by Ian Woodhead
He showed her the screwdriver that he had picked up off the garage floor a few minutes ago. “No, of course not, this is my key,” he replied, grinning. “It should only take me a few minutes to get this old thing going. Don’t worry, Gloria, this is one trick that I do know.”
Gloria opened the glovebox, and she rummaged around the inside, muttering to herself. The woman then giggled and pulled down the sun visor. “I thought so. Here you go,” she said, handing him a set of keys. “Andy keeps a spare in the exact place. I guessed Jeffery would do the same.”
Some copper he was turning out to be. Gavin didn’t even think of checking all the usual places for a spare set. Then again, who would be stupid enough to leave a set of keys inside a car that was up for sale in the first place? Unless it wasn’t for sale. Gavin peered through the windscreen; all the other cars in the forecourt had for sale signs stuck to the glass. Gavin pushed the keys into the ignition and turned, grinning when the car started up the first time.
“Oh bugger, I’m such a ditz,” muttered the woman. She turned to look at Gavin. “I don’t believe that I’ve done that.” Gloria threw the radio onto his lap and reached for the door handle. “I’ve left my handbag out there on the floor.” She opened the door and climbed out. “I won’t be a moment, Gavin. Don’t you dare go without me.”
The woman ran over to the next car, bent over, and picked her bag off the floor. He wondered what he needed to do for this silly woman to take their situation seriously. Gavin was about to ask her to hurry up when the words died on his lips at the sight of a shadow moving towards her.
Gavin pushed open his door, jumped out of the car, and ran around the front. He pushed her out of the way just as some screeching thing fell from the garage roof. Gavin watched in complete shock as an old woman wearing a thin cotton nightdress landed on the roof of a car. She scurried across it before launching herself at him. He raised his arms to ward off this nightmarish hag, but she easily pushed through his defence and managed to rake her fingernails down his cheek. Gavin cried out, not expecting her to hurt him.
The pain tore away the blanket of disbelief. “You dirty fucking bitch!” he screamed. Without thinking, he swung his arm back and slammed his fist into her face, growling in satisfaction at the feel of her nose breaking. “Get back into the car!” His punch hadn’t even fazed her. “Not possible,” he muttered. “That should have knocked you into next week.”
She just laughed and wiped her hand across her damaged face before springing at Gavin like a pouncing cat. He staggered back under her weight. Gavin fell, slamming his back into the hard concrete floor with the screaming woman still on top of him, spitting blood over his face, and trying to bite off his nose. Gavin brought his arms up and grabbed the woman’s dangling breasts; he gritted his teeth and jerked his arms up, watching the woman fly backwards into the side of a Ford Focus.
Gavin rolled away from the snarling banshee, trying not to throw up at the taste of her blood in his mouth. He saw a wheel brace by the tyre of a Mercedes and reached out to grab it. He rolled onto his back, watching the woman crawl towards him. Gavin swung the wheel brace in an arc, wincing as the metal cracked into the side of the woman’s head.
“Oh fuck,” he gasped, watching thick blood gush from her head. “What have I just done?”
“Will you get in the car!” shouted Gloria.
He backed away, watching the crumpled heap beside him slowly push her body off the tarmac. “This is insane.” She lifted her head. Gavin saw her glazed eyes clear when she saw him in front of her. A low growl echoed at the back of her throat. Gavin shot up and raced over to the car. He threw himself inside and locked the door. He put the car into gear and drove out of the forecourt, watching that crazed woman through the rear-view mirror.
“Gavin, have you any idea who that woman was?”
He glanced at Gloria and saw that she was shaking like a leaf. He then saw that he was too. Gavin gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I’m guessing some escaped lunatic. No, I don’t have a bloody clue.”
She took a deep ragged breath. “It took me a while to place her face, Gavin. You’re the one who dealt with her complaint last Monday when she same into the station, saying that a bunch of kids had smashed all her downstairs windows.”
