The Anomaly

by Neil Carstairs

  “Good.” Kramer looked over to Geordie. “Are you ready?”

  “We’ve been wondering what you two lovebirds have been chatting about,” Geordie said. “Planning the wedding list or something like that no doubt?”

  “Emily,” Kramer said. “Could you close your eyes for a moment?”

  “Sure,” the girl said with a smile. As soon as Emily’s eyes closed, Kramer gave Geordie the bird.

  “Okay, you can open them now.”

  Ben heard Geordie mutter ‘charming’ as Tiny tried not to laugh too much.

  “So we can go now?” Emily asked.

  “We can,” Kramer said. “You can still see the pathway?”

  “Yes, follow me.”

  Ben looked back towards the Hall. A few people were gathered to watch them leave. Reuben raised a hand in farewell. Ben couldn’t see Jane. Except maybe she was the figure standing behind one window with a hand pressed against the pane. He looked forward again. At least with Emily in the lead, he wasn’t going to be press-ganged into some forced march by the three army types. It did seem more like a nice walk in the country as they crossed the landscaped gardens and passed between trees imported from Africa, South America and the Far East. The land dipped a little, a low mist forming around their legs. As the ground rose again, Ben looked over his shoulder, expecting a panoramic view of Sheddlestone Hall and its grounds.

  He saw only woodland. Ben stopped. He thought about the route they’d taken. No, it should be right there.

  “Hey, Scarrett? Don’t dawdle,” Kramer shouted back to him.

  “It’s gone,” he said.

  “What has?”

  “The Hall. Look, it’s not where it should be.”

  They came back and formed a line to look across rolling countryside and dense woodland.

  “We’re in another world,” Kramer said in wonder.

  “At least it’s not a fucking desert.” Geordie spat onto the ground.

  “Geordie?” Kramer spoke softly.

  “What?”

  “Your language.”

  Geordie looked at Kramer and then at Emily. “Oh, sorry.”

  As Kramer guided Emily back towards the route they’d been on, Ben nudged Geordie.

  “So who’s scarier, Kramer or stone goblins?”

  “Definitely your missus. How d’you cope?”

  “I guess I’m a glutton for punishment,” Ben said.

  “Hey, Scarrett, I heard that,” Kramer called back to him.

  Geordie grinned. “New world, same girlfriend.”

  Ben sighed, said nothing, and followed Kramer and Emily deeper into the new world.

  ***

  Tim woke from a nightmare fuelled by the drugs that ran through his system. He found the world he woke in to be a stark, pale green room with bright overhead lights. The images in his head chased across the ceiling tiles. Earth faced men with eye sockets that writhed with maggots reached out to him. He wanted to escape, but the soreness in his shoulder held him fast to the bed.

  “Tim?”

  Hannah sat beside him. He turned his head with exaggerated slowness so that the pain didn’t hurt too much. “Hi.” His voice sounded like it belonged to a stranger.

  “I won’t ask how you’re feeling,” she said. “The doctor’s asked me to keep the visit as short as possible. So I just wanted to see you and ask if you needed anything.”

  “Just to be back home,” Tim said.

  “The docs said a few more days.” Hannah looked upset, she leant forward and said, “I’m sorry.”

  Tim wondered what for. He could think of a few things and didn’t know if she meant all or just one. So he stayed silent because she still made his heart race, but he couldn’t be sure who she was.

  Hannah sat back; she looked defeated. “I know what you must think of me,” she said. “And I understand.”

  “Do you?” Tim surprised himself by speaking.

  “Yes.” She stood. A short visit she’d said. She wasn’t joking. “We best be going.”

  “We?” Tim frowned. He turned his head again with infinite caution and saw a man leaning against the door. “Who’s that?”

  “It’s best if I don’t tell you,” Hannah said.

  “Because he’s your boyfriend?”

  The guy over by the door laughed. “Trust me,” he said. “However pretty Hannah is, I’m not interested.”

