by Paul Berry
‘I’m not a monster.’
‘I disagree.’
He plunges the knife into the place above my knee where the glass cut me. I scream as he slowly twists the blade, blood spurting over his hand.
‘Where is Adam’s house?’ he asks calmly. Images flash in my head, as though someone’s dropped in a handful of polaroids.
‘In the park,’ I stutter in agony, ‘behind the walls of a hedge … he keeps it hidden.’ He pulls out the knife and strokes my face with the back of his hand, wiping blood across my cheek.
‘That’s very good. Thank you. Next question. I’d advise answering correctly or I’ll stick it into your eye. Did Adam do anything to you? Don’t be shy. Did you have any special contact with him?’ As I gasp for breath, I can still feel the gobbet of flesh I ripped from Adam’s neck pulsating against my tongue before I spat it out.
‘He put something inside me.’
‘What thing?’
‘A creature. A shadow. It crawled down my throat.’
Dr Stone looks at Smith excitedly. ‘That’s why he’s undergoing the transformation. He may be useful after all.’ He taps the blade excitedly against the chair leg. ‘The artefact. Get it.’ The other orderly nods and leaves the room. ‘Was Terry infected with this shadow too?’
‘I don’t know.’
He leans forward and holds the knife so close to my eye that my eyelashes brush against the tip when I blink. ‘Think carefully.’
‘Yes. I saw them forcing him to swallow it.’ He wipes the blade clean with a handkerchief.
‘Don’t worry. I believe you this time.’ The pain in my leg is quickly dulling to a burning ember.
‘Do you like torturing people?’ I ask. The knife glints in the fluorescent light and I half close my eyes, waiting for it to cut into me again.
He lowers it. ‘We’ve been looking for Adam for a very long time. And now he’s almost within our grasp, thanks to you.’
‘Why do you want him?’ I realise that the more they tell me, the more likely they are to kill me.
‘As you may have already surmised, Adam is not human. He doesn’t belong in our world.’
‘Like a vampire.’
‘Yes, and like a vampire, he’s very dangerous. In order to protect the world, he must be destroyed. Once that happens, your transformation might be reversed and you’ll go back to being plain old boring Sam. Then you can go home with your daddy and forget this ever happened. So it’s in your interests to help us, isn’t it?’ He gives me his crocodile smile.
I won’t leave this place alive.
I also know they’ll kill my dad and Rachel.
And Adam.
‘Just out of curiosity, do you love him?’ he asks. I know lying is useless.
‘Yes. I don’t know why.’
‘I wouldn’t worry. I’m sure he doesn’t love you.’ I flinch and he smiles. ‘He’s taken other men besides my son and your friend. A lot of other men. We’ve kept the disappearances hidden for some time to protect the world.’
The police must also be complicit in covering up the deaths in the park. Everyone is playing a part in this game, hiding the truth for reasons I haven’t yet figured out.
‘Adam thinks he’s very clever. He’s sequestered himself behind a veil. We’ve come close to finding his house, but it’s always just beyond our reach. Until now. Fortunately we have a way of locating him with your help.’
‘And if I don’t want to help?’
‘Then I’ll put your father in the chair and keep cutting pieces off his face until you can’t recognise him.’ As I force the rage back down, I can hear the thing inside me still mewling from the knife and almost feel a sick wave of sympathy for it.
‘I’ll do whatever you want.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that.’
‘Where does Adam come from?’
He shakes his head. ‘All in good time.’ The door slides open and the orderly returns, carrying a metal box with a deformed squid clinging to it.
The box I dug up with my mother in the garden.
‘Fascinating object, and very old,’ Dr Stone says proudly. ‘We acquired it many years ago.’ Did they take it from her before she was killed? Did they kill her for it?
‘You seem familiar with it. Have you seen it before?’ I take a slow breath and hope my lie is convincing enough.
‘No. It just reminds me of something from a horror film.’
He looks at me quizzically, then drags a table next to the chair. ‘I’m going to untie your arms. If you try anything foolish, well, you can imagine what will happen.’ Smith releases the straps and I see a vein fluttering in his neck and imagine biting into it. He steps back, sensing the hunger in me.
The other orderly places the box on the table together with a thick black crayon and a wad of notepaper. Dr Stone presses the sides of the squid’s head and pulls it back. Held between the metal pincers is the crystal tetrahedron .
‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ he says. The colours change from amber to sea green to vibrant blue. ‘I want you to pick it up and look into it. Draw what you see.’
I reach out my hands and the crystal slips into them as if it has been waiting for me to return. As I hold it between my palms it feels malleable and changes into a polyhedron. I stare into it and see facets inside shift and reform, the strange symbols that simultaneously seem so familiar glowing on them.
‘Are you ready?’ Dr Stone asks. ‘Listen to my voice, Sam. Nothing but my voice; feel it flow through you.’ Despite my hatred of him and the pain in my leg, my body starts relaxing.
‘Where is Adam?’ His words seem to be coming from far away as though through liquid. I pick up the crayon with one hand while holding the crystal with the other and start drawing, my hand feeling separate from my body. The symbols inside the crystal disappear and are replaced by a portal of oscillating shadows. I will it to open and it slides back to show an alien landscape, hundreds, thousands of leathery creatures surrounding monoliths and bowing in silent prayer to a thing that resides in the sky.
