Jennings looked up and saw him coming out of the bushes. He felt his bladder let go and he tried to turn and run. Slater saw him aiming the gun at Jennings and tried to scramble for his Taser, but he had put it on the ground when the woman had fallen and now it was partially pinned under her. The gun fired and the shot struck Jennings in the centre of his back and sent an arc of blood, skin and pieces of uniform flying out of his chest. He hit the floor and rolled on his side and began to breathe his last breaths. The masked man turned the gun on Blythe and shot him in the face. His smooth and well-groomed face disintegrated in a hammer smash of bone fragments, brains and blood. The rest of him fell backwards on the gravel like a sack of potatoes. Slater was scrambling desperately for the Taser, thinking that he was next and then he saw that Mask had a double barrelled gun and that it would need reloading. He managed to get the Taser halfway out from under the girl and then Mask saw what he was trying to do. He stepped on Slater’s forearm and then pushed down with all of his body weight. Slaters forearm made a muted cracking sound and Slater roared in pain. Mask removed his foot from Slater’s arm and Slater tried to hold it up to assess the damage. It was broken clean through and his hand was hanging down like it had been killed. The pain was incredible. Mask reached down and picked the Taser up off the floor. He looked it over for a moment and then he stuffed it into his coat pocket. He reached into the other pocket and brought out two shotgun cartridges. He broke open his gun, slotted the cartridges in and snapped the gun closed again.
“Now then Mr. Policeman, it’s time to play the final round. I should just blow your fucking head off right now, but I have a feeling that our friend in there has a bit of a soft spot for other people eh? Perhaps you could persuade him to open the door for us.”
“Fuck you,” said Slater.
“Now then Mr. Policeman, that’s not nice. You should remember your manners otherwise I might get upset and do something nasty, like this.”
He pulled his knife out of his inside pocket and slit the throat of the girl who was still lying on the ground. She suddenly came to life again and started drumming her legs and clawing at her throat.
“You bastard,” said Slater through gritted teeth.
“Yeah, I know, but I have my reasons. Why don’t we go and see your little friend eh? Before someone else gets hurt.”
Without waiting for a reply Mask stepped over Slater and gripped him by the back of his collar. He began to drag him across the gravel and towards the front door. Slater tried to hold his broken arm as still as he could, but the violent way in which he was being dragged made it almost impossible. The limp hand kept on moving and Slater could feel the ends of the broken bones grinding together. He began to feel like he was either going to puke or faint. He screamed at himself inside his own head that if he did that he would stand no chance of resolving all of this. He would fail, and Slater didn’t want to fail, not today. Mask was just a few yards from the door, thinking that he would probably have to break in, but instead, the front door opened and there, right in the doorway was Patrick Hurst.
9.
The two gunshots had sounded like a car backfiring to Patrick. He had no real way of comparing it because he had never heard a gun being fired before. He had certainly never seen anybody get shot before and after he saw the masked man gun down the two police officers, he was pretty certain that he never wanted to see it ever again. They had both gone to the windows at either side of the door when Slater had gone out to see what was happening outside. They saw the injured woman coming out of the bushes and the three men go rushing over to her. Patrick had known, the moment he had seen her that James wasn’t far behind. Sure enough a few moments later the masked man had emerged from the bushes brandishing his shotgun. Patrick had started to bang on the window and yell at Slater to look up. Jenny had done the same. Then the masked man had blown Jennings away. Jenny’s hand had gone up and clapped over her mouth. Patrick wanted to look away, but somehow he was frozen to the spot watching this grotesque scene unfold in front of him. The masked man and then turned and shot Blythe in the head sending a fountain of blood blasting over the driveway.
“We have to get out of here,” said Jenny, pulling at Patrick’s arm. He looked down at her slender fingers trying to pull him away from the window like they were alien to him. Then he looked her in the eye.
“No,” he said.
“No? What do you mean, no?” said Jenny, her voice becoming more frantic.
“Slater was right. If I run, I’m always going to be wondering where he is. I’m always going to be waiting for him to show up. Wherever I go, he will be following me. It has to end now.”
“Patrick, he is going to kill us both….please won’t you listen,” said Jenny. She was trying to sound like she was tough and in control, but there was too much fear in her voice. Tears were beginning to spill out of her eyes.
“I’m not leaving. I’m going to let him in and we are going to find out what he wants. If we run, he will find us and bring us right back here. This is our only….”
They were interrupted by a scream from outside. Patrick looked out of the window and saw Slater holding his newly broken arm up in the air. Patrick squeezed his eyes shut, trying to rid his mind of the grotesque image. Jenny went and looked out the window for herself. She saw the masked man grab Slater by his collar and start dragging him towards the house.
“Oh shit, Patrick. He’s coming this way.”
“I know you don’t agree Jenny, but you are going to have to trust me on this one,” said Patrick. He moved in front of the door and pulled it open.
The masked man stood in front of him. There was a sickening smile spread across the part of his face that was still visible. Drool began to run from the corners of his mouth and run down his chin. He still had hold of Slater in one hand and his gun in the other.
