by Kim Curran
Most of the cells were empty today. But Cell 5 was still occupied. Instead of holding Zac, it was now home to a girl with long, lank hair that fell in front of her eyes.
“I didn’t have a choice,” she muttered as we walked past. “I tried everything else. Everything.”
The sobbing grew louder as we approached room seven. I stopped and took a deep breath, expecting to be confronted by a crying Benjo and my guilt. But as I stepped forward I saw it wasn’t Benjo who was crying.
It was a young kid in room eight. He was curled up in a ball in the corner of his cell, while Benjo sat in the next room along, gazing at the shaking boy through the adjoining bars, smiling.
The boy looked up first and ran towards us.
“You have to get me out of here!” he cried, reaching his hand through the bars and trying to grab hold of Aubrey’s jacket. “I only tried to get a girl to like me. But he… He’s a monster. He keeps licking the bars and looking at me.”
There was a small snickering from Benjo, followed by coughing. He spat on the floor: dark brown spittle.
“Good to see you again, Scott. And you too, Aubrey. I love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Aubrey flinched and stroked her fringe back down over her forehead to hide the thin scar Benjo had given her. “I like what you’ve done with your face,” she said.
Benjo smiled – that terrible smile which haunted my dreams. “Are you here to kill me? That’s what you said, isn’t it Scott? That if you ever saw me again you’d kill me.” Benjo examined his cracked fingernails and started to dig out some dirt from beneath one. He looked as if he was sitting on a park bench, rather than in a prison cell.
“No. I need your help.”
Benjo looked up, an amused expression on his sagging face. “You need my help. Well, well. Isn’t that interesting?”
“I don’t have time for your little games, Benjo. So, what’s it going to take?” I said.
He stood up slowly, pushing himself up out of the bed. It looked as if the movement caused him pain. The sobbing boy scuttled away from the bars and back into his corner.
“That depends on what kind of help you are after,” he said, a dark grin playing around his twisted mouth.
“I need you to come with us and stop people from Shifting,” I said.
“And why can’t you do that?”
“I need backup,” I said, quickly, not liking the way Benjo’s black eyes twinkled.
“And who do you need backup against? No, let me guess,” he said, holding up a bony finger. “You met Frankie, didn’t you? And she got into your head, just like I said she would.” He tapped his temple.
When I didn’t answer, Benjo clapped his hands together.
“Forget this, Scott. We don’t need this… this freak,” Aubrey spat.
“Oh, but you do. Especially if I’m right. Tell me Scott, done any interesting Shifts lately?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I muttered.
“Come now, we’re all friends here. You can tell Uncle Benjo. She’s stopped you from Shifting, hasn’t she?”
“You’ve seen this before?” I asked, ignoring Aubrey’s pleading look.
“She tried it on me once. But she couldn’t get her claws into my flesh.”
“Surprising, considering how much there is of it,” Aubrey said.
“How did you stop her?” I said.
“Get me out of here and I will tell you,” Benjo replied.
“And can you make it go away?”
He sighed. “Get me out of here and I will tell you.”
“Yes, yes!” shouted the boy in the cell. “Get him out of here.”
“There are some conditions,” I said, staring at him. Wanting him to know that I was the one in charge.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less of you, Scott.”
“You’ll do absolutely everything I say, or I will kill you.”
He nodded.
“And you won’t try and run away, or I will kill you.”
“Crystal,” Benjo said.
“And you so much as breathe in Aubrey’s direction, I’ll let her kill you.”
Benjo placed two fingers to his blackened lips. “I won’t so much as breathe on her,” he whispered between them.
“And…” I looked at Aubrey. I wasn’t sure about this next bit. But she’d insisted. “You have to swallow this.”
Aubrey reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small, silver ball about the size of a cherry.
Benjo looked at it. “And what is that?”
“It’s a bomb.” She tossed it in her hand and caught it again. “We pulled it out of a Ganymede member’s head. And…” With her free hand she pulled out a phone. “I have the trigger.”
