Photo by SECOND SUNDAE
[via PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER]
All they had to guide them through the blackness was the glow of cellphones and two flashlights. Brian led everyone up a stairwell.
Stopping on the fifth floor, he took out a can of black spray paint. He straddled a wide hole in the concrete floor and reached to paint the outline of a face on the wall. His friend Drew Rutledge pointed a flashlight at him from a few feet away.
Brian shifted his weight from his right foot to left.
Drew shifted the faint beam to the left.
But in the blink of that moment, he lost sight of Brian.
What the -?!
Drew pointed the light down the hole.
He saw no bottom.
_________
In a suburban home near York, Pa., Lynn Jerome was getting ready to turn in for the night. As she pulled down her bedspread, her cellphone rang.
The caller ID showed that it was Drew, Brian’s roommate.
Hmm, she thought, wonder why he’s calling so late?
When he screamed her name, she held her breath, straining to keep up with the torrent of words.
Brian … Divine Lorraine … fell five stories … hospital. MORE