Street
By Casey Douglass
‘That guy just
disappeared! I’m sure of it!’
‘Which guy?’
‘That scruffy one
with the woolly hat.’
‘I don’t see him.’
‘That’s my fucking
point!’
‘Alright! I was just
saying I don’t see him! Doesn’t mean he disappeared though.’
‘I saw him, he just
sank into the ground!’
‘Where?’
‘Over there, in front
of HMV.’
‘You sure he didn’t
just go inside?’
‘Not unless there’s
a bloody cellar entrance no!’
‘Why is nobody
screaming then?’
‘What?’
‘If I saw someone
fall through the pavement I’d be pretty freaked!’
‘Maybe nobody else
saw it.’
‘Come on...its
Saturday, it's heavin’ with people here, what are the odds?’
‘What are the odds of
someone sliding through the sodding floor!’
‘You’re seeing
thi-’
‘Huh? Seeing what?’
A scream sounded along
the thronged street, a cry of surprise rising in answer a few yards
behind. Mark wheeled around and around, his eyes wide as he watched
person after person zipping down into the paved street, the bags and
other detritus they were carrying bumping heavily to the floor in
their sudden absence.
‘Alex!’
Alex was gone. The
crowd that had been around him only a few minutes previously had
thinned down to just him and a scared looking elderly lady. They eyed
each other from a few yards away.
‘What’s goin-’
She vanished, the
ending of his question vanishing as quickly as she did.
Mark’s eyes swivelled
to the floor, expectancy making his heart pound with adrenaline. He
sucked in gasps of air, it felt thick like chunky soup and was just
as hard to choke down. He waited...