Beyond the Dark Waters Trilogy

by Graham West

  As he climbed behind the wheel of his buggy and took off towards the pool, he wondered if Danni had managed to find Pascoe. His heart ached, and his stomach felt as if someone had tied it into several knots. He looked around, but the old woman was nowhere to be seen.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The wild hatred in Taylor’s eyes sent a chill through Darren’s whole body. He grasped for words that would form some kind of response, but the whirlwind in his head tossed them out of reach and all he heard was Taylor’s voice whistling through his consciousness like an arrow as his heart beat furiously. The loathing was mutual, but Darren’s opponent had the upper hand.

  “I see you’ve got yourself a little family.” Taylor wore the look of a victor with a cold and twisted smile. “And a girl, too.”

  Darren wished he had a smart reply, but his tongue felt like lead.

  “What’s up, Pascoe?” Taylor taunted. “You don’t look that pleased to see me,”

  “Why?” Darren sounded as if Taylor already had his hands around his throat.

  Taylor’s smile vanished. “You really have to ask? You didn’t think I’d come looking for you?”

  “You’ve had three years. Why now?” Darren asked, his voice a little stronger.

  “Because life ain’t fair, and I’m still tryin’ to figure out how you’ve ended up where you are. What did you do, Pascoe? Turn on the tears? Tell them how sorry you were? Did you tell them it was all that nasty Kevin’s fault?”

  Taylor stepped out from the shadows. His face was pale and thin, and Darren wondered if a person’s malevolent nature eventually manifested itself in their physical appearance.

  “You’re a snivelling, shitty little creep, Pascoe, and I hate creeps. I didn’t make you drink that cider, did I? I didn’t make you drive that car, and I definitely wasn’t behind the wheel when you killed that tart and her sprog.”

  Darren had never felt so much disgust for anyone in his life, not even that snake Tony from his uncle’s garage. “I made a mistake, Taylor, and I’ve paid for it. I don’t have my parents—they died because of what I did. You still have yours. You still have your family.”

  For a moment, Taylor was silenced, but the steely glare never faded. “I couldn’t live with them. They’ve turned into Mr. and Mrs. Goody-fucking-two-shoes!”

  “That’s your choice,” Darren said with a shrug, knowing he’d scored a few points.

  “Yeah, right.” Taylor scowled. “But doing two years in that shithole wasn’t. That was all down to you and your stupid conscience. We could have made it back to our place in less than twenty minutes, and my dad would have given us an alibi.”

  Taylor knew the location of all the CCTV cameras and, with their hoods pulled up, they might have made it back. But Darren would have been looking over his shoulder for years, waiting for that knock on his door.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I couldn’t have lived with myself.”

  “But your mum and dad would still be alive, arsehole!” Taylor snarled. “They paid a high fucking price for your dithering.”

  Revulsion bubbling like boiling acid in Darren’s belly. “Yeah, and I wish it was you. I wish you had died. I wish I’d fucking killed you in that field. I wish I’d killed you when I realised you were a total psycho. I wish—”

  He didn’t finish the sentence. Before he could react, Taylor lunged forward and was on top of him, using the speed he’d learned fighting his battles on the Kirkland Estate. Most of the kids there spent more time at the local martial arts club than they did at school, and Taylor had picked up quite a few moves.

  The bracken beneath Darren’s back was like a bed of nails with Taylor straddling him, staring down. “No one!” he bellowed in Darren’s face. “No one fucks with my life and gets away with it! I tried to be your mate. I tried to give you a bit of proper advice and make a friggin’ man out of you. But you, you shitty little runt. You stabbed me in the back! You told them pigs it was all my fault—told them you never wanted to see me again!”

  Taylor drew out a six-inch serrated blade and jammed the tip under Darren’s chin. “I should slit your scrawny throat from ear to ear,” he snarled. “But that would be too easy.”

  He withdrew the knife and stood, peering down. “Get the fuck up and start walking. And don’t stop walking till I tell you.”

