Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (27 page)

Katie had
almost answered when she heard Bernice giggle like she was fifty
years younger, and realised that the shop assistant had moved on.
She grasped her cardboard cp and walked out of the shop. It wasn’t
too far too walk to the square of waste ground on the way to
Millford – not far at all, but far enough to give Katie chance to
wonder if she was doing a smart thing. The answer- hell, no – was
so simple and clear that Katie found herself trying to figure out
hidden ways it might be a good idea. When she didn’t find any, the
waste ground appeared. It seemed much bigger than last time she had
come here. Bigger and somehow very far away from the rest of town.
This was what she wanted though.

“Come on then,
if you’re coming.”

Jack evidently
didn’t need asking twice. Something sank a tingle into her stomach.
She was not ready. Not yet. Katie tensed her muscles and the
feeling stopped moving. Was it really that easy to stop him?
“That’s close enough. I just wanted to know you’re there.”

I’m always
here, Lady Katie. Whenever you need me, I’ll e here.

“Okay, fine.
Good for you. But I have questions and I want answers.”

Anythin’. Just
don’t leave me out here.

“And if you try
lying to me,” she held up her big slush cup, “I’m freezin’ you
out.”

She felt an
invisible hand curl over hers and instinctively moved to twist into
it. No. She couldn’t let herself get distracted. “The man who
killed you.” Katie sucked in a breath and waited. The air was cool
and still around her. It was a horrible thing to have to bring up.
“What does he want with me?”

Katie, why are
you so far away? Let me come closer.

“You’re fine
where you are. Answer the question.”

After a pause
came a sigh which ruffled stray wisps of hair around her face. The
invisible hand traced one pale vein up her arm and made all those
tiny hairs stand on end. It would be so much easier to let go, let
Jack come through and take care of her….

Katie took a
long pull on her Bubbleberry Crush and slapped both hands to her
head, rocking back with the intense brain freeze that followed. It
was numbing and almost on the wrong side of painful but it receded
before it quite got there. Effective though. Jack cringed away and
Katie relished her thoughts being her own for just a minute or two.
Trying to keep another person’s thoughts in your head was hard.
No-one ever mentioned that handy little life lesson.

“What does he
what with me?” she repeated, harder this time.

He wants to
hurt you. Or rather he wants to hurt me and you’re the best way to
do it.
Best? Bad choice of words.
He saw you that night, saw
me look at you, and… this is all my fault.

Well,
yeah,
the angry voice in the front of her mind yelled.
Finally, the man gets it.
But being angry was a dud emotion
once more. Katie wanted nothing more than to let that anger take
over. Let that wild fury just rage and run and then she would
finish empty and numb and feeling calm or confused or constrained
would be a non issue because there would be no feelings left.

“Here’s where
we disagree, Jack. It wasn’t just that one night that man found me.
I think he’s been following me for weeks. Maybe longer.”

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

The air went
frigid and Katie suddenly felt totally alone. She had never felt
this way – not even when she had been spoken at rather than to, or
when the police had locked her in a room with that patronising
counsellor woman. Jack had left her side, gone as far away as he
could. She just knew it. Maybe her words had made him feel guilty
for not realising sooner – for not protecting her before now. “I
don’t know how long he’s been there – I always thought they were
bad dreams. Now, I think maybe he was chasing me from day one,
sizing me up. Maybe you were keeping him in my dreams, stopping him
hurting me, but I don’t remember any of that stuff. I only knew
there’s something I don’t remember and that means my memory got
wiped of that. It must have been important for you to do that.”
Katie sucked on her slowly melting crushed ice drink, glad of it
for two reasons and yet kicking herself for a third. The first
reason she had brought it with her was that it kept Jack out of her
head. The second was that the amount of E numbers in it would
probably keep her awake until Christmas. And yet she hated herself
for putting all that artificial rubbish into her body. It seemed
like an argument that would have turned her away from Bubbleberry
Crush just a week or so ago, back when her body was paying her way
through college. Now, she had to drink this sweet and syrupy crap
if she wanted to have a body left. Worryingly, Katie was rather
liking the fruity crushed ice.

