A random thought: Parking Garage

The parking lot is dark and foreboding.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it’s something to do with going from open space to reinforced concrete structure where the outside world can only be glimpsed in the far distance, or through cracks between where this level moves up to the next.  Everything here is claustrophobic even if you aren’t.  The ceiling isn’t very high, the better to pack more cars into the small space.  How many are above me?  If Hollywood has taught me anything, it’s that this whole structure could come crashing down on me at any moment.  Especially if aliens attack.  Or if there’s an earthquake.  A horn sounds somewhere, I can’t tell if it’s above me or below, not the way the sound echoes.  How many horror movies have a scene in a parking garage like this one?  The victim leaves their friends, the light and the laughter, to walk through the darkness to where their car waits for them.  It’s always like this place, dark and gloomy.  The neon lights above flicker.  Some are out, adding deepening shadows where there shouldn’t be any.  The character passes a post/column, eyes darting back and forth, searching for… what?  Something.  Something that has those base instincts buried deep inside us, those of our primitive ancestors used to avoiding predators, on edge.  Another column.  And another.  The car is right there.  They only need to make it a few more feet and then they’re saf…