The Ghouls

by Fred Crawley

  Nathan charged into the group at the top of the ramp but to his surprise he wasn’t crushed. He stumbled to a stop and turned back around to see what had happened. It took him a moment to work it out.

  The ghouls at the top of the ramp had started to move down towards the group at the bottom. Not one of them turned to look at him. For a moment, he thought that he had imagined them, but then he saw what was actually happening.

  The two groups were fighting and he was no longer of interest to them. He stood for a moment and caught his breath but couldn’t stay there for long. He had to get away before that happened.

  CHAPTER 26

  NATHAN STUMBLED THROUGH THE EMPTY STREETS. SHADOWS DANCED up the sides of the buildings, but he couldn’t see a single person or ghoul around. He still didn’t know what had happened, how he had managed to get away, but he had and he knew that was a good thing.

  A gentle breeze made him shiver. Before he knew it, he was walking along the deserted high street with the station a long way behind him. Yet he felt as if he would carry the sight of Gwen’s dead body, hanging like a lump of meat in the abandoned station, with him for the rest of his life.

  He shouldn’t have gone to the station. It would have been better not to know and live with the delusional belief that Gwen was still alive. But she had deserved better than that. It was right that at least one person in the world knew what had really happened to her.

  He wondered if he had left any finger prints on the door. If the police ever found the place (which seemed unlikely given that it had been right under their noses the whole time), they would undoubtedly use it as evidence to convict him. The thought barely scratched the surface of his worry. His head was a mess of thoughts and ideas.

  Without realising that he intended to go there, Nathan found himself walking past the Lyndhurst pub. A dark blue car raced along the road doing twice the legal limit. On the other side was the tower block where the woman with the dark hair lived.

  Nathan stopped. He could hear voices in the distance but couldn’t see anyone. He was alone in the night and he had nowhere to go. Except the woman with the dark hair who had tried to help him. She’d shown him where she lived and that had to mean something. If he wouldn’t go back to the warehouse he would go to see her. She would listen to him and he knew that she would believe him.

  He crossed the road. Slinking in the shadows, he felt like a ghoul himself. There were lights up the side of the building like a Christmas tree. Nathan walked around to the front and stood in the pale light at the door.

  On the wall to his left there were dozens of buttons with numbers scratched into them. The woman with the dark hair lived at number 45. Nathan reached out a hand and saw that it was shaking. He pressed the button and waited to hear her voice.

  There was no response. He wondered if she was asleep. He didn’t want to wake her, but he needed to see a friendly face, so he pressed the button again.

  The door was glass and the hall well lit. On the left, there was a stair case, on the wall opposite there were pigeon holes with the number of each flat beneath them. A dark shape appeared in the recess of the hall and Nathan stepped back. For a moment, he thought that it had been a ghoul. But that couldn’t be right.

  He hid in the shadows by the side of the door so that the creature wouldn’t see him. But when the door opened he saw that it wasn’t a ghoul at all. A tired looking man wearing a black security guard uniform walked down the steps and onto the street without turning to look at him.

  Nathan caught the door before it closed and went into the building. The air was warm enough to make his skin burn. The building smelled of pine and bleach. He closed the door quietly and walked to the stairs.

  The woman with the dark hair lived on the fourth floor. He climbed the stairs and went past the first, second and third. He stopped when he reached her front door. All of the lights were off and so were her neighbours’. Nathan had no idea what time it was, but he was sure that it was late. The dark haired woman would be asleep.

  But what if she wasn’t asleep? What if the ghouls had gotten her? Just standing there looking at her front door it felt as if he could feel their presence. Even if they weren’t inside, they were somewhere close by and after what he had seen in the underground station he was sure they would be angry.

  Nathan pressed the doorbell and heard it ring inside. If she was asleep, then it would wake her but she would understand. He would be able to explain it to her and she would be glad that he had come to her for help.

  The dark haired woman didn’t come to the door. Nathan pressed to doorbell again, although he could already tell that there was little point. There was no sense of movement inside, the place felt lifeless in the same way that Gwen’s house and Dr. Romero’s house had done.

  Nathan looked around as if he would see the ghouls watching him, but he was the only one on the balcony. They were somewhere close, though. If he turned around and walked to the wall, he was sure that he would look down and see them on the street, looking up at him and waiting for him to give up.

  With a sense of dread, Nathan realised that he had led the creature’s right to her front door. Now that they knew where she lived they would come for her if they hadn’t done so already.

  There was no sign that anyone had tried to break in. The white plastic front door was clean and undamaged, the large window beside it was still intact. The dark haired woman’s next door neighbour had built a small garden opposite their front door. There were flower pots and hanging baskets sitting on top of bricks. The ground beneath was still wet where they had been watered.

  Nathan turned back to the front door and pressed the doorbell again, but he didn’t even wait for it to finish ringing before he turned away.

  He lifted the first flowerpot off the brick and placed it carefully on the floor. The brick was heavy and solid. He had never tried to break a window before but assumed it would be easy enough. The only thing he had to worry about was the noise and who it might attract. But there were worse things to worry about than that and he was sure that the dark haired woman would understand. If he had led the ghouls to her front door, then she needed to be protected and she wouldn’t want him to leave and get himself killed.

