Sleepless

by Lou Morgan

  Another stabbing pain behind her eyes made her double over, pressing her hand to her face. Even with her eyes closed, she could still see it. And when she opened her eyes again and dropped her hand, it was wet and red. There was blood all over her face. Blood all over her hand. Blood everywhere. Real blood. Not the kind she could pretend was just in her head. Not the kind that was just another sign she was tired and afraid and losing her mind. Real blood that belonged in a person. In a living, breathing human being.

  Grey was running towards her. He had to get across the wet paving, slippery with what had been part of someone. His feet skidded and he almost fell more than once, but still he kept on coming. Izzy’s feet felt like someone had nailed them to the ground. The idea of running now, of moving, of doing anything other than standing right where she was, was impossible. All she could do was stand. When he reached her, she saw just how bad Grey looked. His clothes were spattered with blood. His face, too. It stood out livid red against the greyish white of his skin. There were bruises across his nose and cheeks, and he had the beginnings of what looked like a solid black eye. She couldn’t help herself – before he could say anything, before he could do anything, she reached out and touched it as gently as she could.

  “The yellow line,” he said softly.

  “What?” Izzy blinked at him. Why was he bringing that up when there was something so much bigger, so much worse, to worry about? Who cared about the stupid yellow line?

  “The yellow line. It tried to choke me. At least, I think it did. I don’t know.”

  “The yellow line?” Izzy echoed, glancing down at the thick line of paint (now splashed with red) at their feet.

  “Came alive.”

  “Ah.” There wasn’t much more to say.

  “It’s happening to me, isn’t it? I did something. To you. I’m sorry…” Grey stumbled over the words.

  “Not now.”

  “Izzy…”

  “Not now.” She could hear her voice – she sounded calm. Quiet. Strong. Detached – or numb. Distant. Empty.

  Insane.

  She nodded to the tower. “We can talk later. But not now.”

  “The porter, Iz. He saw it. If he saw it, it happened and he’ll be calling the police.”

  “He’s not at his desk right now, though, is he?” She pointed to the lobby of Shakespeare. It was deserted.

  “Come on.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” The look on Grey’s face as he stared up at the building made it only too clear what he thought of that idea. “Izzy, someone either just fell off the top of Shakespeare Tower or was pushed. And you want to go up there?”

  “Tigs left me a message. She was asking for help,” Izzy said, her voice still remarkably, frighteningly calm.

  Grey swore. Loudly. He kicked the pillar behind them. His foot left a dirty red scuff mark on the grey concrete. He dropped into a crouch and buried his head in his hands – and for a second Izzy almost thought she could hear sobbing. His back was heaving up and down with the effort of keeping control, of keeping his breathing steady.

  “He’s not going to be away from the desk forever,” she said.

  “I know.” His voice was muffled by his hands. Slowly, he stood up and wiped his face. “You’re right. We need to finish this.”

  The only way Izzy could bring herself to walk across the podium was by refusing to look down. If she didn’t look down, she wouldn’t see the wash of red, wouldn’t see the shreds of body. Something crunched horribly beneath her foot and her stomach somersaulted inside itself, but she kept on walking. She didn’t let herself start to wonder who it was that had fallen – if she did, she knew she’d never be able to get the memory of this, this walk, out of her head. She’d noticed how far away from it all she had begun to feel, like she was watching someone else do all these things. Everything was coming unravelled and yet again she caught herself wondering whether she wasn’t just dreaming. Eventually, she decided that if this was all a dream (or a nightmare) then it was a pretty clear sign she needed some serious therapy. And if it was real, then she was definitely going to need that therapy once it was all over. Lots of it.

  She’d never liked therapy.

  The lobby, when they reached the door, was still empty. The porter was obviously still somewhere else – calling the police, calling an ambulance, throwing up. He didn’t even appear when the lift pinged softly at them and the doors slid open. Grey staggered in, weaving slightly, but Izzy hesitated. The lift began to close, and Grey jabbed at the ‘open door’ button.

