Dark Side Darker (14 page)

Panicked, Rufus swerved slightly before turning on him. “
Man, what the fuck’s up
!?”

Josh looked around confused, saw grey houses rushing past.

“Josh?”

The voice sounded distant.

“Yeah?” Josh looked at his friend, shook away the brief dream-flash of him sitting dead and continued. “Bad dream,” he said simply. “Real bad dream.”

Rufus nodded and looked back to the road. “We’re nearly there.”

Josh breathed out deeply. He couldn’t remember going to sleep, but that didn’t surprise him. Recently he’d been so deprived of sleep that when he wasn’t walking around like a zombie, he found himself slipping into brief sleeps at every possible opportunity. He thought backwards. The last thing he remembered was Rufus talking on his mobile to someone, finding out Rob had moved back in with his mother and then finding out the address. Next he’d woke up and...

“Damn!” he cursed.

“What?”

“Oh, er, nothing.”

Rufus seemed past caring and drove on silently.

Already the dream was gone. Josh had been trying to recall every dream he had on waking but this time he had been distracted. He tried to think what he had seen but could only remember Rufus’ corpse. He shivered and wasn’t sure why.

After figuring out the bell wasn’t working and then banging on the old door for the fourth time, there came the first signs of life: a dog barking and a child’s cry.

Slowly the door opened as far as the safety chain would let it and Rufus and Josh found themselves facing a distrustful eye.

“Yes?”

Rufus swayed mildly, bracing himself on the garden wall. Josh decided to do the talking.

“Er, is Rob here?”

The woman shifted slightly, the look of distrust remained. “Yeah.”

Josh stood awkwardly, then realised she wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Can we see him?”

“Are you the Police?”

Rufus giggled. “Hell no lady, we’re not the Police.”

Josh spoke quickly. “We’re his friends. We, er, haven’t seen him for a couple of days.”

The woman stood silently for a few seconds.

“Wait here,” she told them finally and the door shut again.

Josh looked back at Rufus, now again smoking the joint he had hid behind his back.

“Will you please stop smoking that shit!”

Rufus blew a plume of smoke into his face as a response, with a wide, dirty grin.

Josh nodded. “Cute! Well at least do me the courtesy of shutting the fuck up.”

There was a rattle from the other side of the door and slowly, chain still pulled, the door opened.

“Rob says he doesn’t want to see anyone,” the woman told them weakly. Her face was a tapestry of strain and her eyes looked wet with worry.

“Please, it’s, er, important.” Josh attempted.

“Hey, we’re worried about him!” Rufus injected. “We haven’t heard from him in days. Is he okay?”

The woman’s dead eyes flicked back to Josh.

He shrugged. “It’s important,” he repeated meekly.

She sighed and they both heard the sound of the rusty chain being pulled loose.

“Maybe you can find out what’s wrong with him. He won’t talk to me. Come in.”

Josh followed her in awkwardly; he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the situation.

The woman, with greying hair, wrinkled and worn skin, turned her watery eyes back on them. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

Rufus seemed mildly stunned by the question. Josh wasn’t entirely certain how stoned he was. Rufus could certainly smoke a lot more skunk than he could, but he’d lost track of how many joints he’d actually smoked now.

“Two cups of coffee thanks. Black,” he said quickly.

She nodded and trudged down the end of the hallway. “He’s in his room.” She called over her shoulder.

Josh turned to his friend, “Do you...”

Rufus shrugged and followed the woman with his hand trailing against the wall for support.

The door with a battered Sound Garden poster seemed like a reasonable guess.

Cautiously Josh knocked on the door. He felt slightly unsettled by something.

Before he could knock a second time, Rufus turned the handle and virtually threw the door open. The door collided with the wall and Rob, sitting on the edge of his bed, jerked upright, looking at them.

Rufus stormed in. “What the fuck’s going on?”

Rob sat staring blankly for a few seconds, looking in between the two of them with the most perfect expression of confusion they had ever seen.

“W-w-what?” he stammered eventually.

The room smelt stale and thick with cannabis. A fat, blue bong sat still smoking at Rob’s feet. He looked pale and it seemed obvious he had been smoking for some time.

“What the hell happened to Sarah
and
,” Rufus’ voice trailed off and he looked briefly troubled before continuing with fresh rage. “Yeah, and, and Cally?”

“Jesus, man! Will you keep it down?” Josh whispered, closing the door behind them.

