Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series Two#7)

by Tim O'Rourke

  “You make it sound like you once knew me in another time… another place,” he said, his eyes round and full of fear.

  “Don’t you mean another where and when?” I sneered.

  “So my dreams… my nightmares are true,” he whispered. “They’re memories I’m having. I dreamt that I was a killer… tell me, Potter, what was I really like?”

  “Honestly?” I said, looking at him.

  “Yes,” he nodded.

  “You were nothing but a piece of shit,” I said. “But the funny thing is, this Wolf Man who you have put your trust in, was known by another name. In that where and when he was called Luke Bishop and he murdered you!”

  “But…” Sparky said, getting up.

  I pushed him back down onto the bench. “So is this Wolf Man coming here to kill me tonight?” I breathed.

  “No, he is sending another wolf to kill you,” Sparky said.

  “Who?” I demanded to know.

  Before Sparky had a chance to answer, there was a bang, sounding like a small explosion. His head snapped backwards, his brains jetting from the back of his head and splattering against the waiting room wall like a lump of raw steak. Sparky jerked, as if having a violent spasm, then fell into my arms.

  There was another shot followed by the sound of Kiera screaming.

  “Kiera!” I roared.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Jack

  Melody’s mother was lying prostrate on the chapel floor when I snuck through the window. Her deafening sobs drowned the sound of my approach. Unbeknown to her, I sat silently for some time on one of the pews and watched her cry and beg for forgiveness. She was pathetic. I started to chuckle at the thought of what I had planned for her. It was the sound of my laughing that finally made her stop sobbing and look up at me. Discovering Uncle Jack watching her from out of the gloom, she screamed, scrambling backwards across the chapel floor.

  “Shhh…” I cooed with a grin.

  I could read the fear in her eyes and I felt that twinge of excitement I always felt at this point.

  “Your eyes,” she murmured. “I have seen eyes like yours before.”

  “Have you, indeed,” I asked with genuine curiosity.

  “The devil who put his seed in me had eyes just like yours,” she whispered, her face taut with terror. “Melody’s father was a devil just like you.”

  “How like me?” I said, slinking from the pew and dropping onto all fours. I crawled slowly towards her, my eyes blazing bright.

  “He was a wolf,” she murmured, staring back into my eyes. “He was the devil.”

  So Melody’s father was a wolf. That’s why her mother hated her – feared her – so much. That’s why she took Melody’s head off with a spade. She feared strangulation wasn’t enough. The only sure way of killing a wolf was by cutting off its head. I thought of my brother Nik kneeling over the guillotine and I knew in my heart he was dead forever.

  “Keep away from me,” she sobbed.

  “Don’t you like what you see in my eyes?” I snarled. “Does it excite you?”

  “Yes…” she whispered, her face haggard-looking with fright.

  “Good,” I smiled, crawling towards her, my long, sharp fingernails scrapping across the cold stone floor. “Me and you are going to have so much fun.”

  Just before dawn, and after more fun than I’d had in a very long time, I took the chains which hung from the cross. And just like the bonnet cord she had used to strangle her daughter, I wrapped the chains around momma’s throat. At first I think she thought it was just another one of the many depraved games I’d had her taking part in over the last few hours as I hung her from beneath the stairs which led out of the basement.

  But as her eyes bulged in their wrinkled sockets and her tongue shot out of her mouth, she knew the fun and games had finally come to an end. And so had she. Stepping back into my jeans, I got dressed and went upstairs to the kitchen. And after cooking and eating a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast, I left the house and didn’t look back. I knew my time here was nearly over and I was glad about that. I’d had enough.

  I crept through the woods and towards the grate. Isidor was standing and looking down at it, a look of puzzlement etched across his face. He then bent down and took something that had been wedged between the metal bars.

