“Let it go! Before it has you too.”
She glanced at him, nodded, then did as she was told. The door slammed shut then faded back into the shadows. All the doors had gone. And with the door closed, the wind vanished too, and he could appreciate the noise of the crackling fire spreading rapidly across the far side of the room. Judy was stuck. The flames on one side, the doorway blocked by Adam.
The book.
Seth was finding it difficult to breathe. Adam’s hand around his larynx was squeezing slowly but surely against his windpipe. He didn’t think it would stop, and in a moment, the man’s thumb would puncture his throat and his life would end. But he was higher now and could see across to the altar and the objects scattered behind it. The flames caught the jewels in the handle of the ceremonial dagger. The goat’s head would be roasting by now. And between them. The Book of the Fourth.
The book.
Seth couldn’t do anything about it though. He was in Adam’s power and had no chance of retrieving the sacred book of the Adherents. And he wanted that book. That book would give him power. Power over Adam at any rate.
“Get the book,” he said as loudly as he could at Judy.
She looked, unsure what Seth was getting at, panic threatening to take over.
“Book—altar,” he gasped. If she didn’t move quickly, he feared it may be his last attempt. Judy surprised him yet again. Trying as best as she could to shield herself from the rising heat of the flames, she ran to the altar and searched through the fallen items. Triumphantly, she pulled out the book from under the edge of the altar and held it before her. But with it in her hands, she was unsure what to do next.
Adam made his move. Dropping Seth unceremoniously, he walked across the sanctum, his face a tightened scowl.
“Put down the book,” he said.
And Judy understood the control she had over him.
“Stop,” she ordered.
Adam didn’t stop.
“I’ll burn it!” She held it higher and angled her body to the back of the burning chamber. Her posture clear. She meant to throw the book into the fire.
Adam paused. “No. You won’t.” And he continued.
Judy hurried to the other side of the altar, putting it between them, and she coughed violently at the smoke that hit her face.
“Don’t test me. I’m put up with more violence than you can know.” She stepped back. The flames were close, the heat must have been intense. Seth could barely stand it from his position in the doorway.
Adam shook his head. “Little woman. You’re insignificant. It pains me to see how such potential has never been trained. You’ll not burn anything. You will hand over the book and I’ll let you go.”
The lies were blatant but Seth didn’t think Judy would fall for them.
But, she did. Doubt and hope flashed on her face, the eyes widened and sought Seth. But she flicked them upwards, and he thought he understood. She was telling him to get out. This was just a delaying tactic. Seth moved, using the wall for support, he hopped along the edge of the room, each movement causing a sharp pain in his chest. And he paused in the threshold of the treatment room. Whatever she was thinking of doing, she’d better do it fast.
Adam had had enough waiting. He leapt forwards, hands grasping across the altar seeking to grab her or the book, Seth wasn’t sure. But Judy was ready. She deftly stepped aside and without further debate, tossed the book into the flames.
“No!” Adam howled and ignoring Judy completely, he ran around the altar, giving Judy the opportunity to race for the door. She grabbed Seth’s arm and helped him move.
“Brace the door,” he told her and she let go, took a quick inventory of the treatment room.
“This will have to do,” she said, and slammed shut the door to the chamber before dragging an equipment trolley in front. “Might hold him for a few minutes.”
It would have to do.
Again, she supported Seth and got him out of the treatment room. “Is that it? Is it over?”
Seth’s eyes had barely a chance to get accustomed to the darkness of the hospital corridor. The smoke from the fire in the ritual chamber was thickening the air, stinging his eyes.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. He couldn’t say what made him so uneasy but it was something. The feelings he’d had ever since stepping inside the building were stronger than ever. Not just the remnants of the evil the Adherents had done here, but a greater thing. It was as if the hospital had been dormant when they’d entered, but their presence had stirred it into wakefulness. He got a sense that they were trapped inside the belly of the beast.
And it was angry.
“This way,” Judy said, “I remember.”
Seth had been unconscious on his way into the ritual chamber. She would need to lead.
A sudden pain in his ribs stopped him, made him wince.
“We need to get you looked at,” she said.
“I think I’m done with hospitals for a while.” But this wasn’t just the pain in his ribs. It was a warning.
Charlie.
He sensed the fire before he saw it. And those few seconds were enough time to pull on Judy’s arm and into a secondary corridor heading ninety degrees to the main route.
A wall of fire rolled along the main corridor, encompassing the space they’d been standing moments before. The heat struck them both, and they turned to run away from the flames, along the corridor Seth had guided them to. Away from their way out.
35
His left leg was useless, and he relied on the continuous support from Judy to keep moving. She grunted under his weight but never complained. There was never any question of her leaving him behind.
“That’s not the fire from the sanctum,” she said breathlessly. They’d reached the end of the corridor and followed it right. Ahead of them a steel door. They both hesitated. Seth knew she was wondering the same thing as he was, but the door wasn’t an Almost Door. The thing existed in this realm.