Rob seemed to come out of his catatonic waking slumber, his eyes now wide open. He kept repeatedly shaking his head.

“Oh shit, oh shit,” he repeated to himself.

Josh stepped past Rufus. “Hey, er, Rob,” he started, trying to sound calm. “Look, Sarah’s in a bad way. I just want to know what happened.”

Rob’s dreadlocked head fell into his hands. He was still repeatedly whispering “Oh shit” to himself.

“Hey, hey asshole!” Josh barked, losing it mildly and clicking his fingers. If Rob hadn’t exactly been on his list of favourite people before, he was now firmly on his list of people he wanted to kick in the balls.

Forcibly he relaxed. “Hey man, man, it’s alright. We just want to know what happened.”

“Come on, talk, you fuck!” Rufus snarled.

Josh looked back at him and made some frantic hand gestures.

“Hey Rufus, quit with the bad cop good cop shit.” He murmured to him.

Rufus nodded, looked visibly shaken. “Yeah, yeah, sorry man. I’m just, you know, a little tense.”

“Look Rob, what happened at your flat?”

He looked up with lucid terror and again Josh thought he wouldn’t speak.

“Man, it was the Blue,” he said eventually.

“The Blue?”

“The what?!” Rufus asked.

“Th-the Blue.” Rob stuttered out.

There was a knock at the door and Rob’s mum peered round with two mugs of steaming coffee.

“Are you all alright?” she asked nervously.

Josh took both mugs and placed them on the nearest set of drawers. “Oh, we’re fine. Thanks.”

She looked at them both, then to Rob and then, clearly still suspicious, withdrew from the room closing the door behind her.

Josh paused a few seconds, giving her time to move away. “What’s blue Rob?”

“I don’t know. It comes in little capsules.”

“
A drug
?” Rufus asked, shocked. “Man, drugs don’t do that to people!”

Rob sat silently, seemed to be deciding what to say next. Josh spoke before he had a chance to.

“
Are you really saying this has something to do with drugs
?”

Rob seemed undecided and clumsily reached down for his open weed tin. “Wait, wait, I need to take another hit.”

“No you don’t. Jesus!” Josh said, taking the blue cylinder from his hand.

“I don’t know what it is.” Rob said suddenly. “I’d tried it a few times before. Real weird shit! Man I ain’t never had anything else like it. Man, never.” He stopped talking, now again looking inward.

“Rob, Rob? Hey Rob!”

He looked up again.

“Are you talking about a drug called—Blue?”

He nodded.

Josh looked back at Rufus. “Hey, you ever hear of Blue?”

“Yeah, I think someone asked me for it a few weeks back. Said it was liquid acid, I think.”

Rob laughed, shocking them both. “Man it ain’t acid! It’s this blue liquid in weird little capsules. you see things. Man, do you see things!”

“Hallucinate?”

“Maybe, but it seems more. you can see bits of the city, like you’re there. Talk to people, be a thousand places in seconds. If you’re with your friends, you sort of become them.” He stopped, put his head back in his hands. “Oh, jesus my head hurts.” He moaned.

Josh took a sip from the coffee. It scalded his mouth but he didn’t care. “Go on!”

“Like dreaming! yeah, that’s it. Everything and nothing is real.”

Josh’s ears picked up. “
Like dreaming
?”

“What’s this got to do with Sarah and...” Rufus stopped and reached for his own mug.

“Oh shit man. We’d all dropped a couple of capsules but Cally wanted more. It was cool at first, like ecstasy, all love but like, we all knew what each was thinking. Shit, we were one. Then we started to, er, fool about.”

“I don’t want to know!” Josh grimaced and gritted his teeth.

Rob went silent, again a pained expression again on his face.

“And?” Rufus question impatiently.

“Oh, fuck I need a bong!” Rob complained.

“Finish and you’ll get one!” Josh told him.

“Man this is real hard.”

“Rob!” Rufus warned.

“Oh shit man. Oh shit. Okay, okay. Well after a while Cally started talkin’ about weird shit. She was really freaking us out. Saying she wasn’t in the room any more. Said she couldn’t even see us. She started screaming and running about, and, and she was yelling for someone to get away from her but there wasn’t anyone about. She just screamed and screamed and started flailing at the air. I tried to hold her down but she just started kicking harder. Oh fuck man, and then Sarah starts saying she can see something too. Ah, shit man and they’re both saying that there are, I don’t know...
things
? yeah things everywhere, man, but there wasn’t! Jesus, fuck, fuck, shit, fuck man!” Rob’s voice was fast rising into a high pitched hysterical tone. His terror finally overcoming his drugged calm.

