Duet

by O'Gorman, Brian

  Greg was about to ask him what he was talking about when Bentley’s whisper began to change. It became a choking, gargling sound, like there was liquid inside the man’s throat. Greg turned his face towards Bentley and he saw that he was choking. His eyes were rolled over white and his lips were starting to turn blue. Greg scrambled for the alarm button and managed to click it into place. He went back to Bentley and saw with increasing horror that Bentley’s mouth was filling up with water. It began to bubble and foam past his lips and run down his cheeks. Greg yanked him over onto his side, sending the drip stand clattering to the floor. He slapped Bentley’s back to try and get him to cough but all he did was utter a strangled gargling sound. Greg squatted down in front on Bentley’s face and tried to open his airway by putting his fingers in Bentley’s mouth. Some of the water got onto Greg’s fingers and he snatched them away. The water was burning his fingers and it didn’t stop, even when he had pulled his hand away. Greg looked at his fingers and now his initial horror became stark terror. The skin on his fingers was burning away. No, it wasn’t burning away, it was being eaten away. The skin began to thin and then break. Blood threatened to spill out of the new wounds but instead retracted and disappeared. Then the soft pink meat under the skin began to shrink right before his eyes. He wanted to shake it off, or run screaming out of the room in the hopes that someone could help him, but his feet were rooted to the floor and his body felt like it was paralysed. His chest tightened and his breath would only come in short sharp whistles. He could see the bones, the bones of his eaten fingers poking out from under the flesh. Then he saw that the decay was beginning to run up his arm. He was suddenly distracted by the sound of a gurgling, water-laden voice. It was laughing at him. His eyes flicked to Bentley, he was getting up out of bed and he had a sickening smile spread over his face. He opened his mouth wide and suddenly a torrent of water roared out of his mouth and soaked Greg from head to foot. Almost immediately, he felt the burning all over his skin. He was being eaten alive. He drew in a breath and tried to scream with as much might as he could muster, but his throat was so constricted with terror that only a low braying noise managed to escape. He felt his face being eaten away and he squeezed his eyes shut waiting for it to start burning his eyes….waiting….waiting…

  His eyes flew open. He was sat in the chair again. His heart was thudding in his chest and his lungs were devoid of air. He sucked in a long gasping breath and leaned forwards whilst he got his breathing and his heart rate under control again. He looked down at his hands and they were unmarked. The skin was still intact. Nothing had eaten them. The black spots in front of his eyes began to fade as the oxygen began to circulate his body in a normal manner again. He turned his head to look at Bentley and relieved to see that he was still out, he wasn’t staring at him like he thought he would be.

  “Just a dream,” he said to himself, “Just a crazy dream.” But there was a small fearful part of his mind that thought that it might be a vision instead. He shook the thought off and kept his mind focused on the solution that he wanted, he had nodded off and had a dream, that was all.

  A voice drifted to him, it was a quiet and whispering voice, drifting to his ears.

  It’s in the Water….

  He looked over at Bentley, but he was still out of it. Greg began to wonder if he had heard the voice in the room or just in his head. He decided that he was beginning to lose his mind, perhaps it was due to not getting enough sleep the last few days. He suddenly didn’t want to be in this room on his own with Bentley anymore. He didn’t want the guy to wake up and start talking to him, just in case he began to repeat the things he had heard in the dream. If that happened, he might just go running out of the hospital with his hands pulling at his hair screaming. He stood up and began to walk towards the door, trying not to hurry to a point where it was obvious that he was making a break for it. The hair on the back of his neck began to prickle. He was certain that at any moment he was going to feel a cold, icy hand grip the back of his shirt and pull him backwards into the room. He felt his legs buzzing as they tried to tell his brain to move faster and get him out of there. He had just got to the door and was about to go out of it when Louis suddenly rounded the corner of the door frame with two Styrofoam cups in her hands. Greg let out a reflexive yell of terror and jumped backwards. He nearly lost his footing but manged to get his balance back just at the last moment.

