by Paul Berry
‘We still have Sam to eat,’ Marcus says, ‘and he looks mouth-watering.’ I slowly start backing away, my chest heaving when a drop of Terry’s blood dribbles over my lips.
‘There’s no use fighting,’ Adam says. ‘You can’t escape.’ Marcus and Philip walk up the stairs arm in arm. ‘I can make this house just the way you want.’ I desperately look around for anything I can use as a weapon. ‘You’ll never be bullied, never be afraid again. Never be alone.’
‘You should have left me to die in the maze,’ I say.
‘Adam saved us,’ Marcus says. ‘He wants to save you too.’
‘It will take a little adjustment,’ Philip says, ‘but you’ll grow to like it.’ What they’re saying starts to make sense, and I hesitate.
‘I have the perfect solution,’ Adam says, smiling. ‘Your father can also live with us. The house will want him to become a part of it with you.’ I imagine my dad screaming as they force him to swallow that black parasite.
‘You’re right,’ I say, raising my arms to embrace him.
‘I knew you’d choose me,’ Adam says. He wraps his arms around my back and I feel the hard muscles of his abdomen tense against my stomach. Despite everything, desire burns hot under my skin when I feel his touch.
‘I’ll always be yours, only be yours,’ he says. I rest my chin on his shoulder and close my eyes. Adam runs his fingers through my hair.
I bite down as hard as I can into his neck, cutting into skin and muscle, and wrench my head back, tearing out a mouthful of flesh. Blood gushes down my throat and I spit out the quivering lump.
Chapter 13
Adam howls like a wounded animal and flings me aside. My head cracks against the floor and I slide to the top of the stairs. I look up to see Marcus and Philip standing over me, shocked. I wrench myself up, my head spinning. They take a nervous step back and run over to Adam.
His face has disappeared under a seething mass of growths, his eyes red coals of rage. He lurches from side to side, both hands clamped onto the wound as blood spurts between his fingers. Marcus and Philip stare at him, open-mouthed.
‘Don’t just stand there like imbeciles!’ They nod and razor teeth sprout over their lips, their fingers sharpening into claws. I close my eyes and wait for them to rip me apart.
There is a screech behind my head and something brushes against my cheek. Marcus and Philip start screaming. I open my eyes.
Helsing is attacking them, swooping down and raking his talons across their faces. They try to slash at him, but he flies out of reach.
I seize the chance and run down the stairs two at a time towards the front door, almost tripping over when my leg grazes the corner of a table. I pull on the door handle.
Locked.
Adam walks unsteadily down the staircase, rivulets of blood trickling down his body. Marcus and Philip are squealing at the top of the staircase as Helsing continues his assault, biting and scratching their heads.
Despite the obvious pain, Adam is grinning. His beautiful, seductive grin.
‘You didn’t think escape would be that easy, did you? It was a good try, though.’ His body convulses, alternating from human to monster as he struggles to control it. He is halfway down the stairs and I take a deep breath and try to think clearly.
‘Better think of something fast. I’m going to tear your depressed face off strip by strip.’ He claws the banister, the sound piercing my spine. ‘You’re going to wish you’d killed yourself.’
I pick up a padded stool next to the window that faces the garden and throw it as hard as I can, pain bursting in my shoulder as I feel something pop. It smashes against the diamond-patterned glass and creates a jagged hole. Adam looks at it and tuts.
‘Not good enough, my love.’ The hole squeezes shut like a camera aperture. The broken glass vanishes and the stool rolls back to its original position. ‘It’s pointless fighting. The house, my father, won’t let you leave. Unlike Theseus, there’s no escape from this maze.’
I turn round and lock eyes with him.
‘I hate you,’ I say calmly.
He freezes. The grin wavers on his face.
‘What?’
‘Even if I’m trapped here forever, I’ll spend every second hating you.’
‘Do you think mere words can hurt me?’
‘You’re not even a person. You’re just a revolting thing. A monster.’
