The World's Last Breaths: Final Winter, Animal Kingdom, and The Peeling

by Iain Rob Wright

  Jess and Jerry fled in terror after witnessing Ben turn to dust. They were too much in shock to comprehend what they’d witnessed. They just knew they had to get out of there.

  “I don’t have…a goddamn clue…what just happened,” said Jerry, fighting his way breathlessly through the snow.

  Jess was beginning to slow down. They hadn’t gone far, but in the deep, sucking snow, moving any distance was an endurance test. “I need to stop,” she said. “I’ve got a stitch.”

  Jerry halted and looked at her. Then he grabbed her arm and pulled hard. “Are you nuts? That thing will get us. You never stop when there’s a demon on your arse. Have you never seen Friday the 13th?”

  Jess pulled back, her chest rising and falling in great heaves. “There’s…no such thing as…demons.”

  “There is too. Exorcist was based on true events and so was The Entity.”

  Jess shook her head. “They just say that so idiots like you go to watch it. That thing wasn’t chasing us when we started running. I think we can stop for a second.”

  “You saw what it did to Ben!” Jerry seemed to struggle with something internally, before going on, like he was fighting back a wave of tears. “It killed him, and if we don’t get moving it’ll get us too.”

  Jess nodded. “Okay, but where the hell are we going? I can’t see anything and I’ve already got lost in this snow once tonight.”

  Jerry pulled on her arm again and the two of them started moving. “We need to find the pub. There is always someone there till late.”

  “The pub it is then,” said Jess, getting her wind back and making a move.

  Twenty minutes later, the two of them came to a stop at the bottom of the hill leading up to The Trumpet. It had taken the last of their energy, wandering around in the white darkness of the growing blizzard, to find it, and if it hadn’t been for the fear and adrenaline dominating her system, Jess was sure she would’ve keeled over by now.

  “Thank God we found it,” she said. “I don’t think I can get much colder. My nipples could cut cake.”

  Jerry stared at her chest.

  “That wasn’t an invitation to ogle my chest. Just take my word for it, I’m cold.”

  Jerry shook himself as if escaping a hypnotic trance. “Sorry! Well, it’s one thing finding the pub, but let’s hope somebody’s still in there. Else, I don’t know what we’re going to do. With the Siberian weather and Flame Boy on our tail, I don’t know what’ll kill us first.”

  Jess shuddered.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I know you’re scared.”

  Jess didn’t admit it, but it was true. They were both fighting back the pangs of panic. Jerry’s cheeks had gone clammy and looked like they were burning up despite the chill. Jess worried that if they didn’t get under cover soon, they’d be in danger of getting frostbite or hypothermia.

  She started to take the first steps up the hill, sticking to where she imagined the path lay beneath the snow. She peered up at the pub, which loomed over them ominously. “I think I see a light in there,” she said.

  Jerry squinted. “Yeah, I think I do too. There must be people inside.”

  The two of them hurried, taking steps as quickly as possible in the knee-high snow sloping upwards. As Jess neared the top, she became more and more certain that there was light inside the pub. Not electrical light, but a flickering, glowing light from a torch or-

  “I think they have a fire in there,” said Jess, giddy at the thought of warmth.

  “Jurassic Park!” Jerry fist-pumped triumphantly. “Let’s get our black asses in there.”

  Jess’s brow wrinkled. “We’re not black.”

  “Come on!” Jerry grabbed Jess by the arm and started helping her up the hill…

  …but a noise from behind made them stop.

  “Is that…growling?” Jess turned slowly as the low grumbling grew louder. It did indeed sound like growling but, when she looked back, there was nothing other than the drifting, windswept snow. She turned back to Jerry. “Let’s just get to the pub, okay?”

  They picked up as much speed as they could, still hampered by the chilling embrace around their ankles and shins. When the growling started again it seemed to be coming from all directions, vibrating through the air all around them.

  Jerry put his hand on Jess’s back and pushed. “I don’t like the sound of whatever’s making that.”