  “Jeez Gregory, what the fuck is eating you?” said Louis, trying her best not to laugh at him.

  “Christ almighty, you scared the shit out of me,” said Greg clutching at his chest and panting. He began to laugh, Louis joined in and he felt that uneasy psychological cold pocket beginning to ebb away. There was always a cure for anything with a little laughter, his mother had told him that and he had believed it from the moment he heard it.

  “Did you find anything out” said Greg taking his cup of coffee from Louis.

  “Nothing new, they all tell the same story. I guess all we can do is wait for Bentley to wake up.”

  “Well I think we are going to be waiting around here a long time, he is doped up to the eyeballs.”

  Louis sighed and slurped coffee, “Well, why don’t we make ourselves comfortable for a while and see if anything happens. Let’s say two hours, if he hasn’t moved then why don’t you go and talk to June Dobson, see if you can get anything else out of the old buzzard.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes really. She likes you Greg, you are a pretty boy. Play your cards right, you might get a shag out of it,” said Louis, smirking.

  “God Louis, you are a sicko,” said Greg screwing his face up in disgust.

  They made themselves as comfortable as they could in Bentley’s cramped room. Louis brought in another chair so they could both be comfortable. Louis had been sat down for less than two minutes when her head began to nod. She fought it for a while, but before long she was snoring away with her chin resting on her chest. Greg watched her for a little while, wondering if she was going to have a bad dream just as he did. But, she just slept, there was no twitching, no talking in her sleep and certainly no screaming. Greg thought that he was probably due a holiday soon, that’s why he was having bad dreams, he needed to unplug for a little while and recharge the old batteries. He began to daydream about where he and Nicola could go. It had to be somewhere hot, he knew that. Then he could spend all day looking at Nicola in her bikini and all night taking out his pent up energy on her. It sounded like a plan to him, he had enough money stored away to make it memorable. Just to make it all a bit more fun he decided that he was going to organise it without telling Nicola and then surprise her with it. He would certainly get lucky when he told her that one, he…

  He snapped his head back up, he had started to drift off himself. He couldn’t stay here, he would just end up sleeping the day away. He gave Louis a nudge. She uttered a loud snore and her head popped up. She looked faintly embarrassed.

  “I’m going to go and talk to June Dobson, there’s no point in us both being here.”

  Louis frowned at him momentarily, “Yeah….er…O.K. Greg, you go for it,” said Louis rummaging the car keys out of her pocket and handing them to him.

  “You sure you can handle this Louis?” he said on his way out the door.

  “Don’t be a smart arse Greggy, it doesn’t suit you,” she called after him. She was dozing again less than a minute later. And twenty minutes later, just as Greg was arriving at the old folks home where June Dobson resided, Bentley began to open his eyes.

  10.

  The view on the hill where Barrington residents home was located was even more breath-taking today. The reservoir was crystal clear and an almost perfect shade of blue. The sun was blazing down, even though the temperature was still a little on the cooler side. By the middle of the day it was going to be the kind of day that Greg would usually suggest a drink in the beer garden. As he was walking up to the door he was thinking about a day last year when he had driven past his fa
vourite beer garden at the Jodrell Arms. That year had been a particularly productive year for wasps and the garden had been plagued by the little bastards. As he had driven past with Nicola in the passenger seat he had seen that the garden was almost full and most of the patrons were out of their seats flapping away at the stripy little fuckers buzzing round their heads. He and Nicola had laughed so hard at this circus that he had to pull the car over until they had got it out of their systems. The wasp population wasn’t anywhere near those levels at the moment and Greg was thankful. Had he been in that beer garden that day he would have been shrieking like a schoolgirl at the wasp invasion. He didn’t like to lose his manly focus in front of his wife, no matter how funny she found it. He reached the door and pressed the button on the intercom. There was a hollow clonk as the receptionist came onto the line and offered him a cheery hello. He announced his name and his business and the door buzzed allowing him to go inside. The metallic voice came to meet him at the door and he removed his hat dutifully as she did so. She was a twenty something girl dressed in the most startling array of gaudy colours that he had ever seen on a human being. She had a huge bow in her hair which wafted around as she moved. She had a pale and freckly complexion that suggested to Greg that her dark hair was naturally ginger. He momentarily wondered if the collar matched the cuffs as Nicola would say. He almost burst out laughing but instead managed to offer a cheery smile. She returned his smile with lips that were painted a shade of red that was perhaps a little bit too bright. Her eye makeup looked like it had been applied with a trowel.

