Читать книгу The Darkest Corners - Barry Hutchison - Страница 8

We ran for the church, Ameena held between us. She stumbled along, keeping pace, but I knew if we let go of her she’d stop and fall.

The screechers were on the move again, thundering through the snow after us. Billy and I dragged Ameena up the stone steps and in through the heavy double doors. We fell inside and I closed the doors again with a slam.

We could hear the screams and the howls of the screechers inside the church. I nudged open the inner door that led through to the top of the aisle. The screams were coming from the little side room behind the pulpit, where I’d led the screechers when they were chasing me down.

‘Wait here,’ I said. Ignoring Billy’s protests, I stepped into the main church and made my way towards the pulpit. A towering statue of Jesus on the cross stood by the entrance to the side room. I spared it just a glance as I strode closer to the open door.

Halfway down the aisle I stopped. ‘Hey!’ I shouted, and my voice bounced back at me from the high ceiling. The screeches within the side room changed in tone. I heard a frantic clattering, and through they came.

They had entered the church mostly human, but now they were mostly beast. Two or three still stood upright, but their backs were bent and their shoulders were stooped, and jagged outcrops of bone tore up through their thickening skin.

Half a dozen more were on all fours, their bodies twisted and buckled, their limbs and necks broadening and stretching almost before my eyes.

There were no lingering hungry glares from any of them this time. They had no reason to hold back. They collided with each other in their hurry to get to me, and in a split second, the fastest and strongest was hurtling along the aisle towards me.

It had been a man, I guessed, although I couldn’t say why. There was something vaguely male about the scraps of humanity it had left, but then that may just have been my imagination.

It bounded like a big cat along the aisle, its glossy black eyes trained on my throat. It wanted to kill me, this thing. It wanted to open my neck, spill my blood across the floor. It wanted me dead.

But I could not die. If I died, he got away with it.

I raised a hand, felt the sparks flash. When I clenched my fist, something inside the screecher went krik. Blood burst on its lips as it let out a pained yelp. The next bound was its last. It slid to a stop at my feet, and it didn’t move again.

My eyes raised to the next screecher. It didn’t hesitate as it closed in for the kill – but neither did I. With a single gesture I hurled it backwards into the others. The sparks crackled like lightning inside my head. My hands moved like a conductor leading an orchestra and, one by one, the screechers fell.

In seconds there was only the echo of their screams around the church, and then there wasn’t even that.

The door behind me opened with a creak. I heard Billy draw in a sharp breath.

‘What… what have you done?’

‘Someone had to,’ I said, not looking round. ‘Someone had to stop them or we’d all have been dead.’

‘But they were people,’ Billy protested.

‘Were. Past tense.’ I turned to face him. He led Ameena in by the arm. ‘And how come you care anyway? You were all “destroy the brain” earlier. What made you start giving a damn?’

He looked me up and down. ‘What made you stop?’

‘Whoa.’ Ameena was staring down at the screecher by my feet. She shrugged free of Billy and took a few tentative steps towards it. ‘It looks dead. Is it dead?’

‘It’s dead.’

‘He killed it,’ Billy said.

Ameena’s eyes met mine. She cocked her head to the side a little. ‘You killed it?’

‘I killed it.’ She kept looking at me. ‘It would’ve killed us,’ I felt compelled to add.

‘Yeah,’ she said at last. ‘I suppose it would at that.’

‘How do you feel now?’ I asked her.

‘This is the church,’ she said, ignoring the question. ‘Where you blew up the donkey.’

Billy frowned. ‘You blew up a donkey? What, like…?’ He formed a pea-shooter shape with his hand, raised it to his mouth and puffed out his cheeks.

‘What? No, I didn’t blow up a donkey,’ I said. ‘I blew a donkey up. As in exploded it.’

Billy lowered his hand. ‘Oh. Right. Why did you do that then?’

‘It wasn’t a real donkey. It was concrete.’

‘Right,’ said Billy. He thought about this. ‘I still come back to “Why did you do that then?”.’

‘Forget it. Doesn’t matter.’ I turned back to Ameena. ‘You should sit down.’

‘I don’t need to sit down,’ she said, then she sat down anyway. ‘I’m… fine. I think.’ She looked at me with hopeful eyes. ‘Am I?’

