by Amy Cross
“No,” Davey replies, before feeling another twinge of guilt. “I mean, yes. I mean, not well. I mean... I know his name, he's -”
“I don't care,” Mr. Hodges says abruptly, before heading over to one of his benches. “The old man will be useful, but in future I should prefer younger specimens. Perhaps I should have made that more clear in the past.”
“I shall endeavor to oblige,” Davey replies, unable to stop staring at Robinson's body.
For a few seconds, he ignores the sound of metal bumping against metal, until suddenly Hodges returns to the table and sets several surgical instruments on Robinson's chest.
“You can stay for a while if you wish,” Hodges says, “and observe the process. You've never shown any interest before, though. Is there something about this body that particularly interests you?”
Davey slowly shakes his head.
“No,” he adds. “I mean... no.”
“And which cemetery did you say you dug him up from?”
“The usual.”
“You're a hard-worker, I'll grant you that,” Hodges says, before taking a large scalpel and setting the tip against Robinson's throat. “Before I met you, I struggled to establish a reliable source of bodies. Some people just don't have any respect for science.” He glances at Davey and smiles. “Are you sure you're okay? You seem different today, somehow.”
“I'm fine,” Davey replies, although he swallows hard. “It's late, that's all.”
Without responding, Hodges cuts a line around the side of Robinson's neck, and blood starts pouring out almost immediately. He does the same on the other side, and then he moves the tools from Robinson's chest and starts cutting a line from the top of the breastbone all the way down toward the groin.
“What's that for?” Davey asks.
“Once the blood's flowing out,” Hodges explains, “I like to remove the major organs. I usually come up with a cause of death around then, too, although from the color of this old chap's face I'd wager he died of a heart attack.”
Davey watches as he finishes the cut, and then as the skin is peeled away to reveal the bloodied muscles beneath.
“Then again,” Hodges says, stopping suddenly and turning to him with a faint grin, “maybe you'd like to see something really special.”
“Such as?” Davey asks, forcing himself to keep watching.
Hodges heads back to one of the benches, and then returns with a heavy saw.
“The brain's one of the most important parts of my work,” he explains, as he sets the blade's teeth against the side of Robinson's head. “Of course, if I had the proper equipment, I'd be able to really root around deep and figure out how the two sides of the brain interact. Not that anyone wants to give me the tools I need to do the job properly, but I get by.”
With that, he starts sawing, and Davey flinches and takes a step back as he sees the blade cutting straight through Robinson's skin and starting to grind into the skull. The man's entire head starts shuddering slightly, and Hodges has to put a hand on Robinson's face in order to keep it steady.
“Even this saw's not as sharp as it should be!” Hodges adds, raising his voice so he can be heard over the sound of the blade's teeth cutting through bone.
Davey winces again, as he's transported back to the noise made by fingernails running down a school teaching board.
“I'm particularly interested in the extent to which the two sides of the brain mirror one another!” Hodges calls out, still cutting into Robinson's skull, with the blade having reached the edge of Robinson's right eye. “First I embalm the entire brain and then -”
“Stop!” Davey shouts, suddenly rushing forward and pulling Hodges away.
The saw remains stuck in Robinson's head, but Davey carefully wiggles the handle until the blade comes loose.
“What are you doing?” Hodges snaps.
“Take this back!” Davey says breathlessly, pulling the money from his pocket and thrusting it back into Hodges' hands. “I'm sorry, but there's been a terrible misunderstanding. This body isn't for sale. I have to take it to be buried properly, in holy ground.”
“But -”
“I'll bring you a replacement tomorrow, free of charge,” he adds. “You must forgive me, but I've made a terrible mistake. This man is not to be used for your experiments.”
“I have paid you and -”
“You have your money back!” Davey snaps, as he starts lifting Robinson's stiff, lifeless corpse from the table. “I'll bring you all the bodies you want, as often as you want, but you can't have this one! I can stand only so many stains on my conscience, but this man was a friend, or sort of a friend, and I refuse to let him get cut apart like he's some kind of farmyard animal!”
