Mersey Dark

by Michael Whitehead

  Billy watched with fascination as they did this. The way the terrifying looking creatures allowed themselves to be moved and handled without any response. They seemed to be truly mindless.

  When they had the four creatures lined up in front of them the two men looked at each other before the Irishman said, “I hate this part.” His companion nodded, grimacing slightly.

  Each man stepped in front of one of the creatures, placing their hands on each side of its head. Billy winced at the idea of standing next to one of them, never mind touching one.

  Both men began to speak slowly and quietly to the creature in front of them. Billy could not hear most of what was said, but he heard the word Richmond and house. Then the men stepped away from the creatures in front of them to the remaining two, this time Billy heard the name Thomas.

  With this done the creatures seemed to come to life. Their faces showed signs of eagerness and even hunger. They sniffed the air and began to twitch, as if wanting to be gone from the tunnels. One of the creatures began to let out a low keening growl and which was answered by his fellows. Soon all four of the monsters was animated and clawing at the ground with their feet.

  “Go,” The guard said, simply. As if let off a leash, the creatures dropped to all fours and rushed down the tunnel on the far side of the cage like a rolling, crashing wave. The tumbled over each other in their eagerness to leave the tunnels and fulfil the mission they had been given.

  The two men stood and watched the creatures leave, one with his hands on his hips and both shaking their heads.

  “I will never get used to those things. They scare me to death,” the shorter man said.

  “You and me both, brother,” said the Irishman. “I mean, I know what Davidson is out to do, and I want the same thing and all, but if I’d known we would have to deal with monsters...”

  “Just be grateful they’re on our side, my friend.” With these parting words the man whom Billy and Bird had followed through the tunnels turned and began to head toward them. Billy pressed himself against the sacks, pulling his legs up tight, making himself as small as he could. Next to him he felt Bird do the same thing.

  As the man came closer, swinging his lamp, Billy clearly saw the shape of his own shoulder and head caught in shadow on the tunnel wall. He must surely be caught. He held his breath, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, then the man was past them and walking away.

  Still Billy dare not move, he clearly saw the man turn back to his friend, remembering one last thing he had to say, and seeing the two children hiding behind the sacks of sand. Each step he took seemed to bring their fate closer. He did not turn, he did not see them, and before long the light from his lantern was nothing but a distant hue that faded to nothing.

  Bird let out her breath. Billy wanted to shout his fear away but the guard was still standing near the cage and looking in at the creatures. He stood for a few moments, obviously contemplating their fate, then he turned and found himself a flat shelf of stone on which to sit. He fished in his pocket for a pouch of tobacco, produced a small pipe and began to fill the bowl. After tamping down the loose threads, he struck a match on the rock and lit his smoke.

  They watched the guard as he closed his eyes obviously savouring the flavour. He leaned back so that his head was resting on the rocky wall of the tunnel. A single lamp lit the space around the cage but it was enough that there was no deep shadow that they might use to sneak past the guard.

  That they must get past this man, Billy had no doubt. The rat-men had headed that way and he knew they were heading out. They must be if they were to find whoever Richmond, or Thomas was, and the house they lived in. The best chance he and Bird had of escape was to follow them, or at least head in the same direction.

  “What do we do?” Bird whispered in his ear, her voice no more than a breath. Billy was lost, he had no idea. This man was far too big for them to overpower, even if they could do it without warning everyone in this maze of tunnels. The sound of a fight would carry far away from here and they would be caught long before they made their escape.

  As it was, nature that helped them, or more accurately a call of nature. As they crouched, watching the twists of smoke rise from the pipe, the man opened his eyes and stood up in one fluid motion. He walked toward the two children, and for a moment Billy thought he must have heard them breathing and they were to be caught. His heart hammered in his chest, marking time with the waves of panic that threatened to overwhelm him.

