The Lunatic Messiah

by Simon Cutting

  St James station is approached by a long tunnel, tiled in blue and white, and our footsteps echo as we run through it. It seems empty, and there's nothing but the sound of our breathing and our heavy footsteps. The tunnel seems longer than it should, but that makes sense. We're not just moving spatially, we're moving temporally, and moving temporally takes time. Ada is beginning to tire and I can see she's about ready to stop altogether, but at that moment we hear an echo from beyond, bouncing down the corridor towards us. It's Gavrilo, cursing as he stumbles, but his footsteps recover and he grows louder and louder. Ada finds a new reserve, tapping into the vapours of her fear, and begins to run again until finally we burst out onto the platform. Evan is close behind her but he stops as he emerges. Ada's mouth opens in horror, and he follows suit as they see the crowd of people on the platform. There are a lot of them, standing around and casually waiting for the train. Some of them are mid-conversation on mobile phones, whilst others are talking to each other. One woman is in the midst of a sneeze, her face distorted and her eyes closed, the wrinkles around her forehead and nose all coming together in a single point between her eyes. There is a boy, no more than six years old, sitting on the ground and crying. His eyes are red and his mouth is opened in the affected bawl that only occurs when there are adults around to comfort him. All of these people are frozen in a single moment and their bodies are rigid and lifeless, their expressions not even twitching. That is not why Evan and Ada have stopped in horror. The reason they have stopped is that every single one of them is staring directly at them, regardless of their facial expression or age. Their eyes are focused directly on the Meakes' as they move slowly onto the platform, conveniently forgetting about Gavrilo approaching from behind. As the couple walk down the platform, with Evan hugging his wife closely to him as they shuffle, the heads of their spectators swivel with them, the eyes fixed firmly on the couple. Ada closes her own eyes and buries her head in Evan's chest, but he seems unable to look away, as a woman in the early stages of a yawn peers at him from her half-closed lids with her head tilted back. Her eyes seem trapped in the statuesque body, but they are alert and alive, whilst the body itself is nothing more than a prop.

  'What the hell is this?' Evan finally stammers, his fear of Gavrilo and his gun completely replaced by the crowded platform that awaits his next move.

  There is complete silence, not so much as a distant rumble of a train in another tunnel. There is no sound at all now, not even Gavrilo's thunderous footsteps as he approaches.

  'Don't you recognise it? You've been here before. You've been now before,' I say, my voice echoing in the enclosed space of the station.

  Ada opens her eyes, and lifts her head from her husband's chest, peering out at the world fearfully. Most of the people are dressed to go out, as if they have just come from the pubs and clubs that litter the area like confetti. A man with a cigarette, the smoke frozen in the air around him and the burning tip a singular orange glow, stares back at her.

  'I recognise that man,' she says, pointing at him.

  'I don't,' Evan says.

  'It's the night we met Gavrilo. I remember it now. That man smoking a cigarette, I remember thinking that you're not allowed to smoke down here and people were glaring at him. You were drunk, so drunk you probably don't remember, but I do.'

  She looks to me for confirmation and I give it to her.

  'It's the moment when Grey first spread his poison into the Underworld,' I say.

  Evan doesn't know what to think, but he's trying to remember, and his brow furrows as he tries to recollect the hazy events of that evening. Too late. On cue, Gavrilo enters stage left, emerging from the tunnel next to me. He runs in panting, but then stops when the crowd all snap to attention, their heads jerking around to stare at the new arrival. He freezes to the spot, ignoring the Meakes' and me as he takes it all in. His revolver is still in his hand, but his finger has slipped from the trigger.

  'Here he is. A man who needs no introduction, not because he's beloved, but because nobody cares,' I say, and with some effort he looks at me, confusion storming the battlements of his face and overrunning the defenders of his calm.

  'What...'

  He walks slowly up the platform, pointing his gun at the figures as if he's afraid one of them will suddenly leap upon him, but they do nothing but observe. It's all they can do. Evan and Ada begin to slowly back away from him, but he seems completely oblivious to their presence, caught in the headlights of a hundred unblinking eyes. Ada stumbles, her shoes making a scraping noise on the concrete platform, and he is jerked out of his trance by the sound. He points his gun at them quickly and they both jump.

  'I've been here,' he mutters to himself. 'I've been here before.'

  I come up slowly behind him, although from the tunnel I can hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet. Lucy is coming.

  'You have a job to do,' I say, and Gavrilo looks down at the gun in his hand, remembering that he's holding it, and nods.

  He lifts it and points it at the couple. When he begins to speak again, it sounds like a rehearsed monologue, which in many ways it is. Everything happens as it should, and this is no exception. Grey was a fool to think otherwise.

  'It's interesting,' he says, 'that we should end up here. In this station; St James. Do you know who St James was?' he says, but his words are faltering.

  Neither one of them answers, and just shake their heads dutifully.

  'St James, son of Alphaes, was one of the apostles. Do you know what he was the patron saint of?'

