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Sunday 3 October 2021

Wax by Mark Antony Raines

 For the chance to win a thousand pounds I took up the challenge lauded down by my local was work museum to spend the night in the place where all the famous murderers were,the chamber of terror.

It was a fairly simple challenge one as to stay from eleven o clock due to the museum shutting down at ten and this give time for the general public to leave,no smoking due to the nature of wax being highly dangerous but burnt not say also highly toxic.

I was lead through an open barrier which near very dimly lit cold stone stairs which added to the atmosphere of giving the chamber of terror a sinister impression.

As i walked down the spiralling staircase i began to see it's preliminary horror s,inquisition relics,a rack straight out of a ancient medieval castle,branding irons,thumb screws and all manner of mementos of man's cruelty to man.

Then I entered a room with a  irregular shape ,lit by flicking electric lamps with inverted bowls of frosted glass,it was the kind of room you felt the need to speak in whispers as not to disturb the was work figures.

At first the figures looked unremarkable with their shabby clothing but then I remembered the words of the manager of the museum before I went on my journey,please remember some of the murderer s in my chamber of terror are not as well known as some but were just as nasty ,evil and horrific as the rest. 

The one I was drawn too was a man not more then give give foot ,waxed mustache,large spectacles,called coat something like some cartoon caricature of a Frenchman  but dispite this I felt repellent around him.

I stepped towards the information board to find out more about this fiend .

The board said.

(Dr Bourdette was a normal doctor by day attending to his patients in Paris by night he would cut his victims throat by slicing it open with a razor ,most of his victims were ladies of the night similar to his English counter part Jack the Ripper and just as the French police had enough evidence to send him to the madhouse or the guillotine he mysteriously vanished.)

I shuddered ,then I thought I saw him move,but my logical part of my brain kicked in to say it was just an optical illusion.


As i wondered around the dim unwavering light give the wax figures an uncanny resemblance if being very human like beings,the stillness and unnatural silence began to tell ghastly,how I was missing the hundreds of noises of crowds .


Still the eyes of Dr Bourdette haunted and tormented me even though my back was towards him I itched  with unhealthy disire  to turn and look just to make sure the wax mannequin was not.

None of the over wax work did not seem to move just stood there are was that true ,as it seemed Doctor Crippen turned by one degree,just a another illusion.


I  let out a yawn as my mind and body were tiring due to staying up at ungodly hours ,I looked into the eyes of Lefroy who in my head said it was not moving around.


It must be my nerves for had not Crippen moved again the moment my attention was elsewhere,I my sub conscious mind said to get of dodge and go home instead of spending time with a lot of old wax mannequin s that may be moving when I was not looking.


How cowardly,and absurd,for wax mannequin s could not move it was is unsettled mind that sensed a subtle something in the air beyond the boundaries of my normal twenty twenty vision.


Then without was not I nearly caught Crippen getting closer I said out loudly in a fear .

Nearly caught you Crippen ,you and the rest better be careful if I see one of you move again I smash you to pieces,do you hear me)


What would his editor at the Morning Echo say,his wife Rose would laugh ,then he felt breathing ,was it his own breath ,I must get my grip of my mind I beginning to sound like a person going mad.

The glaring eyes of Dr .Bourdette compelled and challenged  me to turn around again to stare straight into those dreadful hypnotic eyes ,my own were dilated and my mouth was forming into a snarl in the corners of my ashen face.

(God damn it you moved ,I saw you"

Then I came like a man found frozen in the Arctic,as Dr Bourdette leisurely stepped off his pedestal ,lifted up the ropes and stand face to face with me.

He spoke.


(Good Evening)

I could not move or speak.

He went on tell me he was not a wax mannequin but the true Dr Bourdette himself,you see I came upon this museum as I as evading the police when to.my utter surprise I  saw my wax work effigy remarkable likeness so I stripped it if it's clothes,hid the original under the platform and took its place in the pedestal.I still carry out my hobby of collecting throats and yours looks quite skinny he then rumbled through his coat pocket and produced a razor,he raised my chin a little.


Over the chamber the early morning sunlight was glowing through the frosted glass,letting it slowly lit a sickly ghastly scene,as the caretaker of the museum was beginning his morning cleaning duties.


Among the wax work figures laided my former body ,cold and dead surround ed by dry iron rich crimson blood,a a small sharp raxor,and Dr Bourdette on his pedestal looking down at the cadaver ,unemotional,not moving,or capable of movement,for after all be was only a waxwork.






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