Dark Side Darker (25 page)

He seemed to remember talking with Rufus and Karen but at the same time felt certain they hadn’t come back to the flat with him.

Josh shook his head. “What the hell’s going on?”

For some reason he found himself looking at the door and then it opened.

Carthy walked in, holding a beer bottle and eating a piece of toast and Josh groaned.

“That Carl kid’s a riot,” Carthy announced.

“How’s Sarah?” Josh asked him.

“She’s fine for now.”

Josh nodded. “So how did you know I would be in the hospital?”

“Well as I said I knew Sarah was there and it seemed fair to assume you’d come and pick her up. Strange how these things work out isn’t it?”

“Yeah that
is
strange.” Josh shook his head. “I mean, Carthy, is everything you say bullshit? That doesn’t explain how you knew she was, what?” he paused, “
infected
?”

Carthy smiled, tapped his nose beneath his glasses. “I have my ways, kid.”

Josh stared at him for a long time trying to determine anything at all from his demeanour. Carthy was just a blank wave of static.

“Trying to read me, kid?” Another laugh.

Josh gave up. “So Sarah’s alright?”

A nod.

“And you can’t help her unless you get the antidote?”

Another.

“Which you say the drug dealers have?” He finished suspiciously.

“Any sharper and you’d cut yourself.”

“So what now?”

“Well, I’ve sent Rufus out to see if he can find who’s selling Blue and then we’ll go and see them.”

“That’s it?”

“Why? What were you expecting?”

“Ah Jesus my head hurts. Christ it feels as if my head’s going to crack in two!”

“Yeah, that’s the comedown.” Carthy told him bluntly.

Josh looked at him wearily. Something still struck him as being very odd about the whole situation.

He reached over and turned on the Tv that sat beside his bed.

He looked back at Carthy. “Why didn’t you go?”

“If they read me, I’m not sure what they will do. What I do know is that I sure as fuck don’t want them prepared!”

Josh suddenly realised something. “
You don’t know
if you can take them?”

“Oh I can take them, it just has to be done right.”

“Do you actually have a plan?”

Carthy shook his head. “No, I’ve got plans.”

“Hmmm” was all Josh said.

The sound of the TV drifted into the silence. “Forty years ago, was awarded two million pounds compensation. Her condition was caused when a mid-wife at the hospital accidentally broke Mrs Jone’s waters and then pushed the umbilical cord...”

Josh looked away from the screen. There was a strange gleam in Carthy’s eyes and it unsettled him. Carthy was studying him a little too intently.

“Is everything alright?” he asked quietly.

Carthy smirked and washed his toast down with beer. Josh tried to hide his unease about Carthy’s casual presence in his room.

Carthy was still smirking as he silently slumped into a chair next to Josh’s desk. “That’s some damn fine beer,” he remarked to himself, ignoring Josh. Then he again fell silent, to be replaced by the television.

“Over to Tom.”

“I’m here in Birmingham town centre. Police are still hunting a gunman who earlier fired on a uniformed officer. The officer, who has not been named, is said to be in a stable condition. Police are refusing to speculate whether or not the incident is connected to two other shootings at the Bonds night club and the...”

Josh listened without emotional involvement. An odd sensation at the back of his mind made him glance over to Carthy.

Dark insect eyes sat locked from behind his glasses and that unreadable smile just showing.

Josh frowned and looked away. As best he could, he tried to keep his mind blank, let himself focus only on the news.

“Who was dressed as batman at an office party, broke the man’s jaw, eye sockets and nose. David...”

“Could you change the channel? I can’t say this is one of my favourite shows and it’s not as if you actually give two shits and a fuck anyway!” Carthy suddenly said.

Josh never answered. His attention was stolen by a photograph flashed onto the screen. A face he recognised without reason.

“Jesus, I know him,” he murmured.

“From your dreams no doubt,” Carthy commented dryly.

Josh flashed between him and the screen.

“James Green, who has been missing since last Monday was found dead earlier today on waste ground behind a closed school on the Forest End estate. Police have not released any details other than his body was badly mutilated. This is the latest of a series of disappearances and murders in the city which have all taken place over the past few months. An insider with the police says the similar circumstances involved in the cases has led them believe the missing persons may all be connected but refused to confirm rumours of drug involvement.”