Gavin slowed down and turned off the high street, heading for the outskirts of the town. He did remember some distraught old lady popping into the station. It just could be the same woman, couldn’t it? “That thing back there was Mrs Bailey?”
The woman beside him slowly nodded. He saw tears running down her cheeks. “It’s all true, isn’t it? Everyone in this crazy town has gone insane.”
Gavin hated himself for thinking this, but he was so glad that at least something had managed to break through that stubborn shell of hers. He then noticed movement and looked into his rear-view mirror. That woman was still behind them.
It still took an incredible amount of imagination to compare that thing behind them to that poor distraught woman who had sat down in front of his desk last week. He remembered the incident very well, how could he not? She had been the first person to enter his station since he had arrived. He had done everything to help her once he had ordered one of the officers to drive the woman home.
He had relished the whole encounter; it was such a change to actually investigate a crime instead of sitting at his desk, watching the others scowl at him all day long. It had taken him a few days, but he had got to the bottom of the incident. It turned out that the kids had also stolen her dog and killed the poor thing. Gavin had found it hanging from a lamppost a couple of days later. He’d kept the discovery to himself and buried the dog’s body in the local woods a few hours later. Gavin figured that the news would have given the poor dear a heart attack.
“Gavin, I’m so sorry for doubting you.” She gave him a single, tight smile. “And I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”
Gloria smiled fully. “I can’t remember the last time anyone was ever nice to me.” She looked out the side window. “Just how far is Eastmere?”
“You mean you don’t know?” he asked.
She shook her head. “This is going to sound really strange, but I have never left Brutality in all the years that me and Andy have been together. For a start, he wouldn’t let me. Looking back though, Gavin, I’ve never really felt the urge to leave town either, despite my husband and all his nasty mates treating me like a slave.” She barked out a distraught laugh. “All this craziness must be infectious. I’ll be the one leaping off garage roofs next.”
Gavin stayed silent, he had only been in the town for a few months, but he knew exactly what the woman meant. He hadn’t crossed the town’s boundary either. Even on the seldom days he had off, he had stayed in town. Considering he hated this bloody place, this sort of behaviour seemed more than weird.
“I’m not sure exactly how far the town is from here,” he said, frowning. That was strange, how could he have forgotten? “I think that it’s about ten miles. It shouldn’t take us that long to get there, Gloria. You’ll be safe soon. I don’t have a clue what is going on in Brutality, but I do intend to find out.”
“Oh no,” moaned Gloria. “Do you mean that you intend to come back here? But that’s just crazy, Gavin, they’ll kill you!”
He watched the headlights pick out the white line in the middle of the road and realised that he intended to come back here. Maybe he was crazy, too. It made no sense as to why he would come back here, but he knew he wasn’t going to leave just yet. It seemed that this town would not take her claws out of his side.
“I’m sorry, Gloria, but I don’t have any choice,” he replied. “Don’t worry; it’s not like I’ll be doing this alone. Eastmere’s finest officers will be with me.” He hoped his words would calm her down. “This is my job, I can’t just drop it.”
The headlights picked out another car parked by the edge of the road.
�
��That’s Andy’s car!”
Gavin slammed the brakes on.
“What the hell are you doing? Speed up.”
“I can’t, they’ve slid stingers across the road.” He looked in the mirror and moaned when he saw two men jump out of the bushes and throw another stinger across the road behind them.
“I’ve let you down, Gloria,” he whispered, watching three men run towards the car. “I’m sorry.”
Gavin opened the door and stepped out. Cooper pulled the gun out of the man’s pocket. Andy nodded at Gavin before picking up his radio. “Okay, boss. We have them.”
Two men removed the stingers as another car approached and stopped behind the car that Gavin had taken. A large man slowly climbed out of the driver’s side. Gavin had seen him around town a few times before, but like Gavin, he didn’t think he was a local.