  A knife in Taylor’s hands was as lethal as a gun. “Where?” Darren struggled to his feet and brushed the dead wood from his shirt. “Where are we going?”

  “Just walk!”

  Taylor pointed beyond the clearing to a gap in the cluster of trees, and Darren set off, listening to the footsteps behind him. It was better not to ask any more questions. Taylor was on the edge, walking a few metres behind. The forest grew darker as they struggled on, picking their way between the branches, stumbling over the roots that lay hidden beneath the undergrowth. His phone was there in his pocket. If he had a signal, just one bar, maybe… He pressed his palm to the cold screen; did he have time to make a call? He’d have to work fast.

  He registered the loud roar behind him a split second before the single, hard blow to the back of his head that knocked him to his knees. He cried out, the sound ricocheting around his brain.

  He lay, dazed, his eyes closed and the smell of the earth permeating his nostrils. His head, if it still was attached to his shoulders, was bleeding. The warm, sticky liquid ran over his neck. Don’t pass out! Hang on! Just hang on! But when he opened his eyes and tried to lift himself onto his elbows, the excruciating pain made him vomit.

  I’m dying, he thought, feeling himself fading. His heartbeat seemed to slow, and the thoughts tumbled around in his head until they made no sense at all. And that was when he let go.

  ***

  Jenny was pushing Isaac along on his plastic kiddi-cart when she heard footsteps to her side. She looked up and was surprised to see Danni standing there with tear stains streaking her face.

  “Oh God!” She grabbed Isaac’s shoulder as he threatened to make a break for it. “What are you doing here? Does Darren know?”

  Danni shook her head. “I’ve tried calling him, but he’s not picking up.”

  “He’s gone off to meet up with some mate of his. Well, not really a mate, just this guy on Facebook.”

  Danni frowned.

  “Don’t worry, it’s only in the forest. He’s a wildlife photographer or something. Darren didn’t go into much detail. You know what he’s like.”

  “How long will he be?”

  Jenny shrugged. “Leave him a message, he’ll pick it up as soon as he gets a signal. He’ll be back like a shot when he finds out you’re here, I’m telling you.”

  Danni smiled. “I haven’t slept,” she admitted. “I can’t get it out of my head, but you know what he did. It was your mum and sister, and I thought…if you could forgive him, then I can too.”

  “He’s a good person, Danni. And we’re a strong family—stronger than many who aren’t quite so dysfunctional.”

  Danni blushed. “I’m sorry. I said some pretty shitty things.”

  “You were in shock. I get that.”

  “I just want a fresh start. It’s not going to be easy, knowing what he did. But he’s not a thug, and I know he’s sorry.”

  Jenny smiled. “He lives with it every day, Danni. I see it in his eyes. There are times when I honestly believe he wishes he was the one who’d died in that accident.”

  Danni nodded. “I just bumped into Alex—my ex. He works here.”

  Jenny understood her wanting to change the subject. “Really? How did that go?”

  “Badly. He’s still got a thing for me.”

  “After all this time?”

  “Yep. That’s why I’ve been crying. I had to tell him straight, and you should have seen his face. He was devastated. It was like he really thought we were going to get back together. I hated hurting him so much. It was like kicking a puppy.”

  Jenny still clung to Isaac’s shoulder, but the kid wa
s getting restless.

  “Look, why don’t you go inside and get yourself a drink or something? They’ve all gone for lunch and left me with this little monkey.”

  Danni managed a half-smile. “I’m not really up to eating, but I wouldn’t mind a coffee.”

  “No problem. Everything you need is in the kitchen, and the mugs are in the cupboard next to the fridge.”

  Danni disappeared into the lodge, and Isaac must’ve sensed he had his mother’s attention once more. “Car!” he squealed and kicked his legs.

  A young couple walked close by, hand in hand, followed by an older woman with a baby in a buggy. “Beautiful day!” she called over with a breezy wave. “I love the scent of the trees.”

  Jenny smiled and nodded, inhaling instinctively. All she could smell was burning flesh.

