5
Mandy and Veronica filled monotonous hours talking, getting to know each other, and intermittently dozing. They were both hungry and thirsty. Mandy hadn’t eaten since lunch time the previous day. She intended to heat a packet of instant noodles when she returned to her car after strolling through the Devil’s Marbles, but the stranger put a terrifying end to those plans.
They were sitting on their respective mattresses when they heard the sound of the lock being turned. They clasped hands, and turned to stare, wide eyed and terrified at the door. Not yet dark in the room, the light was fading, and it would soon be difficult, and eventually impossible to see clearly.
A beam of light from the hallway flooded in, casting a narrow, illuminated strip across the wooden floor. The man stepped
