He fell towards the open door at the end of the landing.
I cried out. “No!”
The blackness inside the room reached out for Dad, inky tendrils seeking his flesh. Trying to drag him into hell. Or something like it.
Dad scrambled away, narrowly avoiding the danger at his back. But he couldn’t escape the monster in front of him. Keith loomed over him.
From the floor, I looked imploringly at Quick, but he had his hands full trying to keep my mum restrained.
Keith realised the door to the room was open, and he peered into the darkness. “What is this? Is this where you put Diane? What secrets are you hiding? Cannabis? Dodgy videos?”
Dad grabbed at Keith’s leg. “Don’t!”
“Let him go inside,” Mum shouted.
“Quiet, girl,” said Quick.
Dad shook his head, blood dripping from his mouth and nose. When he spoke, it sounded like he had a cold. “Sharon, no. Sharon, don’t do this.”
Keith shut him up with a kick to the side of the head. “Shut your fucking gob! Whatever shit you’ve got my family into, it ends now.”
Dad reached out feebly, trying to keep Keith from going into the room. “Don’t…”
Keith kicked him again, this time in the ribs, and then a second time square in the back. Then Keith lost it completely. If I thought he was an animal before, I was certain of it now. He kicked and punched my dad again and again and again, even after he had fallen unconscious. I didn’t think he was ever going to stop. Dad was going to end up dead.
I scrambled to my feet, but I was thrown against the wall as someone barged past me. I assumed it was Quick, but it wasn’t.
“Get off my dad!” Sarah launched herself at Keith, who looked up in surprise. He was able to react quickly enough to grab her and wrap his arms around her, but the fact he was in the middle of kicking my dad meant he was off balance. Keith tumbled through the open door and fell onto his side. Perhaps instinctively, or maybe out of spite, he kept a hold of Sarah and dragged her inside the room with him, she crashed down on the ground beside him.
“Sarah!” Mum broke free of Quick’s large hands and raced towards the room, but the door slammed shut so forcefully that a blast of hot air shot through our landing and knocked us all back. I struck my head on the skirting board as I fell, biting my lip and adding more blood to my mouth. Hands grabbed me and I looked up to see Quick.
“You all right, boy?”
“I-I think so. What just happened?”
Quick didn’t answer the question. In fact, he failed to meet my gaze completely as he yanked me to my feet. I looked towards the door. It was open again, but all that lay inside was darkness.
Keith was gone.
Sarah was gone.
Djall had been fed once again.
22
Mum erupted into screams. Dad tried to calm her, but she was like a skipping CD, playing the same note over and over again – and there was no way to turn her off.
Through all this, I had somehow kept hold of the Karazy Klown. Now Quick tore it from my hands. “No more delay, boy. The more time we waste, the more people we lose.”
I already thought it was too late.
Quick strode across the landing until he was standing before the open room. The darkness crackled and hissed, warning him to stay back. But Quick would not be intimidated. He held up the Karazy Klown and shook it. “Djall! I speak your name and hold your totem. I command you to obey. I command you to release your grip on this family. Return to dormancy at once. This, you cannot refuse.”
Nothing happened, and once again I wondered how simple words could affect something so monstrous. Was Quick deluded? Or did he truly know what he was doing? It was too late not to trust him now.
He shook the doll once again, this time more forcefully. “Djall! Leave this place.”
The door slammed shut. Opened again. Slammed shut.
“It’s not working,” I shouted over the din. “Just like before.”
Quick ground his teeth, gold glinting. “I don’t understand this. Djall, I know you. How do you disobey me?”
I realised this scarred warrior was losing the battle to save our family – what was left of our family – and my gut filled with molten fear. I clasped my sweaty hands together and winced as I felt pain. I studied my hand, seeking the source, and saw that my thumb was red and swollen. The wooden splinter still nestled beneath my flesh. An enemy buried beneath my skin.
I lost my breath.
The jackal.
“You still have the wrong totem,” I said, almost laughing at the absurdity of my own words, and at the short sightedness of not having realised it sooner. “It’s not my doll.”
Quick looked down at the ugly Klown in his hands and hissed. “I’m getting tired of this, boy. What are you talking about?”
“Just wait here. Look after my mum and dad.”
Quick nodded, and I took it as his permission to leave. I raced across the landing and jumped down the stairs. I felt a chill at the bottom and took it as a sign. This was the thing we’d been missing, the evil thing hiding in plain sight.
I reached the animal collection beneath our stairs and panicked, for I couldn’t see the jackal. Keith had scattered the statues all over the floor when he’d fallen on them, but I could still see the elephant, the giraffes, and all the other creatures. The jackal wasn’t there.
Had it changed shape?
Had Djall hidden it to keep us from controlling it?
I sunk to my knees painfully, searching amongst the animals and scattering them even further with my hands. The jackal was not amongst them.
“No, no!” I grabbed my hair and pulled, slumping to the ground as I pictured an imminent future where Djall devoured my parents while I watched. Then it would have me. I was so weak, so battered and bruised, that it was an impossible battle to keep myself upright, and my body ended up flat on the floor. I blinked tears from my eyes and stared into space, trying to take my mind away to some place safe – away from this nightmare that wouldn’t end. But there was no escape. All I could do was sob and stare uselessly.