The bombs that had been placed in the men’s heads by Dr Lawrence could be activated by a mobile phone. It’s how Abbott had killed Sergeant Cain. A single press of his finger and Cain had dropped down dead. Aubrey had loaded the app on her phone in case any of the men from Ganymede gave us trouble. And now she wanted Benjo to swallow the bomb so she could kill him if we needed. I had no idea if it would still work.
Benjo looked from the ball in Aubrey’s hand and then to me. “And how do I know you won’t set it off as soon as I swallow it?”
I took the phone from Aubrey’s hand. “Because you have my word.”
“And once I’ve helped you?”
“The bomb will be out of your system in a day or two. Sure, it might be a little uncomfortable, but that’s the least you deserve. And consider yourself lucky, because I wanted to cut you open and shove it in your gut,” Aubrey said.
Benjo licked his lips, considering the offer. Then he reached his hand out through the bars so quickly I thought he was going to go for Aubrey. Instead, he snatched the bomb out of her hand and shoved it in his mouth.
We watched as he struggled to swallow, his face contorting in pain. He then opened his lips, showing his empty, pit-like mouth. I turned away from the stench.
“Now, will you let me out?” he said.
I still wasn’t sure this was a good idea. But he had warned me about Frankie; I just hadn’t realised it at the time. And if he really knew how to take whatever she’d done to me away, then it was worth putting up with him for a little while at least. And it wasn’t as if he could go anywhere. The guy could hardly run away from us.
“OK,” I said finally, slotting the card into the lock.
Aubrey’s hand stopped mine before I could press the green button that would open the cell. “Are you sure about this?” she asked.
“No. Not at all. But what choice do I have?”
“We could just leave. Go away and forget all about Frankie and him.”
“But I’d never be able to Shift again,” I said.
“A couple of years and you won’t be able to anyway. What difference does it make? Really?”
I moved my hand from the lock and placed it on her face. She didn’t flinch.
She was right. In the end, my power to Shift would fade anyway. But if I was honest that wasn’t really what this was all about. It was about Frankie.
“I have to stop her, Aubrey. I have to know what she’s really been up to. And this is the only way I can think of.”
As an answer, Aubrey pushed the button herself. The bars swung open and Benjo stepped forward. Then stopped and turned to the whimpering boy in the next cell. “See you later,” he said, wiggling his fingers in a teasing goodbye. He turned back to us, took a deep breath and smiled, showing off his stumps of rotting teeth.
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was probably the most unlikely team ever put together. Aubrey, with her dyed hair, oversized boots and a cigarette trailing out of the corner of her mouth. Zac, wearing a tailored tuxedo, looking like a male model or James Bond, the git. Rosalie, in a midnight blue strapless ball gown that trailed to the floor, with her hand on Jake’s shoulder. He was wearing an old ARES jumpsuit with the name badge torn off the back. CP had her long blon
de hair wrapped up in plaited bunches and wore her cadet uniform. Behind them came Morgan still wearing his black bomber jacket. Then there was Benjo, who stood out most of all, his burnt face and sagging flesh barely hidden by a tent-like shirt, shovelling down a bag of marshmallows I’d given him. And me. Scott Tyler, former Shifter and now just your average teenage loser wearing my least favourite jeans and a hoodie.
We didn’t have a chance in hell and I knew it. We all knew it. And yet we were willing to try.
The others had nothing to lose, not really. They each had their Shifts planned if things went wrong. I’d made sure they’d thought long and hard about joining me and each one knew they could escape with a thought. If one of them Shifted, the chances were that none of us would be here. I didn’t really know if I was mad enough to try this alone. Probably. I’d likely have dragged Benjo into it as well just because I could have. The thought of a reality with just me and Benjo going up against Frankie while all my friends disappeared was so disturbing I had to shake my head to get rid of it.
But he had told us how to stop Frankie taking control of us.
“And you’re absolutely sure that will stop her?” I asked Benjo for the third time.
