A Heartbeat Away
“(EST)The alley behind the Sechuan Hop smelled of rotting vegetables. Frozen towers of cardboard boxes, stacked taller than Angie stood, abutted two Dumpsters overflowing with garbage and refuse. Dense overcast and the buildings themselves obscured any moonlight, and steel fire escapes protruding from the buildings made the narrow passageway seem even more foreboding.Angie pulled the red knit hat she had bought from a street vendor down over her ears to shield them from a biting wind. At precise...ly eleven o’clock, as instructed, she knocked three times on the cold steel of the restaurant’s alleyway entrance. On the second knock, the door budged. On the third, it swung open several inches, grating on rusted hinges. Angie took a cautious step inside and glanced about the basement, which was minimally lit from a source ahead and to her right. No one was there to greet her. She was unwilling to close the door any further.“Sylvia?” Angie called out.Nothing.She was forced to clear her throat to speak again.“Sylvia, are you here?”But for the wind down the alley, the silence was absolute.Floor-to-ceiling metal shelving, stocked with dried goods and restaurant supplies, created the feeling of claustrophobia that Angie had recently found so disturbing.MoreLess
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