With that, he turns and starts carrying Robinson out of the room, making his way back toward the door that leads to the yard.
“Get back here!” Hodges yells furiously. “I won't have you disturbing my work like this! Do you hear? Bring that corpse back at once!”
V
A drop of water falls and hits the bar, splattering just a few inches from Davey's untouched beer.
“Are you alright there, lad?” a man asks, patting him hard on the back. “I heard you've been at work all night. Missy over there tells me you were out digging a grave. I thought you usually took bodies out of cemeteries. Is it true you finally took one in?”
“Leave me alone,” Davey murmurs, not even bothering to look at the man.
“And exactly how did you do it, anyway?” the man continues. “You can't just roll into a cemetery, dig a grave, toss someone in, and then bury them. Can you?”
“You can if nobody notices,” Davey replies through clenched teeth. “You can if it's dark.”
“But someone'll -”
“Leave me alone,” Davey adds, and now the seething anger is impossible to miss in his voice. “This has been a long night, and I want to be left alone.” He glances toward the window and sees that the first light of dawn is starting to spread along the city street. “I want to be left alone forever.”
He blinks, and for a fraction of a second he sees – yet again – the image that has haunted him since he returned to the taverns. This image is simple and stark: it's the sight of soil being thrown down into the hastily dug grave and covering the last of Robinson's features. And in this image, there's also the bloodied cut that runs almost a quarter of a way through the dead man's head.
He blinks again and the image is gone, and he finds himself once again staring at his beer.
“Whatever it is,” the man says, patting him on the back again, “it'll pass soon. These things always do. Now drink up and order another, or you'll fall behind.”
“I fell behind a long time ago,” Davey replies as the man walks away. “I once aimed to live a good and honorable life, and now look at me. Selling the corpse of a friend. How much further back from all humanity can one man fall?”
He sits alone for a few minutes, contemplating his own actions, until finally his thoughts drift back to his conversation with Robinson. He goes over everything he said, relieving every harsh word and every cutting comment. He has not yet given voice to his deepest concerns, but he is beginning to wonder whether his harshness might have caused the old man's heart to finally give way. Was that possible? Had he inadvertently killed Robinson?
“You look lost in a world of your own,” Red John says.
Looking up, Davey sees the bartender staring at him with an amused grin.
“Contemplating the inevitable, are you?” he continues. “The grim reality of life, and all that?”
“Actually, I was...” Davey hesitates, and then suddenly he sits up a little straighter as he feels a flicker of genuine optimism in his chest. “Actually,” he says after a moment, “I was thinking that from this moment on, I'm going to be a better person.”
“Join the club.”
“I'm serious!” Davey says firmly. “Robinson might have been out of his mind, but there's a part of him that I w
ant to be more like. The part that goes looking for things, the part that remains filled with wonder about the world. The part that refuses to compromise for the world.”
Red John raises a skeptical eyebrow.
“For a start,” Davey continues, “I'm getting out of the grave robbing business. There has to be more to life than tearing poor, innocent people out of their graves. I refuse to play any further part in such awful things. I'm going to find a job that gives me meaning, something that lets me contribute to the world.”
Red John chuckles.
“I mean it! I'm going to help people, or I'm going to give them hope, or I'm going to...” He pauses, unable to quite come up with the right words. Finally, frustrated at his own lack of clarity, he bangs a fist against the bar with such force that he almost knocks his mug of beer straight over the side. “I don't know exactly how it's going to work,” he adds, “but I'm going to find a role in this world that allows me to live up to everything I used to believe in!”
“You'll starve within the week,” Red John replies.
Davey shakes his head.
“This is how you were when I first met you,” Red John reminds him. “Naive. Full of hope. And then you had to actually make your way in the world, and you soon realized that we can't pick and choose what we do.”
“I'm not -”
“Do you remember why you took up grave robbing?”
“I...”
Davey's voice trails off.