  Jess was about to agree when she found herself off balance, her toe stubbing up against some hidden brickwork or stone beneath the snow. As she crumpled, her leg twisted and folded beneath her, leaving her facing back the way she had come. She shrieked at what she saw.

  So did Jerry.

  14

  “Harry snapped out of his wallowing, leapt up in front of the fire. “The hell was that? More screaming?” He started for the pub’s exit again. “What’s going on tonight?”

  The others emerged from underneath their blankets and duvets by the fire. Steph hurried up beside Harry and put a hand on his back, clutching his jacket. “That scream sounded really close,” she said. “You think it was the same person as earlier?”

  “I hope so, otherwise that means there’s something even more screwed up going on out there. A single person screaming is a lot better than two people screaming.”

  The cries continued, closer and more urgent.

  “Go on, Harry,” Steph urged. “It sounds like they’re right outside.”

  Harry nodded and made for the door, but, before he managed to get there, it sprung open. Luckily, his forehead was nowhere near this time and he avoided a second blow from the thick wood. “What is it with people flying through this bloody door?”

  Two flailing bodies – a boy and a girl – tumbled through the entrance and ended up in a crumpled heap on the floorboards. Harry saw that they were just a couple of teenagers.

  He offered them his hand. “Come on in why don’t you.”

  The girl ignored his hand and sprang to her feet unassisted. She rushed over to the still-open door and slammed it shut, heaving her weight against it and sliding her arm up to the bolt, pulling it across with a forceful Clack!

  Damien stepped up beside Harry, peered down at the teenage boy on the floor and then across at the panting girl slumped against the door. “What the fuck you two tripping about?”

  The girl looked back at Damien, her chest heaving in and out beneath her fleece. Her eyes were wide and she said nothing.

  Damien turned his glance to the boy instead. “What about you, knobhead? You got anything to say, or shall I kick your arse back outside? You’ve interrupted a private party and it’s bad manners to crash.”

  “No,” the girl said urgently. “Please, let us stay!”

  Damien went to speak but Harry cut him off, confident that he would take a more appropriate line of questioning than the young thug. “You can both stay. Of course you can, but what on Earth has gotten you so frightened?”

  “There’s something out there,” said the boy on the floor, still trembling on his back, but now propped up on his spindly elbows. “There’s something out there, like a big freaking dog or something. It was like…like…Jaws with fur.”

  There was silence in the room as Harry and the others studied the newcomers and considered their wild suggestions. The girl was nodding in agreement and they both seemed scared half to death by something, but what they were claiming seemed like pure...

  “Bullshit,” said Damien.

  Harry nodded, actually agreeing with Damien for once and finding the sensation strange. “It was probably just a stray dog,” he said, “stressed out by the weather. I’m sure it’s unpleasant out there for anyone, dogs included.”

  The teenagers seemed to calm a little, although both of them kept glancing back at the door nervously. Eventually the boy got himself up off the floor and put an arm around the girl. They spoke between themselves for a moment, too quietly for Harry to make out the words. Boyfriend and girlfriend, he supposed, before asking them, “Beer?
”

  This seemed to be just the ticket as the two youngsters started smiling. Yet, despite them relaxing, Harry couldn’t ignore the bile rising from his stomach.

  It tasted like dread.

  Jess watched the elderly man come from behind the bar with more blankets, while beside him, a large greasy-skinned man had a shopping bag filled with food – sausage rolls, chicken, ham, and stale-looking bread. Jess’s mouth watered as the snacks were handed out amongst the group. She was surprised by how hungry she was.

  “You say it was halfway between a Great Dane and a bull?” Kath asked Jess, her sneering lips spattered with porkpie crust.

  Jess couldn’t believe it when she’d found Kath at the pub. A spiteful part of her had hoped the old bag had got lost in the snow. Jess made a mental note to find out where Peter had gone to. It wouldn’t have surprised her if Kath left him in the supermarket to guard it overnight in the freezing cold. Kath had it in for Peter ever more than she did Jess.

