North End

by Jason Nevercott

  Chapter Sixteen

  At the same time Tom and Jodie were discussing what to do about the creatures and the driver, he was thinking about them. He was at work on his final journey to and from Morden from Golders Green and he now deeply regretted having taken Jodie for the creatures Sunday night and not noticing the boy on his tube on Sunday.

  She was not the typical victim he chose for them. She was young and decent-looking and would probably have a family who would notice her going missing quickly and go to the authorities. The usual people he selected were old tramps or alcoholics who had fallen asleep on the tube or in a tube station, people whom he thought nobody would miss much.

  But that night he had been in a reckless mood with his so-called work colleagues having been nastier to him than usual. He was doing his usual late shift, which was partly why the other drivers made fun of him all the time, calling him ‘tube rat’ and other not so nice names. But they also liked to swap their late shifts with him, and so they tolerated him to an extent. Why did they have to be so cruel to him? he asked himself; it was not his fault he looked a little odd. He would show them one day, or rather, he smiled to himself, the creatures would.

  It had also seemed too good an opportunity to miss. The girl had drunkenly got on his tube at Leicester Square. She was, like his usual victims, intoxicated and quite vulnerable-looking and so would be easier to handle.

  The arrangement he had with the creatures was that he would stop if he had someone for them but if not would just pass through. The circumstances had to be right with no one on the tube except the victim, so it did not happen very often. He could not stop long at the disused station. In fact doing so was quite risky, as everything that happened on a tube was recorded on a black box just like on an aeroplane. He and other drivers did stop in the tunnel in between Hampstead and Golders Green sometimes when there was another tube in front of them but not usually with the doors open.

  The creatures were in the usual place in the shell of the unbuilt northbound platform of North End, or Bull & Bush as he and his colleagues called it. When he got there he stopped the tube and went to the carriage where the girl was asleep in her drunken slumber. He knew from experience that surprise and speed were necessary if he were to get the victim to the creatures quickly.

  He grabbed the girl and put her over his shoulder. She was in a deep sleep but when he got to the carriage’s doorway she woke up and started to struggle and scream. But the creatures were there and soon grabbed hold of her and the driver quickly returned to his cab, closed the doors, and moved off. It had gone quite well; only just over a minute.

  But now as the driver was on his journey from Morden back to Golders Green, he reflected on when his second mistake of not noticing the boy had become apparent. This was when he had passed through North End the following day on Monday. He saw that the creatures had left the signal that they needed to contact him: a red rag tied to the lower safety rail of the northbound platform area.

  He met the creatures that night, and they told him about the boy who had seen them and escaped from them. They described him. He could not believe he had been so careless as to not to have noticed him on the tube yesterday on Sunday. He told them to stay close to their den until Thursday when he would meet them. He was scared that the boy had informed the police and that they would search the disused station. He also thought that the police might work out that he was involved.

  He did not know what to think and then the next day, Tuesday, just after he started his rare early shift, he read about the missing girl in a newspaper and was even more confused. If the police knew then why did the story just mention that the girl was missing? Why did it not say she was kidnapped or murdered and they were searching for the killer creatures? It did not make sense.

  He pondered this all morning and then while he was at Golders Green, having his sandwiches, he saw a boy matching the description of the creatures, leaving the station after just getting off a northbound tube. He became further confused and thought the police might be trying to trap him. He stared at the boy with his bleached-blonde spiked hair intently until he looked back in his direction when he looked away.

  After the boy had left he still did not know what to do. He thought about running away or even going to ground with the creatures. No, he could not do this, he thought; too much of him was still human. He then had to quickly decide because he was due to take out another tube. If the boy had gone to the police they why was he on the tube? he asked himself. It did not make sense. It could mean the police were up to something but he could not be sure.

  In the end, he decided that the police might know something about the creatures but probably not him yet; otherwise they would have arrested him by now. He thought that if he stayed away from the creatures then he just might be safe.

  But at 3.14 p.m. that day when he was driving his tube through North End, he saw the red rag signal again. He was both angry and scared. What had happened since yesterday? Had the police been searching the disused station? Had they arrested one or some of the creatures?

  But he could not come up with any answers about what could have happened: there were too many possibilities. He next reasoned that if the creatures had been able to put the red rag on the rail then maybe the police had not searched the station. He felt a little calmer.

  After he finished his shift he met the creatures again at North End in the northbound platform area. They told him that the girl had escaped with help, probably the boy. Damn, he thought. The boy must have rescued the girl after he had seen him at Golders Green station. Surely now the police must know. He and the creatures were finished.

  But then he thought about the situation. It was now 5.56 p.m. and the rescue must have taken place before 3 p.m. The police would surely have been here by now if the boy and girl had gone to them. Indeed, they would even have arrested him. But he had noticed nothing at Golders Green station when he had finished his shift. This meant that the teenagers had not yet gone to the police or had not yet convinced them about the creatures and their activities – not yet!

  He told the creatures he would now meet them on Friday night but until then unless anything happened they were to keep to their den. But they were not happy: they had lost their food. He told them he would bring them some meat Friday. He then went home thinking about what to do now with the troublesome teenagers, who knew far too much about North End, the creatures, and him. He concluded that he had to find them.

  The next day, Wednesday, was his day off and he spent it walking the streets of Brent Cross and Golders Green where he knew the teenagers must live somewhere. But he did not find them. And now just after 5.15 p.m. as he pulled out of Morden to finish his shift at Golders Green in about an hour, he knew he would have to come up with some other way of finding them. He also knew exactly what had to happen when he did find them: before the teenagers did tell the police or convince them about North End’s secrets, they had to be killed!