I gave a nod. ‘He could’ve been lying,’ I said. ‘He was probably lying. He does that. He—

‘He wasn’t lying,’ she said. ‘It was true. Everything he said – it was true. I can see that now. Before I found you fighting Mr Mumbles… there’s nothing. I don’t remember anything. Not properly anyway, just… images, like photos someone’s shown me.’ She shrugged and shook her head. ‘Hell, I don’t even know my last name. But then that’s because I haven’t got one. Because you never gave me one.’

I suddenly felt guilty for that. ‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t worry about it. You were being murdered by a maniac,’ Ameena said. She jumped up and clapped me on the shoulder. ‘That sort of thing can be distracting.’

She gave her arms a shake and kicked out her legs, and with that, the tension seemed to leave her. ‘So,’ she said, cracking her knuckles. ‘I’ve changed my mind on the whole killing-myself thing. Sorry about that. Such a drama queen sometimes.’

‘No problem,’ I said.

‘Good. Now what’s the plan?’

‘I find my dad,’ I said. ‘And then I kill him.’

She nodded slowly. ‘OK, well that’s a plan. That’s definitely a plan.’

‘What about them?’ Billy asked. He pointed back towards the door. ‘What about them out there?’

‘They’re not my problem,’ I said.

‘And what about us?’ Billy asked. ‘Are we not your problem either? Look, I know you’re angry at your dad.’

‘Angry?’ I said. ‘Angry? He killed my mum, Billy. Don’t you get it? He— The words caught in my throat. My eyes went hot and the room began to spin. I reached for a pew to support myself, but missed and dropped to my knees on the hard floor.

‘He killed my mum,’ I croaked as tears rolled like raindrops down my cheeks. ‘He killed my mum.’

A bubble welled up inside me. It tightened my chest and pushed down on my stomach. I tried to speak again, but the pressure inside me made it impossible.

Ameena knelt beside me. Without a word, she wrapped her arms round my shoulders and pulled me in close. We sat there rocking back and forth, my tears coming in big silent sobs.

When the tears finally stopped I just sat there, feeling nothing but empty. But then even that moment passed. I pulled away from Ameena, unable to look at her, and stood up.

Billy cleared his throat. ‘You OK?’

I nodded quickly to hide my embarrassment. ‘Fine.’

Ameena got to her feet and I realised she had a smear of my snot on her shoulder. I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her.

‘So, what are we going to do?’ Billy asked.

‘I told you. I’m going to find my dad and then I’m going to kill him,’ I said.

‘Right. So we’re sticking with that one then, are we?’ he asked. ‘You know you’re playing right into his hands, don’t you? He wants you to do your… magic, or whatever.’

‘Well,’ I said. ‘Looks like he’s going to get what he wants.’

‘Then he wins,’ Billy said. ‘And you’re right, he does get what he wants. Whatever he’s done to you – your mum, your nan – he did it all to make you do what he wants. He’s manipulating you, and you’re going to let him.’

‘Check out the voice of reason,’ said Ameena.

‘I’m right, though. If you keep doing your thing then the barrier breaks down and suddenly we’re up to our eyes in monsters.’

‘We’re already up to our eyes in monsters,’ I reminded him.

‘Yeah,’ Billy conceded. ‘But you and I both know there are worse things waiting over there. We’ve seen them. If they get through, they’ll kill everyone.’

‘Everyone important is already dead.’

A thud against the front doors cut the argument short. A muffled screech filled the church. A few seconds later there was a chorus of them howling out there as they hammered and pounded against the doors.

‘They’re going to get inside,’ Ameena said. She released Billy and he stumbled out of her reach, nursing his arm. ‘Decision time, kiddo. What’s it to be?’

The sounds of the screechers seemed to be inside the church now. I could almost picture them, their deformed heads forcing their way through the splintering wood, their teeth chewing hungrily at the air. It was Billy who made a decision.

‘Help me block these,’ he said, hurrying along the aisle to the inner swing doors. ‘It’ll buy us some time.’

Ameena looked to me. I nodded, and she headed off after Billy. There were two large tables by the doors, one stacked upside down atop the other. They grabbed each end of the top table and began moving into position in front of the doors.

They were right in front of the doors when they began to open. Teeth flashed in the gap. Billy and Ameena leapt back. A hundred thousand sparks filled my head and an invisible force pushed the door closed.

‘Stand back,’ I told them, and they darted over to join me. The table moved with just a thought from me. It tilted and fell so the top was up against the doors, which I was still holding closed.