“Daniel,” Andy said. “You see, I told you that we’d get them back. I know they shouldn’t have escaped in the first place, but no harm’s been done.”
The man glared at Gavin then sighed. “Yes, Andy. I do remember listening to your panicked address over the radio. Now, can you please explain to me why they are still breathing?”
Andy’s triumphant grin slipped from his face. “But she’s my wife!”
Daniel sighed again. He reached into the pocket of his leather overcoat and pulled out an automatic pistol. “I am aware of that, Andy. What use is she though? She is a wife that has given you no offspring. The woman is barren. When we expand into the next town, I’ll let you pick as many women as you can fuck in a single night.” He walked up to Andy and dropped the gun into the man’s hand.
Andy shrugged. “It seems like a fair deal.”
Gloria struggled with the man holding her. “You can’t do this, Andy! I lov…”
Andy’s attention flickered for a moment when another woman’s shrieks drowned out Gloria’s pleas.
The man holding Gavin chuckled. “There you go, Andy. It looks like your new wife has already found you.”
The old woman turned direction at the sound of the man’s voice; she growled and jumped on him. Gavin rolled away as the man released his grip. He watched Andy run over to help. Gloria then swivelled around and head butted her astonished captor in the face.
Gavin dived on the sergeant and wrestled the gun out of his hand. Andy suddenly stopped when Gloria screamed out his name. As he turned, his wife launched her foot into his groin.
“There’s nothing wrong with my insides, you fucking eunuch!”
Gavin shoved the weeping man out of the way and grabbed Gloria.
“They’re getting away!” Daniel screamed.
Gavin’s head jerked up. He saw the stranger’s face start to crack open like sun-baked mud. He could see the others were beginning to stir. Suddenly a shot rang out, and the old woman fell to the ground. He had no other choice. Without waiting to see if he would be next, Gavin pulled Gloria into the bushes at the side of the road and forced his way through them. As they followed, Gavin fired a single shot in their general direction, listening to them run back to their cars.
“I know where we are,” Gloria whispered.
He pushed through the foliage and joined the woman, standing at the top of a steep embankment.
“There’s a tunnel down there,” she said, pointing into the darkness. “Believe me, Gavin, they won’t follow us in.”
Chapter Nine
Angus Hardy held the struggling fly between his thumb and forefinger. He watched it trying to free its legs before pulling off the wings and dropping it into the web. The precaution of nipping off the wings was a sound move; Angus had no wish to see it doing something stupid like flying away.
“Come on, you,” he whispered. “Can’t you sense its terror? Your dinner has arrived.” Did insects even have emotions? No, that was just dumb; of course they didn’t.
The spider took one tentative step onto the threads. Angus nodded in approval. “Come on, big guy. I reckon you’ll enjoy this one. Look at the size of its body!”
He had named the spider Daniel. At the time, he thought the name was rather apt. Both the spider and his new boss had appeared on the scene at about the same time. They were both predators, and both took great pleasure in sucking their victims dry. Angus never actually thought that he’d miss his old boss.
The spider rushed across the web and started to wrap the fly up. Within seconds, the spider’s silk completely covered the fly’s body. “I sure hope you enjoy your feast, Daniel. There are plenty more insects where that came from. I wonder how big I can get you.” Angus gazed around the room, wondering if Daniel could eat a woodlouse. There were loads of those in here. He glanced at the monitor banks. As per usual, everything was quiet.
Ever since the other Daniel had gained control of the company, Abacus Foods had yet to experience another break in. That hadn’t been the only change either. Of course, the other workers, especially the assembly drones, would notice anything amiss. That fact stood to reason. Most of those cow-brained fools had major problems in remembering what year it was.
Angus smiled to himself. He was no fool, unlike those dumb bastards; he had a muscle between his ears that still worked. Not that’d he’d tell anybody what he had witnessed during these last few weeks. Now that would be asking for trouble.
