He didn’t pay any attention to us, whatsoever. Our act seemed to be working.
As soon as he had passed, Charlie unravelled her arms from around my waist and I released her. She stood back against the wall, her eyes cast down to the floor. She looked uncomfortable.
I felt really confused, but now was definitely not the time for feelings. I had to tell her about the weird man. Pulling my phone out, I opened the photo. I didn’t say a word, just showed her the screen. She frowned, as she tried to work out what she was looking at. Then gasped as she realised what she was seeing.
‘Iago, is that what I think it is? I mean, where did you get this picture? I mean… when did you take this?’ She looked at me, confused.
‘I took it about two minutes ago, in the control room. It’s a photo of the screen that lady was working at – you know, the one who left, looking ill! The weird stinky man must have logged into the system and started it…’
‘But Iago… it’s a countdown!’
‘I know!’
‘But a countdown to what?’
‘I have no idea!’
‘Well we’d better find out!’
‘We need to find that man!’
‘Shouldn’t be too difficult!’ she said, sniffing.
Despite our situation - we both laughed.