  “Hello again officer…?”

  “Oh I just answer to Greg,” he said offering his hand which she gently shook.

  “How can I help you today…Greg,” she said and blushed a little.

  “I just need a quick chat with June Dobson if that’s alright with you.”

  She looked momentarily flustered. “Oh, yes I suppose that would be alright, but you see the problem is that June has been behaving rather erratically this morning. She was up very early as usual but she is just sat staring out of the window. She won’t even drink her tea which is a sure sign that something is not right with her.”

  Greg shrugged, “If I could just have a moment with her, if she is not up to it then I will leave her be and try again another day.”

  The gaudy girl thought it over for a moment and then her face brightened again. “O.K, that would be fine. If you would like to follow me,” she said and began to lead the way, her long pleated skirt swished around her bare legs as she walked. Greg couldn’t help but look at them. Again he noted the pale skin and wondered about the cuffs. He felt laughter rising up in his belly again and he bit his tongue to stop it from emerging. She led him through the lounge where the odd resident looked up from their morning newspaper or took their eyes from the television for a moment to watch Greg cross the room. She stopped just behind the tall back chair which sat in front of the window. Peeping over the top of it was a collection of curly grey hair.

  “Here you go. Just shout me if you need anything, my name is Tina Bradley,” said Tina.

  Greg thanked her and she walked away. He watched her go for a moment and he decided he rather liked Tina Bradley.

  “She fancies you, you know that don’t you,” said a wavering voice from the chair. “And why wouldn’t she. She hasn’t had a boyfriend for a while and you are a good looking young man.”

  Greg went round to the front of the chair and June looked up at him and offered him a smile. As she did so a single tear rolled down her left cheek.

  “I knew you would come. We have a lot to talk about. Why don’t you pull up a chair and get us a cup of tea. This is going to be thirsty work young man.”

  June drank her tea in pretty much one fell swoop. The home never made them too hot just in case a resident decided to have an unscheduled nap in the middle of their tea drinking.

  “Now that hit the spot. Pity it goes cold so fast, no chance of dipping a biscuit in it, you just got to drink it as quick as you can. Now then young man. We have some things we need to talk about don’t we.”

  “The water…”

  June raised a crooked finger at him. “Yes, the water. Now why don’t you just sit and listen. I don’t know how long it’s going to be before things go dark again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My mind goes dark. I lose the ability to think straight. Everything goes a little haywire. That’s why you find me stealing things out of shops that I would swear on my life that I have paid for. The darkness comes for me young man, but sometimes, just sometimes I’m allowed back into the light again. Right now, all the lights are on Greg, I can see things very clearly.”

  “I don’t even remember telling you my name and how did you know that I would come?”

  June cackled. Her body shook with laughter. “I got a gift Greg. Had it since I was about fourteen years old. My mother had the gift too and she passed it onto me. ‘cept when she did so, I got it even more than she did. I can hear things Greg, I can hear things that live in this world and the world that exists on the other side. Made my living with it. You can look me up Greg. I used to work with people all over the country. I would talk to their loved ones for them, pass on the messages from the other side of the curtain if you like.”

  Greg lowered his head and his voice, “Are you telling me that you can talk to the dead?”

  June lowered her head towards him and smiled, “Not just the dead Greg, but the living too. I can hear what you’re thinking. I can hear what everyone is thinking,” she whispered.

