“Piss off – now!” shouted Jude, facing Ben again.
I looked at Max who stood just behind me. If I was going to stand any chance of convincing Jude and Raven, I would need to persuade Max. Grabbing hold of him by both arms, I said, “Please, Max, you know I wouldn’t do anything stupid – you know I have my head screwed on, right? Ben can help us – I know he can. We need him. He can get us into Cruor Pharma where Doctor Langstone works. He might know more about your brother. We stand more of a chance of getting help from Doctor Langstone if we have Ben with us… please.”
“I don’t trust Ben, and neither should you,” said Max. “But I do trust you.”
“Then tell Jude and Raven – they won’t listen to me.” I let go of his arms and pushed him forward. “Tell them.”
“Jude,” said Max, “calm down and listen to me. All this shouting and arguing isn’t going to help. We need Ben to get us into Doctor Langstone’s place… we need…”
“We don’t need shit from him,” spat Raven, her voice full of venom.
Ben, who had stood quiet, pushed through Jude and Raven. He stopped beside me and turned to face the others. An icy chill breeze swarmed around us.
“You don’t stand a hope in hell if you think you can just stroll in and see Doctor Langstone without me,” said Ben. “I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not. While you stand here arguing, the Cleaners are gaining on you. Can’t you feel them – feel their presence? They won’t give up – their relentless hunting will never stop until they have you.”
“We can get away from the Cleaners without you!” shouted Jude.
“But you can’t get away from me,” smiled Ben. “Kassidy told me she wants me to stay.”
Ben turned and grinned at me. It was then I realised that Quint had come back – gone were Ben’s blue eyes. Now all that stared back at me were two black eyeballs. His body almost seemed to be surrounded with a dark aura and his fingers had taken on that stretched, twisted, vine-like appearance. He snapped his arm forward and took hold of Jude, pushing him down to the ground so he was in a kneeling position.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Don’t you hurt him.”
Quint took no notice of me. It was like I didn’t exist. I watched as Jude struggled to get up.
“You don’t want me to go with you. Well what are you going to do about it?” Quint stated more than a question. “Are you going to fight me?”
Jude stared up at Quint, his face dark with anger. “I’d love nothing more than to end you…”
“I feel a but coming…” smiled Quint. “Is there something stopping you?”
“Hey, Jude,” Max suddenly piped in. “Best not argue with it. We’ve all seen what these things can do.”
Quint snapped his head round and stared at Max. “It – things? I’m more than that – more than you’ll ever be.” He stretched his other arm out and snatched Max around the throat.
“Stop this – stop it – they’re my friends and if you hurt them, I’ll kill you myself!” I screamed, punching Quint in the chest. “Let them go – now!”
Quint released them both. He stepped back, a smile stretched across his face. “Are we ready to go? Or do you want to wait for the Cleaners?”
I stood shaking. That awful feeling of VA20 pushing its way through my veins had started again. I pulled the sleeves of my top up and watched as the thick, black fluid simmered and popped like a muddy bog. I tried to calm my breathing.
Snatching me by my wrists, Quint smiled. He looked down the length of my arms and his black eyes shimmered.
Pulling away from him, I turned and faced my friends. “Look, I don’t like this any more than you do… but… I think we need him. I want to see Doctor Langstone and get this shit out of me… it’s getting worse and I think we stand a better chance if we have Ben or Quint… with us.”
“If we ever make it that far,” spat Raven, “which is highly unlikely with some Demon guy tagging along.”
“Tagging?” glared Quint, bending down so his face was in front of Raven’s. “I’m leading, not tagging.”
I looked at Jude. He stared over his shoulder into the thick fog, then, turning round and brushing off the dirt on his trousers, he said, “Let’s just get going, we’re not safe here.” He pushed past me and disappeared into the fog.
Raven went next, followed by Max, who rubbed at his neck where Quint had grabbed him.
“Don’t you ever attack my friends again.” I glared, staring through the fog, not wanting to look at Quint. “Or I’ll change my mind.”
