Entombed

A writer's hour prompted 500 words or less. "Take a walk within just a few hundred meters radius of your home. Write about what you observe in the genre of your choosing."

Like the delicate sound of a Swiss watch ticking, Ruby’s claws were tip-tapping along the pavement. It was too late to be out, the cold was surprisingly sharp, ravaging my nostrils, and Ruby was pulling at the lead to get home, back into the warm.

I yanked her out of the road as a car slewed wildly around the corner, its main beams exploding in my eyes.

Ruby slowed, stopped, and I nearly tripped over her, my eyes still adjusting to the dark again. Her tail had dropped to horizontal, the fur along her spine was peaked into a ridge, like iron filings on a magnet. She was staring at something.

Ahead, in the gloom was a cubic shape, sat in the middle of the road. I approached it, Ruby didn’t. She let her lead become taut, requiring a drag along.

It was a small chest freezer, the colour of off milk, rusted at the corners, used, and filthy. Emerging from the back was a cable, its plug smashed, its brass pins still attached to the wires, and a mangled fuse holder. Ruby had sat, and was gently vibrating, her mouth slightly open.

I pushed the unit with my foot, it seemed solid, certainly not empty. As I moved to open the lid, Ruby stood up. The lid was locked somehow, it wouldn’t budge. I pulled Ruby to me, back into the road, her back legs dragging.

On the far side of the lid was a latch, for an absent padlock. I unclasped it and tried again. It was stuck firm. I let Ruby’s lead slide down my wrist and gave it both hands.

The lid snapped open and flew upwards, one of its hinges broke and the lid flopped to the side, stricken. A sour stench puffed past me; the nearest streetlights flickered. I felt the cold frisk me and now, my neck hairs bristled.

The seal was a sickly rust colour, decades of grime had glued it shut. The freezer was full of ice, almost to the brim, a pristine white, frost-covered block.

Ruby pulled at her lead again. Her tail down, her spine fur rippling. I swept my hand across the surface of the ice, as if clearing snow from a windscreen. Beneath, it was a cloudy white, opaque, no way to see what was entombed within.

Ruby began to whine and jump against her lead, her breath ragged. Despite trying, the lid would not be shut, so I left it. As she dragged me away, I could sense the thing behind me, in the small of my back, as if it was watching, until I turned the corner for home, wondering what I had set free.