The Twilight Streets

by Gary Russell

  ‘Good,’ Jack said, dismissing Bilis’s evangelical tirade as swiftly as possible. ‘Now get out there and do it. Ianto, go with him.’

  They left with the diary.

  Jack turned to Gwen. ‘You saw the future?’

  ‘Did you believe it?’

  Jack shrugged. ‘Not really. It’s just a possibility.’

  ‘Jack, I’m so sorry. We did—’

  Jack held up a hand. ‘No. No you didn’t, and that’s the point. The light creatures were telling us what could happen if the balance between them isn’t restored. Presumably it’s how they communicate. Nice, if a bit melodramatic. Now, I think we can open the Rift and draw the Dark light creatures into it, but we need a booster. The Rift Manipulator at the Hub isn’t enough. It needs something to fine tune them, as it were.’

  Idris moved forward. ‘There’s always—’

  But Jack cut him off. ‘Hang on. Gwen, what if we let them swamp someone?’

  ‘That’d be suicide.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Idris tried again. ‘But I know of a point where—’

  Gwen waved him quiet and looked back at Jack. ‘I mean it, there is no way we’re letting you take on that responsibility.’

  ‘It’s my choice, Gwen, don’t forget that.’

  The door to the room crashed open. It was a breathless Ianto. ‘Got a little problem.’

  TWENTY-THREE

  Outside the house, Jack and Gwen stared at Ianto’s ‘little problem’.

  The Light had left the people. Bilis triumphantly clutched the diary to his heart. ‘I just need to use the Rift energy to return them home,’ he murmured.

  ‘Sure you do,’ said Jack. ‘Doesn’t help us with that!’

  Everyone on the street now looked as Toshiko did. Eyes full of Dark light stared at the Torchwood group.

  ‘Did you do this?’ Gwen asked Bilis.

  ‘No,’ said Ianto. ‘I reckon he was as surprised as I was.’

  Jack grabbed Bilis, swung him round. ‘So, you gonna disappear on us or help?’

  Bilis just looked serenely up at him. ‘Help, of course. I can’t release the Light if the Dark is still at large. We need to imprison the Dark in the box.’

  ‘Via Rift energy,’ Jack finished. ‘Got it.’

  A clown stepped forward. Jack realised it was a disguised Owen.

  The clown pointed at the diary.

  Jack nodded. ‘Yeah, we got the point. You want the little Light guys. We don’t want you to have the little Light guys. Eternal war, across the dimensions, yadda yadda yadda. Tough.’

  He turned away from Owen.

  ‘Gwen,’ he hissed. ‘What broke Bilis’s little spell on you?’

  ‘Remembering the future,’ she replied.

  ‘But Ms Cooper was infected by the Light,’ Bilis insisted. ‘It is the Dark that controls these people.’

  ‘Same principle must work though,’ said Ianto. ‘You put the Light in us, those two must have lost it, and that let the Dark in. How?’

  Bilis shrugged. ‘Perhaps, in some tiny gap between expelling the Light back into me and before wakefulness, the Dark took hold.’

  ‘Why not me or Jack?’ Gwen looked at the diary. ‘It’s something to do with that, isn’t it?’

  ‘No,’ said Bilis. ‘I think it’s the prison box. I used the very last of the Light on the Captain here, the prison is empty of everything now. Perhaps with nothing to link either Dark or Light to the prison, it all had to go somewhere. So the Dark took hosts, just as the Light had.’

  Idris raised his hand, like a school kid.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You need something to focus this Rift energy you keep talking about, right? The tallest building in Cardiff has a great big aerial on top of it. Can’t you use that?’

  Jack hugged Idris. ‘Stadium House! Idris, you’re a genius!’ He turned to Bilis. ‘I can stop this. We boost the power to the aerial, tune it to the Rift frequency. That high up, the Dark light will flock to it. Once captured, we drain it back via the Manipulator in our Hub and straight into your prison box. Job One done. Job Two, you’re responsible for. You have to get your Light out of the diary and into the ground or whatever. You need Rift energy for that, but we can’t risk the Dark and Light combining. So you do that when we’ve dealt with the Dark, right?’

  Bilis understood. ‘I need to be here to do that.’

  ‘You need to be where I tell you,’ snapped Jack. ‘And for now that’s at the Hub. Ianto will show you how to rig your prison box into the water tower.’

  ‘He will?’