  “So your name is Hannah,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Is that the only truthful thing you told me?” Tim saw the look in her eyes and wished he’d never asked the question.

  “No. Much of what I said was true about me, just not what I do for a living.”

  “What are you?” Tim wanted the visit to last a little longer even as a wave of tiredness swept over him.

  “I can’t say. Other than the stock answer that is a civil servant.”

  “Like me,” Tim said. “But I’m a teacher so what part of the civil service do you work for?”

  Hannah looked over at her companion. He seemed to think about Tim’s question and gave the answer, “We work for the security services. And that’s all we can tell you.”

  Tim closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he said.

  “What for?”

  “For saving me.”

  “You were very brave coming out into the storm. And you did that to rescue Emily and me. I should thank you.”

  “And those things that attacked us?” Tim asked.

  “We can’t tell you,” Hannah replied.

  Tim thought about that and their date. “Are you going now?” he asked.

  “Yes. We’ve work to do.”

  “Is it dangerous?”

  She looked at her colleague. He shrugged. Hannah said, “It might be.”

  Tim closed his eyes. He knew that Hannah took that as a signal that it was time to leave. He heard her walk away and the sound of the door opening. “Hannah?”

  “Yes?”

  He wanted to say ‘good luck’, but instead, he said, “Goodbye.”

  Silence in the room. Somewhere down the corridor a trolley rattled, and two cleaners held a loud conversation. Tim opened his eyes. Hannah stood, framed by the doorway, she looked as if she wanted to say something, but she just nodded once and closed the door behind her.

  Tim watched the daylight fade as clouds moved over the sun. He wanted to fade as well. A new pain edged into his body, this one closer to his heart. He thought about Hannah and knew he would never see her again.

  ***

  “That didn’t quite go to plan,” Reuben said as he and Hannah walked away from Tim’s room.

  “He’s still too sick. I should have waited a couple of more weeks until he was out of hospital and doing better.”

  “What did he say there, at the end?”

  Hannah fell silent as they passed an elderly couple, the woman struggling with a zimmer frame as she held onto her husband. “He said goodbye.”

  “Oh.” Reuben stopped. “Do you want to go back?”

  “What for? More punishment? He said goodbye like he meant it, and who can blame him? I’m not the girl he thought I was. And maybe I’m not the girl I thought I was, either.”

  “Of course you are,” Reuben said. He started walking again. “You just met him at the wrong time. Let’s sort out finding Congrave, then you go back and see him again. Give him the chance to think about what happened. Like you said, it’s too soon. I shouldn’t have agreed to stop here on the way to London.”

  “So I can blame you?” Hannah asked as they reached the main entrance to the hospital.

  “I wouldn’t go that far.” Reuben smiled as they reached the ticket machine to pay for their parking. He found the three pounds to pay and they walked across to his car.

  Inside, with the engine running and the radio turned low, Reuben said, “It’s hard not being able to tell people we care about what we do for a living. Tim probably knows more about our work than all my friends and family put together.”
<
br />   “But only because he was there.”

  “True, but he should be able to work it out for himself. Once he figures out you had no choice in the matter, he’ll realise that he likes you for being you.”

  “How long do you think?”

  “A week? Maybe two? Of course, he may well have forgotten you by then and moved on to the next young teaching assistant who turns up at school.” He looked across at her and grinned.

  “Oh, thanks, Reuben,” Hannah said, with a roll of her eyes. “You’ve done my confidence no end of good with that.”

  Reuben drove out of the car park, waved a ‘thank you’ to the driver who let him into the main stream of traffic. He glanced across at Hannah. She was watching the hospital as they drove parallel to the main frontage and he thought she might be trying to spot the window to Tim’s room. He hoped the two of them got a chance to see if their relationship could develop. He just didn’t want to tell Hannah that they were going on a hunt for a ruthless and dangerous enemy and that the chances of her coming home this time were probably getting slimmer with every minute that Douglas Congrave remained missing.

