by John Riley
She tried one last time;
'You don't remember the... things at the club?'
'What things?' he asked, 'Sarah what happened?'
He really didn't remember then. That, or he was lying to her. She didn't care, she was scared and needed him here, he would listen, comfort her and agree to do whatever she deemed necessary.
'Can you just get home please?' She pleaded,
'Yes,' He replied instantly, 'my taxi is here now, I'll be home soon.'
'Okay,' She sighed with relief, 'see you soon, love you.'
He repeated the phrase and hung up, Sarah put the phone into her pocket and after a moment of pensive silence, stood decisively.
Picking the backpack up from where it had fallen on the floor she strode purposefully to the door, headed through the hall outside and down the stairs.
The ground floor was an open plan, the stairs ended roughly in the middle, with the front and back doors ahead and behind respectively. Facing the front door from the bottom of the stairs, the lounge with sofa's and television was to the right, the dining room with a modest sized oak dining table was to the left. Behind and to the left was a small closed off WC and to the right was the kitchen area, Sarah went to this after opening the curtains at the front of the house so as to see Daniel's return.
Sarah spent a few minutes rifling through the drawers and cupboards. In the time since waking, a tentative idea of going camping, -removing themselves from civilisation and therefore the threat of attack- had come to her. God only knew what Daniel would think of it, but Sarah knew he would leave with her when she asked.
It was for this that she packed now, adding a few random tins of food, two sets of cutlery and an assortment of energy bars and snack foods. With the pack now full to bursting she moved her hand across her face in thought. They could get everything else -a gas powered fire for one thing- that they needed later, on the way out of town. The only thing left to do would be to get their small two-man tent from out of the shed along with their sleeping bags.
Sarah made her way to the back door and unlocked it, stepping out into the early morning light. The garden was unassuming, a small patch of grass surrounded by a solid six-foot wooden fence for privacy from the lane beyond it, the shed stood beside the wall of the house on the right side. Returning to the kitchen with her arms full of heavy tent and sleeping bags, Sarah spied the taxi through the wide windows at the front. With a thrill of excitement and relief she dropped her burden on the kitchen counter beside the backpack and sped to the window. Daniel was getting out of the front of the taxi, he hated sitting in the back, he always said to her that it made him feel rude. He closed the door and the car moved off, Daniel continued to face away from the house and Sarah craned her neck to see that he had spotted the older couple who were their neighbours across the street.
She knew the couple, the man was a retired veteran, the woman an old-fashioned house wife type, they were both early risers, leaving the house around the same time Sarah took her morning run and she liked them. They were both bundled up against the early morning chill and the man had raised his hand at the sight of Daniel. The distance wasn't too great to see a look of confusion come onto the old veteran's face and a glance to Daniel showed Sarah the cause. Daniel stood stock still where he had been when he had seen the old couple, his hand halfway into the air even, as though he had frozen in the act of waving.
Suddenly and without warning he rippled into motion; his body dropped into a crouch, arms out as though preparing to tackle, with his fingers curled into hooks. He charged blindly across the road with a blood curdling howl of fury so loud that Sarah heard it clearly from inside. Covering her gasp with a hand, Sarah's eyes flickered from her fiancé to the old couple, the man's confusion had dropped from his face and he gently but firmly pushed his wife -who's own hands were clapped to her mouth in a mirror of Sarah- behind him. Sarah watched in frozen horror as her fiancé reached the couple and proceeded to attack like a savage beast. First the man; he had brought up his palm in a strong command to halt, which Daniel grasped with both of his own. Twisting like a dog with a rat in its jaws the hand went through a rotation of almost three hundred and sixty degrees first to the left, then much more to the right. With a face suddenly as grey as his hair, the retired veteran took a step back with the injured arm pulled close to his chest and stumbled into his distraught wife.
Daniel followed. His next move was to sweep under the veteran's good arm, reach up for the throat with his grasping fingers like steel talons and with a tight grip, drag the face of the old man down to meet her fiancés own rapidly rising skull. Sarah saw the veteran's head jolt back, followed swiftly by the rest of him as he crumpled to the floor in a heap. Daniel threw a cluster of furious, powerful blows into the motionless form and only halted as the wife screamed.
The sound – on top of making Sarah jump out of her skin- had the effect of seemingly unfreezing her own body, as she made moves towards presumably coming to her husband's aid. It also reminded the creature that had been Daniel of her presence. Before the old woman had touched him, Daniel turned at the waist and hit her a casual but hefty backhand across the face which sent the poor house wife sprawling to the ground. Momentarily knocked senseless, she reacted only sluggishly to Daniel's serpent-like movement to above her, straddling her. For one heart wrenching moment Sarah thought his intentions were sexual, but then he raised both fists, releasing another animalistic roar, then slammed the fists down. He did it again, screaming incoherently into the sky and bringing his fists down like hammers on an anvil. He continually repeated the action, his arms slipping out of sequence with the intense pummelling until Sarah was thankful of her sight of nothing but his upper torso. With one final bellowing scream he fell back with his chest heaving, seemingly content.
