Billy Christmas

by Mark A. Pritchard

  He couldn’t believe how quickly Katherine managed to put her skates on. Having discarded his hiking boots at the edge of the flood, Billy discovered that though the skates had grown, they were still not quite big enough These were supposed to be his magic skates, not some dreadful parody of Cinderella, with him now cast as an ugly stepsister. Over his left shoulder, he heard ice meet metal. He looked over to see Katherine skate up the road and away from him.

  “Hey, wait for me!”

  He didn’t want her to disappear on her own, though he was pleased to see some of her natural impatience returning. Billy growled and pulled at first one boot, then another, until they each gave way. He knew skating wasn’t going to be as easy as Katherine made it look.

  It also wasn’t as hard as he had feared, though he thought he must have looked pretty strange, hands moving from car roof to car roof, with a poorly hidden axe over his shoulder. His worst fear was that when turning into the High Street he’d face the police, but the High Street was abandoned. He began to risk a few feet without a car roof and felt both warmth and a sense of anticipation. After all the trials he’d faced, this one, the one he got to spend alone with Katherine, now beckoned.

  At first he feared he’d lost her, and he struggled to catch up. He followed the skate tracks up the High Street and away from the bridge and the park. Katherine was looping around the roundabout at the top of the road, once forwards, once backwards, once turning between both. Billy was so mesmerised by her movements that he skated into the thick end of a lamppost, sprawling over to one side. He picked himself up, careful not to roll his head back anywhere near the teeth of the axe. Katherine hadn’t noticed and simply kept making her turns, each new in some small way: a small jump, a turn of her hand.

  Judging his speed better, Billy fell in behind Katherine, though still unable to match her easy loops. The roundabout was pierced at the centre by what looked like a small Egyptian Needle. He hoped that they would find a natural rhythm and he might even be able to hold her hand, the missing task ever on his mind. However, in a short time, their loose orbit of the roundabout became erratic. If he put his hand out now he’d send them both flying. The roundabout wasn’t large, and soon he felt a light dizziness. With the surrounding drifts of snow and colossal icicles, he was reminded of flying through the clouds with Teàrlag, only here he was steering, albeit badly. Looking up he saw that Katherine had stopped and turned, and to his delight he saw that she was applying the lipstick he had given her.

  Not knowing how to slow the skates, Billy back-peddled and immediately found himself sitting down hard. He looked up, and to his amazement, saw a small red smile begin to break from the right side of Katherine’s mouth.

  “Not as easy as you thought?”

  Billy struggled to his feet. “I never thought it was,” he said, before falling back in a heap.

  “Oh no?” Katherine took two short steps towards Billy, stopping just inches from him with a sharp skid. She offered a hand to steady him as he got back up. To his delight, she didn’t take it back once he was standing. Instead, she started to lead them around the roundabout with her cold white hand. The only thing missing was that brief glimpse of her smile.

  “You had me scared, you know,” said Billy, hoping to coax her back. “Do you remember me speaking to you while you were out?”

  “I heard you,” said Katherine. “It was like you were in another room, but I heard you.”

  Billy smiled; she had heard what he had said and she was holding his hand. He would bring her back, he knew he would. The chill from her hand had started to creep up his arm, though he wasn’t inclined to let go. Besides, each time he took on the cold, more of the girl he knew returned.

  “Did you speak to my dad?”

  “A bit,” said Billy. “We get on, I think. But he’s under a lot of pressure. Did you know there was a minister in your house? A government minister, I mean.”

  Katherine didn’t seem to react to this. “I heard my aunt, but not my dad. She would talk about you.”

  “She seems really nice,” said Billy, now looking down at his arm, which was beginning to ache with the cold. “Loves you to bits.”

  “Loves you to bits,” said Katherine, the faintest smile returning. “Yes, that’s what she said. I didn’t know whether she meant dad or you.”

