Dark Side Darker (20 page)

Karen, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, was looking at him startled. “Josh? Are you alright?”

Josh blinked dumbly. “Where am I?”

“My room. My, er house. Hey, are you okay? We’ve been scared shitless!”

Josh’s mind was reeling. He held his hands to the side of his head. His hair was plastered to his head with sweat. “Jesus what a nightmare, there was all these demons and I was burning from ice.”

Karen reached for his hand, he took it and for one second they were looking straight into each other’s eyes. His bewildered, hers wide with concern.

“What did you see?” she asked gently.

He shook his head. “Christ, I can’t remember exactly but it was fucking awful.” He looked ’round the room. Lavender walls, a Moby poster, some flowers painted onto the wall, a poster for the Reading rock festival, a Prodigy poster, lava lamp—in truth, it wasn’t really his flavour.

He realised he was still holding her hand. His palm was wet with perspiration. Karen looked down at their linked hands but neither felt the urge to separate.

Josh was struggling to put together the pieces. Something felt like it had changed but he wasn’t sure what.

“Hey what time is it? How long was I out?”

Karen checked her watch. “It’s five forty-eight in the morning. Oh Josh, thank god you’re alright, we were both scared shitless. How much do you remember?”

“Nothing. I took the pill and then nothing.”

“We were driving home and you suddenly passed out. We couldn’t wake you up no matter how hard we tried. you kept opening your eyes but it was like you couldn’t see us. Like you were in a trance or something.”

Josh nodded. “I think I was.”

Karen continued. “Jesus, then you started talking to yourself, having a conversation and sometimes,
sometimes it wasn’t even your voice
. Oh god those sounds weren’t human!”

He looked at her, baffled. “Sounds?”

Karen couldn’t look at him. “You were making noises—or at least sounds were coming out of you—
They weren’t human
.”

Josh was frowning. Something felt very wrong.
What was it
? He was trying to remember his nightmare but couldn’t. His head felt weird, not real. Distant, somehow. It kind of reminded him of the one time he’d done acid and couldn’t feel his jaw or tongue.

He again looked at Karen. “So where’s Rufus? Oh, he’s downstairs, right?”

Karen blinked. “What? yeah how’d you know that?”

Josh eyed her suspiciously. “He’s asleep on the sofa, right?”

“Hmmm...” Karen said. “Something’s changed. What is it?”

Josh was shaking his head. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I feel, I don’t know, awake.”

Karen was silent for a second. “Josh, everything is going to be alright,
isn’t it
?”

“I don’t know yet, I feel really fucking weird.” He saw her concern for him in her jade green eyes deepen and gave her hand a little squeeze. “I think it will be, though.” He managed a slight smile.

Karen smiled at him and then looked down, her hand still in his. He had never felt so close to her in all his life. Slowly he realised that there was actually some kind of energy radiating between them. Her eyes darted back up and into his. Jesus.

‘There is nothing but air between us!’

Josh looked about the room startled. Karen looked baffled.

“Didn’t you hear that?” he asked her.

“Hear what?”

Josh shook his head. “A scream, something about air between us. I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I’d think I was losing my mind,
only
,” he paused lost for words.

Karen spoke, looking into his eyes meaningfully. “Only it seems real, right?”

He smiled. She’d said it perfectly. “Right,” he said. “I mean, I’ve been hearing voices for months now, I don’t know maybe longer and there’s been all this sick shit in my head. Terrible stuff, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It felt almost like...”

Karen finished his sentence again. “It’s coming from somewhere else.”

They both looked at each other, scared. “Josh, what the hell are we involved in?”

“Jesus, I don’t know. There’s something out there isn’t there? I mean I can feel it everywhere and we’re just part of it, just two real small pieces of it. Can you feel this? I don’t know what, but I feel there’s something terrible coming but I don’t know what.”

“You can if you want,” Karen said softly.

He was startled. “What?
Can what
?”

“
Huh
? I didn’t say anything.”