“Patrick Hurst. Aren’t you going to invite me in?” said Mask.
Patrick hesitated for a moment, then he reached his hand out to his side and manoeuvred Jenny so that she was behind him. He took a few steps backwards. He kept his eyes firmly locked on the masked man. Mask’s smile grew wider. There was no humour in that smile, it was like watching a corpse smile. Mask stepped forwards, dragging Slater along with him. Once he was inside he kicked the door shut behind him. He began to chuckle, causing more drool to start coursing down his chin and onto his black top.
“It’s good to be home again Patty,” he said. He let go of Slater who rolled onto his side and began cradling his rapidly swelling forearm. “Now then, shall we get down to business?”
“First you take off that mask, let me see your face, James,” said Patrick.
“James? You think I’m James? Sorry Patty, you got it wrong,” said Mask. He reached his hand up and pulled the mask off his face.
There was silence for a moment then Jenny was the first one to speak.
“Your Richard. You are Richard Hurst aren’t you?” she said.
Patrick couldn’t get his breath for a moment. It was like he had seen a walking, talking corpse. “Dad….is it you?” was all he could get out.
“Yes Patty, it’s me. Surprise!”
Patrick looked him up and down, his eyes danced around the image of his supposedly dead father standing before him.
“How….I thought…it’s…..”
“Let me explain eh Patty? You think that James came along and killed me don’t you, or that I died in an accident of some sort involving that machine in that room back there, but it didn’t quite happen that way. You see, James did come back and see me and he had it in his mind that he was going to kill me using my own machine and take as much DNA from me as he could get, perhaps even sustain himself for a little while. James wanted to be cured, of course he did. But he didn’t know enough about the Pharmacon to know how to use it properly. He had the blueprints stolen, and he had my notes stolen but he had no idea about the modifications that I made to it. I didn’t even note any of them down because I knew that one day he
was going to come back. There was no way he could have coped with that madness in his mind growing bigger and more powerful each day. He called that madness his God. He actually heard the voice of God inside his fucked up mind and I knew it would drive him to come back here. I was ready for him Patty, I was ready for him to come and take a piece of me away so he could silence that voice again. Think about it, he had the minds of nearly a hundred messed up people running through his head. Murderers, rapists, fraudsters, paedophiles all crammed into his tiny mind. He wasn’t a bad person Patrick; don’t you see that? He was just made bad because I fucked up.”
Patrick took a step forwards. A moment ago he was scared, almost quaking in his shoes, but suddenly he felt a deep resonating anger starting to build within him. After all, he was face to face with the man that had killed those two policemen and the girl that were all lying outside on the driveway in pools of their own blood. This was the man that had killed his best friend and his innocent girlfriend. He had a hell of a lot to be angry about.
“Why did you kill Jack? What did he have to do with all of this?” said Patrick.
“I didn’t kill him Patty, James killed him and all the others,” said Richard.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I just saw you kill those policemen outside and that girl. I just watched you do it. That wasn’t James, it was you.”
“You still don’t get it do you Patty. James is here too,” said Richard. He lifted a blood stained finger and pointed at his head. “He’s in here with me, him and his God.”
“It was the machine wasn’t it. The machine did something to both of you, didn’t it,” said Jenny. She was walking towards Richard. She saw Patrick stiffen, ready to step in front of her again but she reached out and grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. That hand squeeze was telling him to trust her, she knew what she was doing.
“Yes my dear, it was. James came back to take his cure. But he wanted all of the cure. He had worked out that if he overpowered the machine then he could not just take my DNA, he could take my mind and my body. He thought that by taking all of it that it would somehow cure him permanently. He wanted to escape the disease,” said Richard. The madness in his eyes looked like it was fading a little. He was beginning to almost look human.
“What happened?” said Jenny softly.
“The machine burned him up. When I came round I could hear James talking to me. But it wasn’t in the room because James was dead. It was inside my head, James was inside my head, and he brought his sickness, his madness with him. I have to stop it. I have to have my cure. James is a killer, but he uses my hands to do it and I have to stop him.”
“How,” said Patrick, “How are you going to stop him.”
“With you Patrick. You hold the same DNA combination as your brother. I’m going to use your body to cure him and to rid me of this curse.”
A numbing horror rolled through Patrick. He didn’t want to end up like his father, he didn’t want his psychotic brother inhabiting his body.
“It’s not going to happen Richard,” said Patrick.
“You have to help me Patty, you have to help me put things right. I could be your Dad again, I could….”
“You have never been a Dad to me Richard. You were a waste of space then and you are a waste of space now. They thought it was you that died in here, I own everything that is yours, all of your money, this house and that fucking machine. You have nothing left you sick piece of shit,” Patrick’s voice rose to a piercing shout, “You are not taking my body, you are not taking anything. You want to be a good father to me then eat that fucking shotgun and do us all a favour.”
Richard began to smile. Drool began to run from the corners of his mouth. He suddenly darted forwards and grabbed hold of Jenny. He spun her round and locked an arm under her chin. He placed the barrel of the shotgun against her head. Jenny kept absolutely still, but she was breathing hard and Patrick could see the stark terror in her eyes.
