Duet

by O'Gorman, Brian

  For the first time, the water looked at the world through eyes that were built for humans. It began to realise what its new host could do. It could feel all the weaknesses and more than that it could feel all its strengths. It began to rifle through June’s memories and knowledge like it had discovered a box of old photographs

  “It’s time for us to grow,” said the water in June’s old voice and then it began to laugh.

  Outside the window the water in the reservoir began to run in little streams in all directions. It was time to go and meet the residents of Hurndell. The June water turned from the window and began to walk towards the exit.

  3.

  Louis had dropped Greg off at home to face the music. Nicola was a good and supportive woman but Louis had quietly bet to herself that Nick was going to hit the fucking roof when she found out that they had both been suspended. She really fucking hated Soames right now. She knew that she had fucked up and she was still wondering just how on earth she had allowed herself to be that stupid. She wasn’t normally someone who could be so easily led. She scolded herself for being so easily suckered by a pretty face and her own need for warm skin. She wished that she had just gone out to a pub somewhere and grabbed the nearest willing human to take out her pent up frustration on. Perhaps if she had, she wouldn’t be facing the reality that she and Greg might lose their jobs. She thought that she might be able to save Greg’s career if nothing else, perhaps that would be some consolation. Maybe she could become a private detective of some sort and help people track down lost relatives or set honey traps for many a cheating husband or wife. Perhaps she could even use herself as the bait. She figured if she was going to do that then she might want to lose a few pounds. Then she flicked her mind over to the fact that she had managed to pull a pretty good looking woman in Tina. She didn’t think that someone like that would even pay her any attention at all, let alone do what she did to her. She could still feel her down there, her perfectly placed tongue bringing her to the heights of pleasure. She shook it off, mindful of the fact that she was still driving. She didn’t want to go and add a road accident into the mix. Writing off the car would be the final fucking straw. She realised that she would likely have to return the car in the morning if she was on suspension. Perhaps Soames would at least allow her a night’s sleep before they had the book thrown at them. She wanted to throw something at him, the short tempered prick. His moods were normally pretty unpredictable; she never knew which version of him she was going to be talking to at any given time. It was just a good job that diplomacy was one of her strong points, and so was biting her tongue and counting to ten silently under her breath.

  Right now, she had more important things to think about than Soames, or his bad temper. She had to get to the Super and tell him what Greg had told her. He said that June knew what was going on out there in the reservoir. There was something in there that was causing the water to be deadly. She hadn’t quite understood what he meant. He had said that it wasn’t in the water, but it was the water. He had told her some other stuff that June had said, but it had been all too crazy for any of it to be true. It was talk of an alien, something that had adapted to the surroundings that it had found itself in. Perhaps June was finally losing the last fragile pieces of her broken mind. That had to be it, didn’t it? She was hoping so, and she kept telling herself that was exactly what it was, just some sort of chemical spill, or perhaps sabotage. That was far more likely. She kept on putting that theory to herself and nodding her head in agreement as she drove the car towards the station but every time she tried to make the theory sit, something would nag at her, the things she had seen. She had watched Bentley burn away in front of her and spit water across the room. Surely there was no chemical on earth that could cause that to happen to any living thing right? Well, she could tell the Super all about it and then it would be out of her hands. Then she could get on with her suspension, beginning with a shit load of drink at the pub. Perhaps she could even abuse her police powers to find out where Tina lived. Perhaps she could go round there and see if she wanted to finish what they had started. Perhaps her suspension was the holiday that she needed. Perhaps it was time that she fucked off the police work and retired to the coast just like she had wanted to. Perhaps even take the money she had been saving and fuck off out of this country all together and go to pastures new, somewhere warmer and more welcoming. Her mother had always told her to make the best of every situation she had found herself in, no matter how bad it was. Now it would seem that it was time to put the theory to the test.

  She arrived at the station and was immediately put on her guard by the fact that the forensics van was parked right outside the door. There was yellow tape across the door and a guard had been assigned. The guard was Patterson who was normally a desk sergeant. Things must have been bad for him to leave his safety zone. Patterson was two years off retirement. He had plans for the coast too.

  “Patty, what’s happened?” she said.

  “You won’t believe it Louis. I think that Jack Soames is dead,” he said, keeping his voice low.

  “What do you mean dead? How can he be dead?” said Louis. The news wouldn’t register with her brain at first.

  “Got no idea. We are pretty sure its him, but he is so badly messed up its hard to tell. I think forensics are getting his dental records to try and match.”

  “How?....When?....”

  “He came back in absolutely steaming angry. I don’t even know what pissed him off because he didn’t say a word. You know what he’s like when something gets under his skin.”

  Louis nodded, she knew only too well.

  “Anyway, he goes off and I didn’t see him for ages. I went for a slash and there is all this water all over the bathroom. It’s coming from one of the cubicles, so I bangs on the door. Nobody answers, so I have a look over the top, just in case someone has passed out or something and then I see the body.”

  “What happened to him, has he topped himself?”