“Absolutely. Firstly, the delightful Frankie’s power only works so long as you are unaware that she is trying to control you. When it is done covertly. If you are aware and focus hard enough, you can simply resist it.” He popped the last pink marshmallow in his mouth and licked his blackened lips.
“Like hypnotism!” Jake said. “Remember Grampa George and his Mysterio act?”
“The one where he made people act like chickens?” Rosalie said.
“Yeah, he said it was really hard if the person didn’t want to be hypnotised.”
“Hard, but not impossible?” Aubrey said, sounding nervous.
“Trust me,” Benjo said, with a terrible smile.
We all looked at him and a shudder passed through the group.
“You said firstly. What else?” I asked.
“Frankie is more able to control people who want to be controlled. Weak-willed people.”
“What are you suggesting?” I said, anger and insult making my face burn.
“I am suggesting, Scott Tyler, that you start believing in yourself. Rather than expecting everyone else to do that for you.”
We stared at each other. His tiny, black eyes boring into mine. And as much as I hated to admit it, he was right. It’s why Frankie hadn’t been able to control Aubrey, and why I’d fallen under her spell so easily. Self-belief. Now was the time for me to man up.
“Shall we get this ridiculous plan over and done with then?” Zac said, straightening his bow tie.
We were huddled under a disused railway bridge, around the corner from the Pyramid. I consulted my watch. 8.31pm. The party officially started at 7pm, but Zac assured us that no one turns up early.
“OK,” I said. “Are everyone’s mics working?”
We all fiddled about with the lumps of beige plastic we’d shoved in our ears and started speaking into our lapels, where we’d placed the microphones.
“Testing, testing,” Rosalie said, half-heartedly. “Yes, it works, now can we go? Because I’m freezing my exquisite tits off in this dress.”
“Yes, get going,” I said.
“The slightest hint of trouble and you Shift your arse out of here, OK, Jakey?”
“Yeah, yeah. I know the drill,” Jake said.
I looked back to the rest of the group. “Let’s do this.”
Zac lifted his elbow for Rosalie to take. She considered it and him for a moment, before slipping her hand under his arm. They headed towards the row of flaming torches that were guiding all the guests into the Pyramid. Zac had wrangled an invite without much effort. “Perks of the job,” he’d said.
Morgan pulled off his jacket to reveal a policeman’s uniform. I decided not to ask how he’d managed to get hold of it on such short notice.
“Any police turn up and you’re to tell them it’s a false alarm because there’s been a malfunction. If Carl’s done his job, there will be.”
“Are you sure I won’t be more use inside?”
“I’m sorry, Richard. We can’t risk having a non-Shifter in there.” Not another one, I added to myself. Morgan looked sad and useless and I felt sorry for the guy. “And I need you to keep an eye on CP.”
“Hang on,” CP said. “You didn’t say anything about me staying here with him. Why aren’t I coming with you?”
“Because I need you to create a diversion.”
“What kind of diversion?”
“Use your imagination.”
“Can I cause a fracas?” She smiled with such mischief, I wondered if I was making a huge mistake. But I didn’t have time to worry about that.
“Sure, not that I know what a fracas is,” I said.
Morgan still didn’t look too happy. He was muttering about being useless. I knew how he felt.
Aubrey stepped forward and squeezed his arm. “Richard, the one thing you’ll never lose is the power to tell people what to do. So, go do it.”
He smiled, bowed slightly. Then nodded to CP and the two of them walked away. On the way, Morgan shouted at someone for dropping litter. Whatever else happened, I reckoned Morgan was going to enjoy his part in all of this.
As for Aubrey, Jake, Benjo and I, we were going to have a less swanky way of crashing the party.
We all looked down at the metal sewer cover.
“Is Carl absolutely certain that this is the only way in?” Aubrey asked.
“I most certainly am,” Carl’s voice crackled in our ears. I’d forgotten he would be listening in. “Unless you want to get arrested before you’ve made it past the front doors.”