  ***

  Darren looked up at the branches of the trees swaying rhythmically overhead as if engaged in some kind of ritual dance to a beat he could not hear.

  “You’re awake, then?”

  Darren tried to turn his head in the direction of the voice, but the pain felt like another blow. “What am I doing here?”

  There was no reply. The movement of the branches overhead made him nauseous, but as he closed his eyes, it all came flooding back in an angry, raging torrent.

  “Taylor! You could have killed me!”

  “Good to see you remembered,” came the snarling reply. “I was worried for a moment.”

  “If you hate me that much, why didn’t you?”

  “What? Kill you?”

  Darren’s head throbbed. Taylor must have turned him over at some point, maybe moved him too. He couldn’t remember where he’d fallen. Trees were trees, and when they were clustered together like this, the scenery was pretty samey. He opened his eyes to see his nemesis peering down at him like an animal inspecting its prey.

  “You really thought I wouldn’t see you going for your phone? Maybe I should have killed you. Or maybe we should just swap lives. I should invent a time machine and take you back to Kirkland and I’ll go and live in your posh house with your posh dad and fit mum.”

  Darren closed his eyes again. He couldn’t bear to look at that face. Taylor was crazy. He was talking like a guy riddled with jealousy, yet his own parents had presented him with a stable home, along with a fresh start, and he’d rejected it.

  “Then maybe you’d have turned out like me and I’d have turned out like you.” Taylor pressed his foot on Darren’s chest with enough force to make him cry out in pain. “You lot always bounce back, don’t you? Look at you now. Playing happy families. You think anyone would have forgiven me if I’d killed their mother? Not a fucking chance, mate. Not a chance.”

  “You chose to live the way you do,” Darren retorted with as much venom as he could muster. “You don’t have to. No one does.” He opened his eyes and squinted up at the beads of perspiration on Taylor’s face. One dropped onto Darren’s cheek.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Taylor growled. “I don’t know any other way. I learned to fight. But Kirkland was my fucking world, and I could have done okay—I could have been king—but you fucked it all up for me!”

  Confronted with Taylor’s screwed-up logic, Darren thought it was best to say nothing. In any case, talking hurt like hell. He thought about Danni and wondered if she would ever forgive him. He thought about Jenny and Jake. He’d become an uncle and a brother and ended up with a job that didn’t pay the best wages in the world but was certainly better than the money Snake-Pit-Tony managed to cough up. Things were pretty good, and now he was paying the price.

  Taylor took his foot off Darren’s chest. “How long do you think it will be before they come looking for you? An hour? Two hours?”

  Darren didn’t answer.

  Taylor grinned menacingly. “Well, I think it will be late afternoon before they start checking their watches. You’re a big boy now. You can look after yourself. They won’t be treating you like a kid and sending out a search party when you’re on an afternoon out with your geeky photographer friend, will they?”

  “So what have you got planned?” Darren asked, suppressing a moan. “You’re just gonna stand over me till I pass out again?” Daylight was still visible through the foliage overhead, and although he had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, they must have had quite a few hours before it went dark.

  Taylor looked around the trees and nodded. “I reckon a night in here would be fun. Just you and me, alone in the woods. Anything could happen.”

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” Darren said. “This place is creepy enough in the daylight.”

  Taylor bent low, his face within striking distance. “Aww, so is our little mummy’s boy scared of ghosties, then? You think the bogeyman is gonna get you?”

  Darren clenched his fist, knowing he would never summon the strength to take out his tormentor, but Taylor straightened before he had the chance to even try.

  “I’m your bogeyman, Pascoe,” he barked. “I’m the only thing you need to be scared of around here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Pool?” Isaac had mastered a hang-dog look and this was the fourth time he’d pointed towards the building and asked.

  Jenny smiled and ruffled the child’s hair. “We’ll give it a few minutes more and then Danni and I will take you.”

  Isaac nodded and went back to his toy cars, oblivious to his mother’s anxiety. Danni kept checking her phone, but there was still no word. “What the hell’s keeping him? I’ve come all this way and he’s not even here!”