“Our exit?” Seth suggested. A sign above the door read fire exit. Possibly too convenient.
“That fire. That wasn’t natural.”
“The hospital isn’t ready for us to leave.”
“And yet, there’s this.” She meant the fire escape.
Behind them, the noise of the fire was getting louder. Something shattered from the heat. Ominous clouds of smoke rolled around the end of the corridor, filling the air with noxious gases.
“We don’t have a choice,” Seth replied.
She helped him up to the door, and he seized the handle and pushed. It squealed in protest but moved all the same. They found themselves on a section of flat roof. The clean air was deliciously crisp and Seth inhaled deep lungfuls. But the sudden relief of being free of the fires evaporated at the prospect of being outside in just his underwear.
She shivered against him. “We need to find a way down,” she said.
Seth was already scanning the edge of the roof, looking for something suitable. There was no way they could jump without killing themselves—they were four stories up. The rain had stopped, which was a relief, but water had gathered in pools on the roof, reflecting shards of moonlight. To Seth, they were eyes scrutinising him, condemning him to his fate for challenging the might of the hospital.
“Over here.” Judy had struck gold—at the back of the roof, she’d found a metal railing protruding over the lip of the roofline. “A fire escape, of sorts.” The “fire escape” was little more than a metal ladder attached to the outside of the building, leading down to a narrow platform ten feet from the courtyard below. There was no sign of any means to get down from the lower platform. “We’ll be trapped on there,” Seth said.
“We’ll jump.”
“We’ll break our necks.”
“A better fate than we had available to us a few minutes ago.”
“OK, but you go first,” he told her.
She wasn’t going to argue and grabbed hold of the ladder top and swung her
self onto the precarious fixture. As it took her weight, the whole thing juddered and trembled. Her eyes widened and she froze. Seth reached for her arm, meaning to pull her back to safety but before he could, she brushed him aside. “I’m fine. It’s old that’s all. I’m not planning on jumping up and down on it. I don’t suggest you do either.”
“OK, but take it steady.”
“Not on your life.” And she’d taken another step down when a shout from below pulled Seth’s attention.
Malc had the others out in the courtyard and had just spotted them up on the roof. “What the hell are you—” The wind caught the end of his sentence but Seth replied. “The fire’s spreading. We were trapped.”
And he encouraged Judy down the ladder. “Malc will help you once you get to the platform.”
She nodded and a wisp of a smile stirred her lips then faded as the determination set in again. She hurried, and Seth took hold of the top of the ladder, meaning to wait until Judy was safely on the platform before he began his descent. The ladder groaned again. An old man’s discomfort at getting out of a chair after a nap. A curious reverberation began, a lilting song of vibrating steel. Each rung Judy moved to, caused the reverberation to become worse. He held his breath as she reached the half-way point.
“What are you waiting for?” she called.
“I don’t think it will take both of us.”
Below, Malc was trying to console the others. He’d already given up his jacket to Glenda and was now removing his jumper to pass to Alisha.
The wind was picking up again. If Seth stayed up here much longer, he would be turned into an icicle. At the edge of his hearing, a distant footstep made him turn. Adam was behind him. Burnt and barely even human looking anymore. His anger had twisted his features into something from a nightmare. Eyes were dark and piercing, the skin red from the burns he’d sustained in the fire.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
And from the surrounding darkness, hitchers in waiting.
“We closed the doors.”
“These aren’t my Adherents. The hospital is a perfect magnet for the shadowmen and soon it will be swarming with them. I don’t know what these will do to you. They might not even want your bodies. You should have let my people take your bodies. It would have been a kinder end.”
“This was a centre of peace. A place for the ill and scared to get the help they needed. You twisted that with your sick beliefs, then used their own illnesses against them, knowing they would never be believed about what you were doing.”
“Most welcomed us. This was no enlightened establishment. There was no lefty agenda here. No softly softly approach to treatment. Every man and woman in their charge were dangerous. No one cared for them.”
“Tell that to their families.”
“Their families were glad they were locked up. Don’t kid yourself. Safer for all concerned.”
“Times have changed, but history won’t look back and regard you with anything but contempt. You created a cult, recruited the worst people you could find and twisted even those.”
“The brotherhood will stand the test of history. You won’t even be a footnote.”
Seth heard a clang from below and chanced a glance at the platform. Judy had made it. He was free to use the ladder but that would mean being trapped on the ladder whilst Adam was above them. They’d be nothing to stop Adam from following. It wasn’t a prospect he savoured.
“You had a hitcher already. That was unexpected.”
Seth moved away from the edge. He didn’t want Adam focusing on the platform below. “I didn’t plan this.”
“But why come back here?” Adam asked.
“The same reason I do most things. For the money.”
“You had to come back to the hospital. You didn’t have a choice. You go way back with this building.”
Seth nodded. “I used to live close. It was the last thing I’d see at night before drawing the curtains. I always hated this place.”
“Your sister didn’t seem to mind it.”
Seth frowned. His cheeks felt suddenly hot. “Don’t talk about my sister.”