“Nope. Thanks, Carl,” Aubrey said.
She squatted down and dragged a crowbar from behind her and placed the edge against the cover. With a small grunt she pushed down and levered it open.
“Oh, my god, it reeks,” Jake said, reeling away from the open hole, his face covered with his sleeve.
Aubrey turned her head away as well, her tiny nose wrinkling in disgust.
“It’s not that bad,” I said, leaning in and taking a small sniff.
“Are you kidding me?” Jake said. “It’s like the bog of eternal stench in there.”
“You should smell Scott’s bedroom,” Aubrey said, peering into the depths below. She threw her cigarette in and we watched as the glowing ember was swallowed up in the shadows.
“Ladies first,” I said grinning.
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “You got us into this mess, literally,” she said pointing at the sewer below. “You get to go first.”
I bent over and reached into the hole with my foot, trying to find the first rung. Then slowly lowered myself into the dark.
The rungs were slippery and a couple of times my feet slid off. My first instinct was to Shift, as I still hadn’t got used to the power being gone. By the time I’d made it down into the tunnel I was cursing Frankie’s name.
Aubrey slid down after me, her boots splashing in the low stream of water running along the bottom of the tunnel.
“Lucky the rain held off,” I said.
“For now,” she said. “Let’s get a move on.”
We looked back up at the hole where we could see Benjo’s face peering down at us.
“I’m not sure he’s going to fit,” Jake shouted down.
“Try,” Aubrey said, without much sympathy.
The light breaking through the opening went black as Benjo started to lower himself in. There was a lot of huffing and muttering, and a sound like someone peeling off a rubber glove, and then he was through. He climbed down the ladder rung by rung, then stood blinking in the gloom.
Jake followed quickly. When he reached the last rung, his leg dangled down, not able to reach the floor. I helped him down. He wiped his hands on the jumpsuit and smiled his lopsided smile. I went to ruffle his hair, and then seeing the dark stain on m
y hand thought better of it.
I turned on my torch, and then regretted it instantly. Seeing what we were standing in just made it worse.
“Which way?” I said.
“Straight ahead and left,” Carl’s voice crackled over the headsets.
Our feet splashed in the shallow water and I tried not to think about it too much when I felt something heavy brush against my ankle. Aubrey had one arm up, covering her nose, and the other holding a torch. Jake was wearing a pair of yellow glasses with torches on either side of his head, which in the darkness made him look like a robot. Benjo looked down into his torch and banged it till it turned on. When it did, it lit up his multiple chins, making him look even more like a horror movie villain. He pointed it ahead. The circles of light bounced off the black slimy walls and did almost nothing to light the way.
I took the first left as instructed. It looked pretty much like the last tunnel, only the floor slanted upward slightly, so after one hundred yards we were walking on dry ground.
“Not much farther,” Carl said. “The maintenance hatch is just up ahead.”
“If you say so,” mumbled Aubrey. “I can’t see a thing. What was that?” she screeched suddenly, grabbing hold of me and practically trying to jump into my arms to escape whatever it was she thought she’d just seen.
“It was nothing,” I said, trying not to laugh. “Just some rubbish.”
“Nah,” said Jake. “It was a rat. Most definitely a rat. Look, there’s more over there.” He shone his lights on a pile of squirming cardboard. Pink tails and slick grey bodies lay curled up against each other.
I grabbed Aubrey as she turned and started to head back the way we’d come. “Come on, we’re almost there.” I pointed at the hatch up ahead.
She looked again at the rat’s nest and closed her eyes in disgust. “I hate you, Scott Tyler. Have I ever told you that?”
“Quite a lot recently. Now come on.”
She ran forward, trying to stay as far away from the nest as possible, without actually touching the sides of the tunnel walls.
“What are you doing?” I asked Benjo, who had crouched down next to the pile of cardboard. He plucked a tiny, hairless baby rat out of the nest and luckily I turned away before seeing anything. But the sucking sound was enough.