Oliver Campbell disappeared for asking lots of uncomfortable questions. The company’s sales director wasn’t really a bad bloke. He did consider himself to be above everyone else, and then again, so did Angus. Oliver was a bit smarmy, and he didn’t like Angus. Even so, he certainly didn’t deserve having his body minced and ending up in a batch of Abacus Food ready meals.
He’d witnessed the whole gruesome procedure with his own private video feeds. Angus had installed the private security system throughout the whole building a few years ago.
Even after all this time, Angus still had trouble believing his good fortune in stumbling upon this seemingly forgotten town. When whispers of a town hidden in plain sight where the locals conducted every depraved act imaginable reached Angus’s ears, he was ready to dismiss the notion of a ‘bad’ town and consign it into the urban myths bin. Angus had heard about these places before, and none of them had proven to be correct. He was so glad that he’d gone against his better judgement and taken the time to investigate this one.
To any passing stranger, Brutality did, at least on the surface, look like just another grubby town stuck in the middle of the English countryside. Yet to his eye, trained in the art of observation, Angus saw the signs almost immediately, from the poorly hidden bruising on dozens of faces to the furtive glances aimed at the strangers in the town. Angus could easily separate the ones that didn’t belong in Brutality from the local population. They stuck out like a sore thumb. He had felt the suppressed hostility from every local as he’d slowly walked down the main high street. It made his blood sing; he finally felt as though he’d found his home.
The town’s oppressive atmosphere threatened to smother everyone and everything. It felt just incredible. He just knew that every local in this shitty place hid some sort of sordid and disgusting story, and Angus would take great pleasure in teasing out his or her dirty little secrets.
The retired couple who lived next door to Angus were typical Brutality locals. The two women easily fit into the stereotypical idea of how a pair of dotty old ladies should behave. At first, their behaviour towards him emulated the rest of them, but after a year their cold shell showed signs of cracking. Now they went out of their way to give him a cheery wave every morning before he set off for work. They even gave him a full cake last week as thanks for volunteering to cut their front lawn. Of course, he hadn’t eaten any of it; fuck knows what those mad old bitches had put into the mixture. Knowing what he knew about them, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find ground glass or some toxic kitchen chemical.
Just like the rest of the freaks, their smiling faces were just a thin coating, hastily slapped over the faces of two evil old harridans. Thes
e two got their kicks out of kidnapping any stranger stupid enough to pass through this dark place. Looking back, it surprised him that he hadn’t ended up in their company when he first came to visit.
The pair had two hikers right now. A boy locked up in the cellar, and a very pretty girl chained up in their room, behind their chairs. From his previous observations, Angus knew that the lad’s lifeline was hanging by a frayed thread. The girl had maybe another month or so until she ended up buried in a landfill site, a lot sooner if they found another replacement.
That moment of discovering just what his neighbours got up to behind the safety of their closed doors would never leave him. He’d been trying to sneak cameras into their house for years, an impossible task considering they never left the house unattended. There was always one of them in there.
His opportune moment came just a few months ago when the more insane old hag was rushed into hospital. He couldn’t stop grinning as the ambulance carried off both women, leaving the house, for the first time, devoid of old bags. It took him just twenty minutes to install his equipment and get out of their house. He could have done the deed in just five but had to slow down to take in the atmosphere and to investigate items not usually found in a house belonging to pensioners. Chains in the cellar were a bit of a giveaway, as well as the bottle of chloroform hidden away under the kitchen sink.
The old bloodstains and the scratches he had found on their bedroom floorboards gave him the best clue. The evil fuckers must have held plenty of people captive in this house.
As he left their house, Angus had hoped that he hadn’t just uncovered old crimes and the women still practised their deviations. His answer came about a month after they returned from hospital.
Angus made it ritual to check his video feeds every morning. The routine took a good hour so; he always got up with the birds. Usually, he spent most of the time skipping through the previous night’s recordings and getting more and more annoyed at finding little in the way of entertaining footage.