‘You’re lying. You love me.’
‘I know your tricks. Those feelings I had. You forced them into my mind.’
‘No. I have many powers, but that isn’t one of them. What you felt, what you still feel, is real.’
‘I feel nothing. You’re nothing.’
‘My father’s gift is inside you. Soon, you’ll become the same nothing as us.’
I can feel something dark blooming in my stomach and spreading through my veins. I dig my fingers down my throat and gag, vomiting a gout of black bile across the marble floor.
‘Don’t resist,’ he says. ‘He’s taking hold.’
I clutch my chest, dry heaving. ‘How do I stop it?’
‘You can’t.’
‘We’re your family now.’ Marcus sniggers as he stands beside Adam, ribbons of skin dangling from his torn face. Philip is clutching Helsing by his neck. He flaps his wings uselessly and chirps weakly.
‘Say goodbye to your friend,’ Philip says.
He squeezes his hand, breaking Helsing’s neck with a sharp crack. He throws the owl at me and he smacks onto the floor at my feet, blood leaking from his beak, wings twitching. I bend down and cradle his head in my hands.
‘You didn’t have to kill him,’ I say angrily.
‘Enough of these games,’ Adam says, advancing towards me. ‘I’m going to chain you in the cellar until you grow to love me, even if it takes an eternity.’ In Helsing’s glassy eyes I see the moon reflected as a tiny silver disc.
‘A vampire-killer is fearless.’ Peter Cushing’s voice echoes in my mind.
I rip down a velvet curtain, throw it over my head and jump through the window.
The glass shatters and I land hard on the frozen ground. I try to stand but collapse, crying out in agony.
Sticking out of the muscle above my knee is a shard of glass.
The shattered window seals shut and I see Adam writhing and twisting into a monstrous silhouette behind it. I grasp the shard, cutting the tops of my fingers, and pull it out. There’s a tearing sound and I scream; a star pattern of blood spreads through the material of my trousers.
Panic surges through my body. I drag myself up and limp across the garden towards the hedge, frantically looking for the narrow archway we came through, trying to block out the inhuman roars from the mansion.
I know that if I look back it will be over, as I feel ready to pass out. How much blood can be lost before your body simply gives up? It would be easier to just lie down, close my eyes and wait for Adam to consume me.
In the sky, the alien red star blinks, and I wonder if I’ll ever find my way home. What will happen to my dad after I’m dead? Will he be completely destroyed after losing both me and my mother?
I grit my teeth and force myself out of my funk. I spot the archway gap and stagger towards it.
The leaves around it start fluttering and the gap closes as branches mesh together.
The house is trying to stop me escaping, its influence extending beyond its walls, and I hear its snickers in the rustling of the leaves. I’m trapped and there’s nowhere else to run.
The frozen lake.
I limp to the back of the house, past the walls of the conservatory, the plants inside leaning towards me and scraping against the glass.
I reach the edge of the lake, take a deep breath and step onto it.
‘You’ll drown if you go any further.’ I turn my head. Adam is stan
ding a few feet away from me, holding out his arm. The wound on his neck has closed into a jagged sneer of scar tissue. ‘Take my hand, Sam.’ I take another step forward and the ice creaks beneath me. ‘I’ll take you home if that’s what you want.’ I nearly slip as I slowly walk out further.
‘Why should I believe you? You’ve lied about everything.’
‘That’s true, but can you imagine what it’s like drowning under ice? The panic you’d feel, alone in the freezing blackness, the unimaginable pain searing your lungs.’
‘Why don’t you join me?’ I ask. Adam places a foot on the ice but recoils as if afraid of it. I take several more steps.
‘Where are your friends?’ I ask. ‘Maybe they’re even more cowardly than you.’
‘I thought it would be best if it was just the two of us.’ A thin trail of blood loops across the ice from my bleeding leg. As my eyes adjust more to the darkness, I see the treeline bordering the edge of the lake.
