Sleepwalkers

by Tom Grieves

  She’d been equally speechless when Toby had appeared at her door in the middle of the night. He was elated, overexcited; so thrilled to have run away that he had no inkling of the trouble he was causing. Anna had pulled him inside, packed a bag and driven straight to Terry’s. She did it all in a daze, nearly crippled with fear, stunned that the boy had actually done exactly what she’d suggested to him. To her great relief, Terry took them both in without question. Toby was silenced with a store of pirated computer games and she was calmed by non-stop cups of tea. And there they stayed.

  Stories appeared in the papers: lurid articles which painted her as a scarlet woman (‘Sinful shame of school’s sexy seductress!’) and other cruel and hyperbolic character assassinations, but indignant as she was Anna knew that she could not answer back. There was no one left to trust. Not the police, not the press, not family or friends. Terry’s conspiracy theories and paranoia didn’t help, but there was no getting away from the fact that Anna was now the prime suspect in an abduction case and every hour, every day that they did nothing only further cemented her guilt.

  At first, as they sat and wilted in Terry’s bedroom, Anna began to worry that her actions had been hasty and illconceived. The phone didn’t ring with voiceless messages, no men watched the flat from the streets below; in fact there was nothing out of the ordinary. And although Anna was still a good source of media gossip and innuendo, the papers were soon refocused on the affairs and fashions of actresses and other celebrities. But nothing could dampen the dread she felt when Terry got Toby talking about his dreams.

  Toby had kept a diary, and he’d brought it with him. He showed it to them, turning the pages, explaining what each sketch and comment meant. They seemed like tales from a twisted adventure book or a comic strip. He would be chased by dogs, he would be caught in razor wire, he would hang from a building’s edge. Toby would start each story with the same youthful exuberance he brought to everything, but the more he talked, the more he recollected the fear, the pain, the cuts and blows that he once thought were fantasies, the quieter he became. Anna would trace a scar across his leg and he’d tell her its source: a collision with a motorbike, a fall down a steep hillside covered in shale, a hand grasping a pipe that turned out to be burning hot. None of the adventures made sense. There seemed no obvious link or purpose. All they could be certain of was that one moment he would be living his normal life and the next he would wake with a start: sore, cut and bruised, having been dragged through something violent and nightmarish. Toby tried to brush the horrors away with glib jokes. It was a default trick to avoid the pain of his memories. And each time he did it, Anna became more determined to find the men who had done these things to him and make them pay for their crimes.

  But this determination had collapsed when the man had burst into the room. And now he walked towards Toby.

  ‘Hi,’ grunted the monster.

  ‘You’re the man in my dreams,’ Toby replied.

  ‘Right back at you.’

  ‘What the fuck?!’ shouted Terry, clambering to his feet.

  ‘Relax, alright?’ the man responded.

  Anna gripped a chair and sat down.

  Terry was still hyper. ‘Relax? Are you shitting me?!’

  ‘It’s alright,’ said Toby. He went over to the man, up close. Anna watched them staring at each other, entranced by the other’s existence.

  ‘How the hell did you find us?’ barked Terry, but neither Toby nor Ben seemed to hear him.

  ‘Who are you?’ Toby asked.

  ‘Ben,’ he replied. ‘You’re Toby.’

  ‘Yeah. That’s Terry and Anna.’ But the man’s eyes never left Toby. ‘How did you get away?’

  ‘Er, a bit of a kick and a shove.’

  ‘Me too, sort of. Do you know what’s going on?’

  Ben let out a sigh, a little heavy. ‘No.’ Then looked over at Anna. ‘I am sorry about the way I came in. I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but I didn’t mean to scare you.’ His smile was surprisingly bashful. ‘You’re his teacher, right?’

  She nodded, still sitting.

  ‘I won’t hurt you, I promise.’ He looked at Terry. ‘How did you get one of those?’ he asked, gesturing to the taser gun which now lay on the floor.

  ‘Internet,’ said Terry, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  ‘How much of the other stuff do you remember?’ blurted out Toby, his voice higher.

  ‘Bits. I’ve started writing things down.’

  ‘Me too!’ Toby rushed off to the corner of the room where he pulled out his diary, bringing it back to Ben.

  ‘Seriously, mate,’ Terry interjected, ‘how did you find us?’

  Toby shoved the diary into Ben’s hands and pointed at it, proud and eager. ‘It was the only thing I took with me when I ran. Well, that, some cash and my ipod.’ He flicked through the pages, pointing bits out to him. ‘Look, that’s where I got attacked by the guards in the forest. Did you fight them too?’

  Anna saw Ben frown and scratch the back of his neck. She wondered what his dreams were like.

  And then Terry’s voice cut through. ‘We need to get out of here. Right now.’