The jackal stared back at me.
It stood upright on all fours beneath the radiator. It must have skittered there after Keith had tumbled. I still couldn’t believe he was gone. Truly, I had wanted to get to know him, but now all I was left with were memories of an angry, violent man. What horrors must my mum have endured?
I finally understood why she hated him. Because I hated him too.
The time for thinking wasn’t now, so I grabbed the small wooden figurine and scrambled to my feet. I finally had what Quick needed, I just needed to get it to him, but at the foot of the stairs, I fell. My stomach twisted as the worst pain I had ever felt in my life took hold. It folded my body inwards, forcing my knees up to my chest. Every muscle seized. Then I threw up, a vile ocean spilling out from between my lips. I waited for it to pass, but it didn’t. My body convulsed again and again. My throat was full and I struggled to breathe. I tried to get up but it was impossible.
Upstairs, my mum continued screaming.
I heard Djall, the door slamming over and over again in a mixture of mockery and hate.
My vision began to curl inwards, growing dark at the edges. I hadn’t taken a full breath in almost a minute.
I wondered how long I had before I would be dead.
23
“Martin? Martin, what’s wrong?”
My vision existed only as a pinprick, which was why I sensed as much as saw my dad. His hands slid under my body and I felt myself lifted. “Dad?”
“We need to get you to a doctor, Martin. This has gone too far. Quick doesn’t know what he’s doing. Sarah’s gone. She’s gone.”
“No!” I was weak, but I managed to yell out that one word. Those that followed arrived more quietly. “The jackal. Give him the… the…” I felt another wave of sickness arriving.
“No, Martin, we need to get to the hospital. We need to call
the police. Your sister… Your mother.”
“Mum? I can still hear her screaming.” I felt a draught and I knew my dad was moving towards the front door. “Dad, stop. Is Mum okay?”
“I left her with Quick,” he told me. “He was the only one strong enough to keep her from hurting herself. She’s in a bad way, which is another reason we need to get help.”
“The jackal. Dad, give Quick the jackal before it’s too late.”
I convulsed in his arms, releasing another wave of vomit. I didn’t see where it went, but I didn’t hear the sound of it hitting the ground. I felt damp spread through my clothing.
“Are you talking about the jackal I bought from the car boot?”
I puked again, and Dad adjusted his grip on me so that he was holding me like a baby. He stood still and held me until I could speak again. “Y-Yes! The jackal. That’s what started all of this. It’s Djall’s totem.”
“I need to get you out of here, Martin. You’re my son and I need to keep you safe.”
“Dad, please…”
There was silence while Dad stood there with me in his arms. I knew he was thinking. “Okay, fine. Where’s the jackal.”
I clenched both hands and realised I no longer held it. “The floor. I must have… I must have dropped it.”
“I’m going to put you down, okay?”
I murmured that it was okay, and I felt the wooden floor rise up to meet my feet. I reached out and grabbed the bannister to keep from falling. I could still hear my mum screaming. It must have been ten minutes now since she’d started. I feared she might never stop.
I listened to Dad searching until he made a triumphant grunt. “I’ve got it. Okay, I’ve got it.”
“Dad, go. Give it to Quick.”
I heard him race up the stairs, and I sighed with relief. My stomach continued cramping, and yet I couldn’t give in to my misery. Clenching my mouth shut, I climbed the first step followed by the next. I started to vomit, no doubt leaving a sickly trail behind me like a slug, but I needed to reach the landing. I needed to know Djall was gone.
Each step was agony, and I had to fight my own traitorous body for every inch. My vision was still a tiny window in a sea of darkness, and every half-breath I struggled to take made that window even smaller. If I passed out, I knew I might never wake again. I remained conscious through willpower alone.
I heard voices in between Mum’s screaming. It was my dad talking with Quick. The jackal had to be the totem. If it wasn’t…
It had to be. There was nothing else it could be.
I carried on crawling up the stairs, each step a marathon. I feared reaching the top and finding that my family were gone, and in that way my mum’s screaming was a comfort. It meant she was still alive.
I finally reached the landing. Dad was holding Mum on the ground, not roughly but firmly enough to keep her thrashing under control. Quick saw me slumped on the steps and came to help me. The small wooden jackal peeked out from his closed fist. “Glad you’re not going to miss this, boy. You’re sure this is the totem? Third time’s the charm, right?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. It has to—” I groaned in pain, my energy spent now that I had completed my journey. Quick dragged me off the steps and sat me up against the wall. With the last of my vision, I watched the room. The door was open, and inside, the darkness swirled and formed an image – a face more serpentine than human. A thing with orb-like eyes full of malice, hunger, and hate. Djall’s true face. My blood turned icy in my veins.
Quick stepped in front of me and blocked my view. He held up the wooden jackal. “Djall! I have your totem” – he turned back to me with a grimace – “this time, I’m pretty certain, and I command you to relinquish your hold on this family and this place. Remove your hooks and act no more. I command it. I compel you. You must obey.”