“You can’t change your mind,” said Quint, walking behind me. “You don’t want to change your mind – you like me – I sense it.”
“I like Ben – not you!” I snapped. I continued to move forward, slightly uncomfortable at having Quint behind me where I couldn’t see what he was up to. He had gone quiet. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or if I would rather have him sounding off. The uneasy feeling I felt was too much to bear and I spun around to see what he was doing.
“Keep up with the others, we don’t want to lose them in this fog.”
I was relieved to see two blue eyes staring back at me intently. Quint had disappeared for now, and for that I was grateful. If Ben could stay as Ben then maybe Jude, Raven, and Max could accept him – could see that it wasn’t really his fault and that he was trying to help us. I knew I was walking a thin line having Ben travel along, but if Doctor Langstone could somehow remove VA20 from us then maybe he might help Ben. But that feeling of dread had me second-guessing myself again. This could all go horribly wrong if Quint took over Ben once and for all – then what? What was Quint’s real intention? Was his plan to get us all together so he could have control over the Cleaners and use our bodies? But he could have done that already – we were all together now. Maybe he was waiting for us to find Robert – Max’s brother. Perhaps just the four of us wasn’t enough to gain control of the Cleaners. How many bodies were needed? My head swam with questions – it felt as thick as the fog I walked through. I felt Ben’s hand slip over mine. I looked up at him as he walked beside me.
“We need to speed up,” he said. “Let’s get out of this fog.”
I held his hand tight as we started to run. The cold air stung my eyes and nipped at my face. I felt safe when it was just Ben. He seemed strong and had a firmness about him like someone in authority. Perhaps that was the doctor in him? But what did that matter when there was a Demon lurking inside? Being strong hadn’t been enough to fight off Quint. Was there anything or anyone who could wrestle off a Demon and come out smiling? I didn’t think so. But I wanted to believe that something could be done – that there was a way of reversing the damage. Was I being naïve – losing my way? Only time would tell, and as we caught up with the others I knew I had to hang on and keep going. We all had to. Because if one of us fell, then we all would fall.
CHAPTER THREE
The fog had become patchy. Small snippets of the country lane we ran along revealed itself, then disappeared in a sudden blur, covered by a misty veil. To me, it meant that we were outrunning the Cleaners, escaping their foggy reach. Another break in the blindness presented the lane spilt into four directions. A crossroad. Max pointed up at a white, flaky road sign.
“That way will take us back in the direction we first started out from.” Max looked to the right. “That leaves us with going left towards some place called Broken Head, or we could keep going straight and go to the town of Rane.”
“Rane.” Both Ben and Jude answered together. Then stepping across the road, they both took the lead.
I looked at Max. He shrugged his shoulders at me like he didn’t have a clue and trudged forward. He looked tired. Dark shadows circled his eyes and his long hair stuck to the side of his face, damp from the cold fog.
Raven stepped in front of me. “Are you just gonna stand there, or what?” She bent over slightly so she could peer into my face. “There isn’t time to stand about daydreaming you know, not unless you w
anna become one of the devil’s hands.”
“Get outta my face, Raven,” I mumbled, not in the mood for her dark ramblings. I stepped to the side and pushed past her.
“I don’t know why you’ve let that killer join us, but I hope it’s for a good reason and not because you’ve been tempted by him,” she glared. “We’ve got this far without him, he’s not needed for anything.”
“He is needed,” I snapped, continuing to walk across the road onto the lane ahead. “He’ll get us in to see Doctor Langstone. I thought that’s what you wanted? A chance to get rid of this drug!”
Raven grabbed hold of my arm and pulled on it. “But you can’t trust a Demon! In fact, how do we trust anyone?”
“What do you mean?” I stopped dead in my tracks. “Are you talking about the others, Max and Jude?”
“Yes,” she glared.
“Why?”
“We don’t know either of them, do we?” she hushed, looking in their direction. “How do we know that Max’s story about his brother is true?”
