Hungry Moon (33 page)

^{Even that effort almost made her faint away. She was losing blood now as well as starving. She was barely able to hold on to the child; she would never make it to the stairs. There was only one way to keep the babies from the thing in Mann's room, and even that would be beyond her if she didn't do it now. The thought sent her hobbling on her knees toward the lift shaft, too quickly for second thoughts. She fell before she could choose to do so, exhaustion and the weight of her belly taking her over the edge. At least she was dying to some purpose,}

^{she had time to think. Her fall killed her instantly and crushed the baby underneath her. Falling, she vowed that she would keep her children with her wherever she was going.}

^{FIFTY FOUR}

^{When Eustace's knock didn't bring an immediate response, Nick hammered on the Scraggs' front door. Someone was sitting in a chair in the front room, but that was all he could make out now that the moon was above the roof. The front door was snatched open by a small man with a clenched red face and bristling eyebrows. 'What's all the row about? Who d'you think you are?'}

^{'You know me, Mr Scragg. And Mr Reid here is a friend of Miss Kramer's.'}

^{The small face peered up at Nick. 'You helped her cause all that fuss when we were trying to pray. I thought the police were supposed to be taking care of you.'}

^{'You didn't expect him to keep me locked up forever, surely.' No point in mentioning the dogs, Nick thought-the corpse would be found soon enough. 'He only wanted me and Diana kept out of the way until your meeting was over. He told me to come and fetch her.'}

^{'Did he now. I wonder why he didn't come himself.'}

^{'Don't you think he's got enough to do?' Eustace said with a laugh Nick thought sounded not at all convincing.}

^{'He'd have a damn sight less if everyone in this town put their faith in God. I don't understand why he didn't send someone he knew we'd trust if he wanted her released.'}

^{'You're too small to be a jailer, you little runt.' Before Nick could grab the headmaster by the lapels and snarl that into his face, Eustace said slyly, 'Phone him if you don't believe us.'}

^{'I would if I could, that's for sure.' The headmaster frowned. 'I want one thing clearly understood. If any-thing's happened to your friend, it's no fault of anyone in this house.'}

^{'What's happened to her?' Nick demanded. 'Let me see her or by Christ, I'll hold you responsible.'}

^{'Don't you take the name of the Lord in vain here. Just you stay close to me so I can keep an eye on what you're doing,' the headmaster said, a last assertion of authority, and led them down the narrow hall.}

^{Diana was sitting in the darkening room, beside the dead hearth. She seemed to be gazing open-mouthed at a picture above the mantelpiece. A scrawny man with greying hair knelt by her, rubbing her limp hands. He scrambled aside as Nick ran to her and seized her hands, the chill of her body making him shiver. 'How long has she been like this?'}

^{'Ever since the moon came up,' Mrs Scragg said behind him, in an unpleasant tone that was meant to be meaningful.}

^{Nick wiped Diana's mouth, and realized that her T-shirt was soaked. 'Why is she wet?' he demanded.}

^{'I threw a bit of water over her, that's all. I've cured children of this kind of nonsense so.'}

^{Nick breathed hard and tried to keep his temper. 'Has a doctor seen her?'}

^{'Never mind trying to make out we haven't taken care of her. Delbert here tried all of them.'}

^{'All the surgeries were shut,' the grey-haired man mumbled.}

^{Nick sensed that he'd learned all he could. Once Diana was safely out of the Scraggs' cottage he might be able to plan what to do next. 'Give me a hand with her, Eustace,' he said, and took Diana's arm in the hope of persuading her to walk. She rose to her feet at once.}

^{Her movement was so sure and swift that he thought she'd awakened, but her eyes were looking nowhere outside themselves. Now that she was on her feet, she stood quite still. When he took her arm again, she moved with him, past the disapproving Scraggs, down the cluttered hall and out of the house.}

^{Eustace closed the door. 'Do you want to try the doctors again? That fellow might have got the wrong addresses in the dark.'}

^{They crossed the High Street to the pavement that was moonlit, and as the light touched her face, Diana spoke in a small, halting voice. 'The sky's going to fall. That's what they meant. They knew.'}

^{'What's that, love?' Nick murmured, stroking her arm through his jacket that he'd buttoned around her. She felt light, hollow, hardly there at all; it made his heart ache. She fell silent as they passed into the shadow of a terrace, and Eustace led them to a doctor's surgery between two shops.}

