Blood Water

CHAPTER 31

What terrified Sean most wasn’t the fact that the creature’s memories lingered in his mind, or that he had some psychic link with it; he feared that part of it might have been left behind – which surely made it more likely that he’d succumb to that horrible death. He was staring through the window, unable to move or even remember what he was supposed to be doing, or where the other two had gone. He was stunned, immobile, consumed with dread; he suddenly wondered if it would be better for everyone if he just walked out into the night, never to be seen again.

Then he heard footsteps upstairs and was shaken from his gloom. No, he thought, I’m not going to run. If I only have hours left, I’m going to use them to put an end to all this. I’m not going to die alone and useless. He felt odd – his stomach ached and he was shaking too, but he walked purposefully out of the office and headed up to the first floor. Whatever task faced him now, he felt equal to it.

If he’d had time to think about it, James might have wondered why the creature had chosen to hide in the body of the dead girl instead of remaining in the dog. As it was, the alien entity quickly asserted its control over his consciousness. Everything was mixed up in his head – time, names, places – even smells burst from nowhere and confused him, while the creature adjusted everything to its taste. When things settled down again, James was aware only of a smothering darkness; sounds and movement came and went, reminding him that he wasn’t asleep or dead, merely locked away in his own mind while something else used his body.

Waites was stalking the dog when James came up behind him. The teacher heard movement under a table and saw the dog limp out, whining and looking up at him as if for sympathy.

‘It must be feeling the pain now,’ he said to James. ‘Bit late to appeal to our better nature though. What do you think we should do – jump on it? Might just squash that thing inside it at the same time.’

He glanced at James, who seemed unusually quiet. ‘You OK, James? What about the girl – was she dead?’

There was a pause before the younger man replied, ‘Oh, yes.’

‘Right, well, you get ready to catch this little bugger if it gets away from me. I’m going to—’

The hand on his throat came as a complete surprise. The crushing power was simply terrifying. He tried to choke out a question, but could do nothing but splutter as he was forced round. Looking into the strange glazed eyes, he tried desperately to escape from the powerful hold. He tried kicking and punching, but this had little effect on his attacker. Waites was sure that James intended to kill him, and that could only mean one thing: somehow the creature had got inside him. Waves of colour swam across his vision and he felt light-headed, but just as he thought he might black out, a strange look came over James’s face and he loosened his grip.

Waites broke free and staggered away, nearly falling as his damaged ankle gave way.

‘Where is it… ?’ James said impatiently: he was looking at the ground as if trying to remember something. ‘Let me see… Let me see where they are.’

‘They?’ Waites asked, confused.

But the creature was concentrating hard; it spat in frustration. ‘You will show me… Or I will find out for myself.’ The thing that was James looked up, then turned and marched out of the room, apparently forgetting Waites was even there.

Waites breathed out in relief and limped after it, wondering how he was going to get that thing out of the boy if there was no more salt water.

Sean was halfway along the first-floor corridor when he saw his brother dart into Holland’s room. Hearing furniture being overturned, he came up behind James and saw a mess of papers and books on the bed.

‘What are you looking for?’ he asked.

There was a pause as James straightened and turned to him. ‘We don’t have much time. Waites has that thing inside him. He’s going to come and try to find out where the others are. We have to stop him or there could be thousands of these things on the loose.’

‘Oh my God. It’s in him?’ Sean was aghast. ‘Well, we have to get it out!’

‘There’s no time. We have a bigger problem. We have to find the others.’

‘There are more of them? No…’ Sean couldn’t believe it. This thing wasn’t a single monster, like in horror films. This was one of many, a plague; if the others were just as dangerous, there was no hope for anyone. ‘So what do we do?’

‘Look through this stuff. See if you can find anything that mentions more of them. There must be something. If we can find it, he can.’

‘What about Holland’s computer?’

‘No good – the hard drive’s been destroyed.’

‘He destroyed his hard drive?’

‘No, I did.’

‘Why?’

‘It had what we’re looking for on it.’

Sean sifted through the papers, some typed, some written in an almost illegible hand. He became aware of approaching footsteps and tapped his brother on the shoulder. ‘He’s coming.’

James looked up at him, then at the doorway. ‘Get back,’ he said, picking up a table lamp and holding it up, ready to strike the teacher when he walked in.

The footsteps slowed and Sean could tell that Waites was waiting near the door, no doubt aware of them. He looked across at James, whose face was suddenly twisted with hatred.

Then Waites walked in, and everything happened too quickly.