  The guard walked up to and then past their hiding place, passed them without a glance and turned toward the wall of the tunnel, facing away from them. He pulled at a drawstring on his trousers and allowed them to fall slightly, he took hold of himself and began to pass water.

  Both children realised what he was doing, and that this might be their only chance. Bird acted first, quickly taking Billy’s hand and pulling him out from behind the sandbags. They crept past the place where the guard had resting, the musty smell of his tobacco still hung in the air.

  Billy wanted desperately to turn and see if the man was nearly finished. Fear prickled on the back of this neck at the thought that at any moment he might shout out and run at them. It would do no good to run, they just needed to keep moving, keep walking and hope it was enough. To run would be too noisy, this was all they could do.

  They passed the cage with the comatose rat-men, staring out at nothing. They did not turn their eyes to the children as they passed. Billy might have stopped right there, staring at the deformed faces of the creatures, but Bird dragged at his hand and he kept walking behind her.

  He looked with longing at the lamp the guard used but knew he couldn’t take it. There was no way to do so without attracting attention to themselves. They just kept walking, waiting for the man, to turn ready to run if all else failed. Billy’s heart was thudding in his chest, trying to climb up into his throat. He tried to swallow but his dry mouth stopped him. He wondered if trying might have attracted the guards attention, it had sounded so loud in his own ears.

  Behind them the steady sound of the guards stream stopped, began again and them stopped once more. The man made a grunting noise as he fumbled to fasten his trousers. It was then that Billy realised how far behind them the man sounded. He dared to turn and look back.

  They were safe in the darkness, far from the light that bathed the cage and the guard. This time their would be nobody to follow, and no light by which to see the tunnel ahead. Bird clutched his hand, squeezing hard.

  They walked that way, hand in hand, into the darkness. Each held their empty hand out before them, hoping that it might save them from walking into something in the darkness. It would be wiser to use both hands to protect themselves, but neither was willing to let go of the other.

  “I’m scared,” Billy whispered in the dark. His voice sounded so loud, it echoed in his head as it echoed off the walls of the tunnel.

  “Big baby,” Bird answered, her voice was harsh from lack of water and she tried to sound brave, but a hitch betrayed her and she began to weep silently. Billy stopped, pulling her back toward him. He could never have done this out in the light, but the darkness gave him the bravery to hug her, hold her. He felt her sobs against his shoulder, felt the wetness of her tears. Eventually she pulled away from him, taking his hand without a word. The darkness didn’t seem so scary after that.

  They could not tell how far they walked in the dark. Billy voicing his steps in his head, left then right, more to give him something to take his mind off where they were and what they were doing. There were monsters in these tunnels, he knew that, he had seen them. He knew they had vicious claws and teeth like daggers, and he knew if they found him they would tear him apart.

  Still they put one foot in front of another, and when their hands found the smooth, man-made wall of a tunnel that ran across the one in which they walked, they turned and continued to walk.

  Eventually, maybe hours, maybe days later Bird pulled Billy to a stop. For a moment he
had no idea why, he hoped it was because she needed another hug because he needed one right now. They would stand in the darkness and hold each other. They would wait for the monsters to find them.

  “Look,” she said to him. She might have pointed at something but Billy would not have seen it if she had. Then he saw what she wanted him to see. Faint, so faint it was barely there, was light. It was just a hint at something that wasn’t quite darkness but it was light none the less.

  They walked a little faster, still with one hand out before them, and the others entwined. The light got more definite. It wasn’t getting brighter, it was too faint for ideas like brightness, but it was certainly growing.

  Billy began to cry, he tried to stop the tears but they insisted on coming. So Bird did hug him, returning what he had given her, and on the edge of light he wept.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Are your men armed?” Tanner asked, drawing his police sabre and stepping back from Captain Aspinal. He kept his eye on the creature in the rigging, it crouched like a rat but held on to one of the ropes like a man. Its dark form looked powerful and ready for attack.

  “They carry swords,” Aspinal said. “Why?”