“Because he has his brother’s passport that’s why,” I said.
“Is it though? He could have just pulled out that passport on Ward 1 and claimed it to be his brother’s and then fed us with some lie about his surname being different because they don’t share the same father.”
“That’s just rubbish, Raven.” I shook my head. “Max is a good guy, why would he suggest going to the Bishop’s in search of his brother if he isn’t really his brother?”
“Because he’s a Demon,” she hissed. “He read in Father Williams’ diary that Robert, Alex, and Sylvia had headed to the Bishop’s.”
“So?”
“He obviously thought that all three of them were like us, able to house those filthy Cleaners, and knew the more bodies he had, the more chance there was of him claiming them.”
I stood silent for a moment. This was too much. Max was nice. He was kind. I hadn’t seen anything strange about him or had any doubts about him since we had first met. Raven was just talking out of her arse again. She didn’t trust anybody. My thoughts were interrupted by a memory of Ward 2 where Max had first told us that he had volunteered because he needed the money to save up for his own place. That had been a lie. Did Raven have a point?
“Well, what about Jude?” I asked. “I know you don’t like him but that isn’t enough to point the finger of blame in his direction.”
“I just don’t trust him,” she whispered. “And he doesn’t have any black veins. He doesn’t seem to have had any reaction to VA20.”
I chewed on my lower lip. I contemplated what Raven had just said. “Ahh, but Max does, so that rules him out,” I smiled, relieved to have Max in the clear. But what about Jude?
Raven looked over her shoulder and pushed me in the back. “Come on, we need to keep moving. I don’t know about you but I’m sure the devil’s hands are on the move.” She nodded in the direction we had just come from. The fog seemed to be rolling slowly forward.
I carried on walking, Raven followed beside me. She did have a point about Jude and his lack of reaction to VA20. But when I thought about what had happened on Ward 2, I remembered that May didn’t have any black veins either. Poor May. I shuddered as my mind recalled how Wendy had ripped open May’s throat and killed her. Pushing those thoughts away, I said, “Jude wasn’t the only one who showed no reaction to the drug. May didn’t either.”
“What about that porter, Fred Butler? Funny how he died shortly after we left him – or should I say after Jude left him,” hissed Raven. She continued to look over her shoulder at the fog. “We left him very much alive but was he alive after Jude had gone back into the locker room?”
“There was no reason for Jude to kill Fred Butler,” I said, picking up pace. I didn’t want to fall too far behind the others who were now quite a ways ahead. “We had him tied securely and gagged. Besides, you saw Jude when all that shit happened on Ward 2. He was fighting all the other volunteers – the ones who had turned crazy. He helped to get us all out of there. So if he was one of the Demons, why would he have bothered?”
“Because he wants us all to himself – he wants to be top Demon – we wouldn’t be any good to him if we got killed by those other freaks on Ward 2. That’s why he helped us to escape – I can sense it!” Raven shuddered and wrapped her arms about her. “And don’t forget it was Jude who didn’t want to go to your friend’s house or the Bishop’s at first. He kept trying to persuade us to go to his place in Wales. And, let’s not forget he wasn’t too keen on visiting Doctor Langstone. Jude was worried that we would get taken over by Langstone. See! He doesn’t want anyone else to have us – he wants the power!”