“So far there are twelve missing persons which are being treated as linked...”

The screen filled up like a picture gallery and Josh felt the dead weight shift inside his chest.

He knew them all.
All of them
.

“Jesus!” he gasped, his eyes settling on the image of Sarah Comby.
How long had it been since he saw that face in a newspaper somewhere
? It felt like another lifetime.

“Friends of yours?” Carthy deadpanned.

Josh ignored his tone and answered seriously. “I feel like I know them, but there’s no reason why I should.”

Another face he knew too well. Sally something.
Had it been in a dream
?

He turned to Carthy. “Why is that? How are they tied up in all of this?”

Carthy shrugged. “Fuck knows. victims maybe, overdosed and crossed over. They might not even be connected at all. your police are probably just clutching at straws. I doubt they have any idea what’s really happening. Even if they’ve found someone who has been tainted, it wouldn’t help them any. I don’t know what they’d have to do. Quarantine it, burn it? Only thing I know is it would all get passed on up the ladder.” He stopped and smiled sharply, “The only problem with that is that you won’t have a rung that reaches high enough. This is exactly what I was saying.
You
cannot handle this!”

The sound of the television had become a ghost whisper at the back of Josh’s mind, slowly it dawned on him that something else of interest was being said.

“...also a suspected arson attack in one of the high rise flats around the Field Hill area of the city, has left two dead.”

Even before the film footage flashed up Josh knew what he was going to see. Thick clouds of smoke were escaping out of a series of windows set in walls now scorched black.

Something exploded in the back of his brain and he span again on Carthy.

“Why the fuck did you do that?”

Carthy shrugged aggressively. “What the fuck else could I do? I couldn’t let them find that fucking mess.”

“You mean Cally!!” Josh snarled.

Carthy was shaking his head. “No I don’t. I think you saw what was inside that flat! Besides if you hadn’t called
the
...” he broke off.

The doubts in Josh’s mind were fast doubling.
Was this really happening
?

“How the hell could you know that? How’d you know we called the police?”

The disembodied voice drifted out over the footage. “...the fire is believed to have been started in one flat and then quickly spread to the neighbouring one. Despite the triggering of a fire alarm two people are thought to have died in the blaze. Chris Bennet, a toddler who had been left unattended died of smoke inhalation before fire fighters could reach him. The identity of the second body has not as yet been released. Police are urging any witness to come forward.”

Josh let his eyes drill into Carthy. He made no attempt to mask his contempt. “Do you have any idea of what a fucking mess this is?” Carthy laughed lowly. It was a sound full of menace. “Yes Josh, I do!”

“Me and Rufus were talking to Rob. They’re bound to go to him now. Oh and I’m not too eager to try and explain Sarah either. Oh shit!”

“Hey, you ever hear that old saying kid? Needs must when the devil drives?”

Josh rubbed the side of his head. “Oh this is
sooo
far past fucked up. I don’t even know if I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I’m sitting in some room slowly rocking back and forth in my own shit and piss!”

Carthy laughed and shot him a hard glance. “Believe that?”

Josh looked at him again. “No, but I don’t know why the hell I’m involved in any of this!”

“Coincidence. That and poor little Sarah.”

Something screamed from the back of Josh’s brain and then fell silent.
Yeah Sarah
, he thought sadly to himself.

The shrill tone of his mobile started crying from somewhere in the room. Carthy looked round, lifted up a book on HR Giger and threw Josh the phone he had just discovered.

“Hello?”

Rufus’s voice exploded into his ear. “Man have you read a newspaper today?”

“Yeah I know. Rob’s flat right?”

“Fucking-A Rob’s flat! Man we’re in such deep shit now that we need a fucking snorkel!”

Josh was nodding in quiet agreement and Rufus continued. “The good news though is that I think I’ve found someone who deals in Blue.”

Rufus was shaking him roughly by the shoulders. Josh woke panicked. “W-what?!”

Rufus spoke the same words again, only different this time. “I said, what the hell is wrong with you?”