^{He pushed the large brass button several times, but the bell rang unanswered. Somewhere Nick heard what must be insects, a dry sound that sounded like giggling. He led Diana after Eustace into the side streets, which grew blacker as the moon climbed over the moor. Eustace went straight to a surgery, then to another, but there was no response.}

^{'I'm afraid that's the last. Do you want to try the hospital?'}

^{'How far is it?'}

^{'Forty miles or so.'}

^{'We wouldn't get there before dark,' Nick said, though he yearned to be told what was wrong with her. 'Maybe tomorrow, if she hasn't come round by then. I think she needs rest now, don't you?'}

^{'Bring her back to my house if you like. That is,' Eustace said awkwardly, looking away, 'unless you were thinking. . . I mean, if she's got her keys on her. . .'}

^{'Your place will be fine. It's very kind of you.' Nick was glad to follow him out of the darkest streets. Moonlight still lay on the tarmac of the lane where Eustace lived. As they walked in the light, Diana's mouth began to work, but no words emerged. She was sitting in Eustace's front room when she raised her face blindly, searching. 'Got to get out,' she pleaded. 'Got to stop it, get there before it does.'}

^{FIFTY FIVE}

^{'I won't go if Hazel doesn't,' Craig said.}

^{Benedict squatted in front of his chair. 'Look, we've been through this once. I don't want to leave the house unoccupied with several thousand pounds' worth of equipment in it. I'm not saying anyone would take advantage of the dark, but it's best to be safe.'}

^{'I thought you were. You installed your own alarm. Anyway, I didn't think people committed crimes any more in Moonwell.'}

^{"There's been no crime since Godwin came, but criminals could come from out of town if they heard about the lights.'}

^{The mention of Mann scraped at Craig's nerves, filled his mind with what he'd glimpsed in Mann's room. The appalling sight grew brighter as his mind repeated it, until he wanted to dig his knuckles into his eyes to blot out the memory. 'We aren't going without Hazel,' he said unevenly.}

^{'Apart from anything else,' Benedict realized, 'I need someone here to take messages. There's bound to be work for me once the electricity comes back. I really think running you home is enough to ask.'}

^{'We didn't ask you in the first place,' Vera retorted. 'No need to pretend you don't want to get rid of us.'}

^{'Mummy, we're just worried about you,' Hazel cried. "The way things are, people resent strangers who don't join in the worship.'}

^{'Yes, we saw what they did to your schoolmistress, and you stood by and let them do it, didn't you?'}

^{'There was no reason for us to intervene,' Benedict said primly. 'Good heavens, her headmistress was only restraining her.'}

^{'I'm not leaving this town until you take me to see for myself that she's all right,' Vera declared, folding her arms, and Craig's nerves felt like the scrape of a nail on a blackboard. Outside the window he could see the moonlight creeping away up the moorland road. If they took the van out now, they would be following the moonlight upward until the moor sloped toward the Sheffield road, but they mustn't delay any longer. 'Let's take Miss Kramer too if you like,' he said, lips quivering, 'but I won't go unless Hazel does.'}

^{He must sound an old fool, repeating himself like this, but perhaps then Benedict and Hazel would humour him. He had to get the women out, and they needed Benedict to drive the van; Craig's hands were shaking so much he had to sit on them. Once in the next town or, better, home in Sheffield, he could break the news that something was horribly wrong in Moonwell, though God only knew who could be sent to deal with it. 'How long are we going to argue?' he said with sudden desperate cunning. 'I still haven't recovered from everything that's happened, in fact I think I may be getting worse.' He held up his hands to show them in the dimness, and was dismayed to realize he might not be pretending.}

^{"Then let's get you to your doctor,' Benedict said impatiently. 'Only not with Hazel. We gave in to you}

^{before, asking our friends to move to the hotel, and now you aren't even staying.'}

^{'Isn't it about time someone asked me what I want to do?' Hazel said.}

^{'I thought you understood what I was saying, dear. I need you to stay at home for the good of the business.'}

^{'I understood all right, but that doesn't mean I have to do everything you say, even in a Christian marriage.' Hazel's eyes gleamed. 'I want to see my parents safely home. They've been through enough without all these arguments. If I could drive I'd take them myself. And while we're out of town we can load up the van with food.'}

