Marathon

I found little to do with the rest of my day outside of wandering the streets and familiarising myself more with Rachel’s city. It was a big city down in the south of England, quite far from my home further north, and with much more bustling streets. It was safe to say I was out of my element, but I was walking around in someone else’s body already, so that made little difference to me.

Despite how much I liked living in a smaller, quieter town, I found myself enjoying the city quite a bit. There were shops that I had never seen before, the sorts of businesses that only opened in densely populated areas. For someone who rarely left his hometown, it was quite the culture shock.

The place that really caught my eye, however, was one that I had very rarely had a chance to visit: a cinema.

And not just some small run-down cinema with only a couple of screens, one of those huge complexes with imax screens and all sorts. I hadn’t actually gone out to see a movie in ages, so I was immediately drawn to it.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the building was the enormous event sign right dead centre of the atrium: “Horror Mega Marathon! 12 hour event!”

It wasn’t until I saw that sign that I remembered the date: the 30th of October, meaning the event would run into the early hours of Halloween. As a big fan of horror movies, I had always wanted to go to an event like this, but they rarely ran in places as backwater as my home.

The sign stated that the screenings would begin at 4pm through to 4am. A quick look at my watch told me I was just in time: I had ten minutes before the start.

I bought my ticket for one of the few remaining seats in the cinema and went about buying the most expensive snacks and drinks humanly possible. I was about to watch 6 back to back movies, and by god was I gonna enjoy it with everything I had.

I entered the screen room with my comically large and extortionately expensive popcorn and drink, sitting down in my seat towards the middle of the room. The room was dark enough that I was unlikely to be recognised, and the event would go on long enough to kill the rest of my time.

It would be the perfect end to my first day of carefree living in Rachel’s body.

The first three movies were all your classic blood and gore horror, just like you’d expect. A slasher flick, a movie about people being killed in almost comically graphic ways, and a murder mystery with particularly gruesome deaths. But it was the fourth movie that really stood out.

A story about someone waking up one day with no memory, not even recognising their own face in the mirror. It was a psychological piece about feeling like a fish out of water, not fitting into a life you don’t feel is your own. Considering the circumstances, it hit rather close to home.

It was most of the way through the movie when I started to feel drowsy. It was clear that Rachel’s body hadn’t been getting the rest it needed, and it was now suffering for it. I checked Rachel’s phone to find the time closing in on midnight.

As the movie continued to play, I found myself drifting away to sleep.