  ‘I will?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘No, Jack. I haven’t got a clue. You need Tosh or Owen or both for that. Sorry.’

  Jack deflated slightly.

  ‘How did you get the Light into Jack and everyone?’ Idris asked Bilis.

  ‘I absorbed it myself, then spread it into them. It’s easy, the Light likes new hosts.’

  ‘So,’ Idris said slowly, ‘if we could drain Owen and Tosh of their Dark and then re-host it, they’d be free, yes?’

  Bilis nodded. ‘I am able to play host to the Dark. I am strong enough. But if I am its host for too long, it will learn everything I am, discover everything I do. It will know of my connection to the Light. It would use me to destroy everything.’

  ‘How long would it need to be in you before you lost the ability to pass it on?’

  Bilis thought about this. ‘I believe not more than thirty seconds. I just don’t know how much longer I could fight it.’

  Idris looked at Jack, then took his hand. ‘Listen to me, Jack. Listen good, cos you rarely do. I’m useless to you here, I’m not part of your Torchwood gang. But let me do this. Get Bilis to use his magic whatnot to draw the Dark out of your guys and into me. They’ll be free, and you’ll have a better chance of defeating it. And then I’ll be fine. Along with all these other people. You asked me earlier if I was “in”. Yeah, yeah I am. Right in.’

  Jack shook his head. ‘Too risky. No.’

  Bilis shrugged. ‘It is a good plan. And I believe it would work.’

  ‘The day I trust you with a friend’s life is the day hell freezes over,’ Jack snapped.

  Gwen moved between Jack and the others, easing Idris away. ‘Jack, it’s a plan. It’s a good plan. Stupid, too, because Idris could die, but it’s his choice. You know it’s the only way.’

  Jack looked at Idris, then across to the painted Toshiko and Owen, standing there, utterly consumed by a power that could devastate the world.

  ‘There’s a flaw,’ Ianto said. ‘Idris knows our plan, too. If the Dark can read Bilis’s mind, it could certainly read a weaker one like Idris’s.’ He glanced at Idris. ‘No offense,’ he said without sincerity.

  Equally untruthfully, Idris replied, ‘None taken.’

  Jack looked at the young men. ‘Boys, don’t squabble over Uncle Jack, it’s not very becoming.’ He looked at Gwen. ‘It’s a risk.’

  ‘It’s all about risks. Everything we do always is.’

  ‘He’s not part of it though, is he?’

  ‘Aren’t I?’ Idris asked. ‘I know about you, your stupid pills don’t work on me, I understand some of what’s going on here. Oh, and I’m not ten years old. My choice, Jack. Ever since I met you I reckon not a lot has exactly been equal between us. So go on, give us a chance to do something. And you know what, if it goes tits up and I die, I’m not gonna complain.’ He turned to Ianto. ‘Mind you, it might be fun to come back and haunt you, mate.’

  Before anyone could do anything, Bilis walked into the crowd. They parted slightly for him, as if recognising some great power. He took Owen and Toshiko by the hand. They started to struggle and the crowd began jostling him.

  ‘Some help?’ he cried.

  Ianto, Gwen and Idris pushed people away, until Bilis and the other two were freed from the throng.

  Bilis closed his eyes and squeezed Owen and Toshiko’s struggling hands. The pair suddenly stopped squirming, and both sta
ggered slightly. Bilis let go of them and opened his eyes. They were black.

  Gwen moved in on Toshiko and Owen, gently steering them into 6 Coburg Street. She paused in the doorway to look back at Bilis Manger. He was motionless, Dark light playing in the sockets where his eyes should have been.

  Bilis spoke. ‘Idris Hopper, if you are sure…?’

  Idris grabbed Bilis’s hands. ‘Go for it.’

  The others watched in fascination as the Dark light roared out of Bilis and into Idris’s violently shaking form. Idris began to scream, but the noise soon faded, leaving his mouth agape but soundless. When Bilis let go of Idris, the two men staggered away from each other.

  Bilis recovered first, barking out a command. ‘Get him into the house. Into my room.’

  Jack reacted quickly. He scooped the prone Idris up and rushed inside the house, followed by Bilis and Ianto.

  Gwen was already inside with the recovering Owen and Toshiko.

  Owen lifted his head and forced open his eyes. ‘Gwen?’

  ‘Shhh,’ she said. ‘I’ll explain everything later. First things first. We need you two to go back to the Hub. With Bilis Manger.’

