Blood Water

CHAPTER 13

Mr Waites, the history teacher, hadn’t heard the headmaster’s announcement asking everyone to congregate in the main hall: the faulty speaker in his classroom still hadn’t been fixed, and his radio was on. He wanted to go home, but if he didn’t mark the test papers from the previous week now, he never would. He scratched his head and looked out of the window. The rain was still hammering down – he hoped the roads wouldn’t be flooded. Most of the children should have left for the day by now, but even so, the school seemed unnaturally quiet. In a while, he thought, he would go up to the staff room to make himself a coffee; first he wanted to get two more papers marked.

But as he picked up the next exam paper, he had the unnerving feeling of being watched. There was no one in the doorway. Then, as he turned back towards the window, he knew, even before he had any evidence, that there was someone standing outside. Except that there was no one there. He got up and went across to the window, trying to see through the downpour. What kind of an idiot would be wandering about in that? He wondered if he should go and take a look, then thought better of it. Why get drenched chasing after some fool? It had probably just been his imagination anyway. He went back to his desk, sat down and resumed his marking, with no clue as to either the true extent of the flooding or the horrific events unfolding within the school.

‘We need to tell the others,’ Sean said. ‘Quickly.’

‘Tell them what?’

‘I don’t know, but he could be back inside already. We can’t just let that thing keep jumping into people. Look what it did to Mr Phoenix – he looks terrible.’

They both turned back to the teacher, now slumped limply in his chair. They could only guess at the awful changes that had taken place inside his body – he looked near death.

‘Sean,’ Phoenix said weakly. ‘Come here.’ Sean went and sat on a nearby sofa. ‘Sean, that thing has to be stopped. It’s scared and angry. Whatever it wants, I have a horrible feeling something bad will happen if it finds it.’

‘How are you feeling?’ James asked, changing the subject.

‘Bloody terrible,’ Phoenix answered, coughing. ‘It’s like a bad case of the flu. Everything feels tender and swollen. I’m bunged up and—’

‘We’ll get you to the hospital as soon as the weather eases a little,’ James said. ‘It’s still too dangerous to go out now.’

‘Come on,’ Sean said, tugging James’s sleeve. ‘We need to tell Mr Titus and the others what’s going on. We won’t tell them everything. We’ll just say that Dr Morrow’s gone mad and needs to be restrained.’

‘Titus’ll think we’re mad,’ James told him. ‘We should try and deal with this on our own.’

‘But we can’t. That thing’s too dangerous.’

‘Waites,’ Phoenix said. ‘See if he’s in his classroom – he usually stays on after school to catch up on paperwork. If he’s here he’s more likely to listen to you than Mr Titus. Titus is such an idiot.’ He coughed again.

Sean and James nodded, then turned and reluctantly left the teacher to go downstairs, wondering if Morrow and the thing inside him were already back inside the building.

‘Oh God,’ Phoenix whispered once the boys were out of earshot. ‘What the hell is happening to me?’

Most of the pupils had already been picked up by parents, and incredibly one of the school buses had managed to make it through to collect the students – the driver said there was still a relatively safe route back to the depot twelve miles away. In the hall Mr Titus, Mrs Rees and the few remaining children were sitting or standing near the huge windows, watching the rain and the pools of water that had formed outside.

‘It’s just ridiculous,’ Mrs Rees muttered.

‘I dread to think what this is doing to the town,’ Mr Titus said. ‘Remember the floods we had before? It took months for some businesses to recover. Some of them never reopened. The cinema has been refurbished at least twice because of floodwater. It’s amazing how much destruction can be caused by just a few hours of rain.’

‘Yes, well, I hope it stops soon. I don’t want to be stranded here all night. I’m sure the kids don’t either. Right, I’d better go back to the staff room to check on Nigel. I’ll be back in a second.’

Outside was a wall of water. Cold water. The creature inside Morrow was content to wait, at least for now, for the right opportunity to present itself. It didn’t feel the cold like its host did, and it couldn’t understand why he was shaking so much and making that odd sound with his teeth, but it realized that these human beings were afraid of being cold and wet. It could hurt them. So it wasn’t going to stay outside for long – just long enough. It could feel that some of the man’s bones had been broken. There was pain, but it buried this, kept it locked away so that it could concentrate. Luckily the injuries didn’t impede movement.

It had already crept around most of the school buildings looking for signs of life inside, and so far had only spotted one person apart from the three it had left upstairs in the staff room. They had been sitting in a classroom and had been a prime target, but there seemed no point in changing bodies at this point, not while this one’s memories hadn’t yet been thoroughly plundered.

And it wasn’t an easy task either. Morrow seemed to guess that the creature was looking for something, and was trying to block it, to hamper its efforts by thinking completely random and meaningless thoughts. It would learn what it needed to though. Whatever that was. And that was really the problem. It knew it had lost something at some point, a long time ago, but it couldn’t remember what it was. Whatever it was, the secret wasn’t in Morrow’s mind, but he might still have a clue as to who did possess that knowledge.

What is it? the creature demanded in frustration within Morrow’s mind. What is it that I need to know?

Although it was unaware of it, a moan issued from Morrow’s lips. It was a moan of helplessness and distress – though it was completely lost in the dark and the rain. But the moan was less to do with Morrow’s sorry state, and more to do with what he had seen inside the building. He recognized the woman. He’d seen her earlier. His thoughts were in a mess, jumbled up and blurred. The entity in his head was clouding his memory as well as governing his mind. Then he felt it squirm. It had seen her too, and it made him move towards a point of interception. Morrow couldn’t bear the thought of another helpless person being infected. Please – the thought, weak, drifted somewhere through his war-torn subconscious – stop this now… Whatever it is you want to know, I can’t help you. That woman, leave her alone. No more. Please, no more…

Mrs Rees had half expected the head to chastise her for leaving Mr Phoenix unattended, but he was clearly preoccupied with the environmental calamity that was unfolding outside. She strode up the corridor towards the annexe and passed the reception area, now empty as Mrs Evans had decided to take a risk and drive home in the rain. She was about to go up the steps leading to the staff room when she heard the main doors open.