  Patterson lowered his head towards Louis. “Looked to me like someone skinned him alive Louis. But, there is not a trace of blood anywhere, and the bones they looked…”

  “Stripped clean, like they had been boiled.”

  Patterson’s eyes widened. “You’ve seen it before.”

  “It’s the water Patty, it’s dangerous. You need to tell everyone to stay away from it. Something is in the water. I have to go.” Said Louis and began to run for her car. As she turned away from Patterson she nearly bumped into Tina, she was coming in the opposite direction.

  “Louis, it’s the home. The residents. June….she…they’re all dead. June, she’s next…I”

  “Come on,” she said to Tina and grabbed her hand. They both ran for the car. She got them out on the road and she dialled Greg’s number. She hoped that she wasn’t too late.

  Patterson went straight inside and upstairs to the bathroom where the forensic team were working. He rounded the corner and saw that most of the team were lying on the floor. One of them had half the skin on his face still remaining. The rest of them were unrecognisable. Their skin had been burned right off the bones. There was nothing left but their clothes and a selection of their internal organs. Patterson fled as fast as his legs could carry him. Like Louis he pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to dial, starting with his wife. He too was hoping that it wasn’t too late.

  4.

  Nicola’s face had contorted into a confused look when Greg had walked in the door a good few hours before he was due. She hadn’t been in the house long herself after visiting her mother all day. She was beginning to think about what she was going to serve up this evening. However, she was hoping that Greg would be happy with just soup and a sandwich. It was customary for when she went to visit mother that she be fed to the point of bursting. She would also be given cup after cup of tea and would try and set off home before the rush hour hit. She had taken on this routine after she had been caught in one of the traffic jams with her bla
dder painfully full after the onslaught of tea. If she set off an hour earlier she would miss the traffic and arrive home just as she was reaching her urinary tipping point. Today had been no different and she was going to settle on the couch for a nap for an hour and then start prepping for Greg coming home. But today he was early. He looked like he had been right through the mill. His skin looked pale and waxy and there was no smile on his face which there usually would be when it was home time. She walked over to him and put her arms around him. He stiffened at first and then relaxed and joined in the hug. After a moment he planted a small kiss on her ear and she knew that it wasn’t anything that she had done wrong and it was a work thing that was bothering him.

  “You O.K. my sexy man?” she said in his ear.

  He sighed, a deep and shaky sigh. “Yeah, I will be. I just had one of those days.”

  That, of course, was a generous understatement if ever there was one. It had been the single most trying day of his life. It had started with him witnessing a death first hand and culminated with getting the bollocking of all bollockings off one of his senior officers. He decided there and then that he wasn’t going to say anything to Nick until everything had been made formal and he knew exactly where he stood as far as his career went. There was no point in letting her worry herself. He knew she would be supportive of him, but she was a worrier. She would be up all night worrying and asking question after question about what was going to happen to them. It would be better that he had all the facts in front of him before all that shit came to pass.

  “Wanna talk about it?” said Nick in his ear.

  “Yeah sure,” he said not quite knowing what he was going to come up with.

  “Shall I make us some coffee first?” she said.

  He heard June’s words inside his head and a bolt of fear flicked through him. He pulled away from Nicola and looked at her in the eyes.

  “Nick, you need to stay away from the water, there is something wrong with it, I….” he broke off not really knowing how to finish the sentence and make it sound like he hadn’t completely lost his mind.

  “Greg, what are you talking about? What’s wrong with the water?”

  He took a deep breath and picked his words carefully. “There was a man in the hospital. He had been out night fishing. He put his hand in the water and it took all the flesh off it. I don’t really know what’s in there, but you have to stay away from the water. I don’t even know how much of it is affected. Just drink the bottled stuff, that will be alright. I need to make some calls, get the word out before people start getting hurt.”

  “Why? Doesn’t Louis know? Doesn’t your Superintendent know?”

  “Louis knows, but I didn’t have chance to….There wasn’t time…” he turned away from her and shook his head.

  “Greg, what’s going on? Your keeping something from me.” she said. He voice was beginning to quiver.

  It was no use; he was going to have to confess everything. He supposed in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t such a big deal. It wasn’t as if it was life or death he was talking about. He was about to turn around and tell her when his phone rang in his pocket. He scrambled it out and looked at the screen. It was Louis. Perhaps she had some better news for him that might just drag him out of the shit he was in right now. He punched the button and put the phone to his ear.

  “Greg, don’t say anything just listen,” said Louis. She sounded frantic which immediately put him on edge. He had never heard her sound like that in all the time they had been working together.

  “Soames has been found dead at the station. His body was all messed up just the same way as Bentley, just the same way as the deer and just the same way as the ducks. All the residents of the nursing home have been killed too. It’s in the water Greg, and not just the reservoir, it’s all the water in Hurndell. It might have spread to the surrounding areas too. I can’t get hold of anyone Greg, not the Super, not anyone. I’m on my way to yours right now. We need to warn as many people as we can before it’s too late.”

