PETRIFIED

By Peter Woodgate 

“Where on earth has it gone?” Mary fumbled around in her pockets searching for the ticket she had bought just 5 minutes before. A feeling of De Ja Vous overcame her.

    “Can I help you?” a mysterious stranger appeared from nowhere.

“No thank you,” Mary replied abruptly.

“Are you sure, you look so distressed,” the stranger's voice had an air of calmness about it and Mary felt rather embarrassed as she continued to search in the pockets of her overcoat and jacket.

    “Perhaps this is what you are looking for.”

Mary glanced at the outstretched gloved hand, and there it was the admission ticket for Madame Tussauds.

Feeling rather stupid Mary mumbled a “thank you,” adding, “I must have dropped it, how silly of me.”

She found herself gazing into the eyes of the stranger, they were dark, very dark, and the feeling of De Ja Vous crept up on her once again as she studied his clothing.

    He was wearing a top hat, a bow tie with a dress shirt, a dinner jacket with tails and striped trousers. How odd, she thought, as she retrieved the ticket from the gloved hand of the unusual-looking character that stood before her.

Mary thanked him again and was about to enter the exhibition when she felt his hand on her shoulder.   

    She spun around quickly as he spoke.

“Allow me to accompany you, I can be your personal guide, you see I am an expert on everything there is to know about all the exhibits. I am practically part of the furniture.

    Although feeling awkward Mary felt she owed him something for finding her ticket and stammered an “o, ok."

    As they wandered around the stranger, who had now introduced himself as Albert, clearly had a vast knowledge of all the figurines they encountered.

Mary found that before too long they had visited all but the Chamber of Horrors.

She had not intended visiting this part and when she looked at her watch she was aware that the exhibition would be closing fairly soon. Albert, however, insisted they visit this famous old section and she found herself staring through bars at grisly scenes of murder and debauchery. 

    Mary, guessing all the other visitors had left, noticed they were alone in what was now becoming a very spooky place.

“I think we ought to be making our way back,” she spoke nervously, “it will be closing shortly.”

“There is just one more exhibit I need to show you,” Albert ushered Mary along the corridor until they reached the final enclosure.

“But there’s nothing in there,” Mary exclaimed and was about to turn around when she felt herself being pushed through the unlocked enclosure door.

“What the Hell,” Mary had no time to finish her sentence before she felt the knife as it was thrust into her abdomen. The feeling of De Ja Vous hit her once more as she slumped to the floor catching sight of Albert leaning over her before passing out.

    She came to and looked up at the figure still crouched over her, she recognized the clothes as those worn by Albert but she couldn’t see his face. There was a spotlight shining down on her but his face was turned away towards the shadows.

He didn’t move, she tried to, but couldn’t. She screamed but no sound came out of her mouth. She was rigid.

    It was the following day and some early visitors had made their way to the Chamber of Horrors.

“look David,” Helen turned to her boyfriend in excitement, “there’s a new exhibit.”

They looked at the board which showed the details. 

JACK THE RIPPER WITH ONE OF HIS VICTIMS

MARY JANE KELLY 1888

“But you can’t see his face,” Helen remarked disappointedly.

“That’s because they don’t know for sure who he was,” David replied, rather smugly.

“Oh, look at that poor woman’s face,” Helen sighed, “it looks so real, there’s even a tear in her eye.”

Mary’s mute scream echoed throughout the corridors of Hell.

Copyright Peter Woodgate