by Simon Clark
”He's back then,”Robyn said after they'd sat for a while dwelling on the grim abduction image that Benedict had painted.
”Who's back?”Noel asked. He looked shaken.
”That guy who tried to make off with me. Or one like him.”She tried to laugh, but it looked as if an arctic chill had settled on her shoulders.
”Shall we give him a name, so we know whom we're referring to in the future?”
”Robyn-”
”The Face Monster? Lip Lad? Mush Man?” Her eyes fixed into a glassy stare as recollection of the face reared up in her mind with an ugly power.
”Kisser Kid? Mouthy? Lippy? Wonder Chops? King Lip? The Mouth? The Luxor Lip…”
”Robyn.”Noel spoke gently. ”It's okay. Take it easy”
Benedict realized the events of the last forty-eight hours had returned with a savagery that robbed her of peace of mind. She trembled now, and she rubbed her stomach round and round. At last she took a deep breath.
”I'm okay. It's just hearing that this guy's been lurking here for years brought it all back to me.”
”We'll keep the apartment door locked and bolted at all times.”Noel put his arm around her shoulders. ”Don't worry.”
”Good idea,”Benedict agreed. ”We're here with you anyway; you're safe.”
Noel looked up at him. ”But what's this with the crows? Both you and Ellery were worried about the crows. Surely they've got nothing to do with this?”
”They fit in. Don't ask me how exactly”
”Psychopomps,”Ellery said.
”Psychopomps. What does that mean?”Noel looked puzzled.
”The word psychopomp refers to animals that appear as omens of death.
Sometimes it's moths landing on your pillow, or hearing an owl hoot in the daytime. In local mythology the psychopomps are crows that are harbingers of death.”
”That's a picturesque story, but why do we have to worry about these crows now?”
”Because they're here. They're gathering on the building.”Through the window Benedict watched crows spiraling in to land. ”When the crows come, it means that someone here will die.”
CHAPTER 23
CROWS.
Big BLACK crows. Black, FRIGHTENING crows. They are omens of DEATH.
Someone will DIE. Here… SOON.
Robyn Vincent sat beside Noel on the couch, listening to Benedict speak.
Ellery sat in the chair, hands resting on its arms, his head tilted slightly, demonstrating the intensity of his concentration. Ellery listened to every word. Lives depended on it. She knew that now.
Outside in the afternoon sunlight, crows flapped on death-dark wings.
They homed in on the Luxor. She saw them grow larger as they glided in to land on the roof, just above her head. They must be swarming there in a great glistening black clot. Harbingers of death, Benedict had told them. Someone here in this building would die soon. If anything, Noel rebelled against the notion that these creatures defied the laws of time and space.
”You mean,”Noel asked, ”that crows can somehow see into the future?””No.
Not exactly/' ”But you said the crows knew that someone would die here soon?”
”It's an old legend. In most societies there are beliefs in animals being able to sense impending disaster. Certain cultures have developed a more elaborate mythology that describes how animals or insects can predict not only the death of an individual, but that at the point of death the creatures either help the soul's passage into the afterlife, or have a more sinister agenda and try to abduct the soul as it quits the body”
Robyn shivered. ”And in this locality the crows are the bad guys, right?”
”Right. They're not only a sign of an impending fatality, they're here to claim the soul.”
”But they're not always successful?”
”No.”Benedict gave a grim smile. ”According to local legend, the departing soul is a pretty nimble entity. The crows have a tough chase.
If they fail to catch the soul, they sulk and sit around for a few hours, not moving or squawking. If they catch the soul…”He grimaced.
”Well, it's welcome-to-the-soul party. The crows will fly in circles above the place where the corpse lies, celebrating as noisily as only crows can. After they've sung their own praises for a day or two, then the flocks disperse.”
”Until the next time,”Robyn said.
”Until the next time,”Benedict agreed.
Robyn couldn't stop her eyes being drawn to the apartment window. Beyond the glass, airborne crows thickened into a pure black blizzard of the repellent creatures.
Noel asked: ”Why don't we just leave? Let the damn birds sit here and wait for some other victim.”
