by Preston, Ken
Another figure appeared, crawling along the floor, covered in bats.
‘Emma!’ it shouted.
Archer. Coffin got down beside the detective. ‘She’s all right. Get her out of here as fast as you can.’
Archer nodded. Emma pulled herself up onto her knees and they began crawling.
They swiftly disappeared into the cloud of beating wings.
Coffin crawled over to where he thought Leola would be, keeping his head down as the bats flew at him, their teeth nipping at his back and his scalp. He found Leola covered in bats, tangled in her hair, crawling over her face. Coffin grabbed at them, plucking them from her and throwing them away. Leola gasped as he pulled the sheet from her mouth.
More bats landed on her.
Leola snarled and shook her head, dislodging bats from her hair.
Coffin pulled at the sheets tying her to the chair. When they began unravelling she was able to quickly free herself.
‘Joe!’ she hissed.
Coffin turned just in time to see Chitrita emerging from the cloud of bats. Arms outstretched, she grabbed him and sank her long fingernails into his flesh.
Coffin snapped his head forward, smashing his forehead into her nose. She let go as cold blood splattered over Coffin’s face.
Coffin shoved at her and she disappeared once more into the mass of flying bats.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Coffin said, taking Leola’s hand and pulling her along with him.
More clawed hands reached out, grabbing at Coffin and Leola. Coffin kicked and punched, Leola slipping free from him and disappearing. Coffin lashed out, trying to pull free of the fingers clawing at him but more hands were on him now and there were too many of them. They pulled Coffin to the floor. He saw faces intermittently between the bats darting past. Sneering, snarling faces, mouths open exposing pointed teeth and red tongues.
Coffin kicked and lashed out but there were too many vampires clawing at him, crawling over him. He roared as their teeth sank into him. They were biting any piece of flesh they could find. His arms, his legs, his torso.
He tried rolling over but he could hardly move. The vampires had him pinned to the floor.
And they were draining the blood from his body. Even over the sound of the bats’ wings beating the air he could hear the vampires slurping and sucking as they drank blood from whatever part of his body they could find.
Coffin’s world began turning grey.
* * *
‘Are you okay?’ Archer said.
Emma nodded. They were sitting in the back seat of a police car with Choudhry, the three of them squashed together. The quick response unit vehicle had been the first, and so far only one to turn up. Two policemen sat in the front.
They made it clear that they had been ordered to wait for more units to arrive.
‘Did Joe make it out?’ Emma said, wiping at her face with some hand wipes that somebody, she couldn’t remember who, had given her. After having all those bats crawling over her, she felt dirty. Diseased.
‘I don’t know,’ Archer said. ‘He told me to get you out, and that was the last I saw of him.’
‘You’ve got to go back inside and help him,’ Emma said.
‘Are you serious?’ Choudhry said. ‘You know what it’s like in there, we’d be suicidal to even think about a thing like that.’
‘We’ll go take a look for him in a minute,’ Archer said.
Choudhry said something under his breath that nobody caught and shook his head.
‘I’m coming with you,’ Emma said.
‘No, you’re not,’ Archer replied. ‘Coffin’s a big boy, he can look after himself. We’ll go in, take a quick look around, but if we can’t see him or if it’s too dangerous still we’re getting out of there and taking you to hospital. All right?’
‘But what about all the vampires in there? What are we going to do?’
‘There’s nothing we can do, not right now. Not without more men, preferably armed.’
Emma started to speak, to argue, but Archer cut her off.
‘I’m not discussing this any more, Emma. We need to get you to hospital, get you some shots or something. For all we know those bats have rabies.’
Emma nodded, too tired to argue anymore.
Archer turned to Choudhry. ‘You ready?’
‘For that lowlife Coffin? Are you serious?’
‘We can’t just leave him there.’ Archer looked at the two policemen in the front of the car. ‘Besides, we’ve got backup now.’
Choudhry snorted. ‘Oh yeah, I hadn’t noticed. We’ll be fine.’