“Yo calm down man.” Rufus hushed.

Rob looked at him, didn’t seem to know who he was. “Man get out! Get out!”

“What happened next?” Josh pleaded in desperation.

The door exploded open behind them, hitting Rufus’ back and sending the mugs tumbling to the floor.

Rob’s mum stood there sternly. “I think you should both leave!”

Josh ignored her. “What the fuck happened next?”

“Get out!” Rob yelled

“I’ll call the police!” The woman warned.

Rufus put his hands in the air, gesturing for her to calm down. “Yo, lady it’s cool. We’re going, we’re going.” He soothed.

“What happened!” Josh demanded.

Rufus grabbed him by the shoulder. “Come on man, we’re gone!”

Both Rob and his mum were both yelling “Get out!” now.

Slowly Rufus managed to drag Josh away. He was easily stronger, but Josh was seized by some kind of frenzy which made him hard to move.

Eventually, surrounded by chaos, Josh swept round on him. “Okay, I’m coming.”

The door slammed hard behind them and they were back in the calm of the street. The only sound being children playing in a school playground somewhere.

COMPLICATIONS

THE STEERING-WHEEL GRIPPED in Josh’s hands felt reassuringly real. Little else did. He was driving maybe a little too quickly, eager to get back to Sarah but had no idea what he could do for her. What Rob had told them had confused him further.
Some kind of paranoid talk about blue drugs
? It hadn’t provided the answers he hoped for.
What had he been hoping for
?

Rufus sat slumped next to him staring out at the leaden sky. His reflection on the glass revealed a troubled expression. There were a lot of unanswerable questions constantly being fed through his mind. He felt like he could burst into laughter at any second and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stop again.

“What now?” he had asked and Josh had found he didn’t know. He felt he was pursuing something but had no idea what. “This is all wrong,” he mumbled to himself and stopped the Hed PE CD that was spinning.

“Hey, I was listening to that,” Rufus said annoyed.

“I can’t think straight while that rap shit’s playing.”

Rufus shrugged, muttered to himself. He looked back up, fixing heavily bloodshot eyes onto his friend. “What are we doing Josh?”

Josh looked at him blankly, he felt tired and lost. “You know anything about that drug Rob was on about—I mean, anyone who, er, deals it?”

“I don’t even know what the fuck it is! Man, all I know is I’ve heard it mentioned a few times. That’s it!”

Josh nodded. “Could you find out?”

Rufus seemed to weigh something up. “If it’s out there I guess I probably know someone...” He paused. “Thing is I’m not sure what this is all about. What I’m saying is maybe, maybe we should just leave this shit all alone.
Fucking drugs and monsters
?” He laughed out loud, looked a little too wild and was shaking his head.

Josh struggled for something to say and was slightly relieved when Rufus’ mobile began to ring.

“Yo?” he answered when he finally managed to work the phone. “What?”

The shock in Rufus’ voice caused Josh to feel a stab of panic. “Who is that?” he asked anxiously.

Rufus paused, clearly didn’t want to reply.

“Karen, just Karen,” he told him a little too quickly.

Josh grimaced. “Rufus, what have you done?”

Rufus held his hand up to silence Josh, again talking to his phone. “What? Who? Oh shit!”

“What’s going on Rufus?”

“Wait! Sorry what?” He lowered his voice. “What are they doin’ now? No, no it’s okay, you did fine.”

“
What’s
going on, Rufus?” Josh’s voice was rising in annoyance.

Rufus ignored him. “Okay, okay honey. So are you okay—and is Sarah? No that’s cool, yeah we’ll come and get you.”Rufus hung up and fixed his eyes onto his friend.

Josh waited expectantly.

“Sarah’s in hospital.”

Josh grimaced and punched the horn. “Oh sweet Jesus!
Why the fuck would
...”

“Hey I told her to! Shit man,
what else could I do
?
You see her fuckin’ eyes man
?”

“Yeah, Rufus I did see her eyes, now tell me what the hell you think they’re gonna’ do when they see her eyes in that place?” He slapped the steering wheel and turned back to the road cursing to himself. “Shit, shit, shit!”