”The crows aren't perpetrators. They won't cause the victim's death. And running away would do no good.”
Robyn nodded. ”If fate has its finger pointed at you, I don't think driving over the state line's going to shake it off.”
Noel became angry. ”If this crow legend is right, that means someone here is as good as dead. For me the two big damn questions are who and when?”
Robyn watched Benedict give an unhappy shrug. That, I'm afraid, isn't known to us.”He nodded at the crows just beyond the window. ”Those… they're the ones with the answers.”
Even though her unborn baby must be only a cluster of cells so small you'd need a microscope to see it, it felt as if miniature limbs flapped inside her stomach in eerie mimicry to the dark-as-midnight wings outside the windowpane.
***
Logan sat opposite Joe in the kitchen of his apartment. Frankly, the place was a pile of shit. Water dripped through the ceiling like the whole building wept over its sorry state. Roaches gorged on pizza crusts and dropped fries, along with vomited dinners that could only be identified by a forensic scientist. Even the walls were poop-brown from dirt, nicotine and beer stains. On the table were a hundred silver wraps.
”There should be a thousand here,”Logan told Joe.
Joe looked up from where he'd been picking black gunge out of his fingernail. The kid's eyes bled alarm. ”There are a hundred. You watched me count them, man. Are you saying I'm cheating you?”
”No… there should be a thousand. A hundred's not enough to get us out of shit city is it?”He gestured at the fungal kitchen with a cigarette.
”There's not enough profit in this to buy me a new refrigerator, never mind a fucking house with a fucking pool and shit.”
”Beard said that you were on probation. He said if you sold these without bringing any hassle down on him, he might supply you one-fifty”
”Joe, shit to Beard. He's only the fucking supplier. He's not the boss of me, is he? Is he?”
”No, Logan. I'm with you, man. But if he doesn't sup242 ply any more, what the fuck we going to… Hey Hey! It's cool, buddy I'm with you. I'm on your side. Its cool!”
Joe was reacting with plenty of emotion… the right emotion: fear.
Because Logan had just pulled a submachine gun from a sack on the floor.
He laid it on the table by the parade of silver-uniformed crystals of crack.
Joe was still bug-eyed at the gun, figuring that Logan planned to start shooting. ”Logan, I'm your buddy. You know that. Please, man… it's cool, take it easy. We'll sell the crack, then go back to Beard. He'll give us one fifty. We-”
”I'm not bothered about Beard. Not yet, anyway!”
”Look, I'm your buddy… your best buddy Logan.”Joe looked to be having plenty of trouble swallowing the lump in his throat. He still figured that by nightfall he'd be chilling on the big slab with a nametag knotted to his big toe.
”We need to make a statement,”Logan told him.
”A statement?”Nerve spit glistened on Joe's lip. ”We're not gonna do any writing lessons, are we?”
”Listen. If we do something that makes all the dealers and suppliers and fucking users in the neighborhood take notice of us, then we'll advance our career prospects. You
follow, Joe?”
”Sure. Sure I follow;' Joe responded eagerly. ”A big statement. Advance our career prospects.”He still found it hard to pull his eyes away from the snub-nosed machine gun. ”One look at that baby will earn you plenty of respect, Logan. Plenty”
Logan picked up the gun and kissed the muzzle. ”This fires thirty rounds in three seconds flat. And this baby ain't for looking at, Joe. It's built for using.”
”Using? Hell, Logan. That's heavy shit. 'Specially if you take on Beard.
He's got a Yardy crew pulling his strings.”
”Beard's a future project. I just want the word on the street that we're two guys to be respected. And taken so fucking seriously like you wouldn't believe.”
”This is freakin' heavy, Logan. You know that? Machine guns and shit.”
”You think that people out there should say we two are a joke?”
Joe stared at the machine gun dominating the table-hell, it dominated the whole freaking apartment. ”No, no way, Logan. I'm there with you, buddy.”
