Frenzied by Claire Chilton Page A

dotted the tiles, leading to a large dark puddle of it that was seeping under the door.
    Shivers of fear shot down her spine.
    What the hell happened here? Why can’t I remember?
    She didn’t want to open the door, but she knew she had to if she wanted to get out of here. She stared at the long brass handle. A bloody handprint was smeared across the ‘Push’ sign.
    She couldn’t look away from the handprint as shock trembled through her body.
    Did I end up starring in a horror movie?
    She shook her head, biting back the urge to scream.
    Think, think. What would a sane person do?
    Call the police.
    With trembling hands, she felt the side pocket of her denim skirt, hoping to find a mobile phone in it, but it only contained her purse. She searched the other pocket, nothing there either.
    Come on, come on. What girl doesn’t have a mobile phone?
    She searched the back pockets of the skirt and sighed when she felt a solid block in the left one. She pulled out the phone and stared at it. It had a red cover on it, and the screen saver said, ‘Bite Me’.
    Yep, that’s probably mine.
    She didn’t recognize the phone, but it seemed like her kind of phone.
    She swiped the screen to unlock it and dialed the emergency number. The phone crackled, but there was no ring tone. She waved the phone around in different directions.
    Come on, get a reception, you stupid thing. This is an emergency.
    After the watching the ‘no network available’ symbol for a while, she felt a bubble of panic grow in the back of her throat.
Why isn’t it working?
    She wondered if the phone reception was bad inside the theater. The screen flashed the words ‘low battery’ before the screen went black.
    I guess I’m not the kind of person who remembers to charge their phone.
    She tried to turn it back on. It flickered before shutting down again.
Crap.
    Maybe I just need to get out of here.
    She glanced back at the bloody door and grimaced, wondering what was on the other side of it.
    Just do it.
    Dropping the phone into her skirt pocket and gritting her teeth, she reached for an un-bloodied area of the door and gave it a push. The door opened an inch before it thumped against something heavy and swung back to closed.
Oh fuck!
    She nudged the door and tried to peer through the crack but couldn’t see much, just the alcove of the theatre entrance and a red leather chair in the main foyer.
    Screw it.
    She pushed into the door, using all of her strength to try to force it open. The door budged a few more inches. She slammed herself into the barrier, using all her weight to try to wedge the door open wider while straining to push it as hard as she could.
    Come on, you son of bitch. Let me out of here!
    The door eventually shifted, and then rapidly swung open, causing her to lose her balance and fall through it onto the floor with a crash.
    She landed on something squashy and groaned, grateful for the soft landing until she glanced down.
    The dead blue eyes of an usher stared up at her.
    Her eyes travelled over the rest of him. His neck was twisted at an odd angle, his chest a ripped-open, bloody mess. She screamed, scrambling off his body and through the doors into the foyer.
    Kneeling on the floor in the usher’s blood, she refused to look at him. She kept her back to him in an attempt to avoid staring into the face of death again. Her muscles trembled all over her body, and she fought to keep some semblance of control.
    Calm down, get out of here and call the police.
    With shaking hands, she pushed herself up until she was standing, trying not to think about the blood that was dripping down her legs and into her tan leather boots. She faced forward, looking for the exit, but the sight before her was too much to bear. She fell to her knees again and stared at the carnage ahead.
    Bodies littered the foyer, staff and customers of all ages. Each one shredded in some way, and all with dead eyes that seemed to be staring at her. Blood puddled across the grey