Blood Water

CHAPTER 12

‘Come on, boys,’ Mrs Rees said to Sean and James. ‘You’d better come back to the hall with me. The headmaster wants everyone together. Mr Phoenix will be all right – I’ll check back on him in a while.’

‘But we’re looking after Dr Morrow. He doesn’t know his way around the school,’ Sean insisted.

‘Yeah, and he said he wouldn’t be long,’ James added before Mrs Rees could get a word in. ‘Just a quick look, that’s all, then we’ll bring him back to the hall.’

Mrs Rees thought it over. ‘All right, but be sure you do. This storm isn’t getting any better and we can’t have people roaming around the school on their own. What exactly are you two doing here anyway? James, you left school three years ago, and you, Sean, you’re supposed to be off sick.’

‘I am, miss. I mean, I was, but I, well… It’s a long story. We were on our way home when we got caught in the storm and we stopped to give Dr Morrow a lift. He works with James at the study centre.’

‘Study centre? I thought he was Mr Phoenix’s GP.’

‘He is,’ James said quickly. ‘But he’s also a marine biologist and runs courses.’

‘He must be a busy man.’

‘Yes, very busy.’

‘All right, well, you may as well go on up to the staff room then. But don’t let the headmaster know I let you up there. I’m trusting you two. Understood?’

‘Yes, miss,’ they replied in unison.

Mrs Rees still looked sceptical, but she left them to it.

‘I can’t believe this,’ James said. ‘It’s like I never left school.’

‘Never mind that,’ Sean said, leading the way up the stairs. ‘We can’t leave Dr Morrow on his own with Phoenix if he has that thing in him.’ They ran up the stairs to the staff room, and were surprised when they went in to find no one there.

‘That’s strange,’ Sean said, scanning the large room with its sofas and coffee tables. On the floor a mug appeared to have been knocked over, its contents saturating a large section of the carpet. All was quiet.

‘I don’t like this.’ James walked slowly towards the middle of the room. ‘What’s through there?’ he asked, pointing to an open door on the far side of the room.

‘I don’t know,’ Sean said, ‘but I’d guess it’s their toilets. That must be where Phoenix and Morrow have gone.’

‘Yeah,’ James replied, clearly reluctant to go and find out. ‘I really don’t like this.’

‘Come on,’ Sean said. ‘It’s probably fine.’

Above the sound of the storm outside, they suddenly heard a thud, a tinkle of breaking glass, and what could have been a cry. They both froze, then looked again at the open doorway, knowing that they had to go through it – even though it was the last thing on earth they wanted to do.

James went first, a step ahead of Sean, who was similarly terrified and readying himself to turn and run for his life at the slightest hint of danger. Ahead of them was a corridor and they saw doors to the ladies’ and then the men’s toilets, where James took a firm grip on the handle and slowly twisted.

It was an odd feeling – the kind of feeling, Sean guessed, that firemen must experience before opening the door to a burning room, or policemen entering a building where a criminal is lying in wait. It was something in the gut. As the door widened to reveal the broken window, the glass and the blood, they knew that something terrible had occurred.

They remained on the threshold, ready to turn and bolt, waiting for the inevitable shock. But if Phoenix was there, he was clearly in no hurry to move. He had to be out of sight in one of the cubicles. Either that or he’d jumped out of the window, but that would surely be suicidal. Sean wondered if anyone could survive the plunge.

‘What do we do?’ he whispered, hearing in his own voice that he was shaking.

James tried to reply, but nothing came out. He couldn’t think of a good enough response anyway. And then the matter was resolved for them. There was a loud sigh, then a shuffling sound, and Phoenix came out of the last cubicle.

The three of them stood there, just looking at each other; rain blew in through the broken window and soaked the floor around them. Phoenix seemed to be grinning, but at the same time was clearly in some discomfort. Welts covered his face, red sores that certainly hadn’t been there when he’d met Sean by the park. The man’s eyes were bloodshot and looked like they’d receded, sunk back into his head. He shuffled awkwardly forward; a series of strange sounds issued from his throat before he managed to form words.

‘You came with the doctor,’ he said matter-of-factly.

Sean recognized the voice but it sounded strained. He and James exchanged glances and waited to see what Phoenix would do next: he scratched one of the angry sores on his right cheek, drawing blood, which trickled down to his chin. All three of them winced.

‘Mr Phoenix?’ James asked, wanting this confrontation to end quickly. ‘What happened to Mr Morrow?’

‘What?’ Phoenix noticed the blood on his fingers and rubbed it around. He looked up, first at the boys and then over his shoulder towards the window. ‘Oh… he’s outside.’ He seemed to be in some kind of daze, or perhaps hypnotized. ‘He’s outside,’ he repeated.

Sean swallowed, feeling the cold more and more. He looked at his brother for guidance.

‘OK,’ James said. ‘You stay here for a moment, Mr Phoenix. Sean and I are just going out there to see if Mr Morrow is OK – we’ll be back in a second.’

Phoenix just stared at them blankly, and they turned to leave, but then he said something that changed everything: ‘He’s got it now.’

The boys stopped and looked at him.

‘What?’ James asked.

‘That thing… It’s in him now. I’m… It needed someone fresh. I’m already finished. No use any more. I think the water did for me…’ He coughed, turned and spat into the toilet behind him, then coughed again, violently.

‘What do you mean?’ Sean asked.

‘It kept me going but I was ill, I think… From being under the water so long. I… God, I’m so tired. I need to sit down.’

‘Why did it go through the window?’ James asked.

‘I pushed it,’ Phoenix said. ‘But it wasn’t enough. That thing, it gives you strength… It seemed to make more use of my body than I could.’ He coughed again. ‘Except the head… I still feel dizzy.’

‘Dizzy?’

‘When it got me by the river I was staggering all over the place. I banged my head on a branch and blacked out. I didn’t hit it that hard, but the creature went mad. I think while it was in my head it was extra sensitive to any pressure or trauma there. Any other part of the body doesn’t seem to matter so much.’

‘What does it want?’ Sean asked.

‘I’m not sure. It was looking for something but I didn’t understand what. It has no consideration for life. It’s cold. That’s why I pushed it out of the window. You have to stop it… I really need to rest.’

‘Did it communicate with you?’ James asked.

Phoenix wiped his forehead, drawing more blood from the sores there. When he looked back at the boys he could see horror in their eyes at his appearance. ‘When it was in me I could hear random, jumbled thoughts. I don’t know what it is, but I sensed it was intelligent… And very, very tired of being lonely. Things are different now. Whatever it is after, it won’t stop until it gets it.’ His stare bored into each of the brothers in turn. ‘There are more than three hundred children here right now. They are all in serious danger.’ He coughed again, this time spitting a dark red liquid onto the floor. ‘That thing has made me very ill. I think if it had been in me any longer I might have… Please, I really do need to sit down.’ Phoenix pushed past Sean and went into the staff room, where he collapsed into a chair.

Sean looked back at his brother, then turned to peer out of the window into the storm. The rain was still sheeting down and it was very gloomy now. However, it was clear that there was no body on the ground below the window.

‘It’s alive,’ James said, turning to his brother. ‘It’s out there somewhere…’