  “Louis,” Greg yelled into the phone. “What about June Dobson? Is she dead?”

  “I don’t know Louis. She might be.”

  “We have to find her Louis, she is the only one who knows anything about the thing in the water.”

  Louis started to say something but the signal began to flatline. Her voice started to cut out and then the line went dead.

  “Shit,” said Greg and stuffed his phone back in his pocket.

  “What’s happening Greg, just tell me what’s going on. I’m scared,” said Nicola. Her hands were clasped together in the middle of her chest almost as if she was going to pray for a miracle. He stepped forwards and put his hands on her shoulders.

  “Get yourself ready, grab a few things. Louis is coming to pick us up. Whatever is going on with the water, it’s beginning to spread. We need to cut it off before it goes too far. If you are with me then I can keep you safe, O.K.?”

  She nodded her head. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She turned and ran up the stairs to grab her things leaving Greg to mull over what he needed to take with him. There was a very good chance that when all of this got out that they would be evacuated. He followed Nicola up the stairs to grab his essentials from out of their bedroom and the bathroom. When he got into the bedroom he saw that Nicola was already stuffing changes of clothes and other essential items into an overnight bag. He decided to leave her to it and go straight for the stuff in the bathroom. He went in and grabbed their toothbrushes and Nicola’s sanitary products. He also opened the mirror cupboard and grabbed her pill and some paracetamol. There wasn’t anything else essential that they needed, he was pretty sure of that. He was just closing the cupboard when he heard something that made him freeze where he was standing. It sounded like water bubbling. It only happened for a brief second but he knew that he had heard it. He looked to his right at the toilet. The seat had been left up and to his horror he saw that the water level in the bowl was rising up at an alarming rate. In a moment it would be reaching the top and spilling out onto the tiled floor. Greg knew, right then, that what June had told him had been true, every word of it. The water was alive, it was hungry and it was coming for them right now. His momentary paralysis broke and he ran from the bathroom. He screamed Nicola’s name so loud that he thought that he had ruptured his voice box. The volume of his shout caused he to run from the bedroom to him dragging the bag behind her.

  “What’s happening?” she said in a breathless voice.

  “We have to go, right now!” he yelled and pointed in the direction of the bathroom.

  Water was beginning to cascade over the side of the toilet bowl. The moment it hit the floor it didn’t spread out in a puddle like water normally did, it began to run towards them in a steady stream.

  “What’s….” began Nicola, but Greg cut her off by dragging her down the stairs with him. They got just three steps before Nicola lost her footing and fell onto Greg. They both tumbled the last three quarters of the way to the bottom of the stairs. Greg manoeuvred himself so that Nicola would be cushioned by his body and avoid injury but as they got to the bottom, his foot caught in the edge of the banister and Nicola crashed into his outstretched leg with her full body weight. It was a no contest. Greg felt his knee bend backwards at an eye watering angle. He felt a pop inside the joint followed by a burst of almighty pain that made him tip his head backwards against the floor of the hallway and scream savagely through his gritted teeth. Nicola scrambled over him and got to her feet. Thinking fast, she went round to the banister and gave his stuck foot a shove to set him free. He bellowed again, but managed to turn over and push himself up and his good leg.

  “Shit, it is broken?” she said.

  “I don’t know, I’m going to try and put some weight on it,” he said. He braced himself against the wall and slowly put his dangling foot on the floor. There was nothing at first and then his knee began to bear some of his body weight and the pain exploded again. The world beg
an to swim in front of his eyes and he bit down on the inside of his cheek until he began to feel the coppery taste of his own blood on his tongue. The room came back into focus and he was left with the damning reality that his knee was fucked up. He could feel the swelling around it beginning to push on the material of his trousers. He hopped on his good leg and managed to turn himself around and steady his weight on the edge of the banister. He was about to tell Nicola that it would be O.K. and that it was just an accident when he looked up the stairs and saw the water beginning to cascade down the stairs.

  “You have to help me get out of here, it’s coming,” he said.

  Nicola looked up the stairs and saw the water running down the stairs in an ever increasing torrent. She turned and took two big steps towards the front door and tore it open. She went back to Greg and put her weight under the arm that was on the banister and held him up as best she could. They began to move slowly towards the open door. Nicola did the best she could but Greg outweighed her by about eight stone and was a good foot taller than her. They had just managed to get outside of the door when the water made it to the hallway. Greg could hear it coming, even over the shuffling of their combined feet. He knew it was going to catch them and it was going to turn them into piles of bleached bones and internal organs and it was going to hurt like a bastard. It would be more painful for him to have to see Nicola die in that kind of pain, screaming for help that he couldn’t give to her. This wonderful, kind and beautiful woman was going to die right in front of him and his heart felt like it was going to burst. But he knew that if she could get a head start and he was in the path of the water that it would slow down for a moment whilst it dealt with him.

  “Leave me Nick, get the fuck out of here,” he said, his voice close to cracking.