The lights in the room begin to flicker. The landscape changes to a subterranean temple, water dripping from the ceiling, the floor heaving as though something vast is breathing beneath it.
The temple fades away and I’m in a round room. High above is a chandelier, its soft glow reflecting off the spines of thousands of books. Adam’s library.
My library.
One of the spines glows brighter than the others. I walk over to it and pull it from the shelf, looking at the title: The Travellers Between Spheres.
My mind returns to the crystal. There is a tiny flaw in its centre.
I look into the flaw and it widens into a black void.
There is something in there.
Something huge.
Something old.
It senses my presence and opens its eyes.
I try to pull myself away, but before I do, it fixes me with its cold gaze. I am unable to move as it reaches out. The void begins to fill me, wanting to become me, and I start to scream. Something wrenches the crystal from my grasp.
Bright light banishes the void and I am back in the room. The crystal is in the box and Dr Stone snaps the lid shut. I frantically look around, thinking the thing has followed me back.
Scattered over the table are drawings of the different places I saw. Dr Stone frowns and picks up the last sheet, which is almost completely black with crayon. Sweat drips into my eyes, my head throbs and I feel exhausted, as though the crystal has drained me.
Tucked under my arm is the book. He sees it and his eyes widen.
‘Where did you get that?’
‘In Adam’s house. In the library.’
‘Give it to me.’
I clutch it to my chest as though I have part of him. ‘No. It’s mine.’
He grabs it from me. ‘How did you bring it back?’
‘I just held onto it.’
‘You could bring back something larger … like a person.’ His eyes scintillate with excitement. ‘I’m very pleased with you, Sam. This will help us immensely.’
‘Why don’t you just use it yourself?’
‘Sadly, nothing human is able to operate it. Only monstrous things like you have a connection to the crystal, although it has the unfortunate effect of destroying the mind of the user.’
Dr Stone doesn’t know about my ability to teleport or that I have read the crystal before. But this time the teleporting was different. My body remained in the same place while my mind travelled to another and brought something back.
Remember what Tim said, the creature whispers in my mind. Tell them nothing.
Dr Stone picks up the piece of paper that is coloured black.
‘What place is this?’ The answer spontaneously leaves my mouth as though someone’s speaking through me.
‘It’s a place beyond the other places at the edge of all the universes.’
Be quiet! You’re going to get us killed.
I am about to mention the thing that lives there but stop myself.
It seemed to recognise me.
‘You’re going to bring Adam to us,’ he says.
‘I don’t know if I can.’
‘You can’t or won’t?’ His calm expression fractures into a snarl. ‘Why should a miserable nothing like you have all the power?’
‘I don’t want any of your stupid power.’
‘Tell me how to work the crystal.’ He picks up the knife and prods the tip into the wound on my leg. The pain flares white hot.
‘I just moved its facets with my thoughts,’ I gasp.
‘Liar.’ He pushes the knife in deeper. ‘Tell me!’ The tip of the blade scratches the bone and I scream with the creature.
‘You’re going to kill him,’ Smith says disinterestedly.
He pulls out the knife and a warm wetness spreads around my thighs. I look down and see my legs soaked with blood and piss.
‘You are nothing but an abomination,’ Dr Stone says coldly. ‘Once I’ve carved out all your secrets you’ll cease to be useful. Take him downstairs with all the other things.’
Smith fastens the arm restraints and pushes the wheelchair out of the room. ‘Stop whimpering or I’ll cut your leg off.’ The wheels judder as he pushes me down a corridor into a lift. He presses a button labelled ‘–1’ and it jolts into life, the cables groaning as it descends. Under the fluorescent lights I look down at my leg. The bloodstain has spread to my calf and I wonder if I’ll bleed to death.
The doors slide open into a vast, dimly lit hall. Rows of doors line the walls and he wheels me through an open one, another orderly following behind us. It is bare apart from a thin mattress on the floor next to a metal chair and a plastic bucket in the corner. Smith holds a stun gun against my neck while the other unties the restraints.
‘Don’t start any shape-changing shit.’
The other orderly grabs the bottom of my sweatshirt. ‘Lift your arms.’ I raise them as he tears it off. He holds the tops of my arms against my sides while Smith kneels down and pulls off my tracksuit bottoms. A fresh stream of blood trickles from the wound down my leg.
‘Stand up and take off your underpants,’ Smith barks. I hesitate as he leers at me.
‘Take them off!’ He holds the stunner inches from my face and squeezes it, an arc of electricity sparking between the two blunt prongs. I climb out of the wheelchair, gasping in pain as I put weight on my wounded leg. I step out of my wet underpants and he snatches them and throws them onto the pile of clothes. Shivering, I hug my arms around my bare chest. He wrinkles his nose and kicks the pile out of the room. He spits at me and the glob of saliva oozes down my stomach into my crotch hair.
‘Enjoy your stay. You’re never gonna fucking leave.’ They exit with the wheelchair and slam and lock the door.