“Not bad Patty boy, not bad at all. I made sure that they thought it was me that died in that little room. James was going to finish me off one way or the other, so he paid a little visit to a little high ranking policeman. He took his wife home with him to make sure that he did as he was told. He fucked her, a lot and then he killed her. I have the memory of it stuck in my head.”
“Denton,” said Slater from the floor in a strangled voice, “You killed Denton.”
“Very good Mr. Officer sir. When the little experiment didn’t go as planned I had to improvise, so I got Mr. Denton to change the evidence. I had to pretend I was dead because I knew with all that money and this house that sooner or later you would come out from underneath your rock Patty boy. Worked pretty good didn’t it. Imagine my surprise when I found his little wife tied up in James’ flat. I had a go on her myself a couple of times.”
“Bastard….” Croaked Slater and then he fainted, his eyes rolling over white as he went under.
“O.K. enough with the history lessons. I’m going to tell you how it’s going to be Patty boy. We are going to the machine now and I am going to get my cure. If you don’t want to join in, then I’m going to hurt your little lady friend here. If you keep refusing to co-operate, then I’m going to fuck your little lady friend and you will get to watch. If you keep pushing me then I’m going to start cutting pieces off her very, very slowly. Again, you get to watch. I think you know which choice you are going to make Patty boy, so why don’t you lead the way.”
Patrick wanted to jump on him and start squeezing his neck until he turned blue. Then he was going to take his own gun and blow his fucking head off. But he didn’t want to see Jenny get hurt, so instead he turned around slowly and made his way through to the kitchen and the locked door. All the time he was walking he was clenching and unclenching his fists. His fingernails began to dig into the palms of his hands hard enough to draw blood. He got to the door, punched in the code and they went inside. Richard made sure that he closed the door behind them so they wouldn’t be disturbed.
10.
Richard had made sure that everything was going his way. He had put the gun on Jenny and told Patrick to tie her up to the chair near the control panel using some more of his trusty elasticated ropes. Patrick had done so and left the ropes intentionally slack so it wouldn’t hurt Jenny. She had acted as though it had hurt her when he had tied her hands to try and throw Richard off the scent.
“Good Patty boy, now we can get down to business can’t we.”
“Oh, you mean the business of stealing my very existence? Sure why not, I’m all for it,” said Patrick sarcastically.
“Patty, you don’t seem to realise the implications of this machine right here. The Pharmacon is going to change everything. It’s going to completely alter the way that we cure disease. You imagine that Patty boy, if you can.”
“Fuck that machine. What good is it sitting here in this shitty house. It hasn’t exactly been a huge success has it. Look what it did to James. Look what it has done to you!”
“Just a few defects, that’s all. Nothing that they can’t fix up.”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
“Patty boy, this machine is now the property of the government. They are going to be building their very own Pharmacon. They are looking to get rid of free healthcare and replace it with Pharmacons up and down the country. They are going to save themselves a nice tidy fortune in paying surgeons and drug companies. They can just run sick people through the machines and voila, no more diseases.”
“Are you for real? What if it goes wrong again, what if it creates another James, or another you? What if something else goes wrong with it.”
“I don’t even give a shit Patty boy, once all this is done with I will be off sunning myself on a beach whilst the country tears itself apart trying to get a turn in one of the machines. My job is done, got it?”
Patrick stepped forwards and punched Richard in the face. His fist swooped through the air and connected squarely on Rich
ard’s left cheek. His head snapped to the side and then he turned it back to the centre again. He smiled for a moment and then his hand shot out and gripped Patrick by the throat and began to squeeze. Patrick’s air supply was immediately cut off and he began to scrabble at Richard’s hand.
“You stupid, pathetic little shit. You have no fucking idea of who you are messing with do you,” he growled. He lifted Patrick up off the floor and carried him to the chamber at the right side of the control panel.
“Time to buckle up Patty boy,” said Richard. He brought up a knee which connected squarely with Patrick’s testicles. The pain was huge and guttural and took all of Patrick’s fight right out of him. Richard launched him into the chamber and closed the door. The door made a low metallic click which indicated that it was locked. Patrick tried to push the door open, but the pain from his rapidly swelling balls was crippling him. He had no strength left in him to fight his way out. Richard went to the control panel and began to press buttons. The machine whirred into life and began to beep. Richard turned to Jenny and began to smile. Drool began to run off his chin and hang in the air.
“Don’t worry my dear, as soon as I am finished with this, we are going to have ourselves a nice time together. Believe me, you will enjoy my hospitality more than you will ever know.”
“Fuck you. I hope you burn in hell you murdering cunt!” she screamed at him.
Richard laughed at her, “Very fiery, I like that, I like that a lot,” he said. He removed his coat and dropped it to the floor. He put the shotgun down on the edge of the control panel and then he walked over to the other chamber. He stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind him. The door made the same locking sound as the chamber that Patrick was trapped inside. The machine beeped for a few more seconds and then it began to start up.
Duet Page 34