Tower and Town, November 2021

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The Multi-Storey Car Park

It was seven o’clock on Friday evening and I was going to meet up with my friends to celebrate my birthday. I bought a parking ticket and drove around the cracked multi-storey car park, managing to find a spot on the third floor. I half ran to the lift, to discover it was locked, and the stairwell was too. I peered out the glassless window to find that there were not any other exits. Quickly, I climbed back into my car to find a different place to park. But the engine would not start. Brilliant.

I poked around the concrete building trying to work out what to do, when I decided to accept this would by my home for the night. I looked around. There were vines hanging out of cracks, and puddles of leaked oil and rain. It smelt of rotting bodies and petrol. Walking around, it gave me the sensation of walking through a graveyard.

Out of nowhere, I heard the lift clicking up the floors and a man shouting for help, banging on the door…

I rushed over to help him, violently pushing the open button until the doors creaked open.

There was nobody in there. Just a pile of dust.

I was petrified.

Backing away from the swirling dust, I bumped into my car, setting off the alarm. Screaming, I ran up to the next storey. I stepped into the fourth storey, panting. Crack! It started so slowly I didn’t notice at first, but when I did, I just ran to try and make it to the fifth storey.

But I didn’t make it. The floor fell through.

Marianne Bracken, Year 8