  Kath cackled. “Well, bull is exactly what it is, young lady.”

  “Yeah, as in bull-shite!” said a voice from somewhere else.

  Jess sneered at the person who had spoken. “You’re Damien Banks, aren’t you?”

  Damien’s face lit up. “You’ve heard of me? Well, you’d be a fool not to have.”

  Jess folded her arms. “Yeah, I’ve heard of you. You’re the dickhead that deals smack. Your mates are always causing trouble at the supermarket – knocking stuff over and threatening us all. Basically acting like immature little boys. Same as you are right now.”

  Damien’s smug expression dissolved into anger. The flesh in his cheeks changed from primrose to burgundy. “You better watch that mouth sweetheart. This is my pub and–”

  “Actually,” said the barmaid – Jess thought she’d heard her name was Steph. “It’s my pub tonight, Damien, and we’ve all agreed to get along. That includes you, too, sweetheart. Don’t poke the natives!”

  Jess nodded. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

  Damien smiled and held up his beer. “I forgive you, but only cus you’ve got nice tits.”

  “She’s, like, sixteen, dude!” Jerry shouted, eyeballing Damien with suspicion.

  Damien sneered. “You want to call your dog off, sweetheart? He’s likely to get himself neutered.”

  Jess turned to Jerry. “I don’t need you to fight my battles.”

  Jerry stepped closer and spoke in a hushed voice. “Sorry, it’s just that this guy is bad news, a right wannabe gangster.”

  “I know,” she whispered back. “Everyone is aware of Damien Banks, which is why you should just stay out of his way. He’s dangerous enough on a normal night, let alone one where everything’s gone to hell. Let’s just finish our beers and try to stay out of his way until we can get help.”

  Jerry nodded and re-joined the group. They were all resuming their positions in front of the fire

  “So, lass,” said a good looking man with an Irish accent, “with a somewhat calmer mind, do you want to spin us your yarn about the furry beast you say you saw outside?”

  Jess didn’t answer and instead looked quizzically at the man who’d offered to help her up off the floor when she’d first arrived. He was good looking too, but more tired and weary looking.

  “Don’t worry,” he said to her and smiled. “Lucas always speaks like that. You’ll get used to it.”

  Jess laughed. “Oh, well, I guess it was like you all said: just a dog or something.”

  Lucas frowned. “Come now. If that was what you thought at the time then you wouldn’t have burst in here screaming like a banshee. At the time, you thought you saw something. What?”

  Jess was hesitant, nervous at the thought of bringing it all up again after she’d managed to convince herself it hadn’t happened. “I er…I really don’t know. It was all so confusing.”

  “It wasn’t a dog,” Jerry spoke up. “I’ve seen a hundred different breeds of dog and there’s nothing even close to what we saw tonight.”

  The others switched their focus from Jess and listened to Jerry as he continued. Don’t tell them, Jess was thinking. They’ll think we’re both insane.

  “We’d just started to climb the hill,” Jerry said, “when we heard growling. It started off just like a dog’s, but a dog’s growling can’t make your bones rattle like this. We started to get our asses out of there, but Jess slipped over.”

  “I tripped on something under the snow,” Jess explained. “That’s when we saw it.”

  “Saw what?” asked the elderly man of the group. “What did you see?”

  There was silence for a few moments and it became unclear who would be the one to answer. Jess decided it would have to be her. “It was big, bigger than anything wandering around a housing estate should be. It had thick, oily fur that was totally free from snow, as though any flakes that tried to settle on it just melted. In a way, it really did look like a dog, but it was just way too big… and besides, its face was all wrong.”

  Jerry supported her as her voice began to weaken. She appreciated it and had already started to consider him a friend. Relationships were forged easily at times like this, she realised. “Yeah,” Jerry said. “Its face was much flatter and rounded – more like an ape than a dog, except its mouth took up half its face. It was full of teeth; rows and rows of them like those chomp-monsters in The Langoliers. You ever see that movie”

  Damien scoffed. “How could you make out all that detail in a blizzard?”