“It was
something you never wanted me to know about. Or something you
thought you could fix first. Then we got close and you had to show
me. Only it went a bit wrong. How am I doing?”

She took the
silence as a signal that he wanted her to go on.

“However, on
the off-chance that this guy preceded you in intruding on my life,
he wants to get to
me
and not to you through me.”

A few spots of
rain plopped down on the top of Katie’s cap. A few far off clouds
were rolling in, light grey, almost white. It would be a summer
shower - over in minutes but the light rains were always the ones
nobody wanted to be caught out in – giving the impression that it
was hardly raining at all but soaking everything as thoroughly as a
monster storm. She sucked the last of the melted ice through the
store and started scooping out the ice with the spoon end,
carefully watching the sky.

Something
hummed. Not audibly but more like a vibration in the air. Perhaps
there were more ghosts than Jack hidden in town and perhaps there
were some here. She didn’t know and didn’t really care. If they
were there, they weren’t bothering Katie.

When she came
to the end of her ice and her brain was good and numb with the
speed she had shovelled it down, she threw the cup as far as she
could to her side. Not exactly environmentally friendly but drops
of anger were creeping through her defences and making her act
rashly. She backed up a step, meaning to actually go to the
hospital, and left the air – pulsing, now, with dark power – with,
“I hope you’ve got a plan Jack, ’cos right now all I’ve got is run
away. Fast.” And that was the truth. Something else might come
later but for now, keeping one step ahead of the man with hate in
his eyes was the best she had.

Katie reached a
hand out and thought she felt a hundreds tiny sparks bouncing off
her skin. Maybe it was the power she could feel building around. It
might have been Jack trying to touch her from wherever he was. But
the dark power she was aware of hanging all over town was getting
strong.

It’s here.

The words
played in the back of her mind and their origins were unknown.
Their meaning was unknown. And, as soon as they had been
registered, the words themselves were unknown too. Suddenly scared
– survival instinct? Dramatic much! – Katie dropped her hand and
ran for the medical centre. The almost imperceptible buzz of sharp,
bright energy in that patch of abandoned land was only just
beginning. Going back there again would be beyond stupid. What
might that many ghosts do? Anything was possible and she didn’t
know enough about this place to believe those possibilities were
good.

Before Katie
realised how far she had gone, the breeze blocks of Levenson’s
student medical centre loomed up – evidently her feet knew where
they were going. That had to be a bad thing. The route walked so
often it was automatic. How fantastic.

Standing in the
car park, wrapped in his white coat and trying to press himself
into the wall and under the jutting sign, stood Dr de Rossa. The
cigarette he was trying to light would catch and the rain was
dampening the flame of his lighter every time it flared. He cupped
a hand around the white stick and managed to light it, inhaled
deeply, holding it for a while before letting the smoke out with a
sigh so deep it shook his entire body. He really needed that
fix.

“Those
things’ll kill you,” Katie said, walking up to him. Shouldn’t a
doctor be setting a better example to his patients.

“Sue me. What
can I do for you?”

“My shift with
Dina. Any change?”

“I don’t
believe so, no. One of the junior doctors has been covering for
most of the morning while I was at the primary school. Did you
know, those kids think chips are a main food group? Not starch or
vegetables… just chips.” He shook his head and flicked ash from his
cigarette. “Incredible.”

“That’s why
you’re there. To teach them better.”

“I have a
sinking feeling I may one day be treating a spate of chip-related
eating disorders.”

“You keep the
faith strong doc.”

“Sometimes, I
think this town is a lost cause. But you want to see your
friend.”