  Toshiko reacted now, started to ask a question, but Gwen hushed her. ‘Yeah, I know, Tosh. But seriously, he’s our only chance. Jack will explain it all on the way.’

  She nodded over to where Jack was holding down the thrashing Idris Hopper. Idris’s eyes were entirely blotted out by the Dark.

  ‘Let’s hope his head doesn’t swivel and start talking about your mother,’ Ianto said.

  Bilis scooped up the empty prison box. ‘We should leave. Now.’

  ‘What’s to stop him getting out of here after we’ve gone?’ asked Jack uncertainly.

  ‘His mind. Don’t worry, Captain, I’ll deal with it. And before you ask, no. I won’t let him be hurt.’

  With a last look down, Jack jumped away from Idris, who was on his feet instantly.

  Ianto yanked Jack out of the room.

  Bilis took one last look around him. ‘Thank you,’ he said, as if the room were alive. ‘You kept people away successfully for so long. Goodbye.’ He gave the thrashing Idris a final look, clicked his fingers and slammed the door shut. He raced out of the hall and through the front door, wrenching it shut behind him. He clicked his fingers again, and a huge metal bar, padlocked, suddenly welded itself to the front door.

  ‘Neat,’ breathed Jack.

  ‘I swapped it for the one that’s no longer at Torchwood.’

  ‘And my private elevator? The one with the perception filter on it?’

  Bilis laughed. ‘My dear Jack, I’m flattered by your faith. I change perceptions, not alien realities. Your silly entrance works as it always did. You only perceived that it wasn’t working, that people could see you on it. I honestly thought you’d worked that one out at least.’

  Jack looked as though he wasn’t sure whether to hit Bilis or not. Eventually, he just nodded to himself. ‘Clever move. God, you’re full of it aren’t you.’

  ‘I do hope not,’ Bilis replied as they moved through the Dark-eyed crowds towards the others. ‘Now, we ought to get this rigged into the Rift Manipulator. You will need to boost that aerial as soon as possible. This lot,’ he pointed at the crowds, ‘don’t seem keen on us any more.’

  Idris Hopper sat alone in the room. It was a bright room. The walls seemed to pulse with light from within, and it hurt his eyes.

  All that broke up the blandness were two framed pictures, one at either end of the room. Both showed a horrible horned demon, one grey, one blue. At the foot of each beast stood an old man. The figure was neatly dressed, with a cravat, slicked-back white hair, bright eyes. The same man in each picture? A twin? A mirror image? He couldn’t tell. The one with the grey demon was holding a book. The one with the blue demon had nothing.

  Below the picture was a handwritten line of text:

  Tretarri, Cardiff City, 1876

  As he stared at the blue demon picture, the image of the man changed.

  In its place, a young man, fair-haired, thin, geeky almost.

  Idris suddenly realised who it was. ‘No…’ he muttered. Then, louder, ‘No! No! No no no no no…’

  Beneath it, the text of the location and date shimmered and blurred too, but he couldn’t see that now, couldn’t focus, because the sound of his own screams of denial filled his head, filled the room, echoing even after he’d shut up, and there was no escaping it…

  TWENTY-FOUR

  With a swift kick from Jack, the doorway to the top of the roof stairs gave way, flying off its hinges and skidding across the asphalt. Jack pelted through, Gwen and Ianto at his heels.

  ‘I don’t think it was locked, actually,’ said Ianto.

  ‘I wanna look cool, OK?’

  Ianto made a ‘whatever’ with his fingers and followed the others to the dish. Jack was up and on it, already grabbing the base of the aerial.

  Gwen tapped her comms. ‘How’re we doing, Tosh?’

  Toshiko’s voice echoed back to her from the Hub. ‘You’re doing fine, Gwen. I’m less convinced by Owen and me, frankly.’

  ‘We’ve lashed the Rift Manipulator into Tosh’s computer and old man Bilis there is putting the box inside,’ reported Owen.

  There was a beat.

  ‘Well?’ snapped Jack.

  ‘He’s not exactly one for urgency, Jack,’ Owen said.

  ‘Can he hear me?’

  ‘Can now. I’ve patched the comms through to—’

  ‘Bilis, it’s Jack. I don’t have time for you to mess about. Get that damn box in there and opened up.’

  They heard Bilis’s voice. ‘It is ready.’

  ‘So are we,’ said Ianto, as he and Gwen finished connecting the cables to the aerial.

