The Closing Shift

Text 1: In Order, by Mara Venn

An original short story extract.

Mrs Iqbal had called Leah steady. She had said it in front of everyone, handing over the archive keys as if they were a medal, and Leah had carried the word downstairs with her. Steady. Sensible. Trusted to lock the basement alone.

The archive always sounded busier after closing time. Pipes ticked behind the walls. The lift sighed on the floor above. Somewhere among the storage shelves, paper settled with the soft rustle of someone turning a page. Leah knew every noise and had an explanation ready for each of them.

Click.

She continued checking the windows. Metal cooled; old buildings shifted. Click, click, click: the sound travelled along the furthest aisle, neat and regular. One of the shelves leaned forward by a fraction. A red atlas edged out, paused, then slipped back into the row. Leah smiled and placed one hand against the end frame.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she told it.

The frame moved beneath her palm.

Not quickly. Not violently. It simply continued to lean, with the calm decision of something that had already chosen where it would fall. Books slid towards Leah in a whispering wave. The atlas dropped first, then three blue dictionaries, then whole shelves of journals pouring down together. The storage case struck the next one with a flat crack. That case struck another. The crashes marched towards her.

Leah ran. The open doorway seemed to shrink as she reached it. She threw herself through, and the heavy fire door swung shut behind her. Through its narrow glass, she watched the final row collapse and a white cloud of dust swallow the room. Everything was still.

Except for the key ring she had left in the lock, still swinging on the other side.

How does Mara Venn use language and structure to make Leah’s confidence seem increasingly misplaced, and how does the ending affect the reader’s view of her earlier confidence?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.