  “It’s OK,” he said, holding his other hand out to her. “I’m not going to do anything.”

  “It’s not you I’m worried about,” she replied.

  He blinked at her and almost dropped his hand – and for the first time, she saw the same uncertainty in his eyes that she already felt.

  “Get in,” he said finally.

  She did.

  They rode the lift up to Tigs’s floor in silence, watching the numbers slide by.

  Stick together, stay alive. Stick together, stay alive.

  You shouldn’t be here, dearie.

  Take the pills. Take the pills. Take the pills the pills the pills…

  There were voices in Izzy’s head, rattling around and shouting over each other. All of them sounded like other people, and all of them sounded like her, and it was only because she could hear high-pitched laughter behind them all that she understood they weren’t real.

  She only had to hold it together for a few more hours.

  A few more hours – and then what?

  Well, there was sleep for a start.

  Everything looks better after a good night’s sleep…

  The lift stopped. The doors opened and together they stepped out on to the landing. Izzy had no idea what she was expecting to find, but somehow the blank walls and closed doors were not it. It all looked so normal. Except the doors weren’t all closed – the door to Tigs’s apartment was open a crack. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Grey’s whole body tense. He raised a finger to his lips, warning her to be quiet. She rolled her eyes. Like she was planning on charging in there and making a racket…

  They crept across the landing to the front door and flattened themselves against the wall beside it, listening. Everything seemed quiet. Grey reached out and pushed against the door with the flat of his hand, inching it open slightly and peering in. Murmured voices drifted out. They were too quiet for Izzy to understand what they were saying, but she was fairly sure they belonged to Mia and Kara. Tigs was never that quiet.

  And if Mia and Kara were in Tigs’s apartment…

  In her mind’s eye, Izzy saw Tigs sitting cross-legged on the podium paving, idly fingerpainting in the gore, her blonde hair streaked with red.

  She shook the image away as Grey pushed the door open a little more and slipped inside. “What are you doing?” she hissed after him. He stuck his head back round the door.

  “Kitchen,” he whispered.

  Something felt wrong and alarm bells were ringing inside Izzy’s head. Why were they sneaking in? Why was everything so quiet? If someone had just gone over the edge of the balcony, shouldn’t there be more … noise?

  The answer, she realized, was simple. Everyone was just too tired.

  Everyone except Kara.

  Kara hadn’t taken the pills, so why was she there? And what was she doing?

  The alarm bells rang a little louder, and she crept into the apartment behind Grey, carefully pulling the door back to its original position behind her.

  The path to the kitchen was clear. Once they were sure they’d made it, they leaned against the walls on either side of the door, just as they had on the landing.

  “What now?” she hissed as quietly as she could.

  “We listen.”

  “What for?”

  “I don’t know. Anything. There’s something off … I can—” He broke off abruptly and flattened himself even further against the wall as the voic
es got louder. They were somewhere at the far end of the apartment, in one of the bedrooms or the bathroom. There was a crash, and the sound of something heavy slamming into something else – something like the walls or the floor. Shouting – Kara’s voice, raised. A sharp sound like a slap.

  Footsteps, running up the corridor towards them. Grey edged as far to the side as he could, gesturing for Izzy to do the same. She leaned away from the door, feeling the edge of the kitchen counter biting into her hip and willing herself smaller, barely daring to breathe.

  A second set of footsteps, and the front door being pushed shut – hard. A lock turning.

  Izzy’s eyes met Grey’s. They were locked in.

  “I said, give it to me!” Mia was shouting, her voice boiling with rage. There was another crash, followed by a scuffle and something being smashed.

  “No.” It was Kara, but she sounded wrong. Her voice was thick and slow. She seemed to be having trouble speaking.

  “Give it to me or I’ll tear your tongue out right now!”

  Izzy clamped her hands over her mouth as Mia spoke. Her voice was like ice, her words clear and suddenly cold. Across the doorway from her, Izzy saw how wide Grey’s eyes were; how his hands had balled into fists.

  In the hallway, Kara groaned. It sounded like she was trying to roll over or crawl away, and then she cried out sharply, suddenly.