A howling wind assaulted the landing, and the door at the end of the landing began slamming shut over and over again, gathering speed. I leaned sideways to get a better view, and each time it opened, I saw that reptilian face glaring back at me. I felt Djall’s tendrils in my stomach, squeezing me from the inside, making me want to vomit. I looked at my hands and saw blisters. Quick finally had power over Djall, but before it went it wanted to take a parting shot by killing me. I clutched my sides and groaned.
Quick glanced back at me and appeared nervous. He spoke faster, more forcefully, as he thrust the jackal above his head again. “Djall, I order you to leave this home. Release this family at once. You cannot disobey me, for I have your totem. Obey me! Obey me!”
The door started slamming so rapidly that the banging sound became an endless drone. Our landing transformed into a wind tunnel. The walls began to bleed.
My vision halved, corrupting at the edges. I slid down the wall, almost on my back now. I kept my eyes focused on the door – on Djall’s vile face.
“Be gone!” Quick yelled. “Resist me no longer. Your influence is at an end. You will return to solitude. Leave now! I compel you. Remove yourself this very sec—”
There was a high-pitched screech and an explosion of light that made all else disappear. It was so bright that I was glad when the last of my vision went and I plummeted into unconsciousness. Darkness swallowed me.
24
There were police at my home when I woke up, milling about like they owned the place. Several neighbours had apparently reported a disturbance. Among the officers was PC Dorrens, who stood in front of me as I lay on the living room sofa. At first, I wasn’t sure why I was alone with him, but then I heard Dad in the hallway trying to get through to Mum, who was talking gibberish. I didn’t know where Quick was.
“Martin, are you okay?”
I felt myself, seeking out pain. “I-I think so. What happened?”
Dorrens shook his head, bemused. “The question I’ve been asking for days. Your family is involved in something, and I’m not going to walk away until I find out what. That can wait though. There’s an ambulance on the way to check on you and your family. It looks like someone beat seven shades out of your dad. Would you like to tell me who?”
I stared at him.
“Okay, fine. Then how about you tell me why your mother is clearly in shock? And where’s Sarah?”
I could answer none of his questions, but his stare seemed to burn into my skin, a laser beam slowly heating me up. How long before I spilled the madness of what had happened?
Quick entered the room, a mobile phone in his hand like he had just finished a call. I had seen a few mobile phones in the last year – a couple of kids at school even had them – but the one Quick held was half the size of those. He saw PC Dorrens standing over me and frowned. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you not to question the boy without his parents, officer.”
Dorrens sighed, but nodded. “Fair enough. Who, might I ask, are you?”
Quick produced an open wallet from his jeans pocket. “Detective Inspector Matthews, Special Branch. Mr Ademale and his family have been helping me with a very sensitive operation. I’m afraid there will be very little they are permitted to tell you.”
“I don’t believe you. Something is going on here, and I don’t know you from Adam. You certainly don’t look like you’re with Special Branch.”
Quick flashed his gold teeth and grinned. “We’re an odd bunch, for sure. You may not believe me, but in about thirty seconds, you’re going to get a call from your boss asking you to step away immediately. You might think something is going on here, Officer Dorrens, but the truth is above your pay grade. Leave it to the big boys, okay?”
Dorrens’ face grew red. He took a step towards Quick and pointed a finger. “You just look here. I’m going to find out exactly what—”
The radio on his shoulder hissed. Officer Dorrens, please respond.
Dorrens stared at Quick for several seconds, frozen in place. Slowly, he broke free and squeezed his radio. “Officer Dorrens responding. Over.”
Please return to station. Over.
> “What? I’m at a crime scene.”
No crime scene. Please return immediately. Over.
Dorrens glared at Quick, but a look of confusion crept onto his face. “This is… wrong.”
Please repeat. Over.
“Never mind. PC Dorrens returning to station. Over.”
Roger.
Dorrens shook his head at us, looking as disgusted with me as he was with Quick. “This is wrong,” he said again, and then he stormed out of the room.
Once the officer was gone, I looked at Quick. “You’re a police officer?”
“I can be many things when I want to be, Martin. Whatever gets me the result I need.” He sat down on the arm of the sofa, looking down at me. “Now, listen to me, okay? There are going to be people asking questions about what happened here. There’re too many missing people for us to stuff the whole thing beneath a rock, but that’s okay. I’ll protect your family, just so long as you say nothing. Do not speak of these events. A spokesperson will be provided and he or she will say whatever needs to be said. Eventually the questions will stop and you can all go back to living a normal life.”
I shook my head. “Sarah’s gone. Will she ever be back?”
Quick sighed. He reached down and squeezed my ankle. “I’m sorry, Martin.”
“Then there’s no normal life to go back to.”
“Perhaps I misspoke. All the same, life is not over for you. You’re a brave lad, and this world favours the brave. I’ll be checking in on you, and if there’s anything you need…” He looked towards the hall, to where my parents were huddled in a broken mess. “If there’s anything any of you need, I’ll be there.”
The Room Upstairs: A Novel Page 14