  Again, they both just shake their heads, neither one taking their eyes from his weapon as it wobbles in his hand.

  'He's the patron saint of dying people. It seems somehow fitting, wouldn't you say?'

  The tiny footsteps stop and Lucy appears in the tunnel entrance. She looks at the people with supreme disinterest.

  'He's also the patron saint of pharmacists and hat-makers,' she adds, and Gavrilo turns around, annoyed now, completely forgetting the surreal nature of his situation.

  'Well, yes he is, but I wasn't going to mention that.'

  'You shouldn't mention anything. If you spent less time shooting your mouth and more time shooting your gun then they would have been dead yesterday.'

  Gavrilo nods and turns back to the couple.

  'Right,' he says, but I stride towards him now and spin him around with one hand whilst grasping his throat with the other.

  His eyes bulge and he tries to get me to release my grip, dropping his gun to the platform with a hollow sound. He can't talk, although he's trying to, but I force him backwards and ignore his ineffectual attempts to hurt me. The crowd watches us also, swivelling their frozen heads as I push him towards a bench against the wall and force him down into it. He's starting to turn purple but I don't lessen the power, and bring my other hand up to close around his neck. I can feel both of my thumbs on his windpipe, pinching it closed as my nails dig into the flesh. Lucy comes running over to the bench where Gavrilo is now seated as I loom over him. His eyes dart around, fixing on her, and he tries to croak for help, but her eyes are blazing with the thrill of the kill. She moves her face close to his, watching with fascination as a vein on his temple swells against his purple skin. Then she begins to laugh, rejoicing in the death as she has so many times before. But this one is sweeter. This is somebody she knows, and it only makes it all the more exciting.

  'I didn't think you had it in you, old man,' she says to me, but I ignore her.

  'Lucy,' Gavrilo spits. 'Save me!'

  Lucy shakes her head.

  'There is nothing to save,' she replies gleefully, and kisses him on the cheek.

  My own eyes are shining with the light of truth, and Gavrilo can't look away. He falls towards them, blinded by the now-certain knowledge of what's happening to him. Lucy continues to laugh and laugh, and the crowd simply watches us with detached interest. He manages one more gasp but I squeeze it out of him and feel a crack beneath my thumbs. Something is broken, but I
can fix it. I hold his neck for a few more seconds and suddenly a train rushes through the platform without stopping. The noise breaks the oppressive silence and I hear Ada scream with terror as she watches it pass. Every passenger is staring at us, their frozen faces turned from their newspapers and their phones as they watch Gavrilo die. The train is soon gone, and he slumps down in the chair, completely broken. I release my hands, pulling my thumbs from the indentations in his throat just as a thunderous roar again echoes through the platform. This time it is not a train, and Ada screams again, far more blood curdling than the last.

  'Evan!' she screams and I turn around to see him lying on the ground in a thick pool of blood that leaks from his head into a pool that is uncannily similar in shape to the sub-continent of India.

  Lucy is standing in front of them, holding Gavrilo's gun with a theatrical puff of smoke rolling from the barrel. Ada is still screaming and she kneels down and cradles Evan's head in her lap, smearing herself with his blood, but his head just lolls uselessly to the side. He's dead.

  'You monster! What do you want from us?' she screams at Lucy, who is smiling serenely before she looks at me.

  I walk towards her, letting Gavrilo's head roll back onto the bench and I take the gun from her. She gives it up without resistance, but runs her finger over the scar on my hand as I take it.

  'I told you I would kill your vehicle,' she says with some satisfaction.

  I throw the pistol onto the tracks, just as another train screams through the station and I can hear it knocked away as the first carriage hits it, tossing it deep into the tunnel beyond the platform.

  'Yes, you did,' I reply and pat her on the head calmly.

  She squirms away from my grasp and hisses at me, but I ignore her. It's all bluster now. Ada is sobbing uncontrollably, running her hand across Evan's forehead, which is now caked with blood and the red fingerprints of his wife. I kneel down next to her and place a hand on her shoulder, and she looks up at me. She looks so broken and distraught that I feel a twinge of guilt for allowing her to see this. In a moment, none of it will matter, but the memory of her pain will linger in an after-image. Nothing can truly be erased.

  'He's dead,' she sobs, her grief forcing her to state the obvious.

  'It's okay, Ada. Everything will be okay. I'm going to save you. All of you,' I add, glancing back at Lucy who is watching us from afar.

  'Not any more,' Lucy says. 'Now we're all damned to oblivion. I welcome it. Do you know what he was going to do to Evan?'

  Ada looks at her, hatred and curiosity, diluted by tears. Then she looks back at me with a wordless question.

  'He was going to possess him. He was going to use your husband as a vehicle for himself, and then leave the hollow shell behind when he was finished with it, just like he did to Joe Finch. Just like he's done a thousand times before.'

  I ignore her and reach into my pocket, pulling out a clear plastic container. I hold it out to Ada who looks at it without seeing it.

  'Do you recognise this?' I say and she forces herself to focus.