“You were starving,” Red John continues. “I've seen men starve to death, and you were about a week from the end. You were so hungry, you were in agony. You said you'd only rob graves for a while, just to get yourself back on your feet, but then you ended up doing it for years. And you'll have to keep doing it, too, because you've got no choice. Answer me this, boy. If you stop with the grave robbing, where's your next coin coming from?”
Davey opens his mouth to reply that he'll figure something out, but at the last second he realizes that perhaps Red John has a point.
“We all do what we have to do in order to survive,” Red John adds, as he nods to let another customer know that he's on his way to pour some more beer. “Do you think the rest of us chose to live our lives down here in the gutter? Of course not. We just like living, that's all, and we'll do anything to keep on living for as long as possible. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you can't stop robbing graves. It's the only way you can survive.”
As Red John makes his way to the other customer, Davey tries to think of a response, but he's already starting to understand that he has no choice. He needs money, and he knows no other way to get his hands on any. He tells himself that he'll just rob graves for a little while longer, so he can get himself back on his feet, but then he remembers thinking the same thing when he started. All his determination fades away, and he slumps back down against the bar as he realizes that there's no escape.
When he was younger, he thought he could grow up to be perfect. Smart. Honorable. Wise. Righteous. Now he feels himself sinking into the mass of wretched life in London's darkest streets.
“Here's to you, Robinson,” he mutters, before taking a swig of beer. “You might have been a mad old man, but at least you lived by your own rules.”
He takes another sip, then another, as a woman at the far end of the tavern starts laughing maniacally. For a few seconds, the noises in the room seem to get louder and louder, until it's as if they're starting to crush Davey's head from all directions. He wants to run away, but he tells himself that he has to at least finish his beer. Then he'll have to get some sleep, and then he owes Mr. Hodges a body as compensation for the mess with Robinson. After the craziness of the past night, he can already feel his life going back to how it has been for so long. Nothing but drinking and idling and grave robbing.
Sighing, he stares down at his beer and contemplates his empty, pointless future.
“Davey,” a familiar voice says suddenly, as a hand rests on his right shoulder, “we've got places to be.”
Startled, Davey spins around, and then his eyes open with with shock as he sees Robinson standing behind him. He's about to scream, when he sees that the old man still carries all the wounds from his partial dissection on Mr. Hodges' table. There's a thick cut on his neck, and a bloodied line appears to have been gouged through one side of his skull, extending almost as far as the edge of one of his eye sockets.
“You've passed the test,” Robinson purrs, with a glint in his eyes, “and I reckon I have too, at least in your eyes. I needed to be sure that you were still good at heart, and I see that now, and I suppose you needed to see that I'm more than just talk when it comes to the unnatural.” He leans closer. “Because I've found something, Davey. I've found something far more valuable than a stupid rock. I've found the first of the seven dark little wonders of the world, and I reckon I know where the other six are hiding. It's all jumbled up at the moment, I need to make sense of it. There are all these words and names like Eleanor Fabricci and Creele Abbey and Colin Abernathy and Jonathan White, and something from the future called a HealthChip3000EX, not to mention a thing called Necros and someone named Patrice something. I don't know how it's all connected, but I'm going to find out!”
He leans even closer.
“So, then, Davey boy,” he adds with a grin, “how about coming with me on the real adventure?”