‘Come back,’ he says, his voice getting fainter as I move further across the ice.
‘Come back?’ I shout. ‘Is that the best you can do? Pathetic.’ I hear a loud crack like a gunshot and the shockwave almost makes me fall over.
Adam is crouching down with his fist raised above the ice.
‘No one is allowed to leave!’ He brings it down again. The ice shifts under my feet as a mosaic of cracks spreads over the surface.
My body acts involuntarily and I’m running and sliding as the ice begins to break apart. My foot goes through and I scream as a tilting slab scrapes against the wound above my knee, the water so cold it instantly numbs my leg as I drag it free.
I stumble forward, not daring to look back, and see the roots of the trees ahead twisting along the bank of the lake. A wide fissure snakes between my legs and I throw myself forward, arms outstretched. My palms smack against a knotted root and I grip it as the rest of my body plunges into the water.
The cold snatches away my breath and I almost let go, the strength in my arms rapidly fading as the icy water stabs my torso. I scream and yank myself up, hook a leg over the root and drag myself out of the water. I roll onto my back and take ragged breaths.
Clutching a tree trunk, I pull myself up, trying not to scream again as pain jolts through my leg. I slowly take a step, knowing that if I fall I won’t have the strength to get back up.
I look up at the sky and see the moon peeking between branches. It looks different, as though I’m seeing it from the wrong side, the red star still blinking next to it like a poisonous eye.
Something crawls over my hand and I flinch. Perched on my knuckles is a gnarled black beetle. Poking out from the top of its shell is a tiny human head with wisps of grey hair. It strains its shrivelled face up at me and bares yellow teeth. I flick it off in disgust and it lands with a soft thud in the dead leaves.
I hear voices through the trees and a beam of torchlight cuts through the darkness near my feet. I press my back to the trunk, hardly daring to breathe, and pray that the shadows will hide me.
‘How could you let him escape?’ Philip asks, his voice metres away.
‘He let him go on purpose,’ Marcus says. ‘He’s in luuurve.’
‘Stop whining and keep looking,’ Adam snaps.
‘Listen … I can hear the little twerp breathing,’ Marcus says. I clamp my hand over my mouth and hold my breath. The snapping twigs get closer.
‘You’re just hearing the sound of your own breath,’ Philip says.
‘No, he’s right.’ Adam says. ‘He’s near. I can smell him.’
My lungs are burning and I try to slowly exhale, plumes of breath escaping between my fingers.
Their footfalls stop.
I slowly bend down, pick up a stone and throw it through the trees. It clicks against a trunk.
‘Over there!’ Marcus shouts, and I wait until they move further away, almost laughing that they fell for such an obvious trick. The moon disappears behind clouds and there is barely enough light to see even a few feet ahead.
‘You were so close to escaping,’ Adam says, his breath goosebumping the back of my neck.
I run.
Tree branches whip across my head and chest as I desperately search for anything that resembles a path. The park must be close by, but perhaps Adam has brought me to a place that exists separate from the real world.
A place where I will be trapped with him forever.
Behind me I hear tree trunks being torn apart. Something powerful is ripping through the woods after me.
I try to run faster but can only manage a limp, forcing one leg in front of the other, the pain from the wound becoming unbearable. My body is running on its last iota of energy, and I know that it is only a matter of seconds before Adam is upon me.
I stumble forward and for a moment I’m weightless, then falling through space. I hit the ground and the wind is knocked out of me, and I turn head over heels, flailing my arms to slow down my descent, my elbows and knees smacking against rocks and roots.
I abruptly come to a stop. I turn my head and see the steep incline of the hill I have tumbled down. Next to me is one of the tarmac paths that meanders through the park.
Between the trees above I see Adam, a shadow separate from the other shadows. I lie there, unable to move, hoping whatever he does will be quick.