“You’re still protective of her.” He chuckled. “Interesting. She died here, in this place.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“And you were just a boy.”
“I’m not talking about this.”
“The building is aflame. We are trapped. You will die. Now would seem as good a time as any to talk about what a fine addition to the brotherhood she would have made.”
What was he talking about? Seth glanced at the hitchers, the shadowmen of the hospital. These were larger than the ones from the ritual chamber, more real, more dangerous. But despite Adam’s statement that they were not under his control, they seemed to be waiting.
“Kelly died of a drug overdose.”
“That’s right,” Adam replied. “In the outbuilding we used for disposing of our incriminating evidence.”
Seth was finding it more difficult to breathe, and it wasn’t just the rising smoke. “You’re full of bullshit. You might have been able to convince your followers you were the chosen one, but I’ve known more honest used car salesmen.”
But Adam wasn’t about to shut up. “Kelly was dating a man called Hugh. She’d been seeing him for the six months before her death. Hugh was dealing her at my instruction. Hugh was one of my Adherents. This was part of her initiation.”
Seth’s blood ran cold. “Not true.” But he thought back to that man she’d hung out with. The man who Dad had chased away from the house frequently.
Adam stared at Seth with pity and Seth wanted to curl his hands around the bastard’s throat and force the life out of him.
“I get you’re angry,” Adam said. “I guess you have a lot to be angry about.”
“I’m pissed all right. You’ve hurt a lot of people.”
“You don’t care about these ants. You only came here to satisfy your own curiosity, confirm what you already suspected, that Kelly was doing more than just drugs when she came to the hospital.”
“Don’t say her name. Don’t you dare say it.”
“Kelly was eager. She wanted so desperately to step out of your parents’ shadows. Make something of herself. Become something bigger. I mean, what hope did she have of achieving anything otherwise? She wasn’t bright in the conventional sense. I doubt she’d ever manage to hold down a job. Taking our oath was the best thing she had going for her.”
It was hard to think. He had to get down. Cries from the people on the ground, his friends, were getting drowned out by the memories in his head, the lies that Adam was spewing from his filthy mouth.
“Your Adherent killed my sister,” he said as calmly as he could which wasn’t very calm at all now. At his sides, his hands clenched into fists involuntarily, no longer his.
“The drug killed your sister. She was getting high as part of her initiation. It’s just unfortunate they gave her a hit from a dangerously contaminated batch. We had to get rid of her. We didn’t need the attention.”
“You abandoned her in a storage shed.”
“The best we could do until we had time to dispose of her properly. But you upset those plans. You upset a lot of things. If it hadn’t been for you, we’d have continued here. You brought the police in—the wrong police, and we couldn’t do enough to stop the fallout.” His eyes narrowed. “I see that you’re not accusing me of lying anymore.”
And the realisation that Adam was right hurt like a needle breaking his skin.
Adam ran for him then. With nowhere to go, Seth readied himself for the assault, leaning into the attack and shoulder charging his attacker. They both fell to the ground. Johnny’s face, no Adam’s face, displaying a sheen from his exposure to the fire below. But it wasn’t just the fire that had changed things, features were more intense, uglier.
And his breath, hot and thick, like the bottom of a skip. Seth gasped.
With a knee to Adam’s chest,
Seth twisted away from under him, the awkward movement sending a fiery warning from his ribs. With a terrible cracking a tear in the roof formed. A gash from the edge of the building raced to the opposite end. Flames rose through the scar, creating a wall of fire between Seth and the ladder to the platform below. The hospital didn’t want him to leave. It didn’t want either of them to leave. And behind him, the shadowmen stood guard, watching, preventing any retreat to the stairwell.
“The hospital wants us dead,” Seth said to Adam.
The two men appraised each other across the rooftop. Uncertainty flashed across Adam’s face.
“I’ve died many times. How much do you fear it?”
The cries from his friends on the ground were almost completely drowned out by the crackling flames.
“I’m not afraid.”
“More fool you.”
Seth thought of Charlie. Where was he when his help was needed? Things had gone curiously quiet from his hitcher since arriving on the roof. No sign of a way out. Seth faced the hospital shadowmen, saw the barrier they’d created. It was worth the risk. Better than the other option.
“Good luck with the new body,” Seth said to Adam and ran for the roof exit. The shadows reacted as one, movements impossibly fast. A blur of darkness tore at his body, gouging his tired frame. Shadow claws tore at his naked flesh, burning cuts made him gasp in pain. Reluctantly, Seth gave up trying to break through, for now, it was enough to survive. And he found that didn’t fit their plans. Trapped in a well of shadows, senses all but blind to the assault, only pain remained.
It began with a pull from his chest. Something inside was struggling to get out. He realised with a weary sense of relief that it was Charlie, his hitcher, leaving it to the last moment to help him. Seth didn’t think even his hitcher could save him now. Surely, they were all damned.
The pulling continued, a gentle pressure building quickly to a moment of pain, then it was out of him.
The Dark Corners Box Set Page 22