  “He’ll have just lost track of time,” Jenny said with little conviction. Maybe she should have warned him to stay out of the woods. There had been that dream—the fire, the acrid smell and the whispering voices along with the screams.

  Danni had already picked up on her unease. “Are you okay?”

  Jenny stood. “Yeah, sure. Come on, let’s go. I’ll message Dad and Jo. They’re probably still by the lake and on their third ice cream.”

  At those words, Isaac jumped up, sending a toy car skidding across the wooden floor. Danni had been watching him play, no doubt wondering if one day Darren would be a father too. Jenny was sure it would happen, and she was certain he’d make a great dad. But how would he feel when his child reached the age of the little girl he’d killed—her beautiful little sister, Hanna?

  It was something he would have to live with. They all would. But the moment that child entered the world, Darren would understand, for the first time, the love a father feels for his child. He would understand how it would have felt to lose that child forever. She knew her brother now. She knew that beneath the heady excitement of fatherhood, the pain and the guilt would bubble like a volcano, ready to spew its deadly poison.

  ***

  The loathing Kevin Taylor felt right up to the moment he set eyes on Darren Pascoe had melted away, leaving him confused and disorientated. Pascoe sat up, leaning against a tree with his head in his hands.

  “Why am I even here? What’s the point of all this? What good is it gonna do either of us?”

  The truth was, Taylor didn’t know. He couldn’t even answer the first question. Looking for revenge had seemed like a good idea, and the bitterness that fuelled the venture would have made it all worthwhile. But now he felt only emptiness—an emptiness that had led him to confess he didn’t know how to live any other way than on the very edge of a society that would never accept him. An outcast—a Kirkland kid. It was a label he’d worn with pride yet it hung like a millstone around his neck and always would.

  Guys like Pascoe would never understand why he couldn’t live with his parents in their refurbished home. They’d reformed, turned their backs on old friends yet struggled to find new ones. The thought of fitting in terrified him, and as much as he hated to admit it, there lurked a sneaking admiration for the way Pascoe had turned things around. But it hadn’t stopped him picking up a clump of wood and taking a swipe at Pascoe’s head, knocking him out
cold. Taylor thought he’d killed him, which was when he’d realised he didn’t hate Pascoe after all. He was angry and jealous. But he had to keep up the act. He couldn’t show any sign of weakness.

  “I need a doctor,” Pascoe said weakly. “I feel really dizzy. I think I’ve got concussion or something.”

  Taylor’s panic rose. “You can’t! I can’t get you a doctor. Not now.”

  Pascoe looked up at him, fear in his eyes. “Please, Kevin, I think I’m dying. Just go. Leave me here and call me an ambulance. I’ll tell them it was Mendez, whoever the hell he was.”

  It had all gone so wrong. Why did he lash out like that? “Why would I believe you? How do I know you won’t grass me up?”

  “I won’t. You reckon I owe you? Well, this is me paying up.”

  Taylor felt a surge of relief. He turned without another word and headed back towards the park, stumbling through the nettles that stung his hands. It was nature in the raw and he felt as if it was about to swallow him whole. He had only known city streets and seedy bars; this place was new to him. The sound of his heartbeat pounded in his ears while above him, the leaves rustled in the breeze as loud as the roar of an angry crowd.

  He stopped to get his bearings; he should have been at the perimeter fence by now, but there was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Maybe his mind was playing tricks. Maybe they had ventured further than he thought. But no; he had simply retraced his steps. This had to be the right way. He stepped off again, then stopped dead. He heard something, a sound he couldn’t identify, but it made him want to run. Why, he wasn’t sure. It was probably only a bird or a fox, except foxes didn’t howl. Wolves howled, and not like that.

  Taylor was gripped by a fear he’d never known before. It wasn’t a fear of his surroundings, or even the possibility that he’d got himself lost; it was something else. Something he couldn’t see or hear. Something he felt surrounding him: something dark. Quite suddenly, his chest tightened and he was struggling to fill his lungs.