  Jerry shook his head. “I don’t know. It was as though there was a glow around it, like a ball of light.”

  Damien shook his head, obviously not buying any of it, but didn’t say anything. Jess saw a similarly incredulous expression on Kath’s face as well. Screw you both, she thought.

  The others stayed quiet too, until Jerry finally said in a croaky voice, “We haven’t even told you about the sick bastard that murdered my best friend – turned him right into dust.”

  Everyone stared at Jerry like he was insane. Only Jess knew he wasn’t.

  When the teenagers finished their wild story about a hooded figure turning their friend into dust, Harry was rendered speechless. Of course, he didn’t believe such a ridiculous tale, but the story still managed to unsettle him. Whether it was true or not, something had obviously sent the kids running.

  Harry swigged his beer and stared into the fire, listening to the conversation of the group rather than taking part in it. He tuned in to what Kath was saying.

  “You silly, attention-seeking, twit,” the woman said. “You’re just trying to frighten everybody. I’ve never heard such codswallop in all my life.”

  Jess slapped her palms against her forehead in dismay. “I watched Jerry’s best friend die tonight. If you hadn’t been too busy abandoning me then you might have been there to see it too.”

  “How dare you! I did nothing of the sort. I shouted and looked everywhere for you, but you’d wandered off carelessly.”

  Jess sneered. “Like hell you did. You’re full of shit.”

  “That is it, young lady!” Kath’s voice quivered with rage. “Don’t you bother coming into work tomorrow because you are fired.”

  Jess laughed. “We’re in a pub, Kathleen, not at work. I can say what the hell I like to you. Don’t worry though because I quit anyway.”

  “Music to my ears. Now I can employ someone with half a brain.”

  “Actually, you need to hire someone without a brain, then they won’t mind working for a pathetic bully like you. I understand though, Kathleen, it must be difficult being a spinster.”

  “You spiteful cow! You know nothing about me.”

  Kath threw off her duvet and leapt to her feet. For a second, it looked as though the older woman was going to go for Jess, but instead she turned away from the group and departed towards the toilet.

  “You two don’t get on then?” Lucas quipped from the edge of the group.

  “No shit,” Jess replied. “Got to tell you t
hough, it felt really good saying that to her.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet,” said Harry. “Maybe you should just let things lie for now, though. Who knows how long we’ll be stuck in this situation together.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll leave her alone, so long as she doesn’t get in my face. I need to ask her where the warehouse guy went first though. She treats Peter like dirt and I need to make sure he’s alright.”

  Jess shoved herself up onto her feet and headed after Kath. Once she’d taken half-a-dozen steps, a body crashed through the window.

  15

  “Peter!” Jess screamed.

  Harry watched the girl drop to her knees, scrambling over to the body that was now splayed across the pub’s wooden floor. The injured boy was barely conscious, covered in blood and murmuring deliriously in what sounded like an Eastern European accent. Freezing cold wind and swirling snow flew in through the broken window and extinguished what little warmth had managed to remain inside the pub.

  Harry clambered across the room and skidded to his knees beside Jess and the injured boy she had referred to as Peter.

  Jess blinked at Harry; a hollow stare consuming her delicate features. Tears leaked from her grief-stricken blue eyes. “Help him, please.”

  Harry choked on his words. “I…I…what’s…what’s happened to him?”

  “I don’t know,” cried Jess. “Just please make him alright.”

  “I’ll tell you what happened,” said Jerry, rushing over to join them. The others in the pub stood on the periphery, watching curiously. “It’s whatever was outside. It’s the demon in the robes and the fiery sword.”

  Harry blinked. “You’re speaking gibberish!”

  “You reckon?” Jerry contested. “Then why don’t you tell me what can chuck a guy through a pub window like a ragdoll, huh?”

  Harry had no answer for that. Jess shoved him hard on the arm. “You’re not helping. You need to help him.”