Archer opened his door. ‘Stay here, Emma. Do not leave the car.’
Emma watched as they all climbed out. The vehicle was an armed response unit and now they each had a gun.
They headed back for the care home.
A wave of tiredness swamped Emma. She looked at the tiny packet of hand wipes she had been given. It was empty, she’d used them all. What she really needed was a shower. Emma closed her eyes, rested her head against the seat back.
Don’t be long, she thought, as she started to drift off to sleep.
Moments later, or it could have been minutes, Emma started as she heard the rear door opening up.
‘Nick?’ she said, opening her eyes. ‘Did you find him—?’
Gerry Gilligan grinned at Emma.
‘You and me, we have some unfinished business,’ he said.
EPISODE SIXTEEN
archer and choudhry
When the sun finally rose over the city, it seemed to lack its usual power. Grey, drab daylight illuminated the devastation caused by the bats during the night. Bat attacks all over the city had brought the roads to a standstill in many places. Car wrecks still blocked some streets and everywhere there were signs of destruction, smashed windows, rubbish strewn across the pavements and roads and early morning commuters wandering dazed through the mainly empty streets.
DS Amrit Choudhry, clutching a strong, black coffee with plenty of sugar in it, surveyed the destruction from his car. He’d had no sleep the previous night and now he was running on caffeine. As far as he could see there wasn’t going to be much opportunity for sleep anytime soon.
Nick Archer climbed in the passenger seat and stared grimly out of the front windscreen.
‘No luck,’ Choudhry said. It wasn’t even a question.
Archer slammed his fist onto the dashboard. ‘No, nothing. Barry hasn’t seen her for a couple of days and said the last time he spoke to her was on the phone last night when he told her about the bat attacks.’
Choudhry sighed. ‘You want to try the club, see if Coffin turned up yet?’
‘What the hell happened, Amrit? I told her to stay where she was.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Choudhry said. ‘We were hardly gone anytime at all, I don’t see how she could have got far.’
Archer smacked his fist against the dashboard again. ‘We couldn’t find her though, could we? Someone or something must have taken her. It’s the only explanation.’
Archer and Choudhry hadn’t managed to get very far into the care home. The air had been thick with bats still although they seemed to be paying less attention to humans at that point. The old people’s home seemed to have become a dark, living, breathing being it was so full of bats.
They had decided to return to the car, but when they got there they found it empty.
Emma had gone
Archer and Choudhry had spent the rest of the night looking for her, making phone calls, talking to anyone who might have known where she was.
It seemed like they had started off with nothing and now they had even less.
Once the bats had begun dispersing all over the city they had returned to the care home with an armed backup force. Apart from a few feeble vampires who struggled to move, the home had been empty. Even Coffin had gone.
‘Let’s go and visit Angellicit,’ Choudhry said. ‘Who knows, Coffin might be there now.’
Arc
her just nodded.
Choudhry drained his coffee.
When they got to Angellicit, they parked across the street and made their way slowly to the entrance, keeping an eye out for bats or vampires. Both men were on edge and it wasn’t light enough yet that either of them felt they could relax their guard. Archer pounded on the door.
‘Police! Open up!’
It took a few minutes, each one dragging by, but the door was finally opened.
‘Wh-wh-what is it?’ Stut said.
‘Where’s Coffin? We need to talk,’ Archer said.
‘He’s n-n-n-not here,’ Stut said.
‘Perhaps we should come in and have a look around,’ Choudhry said.
‘What f-f-f-for, I told y-you, he’s n-n-not here.’
‘Maybe we don’t believe you,’ Archer said.
‘You n-n-need a warrant,’ Stut replied.
Archer and Choudhry passed a glance to each other.
‘Are you hiding something?’ Choudhry said.
Stut shook his head.
He looked guilty as hell.
Archer stepped up close, got in Stut’s face. ‘If you like, we can take you down the station for questioning while we dig up a warrant. Could take a while though, but I’ve got lots to ask you so that’ll be all right. Or, you could let us in, we can make sure Coffin’s not here like you say, and I’ll save my questions for another day. What do you think?’