BOOKS BY AMY CROSS
1. Dark Season: The Complete First Series (2011)
2. Werewolves of Soho (Lupine Howl book 1) (2012)
3. Werewolves of the Other London (Lupine Howl book 2) (2012)
4. Ghosts: The Complete Series (2012)
5. Dark Season: The Complete Second Series (2012)
6. The Children of Black Annis (Lupine Howl book 3) (2012)
7. Destiny of the Last Wolf (Lupine Howl book 4) (2012)
8. Asylum (The Asylum Trilogy book 1) (2012)
9. Dark Season: The Complete Third Series (2013)
10. Devil's Briar (2013)
11. Broken Blue (The Broken Trilogy book 1) (2013)
12. The Night Girl (2013)
13. Days 1 to 4 (Mass Extinction Event book 1) (2013)
14. Days 5 to 8 (Mass Extinction Event book 2) (2013)
15. The Library (The Library Chronicles book 1) (2013)
16. American Coven (2013)
17. Werewolves of Sangreth (Lupine Howl book 5) (2013)
18. Broken White (The Broken Trilogy book 2) (2013)
19. Grave Girl (Grave Girl book 1) (2013)
20. Other People's Bodies (2013)
21. The Shades (2013)
22. The Vampire's Grave and Other Stories (2013)
23. Darper Danver: The Complete First Series (2013)
24. The Hollow Church (2013)
25. The Dead and the Dying (2013)
26. Days 9 to 16 (Mass Extinction Event book 3) (2013)
27. The Girl Who Never Came Back (2013)
28. Ward Z (The Ward Z Series book 1) (2013)
29. Journey to the Library (The Library Chronicles book 2) (2014)
30. The Vampires of Tor Cliff Asylum (2014)
31. The Family Man (2014)
32. The Devil's Blade (2014)
33. The Immortal Wolf (Lupine Howl book 6) (2014)
34. The Dying Streets (Detective Laura Foster book 1) (2014)
35. The Stars My Home (2014)
36. The Ghost in the Rain and Other Stories (2014)
37. Ghosts of the River Thames (The Robinson Chronicles book 1) (2014)
38. The Wolves of Cur'eath (2014)
39. Days 46 to 53 (Mass Extinction Event book 4) (2014)
40. The Man Who Saw the Face of the World (2014)
41. The Art of Dying (Detective Laura Foster book 2) (2014)
42. Raven Revivals (Grave Girl book 2) (2014)
43. Arrival on Thaxos (Dead Souls book 1) (2014)
44. Birthright (Dead Souls book 2) (2014)
45. A Man of Ghosts (Dead Souls book 3) (2014)
46. The Haunting of Hardstone Jail (2014)
47. A Very Respectable Woman (2015)
48. Better the Devil (2015)
49. The Haunting of Marshall Heights (2015)
50. Terror at Camp Everbee (The Ward Z Series book 2) (2015)
51. Guided by Evil (Dead Souls book 4) (2015)
52. Child of a Bloodied Hand (Dead Souls book 5) (2015)
53. Promises of the Dead (Dead Souls book 6) (2015)
54. Days 54 to 61 (Mass Extinction Event book 5) (2015)
55. Angels in the Machine (The Robinson Chronicles book 2) (2015)
56. The Curse of Ah-Qal's Tomb (2015)
57. Broken Red (The Broken Trilogy book 3) (2015)
58. The Farm (2015)
59. Fallen Heroes (Detective Laura Foster book 3) (2015)
60. The Haunting of Emily Stone (2015)
61. Cursed Across Time (Dead Souls book 7) (2015)
62. Destiny of the Dead (Dead Souls book 8) (2015)
63. The Death of Jennifer Kazakos (Dead Souls book 9) (2015)
64. Alice Isn't Well (Death Herself book 1) (2015)
65. Annie's Room (2015)
66. The House on Everley Street (Death Herself book 2) (2015)
67. Meds (The Asylum Trilogy book 2) (2015)
68. Take Me to Church (2015)
69. Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1) (2015)
70. The Priest Hole (Nykolas Freeman book 1) (2015)
71. Eli's Town (2015)
72. The Horror of Raven's Briar Orphanage (Dead Souls book 10) (2015)
73. The Witch of Thaxos (Dead Souls book 11) (2015)
74. The Rise of Ashalla (Dead Souls book 12) (2015)
75. Evolution (Demon's Grail book 2) (2015)
76. The Island (The Island book 1) (2015)
77. The Lighthouse (2015)
78. The Cabin (The Cabin Trilogy book 1) (2015)
79. At the Edge of the Forest (2015)
80. The Devil's Hand (2015)
81. The 13th Demon (Demon's Grail book 3) (2016)
82. After the Cabin (The Cabin Trilogy book 2) (2016)
83. The Border: The Complete Series (2016)
84. The Dead Ones (Death Herself book 3) (2016)
85. A House in London (2016)