  “Because your ship is under attack, captain,” Tanner said. Aspinal began looking about him, then out into the warehouses that made up the docks. It wasn’t until he turned back to Tanner that he saw where the detective was looking.

  “My word, what is that?” he asked, shocked. The rat-man was looking down on them, but was making no move to strike.

  “Never mind that for the moment, Captain. Tell your men to draw their swords and get ready to defend themselves. There are four of those things in the rigging and we have no way of knowing how many more there might be.”

  The crew were all standing around the two men and heard every word of their conversation. Tanner’s men were quicker to sense the danger, and as he looked they all had their weapons drawn and ready? A few of the men were backing away, looking above them into the jungle of ropes that made up the rigging.

  “Back to back, men,” Aspinal ordered and the half dozen sailors obeyed without question. Still the creature looked down on them, ready to launch itself at them but silent and still. It sniffed at the air, but never took its eyes off the captain.

  The police officers looked to Tanner for orders, but with no experience of this kind of fighting he took his cue from the navy man.

  “Constables, do the same. Back to back, protect your partner. Keep your eyes above you and be ready.”

  The silence on the ship held, the intimidating, unnatural way the rat-man sat, watching them. Tanner almost wished it would attack, the waiting was fraying his nerves.

  “Sir, up there,” one of the ship’s crew said in a hoarse whisper. He pointed high up on the main mast, almost in the crows nest. The creature was lighter in colour than the first, almost grey, but even from this distance looked bigger.

  “And there,” one of Tanner’s constables said, looking toward the bow. Another of the rat-men sat, far out on the bowsprit. It almost looked like a figurehead, sitting still but looking back at the crew instead of out to sea.

  “Can anyone see the fourth one?” Tanner asked but his question was greeted with silence. Still the creatures waited, not attacking, not moving.

  “Do we spread out, sir?” one of the crew asked Aspinal. The captain looked at Tanner, his sword almost shaking in a white knuckled fist. All Tanner could do was answer with wide eyes that said he had no idea what was the right move.

  “Widen the circle,” Aspinal said, sounding more certain than he looked. Tanner guessed that, like being a police officer, being a ship’s captain was often more about appearance than knowledge. The pairs of men shuffled away from each other, trying to keep their backs touching as they did.

  It might have been this movement that triggered the creatures to attack, or it might have been coincidence. All three of them leapt in at the group as the men were in motion. The rat-man at the Bowsprit seemed to cover the distance between where it crouched and the nearest pair of men in one leap. It seemed to fly across the space. Its claws were held before it like grappling hooks, ready to tear into the first flesh it came across.

  The monster that was high in the rigging dropped like a stone. It did not try to break its fall, instead it aimed to land on one of the pairs of sailors. One of those unfortunate sailors saw the attack coming and stepped away from his partner out of an instinct for survival. The man with whom he was stood back to back was looking at the rat that attacked from the bowsprit and without seeing the danger from above was left to take the full force of the impact.

  Tanner saw the creature land on the sailor, and saw the man’s body crumple like a piece of cloth that falls from a washing line. His spine seemed to twist in three different directions and the life had gone out of his face before he hit the deck of the ship.

  Chaos began to take hold on board the frigate as the pairs of men split, each man trying to turn and keep their enemies in front of them. Some backed away, ready to defend themselves, a couple of brave souls stepped forward to attack the creatures.

  The third rat, the one that had stared at them from just over their heads waited. It did not attack at the same time as his brothers but hesitated a few seconds. When the other two attacked he readied himself, then when the people were beginning to panic he leapt at Captain Aspinal.

  Tanner saw it happen and understood that the captain was the target in all of this mayhem. The monster leaped over the heads of a number of the men in order to attack the master of the ship. It would have been much easier to bring itself to bear on five or six of the men standing on the deck but instead chose to target Aspinal.