  ***

  Congrave saw her feet appear in his vision. When two other pairs of daintier shoes came alongside Moira’s, Congrave looked up. He saw jeans, matching red fleece jackets and identical young faces that stared at him with rapt fascination. He must have tensed in surprise because the saplings twitched inside his body as pain exploded up from his calves and built in intensity until it seemed to explode inside his skull. Congrave sagged forward, struggling to stay conscious. Moira reached out and ran cool fingers under his chin.

  “He’s fighting it, girls. They always fight it at first.”

  Congrave focussed on the two girls standing beside Moira. For a moment he thought the pain made him see double until one girl moved and the other didn’t. Twins.

  “I didn’t know you had children,” he said.

  Moira laughed. “Adopted children if you must know, although their earthly parents may have something to say about that. They look so sweet, don’t they?”

  Congrave wasn’t so sure about that. He’d worked enough investigations in the security services to know that some of the sweetest looking people could carry out the worst atrocities. So he saw beyond the angelic faces and ruby red lips. He looked into their eyes and saw spite and malice lurking there. They would expose him to pain; he knew that.

  “Very sweet,” he said.

  “I’ve got some news,” Moira said. “The Pathfinder is on her way. We tried to kill her, but she escaped, didn’t she girls?”

  “Yes,” the twins said in unison.

  “But we can make every step of her journey dangerous and maybe leave her corpse lying in some strange field, so no-one will ever discover it.”

  “Yes,” the twins said, this time with big smiles and loads of enthusiasm.

  Congrave stared at the girls in horror. The sheer glee that came out in their faces sickened him. He raised his head to stare at Moira. “Where did you get these two?”

  “Oh, I’ve known them before. Their souls are older than time. The girls just need to experience one thing, and they will understand their true nature.”

  Congrave didn’t want to know what that one thing might be. He could guess, and his guess would be a death. “You won’t win,” he said.

  Moira’s lips curled up into a cold, calculating smile. “The problem with men is they think they know everything. One day, you will learn the truth, but before that day arrives you will suffer all the torment of hell that living with these trees can bring. Yet you will still beg them to keep you alive.”

  Moira took one hand of each child. “Come, my children, let us go and see if we can lay some traps for our visitors.”

  She led them away from Congrave and heard his cry of pain as a new branch formed somewhere in his chest cavity. He would beg for death at some point and then beg for life. She wished she could have taken him physically the same way she had taken Stanton. The army officer, for all his enthusiasm, lacked a little in the stamina department. Moira wanted a man who could keep her satisfied. She’d met one or two in her existence. But they always fell away, leaving her for some mortal woman who held less of a threat. What she wanted she could never have. A true lover to stand beside her and rule the world.

  “Will we be going home?” Victoria broke into Moira’s thoughts.

  She shook her head. “No. This is your home now.”

  They walked some more; she knew the children were thinking about her words.

  “Our parents will look for us,” Elizabeth said.

  “That’s been taken care of,” Moira said.

  “How?” the girls asked.

  “A fire in your house. A tragedy.”

  “So we’re dead?” Vicky asked.

  “No, you are quite alive, my darlings. The people searching will find bodies, and they will assume it is you. But don’t worry, you’re safe with me.”

  “And where are we going now?” Lizzie asked.

  “To meet your friend, Emily,” Moira said.

  “She’s not our friend,” Vicky said.

  “Then you won’t mind if she dies, then?”

  The sisters smiled. The woodland the three of them walked through became denser as the tree canopy closed overhead. Sunlight faded. The air grew cool. The sounds they made as they walked became muffled as if the vegetation absorbed all noise. The girls could hear no birdsong now, and in the close shadows they thought they saw eyes following them. Eyes that glowed dull amber and were low to the ground. The creatures tracked them, skulking through the trees. Lizzie glanced up at Moira, but she didn’t seem to care about the animals. Lizzie tried to see what they were. Wolves? She didn’t know. They scared her a little, and her hold on Moira’s hand tightened as one shape seemed to edge closer than the others. She heard a low, snuffling growl as it’s sharp-edged grey fur caught what little light that came through the canopy.