Stut eyeballed Archer, his jaw flexing.
Archer planted a hand on his chest and shoved hard. Stut tottered and fell over on his back.
Before he could get back up on his feet, Archer and Choudhry were inside, the door slammed shut behind them.
‘You c-c-can’t do that!’ Stut yelled.
Archer grabbed a fistful of Stut’s shirt, hauled him to his feet and slammed him up against a wall. ‘No, you’re right, I can’t. But I’m doing it anyway. Want to know why?’
Stut nodded.
‘Because you’re a pathetic, nasty little piece of shit who should have been behind bars a long time ago. But I’m willing to overlook that if you work with me for the moment. Now tell me, is Joe here?’
Stut shook his head again. ‘N-n-no one knows wh-wh-where he is.’
Choudhry had walked over to the doors into the main part of the club and opened them up.
‘What the hell happened here?’ he said. ‘Looks like a war zone.’
Archer let go of Stut and joined Choudhry. ‘Someone shot the place up. Who was that?’
‘S-s-s-someone out to get Joe,’ Stut said, straightening his shirt. ‘Barged in h-here last n-n-n-night armed to the teeth.’
‘How come that never got called in?’ Archer said.
‘The b-b-bats kept everyone here,’ Stut said.
‘You got any idea at all where Joe might be?’
‘N-n-n-no,’ Stut said. ‘He’s not answering h-h-his phone or anything.’
‘You believe him?’ Choudhry said.
Archer grimaced. ‘Unfortunately, yes.’
‘He’s n-n-n-not the only one m-missing,’ Stut said. ‘N-n-n-no one can find G-G-Gilligan either.’
Archer looked at Choudhry.
‘Oh fuck,’ he said.
you look fine
Flashes of memory. Faces, mouths, teeth, clawed hands.
Bats.
Darkness.
They dragged him down into the darkness. Took him with them. Their teeth, all over him, biting him, their mouths sucking at him, bleeding his life away.
More flashes of memory.
Leola over him, her mouth moving but no words.
And the other one, her friend, the man known as the Priest.
Lifting him, pulling him to his feet. His arms over their shoulders.
Darkness again.
Light.
Dark.
Monsters.
No, not monsters, not anymore.
A bed.
A needle.
Pain.
Darkness.
A buzzing sound, like an angry wasp. And pain too. Was he being stung?
Coffin struggled from sleep, from unconsciousness. He was lying on a bed. Looking at a ceiling stained with damp, the edges of the wallpaper curling at the corners, hanging in tiny, cobwebbed strips.
His eyes were gummy, and he had to close them.
The buzzing started up again, and a wasp stung him.
‘What the hell?’ he growled, slapping at his chest where the pain still lingered.
‘No, no, you gots to lie still, Mr Coffin,’ a voice said.
Coffin rubbed at his eyes and opened them. The Priest was sitting on the edge of the bed. Leola sat on Coffin’s other side. The Priest was holding something. Looked like a needle.
Coffin pushed himself up into a sitting position, his back against the wall. Brushing his fingertips against his chest he felt the bumps, the tenderness.
‘Are you giving me a tattoo?’ he said, his voice thick with sleep still.
‘I had to do it, Mr Coffin,’ the Priest said, holding up his hands. ‘You done gone lost a lot o blood to those unrepentants, an I don’t wants you turnin, I surely don’t.’
The Priest pushed a button, and the needle started buzzing again.
‘Get that thing out of my face,’ Coffin growled.
The Priest switched off the tattoo machine.
‘It’s for your own good, Joe,’ Leola said.
‘Why?’ Coffin said. ‘You saying I’m a vampire now?’
Leola looked down at her hands, curled in her lap, and back up again. ‘Probably not, but the Priest just wanted to be sure.’
Coffin ran his fingers over the small lumps where his skin had swollen under the needle. ‘What do you mean, probably not?’