  The coolness in Billy’s arm was now balanced by the flush of his cheeks, but still he didn’t let go of her hand. Katherine broke off from their rotations and led Billy down the High Street. Skating like this, able to match her pace and stance, he felt more confident. The afternoon snow had buried the street so deeply that it felt as though they were skating down the base of a shallow valley. At the end of this dell, the arms of the suspension bridge rose out of the ice, but before they reached it, Katherine steered them right and into the park.

  With the bright moon now higher, sharp shafts of light pierced the tree and mistletoe canopy, laying a mottled shadow over the fresh snow. As they swung arm in arm beneath the trees, it looked to Billy as though they were lit by a natural strobe. They slid out from underneath the blanket into the open park, towards the statue of Sir Steve—who was so buried in snow Billy couldn’t have slapped him for luck if he’d felt the need, though at this moment he felt he had enough going his way. He could see Katherine returning. At odd moments, she would glance left or right, with that familiar curiosity, but it was like a wave that would subside, leaving him alone again. Each time she left, he drew the cold up his arm a bit further.

  Katherine tugged him about, and now, really getting to grips with the skates, Billy was able to follow without his heart rate skyrocketing. He realised as she led them across the park that she meant to take them out over the frozen river. This scared him for two reasons: he assumed the ice would be thinner there, and if they fell through the river would be merciless, but also it took them closer to where the Gargoyle had appeared. He pulled back, but Katherine held firm, and he was so happy to see her old resolve that he parked his instincts and went with her. She looked back at Billy with a familiar glint, and began to accelerate.

  When they were skating side by side, Billy towered over her, but as she pulled forward their shoulders levelled out, and it was all his long legs could do to keep up with her. With the wide track of the entire river, there was nothing to stop the speed from increasing. There were no warning cracks sounding underneath, as they crossed the line of the river bank, and he was then able to allow his brain to focus on staying upright.

  “Come on Billy, faster!”

  “This is fast!”

  And now the bars of the suspension bridge rose out of the ice before them, and to Billy’s dismay, Katherine shook off his hand to lean low and make a turn through the bars and back onto the High Street. He made the turn, with a degree of elegance that he didn’t have on land with shoes, and looked to see where she was headed. Katherine had simply coasted, but now turned and started to skate backwards. She was suddenly pale again. He pushed his skates forward and took up her hand. This time the cold ripped into him, pouring up his arms, but he didn’t care. They both needed this; he was releasing Katherine from the effects of her coma, and she from the shackles of the task. He had just skated as he thought he’d never be able to. He could never have achieved that alone.

  Katherine looked up at his hand, his arm, his face, and swayed back towards him into the living world—more than enough to justify the striking pain that had now reached his shoulder. He turned left and led them back into the park. Here, Katherine swung around in front of him, skating backwards, allowing him to steer. Once again, they were engulfed by the mottled moonlight. Katherine’s eyes locked deep into Billy’s, as if she was seeing through and into him, and he stopped doubting.

  The kiss was fuller and richer than kissing Senga. Billy’s brain poured out a stream of endorphins so strong that for a moment he could not tell up from down. Katherine drew him closer, still locked in the kiss, as they spun out through the trees and onto the river. The
cold began to prickle through his shoulder, to his neck and then down into his chest. He was torn, he could taste Katherine, feel the warmth bubbling though her, but a deep shiver at his core warned him that he could take no more of this cold kiss. He broke it gently, resting his forehead down on hers, their noses touching.

  Katherine flinched, once, then again, and looked up. Then left, then right. Billy couldn’t move his right arm at all, his neck was frozen, legs like lead.

  “Billy?” Katherine sounded herself more than ever that evening. “How did I get here?”

  He realised she had just woken fully from whatever had forced her prolonged sleep. Billy tried in vain to speak, but his throat was frozen, and all he could do was breathe and plead with his eyes. She took a step away from him.

  “Billy!” Real fear took Katherine.