  “Moira,” Lizzie whispered.

  “I know. There’s no need to be scared. They are here to help us.”

  Lizzie fought the natural instinct to duck away as the creature joined them on the path. It came so close she could see the muscles moving under its thick fur. “What is it?” she asked.

  “A direwolf,” Moira said. The beast stood tall enough that the withers were level with her hips and almost up to Lizzie’s chin.

  “It’s huge,” Vicky said.

  “They all are,” Moira told her.

  More dire wolves emerged from the forest, crowding around the adult and children as if they were family dogs. Lizzie and Vicky soon grew used to the size and smell of the wolves. Moira rubbed her hands in the thick pelts, and the twins began to copy her. The animals pushed closer, eager to feel the touch of hands.

  Moira smiled and said, “They want you to choose one of them each. The one you pick will become your guardian.”

  “Is that like a pet?” Vicky asked.

  “A very fierce pet,” Moira said. “They will go with you everywhere and they will protect you from anything or anyone who threatens you.”

  “How do we choose?” Lizzie stopped walking. She held her hands up at shoulder level, and the wolves pushed their noses up to sniff at her fingers.

  “Look into their eyes,” Moira said. “That’s how I chose my guardian.”

  “Which one is yours?” Vicky asked as she copied her sister.

  “The first one who came out of the forest. He’s been with me for centuries.”

  “Does it have to be a boy?”

  “No, some of the fiercest dire wolves are female. They will die to protect their young, and they will do the same for you.”

  “I’d like a girl,” Lizzie said.

  “Me, too,” Vicky echoed her sister.

  Moira waved her hand, and half the wolves retreated to the edge of the forest. The ones that remained yelped and barked in excitement. Moira watched them jump up, trying to get the twins to notice them. One wolf
pushed through the throng, its coat almost pure white except for a dark collar of hair that circled its neck. Lizzie gasped and reached out to it,

  “This one,” she said.

  “A wonderful choice.” Moira smiled. The she-wolf seemed to dominate the other members of the pack, her muscles rippling as she settled beside her new ward.

  Vicky seemed caught between a choice of two. Both had iron-grey hair on their backs that paled to soft white on their undersides. They stood side-by-side as if they understood the child wanted to compare them. Moira watched Vicky as she moved her hand back and forth, her lips moving in a silent eeny-meeny-miney-mo rhyme. Just as she seemed to have made her selection one of the wolves raised its head and opened its eyes fully. Vicky gasped. The eyes were a shade of sky blue that shone like diamonds out of the wolf’s face.

  “This one,” Vicky said. The second wolf huffed in disappointment and turned to go. “Sorry,” Vicky added before she put her arms around her chosen guardian and buried her face into the warm fur as she nuzzled the beast.

  The girls had always wanted a pet dog, but the people they‘d called mummy and daddy stayed away from animals. Their tendency to enjoy causing pain made the adults wary of allowing the twins anywhere near a pet. It wasn’t just concern for the animal; they were worried about potential vet bills as well. The girls didn’t care about that any longer. They had their pets, huge, fearsome animals that would kill to protect them.

  “Where are we going now?” Vicky asked.

  “Just a little further,” Moira said. “We will meet some more of my friends and then we will make a welcome ready for Emily and her companions.”

  “Can we watch?” Vicky asked.

  “Yes, you have to, because to understand your true nature, you need to be blooded.”

  Lizzie and Vicky looked at each other. They both sensed a change in the world around them as the deciduous woodland faded and the air became chill. They walked across open moorland now, the grass and heather beneath their feet rough and uneven. The land rose to their left, granite boulders jutting out of the ground. The twins saw a mass of black dots lift up from the rocks and glide towards them.

  “What are they?” Lizzie asked.