^{'I could do that. There's no need -'}

^{'You just drive the van and keep quiet for a change. Are you two ready?'}

^{'What about Miss Kramer?' Vera demanded.}

^{'I'm not running a coach trip,' Benedict growled. 'I'll be driving straight up that road and stopping for nobody.'}

^{'God forgive you if anything happens to her.' Vera gave him a withering look. 'I'm too tired to argue any more, too tired and too old. The sooner I'm out of this nightmare of a town the better.'}

^{Her inadvertent accuracy made Craig shudder. Getting out of the cottage took far too long: there were cases to carry down to the van, which had to be unloaded first; Benedict went through the cottage twice, checking locks, and then had to test the alarm as the moon began to sink. They would still have enough light to take them past whatever had stopped Craig's car, Craig told himself - enough light to guide them back to the normal world. He saw the women into the van, Hazel insisting on riding in the back so that her parents could squeeze into the passenger seat. 'We're ready,' Craig called, as loudly as he dared.}

^{Benedict flung up his hands as if he were being forced to be careless, and dawdled out to the van, having shoved and shaken the front door of the cottage. When he twisted the ignition key, the engine coughed and failed. 'We'll get out and push,' Craig was on the point of saying as the engine rattled into activity and the van lurched toward the moors.}

^{Craig watched the town shrink in the driving mirror, thought of all the townsfolk who didn't realize what was in their midst, thought guiltily of the teacher and her kindness. What could he do? If he tried to warn the town, they would think he was senile or mad.}

^{The van sped out of the local speed limit and over the crest of the slope. Ahead the moors glowed white, the grass and the heather looked as brittle as fossils. 'I hope we've enough petrol,' Benedict said as if that were something else he'd been denied the time to check.}

^{'You'll be able to fill up once we reach the main road.' Craig willed him to drive faster, and for once Benedict seemed to agree with his feelings. The van raced into the moon-shadow and up to the next etiolated view. Remembering the sheeps' heads he'd seen on his last drive, Craig welcomed the desertion. When a jagged white object seemed to peer out of a ditch at the headlights, he looked hastily away.}

^{Another crest brought the van into the moonlight at the edge of a deeper shadow. Craig risked glancing back, past Hazel, who smiled tentatively at him. The moon was still up, a few minutes short of the horizon. He almost wished they'd gone through the woods, except that he wouldn't have been able to bear that dark.}

^{The thought of darkness dragged at his nerves. He was remembering the end of his last drive, the cavernous dark that had stopped him. The van reached the next rise and raced down, and Craig realized that the crest directly ahead was the one beyond which he hadn't dared to go.}

^{He hugged Vera and felt her grow tense. Perhaps she'd known where they were and had been trying to ignore it, or perhaps he'd let her know. The van sped up to the edge where the moonlit road seemed to end in the black sky, and Craig was as near to praying as he had ever been. Just let us go, he pleaded with the dark, let Benedict be able to get through. As the van reached the crest, he had to close his eyes, bracing himself for the screech of brakes, the cries of panic.}

^{When he felt the van begin to race downhill, at first his eyes wouldn't open. Then he realized Vera had relaxed in his arms. He looked then, and saw the headlights tracing a curve of unfenced road that led to a moonlit ridge. He hadn't been able to see that ridge when he'd tried to drive out of Moonwell.}

^{'We've done it,' he murmured. Vera nestled against him to let him know she understood, Benedict gave him a sharp look. Darkness had closed over the van, but it was only the shadow of the ridge they'd scaled. Would they be able to see the main road in the distance from the next crest? They'd see it soon, they were beyond the unnatural dark. Deep in his mind, beyond the strictures of a lifetime's scepticism, Craig wondered what the dark had to do with the thing in the hotel, wondered whether outdistancing the dark meant they were beyond its reach. He was testing the idea very gingerly when the moon sank below the horizon, a minute or less before they would have reached the ridge.}

^{Go on, he screamed inwardly at Benedict, for God's sake drive faster. Perhaps they could make it to the tinge of moonlight that lingered like mist on the ridge. Then it vanished, and all the lights of the van went out at once.}

^{Far too long seemed to pass before Benedict trod on the brake. Craig had time to brace one hand against the dashboard so that he and Vera wouldn't be flung through the windscreen, but their lurch forward on the seat almost sprained his wrist. He felt Hazel collide with the back of the seats, crying out. 'None of that, now, no hysteria,' Benedict warned her. 'I've enough to cope with. I don't know what I've done to make God so angry with me.'}

