Science fiction short story

 

'Ben. Seriously, love. Let me in.'

 

Bet your bottom dollar the neighbours were only pretending to sleep; holding their breath like naughty children in a game where I wasn't freezing my tits off here in the hall. The gothic titillation of being Ben's dearly departed scratching for admittance in the (ahem) dead of night wasn't lost on me. Rather keen to get inside before I ended up on someone's social media, to be honest.

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Identical spot-lit cream doors, locked doors, demanded vertigo as they marched off down the frigid corridor and rounded the bend. My thoughts were too one-dimensional to be coping with this. Any of it. Struggling to stay upright and cling to dignity a while longer, I leaned my inflamed head on the wall.

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'They kept me in Immigration for six fucking hours, Ben. I'm tired.' ...

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Pulled into another dimension, a detective must wade through the devastation of her own murder to catch a killer.

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Parallel can be enjoyed as part of Vu Ja De: Collected Short Stories Volume Three.

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