The only light comes through the barred square of metal in the centre of the door. I sit down on the mattress, clutching my palm over the wound, bring my knees to my chest and rest my chin on them. I want to start crying, but images of grasping the orderlies’ necks seethe in my mind, their skin splitting open as I bite into them. My face begins to twitch as the creature starts taking hold, but I push it back into its dark prison. It snarls furiously.
Not for much longer. You’re growing weaker every second.
Eventually it will escape, trapping me inside my mind instead.
Then what fun we will have.
There is loud shouting behind the door and a woman’s voice.
‘Unlock it.’
‘Dr Stone gave orders for him to be confined,’ Smith says.
‘Now.’ A key jangles in the lock and the door squeals open.
In the doorway stands a hooded silhouette.
Chapter 19
‘Close your eyes. I’m going to turn the light on,’ she says. I squeeze them shut and hear a switch click near the door and light flares against my lids. Her footsteps sound closer, then back away. ‘I’ve put fresh clothes on the chair and something to clean yourself with.’
I wait a few moments and open my eyes. The woman is standing outside the doorway with her back to me. Next to the mattress is a bowl of water and a flannel. I gingerly clean myself, the water turning pink with blood, then slip on the t-shirt and pyjama bottoms, the cold cotton feeling good against my skin.
‘Are you decent?’ she asks.
‘Yes,’ I say, putting on a thin pair of slippers. The voice sounds so familiar. The woman steps into the room. She isn’t wearing a hood but a thick black veil. I can just make out her eyes blinking behind the whorls of lace, and she’s carrying a first aid kit.
She points at my leg. ‘I need to take care of that.’ I sit on the chair, wincing at the chill of the metal seat, and roll up the pyjama leg, which is already stained with blood.
She soaks some cotton wool with iodine. ‘Take a deep breath. This is going to smart a little.’ She applies it to the wound and I press my tongue against my teeth to stop myself crying out. She takes out a small glass bottle from the kit and fills a syringe with yellow liquid. ‘I’m going to numb the area before I stitch.’ I hardly feel the prick of the needle, as I am distracted by the veil.
Something underneath the material is pushing against it.
The pain in my leg disappears, and she closes the wound with neat black stitches and presses a large plaster over it. I flex my leg, the plaster tugging against my skin.
‘Looks like you’re getting a shiner,’ she says, taking out a tube of cream and gently dabbing it around my eye, the pain around it subsiding. She steps back and scrutinises me. ‘I think you’re all fixed up now.’
‘Why are you helping me?’ I ask as she silently packs up the kit. ‘Why don’t you just kill me?’
She pulls back the veil and I realise why the veil was moving. Grey fleshy growths unfurl from her cheeks, probing the air like the tentacles of an anemone. But I recognise the face instantly from the photo next to my bed.
My mother.
‘If I’d known what Dr Stone was planning to do I would’ve stopped him.’
‘You died in the bus accident.’
‘I did die, though not in the conventional sense.’
‘We went to your funeral. Me and Dad.’ The movement of the growths subsides and they retract into nubby stubs. ‘Are you a vampire?’
‘No. I’m something different. I suppose you want an explanation.’
‘I don’t think you have an explanation big enough.’
‘There are many things I kept secret from you and your father. To keep you both safe.’
‘You kinda failed at that.’
She sighs and pulls the veil back over h
er face. ‘I need to carry out another check on you. I understand from Dr Stone there’s something inside you.’
‘I’m fine,’ I say, suddenly afraid I’ll be strapped into another chair.
‘I’m not going to hurt you, Sam. Nobody will again. But I have to see what we’re dealing with.’
We leave the cell and walk through the hall, animalistic sounds echoing from behind the doors.
‘Our guests are restless tonight,’ she says.
‘So I take it this place isn’t really a hospital for the healing of minds?’
‘It’s more a place of research, of exploration, but we endeavour to help our patients.’
‘After what Dr Stone did, I’m not sure I believe you. I doubt your patients do either.’ We stop outside a door with the same snake-eye design as the Treatment Room. ‘Will I have to perform a magic show and be tortured like last time?’
‘No. It’ll be just the two of us.’ She opens the door and beckons me in. The room is small, with an old-fashioned oval TV screen fixed into a tall wooden cabinet against the wall. Cables stream out from the back of it and connect to a blinking computer panel that looks like a section of cockpit from an ancient spaceship.
‘What is it?’ I ask suspiciously.
‘It’s a Kirlian imager,’ she says proudly. ‘It shows things that exist beyond the physical. It was designed and built by Tesla and Turing when they used to work for us at the start of the Second World War.’
‘Didn’t Turing just break codes?’
‘Among other things. His work with Tesla was groundbreaking. Such a pity he was betrayed by his government and destroyed.’
She pulls up a metal stool and pats it. ‘Make yourself comfortable.’
I reluctantly sit down. ‘Before you start, where’s Tim? Is he ok?’
‘A broken arm and a few bruises. He’s getting the best possible care.’
‘Will you let him go? He didn’t do anything. It was my idea to escape.’
‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible. He’s actually a very sick young man, even before the incident with you.’