  It's a catheter bag. The one we smuggled back from India.'

  I take two syringes out of my pocket also and jab them both through the thick plastic simultaneously.

  'What are you doing?' she says. 'That's anthrax!'

  I pull back the plungers and the syringes fill with the yellowy liquid as Lucy watches me, her smile starting to fade to a frown.

  'Grey was a fool, Lucy. So are you. The vehicle is not consumed by the host. The host becomes the vehicle. Joe Finch was still Joe Finch. I just came along for the ride, but everything he did was his own decision. I'm a silent partner.'

  Lucy's face is now growing very confused and she steps even closer to see what I'm doing with the two syringes, which I now hold in my right hand.

  'Do you trust me, Ada?' I say.

  She looks down at Evan's sightless eyes as they rest in her lap, and sobs again.

  'No.'

  It can't be helped. I take one of the syringes and stick it into her neck, pushing the plunger down with my thumb. Ada's hand automatically goes up to protect herself, but it's too late. The syringe is empty. I let it drop to the floor of the station. Ada falls backwards like she's been stung, and she's almost too shocked to speak, but she manages to get out one sentence.

  'You astral-travelling motherfucker!' she says, still clasping her neck with her hand.

  'Trust me, Ada.'

  Lucy picks up the empty syringe and then glances at Ada, who has started to turn incredibly pale. She looks like she's about to faint.

  'Grey was wrong. He knew that the viruses were the physical manifestation of the entrance points and he knew that the mule was a vehicle. But Evan was not my vehicle, Lucy. Ada is.'

  I take the remaining syringe and put it into my own neck, pushing down the plunger as Lucy rushes forward and tries to stop me. She screams in frustration as the empty syringe slips from my hand and to the ground.

  'You could never have stopped me. Everything has already happened.'

  Lucy screams in anger, but I can barely hear her. I slump to the ground. I can feel the drug in my blood as it pulses through me and soon my thoughts begin to fade. The knowledge of who I am and what I am grows fuzzy around the edges. Just as Joe Finch lost his grip on his lesser reality, I am losing mine on the greater one. Ada is slowly getting to her feet and I can see her vision overlayed with mine. All I want to do is get Evan home and put him to bed. I have to start work at the Lindfield Institute of Early Schooling and I still have a lot of preparation to do...

  Ada Meakes laughed despite herself as Evan's hands slipped from her grasp again. He was lying on his back mumbling, and he was too heavy for her to lift. Just next to his head, to the disgust of the other passengers, was a pool of vomit that was uncannily similar in shape to the sub-continent of India.

  'Come on, stud. Too many Tequila Sunrise's for you I think.'

  He sat up under his own power and finally allowed Ada to haul him to his feet. She grunted with the effort and then laughed again, slightly disgusted, and trying to ignore the smell of alcohol that pervaded his breath.

  'I love you,' he slurred drunkenly and she patted his arm, not wanting to kiss his vomit-stained lips.

  'I know, sweet. I love you too.'

  Ada looked around the platform and suddenly felt very embarrassed. Everybody was watching them, some with an expression of contempt, and others just amused by the show. Ada forced a little wave to one particularly stern man who was smoking a cigarette and looking at them quite coolly, but he didn't wave back.

  'I think we're making a spectacle of ourselves,' Ada said, giggling and burying her face in Evan's chest.

  He almost fell over just from the contact, but he managed to right himself.

  'Well let them watch,' he said loudly. 'We have good reason to celebrate. You're finally a real teacher! And I met this guy who said he might be able to get me involved in a new business venture that...'

  Ada patted his arm affectionately, but cut him off. She had heard it all before.

  'Sounds good. You can tell me all about it tomorrow.'

  Her eyes were drawn to a little girl who was standing near the edge of the platform, staring at them. She was a pretty thing, fair-haired and blue eyed. Ada smiled at her.

  'Hi there. What's your name?' she said.

  'Lucy,' replied the little girl shyly.

  'Are you lost, Lucy?'

  Lucy shook her head and pointed to a bench near the wall. A young man in a long leather coat with dark hair and bushy black eyebrows was watching her attentively from where he sat on one of the benches.

  'No. That's my Daddy over there.'

  The young man smiled at Ada and then spoke to Lucy.

  'Not too close to the edge, baby. Come back over here. It's dangerous.'

  Lucy nodded and looked back at Ada.

  'I have to go,' she said.

  Ada nodded.

  'Okay. It was nice to meet you, Lucy.' />
  Lucy ran back over to her father who put his arm around her affectionately as the tunnel rumbled. A train burst into the station slowing down with a squeal of its brakes, but Evan seemed to have passed out on her shoulder. He was even snoring as the carriage doors opened and Ada shook him awake.

  'Okay. Let's get you to bed, mister,' she said, and they stumbled inside followed by a flood of people.

  The announcement sounded to stand clear of the doors and they slid shut. Then with a jerk, the train started up again and pulled out of the station and into the tunnel beyond, soon disappearing from sight.

  29