God, feel my heart!
I was like, oh shit!
You elbowed me in the ribs when you jumped!
I was just about to ask the couple to my right what had happened, when I suddenly saw the evidence for myself; I’d been wrong. There was a difference to the Stone Man.
It was no longer bent forward. It had straightened up, and its head was now tipped backwards towards the sky. The arms seemed to be held out at a slightly wider angle than before as well. Everyone must have jumped when it switched position, but were simply excited now that it was perfectly still; already the police were smiling again and talking to the people, most of whom were now looking amused and expectant, phones out once more. It seemed that the general consensus was that this was definitely some kind of unusual, intentional show, and everyone was waiting for whatever was going to happen next.
I, however, kept seeing the teacherish woman in my mind as she leant on the Stone Man, as she struck at it. I hadn’t seen any movement from it in the slightest. There was clearly real weight to the Stone Man, real solidity. I couldn’t see any hinge or break in the rough stone surface, any point of articulation. So how the hell had it now straightened up like that? I looked around for the teacherish woman; she appeared to have left, just like her chav counterpart. One of the police was on his radio, sounding as though he was calling in more officers or support of some kind—there were still people turning up to see what was going on—but he looked more amused than anything. I decided to stick around. I wasn’t massively hungry yet, the temperature was just nice now in the late afternoon, and there looked like there would be further developments.
As the next hour passed, police barriers arrived, along with two more officers who good-naturedly spread the now four-hundred-strong crowd back a few feet—receiving a chorus of playful boos as a result—and set up a low retractable tape barrier at a radius of about eight feet from the Stone Man. A gentleman from the council turned up at one point, asked the police a few questions, and then moved back to the outside of the crowd, where he remained on his phone for the rest of the time that I was there. It filtered back through the crowd that he was trying to find out who was responsible for it, if they had a permit, and so on. Eventually, he apparently moved on to trying to sort out its removal.
I’d gotten a few bits of audio from the people around me, a lot of them all too eager to talk into the Dictaphone, describing how it had suddenly moved without a sound (the silence of it was confirmed by all of them, which again struck a chord with me. How could something with so much weight move silently? Unless the teacher woman had been an excellent mime) and a few opinions (I think it’s representing the death of Coventry’s industry/I think it’s a marketing stunt/I think it’s shit) but was starting to grow a bit bored, to be honest. Rich Bell wasn’t answering his phone either, so all I had image-wise were a few shots I’d managed to grab on the digital camera that I kept in my bag; my phone’s own camera was far too primitive. Most of the new people that had turned up had hung around for a while, and, not having seen it move in the first place, didn’t have the level of invested intrigue to make them stick around. Eventually, hunger and boredom would draw them towards their homes. Even those who had been there all along were starting to look at their watches and think about dinner.
I couldn’t blame them. I would have liked to have sacked it off myself by then, if not for the fact that the teacher woman’s story corroborated the impossible account of the chav … it made me think twice, or at least give me enough desire for an explanation to warrant me staying longer. My stomach rumbled, and I began to think about where the nearest chippy was that I could dash to—even though it meant I would lose my place at the front of the crowd—when the temperature suddenly dropped by about twenty degrees.
Everyone there suddenly started chattering, and looking at the sky, even though the sun above was still blazing down. It was freezing, impossibly cold under that still-blue sky, and I was more covered than most of the other people due to my jeans. I hate to think how cold the summer-dressed people there would have been. Goose bumps covered my entire body, and I saw couples and friends suddenly and instinctively huddling together for warmth, some laughing, some looking confused. Even the cops shared a concerned look. I found myself remembering what the chav had said about the cold, how the temperature around him had inexplicably dropped, and suddenly I had a brief flash of belief; he was right. I tried to remind myself that this was the age of people like David Blaine, street performers who prided themselves on their ability to freak people out by making them believe the impossible, and took a deep breath. I noticed that my heart rate had still picked up dramatically, though.