  I didn’t have to get a clearer view to know that it was the photograph of him and Melody he had just found. I had missed the photographer! Could he or she still be close by? I wondered, looking back over my shoulder. How was I going to go back without unmasking the photographer? What would this mean for the world I’d come from? What would this mean for my sister Kiera? I’d fucked up. I’d been too busy having fun with Melody’s mother when I should have been here, in the woods, watching the grate. Perhaps Potter had had more luck? Maybe his mission had been more successful?

  Isi-bore placed the picture inside his coat and climbed down into the hole. I crept from my hiding place. Standing over the hole, I peered down into the darkness. There was a sound behind me. It was the sound of feet running over fallen leaves. I spun around to see a figure, its face concealed behind a grey coloured hoody. A camera swung about the figure’s neck. Before I could get out of the way, the photographer pushed me hard in the chest and I stumbled backwards into the hole that led down into The Hollows. I clattered into the sides of the tunnel. Over and over I went as I raced towards the bottom. The tunnel became darker and darker until everything went black.

  I hit the ground with a thud and opened my eyes. I was outside. There was a storm raging. Heavy black clouds lumbered across the sky. Dawn wasn’t far off.

  Where was I? Was I back?

  I stood up in the hammering rain. There was a building a short distance away. I looked down and could see I was standing in the middle of a set of railway tracks. Had the train brought me back? I couldn’t be sure. I set off in the direction of the building. I was in a valley. Where and when, I couldn’t be sure. Even before I reached the small wooden structure, I knew what it was. It was another freaking railway station. Perhaps I was back after all. Reaching the platform, I climbed on to it. Over the sound of the wind and the rain, I could hear voices. I crept along the platform, stopping outside a small waiting room. Very carefully, so as not to be seen, I peered through one of the windows. I stepped backwards almost at once and into the shadows again. Gathered inside the waiting room was Kiera, Potter, Kayla, Isi-bore, and a teenage boy was sleeping on one of the benches. I couldn’t be back from where I started from, I figured, my mind racing. Potter was here, but so was Kiera. Kiera thought Potter was dead where I had come from.

  Then I heard Kiera say, “Have you still got that photograph?”

  I peered back through the window to see Isi-bore reach inside his coat pocket and pull out a folded piece of paper. I knew it was the picture the photographer had left for him in the grate.

  I heard Isi-bore explain that after Melody’s death he would often go back above ground and visit the lake where he had spent so many happy hours with her. But going back became too painful. In the end he stopped going above ground.

  “Did you never go back again?” I heard Potter ask.

  “I only went back once more, and that time, I went to the house where she had lived with her mum,” Isi-bore explained. “The windows were all boarded over. The front garden was overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. The house looked derelict and abandoned. I wanted to know what had happened, so I returned to the library and checked the local newspapers. I didn’t have to look for very long, as I soon came across an article about a local woman who had hung herself in a chapel constructed in the basement of her house.”

  I turned away from the window and leant against the waiting room wall. Somehow I had been pushed forward.

  I glanced to my right and saw Kayla looking out of the window. I crouched down, out of sight.

  “What’s wrong?” I heard Kiera ask.

  “I can hear them coming,” Kayla said.

 
“Hear who?” Potter asked.

  “Those berserkers, and there’s a lot of them,” Kayla gasped.

  I squinted and peered into the darkness that covered the valley like a thick blanket. Then, I realised that it wasn’t shadows at all but a wave of Berserkers racing into the valley and towards the station.

  From inside the waiting room, I heard snippets of conversation as the group planned to make their escape. Suddenly the waiting room door was flung open and Potter appeared in the open doorway. Pressing myself flat against the wall of the station, I edged my way a little further along the platform.

  “A train is coming,” I heard Kayla say.

  “The train is close, but so are those berserkers,” Potter snapped, racing back into the waiting room. I could hear him barking his orders at the others.

  It was then I heard Isi-bore, say, “Kiera, I’m not coming with you.”

  “Listen, kid, we don’t have time to fuck about. Get your shit together, we’re moving out!” Potter yelled at him.

  “I’m not coming,” Isi-bore said again.

