Blood Memory: The Complete Season One (Books 1-5) (18 page)

“Here, there is only… Death. And though you may… outrun Him… it will not be… forever. Go to… the ocean. It will… protect you.”

Jordan wanted to call out to Stan, but something about Mary demanded his whole attention. Her eyes stared at him, no, not at him, but
through
him.

“Where?
Which ocean?”

Mary’s eyes returned to his. She blinked, and it was like that children’s game where you moved your hand in front of your face and your expression changed. Mary, as if waking,
looked around at her surroundings.

“Jordan?” she said, her normal voice issuing forth. “Where are we? Are we on the boat?”

“Yes. We made it.”

Mary smiled.
“Good.”

“I’ll get Stan,” Jordan said.

Mary’s grip on Jordan’s arm tightened. “No. You must listen. I was a fortune teller. I was blessed with the Sight. I see your future, Jordan. All of you. You must leave this place.” She smiled widely. “Oh Jordan, it’s so beautiful.”

“What is? What’s beautiful?”

“The sea, Jordan. The sea. It could have been heaven, it was so beautiful.”

She grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him closer. He was surprised by her strength. She raised her lips to his ear. “You must go there.
”

“Go where? I don’t understand.”

“The Ocean. The Indian Ocean.”

“What? Why? Why there?”

“The water is so blue. The fish, plenty. The weather, gentle. It is heaven and the ocean, all in one. Promise me, Jordan. Promise me you will tell them about this place.”

“I promise,” he said
, not knowing what else to say.

Mary smiled. Her grip on his collar relaxed, and her hand slowly returned to the bed. Her grip slackened. Her breaths, so weak and frail became quieter until they were silent
.

“Mary?” He leaned closer. “Mary? Mary?”

She didn’t stir. Her eyes were fixed on the same spot on the ceiling. Her lips were turned up in a smile.

The air had warmed and no long
er left their misty footprints.

Jordan
got up, walked to the door and opened it. Stan stood a discreet distance away in an effort not to eavesdrop.

“Mary? Is she…?” Stan said, before seeing the expression on Jordan’s face. He looked over at the bed, heard the absence of wheezing breath. “No…”

Stan ran into the room and fell to his knees beside the bed, clasping Mary’s hands. “Mary. Mary!” He put his head on her chest, but felt no movement. “It’s Stan. Please… Wake up. Please.” He held her hand against his face and sobbed.

The
dawn sunlight streamed through the clouds and illuminated nature’s treasures: the earthy emerald sliver of land sandwiched between two sparkling amethysts of sea and sky.

They wore an assortment of dark blues, browns and greens
, the closest colours to black they could find.

A wooden box hastily, but lovingly, assembled from doors and torn wall panels floated beside Big Daddy like a calf whale beside its mother. It was tethered by a short length of rope
.

Anne and Jessie
had threaded plastic flowers in Mary’s hair. A crown of roses, bluebells and lavender. Anne had searched through the women’s clothing wardrobes below deck. Most of it was not appropriate for
any
woman to wear, never mind an elegant lady on her deathbed. But among the kinky costumes was a long, discreet grey dress. Why it was amongst the other gaudy clothing was anybody’s guess.

Tears leaked from a seemingly unaware Jess. Anne wiped them for her, as well as her own. Every time Stan looked like he was about to burst into tears he seemed to concentrate on something and it lifted his spirits enough for him not to
breakdown.

Stan had found a pocketbook Bible in a drawer in one of the cabins. He chose a passage he liked, and it fell upon Jordan to read it.

After reading the passage, Stan leaned down and kissed Mary on the cheek. He brushed off the tear that landed on her forehead and severed the rope. The wooden box gently bobbed in the water for a while, as if deciding which direction to venture, then began to drift away.

Anne fed food into Jessie’s mouth, who chewed morosely. Stacey’s necklace jingled as Jess’
s fingers wound round it. Jordan stared at the floor, lost in thought.

Slow heavy footsteps descended down the stairs. Stan’s eyes were red, puffy and swollen like he’d gone a few rounds with
a heavyweight contender. It was a wonder he could still see.

Anne got up and embrac
ed him. “I’ll get you a plate.”

Stan s
hook his head. “No, thank you.”

“You have to eat something.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“But it’s my speciality,” Jordan said. “Boiled cardboard with a side of
Evening Standard
.”

Stan smiled. “Maybe later.”
He sat in silence a moment. He cleared his throat. “Anne, put some music on please, love.”

Anne pushed the tasteless morsel into her cheek like a hamster. “Sure. What would you like?”

“Something a little upbeat. Surprise me.”

Anne raised a questioning eyebrow at Jordan, who shrugged. Anne rifled through the CDs, most of them an assortment of RnB, rap and trance
, compliments of the millionaire pimp. But someone else had smuggled in some good tunes.

“And put the lights on,” Stan said. “I can barely see in here. Mary loved us all like family. She wouldn’t have wanted us sitting around in the dark like this, poking at our food. I can’t make myself jitterbug, but we can remember her for the way she was and not the way…” His voice cracked.

The music started. A deep throaty female voice Jordan vaguely recognised but couldn’t put a name to. His foot tapped along to the beat.

Stan offered his hand to Anne. “May I have this dance?”

Anne stifled her surprise and took Stan’s hand. They faced one another and began to bob and weave in what they considered to be dancing.

“Deary me,” Jordan said, turning to Jessie. “Shall we show them how it’s done?”