  Fifty feet behind her, the ice exploded, and the Gargoyle shot up high into the air. Katherine turned and screamed; Billy had never heard her scream before, other than in his terrible dreams. He forced his useless right leg forwards. It moved an inch.

  A thump echoed across the ice. It had landed. Behind Katherine, the half-headed Gargoyle trained its one remaining eye on her, then Billy, then back to her. Katherine stopped screaming.

  Billy was desperate for her to run, but could do nothing to coax out his voice. He could already hear the offbeat canter as the beast scrambled towards them. He tried to scream a warning, but succeeded only in breathing out cold air and clenching his fists. He tried to pull the axe from under his arm, but it only swung through halfway. He heard stone scraping and skidding on ice. He forced fresh effort into his legs. They began to respond, but so slowly. Katherine glanced back at Billy, eyes wide and scared. In horror, he realised that without his touch she was falling back into the cold, and could not run if she chose to. Why hadn’t he held the kiss longer and given her a chance? And now the Gargoyle was upon her with a triumphant scream. It threw her over its right shoulder, then looked for a moment at Billy.

  “She is mine,” it whispered through half a mouth. The Gargoyle stuck the stump of its left arm on the frozen river and with its hind legs it started to propel itself back towards the hole in the ice.

  Billy found half his voice. “No!”

  The scream found strength, and with it, he shook out the stagnation from his limbs. Ignoring the burning pain in his legs, he drove forward, reaching around for the axe. The Gargoyle was gaining speed. Katherine’s eyes searched for Billy over the beast’s shoulder, and he knew those eyes spoke of abject fear. How could it be this strong?

  The Gargoyle spared him a second to turn and gloat, and Billy knew he’d lost the race. It lifted Katherine from its shoulder and held her high above its head.

  “Mine!” it screamed, before falling back though the hole into the river.

  Billy cried out, and caught a fleeting moment with Katherine’s eyes as the stone arm dragged her down into the black water.

  Her fingers scored the edge of the ice before following her into the water. Blind with rage, Billy arrived screaming at the hole, skidding forwards on his knees and following them both headlong into the dark water. He’d thought that the current would take him immediately, but the water below the ice was still; a dead river. He strained to see, but the ice took the moonlight, and there was nothing for his eyes to make out. The cold bit deeply. Adrenaline, running high, burned through the oxygen in his frozen lungs. Above him swam the hole, but it was confused and shifting. He looked again for Katherine, but there was nothing to see. With a final effort, he slung the axe upwards and hooked it hard into the lip of the hole. He pulled himself up the axe handle. A gasp of precious air. Air he couldn’t give Katherine. Another pull, longer this time, and he was flat on his front on the ice.

  Only a moment passed before fists and tears rained down on the ice. He’d kissed her, he’d finally kissed her, and it had killed her.

  * * *

  Somewhere between gasps a quiet thought found him. He fumbled in his pocket for his mobile phone. Somehow it had survived the soaking. It was a quarter past eleven. He had time. His mother was depressed, his father still lost, but no one was supposed to die over this. Not over this Christmas. He could still change his wish and save Katherine.

  He picked himself up, steadying himself on the axe, and started to skate back up the river through the bridge and on to the church. The lock to the vestry was just below the ice line, but in any case, the door opened outwards and was blocked by ice. He chopped his way through the door without hesitating, pouring his fury through the wood with the axe. Once inside, he stripped off completely, knowing that if he attempted to get home whilst wet he would certainly fail; his last attempt had taught him that. The cassock he found was itchy, but at least warm. As he turned back towards the door to collect the axe and knuckleduster, he spied a huge bonus, his mother’s bike, which he collected before heading for the door.

  * * *

  Without warning, the vestry lights went out. Billy’s eyes shot to the floor. The ice below his feet was starting to glow white, lighting the room from below.

  “I think you’ll find that garment is in my possession,” said a familiar voice.