  From within the shadows, I listened to the others as they pleaded with Isi-bore to go with them.

  I looked out across the valley and could see the Berserkers drawing nearer. Their barking and howling added to the deafening boom of the thunder and sizzling lightning overhead. Isi-bore was still insisting that his friends left without him.

  Run! Run! Isidor, I felt like screaming myself. He didn’t need to die – not today and not at the hands of the Berserkers. I dared to glance back through the waiting room window. Isidor was smiling at his sister, just like how I’d seen him smile at Melody Rose.

  “You go,” Isidor told Kayla. “I’ll stay and draw them away so you can escape.”

  Run, Isidor! I howled inside as the Berserkers grew ever closer. In the direction I had come from, I could see the headlamp of an approaching train. I looked back through the window. Kayla and Potter were both now pleading with Isidor to go with them. Knowing that they were fast running out of time, Potter helped Kayla drag the unconscious-looking boy out onto the platform. I stepped back into the doorway of the station bathroom. Potter and Kayla passed by me, dragging the boy between them. The train drew nearer, as did the Berserkers.

  I then heard Isidor say something that made my twisted black heart stop.

  “I have to stay and wait for Melody,” Isidor said.

  “But the berserkers will kill you while you wait for her,” I heard Kiera try and reason with him.

  “But don’t you see?” Isidor said. “The berserkers can’t kill me because this picture hasn’t been taken yet. The fact that it exists says that I’m not going to die today.”

  Isidor was going to die because I failed to intercept the picture. I had been too busy enjoying myself with Melody’s mother. If I’d only beaten my lust to kill for a few hours, then Isidor would now be escaping with his friends.

  “I’m so tired of waiting – hoping that the moment this picture was taken comes,” he said. “So maybe by waiting for the berserkers, it will force her hand and she’ll come for me.”

  Melody isn’t going to come for you! I felt like screaming. It’s a fucking trap, you dumb-arse!

  “I love you, Isidor,” I heard Kiera say. “See you later, alligator,” she added before running from the waiting room and leaving her friend behind. From my hiding place in the dark, I couldn’t help but see the tears streaming down Kiera’s face as she dashed past me along the platform. I could see her pain. And I knew in my heart that the pain hadn’t been caused by the Elders – it had been caused by me because I hadn’t been able to stop killing – not for one single hour. I had failed to unmask the photographer and Isidor was going to die because of that.

  Her parting words to Isidor rang in my ears as loud as the thunder and the roaring Berserkers.

  I love you, she had said.

  No one had ever said those words to me. Not ever. And I knew no one ever would. I was unlovable and I had chosen to be so. No one else was to blame.

  Kiera stood crying on the platform, her arms wrapped around Kayla. Potter strode past me and back into the waiting room. The train was clearly visible now in the distance, as were the Berserkers as they raced towards the station.

  “Why are you doing this?” I heard Potter ask Isidor.

  “Because I want to see Melody again,” he answered.

  I glanced at Kiera and Kayla, both had their backs to me, so I snuck out from my hiding place and positioned myself in the shadows by the door of the waiting room.

  “I’m staying, Potter, I know what I’m doing,” Isidor said.

  What with the sound of the approaching train, the raging storm, and the howling Berserkers, I struggled to hear whatever it was Potter said to Isidor.

  I then saw something I didn’t ever expect to see. Potter walked forward and hugged Isidor tightly in his arms. He then placed a cigarette behind Isidor’s ear. Potter then turned and didn’t look back.

  As Potter raced up the platform to his friends, the train pulled into the station. Looking back over my shoulder at the approaching Berserkers, I knew they would be swarming over the station in just a minute or two. I took my chance and snuck into the waiting room.

  “Jack Seth?” Isidor breathed, on seeing me.

  “Give me the picture,” I barked at him.

  “No,” he said. “It’s mine.”

  I lunged for it, snatching it from his hand. I tore it into strips and cast them to the floor.

  “That was a picture of Mel…” he started.

