A Few Words for the Dead
Page 23
August Shining fell to the ground, barely able to draw breath.
A few seconds later he was unconscious.
Light. The sound of birds. Wetness on his face.
He opened his eyes on to a new morning and, just for a moment, he had no idea what had happened. Then he remembered and sat up in panic.
‘It’s over,’ said a voice from next to him. He turned to see an old man stood a few feet away, a gleeful-looking Labrador sitting patiently by his side. ‘Your heart broke. I fixed it for you.’
Shining got to his feet. ‘But what happened at the house? Did it work? How’s April? Is…?’
‘The rebel has ceased to be. We owe you thanks. The rest of your people have long gone. They are all alive and well.’
Shining checked his watch. He’d been unconscious for hours.
‘My heart broke?’
‘I fixed it for you.’
‘You said. Thank you.’
‘It was a gift.’ Then the man’s facial expression changed and, in his own voice, he said, ‘Hello there, you all right?’
Shining nodded. ‘Fine, I think. Overdid it last night.’
‘I’ll say, falling asleep in the middle of a field at your age. You want to take it easy.’ With this advice, he wandered off, his dog trotting on beside him.
Shining got to his feet and walked back to his car.
He felt better than he had for years. So Fratfield had escaped; that was unfortunate but he now had a contingency plan for that. He checked his pocket and found the piece of paper the demon had given him. The ancient symbols on it were quite beyond his understanding but he didn’t suppose that mattered. The important thing was that it would work.
He climbed into his car and brought out his phone. He should see how everyone was. They’d be shocked to hear from him, of course, maybe even angry at what he’d put them through. But, once they understood that he couldn’t have revealed himself earlier, once they saw what he had done, they would forgive him. For one brief moment, August Shining felt like a man at the top of his game.
Then he checked his emails.
Across the road from the Church of the Sacred Mind, August Shining watched as the three people who loved him — the three people left alive — climbed into the car and drove away with his ashes.
‘You are still hiding?’ said a young mother pushing a pram.
‘I thought you’d gone. Don’t tell me you’re going to start making a habit of possessing people now.’
‘No. I will leave soon. I just wanted to understand. Why are you still hiding?’
‘Because, in the long run, this is better.’
‘To have them thinking you’re dead?’
‘To be dead. Just for a moment I thought I was clever, I thought I’d beaten the odds again. I hadn’t. Do you know how many people died at the hands of your rebel?’
‘Many.’
‘Yes,’ he nodded, ‘many. And all because they knew me. Because they were involved in Section 37, because I made them targets.’
‘Is that true?’
‘I think so.’
‘So you are going to stay dead.’
‘I think it’s best for all concerned. They’ll get over it. Maybe without me they’ll all make better, safer decisions with their lives. I’m surrounded by victims. Cassandra, Derek, Alasdair, Jamie, Lucas…’ He shook his head. ‘It’s too much. It’s all just too much.’
‘I understand.’
He looked at the young woman. ‘You’re not going to tell me I’m wrong, then?’
‘What would I know? I am not flesh like you, it all seems chaos to me. Where will you go?’
‘I have one more thing to take care of,’ he told her, ‘then I’ll go wherever I want, as long as it’s a long way from here.’
Bill Fratfield paid the bill for his lunch and then got up from his table. Time to walk that off, he decided, then I can plan what lazy way I wish to spend my afternoon. Maybe I’ll even go for a swim, take a dive from some of the rocks.
‘Thanks,’ he said, waving vaguely towards the waiter.
He looked out at the sea, glistening in the sunshine.
‘Careful,’ a young man collided with him, having jumped up from his table.
‘Apologies,’ the young man said, with a faint German accent. ‘I do not look where I go.’
‘No problem,’ Fratfield replied, still too full of seafood and drink to think too much about it.
Fratfield aimed towards the cliff path as the young German walked over to a different table. He placed the envelope he had just stolen from Fratfield’s pocket in front of the man who was sitting there.
‘Perfect,’ said Shining. ‘Many thanks, Gustav. Now watch yourself in future. If I catch you dipping pockets again, you’ll have worse to deal with than a little favour.’
Gustav tutted in annoyance and walked off.
Shining opened the envelope, removed the money that was inside and replaced it with his note and the scrap of paper that contained the wind demon’s curse.
Job done, he decided, blank slate.
He called over the waiter.
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Copyright © Guy Adams, 2015
Guy Adams has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
First published in the UK in 2015 by Del Rey
www.eburypublishing.co.uk
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9780091953188