Jessie didn’t reply.

“Silence answers to the affirmative.”

Jordan took away her plate and set it on the table. He took her hand, helped her off her seat, and moved onto the ‘dance floor’. He held Jessie’s hands and moved them back and forth. It felt good to be moving. He put his hands in the crook of her arms and lifted her up as high as the low ceiling would allow. She still didn’t react, but he let himself imagine her squealing with joy.

By the end of the song, they were all panting, sweating, and out of breath. The song changed, this time something rocky, and they changed partners. Stan and Jordan moshed to the best of their ability. The song ended, and they changed partners again. Jordan with Anne. The music was now a slow ballad.

Jordan and Anne looked at one another, smiling awkwardly. They knew the routine. They moved in close. He wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned her head against his chest.

“Do you know this song?” Anne asked with the air of someone trying to make
polite conversation.

“No. Do you?”

She shook her head. Her hair tickled his nose.

They swayed in silence, the distance between them very close.

Stan and Jessie were in a similar embrace, both needing to be held. It wasn’t romantic, but more like a father with his daughter at her wedding. And although Stan was the one with his arms wrapped around Jessie, it was clear who was giving who the most support.

Jordan nodded to them. “Look.”

“Amazing what a little touch can do, isn’t it?” Anne pressed herself against him, trying to fill the inexistent gap between them.

“The
song’s finished,” Jordan said.

She nuzzled his chest.

Jordan smiled and leaned his cheek on the top of Anne’s head. The perfect height.

Out the window, the moon seemed to fill the entire sky. Something smudged the image of the moon… Something that had been pressed against the glass. Jordan peered closer. It was a chil
d’s dirty handprint… Just like…

Jordan stepped back, breaking their embrace. There was drool on Anne’s lip, and matchi
ng wet patch on Jordan’s shirt.

Anne noticed Jordan’s expression and mistook the drool for the cause of Jordan’s retreat. Her cheeks burned red. “I’m sorry. I must be more tired than I thought.”

Jordan looked back at the window. The smudged handprint was gone.

Jordan leaned against the railing and stared out at the stars.
They shone bright and remote.

“I thought I would find you here,” Anne said. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Jordan waved a hand vaguely.

Anne pressed her weight against the railing. The night’s chill breathed down her neck. She shivered. “Chilly night.
”

Big Daddy rocked gently with the peaceful ocean. The moonlight picked out
the tide with haunted strokes.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Jordan nodded. “Yeah.”

Anne breathed in a lungful of air. “It’s good to be on the sea again, don’t you think? No Lurchers, no worries.”

Jordan sighed. “Why don’t you say what you came out here to say?”

“
What did I come out here to say?”

“I’m not going to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“Stop with the mind games.”

“What mind games?”

He looked off into the distance.

“We can’t solve our problems if we don’t talk about them, you know. Is there anything new?”

Jordan shook his head. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“What was that earlier?”

“Earlier when?”

Anne gave him a flat stare. “Now who’s playing mind games?”

Jordan smiled. “It was nothing.”

“It was obviously something.”

“It was a dream, all right? On the land I had a dream and tonight… tonight I saw a part of it again.”

“A dream? I thought you didn’t have dreams?”

“I didn’t.”

“When did you have this one?”

“The night we were in the council building. And when we were shipwrecked.”

“What was it about?”

“It was just a dream. It’s not important.”

“Don’t repress.”

“I’m not repressing.”

“You are. This is good, Jordan. Don’t you see? Sometimes our memories come to us in ways we at first don’t understand. Your memory is coming back to you. This is a huge step forward.”

Jordan shook his head. “Some memories are best not remembered.”

Anne frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jordan was silent for a moment. “My grandfather served in the
Second World War. He had done all these terrible things, but he never talked about it. If he had the choice, don’t you think he would have preferred not to remember those things? You guys are like that. None of you ever talk about it.”

“It’s painful for us, Jordan. Events at the time of the Incident were rarely positive.”

“Do you remember where you were when the virus first broke out?”

“The Incident? Of course. Do you want to know where I was?”

Jordan didn’t answer.

“I was with my two o’clock at the time. I’d put Mr Matthews under hypnosis as part of his treatment. We were accessing his early childhood memories. Suddenly, there were these screams from the waiting room, but before I could get up the door flew open and a crazed-looking man came in. I asked
who he was, but he didn’t seem to hear me. I remember seeing his eyes and thinking that his was a mind lost. We were taught there’s no such thing, but his eyes… they were dead.

“
Mr Matthews still laid hypnotised on the sofa, as helpless as a babe. I asked the man to leave, but he simply walked up to Mr Matthews. No, not walked. Stalked. Like he was hunting. I thought if he was awake, Mr Matthews might be able to scare the man away, so I said, ‘Mr Matthews, when I clap my hands, you will wake up.’ Just as Mr Matthews woke up, the man bit him on the cheek and ripped off a big chunk. Mr Matthews screamed. He beat at the man, but couldn’t get him off. I beat at the man too, but it was no good.

“
Soon, Mr Matthews’ screams stopped and the madman carried on biting him. I ran out into the waiting room to call the police. That’s when I saw the bedlam outside. I ran and didn’t look back. My feet took me to the docklands. I was dazed, lost amongst the people. Stan and Mary pulled me onto Haven, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“Do you wish you couldn’t remember it?”

“I suppose I would prefer not to remember it,” she admitted. “But as bad as that memory is, it’s gone into creating the person I am today.”