Then he stood, rising from a crouch like a ship breaking mist and turned slowly on the spot. He had his arms relaxed at his side now, his head was drooped forward with his chin resting on his chest and Sarah saw him shuffle into a lurch towards the house. With a sudden gasp of blind terror Sarah unfroze and tripped over herself in her rush to the front door. Her hands scrabbled numbly with the chain for several heart-stopping moments before the metal clinked home.
What was going on!? She was crazy, drugged, sick, hallucinating or -even more terrifying- she was completely, maddeningly sane. If this was real, Daniel was one of “Them”. One of the horrifying creatures in human skin from the night before, the ones nobody could remember but her. She had to be crazy, none of this made any sense. Was Daniel still himself, that was one question. If she wasn't hallucinating then how could she explain how normal he had been on the phone. She couldn't, she had to give him the benefit of the doubt, it was Daniel. Self-preservation won out however, the fact of the matter being that sane or not, what she had just seen was something Daniel would not do; so, it was possible that this wasn't Daniel. She should talk to him face to face; but could she after what he had just done?
The front door wasn't of solid wood, the frosted glass showed that a shape that could only be Daniel had now reached the garden path, Sarah stood in plain view behind the door and despite -or because of- her reasoning, indecision racked her; what was going on!?
Inevitably the door opened -she hadn't thought to pull the bolt- and it shuddered to a stop with the chain protesting.
'Sarah?' Daniel called, 'what's going on?'
Sarah held back a laugh that she was sure would have sounded manic and struggled to come up with a reply better than;
'You tell me!' But she couldn't, she spat it in response with a vehemence that apparently surprised her fiancé-come-murderer.
'I know this is about last night, obviously I drank too much and I'm sorry.' His voice turned pleading, 'Whatever I said or did I can make it up to you, can I come in?'
'So you can do to me what you did to our neighbours!?' She hadn't meant to say it, it came out in a rush of fear and hysterics. She pressed her hand against the door, expecting him to
fly at it in a rage now that he knew that she knew, terror of the man she loved filled her, all the worse for her want for him. With it another thought rose to the forefront of her mind; perhaps the creatures hadn't gained a member last night, hadn't they only ended up at the club because he had wanted to go there, or one of his friends at least, or…
'What?' Daniel's puzzled, single syllable question interrupted her mind's fearful babbling and the sincerity made her wary.
'Don't,' Sarah muttered back, 'I saw everything from the window.'
A pause, the shape of Daniel shifted,
'What the hell are you talking about?' He sounded completely nonplussed,
'The old couple!' Sarah yelled, 'They're lying outside their house where you left them!'
Another pause, another movement,
'They're… going for a walk...?' He said slowly,
'What?' Sarah muttered softly, 'No, you attacked them, I saw it!'
'Take a look for yourself.'
Shutting the door with a snap that scared her, Daniel's silhouette disappeared from the glass of the door, he had moved away. Sarah leapt forwards, quickly pushing the deadbolt home and then made her way to the window with her stomach in knots.
Daniel hadn't lied. The couple were walking slowly down the path on the opposite side of the road. The old man had his face turned towards what she assumed was her fiancé, a quizzical expression on his face.
Sarah stood on tiptoe to see where the couple had lain, unwilling to admit the blindingly obvious. But nothing was on the path, or on the immaculate lawn that she could see. Dropping down onto her heels she made her way slowly to the door. Her preparations seemed ridiculous now, laughable, she halted with her hand on the deadbolt. Perhaps somebody had drugged her in the club, probably drugged Daniel too, made him lose the night and she lose her mind. They'd see a doctor about it, it'd all be okay, she could already hear Daniel's reassurances in her head, she still felt tired, how much sleep had she actually had?
Wearily, with ultimate slowness she lay her head on the cool wood of the door frame and pulled the bolt, dropping her hand to her side with a sigh. Her only thought now was that she hoped her hallucinations were temporary, maybe not even drugs, perhaps food poisoning... Daniel opened the door slowly, he had obviously heard the bolt being drawn, but it clattered to a halt again on the end of the chain, as she'd forgotten to take it off. Daniel's smiling face appeared inches from hers through the gap of the door, it was touched with a hint of worry for her and she melted a little to see him.
When their eyes met the look fell from him however and Sarah was thrown away from the frame as a huge blow struck the door from outside and cracked the wood. Sarah yelled in shock, hurrying backwards on her rear, eyes locked on the thing clawing, gnashing and howling as it tried to force its way inside.
It looked like Daniel; his basic shape, his face, his cool blue eyes currently filled with rage and madness. But as with the monsters from before he looked air-brushed, clean and somehow more real. As though his body were made of more substantial material than simply flesh. Presently the sharp edge of something to Sarah's back brought her to a stop, she had backed into one of the sofas. Scrambling to her feet in a rush she saw with horror that the caricature of Daniel had impossibly forced its head through the gap left by the chain and was squirming in an attempt to have its shoulders follow.