”Yeah, well, that's good to know. Because I've got a plan that's going to give us career enhancement. I'm going to use this baby to rip up Ellery Hann. Once this beauty's done with Stutter Boy, you'll be able to spread him on a cracker with a butter knife.”
”Ellery Hann? I know you hate the motherfucker's guts, but he's nothing to us.”
”And nothing to anyone else. But once word gets out on the street that we gunned him because we were so inclined”-Logan grinned-”that's when we get respect from everyone… and I mean everyone. You follow, Joe?”
Joe stared at the gun with a lethal fascination. ”I follow. Ellery Hann, it is. Bang, bang…”
***
After Benedict had finished talking, they settled into uneasy silence, interrupted only by patchy attempts at small talk that quickly petered out. Robyn poured more coffee, then went into the kitchen to cut slices of cake. She didn't know if her guests would want any. The discussion they'd just undertaken might suppress any appetite for some time to come. But she needed the ordinariness of opening the cake carton, removing the cake. Setting it on a plate. Cutting nice even slices of the moist delicacy. Those ordinary actions might help soothe her nerves.
”Calm down, Junior,”she murmured as she eased the blade through moist lemon cake. Her stomach still fluttered as if tiny legs kicked and matchstick-sized arms windmilled in her stomach. When she returned to the living room, Benedict was slipping papers into the envelope. He looked like a man on the move. Noel donned his jacket.
”Cake, anyone?”she asked, wondering if the invitation to eat after all that had happened didn't sound blindingly trite.
Benedict shook his head. ”We'd best make a move now before it gets dark.”
”Make a move?”Robyn experienced a jolt of surprise. She glanced at Ellery who sat motionless in the armchair. His expression revealed a cloud of worries. ”We have nowhere to move to.”
Noel spoke quickly. ”Benedict's offered us his spare bedroom.”
”You can stay as long as you like,”Benedict told her. ”You too, Ellery:' ”Wait… just wait a minute.”Robyn thought: I'm losing control over my life. Decisions have been made on my behalf. I'm going to be like a little kid again, being bossed by people who think they know better than me. ”Leave here?”Her stomach spasmed so painfully she almost doubled up.
But no… no way She wouldn't even flinch as her muscles twisted and bunched into knots. She wouldn't allow anything to give another human being leverage on her own free will… her own ability to decide what she did with her life.
Noel picked up the flashlight. ”We can leave most of our things here. If the door's locked they should be safe. But take anything of value. Do you want me to pack your clothes?”
“Wo.”She took a deep breath to steady her jangling nerves. ”Noel, we've been making this place our home.”
”Robyn?”He smiled as if she'd cracked a silly joke. ”You've seen those damn birds outside. Last night a guy with a heap of chopped liver for a mouth tried to drag you away to… God knows where. Surely you don't want to stay here?”
”Yes. I do want to stay here, Noel. I want to stay here with you. We've worked to make this apartment into a home where we can live together as a couple.”
”But not after everything's happened. That would be…”He stopped short of saying crazy. ”It wouldn't be wise, honey”
Robyn glanced at Benedict and Ellery. Both appeared uncomfortable witnessing this argument between boyfriend and girlfriend. She closed her eyes for a moment, sensing powerful tidal forces flow through her mind as well as her body. ”Please, Noel… I'm staying here. I have to stay here.”
”Robyn-”
”I don't know why. All I know is I must stay”
”You can't. It's dangerous. You heard what Benedict said?”
”Yes. I heard perfectly In fact, he described people who felt the same way as me. They were compelled to come here. I'm compelled to stay”
For the first time in a while, Ellery spoke. ”M-me, too.”
Robyn saw the way that Noel glared at Ellery. There was fiery light in Noel's eyes, one that suggested jealousy and suspicion. You could almost hear him thinking: Now why does Ellery want to stay close to Robyn?
Calmly but firmly, Robyn said, ”Please don't make me leave this place, Noel.”
”But it's too dangerous to stay”
”I'm even nauseated at the idea of going,”she insisted. ”If you don't feel what I'm feeling… or what Ellery's feeling… it's hard to explain. But if you make me leave here I think I will die.”
