FEAR

 FEAR

 

 

If Vicki hadn’t been running low on cash that month, she would have never given the bulletin board a second glance, but sometimes there was an opportunity for some quick cash as an artist model, typing term papers, who knew what all. The index card that grabbed her attention was: $50.00 for an hour of your time to take a survey for the psychology department, see Pete in room 103 of the Chambers building.

She slung her back pack on both shoulders and bicycled over to the Chambers building and found room 103. To her surprise the room was empty except for a guy behind a table with an eager expression.

“Are you Pete?” asked the girl.

“The one and only.” said Pete. “Are you here about the survey?”

“Yes”, she said. “I could really use money to get me to the end of the month; you do pay in cash don’t you?”

“No problem”, said Pete waving a 50 in the air. Then he grabbed up a folder and led her to another room.

“Here is the survey, take your time, read all of the directions and make sure all of the information is correct.”

“What is this for?”,she asked.

“Some PhD candidate is going to write up all the data collected from the surveys and use it in his dissertation.

With that said Pete left the room. Vicki began to look over the survey and the room that she was in. At least they had given her a comfortable chair, not those usual institutional aluminum or molded plastic things. Other than the chair and the table, the room was bare, about ten by twelve with a mix of light and dark gray well worn linoleum tiles on the floor, bluish gray concrete walls and a water stained drop ceiling with a florescent fixture that buzzed occasionally, there was also the faint odor of pine, bleach and mustiness.

The wall across from where she sat had a large mirror on it that she could only assume was a window on the other side and that she was being observed. Over the mirror was a large wall clock. To the left in the corner was the only door in or out. She took all of this in as Pete ushered her in to fill out the form. It was one of those bubble forms that you fill in with a number 2 pencil. So she had at her disposal a comfy chair that was too heavy to lift, a table that was bolted to the floor, a couple of sheets of paper and a number 2 pencil. All in all the number 2 pencil was the best bet for a weapon.

Wait a minute, what was she thinking, she had volunteered to take this survey for the psych department, plus they were paying her fifty dollars for a completed survey. They said it would take about an hour, but looking it over, it was only two pages, more like fifteen minutes.

She might as well get this survey filled out and be done with it. The sooner she finished, the sooner she got her $50.00 and got out of here. This room was giving her the creeps.

The instructions were short and to the point: Fill in each bubble completely for each answer, check as many as apply, there is a penalty for incorrect answers.

What do they mean there is a penalty for wrong answers. How the hell would they know if I gave them wrong answers. This was somebody’s idea of a joke, let’s see if we can rattle the students who come in to do the survey. Well it wasn’t going to work.

Question 1: What time is it?

She looked up at the clock, it was 1:15 P.M. She dutifully filled in the appropriate bubbles.

Question 2: What are you most afraid of?

There was a long list of choices here, so Vicki began to read over the choices

1. darkness

2. noise

3. spiders

4. blood

5. confined spaces

6. suffocation

7. pain

8. black cats

9. fire

10. failure

11. bats

12. clowns

13. bicycles

14. insanity

15. dentists

16. injections

17. nudity

18. punishment

19. insanity

20. snakes

21. birds

22. the number 13

23. rape

As she began to fill in the bubbles, the overhead light began to buzz and flicker in earnest. and then with a small pop, a hiss and the smell of ozone it died entirely.

It was pitch dark in the room, but she pulled out her cell phone , turned on the flash light and soldiered on . Then from her island of light she heard something in the room, some noise in the corner. Vicki shone her flashlight around the room, there was nothing there.

She went back to the bubble sheet, and as she did a large wolf spider fell on the desk right beside her paper. Vicki let out an involuntary yelp of surprise and then flicked the spider int the floor with her pencil.

With her mind firmly fixed on the fifty dollars she went back to work. Vicki heard a plop and then noticed a small red spatter on her test form. So that’s why the table was bolted to the floor, so they could bombard you with spiders and fake blood. She wondered what was next.

She heard a noise again, but this time she didn’t know where it was coming from, it was a scraping noise like a concrete block being dragged across the floor. Once again she shone her light around, there was nothing there, except the room seemed to be shrinking. The walls were getting closer. She had never been claustrophobic, but she was having a hard time breathing none the less.

Vicki looked down the list again. It was then it occurred to her that she was experiencing the list of fears in the order they were on the page. This was not what she signed up for and she was not hanging around to see how the last fear played out. She was here for a survey not to be somebody’s test subject. She shone her light up at the clock. It was 1:29. She’d only been there for fourteen minutes but that was enough. 

She got up and went to the door. She put her hand on the knob and turned, to her surprise it was open. Just then the lights came on and a voice came over a speaker.

It said, “If you leave now, you forfeit the fifty dollars.”

Vicki looked over at the mirrored wall and flipped it the bird then she said, “Fuck you and your fifty dollars.”

She opened the door and let out a scream. Pete was standing there with a serene look on his face.

Pete said, “You lasted longer than any of the others. Here is your fifty dollars.”

Vicki snatched the fifty out of Pete’s hand and then said, “The next fear on the list was pain.”

She stabbed him in the shoulder with the number 2 pencil and left.