Josh stared at her in quiet disbelief.
Had he heard what he thought he had
? Jesus,
maybe he was just losing his mind
, hearing voices.
Was he delusional
? Still he knew what he
had
seen. There was no part of him that could accept what he had seen in that flat had existed only in his mind. Rufus had seen it too.
Hadn’t he
?
And Sarah
—Sarah!!!

“Shit!”

“What?”

“I just remembered what I saw. I’ve got to get to the hospital!”

DARK PLACE

“THIS ISN’T GOING TO WORK, you know?” Rufus said tardily.

Josh said nothing.

Rufus shook his head and kept driving. “It won’t work.”

He mumbled under his breath. His eyes were still bloodshot from having smoked himself to sleep the night before. It was now 6:24 in the morning and he, Josh and Karen were in his car rolling through the misty streets. His reaction to being woken up by a panicky and shaken Josh had been a mixture of grumpiness and then overwhelming joy. Now though, heavy fatigue and stress had meant a return to the former state.

It had taken close to ten minutes for Josh to convince his two friends that Sarah was in genuine danger and even then they had agreed mainly just to calm him down since he had been close to becoming hysterical. When Josh had said he would catch a taxi if he had to, they had reluctantly succumbed.

They stopped at a set of traffic lights and waited in silence. In the back seat Karen was fast asleep, head resting against the window. Even in sleep she looked troubled.

It had been raining steadily throughout the night. Josh looked out of the window at the damp grey city. It was no longer silent. He found himself staring at empty black windows—voices were coming from every single one of them.

It was as it had been before, way back. Nor was it just on occasion and distant as it had been for the past few months. Instead it was constant and loud, very clear and it was everywhere.
Everywhere
. There would be no peace now, none, and this time Josh knew it was real. Not just an aggravated case of psychosis brought on by excess marijuana smoking, like his shrink had then told him before, but real. Too real.

To say that he was hearing voices wasn’t really right. In truth, he
felt
them. Felt them inside his mind and then imagined the sound. All he could really do was ignore those voices. A mad cacophony of chattering, oblivious sound so large it was almost silent. Only on occasion would one voice become clear enough for him to clearly hear, as one more powerful voice rose above the others.

He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry. All he really knew for certain was that he was scared shitless.

He was also aware that he was still under the influence of the Blue. He couldn’t explain the sensation but it was powerful.

He looked at Rufus. “You know what’s going on, right?”

“Huh?”

“With me? What’s going on with me!” Josh asked, frustrated.

“Man I ain’t got a clue what the fuck you’re on about!”

“Damn it!” Josh resisted the urge to punch the dashboard.

Why the hell was he the only one who’d ever been able to see this
? Even now he feared for his sanity but then how could he actually be wrong? It wasn’t just him who had seen what Cally had become. He knew what he was experiencing had to be total reality. There was no way anyone could be delusional enough to imagine what he’d been going through the past few months.
Or what he had experienced those years back after recovering from his coma
...

Rufus stared at him for a few seconds longer, going through silent questions in his mind and then shrugged and looked back to the traffic light. He’d dealt with way too much weird shit recently to be particularly concerned with Josh’s latest outburst.

Josh looked up just as the light turned to green and with a jolt the car was again rolling.

Rufus watched Josh staring distantly out of the window. “You alright, Josh? you seem distracted, man.” There was a great deal of concern in his voice.

Josh didn’t hear him, lost in the sea of thoughts.

“Josh?”

Josh snapped out of his trance. “Huh?”

Rufus grinned to himself and shook his head knowingly. “Don’t sweat it bro’, nearly there anyhow.”

“Music,” Josh said. “Any chance of some music? Anything will do, and I mean anything!”

Rufus looked at him and then Karen. “I don’t know man, I mean Karen’s asleep.”

“Fuck it!” Josh said, and they both grinned at each other.

“Okay. Cypress Hill alright?”

“Whatever man, jus’ put it on quiet.”

Rufus pressed a few buttons and there was a weird guitar feedback whine followed by probably the most ominous bass-line ever committed to disc. That was followed quickly by some heavy rocksteady drumming fitting to the bass as if it had been welded.