Then the cold suddenly cut off just as quickly, and almost unnoticed in the moment of relief—everyone around me breathed an audible sigh and started to laugh, delighted that the heat was back again—the Stone Man took two steps forward and stopped.
Everyone who was directly in front of it, albeit eight feet away, shrieked and leapt backwards. One or two people at the back fell over. The steps had not been quick, or slow; they were about normal walking pace. The Stone Man had come to a stop with its feet side by side, like it had only meant to take two steps and no more. It was now completely still again, and nervously giggling people had already started to step back into their original position. The police inside the barrier had backed away, but one had already gathered his wits and was politely taking charge, telling people to calm down. The council man was impotently demanding to be let back through the crowd, but no one was paying any attention.
Then the Stone Man began to walk.
***
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Reviews of this book: THE AMAZON UK BOOK PAGE OR THE AMAZON USA BOOK PAGE
Also By Luke Smitherd:
THE STONE MAN
THE #1 AMAZON HORROR BESTSELLER!
Two-bit reporter Andy Pointer had always been unsuccessful (and antisocial) until he got the scoop of his career; the day a man made of stone appeared in the middle of his city.
This is his account of everything that came afterwards, and the people that were lost along the way; of the terrible price that he, and the rest of his country, had to pay.
The destruction. The visions. The dying.
Available now on the Amazon Kindle Store
Also By Luke Smitherd:
THE BLACK ROOM: A NOVEL IN FOUR PARTS
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE AMAZON UK #1 HORROR BESTSELLER, 'THE STONE MAN', COMES A NEW MYSTERY TO UNRAVEL...
What Is The Black Room?
There are hangovers, there are bad hangovers, and then there's waking up inside someone else's head. Thirty-something bartender Charlie Wilkes is faced with this exact dilemma when he wakes to find finds himself trapped inside The Black Room; a space consisting of impenetrable darkness and a huge, ethereal screen floating in its centre. Through this screen he is shown the world of his female host, Minnie.
How did he get there? What has happened to his life? And how can he exist inside the mind of a troubled, fragile, but beautiful woman with secrets of her own? Uncertain whether he's even real or if he is just a figment of his host's imagination, Charlie must enlist Minnie's help if he is to find a way out of The Black Room, a place where even the light of the screen goes out every time Minnie closes her eyes...
Part one of a thrilling three-part novel, 'The Black Room, Part One: In The Black Room' starts with a bang and doesn't let go. Each answer only leads to another mystery in a story guaranteed to keep the reader on the edge of their seat.
‘THE BLACK ROOM SERIES, FOUR SERIAL NOVELLAS THAT UNRAVEL THE PUZZLE PIECE BY PIECE
Available now on the Amazon Kindle Store
Also By Luke Smitherd:
An Unusual Novella For The Kindle
THE MAN ON TABLE TEN
It's story that he hasn't told anyone for fifty years; a secret that he's kept ever since he grew
tired of the disbelieving faces and doctors’ reports advising medication But then, he hasn't touched a single drop of booze in all of that time either, and alcohol loosens bar room lips at the best of times; so on this fateful day, his decision to have three drinks will change the life of bright young waitress Lisa Willoughby forever…because now, the The Man On Table Ten wants to share his incredible tale.
It's afterwards when she has to worry; afterwards, when she knows the unbelievable burden that The Man On Table Ten has had to carry throughout the years. When she knows the truth, and is left powerless to do anything except watch for the signs...
An unusual short story for the Kindle, The Man On Table Ten is the latest novella from Luke Smitherd, the author of the Amazon UK number one horror bestseller The Stone Man. Original and compelling, The Man On Table Ten will leave you breathless and listening carefully, wondering if that sound you can hear might just be pouring sand that grows louder with every second...
Available now on the Amazon Kindle Store
The Physics Of The Dead - A Supernatural Mystery Novel Page 30