Sarah forced herself to look away from the horrid sight of its hissing, reddened face with its eyes which bored glaringly, maddeningly into her and ran for the kitchen. Hefting the pack in one hand, leaving the tent and sleeping bags behind to save weight, she grabbed for the back door as the front opened with a bang like a gunshot. With a gigantic force of will Sarah managed not to turn to look, instead she pulled the back-door open, ran through slamming it behind her and sprinted across the small patch of grass to the gate. For a single terrifying moment, she thought it would be locked but it swung open and she was through, closing it behind with a crash.
3
Sarah had been crying, terrified and bewildered and found she couldn't run quite as far as she would have liked. Her feet had taken her left out of the gate and down the path, expecting at any moment the sound of pursuit. She hadn't heard anything however and came to a stop just at the end of the path, still within sight of the house. Standing with her back to the street behind her, she leant against the wall to the nearest house. She couldn’t stay here long; the street was quiet now but she could be seen by passing cars and pedestrians. Not to mention she’d last seen her neighbours heading down this way, if they’d decided to turn onto this street she would be trapped.
Catching her breath, -or at least trying to between the racking sobs- she peered eventually back down the way she came and towards the house. From where she stood she could see the top of the back door over the solid fence and it was still shut. For some reason, Daniel hadn't followed her into the garden.
'What the fuck is going on!?' She breathed, her whole body shaking from fear. Her brain had switched itself off, no explanation seemed to make sense to her except that she had again hallucinated and if she went back would probably see Daniel standing confused in the house. But what did it matter, she couldn't do it, couldn't go back and possibly have to face another episode, she was scared beyond belief and almost at her wits end.
Once again, she found herself jumping out of her skin to the sound and vibrations of her mobile phone and after fishing it from her pocket with shaking hands saw it was Daniel calling from the house phone.
'Sarah?' He sounded more confused than before, 'I thought you said you were home, are you okay?'
'What... What are you doing?' She replied eventually, she simply couldn't think of anything else.
'I'm at home now, what happened to the door, baby what's going on?' Concern, confusion, love, he sounded so like himself and Sarah felt her heart break at this bizarre loss.
From what he was saying he didn't remember them talking at the door, had they talked at the door at all? Was any of this him or was she lying comatose in a hospital bed somewhere going slowly out of her mind? Her aching shins and hands said no. She was awake, so either he was telling the truth; in which case he really didn't remember seeing her. Or he hadn't seen her and she was crazy. Or he was lying; something worse had happened to him, changed him in some malevolent way and everything she had seen in the last few hours was real.
She couldn't decide which of these possible scenarios was preferable, they all seemed equally terrifying and life destroying. Calming herself down a little, Daniel's voice helping, she was sure that she had seen him attack and from the ferocity probably kill the old couple, but she was just as sure that she had seen them walking alive and unharmed a minute later. Was it possible she and Daniel had the same thing, her symptoms being hallucinations, his being amnesia and a healthy radiant glow? Had how he looked also been a hallucination, fuelled by the sight of the monsters from the night before, but then surely, they were also hallucinations. Her head was starting to hurt with the twists, but again her aches and pains made her all too sure that nothing had been a dream at least.
But what had he asked her, about the door? Hallucinations couldn't break doors.
'Daniel, listen for a minute please.' She had finally made up her mind, Daniel had shown that somebody at least was forgetting things and it was easier for her to believe the world had gone mad than it was to believe that she had.
'Okay I'm listening.' he replied simply.
'Last night in the club,' She started, 'There was an attack.'
'What do you mean an attack?' he cut in, 'after we left? Are you hurt?'
'No, while we were there, you really don't remember?' Sarah implored,
'No.' He answered, 'are you hurt?'
'I'm okay, cuts and bruises, what about you?' She asked, a thought had come to her, 'does your head hurt?'
Daniel's reply was a little while in coming, she heard him run his hand through his hair down the phone,
'No, I haven't ev
en got a hangover,' he muttered wonderingly, 'I feel great in fact, no cuts or bruises anywhere that I can tell, but where are you?'
Should she be suspicious of him asking where she was? No, he was just worried... maybe.
But the lack of pain or damage at all stopped her from believing that head trauma was causing his amnesia, if it was amnesia.
'I... Don't want to tell you,' she answered truthfully, 'you seem to not remember but you tried to attack me.'
'Last night!?' He said aghast,
'No, about two minutes ago!' She snapped, getting angry due to her fear, despite her best efforts to stay open minded.
'But I haven't even seen you yet!' He pleaded, 'I just got out of the tax...'
Sarah froze at the pause, her hand turning white as it tightened on the phone,
'Yes?' she prodded,
'It disappeared...' he continued, 'I, er, must have turned and not noticed it going. I got to the door... huh, de ja vu... Anyway, I knocked and it opened, the chain was... broken off... what's with the tent?'
'Daniel stop,' Sarah snapped quickly, 'something happened to you last night, I thought it was me, I guess it could still be me too, but you're forgetting things like everybody else. When I left the club last night, running for my life, I saw a pile of dead people, neck's snapped or throats torn or...' She broke off.
'What?' He sounded breathless,
'I called the police and they said nothing had been reported. The bodies were in a pile!' Sarah exclaimed, 'But what was worse was the club owner, the guy found your phone, he said he'd been there all night, until hours after I left and he didn't see anything either!'