“I love this shit!” Rufus grinned.

In the back Karen stirred but did not wake up and with Rufus banging his head to the beats they drove on.

The Ford drew to a halt outside the lit-up glass lobby of the city’s hospital.

Rufus looked over at Josh “So you still doing this?”

Josh nodded. “Ain’t got a choice.”

Rufus frowned. “Man, what exactly did you see? I mean,
what
does that stuff do?” He paused again thinking of Cally, that distant abomination still frozen in his mind’s eye. “Yo and are you cool now? I mean, ahh’ shit I don’t know what I mean. All I mean is are you going to be,
alright
?”

Josh smiled. “You mean,
am I gonna’ mutate into a monster
? I doubt it!”

Rufus laughed slightly. “You know I’m still not cool with this? I mean I think this is some pretty dumb shit you’re pulling. How the fuck are you even gonna’ get her out?”

“Dude, I’ve thought about all of this. Believe me I don’t know. Best way I can explain it is I sense this is the right thing to do. That’s all I’m working on, I think we’re getting caught up in something pretty big!”

“Oh shit man that’s the fuckin’ truth, without doubt! All I’m saying is that I ain’t sure we’re the ones who should be handling it!”

“Man I don’t feel I’ve got a choice. All this crazy shit that’s been happening in the city recently, it all stems from this point. All of it!”

Rufus was silent for a moment, thinking back to the conversation they’d had in the shopping mall. It seemed so long back now.

“Man you really think this is bigger than just, well than just Cally? That there are other... things? Other
things
out there?”

Josh nodded solemnly. “Rufus, I can
feel
that there are! Before it was all kind of confusing, just glimpses. Now it’s like the whole thing’s alive, the whole city man! Every particle, every thought,
all of it
and I can feel them out there, distant, but yeah they’re out there somewhere. I can feel them in me, buzzing,
vibrating
... Man, it’s fucked up, I can’t explain it!”

Rufus just stared at him. Despite the fact he could no longer deny any of what was happening he couldn’t help but feel he was listening to the ramblings of a mad man. Finally he just nodded.

“Okay Josh, I don’t know exactly what you’re going through... I
guess
what I’m saying is, do whatever it is you’ve got to do, but do it carefully man, because this whole thing’s crazy!”

Josh walked swiftly through the abandoned waiting area of the hospital hoping the receptionist wouldn’t look up from the magazine she was reading. When she did he cursed to himself.

“Can I help you?” she asked standing up.

‘
Tell her to sit down
!’ The voice had been only a whisper within the silence of his brain but even so he found himself replying out loud.

“
What
?”

The receptionist was still staring at him and Josh felt the beginnings of fear in her.

She spoke. “Sir?”

‘
Tell her to sit down
.’

“
Sit down!
” Josh said automatically.

The woman instantly dropped into her seat looking startled. She sat looking dumbfounded for a few seconds and than reached for the phone in front of her.

“
Don’t!
” Josh said. His own voice seemed alien to him and he felt almost as if he was running on autopilot.

She blinked and her hand shot back to fall to her side. She stared blankly.

Josh continued to speak as if possessed “
Sarah Dholchak. Where will I find her?
”

“I, I don’t know,” the woman stammered.

“
Find out!
”

She began to type at the computer in front of her. She looked up, more confused than scared, it seemed. “They’ve put her in the quarantine section up on the seventh floor, wing C.”

Josh stared at her for a few seconds longer. He felt strangely intense. It left him as quickly as if had came. “Er, yeah thank you.”

He turned and walked quickly to the lift leaving the woman sitting stunned. It wasn’t till after the lift doors had closed behind him that she remembered to pick up the telephone again.

Josh stood with growing apprehension as the lift creaked and groaned its way up to the seventh floor. He knew exactly who’s voice it had been that had just spoke into his mind. Already he could feel strange energy beginning to thicken around him.
He
was close by. And getting closer still.

The lift doors opened with a cheerful ping and Josh was staring out at a dimly lit corridor.