^{'This isn't just happening to you alone, you know,' Hazel said jaggedly.}

^{'No, but I'm responsible for all of you. Stop distracting me and let me think. What have you done with the flashlight? It isn't where it should be.'}

^{'The last I remember, you had it in the shed.'}

^{'Jesus, Mary and Joseph,' Benedict breathed, and let out a sound as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. 'That's what comes of you all rushing me. I suppose now I'm expected to replace the fuse without being able to see what I'm doing.'}

^{To Craig their voices sounded far away across the dark. He hugged Vera, who was trembling as much as he was trying not to, but somehow the dark had intruded between them: he seemed unable to hold her tightly enough.}

^{'Got it,' Benedict muttered. He was silent then for so long that Craig found it hard to breathe. There was a tiny click as Benedict took out the fuse from beside the steering wheel, another click as he fitted the replacement. A series of louder clicks followed, and Craig knew he was trying all the lights, which still didn't work. 'Hazel,' Benedict said sharply, 'let's pray.'}

^{He sounded as if he blamed her. Craig closed his eyes so that the dark didn't press on them so heavily, and listened as they apologized for all their sins and promised to devote their lives to God. Listening made him hotly embarrassed; yet he was willing their prayers to work, silently urging them to ask for the lights to come on. But Benedict said 'Amen' before they'd asked for anything specific, and set about changing the fuse again. The new one clicked into place, and he took a deep breath before trying the lights. They were dead.}

^{Benedict let out a loud, harsh sigh. 'Well, I don't know what else I can be expected to do. Now we're stuck out here because I wasn't allowed time to get the flashlight, because some of us had wasted so much time arguing.'}

^{'If that's meant as a dig at my parents, Benedict -'}

^{'Shut up, woman. I'm trying to think.'}

^{'Don't you speak to her like that,' Vera cried, and Craig flinched inwardly. They were all on the edge of hysteria, he most of all. If they lost control and began to squabble, they mightn't hear anything out there in the dark. The thought that they might not be alone in the dark made his legs quiver so violently he thought he was having a stroke. He forced his eyes open to escape the sight of the thing in Mann's room, but it stayed in front of him. When Benedict spoke, Craig almost cried out, he was so on edge.}

^{'I apologize for my lack of patience,' Benedict said gruffly. 'We mustn't let the situation get the better of us. I'd be grateful if you'd all keep absolutely quiet while I try and turn the van. I should be able to get us back to town so long as I go slowly enough.'}

^{Someone sucked in a breath, then thought better of speaking. Craig was trying desperately to think how he could dissuade Benedict from taking them back to Moonwell. If Benedict felt capable of driving blind, why couldn't he carry on toward the main road? But perhaps the void that had stopped Craig was waiting beyond the rise. He pulled Vera to him as Benedict set about turning the van.}

^{Before they were over the camber, Craig's jaw was aching. The van inched down toward the far side of the road, creaking and groaning metallically, and he was afraid the engine would stall for good, they were moving so slowly. Not slowly enough, for without warning the left front wheel was over the edge of the ditch.}

^{As the van keeled over, Benedict threw it into reverse. It screeched backward, veering wildly as he tried to prevent it from going off the far side of the road. It lurched forward as he slammed it into first gear, and then the engine stalled. He wrenched at the handbrake, halting the vehicle on a level patch of road. They'd reached the crest of the slope, but all it showed them was that they were surrounded by utter dark.}

^{Craig sat and clutched his chest to keep his heart in. Behind him Hazel suppressed a moan as she picked herself up from the floor. 'Are you all right, love?' Vera demanded, twisting round, almost out of Craig's embrace.}

^{'Just a scraped elbow, Mummy. Hardly worth mentioning.' Hazel's voice was determinedly cheerful. Craig was wondering dismally what they would all do once they'd run out of small talk to fend off the hopelessness of the situation when Benedict whispered, 'God be praised, look there.'}

^{Craig strained his eyes until he felt them bulge. At first he thought he could see nothing but the effect of the dark on his vision. But no, a light was hovering above the downward slope, on a level with the windscreen and some distance ahead, for it illuminated the patch of road beneath it: he could see white spikes of grass on both sides of the lit patch. It was a will-o'-the-wisp, he told himself, and then, with a lurch of consciousness, he saw it was a bird.}