  Izzy couldn’t take it any longer. She turned so that she was facing the wall, and slowly, carefully, quietly, edged around the side of the doorframe.

  Kara was on the floor in the middle of the hallway, face down. Mia stood over her, her back to the kitchen. Her shoulders were hunched, and Izzy could see them heaving up and down. Her hands hung loosely by her sides and her fingers didn’t stop twitching – even when she dropped her knees into the middle of Kara’s spine, making her yell in pain. She reached for Kara’s head, winding her fingers through her hair and tugging it sharply. And then she shifted, her back blocking Izzy’s line of sight.

  Mia leaned forward, pulling her elbow back to yank Kara’s head up. “Tigs wasn’t supposed to fall,” she hissed. “She’s no use to me dead.”

  “Then why did you—?” Kara’s question was muffled, and cut off by Mia twisting another handful of her hair. She moaned in pain.

  “She was supposed to go to sleep. That was the plan. I needed her.” Mia sat back on Kara’s spine, and shifted again.

  Izzy could see Kara’s head pulled back at a painful angle as Mia appeared to start braiding her hair.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Grey hissed from the other side of the doorway.

  “Shh.” Izzy flapped a hand at him to be quiet as Mia froze and cocked her head to one side. Had she heard him?

  Izzy held her breath and pulled her head back round the doorway.

  Nothing happened.

  After what felt like an hour, she risked another peek.

  She’d been right – Mia was braiding Kara’s hair. It even sounded like she was humming quietly to herself.

  Mia, quite clearly, had completely lost her mind.

  And now she was dangerous.

  “When you think about it, it’s really all your fault,” she said conversationally, jerking hard on Kara’s hair as she spoke. “I mean, if only you’d joined in with the rest of us and taken the pills.”

  “What’s she doing?” Grey mouthed at Izzy. She shook her head. She wanted to concentrate on Mia – to know where this was going. But it was getting harder to hear her. There was a soft buzzing sound starting to creep in at the edge of Izzy’s hearing, as though the room was slowly filling with flies… She focused all her attention on the hallway.

  “You always have to spoil it, don’t you?” Mia was saying. “Always tagging along but never joining in. I mean, it’s fine … most of the time. But this time? No.”

  “I don’t understand! Let me go!” Kara groaned.

  “Ummm, no. No, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Mia answered brightly, patting Kara on the head. “You see, you gave Dom the extra pills, didn’t you? And then he took them and started getting all paranoid and wanting to tell someone about them…” Her tone darkened. “Can’t have that. No. No, no, no, no, no.”

  She grabbed the back of Kara’s head again and smashed her face against the floor, then leaned forward so she could whisper in Kara’s ear. “The first time I get even close to being better than my brother and you have to spoil it. You.” With surprising speed, she jumped off Kara’s back, skipping sideways and then kicking her in the ribs. “And now they’re all dead because of you.”

  Kara rolled over and curled into a ball, clutching her ribs and moaning in pain. Mia straightened her T-shirt and glanced down at it, picking a stray hair of Kara’s from the front. “And seeing as Tigs was stupid enough to fall off the balcony, I’m going to have to come up with a new plan. Tigs was meant to be the –” she broke off and giggled – “the fall guy. Isn’t that funny? She was the fall guy and she fell? You see?” She waited but Kara didn’t respond, so she kicked her again. “You’re not laughing, Kara. Why aren’t you laughing?”

  “Because you’re insane,” Kara spat.

  Mia laughed. “That’ll be the pi-ills!” she said in a sing-song voice. “But like Noah said, that’ll wear off. Being dead won’t. Awww. Too bad for you.” She twirled on the spot. “It’s just going to be a pain changing everything to put Izzy in the picture instead of Tigs. I mean, she did at least disappear when I was leading them all round on that merry chase to find Dom, so that’s a good start.” She put on a little-girl voice and rolled a strand of hair around her fingers. “But Mister Policeman, have you asked Izzy if she has an alibi for all those tragic, tragic deaths? I’m afraid she’s just come … unhinged. The pressure of a school like Clerkenwell, you see. Not everyone’s cut out for it.”