Next I pictured the back pews sliding across the floor. The metal bolts holding them in place groaned, then snapped. I felt my brain tingle as the heavy wooden benches fell into place behind the table. Only then did I let the sparks fade away.

The doors swung inward a few centimetres then hit the barricade with a loud thud. Screeches of frustration came at us through the wood, but the barrier held steady for the moment.

‘Nice work,’ Ameena said. ‘That was close.’

‘Uh, guys.’ Billy’s voice was a low whisper. I turned to find him nodding at a spot several metres behind me.

Something stood there. Or rather, something flickered there. It was faint, like the outline of a ghost. A large ghost, with too many limbs. We watched it pacing towards us, then it faded away completely.

‘OK,’ Ameena muttered. ‘So what the Hell was that?’

I turned, casting my gaze around the dimly lit church. There were half a dozen or more figures dotted about, half appearing and fading before my eyes. I recognised some of them as the things that had surrounded me in the Darkest Corners.

‘It’s happening,’ I realised. ‘Like he said. The barrier’s weakening. They’re going to come through.’

‘Not necessarily,’ Billy said, although he didn’t sound convinced. ‘I mean, you can just stop, right? If you don’t do your mojo any more, they can’t come any further.’ He glanced from me to Ameena and back and swallowed nervously. ‘Right?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, but the doubt in my voice was obvious. ‘If I don’t do anything else, the barrier will stay standing.’

A soft hissing and crackling noise began to echo around the church. I looked up to the source of the sound and saw a speaker mounted high on the wall behind the pulpit.

The next sound I heard made my skin crawl.

Fiona, it’s time to get up now.

That was my dad’s voice. My dad’s voice from the recording he had played me earlier.

‘No,’ I said softly. ‘N-no, please.’

The hospital machines beeped on the soundtrack. I heard my mum rouse and my dad smile. Even on the tape, I heard him smile.

That’s my girl. Open your eyes now. Open your…

My mum gave a groan. Ameena reached for me, but I pulled away. I stared at the speaker, and I stared, and I stared.

Wh-where am I? My mum’s voice, shaky and weak.

Look at me, Fiona. Look at me.

On the tape, my mum gave a gasp. ‘No,’ I whispered. ‘Don’t.’

As if echoing me, she cried out, and I could hear all the fear and the panic in her voice. I raised my hands, stabbing them towards the speaker. N-no. Please, no, don—

‘Kyle, no!’ Billy cried.

‘Do it,’ Ameena urged. ‘Shut it up.’

BANG!

The speaker exploded before the gunshot had a chance to ring. Before he had a chance to kill her again. The sparks buzzed across my head, then receded again, leaving only the charred remains of the speaker behind.

‘What did you do?’ Billy groaned. ‘What have you done?’

‘Leave it, Billy,’ Ameena said, and this time I let her press her hand against my shoulder.

A sudden fluttering up by the rafters made us all jump. A small black shape flapped around at the ceiling. We followed its flight until it landed on one of Christ’s outstretched arms. A beady black eye gazed blankly down at us.

Billy let out a nervous laugh. ‘God, that nearly gave me a heart attack,’ he breathed. ‘Just a bird.’

‘Not just a bird,’ I said, trying to keep my voice low and controlled. Ameena and I both stepped back, our eyes never leaving those of the bird. ‘It’s a crow.’

Billy shrugged. ‘So? What’s so bad about crows?’

‘Obviously you’ve never met the ones we’ve met,’ Ameena told him.

And he hadn’t. He hadn’t been there at Marion’s house when the Crowmaster attacked. He hadn’t seen Marion’s skeletal remains, the skin, muscle and sinew torn off by a murder of flesh-eating crows.

But I had seen it. And it was something I’d never be able to forget.

‘He’s dead, isn’t he?’ Ameena whispered.

‘No,’ I said. ‘He died here in the real world. That means he was reborn over there.’

‘Oh, now that’s just cheating,’ she protested.

‘No argument there,’ I said. The bird wasn’t moving, just watching us in silence. ‘I couldn’t agree more.’

‘What’s the problem?’ Billy asked. ‘However mean and scary you say it is, it’s just one bird.’

The cries of the screechers were louder than ever. The table and pews groaned against the floor as they were pushed back.

‘No,’ I said quietly. ‘It’s never just one bird.’

And then, in a heaving torrent of squawking black, the space inside the church was torn in two.