  “That’s impossible,” whispered Greg.

  “Oh really? Well, you were trying to work out if young Tina there had ginger pubes weren’t you? Does the collar match the cuffs?”

  Greg jumped backwards as if he had been goosed.

  June cackled again, blasting tea fumes in Greg’s direction. “Don’t you worry about it Greg. She was imagining taking you back into one of the empty bedrooms and letting you find out. Big fan of the cunnilingus is she,” said June and descended into laughter again.

  Despite his shock, Greg laughed along with her.

  “You should go and do it whilst you are still young and vibrant young man. I know you love Nicola, but soon you will be tied down with a family, or you will all be dead if it has its way.”

  Greg jumped again. The world through his eyes was becoming like a disconnected reality. He was unable to comprehend the fact that June knew what he was thinking and pretty much everything about his life.

  “What do you mean? Why would we be dead?” he asked.

  June pointed towards the reservoir outside of the window. “There is something out there Greg, I saw it arrive. It came from the sky and dropped right into the middle of that water. ‘bout an hour later the ducks started screaming out. Something got them Greg, something tore them up. Then it got those deer. When deer scream Greg, it sounds like people screaming. Whatever is out there, it’s getting bigger and it’s getting stronger.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I can hear it Greg. It’s reaching out to me.”

  Greg’s heart was pounding in his chest. A sweat was breaking on his brow. “What does it want?”

  “It’s hungry Greg, it’s so hungry. It wants to eat and it wants to get stronger. It wants to survive. If I didn’t know better, I would say that it’s scared. It wants me for something, but I’m not sure what it is. I’m not sure I want to find out either.”

  June looked out of the window for a moment. Her bottom lip began to quiver.

  “There was a man, he got injured last night, he is alive and he is in the hospital. I’m hoping he can tell us what it is. If we know what it is then we can deal with it.”

  “I know about Bentley, but he is too far gone Greg. It puts the fear of God into you when it attacks. It takes your mind, then it takes your body. It tried to take Bentley’s mind. His mind is a little more open y’know. He has the gift too, but he has no idea. Doesn’t know
how to use it, focus it if you like. I think it has been trying to get in his head, but the door in there isn’t open wide enough. When he screamed, and you can bet he screamed loud and long my dear, he screamed out with his mind too. When he did that, I heard him and I think that thing out there heard me too. A part of it still has him and it’s still trying to get through that door but it’s about to give up and move on. When he comes round, you had better run, trust me on that one Greg. You have around two hours before he pops out of his little coma. You need to go Greg. Go spend an hour with Tina, you won’t regret it, just make sure you get back to that hospital in time. I’m going to go to the water Greg, and I’m going to find out what it wants. You come back tomorrow, perhaps I will have more answers for you.”

  Greg hesitated for a moment. June laughed again. “Oh I know you won’t go near Tina. You are a good man Greg and that’s a rare commodity these days. I know that when the chips are down, the only thing you will ever need is Nicola and perhaps it’s a blessing that you may just have the chance to pass through the curtain together. So many of them get lost, like a kid in the middle of the night looking for a place to pee. You need to hold on to her and hold on tight, do you hear me? This little town is going to face its darkest day. The souls of those that are going to depart us soon are screaming out to me Greg, I can feel them and I can almost hear them…the water is….the water is….” She closed her eyes and grimaced as if she was wracked with the most awful pain. Greg started forwards to try and help her but she raised a hand up at him.

  “Don’t you worry young man, I’m just fine. The darkness is coming again, the shadows in my mind are growing. It’s getting me ready for my little trip out. I have to be in the darkness, because if I am in my right mind, I wouldn’t go anywhere near that fucking thing. Go now, and take care of Louis, she needs you more than she would ever tell you. So proud she is, and yet so vulnerable. We all need a little hope Greg. You come back tomorrow. Ask Tina to show you her cunt. I need…Where is my tea?....Christ I’m so tired. I’m going to have a nap, then I can see…then I can…”