26F. Right at the top, smack in the middle. Seats to the left? Empty. Seats to the right? Empty as well. That theme held true with the rows below, it was just him and the big screen. This was heaven. He flicked a flake of popcorn high into the air and manoeuvred his head to catch it in his mouth, like a seal in an exhibition. It bounced off his lower lip and dropped onto the floor. He tried again and this time he caught it, he let the flake rest on his tongue and waited for it to dissolve so that the sugary goodness could soak in the bubble bath that was his tastebuds. The screen flickered as it switched to a new advertisement, a father is seen going through the various stages of raising his daughter, from the delivery room to her first day of school. Touching. Somehow it was about shoes. He had no memory of Clarks holding such sentimental value.
The screen flickered again and he was suddenly presented with a close-up shot of the face of an elderly man with pale, white skin. His cheeks were loose, seeming to hang off the side of his face, the perspiration coating them created the illusion that they were melting. His eyes told you that he was calm but his brow was furrowed. Deep-set lines had been ploughed into his forehead holding the seeds of worry, anger and frustration in their crevices. A hand appeared on the screen, its fingernails coated in bright red nail polish. It held out a tube with the name Regen displayed in bold. The old man, now pushed to the background, gave a bright smile at the sight of this tube, one that went all the way to his eyes but could not quite reach his forehead. In bubble letters above his head the word ‘before’ popped up, the screen then transitioned to a new face with the word ‘after’ above it. He looked at this new man incredulously as he tilted his head back to catch another flake. His cheeks had been sucked back in, looking round and relatively firm. The creases in his skin had all but disappeared, even his frown lines only left a faint trace, the seeds blown away by the gale that was Regen. This had to be a lie, it was definitely Botox. Maybe that was how they attracted him in the first place, by offering to pay for his injections. If not then it seemed that Regen was made from extracts of the fountain of youth. The disembodied hand returned to the screen and this time it spoke. “Regen will have you looking and feeling twenty years younger, you can find it in drugstores and pharmacies near you.”. The hand disappeared again and left the man alone on the screen once again, flashing a smile that reached his forehead but could not get to his eyes.
The advertisement ended on this eerie note. He leaned back in his chair, shocked but not surprised. People would lie about anything for some cash and who better to prey on than the elderly? Even better, the self-conscious elderly. It was a pretty niche group but their pockets were bulging and their limbs functioned slightly worse with each passing day, give them a chance to be young again and they would rip the skin off their faces if they had to. There were still about ten more minutes of ads to go. This was one of the many sacrifices that all movie theatre lovers had to make, to come and endure this rather than waiting for it to come out on a streaming platform. He began munching on his popcorn a bit quicker as the agitation that patience encouraged slowly seeped in. The screen flickered again and he sat wondering what could possibly follow that monstrosity. The darkness faded and an empty chair appeared on the screen, it creaked as it rocked back and forth. He stared at the screen quizzically, Ad time was very limited and ten seconds in nothing had happened yet. A disembodied hand suddenly stretched across the screen and waved at him, it looked eerily similar to the one in the previous ad but he was not too sure. Looking a bit closer, he noticed the chair looked familiar as well, it was the same one the old man had been sitting in. The hand flipped, showing that same bright red nail polish, and pointed at the chair before pointing in his direction. A cold, shrivelled hand, rested upon his shoulder. His skin tightened like a corset pulled to its limits, and the coldness of the hand spread through his body as he felt chills creep into the pores of his skin, down his spine and even seep into his bone marrow. He wanted to turn to his right but his neck was rigid with fear-induced frostbite, refusing to allow him to look towards the spectre of dread attempting to catch his attention. The inside of his mouth was arid, he was unable to produce a whispered letter, let alone a cry for help. Even if he had been able to cry out there was nobody around to hear him, in this moment he was stuck in a vacuum and at the mercy of whatever was sat next to him.
The creature pushed its weight down onto his shoulder as it rose. There was barely any pressure, it was surprisingly light. It took its hand off of him and he heard a squelch as it disengaged, his shoulder felt damp and there was a slight tingling sensation left where he had been touched. It inched its way to his front and slowly crouched until they were face to face. It groaned as it did this, its pungent breath permeating his nostrils and drawing tears from his eyes. ‘P- p-p-ple-e-e-e-a-ase. I-i’m begging y-y-ou. I-i-i’ll give you w-w-w-whatever you w-want.’ he pleaded. It stared at him through its beady eyes, continuing to groan and now shivering in pain. The skin on its chin began to droop and a piece of it fell and dropped unceremoniously into his popcorn. Its face continued to melt, inch by inch, slowly coating the popcorn like caramel sauce. As it melted it stopped groaning and asked in a hoarse voice, ‘Do you want to be young again too?’. A small squeal managed to escape his dry throat in response. It raised its hands towards his face and started rubbing them against it, kneading its fingers into his flesh like a masseuse giving a deep tissue massage. Its hands, though shrivelled and cold, were soft and they lathered his face in what he deemed to be a cream-like substance. It finished applying the substance and took its hands off of his face, staying crouched and continuing to stare at him.
He remained unable to move, he could no longer feel his arms or legs. His beard and moustache follicles began to retreat into the pores of his skin until they disappeared completely, his lips grew smaller and his eyes became disproportionately large for his head. The same tingling sensation he had felt when it had removed its hand from his shoulder was felt all over his face, it tingled, sizzled and burned. He groaned in agony, breathing heavily as he struggled to maintain his consciousness. A crackling sound wooshed through his eardrums and the skin on his chin began to droop down, dropping further and further until, finally, it fell into the tub of popcorn. His screaming intensified and his vision blurred, all he could see now were faint traces of the creature. Three-quarters of its skin had drooped off, revealing its facial muscles and bits of its skull. All that was left was its forehead, it had deep-set lines engraved in it, lines that symbolized its sorrow and pain. As the skin from its forehead dripped off, its ghastly voice was projected once more, shouting, ‘Oh, to be young again!’. Out of nowhere, the hand which had been patiently hovering on the screen reached out and crossed into reality, grabbing the creature and swiftly dragging it into the screen. It was placed in the rocking chair and the hand smothered his face with its palm for a few seconds before releasing it. The hand moved and revealed the youthful version of the old man from the previous ad, once again giving a beaming smile that reached his eyes but could not quite reach his forehead. As he stared at the old man, a pinch of skin under his eyelids dripped off, the disembodied hand waved once more and the screen faded to black.
Drenched in sweat from head to toe, shivering uncontrollably, popcorn scattered everywhere. He blinked furiously for a few seconds before reaching for his face. It was still intact, beard and all. A waterfall of tears gushed out of his eyes and flowed into his now almost empty bucket of popcorn. His skin was laced with landmines of goosebumps and they were all going off as a dull pain spread through his body. The screen flickered again, it was finally time for the movie to start.
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