Josh was bewildered beyond belief. Even the looks of concern on his friend’s faces couldn’t match his own. “What the hell’s going on?” His voice was frantic.

He was again in Carthy’s flat, lying on the floor with Karen and Rufus kneeling over him.

“What the fuck’s happening to me?
Is this real
?” Josh rose up in hysteria.

“You passed out!” Karen told him, visibly shaken.

Josh blinked. “How long ago?”

Rufus laughed nervously. “Jesus man it was only a couple of minutes ago.”

Josh was shaking his head. “But I was back at mine and then you were suddenly shaking me and I was here!”

Josh’s mind was reeling. He had only just accepted that he had previously been dreaming the situation from before, and then, suddenly, to reawaken back into it and find that—
Oh Christ it was beyond words
!

“It was a dream Josh, only a dream!” Karen said attempting to calm him down.

Josh was still shaking his head. There was an extreme pain in his head and it felt like he was being stabbed in the eyes. “But it seemed so real! Like this had been the dream and—man what the fuck is this Blue doing to me?”

Karen was still anxious. “There’s a cure, right?”

“Carthy says so, but I don’t know if I even believe him! Christ I can’t even remember when he said it! Oh Jesus my head.”

Neither Karen or Rufus were speaking.

Josh suddenly seized Karen. “You’ve gotta’ tell me, and I mean
really
tell me,
this is real,
right? I mean this isn’t the dream right?”

It was Rufus who spoke. “What the fuck are you talking about Josh? Man you just blacked out for a minute. I think it’s the drug or something.”

Josh was finding it hard to adapt. “A minute? Jesus this Blue stuff’s powerful. God I wish I’d never took it, it’s fucking up my mind!
So this
is
real then
?”

Karen laughed. “Of course it is! Jesus what are you talking about?”

Josh blinked, stared at her. “So I’m not dreaming this?”

Again she laughed and despite everything it was a comforting sound. “No, but then again, if you were then we might not know anyway!”

Josh shook his head. He could feel tiny knifes in the back of his eyes.

“Oh please don’t say that! Oh Jesus I need to sit down.”

Rufus helped him up. “Are you gonna’ be okay now, man?”

“I think so,” and he paused. “Only I’ve got the horrible feeling that I might wake up again at any second!”

Both Karen and Rufus just stared at him blankly, lost for anything that they could possibly say.

JUST KILLING TIME

JOSH NO LONGER TRUSTED his own senses. His mind was full of voices, thoughts and sounds which didn’t belong to him. Nothing he did made any difference and the unending sound was slowly sending him insane. They were sitting in Rufus’ car. Him, fidgeting in the back and Carthy and Rufus sitting up front. From time to time Josh thought he could hear Rufus’ voice inside his head but Rufus never seemed to be aware of it.

Beyond the car’s windows the city was screaming. Nothing seemed real. Josh felt as if he might awake to a different reality at any moment. He was regarding everything and everyone with unsettled hostility. He had no place to hide and no one to relate to.

Karen had been left at Carthy’s flat looking after Sarah. Time there had passed slowly, with little else to do but watch television.

In Josh’s opinion, Carthy’s made awkward company. He hadn’t warmed to the demon to the same degree as his friends had. During his remaining time there, Josh had said little. Lost in his own—and other people’s—thoughts. In truth he didn’t trust him and he felt that he was manipulating his friends. Josh wished he could have kept his feelings secret but every time he looked at Carthy that smile let him know exactly where he stood. Wide open.

So they had sat and waited.

“So what did these guys look like?” It was Carthy who had spoke.

The bleeding sun had fallen behind an ashen horizon of high rise flats and abandoned factory units about half an hour before. Even so there was still a golden brown murk sitting beneath the darker blue.

“Just normal guys, really,” Josh told him.

Carthy nodded as if confirming something he already had guessed. “Meat puppets,” he said to himself.

“What Carthy??”

“Yeah, well they wouldn’t want to approach people themselves. Essentially those kids are just doing what they would. They will get paid or maybe rubbed out but essentially they’re just trying to get paid.”

“It’s this ‘
essentially
’ that bothers me.”