Always Room For Another

The First Encounter

The sound of water droplets echoed through the gloomy London alley as large rats skittered through puddles left behind earlier by torrential rain. The grey clouds and thick fog made it impossible to see very far, but the dreary buildings weren't eye-catching even in perfect visibility. Elsie stumbled past an overcrowded pawnshop, shoving her fingers into her ears to drown out the shouting from inside. As she turned the corner where the alley sloped into the main road a chill seemed to gust around her. 

She missed the soft sound of the horses' hooves coming towards her in the darkness, and was only alerted to the presence of the vehicle when a whip lashed past her left ear. Frantically, she dived to her right so that she wouldn't get trampled by the oncoming horses. As she landed in a puddle with a loud splash the driver's head snapped around. Tentatively, she looked up. It was the most horrifying sight that she'd ever laid eyes upon. His face was mangled, with one eye closed up, the other bloodshot and with jet black irises, and scars all over his cheeks. One of his ears was missing and the other looked like he had been in a fight. A fight he had lost badly. Hair sparsely populate his reddened scalp, which was covered in blisters. As he grinned down at her, she shivered. He had no teeth. Gasping, she shot up and ran off. As she sped past the vehicle, she suddenly realised what it was. A hearse. A hearse with a coffin in the back.

"Always room for another," a rasping, low voice said behind her, and she screamed. She stumbled away towards the main road, and by the time that she had run far enough away that she felt safe to look back the hearse, and its horrific driver, was enveloped in fog.