A shout pierces the night air. ‘He’s here!’ Harsh fluorescent light flashes across my eyes and figures wearing police uniforms surround me. I smile weakly when I glimpse Adam retreating into the trees.
The red star next to the moon has disappeared.
When the ambulance arrives, I am lifted onto a stretcher and slid into its radiant interior. Fingers encircle my wrist. I close my eyes, desperately wanting to be cocooned in sleep.
‘His pulse is weak. We need to stop the bleeding.’ I feel my trousers being cut apart and ripped from my leg.
‘Sam, open your eyes. You need to stay awake.’ I’m floating above my body, looking down at myself as a man in a green jacket inserts a transparent tube into the back of my hand.
‘We’re losing him.’
Before everything goes dark and disappears, I wonder how he knows my name.
Chapter 14
I wake up in a hospital room.
An IV is attached to my arm, another tube from a blinking machine coiling under the blankets like a tentacle. In a chair next to the bed is my dad, his face haggard.
‘Hey,’ he says when he sees me looking at him. His eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot. ‘You’re safe now.’ I have a headache and the light hurts my eyes.
‘I’m thirsty.’ My voice grates from my vocal cords. He holds a glass of water to my dry lips and I gulp it down.
‘You gave your poor dad a proper Halloween scare,’ he says.
‘I lost the flask and the cape.’
‘It doesn’t matter about that now.’ He sits on the bed, his mouth quivering. ‘I’m just happy you woke up.’
‘How long have I been asleep?’
‘A while.’
‘How long?’
‘Four days.’ I try to climb out of the bed, but he presses my shoulders against the pillows.
‘Let go!’ I shout hoarsely, struggling from his grip.
‘Sam, you need to calm down. You’re going to hurt yourself.’
‘We have to get out of here. He’ll kill us both!’ I start screaming and grab him tightly around the neck and watch his face contort in shock. A nurse runs into the room. I feel a sting at the top of my arm and a wave of numbness flows through my body.
Disjointed voices spiral around my head as I struggle to move my limbs.
‘He’s waking up.’
‘Keep your distance. He might attack you again.’
‘He’s restrained.’
‘The nurse can stick him with more sedation
if he acts up.’
I open my eyes and a policeman is staring down at me suspiciously. ‘He can talk now?’ he asks my dad as though I’m not in the room. It sounds more like an order than a question.
‘Can’t you come back tomorrow? You can see he’s in no state to answer questions.’ He rubs his neck, which is darkened with bruises.
‘The longer we leave it, the worse it will be for him.’ I try to move my arms, but canvas straps attached to the sides of the bed only let me raise them a few centimetres. ‘Are you ready to answer a few questions?’ The policeman enunciates the words slowly, as if I’m a truculent child.
‘Dad, it’s fine.’ The tubes that were attached to my body have been removed, a love bite speckle of bloodspots on the skin below the crease in my arm where the IV was inserted.
He nods wearily and kisses my head. ‘Just tell him what happened. I’ll be outside if you need me.’ The policeman takes out a notebook.
‘Do you know Terry Garner?’ he asks.
‘We took … we take art class together.’
‘We found his body in the park just after we found you.’ The comforting numbness of the sedation starts dissipating. I know what he’s going to ask next.
‘Were you present with him at the time of his death?’ I wish my dad was back in the room.
I try to answer calmly. ‘Yes, but I didn’t hurt him.’
‘Do you know who did?’
‘Adam.’
‘You were shouting his name in the ambulance. Is Adam a friend of yours and Terry’s?’ He’s talking as though Terry is still alive.
‘No. He took me to his house next to the park. He … infected me.’ When I try to recall what happened it’s like trying to remember scenes from a half-watched film.
‘Infected?’ He shakes his head and dismisses it as though he thinks I’m talking nonsense. ‘We understand there was an altercation with Terry at the disco and you vandalised the art room in your college. Were you angry with him?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Do you suppose you were angry enough to hurt him?’
‘No. I’d just had enough. He’s always picking on me.’