  Nathan leaned against the balcony a couple of metres away from the window. He asked himself if this was really a good idea. He had spent plenty of nights on the street and one more curled up at her front door wouldn’t make any difference. But what if she was already dead? There had been no sign of forced entrance at Gwen’s or Dr. Romero’s house. The ghouls probably had other ways of getting inside.

  There were too many questions and too much doubt in his mind. He had to get answers. He had to find out one way or another whether his one true friend was still alive.

  He threw the brick before he could change his mind. It struck the middle of the glass. A hollow sound echoed loudly around the empty balcony, but the window didn’t break. The brick landed on the ground and rolled awkwardly back towards him, stopping halfway across the balcony.

  Nathan stooped down and picked it back up. It seemed impossible that a solid brick thrown with force hadn’t shattered the window. The glass must have been reinforced. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to get inside after all.

  He walked back to the window. Although it was still mostly intact, the glass was covered in a spider’s web of hairline fractures. He held his hand up to it and felt the glass wobble. Nathan looked around to make sure the noise hadn’t brought anyone out of their flats to see what was going on, but he was still alone, all of the lights were still off. He pushed the glass.

  It remained a single sheet as it fell into the darkness and only shattered when it hit the ground on the other side. As far as Nathan could see there were no shards remaining in the frame to catch his clothes or skin. Nathan lifted himself up and pushed himself down and into the dark haired woman’s flat.

  It was warm in the way that small spaces were. Nathan reached for a light switch and found one on
his fourth swipe at the wall. He was standing in a small entrance hall. A white wall with no pictures on it but a hook for keys which was currently empty. Nathan felt relieved that the dark haired woman wasn’t there. Hopefully wherever she was, she was still alive.

  He walked away from the front door and the thousands of pieces of glass on the floor. He walked through a small living room. Two new looking sofas were covered in items of clothing screwed up and scattered around. On the floor, there was a pair of red knickers. He stooped down to pick them up before thinking that he barely knew the woman and that breaking a window was one thing but he didn’t want her to think he had been rummaging through her underwear. He left the red knickers where they were beside a matching bra and walked through to the kitchen.

  The washing machine door was open and the drawers looked as if they had been pulled out and rummaged through. Cups and bowls were stacked up beside the sink. The tap was dripping unsteadily and without thinking about it he turned it off.

  It was quiet. He suddenly realised that he couldn’t hear hundreds of other people sleeping nor traffic rushing past. He was on his own in a warm, quiet and, most importantly, a safe place. He yawned.

  Nathan wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he carried on through the flat. One of the bedrooms had been turned into an office. There was a desk with a laptop computer on it, the screen covered in a thin layer of dust. Untidy piles of letters and bills next to it. Nathan picked up an empty envelope.

  “Audrey Solomon,” he said, reading the name at the top. So her name was Audrey then, he thought and confirmed it wasn’t the last person who had lived here by picking up a few more letters and seeing the same name. He put them back down without looking at what they contained. He already felt as if he was prying too much.

  Her bed was difficult to see beneath the clothes that had been scattered over it. The wardrobe doors were opened and he closed them for her. The room smelled of perfume. He wondered where she was, why she wasn’t home yet. She worked at Foster House, but that had been closed for hours. Perhaps she’d taken a second job to be able to pay for the flat.

  The last room was the bathroom. Nathan relieved himself in the toilet and stared at the shower. It had been longer than he cared to think since he’d washed properly and he considered making up for that now. But maybe that would be a step too far: she had invited him into her home because it was a safe place for him to be, he should wait until it was offered before he started taking further liberties.

  By the time he got back to the living room, he was barely standing. The flat was comfortable and warm and he felt safe in a way he hadn’t done for months. No one would find him here - everything was going to be okay.

  He sank into the sofa with a satisfied sigh. Once the fat cushions had taken his full weight, he didn’t think he would be able to summon the strength to stand up again. The ghouls couldn’t get him and there were no police looking for him here. The dark haired woman, Audrey, had seen to that. He was pleased that he had found someone who was willing to help him and fell asleep wondering what he would be able to do to pay her back.

  CHAPTER 27

  NATHAN WAS DREAMING ABOUT GWEN. SHE WAS STANDING at the kitchen counter cutting bread while he stood at the door watching her. It was the weekend and they were both still in their night things. She kept looking back at him and smiling sweetly while he wondered why she was taking so long, how much bread did they need?

  Bright sunlight streamed through the window behind her. Her blond hair seemed to glow like a halo. He looked at the curve of her bottom and her legs. No longer hungry for breakfast he wanted to wrap her in his arms and carry her back upstairs to bed, or maybe they wouldn’t make it that far. They were smiling and happy, but he knew that something bad was going to happen.

  He walked towards her and she turned to meet him. Except when she turned it wasn’t her face that he saw. Not the face he remembered anyway. Her bright eyes were gone, replaced by sunken dark holes and her skin had begun to droop. He stopped.