  ‘How bloody primitive is this,’ Jack muttered. ‘A hundred years of alien tech, and it looks like Ianto jump-starting the SUV.’

  ‘Oi, the SUV never needs jump-starting,’ Ianto retorted.

  Jack grinned. ‘I just have an image in my head of you with jump leads and a pole. I was saying the SUV to save Gwen’s blushes.’

  ‘Oh don’t mind me,’ Gwen said. ‘I gave up listening to you two hours ago. Days ago. About a year ago actually.’

  ‘Yeah, well, some of us don’t have that luxury,’ Owen said in their ears. ‘Thanks for the image, guys. We good to go, Tosh?’ There was no verbal reply, but Owen’s voice came straight back. ‘Tosh gave me a thumbs up. I like to think that’s Kabuki for “yes”. And not “we’re all gonna die in flame and devastation”. But you never know, it could mean both.’

  Jack sighed, pulled the box of electronic gubbins from his pocket and looked up. ‘Now would be really good, guys,’ he said.

  Gwen was looking over the edge of the roof at the mass of black-eyed people gathered at the foot of the building, like ants. She thought for a moment of Idris Hopper, trapped in that house a few miles away, raging against all this. For all she knew, Rhys could be out there too. And all their friends, family… anyone, everyone.

  Ianto joined her.

  ‘I really, really hate heights, me,’ Gwen said.

  ‘You should go on a date with him,’ Ianto said, jerking a thumb in Jack’s direction. ‘To him, up on a place like this, that’s a great night out. But when I suggested a rollercoaster once, oh no, that was a death-trap apparently.’

  Gwen laughed.

  Then she stopped and looked Ianto in the eye. ‘What happens now, Ianto? We saw the future.’

  ‘We saw a future. A future corrupted by this Dark light stuff. In a few minutes, it’ll be gone and that future won’t happen.’

  ‘How will Owen and Tosh get over this?’

  ‘They will. Tosh will feel guilty and get introspective. Owen will never mention it again. That’s their way of dealing. You?’

  Gwen shrugged. ‘You’re right. I’ll ignore it. And I’ll tell Rhys that if I ever get pregnant, we’ll have a home birth. Or go to Spain.’

  ‘Guys?
Please!’ That was Jack.

  ‘Jack?’ And that was Tosh. ‘I’m ready wheneveryou are.’

  Jack pointed at the box of electronics at the foot of the mast and the thin wires attaching it to the aerial. ‘Ready as we’ll ever be.’

  ‘Residual energy from last night’s activity… connected. It works, Jack, it works!’ Toshiko coughed slightly. ‘Sorry. Rift… activating… now!’

  And, sure enough, above their heads, Jack, Gwen and Ianto watched the crimson ribbon of the Rift flare into existence, now bereft of extraneous light creatures.

  ‘Hooray for us,’ muttered Ianto.

  Jack was at the electrics, twisting the dial Tosh had set up.

  Gradually, above their heads, the Rift began to fluctuate. The ribbon of energy moved, until it was in a direct line from the top of Stadium House to the area of Tretarri.

  ‘Now Bilis, now!’ snapped Jack.

  ‘He’s gone,’ Owen confirmed from the Hub.

  Wharf Street, Tretarri.

  A spike of Rift energy stabbed into the new concrete, and all the lights exploded. Bilis ignored the flying glass. Another ribbon of energy connected with the ground, earthing itself. The windows in every house exploded outwards, but still Bilis refused to let it affect him.

  Ianto pointed west. They watched a streak of Dark light rising upwards.

  ‘Well, that’ll be Idris I guess,’ Gwen said.

  Jack tweaked the dials on the box. ‘Let’s hope we’re in time,’ he muttered.

  And another thin black spike of raw Dark energy speared up, this one from below, shooting past them and into the Rift energy ribbon.

  Ianto watched and saw the assembled citizens drop to the ground one by one, as the Dark light fled their host bodies, hungry for Rift energy.

  After a minute, once the last person had dropped, the Dark light stopped pouring up.

  ‘We’re done, Tosh.’

  Bilis raised the diary and began flicking through the pages faster and faster. The light creatures were escaping from the ink and being drawn into the safety of the Rift energy and back under the ground, to keep whatever existed beneath the surface caged. Their eternal task.

  He noticed the face of Greg Bishop, momentarily etched amongst the lights in the Rift ribbon. It seemed… serene.