‘You didn’t die, Mr Coffin,’ the Priest said. ‘My girl here, she got to you, she saved you.’
‘Steffanie, Chitrita, the other strong vampires, they left as soon as the bats began to disperse. That left the weak and the old ones, the ones who had only just turned, they were feeding on you. I was able to start pulling them off and then the Priest came in and helped me.’
‘We gots you here to my place, Mr Coffin.’ He cackled. ‘You almost in a coffin tonight!’
Coffin kept running his fingers over the tattoo on his chest. ‘You got a mirror?
‘I ain’t finished yet,’ the Priest said. ‘You wants to see a work of art before it been done? That ain’t right.’
Coffin looked at Leola, the question in his mind unasked.
Leola nodded, almost imperceptibly. ‘Let him finish.’
Coffin leaned back against the wall. ‘This better be the right thing to do.’
The Priest began his work again, leaning over Coffin, the needle piercing Coffin’s flesh whilst it buzzed.
When he had finished the Priest straightened up and admired his work.
‘You gots to be free of sin, Mr Coffin. You should give your life to the good Lord Jesus.’
‘Get me that mirror,’ Coffin said.
He sat up and swung his legs off the bed. The room began to spin and Coffin gripped the edges of the mattress until it had passed.
‘Are you all right?’ Leola said.
‘Yeah, I’m fine.’
The Priest returned with a handheld mirror. The glass was scratched and rust had gathered in the corners, but Coffin could see the light bouncing off it. For a moment, before looking at the tattoo, Coffin considered the myth that vampires could not be seen in mirrors. If that was true then that meant Coffin was still human.
He held the mirror up. The first thing he saw were the bite marks. Puncture wounds over his chest and abdomen, on his shoulders. They had started crusting over, but they still looked fresh and raw.
Next he looked at the tattoo on his chest. It was swollen and red, the skin around the markings bruised, but he could make it out. Black lines and hieroglyphs, shapes that almost seemed to move if he looked just to the side, but stopped as soon as he focused on them.
‘How does this help?’ Coffin said.
‘It will help you repel your vampiric instincts,’ Leola said. ‘Help to keep them under control.’
Coffin lifted his gaze from the mirror. ‘You said I’m probably not a vampire.’
‘You’re probably not,’ Leola said. ‘This is . . . I don’t know how you say it.’
‘Better safe than sorry?’
‘Yes, that’s it.’
Coffin dropped the mirror on the bed and stood up. The bed sheet fell from him. He was naked.
A wave of dizziness washed over him again, but not as powerful as before. His legs trembled slightly. He was still weak from loss of blood.
‘Are you okay?’ Leola said.
‘Yeah,’ Coffin replied, but he remained standing where he was, unable to trust that he wouldn’t fall down if he tried walking. ‘Did Archer get Emma out? Is she safe?’
‘I saw her being taken outside. Detective Archer and another man were looking after her.’
‘Good.’ Coffin thought for a moment. ‘I need to get back to the club. We’ve got problems.’
‘You should stay here,’ Leola said. ‘You’re weak from loss of blood.’
‘I told you, I’m fine,’ Coffin said. ‘Where are my clothes?’
Leola and the Priest exchanged a glance.
‘We burnt them,’ the Priest said. ‘They was contaminated with bad blood.’
Coffin said to Leola, ‘You need to go back to the club, get me some fresh clothes.’
Leola smirked. ‘I think you look fine as you are.’
Coffin scowled. ‘Just get me some fresh clothes. I’ve got things to do.’
* * *
Once Leola had returned with a fresh set of clothes, and because he was feeling stronger, Coffin walked back to where he had parked the Fatboy the previous night. To his surprise it was still there.
He rode back to Angellicit, parked around the back.
Stut and Shaw were cleaning up when he walked inside.
‘Joe!’ Shaw said. ‘Where the hell have you been?’
‘Never mind that,’ Coffin said. ‘What’s going on here?’
‘Archer came by,’ Shaw said.