Ellery gave a serious nod. He felt the same.
”I-I don't know,”she said. ”I can't put the feeling into words. But it would be like telling a pregnant woman in labor not to give birth. It's physically impossible to will yourself to stop the contractions.”Robyn looked at the crows beyond the windows.
”Maybe those birds feel the same way. Something calls to them and they fly here. They can't stop themselves. They only know they've got to come.”
Benedict let out a lungful of air in a whistle. ”That's a persuasive argument for staying.”
Noel fixed Robyn with pleading eyes. ”Are you sure you won't even try to leave?”
Robyn shook her head. ”No. I'm staying. I must.”
”I'm ss-staying, too.”Ellery squeezed the padded arms of the chair as if to prevent anyone from dragging him outside by force. ”Nn-need to.”
Noel shot Ellery that fierce look again, then said, ”Shoot.”He ran his hands through his hair with such a look of concern in his eyes that Robyn nearly broke down and wept. Instead she clenched her hands and straightened her back.
”We…”She corrected herself. ”I've got to see this thing through. I'm here for a reason. I know I am.”
Noel stared. For a second she thought he'd beg her to leave or begin yelling at her to pack her things. Then the stare of disbelief softened into one of acceptance… reluctant acceptance. ”It's okay,”he told her. ”I'm not going to force you. I'm staying.”
She noticed Ellery visibly relax now that he knew Noel wasn't going to haul her from the building. Now everyone turned to Benedict for his response to this uncanny attachment to the old Luxor.
For a moment he said nothing. He gazed through the window at the accumulating mass of crows. Then softly he spoke: ”There is a time to be born, a time to die, a time to reap and a time to sow.”He took a breath.
”That is to say, that a certain quality exists in a moment of time, and that quality is attached to the relevant hour or moment. Astrologists call that the 'objective time moment.'
Scientists call it 'synchronicity. Now I'm going to call it destiny.”His gaze roved around the room, as if he could see the uncanny glimmer of supernatural forces sizzling across walls to leap into their hearts and minds, and plant a deep root there that would embed the spirit of the Luxor inextricably inside of them. He said, ”This is our destiny, to be in the Luxor over the next
few hours. Because something is coming.
Something big… something bigger than we can imagine. And we're required by powers unseen and powers unknown to be here in this building when it does.”
Outside, the crows-those circling blots of grave-pit darkness-began their chilling call.
CHAPTER 24
Waiting… waiting for what? And when? And how? Waiting hurts sometimes.
Waiting. It can have the mean ability to ache your body from head to toe; waiting becomes a source of physical hurt.
Robyn lay in bed beside Noel. She gazed up into darkness, seeing nothing with her eyes, yet her thoughts gunned images through her brain.
Crowding in there were vivid recollections of the creature that possessed a great red blossom of lips erupting from the bottom half of its face. She recalled the vivid mental picture of it seizing her in the gray, dripping forest, one that could be accessed in some deeply mysterious way through the dance floor. She recalled Benedict describing what he'd seen on the old videotape, how a creature had abducted Lockram's son. Her mind kept returning to Ellery. She couldn't get his face out of her head. Surely it couldn't be sexual attraction, could it? On seeing him for the first time she hadn't thought: Oh, he's so good looking. No, her reaction was that she'd known him once. Known him as well as her own family… no!
Better than her own family. When she'd seen him her heart had leapt, while every nerve in her flesh had zinged with an electricity she'd never experienced before.
Now Ellery slept on the couch. Benedict had been good to his word and chosen to stay. Ellery-good, kindhearted Ellery-had insisted that Benedict take the bed in the spare room, the one that housed the crib where Nathaniel Lockram must have slept all those years ago, and from where the creature had stolen him wrapped in a blanket. Now the time stood just one minute after midnight. Her mind jostled with a thousand images and a thousand questions. Robyn couldn't sleep. Her stomach fluttered. Images of tiny limbs stirring in her womb joined the restless throng inside her head. When she rubbed her belly, trying to soothe those twitchy movements, it must have alerted Noel that she was awake.