  To Billy’s horror, the cassock he was wearing squirmed tightly against his skin. His arms wrapped themselves across his body, causing the bike to clatter to the icy floor. The gown pulled itself tight before lifting him from the ground. Billy cried out in anger, twisting his head around as he tried to see which direction the voice had come from. He could make out nothing. The cassock flew backwards and upwards, lifting into the air and back until he was pinned hard against the wall near to the ceiling.

  “Billy, Billy, Billy,” came the voice again. “You are such a trusting young man.”

  The door to the main body of the church opened; still Billy couldn’t see who was there.

  “I thought you might have learned along this little journey, with all the opportunity you’ve had,” said the voice, “that you, of all people, cannot afford to rely on anyone at all.”

  The floor revealed a little more light, and now Billy recognised the shape, before he even stepped into the room.

  “You,” he said, fighting the disappointment in his chest. “You?”

  “Yes, me,” said Mike Hayter, stepping fully onto the lit ice. “And very soon she will be mine.”

  “You’re too late,” Billy clenched his hands against the cassock. “It killed her,” he said, still hoping he was wrong.

  Mike threw back his head with a rich laugh. “Oh, she may soon wish that were true, but she is alive, there are plans for her.” Mike strode towards Billy. “Though I’m willing to bet you still don’t know who she is, or what this is all about, or why I took your father?”

  Billy’s rage spiked, pouring out in a pure scream. “What do you know?”

  Mike paused and smiled, then came towards him, crossing the room with his arms outstretched, as the cassock pulled Billy towards its owner.

  Mike started singing, softly at first, but quickly getting louder till his voice filled the room and made the air above him shake as he repeated the words. “Do you see what I see? Do you see what I see? Do you see what I see?” He grasped Billy by the shoulders, the cassock pulling him ever tighter and squeezing the air from his lungs. Billy just had time to notice three green sores on the vicar’s face, one on his forehead and the others on his cheek, before Mike pulled back his head and whispered, “I am the Grey Knight.”

  Then he rammed his head forwards, pulling Billy’s in fast and slamming their skulls not against, but actually into, one another. Billy felt a screaming pain in his mind and his world went black.

  * * *

  “Billy?” A whispering voice that was only recently familiar.

  He tried to open his eyes.

  “No, keep them shut for now,” a small hand with bark for fingers took his own.

  “Senga!”

  “Shhh, you must stay calm, I can only hold this space for a few moments before the knight
realises something is amiss.”

  “Where are we?”

  “You are in his memory, but we are in Seven Corner Alley…”

  “Beside the church?”

  “It is a gateway to many places, as you are about to see through the connection with this poor fool’s mind. Billy, he is going to show you some of his part in this, and then you are going to have to make a decision. You will be freed from the cassock, and you can walk home and your father will be returned to you tomorrow. I ask you, I beg of you, to consider another path. Your friend, Katherine, as you know her, is now lost to us. The consequences are unimaginably dire. She was here to be kept safe, and part of that meant her not knowing her origins.”

  Billy shook his head in confusion.

  “Well, who is she?”

  “We have no time, little one. The advantage you have is that the knight thinks you captive, and you are not. The knight thinks you are spent, and you are not. The knight believes you are powerless, and I know you to have a warrior’s heart.”

  “But what can I do? Why can’t we both go get her?”

  “I may not go where you must and she may not see me. Not yet. It is not that time. Now, open your eyes.”

  Billy blinked, and gradually the brick and stone alley came into focus. Senga was there in human form, black eyes wide with fear, like a deer sensing a predator close enough to strike.

  “See what he shows you, his arrogance may reveal more than he plans. That may let you learn his weaknesses.” With that, Senga drew a small piece of moss from the wall, turned and walked towards a corner with the moss outstretched in front of her thumb. Where the moss met the wall, it rippled and allowed her to pass. As she disappeared from the alley, the moss flared briefly and was gone. Billy’s vision went dark once more.