“That still doesn’t mean he’s one of the Demons,” I said, looking back over my shoulder. The fog seemed to have slowed, it lingered back across the lane. I let out a big sigh. I could feel my heart steady with the satisfaction that we were creating some distance between us and the Cleaners. Raven’s suspicions about Jude and Max, though, left an uneasy feeling deep inside me. It was like a seed had been planted, and the more I thought about what she said, the more its roots pushed further down. I clutched onto the satchel, remembering the iPod inside. I’d had my doubts about all of them back at Hannah’s flat. Someone had turned off the power preventing me from seeing what was on that iPod. But which one of them had turned off the switch? Maybe it had been done by accident? That’s what I preferred to believe. But was I just trying to sedate those fears that one of us wasn’t just a plain old human – one of us was made of something else, something dark and malignant? I shook my head. I was letting my brain get carried away from listening to Raven and her usual dark thoughts. Besides, Jude and Max hadn’t shown any Demon qualities; far from it. Jude had revealed a completely different side to him the other night. I could feel my cheeks flush as I remembered what I nearly let happen between us. No, I didn’t want to believe that Jude and Max were bad. We had volunteered together, escaped together, and helped each other, and now here we were, trying to find an end to all this shit together. I nodded my head as if trying to convince myself that I was right to believe that. Yet still, that niggly little doubt stayed nestled deep inside. I looked ahead and could see the others had stopped at a bend in the lane. As Raven and I got closer, I looked at all three of them and my eyes fell upon Ben. If there were anyone amongst us who couldn’t be trusted, I would have to point my finger at Ben. After all, I knew what lived inside of him – Quint.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mellow rays of sunlight poked through the clouds, allowing us a little warmth. Running through all that fog had left me feeling damp and a little cold. We stood just on the outskirts of Rane, taking shelter from any prying eyes that might happen to come by, behind a large, bramble hedge which skimmed the edge of the lane.
“Are we all sure we want to find Doctor Langstone?” asked Jude, straightening his shirt and running his fingers through his hair. “We all know it’s a risk – a big risk to take.”
Raven suddenly nudged me in the arm, her eyes darting over to Jude as if to remind me of her suspicions about him.
“It’s a stupid risk,” said Ben, stepping forward. “He is a Demon and just because he left Doctor Middleton to his drug tests, doesn’t mean that he’s safe.”
“It was you who put that idea into my head, Ben,” I said. “Remember, before you left me outside the canteen back at Cruor Pharma?”
“That was just me trying to make myself feel better for what I’d done to you. I have no doubt in my head that you will never get any help from Doctor Langstone. He can’t be trusted,” snapped Ben.
“Can’t be trusted like you, you mean?” sneered Raven, peering out from under her straggly hair.
“But you haven’t seen Langstone since he left, which I’m guessing was ages ago,” said Max. “He could be different now. The fact that he left Middleton to pursue his messed up drug trials surely shows a lack of interest in gaining Demon power or whatever it is that you Demons are after.
You can’t be sure.”
Ben shook his head. “I forget a lot. I only remember what the Demon in me wants me to remember. Sometimes, when I’m stronger, the past becomes clearer. I admit, I’m messed up. I’m a danger. And because I know I’m a danger, I know that makes Langstone a danger. You have no idea what goes on inside my head. Even though my Demon is quiet at the moment – it doesn’t stop me from wanting to hurt you all. There’s a lust inside me to kill, an urge to corrupt you – anyone who crosses my path – anyone out there will do. But you especially.” Ben stared into my eyes. “The things I could do to you. I want to play you – I want to take you – I want to…” He took a step towards me. “But the real me – plain old Doctor Fletcher – he’s still here. I’m fighting those urges.” He spun around to face Max. “I know Langstone feels like me. Anyone with a Demon inside them will. So I’m sure Langstone will take one look at you lot and all those Demon instincts will overwhelm him. You don’t stand a chance.”
Jude looked at me. “Why the fuck did you let him come with us? You’ve heard it from his own mouth. This guy is a danger, and while he’s travelling the country with us, we’re all in the shit.”
Ignoring Jude, I said, “Right now, we’re carrying a death sentence around with us. I’m going to go and see Langstone, with or without your help.” I stared back at Ben with the same cold stare he was giving me. “I have nothing to lose. This kind of life – living on the run isn’t for me. For all I know this shit in my veins could kill me off today, tomorrow, or next month. I don’t know. But, from how I see it, Langstone is the only choice – the only chance of living again. So if he kills me off – then so be it.” I pushed past Jude and stomped past Ben without as much as a glance. Stepping out onto the lane, I followed it to the left, toward the town of Rane.
Demon (Kassidy Bell Series Book 3) Page 2