  Kara had uncurled slightly, and put a hand on the floor in an effort to push herself up. Mia made a tutting sound and stamped on it with her sandal as hard as she could. Kara howled and rolled back into a ball.

  “It would have been so much neater with Tigs. I could have left your body here, and when she woke up completely cuckoo, everyone would just have assumed it was all her. Honestly. It’s so terribly inconvenient. I thought the sleeping pills were genius. She was so busy shovelling caffeine pills down her throat that she didn’t even check the label when I switched them in the cupboard. But then she had to go out on the balcony, didn’t she? God.” Another kick.

  Kara was whimpering. Izzy shot a desperate glance at Grey, silently asking him what they could do. He looked back at her blankly, but there were two of them, after all, and only one of Mia. He held up a finger, telling her to get ready…

  Mia was sighing and looking down at Kara with her hands on her hips. “I suppose we’re going to have to do something with you,” she muttered, glancing over her shoulder as though someone else was talking to her from the living room. “I know, I know!” she said to the imaginary person – and Izzy almost felt a stab of sympathy. Mia was going through exactly the same as the rest of them.

  Of course, none of the others had murdered their own brother, their friends, and then tried to frame one of them for it all. Mia had lost it, there was no doubt about that. Whatever she thought about Dom, he was her brother. Her twin. There was no way she would ever knowingly hurt him – or at least she wouldn’t have before she took the pills.

  In the hallway, Mia bent down and grabbed another handful of Kara’s hair. “Let’s just…”

  Grey held up his hand, counting off his fingers one at a time. Five … four…

  They were going to rush Mia, together.

  Three…

  Two…

  Izzy tensed, getting ready to charge.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Just as Grey’s countdown reached one, there was a shriek. Izzy and Grey looked on as Kara flew up from the floor, hurling herself at Mia and throwing her back along the hallway. The momentum carried them along as far as the biggest bedroom at the end
, where they crashed through the door with a combined yell. Izzy and Grey scrambled after them, reaching the door just in time to see them roll out on to the balcony through the open door.

  “Kara!” Izzy couldn’t stop her shout of warning from exploding out of her mouth.

  The scuffle stopped, and both Kara and Mia looked up at them, seeing her in the doorway with Grey behind her. Mia’s lip curled into a cold smile as she took advantage of Kara’s lapse of concentration and sprang away from her, standing on the balcony like some kind of animal in a cage. Her eyes were wild, staring madly back at them. There was no doubt that she had completely lost her grip on reality – even before her hand snapped forward and grabbed Kara’s throat, pulling her close.

  Kara eyed them both. Her make-up had smeared across her face and there were streaks of mascara down her cheeks. She looked utterly afraid. The strap of her top was twisted and ripped, and there was a nasty graze on her jaw. Mia’s madness had not been kind.

  “Izzy! Were your ears burning?” Mia laughed. “We were just talking about you. Well, I was talking. Kara? Mmmm … no. Odd, really. She’s usually so … chatty.” She shook Kara by the throat for emphasis. “And Grey. Wow. I’ve got to say, it’s a good thing Tigs can’t see you looking like that. She’d go right off you. I hate to break it to you, but she was never that interested in your personality…” She winked at him. Grey made a low growling sound in the back of his throat.

  “Let Kara go. You’re done.”

  “Me? Oh, hardly.” She laughed, showing all her teeth. “And besides, Kara’s not walking out of here.” She winked at Kara, who swayed slightly. “Starting to feel it, are we? You think all that tea I was making you was just for fun? The dose Tigs got was just supposed to knock her out. You … not so much.”

  She laughed again and Grey snarled. “Let her go!”

  “Let her go? What – over there?” Mia yanked Kara closer to the balcony rail. “Sure thing, boss.” She pulled and pulled, but Kara resisted. Izzy tried to take a step towards them, but Grey threw his arm out in front of her, stopping her.