  “What’s wrong Nathan?” she said, her voice, at least, was still the same. She puckered her dry and withered lips and leaned towards him. Nathan stepped back and she began to scream.

  The dream evaporated. He felt as if he was being pulled away by force as his mind swam to the surface and he knew that the scream hadn’t come from the dream at all.

  He opened his eyes, blinking in the unfamiliar daylight of a room that he didn’t know. Before he could work out what was going on something struck him in the chest and then something else.

  “Get out! Get out!”

  Nathan tried to back away from whoever was hitting him. For one terrible moment, he thought that it was one of the ghouls, but they didn’t scream and he thought he would feel their teeth before they started throwing things at him.

  “Get out of here. Get off my sofa.”

  He managed to back away far enough that she couldn’t hit him again. The dream world faded and he looked up at Audrey, who was standing in the middle of the little living room.

  “It’s okay,” Nathan said. He raised his hands and ignored the shooting pain in his leg. “It’s just me.”

  She scowled at him but didn’t move to strike him again. She was wearing a white dress with a collar that put him in mind of a 1940s waitress. There was something written in swirly writing above her left breast.

  “Who are you then?” she said. She put her hands on her hips, her eyebrows raised expectantly.

  “I...” Nathan began. How did she not know who he was? He hadn’t shaved in a while and he was dirtier than he had been the last time she had seen him up close but surely he didn’t look that different, did he?

  “Well?” she said. “I’m waiting. Or do you want me to call the police and ask them who you are?”

  “No!” Nathan said.

  Her eyes narrowed and she smiled, but he could tell she wasn’t happy. “Start talking then,” she said. “Why did you break my window?”

  “Audrey it’s me,” Nathan said, her name rolling off his tongue as if he had always known it. He realised that she didn’t know his name either. “My name’s Nathan,” he said. “You... you...” Even before the words were out of his mouth, he began to doubt them. “You showed me where you live so I had a safe place to go.”

  “No I didn’t,” she said.

  Nathan knew that she was right. Suddenly he knew everything. They had met just once, the morning that she had given him ten pounds in exchange for directions. Then he had followed her without her noticing it. She hadn’t wanted to help him at all. With the realisation that it had all been another delusion, Nathan felt himself fall apart. His grip on reality felt weak and he suddenly wished he could return to the dream where he was still with Gwen, even if she wasn’t really alive.

  “Did you follow me here?” Audrey said.

  Nathan nodded weakly. The ability to speak seemed to have left him.

  “And you broke in?” she said.

  He nodded again.

  She seemed to decide that he wasn’t about to attack her and turned away. She picked up a small black bag and took out her phone.

  “What are you doing?” Nathan said. He jumped off the sofa and stood behind her. “Give me that.”

  She turned so that he couldn’t reach her phone. She was already dialling.

  “Who are you phoning?” he said.

  “The police,” Audrey said. “Who do you think?”

  “Stop it,” Nathan said. He reached for the phone, but she moved away from him again.

  “Hello?” she said, raising the phone to her ear.

  Nathan reached again and managed to grab it. “Wrong number, sorry,” he said and then pressed the red button to end the call.

  “Give that back,” Audrey said. She held out her hand. Her fingernails were painted blood red.

  Nathan threw the phone down on the sofa. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “Okay?”

  “Give me my phone back then,” Audrey said.
r />   They stood for a moment, neither of them prepared to back down.

  “Just listen to me, okay?” Nathan said. “If you still want to phone the police when I’m done I won’t try to stop you.”

  “Or you could just leave now,” Audrey said.

  Nathan considered it. He certainly had no right to be there and even less of a right to expect her to help him. For a moment, he saw the whole thing from her point of view: a man that she had no memory of meeting had broken into her flat and fallen asleep on her sofa. Of course, she wanted to phone the police.

  “I’m in trouble,” Nathan said.

  “And that’s my problem because...”

  Nathan shook his head and tried to reconfigure his thoughts. He felt as if he had to explain himself and not just to excuse the fact that he had broken into her flat. She might be fighting it, but he could see kindness in her eyes and knew that she would want to help him once she knew what he had been through.

  “Sit down,” Nathan said.

  “Leave,” Audrey said.

  He looked at her and couldn’t imagine what she saw when she looked back at him, a wild-eyed homeless man who was ordering her around in her own home. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just sit down and listen to me and then I’ll go.”

  She looked at him for a moment longer and then she sat down on the edge of the sofa opposite him. Her dress hitched up briefly and he saw the tops of stockings.

  Nathan sat down. “You gave me money,” he said, thinking that it would be better to start at the beginning of their relationship, however one-sided it might have been.

  Audrey shrugged. “I don’t remember it.”

  “It was about two months ago,” Nathan said. “But that doesn’t matter. You never asked me why I was on the street.”

  “Was it drugs or alcohol?” she said nonchalantly.

  Nathan sighed. She had built a wall around herself that seemed about a metre thick. He wasn’t going to be able to finesse his way through it which meant the only tool that remained available to him was blunt truth. “The police are looking for me, they think I killed my ex-girlfriend and the people that I lived with.”