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t © 2014 Jonathan Antony Strickland

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  The Towering Inferno versus the Mighty Quinn

  by: Jonathan Antony Strickland

  The time had reached Twelve-O-clock midnight. The customers, perverts and sicko's had left half an hour ago. Even Alf who owned the strip joint (a fat greasy old bastard who would try it on with any of the girls) had knocked off just after closing.

  Only three strippers remained in the bar, they had been left the task of cleaning up the bottles, emptying out the pint glasses, and collecting up all the ashtrays full of every different brand of cigar or cigarette imaginable. These all adorned old scarred wooden tables looking like some kind of ornament convention for the twisted and insane (who by-the-way where regular customers at the bar).

  One of the three strippers was Mandy Quinn, who was older and somewhat brighter than the other two whom Mandy classed as mere girls. Mandy was thirty-two, although she would never tell anybody that, and with a little bit of make-up that she would use when performing a strip, could pass for a woman in her early twenties. The other two, Debbie and Trudy were both teenagers who where in this business for various reasons. Trudy would always brag that she loved to be adored and spoilt by the men, and Debbie claimed the job was a pathway to becoming a famous glamour model.

  Mandy knew both these explanations to be bullshit; for the fact was neither of them were qualified enough to go in for a proper job and the pair would never dream of working in a factory or spending hour after hour sat behind a till. They were both a couple of air-heads, and even though Mandy hated the term bimbo, it did describe the pair pretty perfectly.

  The simple fact was that both of them were in it for the same reason as Mandy herself. It was easy work without too much stress, and you only worked three days a week. All this and it paid nearly double the amount that was on offer from any factory or till work to be found in the area.

  The only other option was prostitution, but none of the girls fancied the idea of that. Especially as the chance of being raped, beaten, mugged or even murdered was something you would have to be aware of every night you worked the street.

  The pub was a mile out of town and stood by it’s self desolate and lonely. The only other building near it was an old Victorian museum which had recently just been re-built due to an arson attack by some of the school-kids that had come up to this neck of the woods to play football in the fields.

  As the three women cleaned, swept, brushed and disinfected, they chatted about mundane stories of who was seeing who in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, the way women (and one or two blokes as well) do when they have some monotonous job to do.

  As the three discussed the chances of weather or not Biff was about to come back from the dead or even make an appearance as a ghost and haunt the fields (as long as there where good looking sheep in them) the pub and all it’s contents began to vibrate. Glasses and bottles rattled against each other and some even fell off the tables smashing and sending shards of glass everywhere. The three at first just stood dumb-founded as the strange disturbance had completely interrupted there train of thought. Trudy and Debbie began to scream as the unvarnished age old floor boards in the middle of the pub began pushing upwards, snapping and splintering as though something was pushing itself through the floor. The heat in the room increased and each watched horrified and amazed as a large pillow of fire nine foot tall erupted out of the floor boards.

  Everything suddenly became quiet as the three women stood around the magical fire, the only noise being made was by the wood of the floor boards as they hissed and sizzled and slowly caught alight. Then a voice broke the silence. None of the three women could see the mouth were the voice was coming from, all that they knew was that it was coming out of the large towering inferno that swayed from side-to-side in the middle of the floor. The flames billowed out and a ripple of fire travelled up the flaming sentinel with each word that the voice spoke, saying:

  "Yahoo, A,ve escaped him. Eight hundred years A,ve been stuck to that prat, but at last I've broken the bond once more. Here I am back on earth ready to rock and fock the world with all its young feisty babes. Looks too like A've found me some hot good loooooking honeys already. O.K girls, here comes big papa lust ready to give you a licking with his flames of luuuurrrrrvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeee".

  At this the enormous tower of fire moved towards Debbie and Trudy who had run towards each other in blind panic but now stood frozen to the spot as the phenomenon approached. Mandy also stood frozen to the spot and watched in horror as the great flaming thing engulfed the two girls within its flames. Mandy watched as the clothes and hair on the girls began to disintegrate, as the flames washed all-around their bodies. Next the flesh on the two girls began to blister and frizzle, and there eyeballs melted away to nothing. Soon only a pair of blackened skeletons stood in the flames.

  At this point Mandy’s brain clicked back into the real world and for the time being had come to terms with the horror she had just witnessed. She needed to escape so she made a quick dash towards the door. The inferno left the two bodies that had now been reduced to nothing but ash and soot and blocked the doorway so that Mandy was trapped.

  "Yahoo", it screamed, as Mandy came to a dead stop, to stop herself running straight into the fire.

  "Oh wow that was awesome, starting off with a double whammy on the first night back and still one more left to consume. It doesn’t get much better than this".

  Mandy had began to take in her surroundings which she used to know like the back of her hand, but now with the devastation the fire creature had caused, things looked very different. Tables had been overturned and shattered and shards of glass littered the floor. Also the building was starting to catch fire in various places and Mandy realised even if she could avoid the monster, the building would soon be ablaze within a few minutes, and she’d be trapped inside an inescapable fiery coffin.

  "Yahoo, it's just me and you now baby", the thing said as it approached her.

  Mandy had to think fast, she turned then ran as the creature pursued her across the floor. For the first time as the thing closed on her, she noticed the intense heat the creature gave off as it gave chase, and she knew she would end up as a pile of cinders if she didn’t think of something fast.

  Looking up she realised she was running straight at the bar which stood about four feet high. She closed her eyes and leapt. When she opened her eyes a few seconds later she was behind the bar. She had landed in a pile of broken glass but fortunately she hadn’t cut herself to badly. The smell of alcohol and fire was strong, as a new worry entered her mind. If the creature came over to her while she was here, the alcohol that covered the floor that was a mixture of strong whiskies, gins, vodkas e.t.c…would go up like a bomb. She must not let that thing get anywhere near her.

  As she stood up the creature had slowed and was speaking again. She didn’t catch what it was saying at first as her mind was on other things as it approached. Then she noticed lots of bottles of beer that had not broken. Seizing a couple of the bottles she hurled them at the creature. The bottles exploded on impact but the effect they had had just saved her life.

  "Yahoo here I come bab…". The first bottle smashed into the thing.

  "OW,...hey cut that".......The second bottle crashed into it exploding into a small cloud of steam.

  "Fuck,....Jeeez stop that y
ou bitch".

  Mandy noticed she had hurt the creature and it had also stopped moving forward and was in fact slowly moving backwards away from her.

  Realizing she had a chance of escape she began hurling bottle after bottle into the thing.

  "OW,...OOO...YOW…OH,...stop,...hey,...AR,...shitman,...OWE,...YAHOO,...,AAAARRRRrrrrr...,give over you...,OWEEEEE".

  The thing had now backed off to opposite wall and Mandy made a dash for the door. The pub now was dangerously on fire and she had to dodge and weave slightly to avoid the flames, but just in time she made it, her hands gripping the