- Karen's mother used to terrify her with tales of a presence on the dark tenement stair, something you must never look at. Years later Karen reluctantly returns to the house she loathed in search of her elderly parents. But her worst childhood nightmare waits for her in the shadows...—Anonymous
- A dark tenement stair - the only light filters dimly down from a window in the roof, many floors above. A fearful young girl, Karen, tries to make her way downstairs. A woman's voice shouts from above, that the stair isn't safe. The girl covers her eyes, frozen to the spot by fear.
An evangelist in a bleak shopping centre shouts about neglect and guilt. This troubles the conscience of a young woman. An Alzheimers charity collector is the final straw. The young woman dials a number on her mobile - but the number's been disconnected. She sets off by bus, back to a slum area of old tenements. She's shocked to discover that demolition is underway. Windows in one remaining block are boarded up, apart from one on the top floor.
She enters the stair, and we sense that she fears and hates it. She hears voices from the past - a haranguing older woman, and the young girl asking why she mustn't look if she thinks she sees one. We realise that this is Karen, grown up, returning to the stair where she was traumatised by her mother. A blast of noise in her MP3 player prompts horrific images of what might have happened to her parents, and she panics, running up the stair, battering on the door, then scrabbling to let herself in with her own keys. And something seems to be following her, catching up, but thwarted as she slams the flat door behind her.
Entering the front room, she discovers her parents, motionless, despite the noise. For a moment, she fears the worst. Then slowly, her mother's eyes open, blinded by cataracts. Her mother says they are fine, but clearly they aren't. Her dad suffers from dementia, and doesnt know who she is. But he repeats the bile which Karen's mother must have uttered, making it clear to Karen that the relationship with her mother is still bitter.
When Karen tries to make a cup of tea she discovers that the flat is empty of food. She realises that her parents are trapped there, with no phone and no neighbours. For a moment, Karen sympathises with her mother, but it's her conscience bothering her rather than a daughter's genuine affection. Karen puts the kettle on and says she'll go for food, but her parents panic. Her mother now seems to believe all those stupid tales she made up to frighten her daughter into staying in the flat.
Karen backs out into the stair, and tries to go back down. But the creature which her mother planted in her imagination all those years ago is waiting for her, somewhere in the shadows. Karen's terrors run riot - in a world of flickering shadows and imagined horrors. She re-lives the moment she entered the flat, and asks herself again what she saw when she found her parents sitting there. Karen tries to steer her way downstairs by peeking through her fingers - but assailed by forces trying to make her look, she freezes to the spot, her hands over her eyes, in the same place she was trapped as a child.
She is rooted to the spot. But she hears her mother's voice once more - this time reassuring her, trying to make amends, telling her that she was just telling stories. Karen peels her fingers away, and looks into the darkness. And as she sees what is waiting for her, the creature of her terrors - the Elemental - leaps from the shadows straight for her.
Has she been killed by the creature she was told never to look at? Or has she had a breakdown after returning home to find her parents? There's a sound of flies, and slowly the bodies of her parents are revealed. They're dead, and theyve been dead a long time. So is this some time in the future? The truth that this is here and now is confirmed as the kettle comes to the boil, and clicks off. And the supernatural explanation, or the alternatives, are up to you...
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