  It jumped over the heads of the crew and constables, and landed on the captain’s back. It dug its claws into the flesh of his neck as soon as he landed. Blood sprayed from the wound, warm droplets landed on Tanner’s cheek as he rushed in to help the captain.

  Aspinal was gravely injured but fighting back against his attacker. He swung wildly with his blade but with little effect. The rat clung to him, still trying to tear at his throat but with no room to swing, the sword was of no use.

  The other two rats were in fights with a small groups of men. Tanner heard a cry of pain behind him but his attention was fixed on the captain’s fight for his life. He took his own blade and slid it into the rat’s side. It should have been a fatal blow but the creature didn’t even slow its attack. He withdrew his blade, soaked in blood, and drove it home once more.

  This time the creature let out a howl of pain and relaxed its hold on the captain. It withdrew a few steps, obviously favouring one side as it moved. Aspinal dropped to the deck, clutching his throat, but still with a look of recognition in his eyes as he looked toward Tanner.

  The rat turned his attention to the man who had stabbed him, and Tanner waited for another attack. As they faced each the body of one of the sailors tumbled across the deck between them. His face was a ruined mess of tattered flesh and blood. As he landed between Tanner and his adversary he began to twitch spasmodically.

  Aspinal managed to get himself into a sitting position and shuffled so that his back was against the ship’s rail. Blood still seeped from between his fingers as held his hand to his throat though not as much as it had. His face was pale but his eyes looked aware.

  The rat looked once and then twice between the two men before it. Tanner knew that if it attacked Aspinal a second time the man was finished, so he began to shout, trying to keep the thing’s attention.

  The obvious choice was Tanner. Instinct should have told the monster that it was the detective that posed the biggest threat. For an instant, it looked as if it might follow through and seemed to take half a step toward the detective. Then Tanner saw something change in the creatures hideous face. An almost human look of regret seemed to show in its eyes. As if it were powerless to stop itself, the rat turned and lunged at Aspinal.

  It didn’t use its claw this time, inste
ad it bit into the captain’s throat and tore at the flesh and arteries that carried his life’s blood. Aspinal didn’t suffer, he died instantly, coughing once and spraying a mist of fine red droplets that caught the air and almost sparkled. Then the life disappeared from his eyes and he slumped to the deck.

  The act of attacking the captain ended the creatures life, as it almost certainly knew it would. By leaning in and biting Aspinal it left its flank open to another attack. This time Tanner didn’t hesitate and didn’t stop until the job was done. He drove his blade into the creatures throat. It penetrated one side and he saw it emerge, red and wet from the other. He sawed into the flesh, pressing down on the blade as he did.

  Both the captain and his killer died at the same time. They slumped to the deck in a bloody pile, wrapped in each other’s arms like lovers. Tanner pulled at his sword, finding it difficult to free from the mess of flesh.

  Another scream came from behind him, he turned to see one of the creatures lying dead near the rail of the ship. Three men lay lifeless in pools of their own blood, two sailors and one of his own men. Tanner thought the dead copper might be the man who had picked the lock to get them in here, Roberts.

  The half dozen men who remained were surrounding the remaining rat-man. It was the large grey one that had been high up in the rigging. It was wounded in a number of places. Red gashes ran along its thigh and face and one cut in its pink stomach was bleeding badly. The creature did not attack but instead defended itself as the men surrounded it and stabbed at it with their curved blades.

  Finally, Tanner watched as one of the sailors got a clear chance to end the fight, driving his blade into the creatures throat. Blood poured down its front, and it slumped to the deck. The men began to look around them, surveying the scene like men who have woken in a strange place and wish to know where they are. They looked down at the bodies on the deck and more than one turned away from the charnel house the ship had become.

  As Tanner watched the men something heavy hit him in the back. It sent him sprawling across the deck, his sword spilling from his hand. He turned to see the last, forgotten creature lunging at him, brandishing its claws like a fist full of daggers.