  “I know what it was, numb-nuts,” I snarled. “And it isn’t what you think it is. It’s a trap!”

  “What has this got to do with you?” Isidor said, raising his crossbow. “You’re my enemy.”

  Knocking the crossbow from his hand with a swipe of my claws, I dragged one hooked fingernail down his chest. A gash opened up in his flesh and Isidor cried out.

  “Don’t be such a fucking cry-baby the whole time,” I warned him, dipping my finger in the blood that now trickled from his chest.

  He watched me with a look of disgust as I sucked his blood from my finger. I lurched forward, clutching my guts as I started to change.

  “What’s happening?” Isidor gasped as I took on his form before him.

  “I’m saving your fucking life, that’s what’s happening,” I said, as his blood mixed with mine and I became him. “Jeezus, Isidor, your head really is full of dumb fucking ideas.”

  “Why are you doing this?” he asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.

  “Because I want you to go and find your friend, Melody Rose,” I told him, glancing back at the door. “She’ll be waiting for you, trust me.” The Berserkers were now climbing up and over the platform. The train was gaining speed as it cleared the station.

  Turning to look at Isidor, I said, “Hide! Get under the bench and don’t come out until it’s safe to do so.”

  “What are you going to do?” Isidor asked, dropping to the floor.

  “I’m going to let them kill me,” I said, crossing the waiting room and closing the door. And just for a moment, I saw a brief reflection of myself. For once I didn’t look emaciated and haggard; I looked young and full of hope. I looked like Isidor.

  The Berserkers leapt onto the platform. They sniffed the air and snarled. They saw me looking at them through the glass. I turned around. Isidor was hidden out of sight beneath the bench.

  “Why are you doing this for me?” I heard Isidor whisper from beneath the bench.

  “Because you will go on to do great things, Isidor,” I whispered back. “Whereas, I will only go on to kill.”

  There was a vacant-looking ticket booth. On the counter I saw an old-fashioned radio, just like Melody had bought to the lake.

  “Let’s have some music,” I smiled, switching it on. There was the sound of static. I shook the radio and I could hear the distant sound of music. The door to the waiting room opened, and I didn’t need to look back to kn
ow that the Berserkers were creeping up behind me, their razor-sharp teeth glistening wetly and their giant claws raised.

  The music from the radio grew louder, drowning out the sound of my approaching executioners. I recognised the song at once. It was Heroes by David Bowie – the same song that Melody and Isidor used to listen to together on the shore. The music grew so loud that it was almost deafening. The walls of the waiting room began to vibrate. I noticed some leavers set into the wall. Written above them were the words PUSH and PULL.

  I felt the first of the Berserkers claws rip at my throat. I gripped one of the levers, and do you know what I did next? I pushed harder than I’d ever fucking pushed before.

  I felt a hand fall over mine and take hold. I staggered forward and someone caught me in their arms. Their embrace felt familiar. I leant back and looked into my brother’s face.

  He grinned at me.

  “Good to see you, Nik,” I smiled.

  “And you, brother,” he said.

  I looked over his shoulder and could see that I was in a railway station, similar to the one I’d just left. There were a few tables with people seated at them. Bright sunlight streamed through the windows and I walked towards it. I pushed open the wooden station door. The sun beat down on a flat and arid-looking wasteland. There was a squeaking noise from overhead. I glanced up to a see a sign swinging slowly back and forth in the breeze. It read:

  Welcome to the Great Wasteland Railroad

  Nik joined me in the bright, hot sun. I took off my bandana and wiped sweat from my brow.

  “We’re dead, aren’t we?” I said, looking out across the vast desert.

  “We had our heads cut off, didn’t we?” he said, looking at me.

  “We sure did,” I said.

  Tumbleweed blew along the rickety platform that we stood on.

  “What now?” Nik asked me.

  “We start again, I guess,” I said. Then turning to face him, I added, “But this time, can we try and be heroes and not monsters?”