“Actually,
trying to put it off as long as I can. I never seem to come out of
that place without some fun new scar.” But she turned to the flat
building and decided it looked too impersonal to deserve her fear.
It was academic though. She still wasn’t about to go rushing in.
“It’s weird how you can hate a building just because of what it is.
I mean, it’s just bricks and cement. Completely irrational.”

Dr de Rossa
disagreed. “Most people are afraid of what happens inside. They
just make the association with the place.”

It seemed petty
now it had been explained. How unfair was it when people started
using logic? “Well, it is where you have your lowest moments.”
And a few good ones, like seeing your first child breathe.
But moments like that were far in Katie’s future she wasn’t sure
why she had thought it.

“And if you
break your leg in the playground or bump your head on the car door,
do you develop a fear of those places too?”

“Guess
not.”

“How about you
stay out here with me a few? I could use the company.”

So she did.
Huddling out of the rain under the medical centre sign, the girl
and the doctor stood chatting about this and that and nothing in
particular. And then she decided to head into the centre. Dr de
Rossa followed her through the almost deserted waiting area,
through the double doors and then he left her at the closed door to
room 4 and went towards the little kitchen. Katie watched him
vanish behind a corner vaguely hoping he would come running back to
tell her the panic was over, Dina was awake and recovering, to go
home and relay the good news.

He didn’t do
that.

After a while
longer of no feet echoing down the halls, no voices muttering in
other rooms, she told herself that no-one was going to and pushed
the door open. There was a white curtain pulled around a bed in the
middle of the room. The other two were empty. A steady but slow
beep beep beep
came from behind the curtain. She grasped a
bunch of material and pulled it aside. It was hard work not to look
at the clips and patches and drips and needles snaking out from her
blankets and nightgown. There were thick white bandages wound
around Dina’s slashed wrists. There was so much medical equipment
here that Katie didn’t know the meaning of – heart monitor and
saline drip was all she could identify – that it was surprisingly
simple to ignore the stuff she didn’t know. But how tiny and
fragile she looked beneath all of it was painfully obvious. About
as tall as Katie and definitely stronger, Dina looked as though
even an ant could snap her like a cracker now.

Sitting down in
the hush and holding her hand, with only the hum of machines for
company was nice for a minute or so. A novelty. Then it got boring
and a little bit spooky. She wondered what to do. Leo had mentioned
that talking was always a good idea because people might still hear
even though you think they can’t. She felt a bit silly doing it –
didn’t know what to say for a start – but hey, there was nobody
around to judge.

“Why you
thought attempting suicide was the answer to your problems, I can’t
even imagine. Because your problems just go with you. But you were
sitting up and talking to me yesterday and then Jack came and
changed everything. Put you back in that bed for a start.”

She thought she
felt Dina’s corpse-like hand twitch in hers, just a minute movement
of muscle. Katie held her breath and went very still but the
movement never came again. Maybe some tiny part of Dina really was
aware of everything going on around her and she was desperate to
let some-one know she hadn’t given up yet. Unlikely but Katie
wasn’t going to rule anything thing out. If Jack could cling on to
this world for God knew how long – he was a proper, old west cowboy
for goodness sake – then surely Dina could manage it.

“I don’t think
he knew what would happen when he took your last bit of energy to
give himself form. I don’t think he really knew what he was doing.
He sensed I needed him and attached himself to the nearest
available life source. You. And I’m really sorry. This feels kinda
like my fault.”

The talking
helped. Which of them it was more use to was the big question.
Katie liked to believed it was nice for them both. “You left me to
get attacked and didn’t tell anyone I might be in danger. Nothing
actually happened so I’m over it. You wanted me to know everything
you know so I don’t end up dying in a hospital bed.” She was more
likely to die by bleeding her last drops on the cracked ground of
the waste land. But how could she say that to a girl hanging on to
life by a weak heart and air being forced into her lungs? “I don’t
know what’s going to happen to us, Dina. I wish I did.”

After a while
longer of just sitting there with their hands just touching, a
shadow appeared in the doorway.