  Everyone looked at him.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Anna asked.

  ‘How has he found us?’ Terry pointed at Ben.

  ‘He’s alright,’ said Toby again.

  ‘I’m sure he’s a tip-top geezer, but how come he’s here? In my room?’ He faced Ben. ‘How did you know where we’d be?’

  ‘Internet,’ replied Ben with a smile and a shrug.

  Anna stood up. The fear had hit her. ‘You found us … just like that?’

  ‘It wasn’t easy,’ Ben replied. ‘A lot of digging, some guesswork, talked to some people but … yeah, just like that.’ He faltered as he finished, seemingly aware now that there was something unhealthy about how easy it had been.

  ‘He’s led them here.’

  ‘No, no!’ Ben stammered. ‘No, I’ve been careful. I’ve been running for months, I know what to look for …’ Again he faltered. Anna could feel her heart pumping in her chest.

  ‘Let’s go then,’ said Toby.

  ‘Go where?’ she asked.

  ‘Who cares?’ shouted Toby. ‘If they’re coming for us, then what are we doing waiting for them in here?’

  ‘Alright, kid, shut up a second,’ said Ben, and Toby did so, instantly obedient.

  ‘Who says anyone’s coming for us?’ said Anna. ‘And who’s they, anyhow?’

  No one had a reply to this and the room fell silent. Anna looked at Toby, but he was just staring at Ben.

  ‘Let’s do what he says,’ said Toby.

  Ben looked at Anna. ‘Why did you come here?’

  ‘Terry doesn’t think like I do,’ she replied. ‘And I thought he’d also think differently to the people who would want to hurt Toby.’

  Ben looked at her and nodded. She felt pleased by this small sign of approval. Then he turned to Terry.

  ‘Do you know a place we can go where we won’t be followed? No CCTV, out of the way, somewhere people ignore. Somewhere we can be for a while, not just a day or a week. A while.’

  ‘Yeah. I know a place. Just … it’s not exactly, er, comfortable.’

  Everyone looked at Anna.

  ‘Oh, thank you very much!’ They all laughed nervously. Anna shook her head. ‘After this place, I’m sure it will be paradise. And I’m not that much of a fuddy-duddy.’

  ‘How much do you need to take with you?’ Ben asked Terry.

  ‘Two laptops, some cables and a toothbrush,’ he replied, already grabbing at the things he needed.

  ‘We’ve got our stuff there in that bag,’ said Toby, pointing to a large holdall.

  ‘What about your mum, Terry?’ asked Anna.

  ‘We’re not taking her along, are we?’ said Toby, and Anna glared at him to shut up. Terry finished packing the stuff on his desk. Maybe he hadn’t heard her.

  ‘Oh!’ he said, an
d then smiled. ‘I’ll leave behind a little present for them.’ He started to type fast at his keyboard. ‘Just a little …’ he typed some more, finishing with a flourish, ‘… booby-trap.’

  ‘What? Like, they press a key and the whole room blows up?’ asked Toby, sounding thrilled.

  Terry gave him a withering glance. ‘No, you tit, how am I gonna …? I’ve set it up so anyone who comes in will automatically be recorded on the webcam. I’ll pick up the link from the laptop – this way we’ll get to see who these fuckers really are.’

  ‘Come on, if we’re going to go, let’s do it,’ said Ben.

  Anna went over to Terry, a soft hand on his arm. ‘Once we go, we’re not coming back.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, his voice quieter now. ‘Give me a minute, eh?’

  He went to the door, and Anna watched him from there as he walked along the short passage to the lounge where the TV pumped out its cheery good wishes. She could see Mary, bovine, gazing at it through a thick haze of cigarette smoke. She didn’t even acknowledge Terry’s presence as he crouched down next to her. She just reached for another cigarette.

  ‘Mum,’ he said, quiet and soft, like a little boy. ‘Mum,’ he said again when she didn’t reply.

  ‘Yes, love?’ was her groggy reply.

  ‘I’ve got to go.’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Out. For a bit. No, longer. A long time, maybe.’

  Her eyes never left the flickering screen. ‘Why’s that then?’

  ‘Got a bit of trouble coming, I think.’

  A tut. She tapped the cigarette ash off, took a drag, breathed out and muttered something which might have been ‘not again’, but Anna couldn’t hear her properly.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Will you be okay without me for a while?’

  ‘Course,’ she said, but her voice was distant, unconnected. ‘I was alright before you came along, weren’t I?’

  ‘Sure. Sorry.’ He stood. ‘If anyone comes asking for me, Mum—’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. Look, shut up will you? I’m missing the best bit.’

  He did shut up, but he didn’t move. He stared down at his mother, his head nodding slightly, his fingers twitching. Anna thought for a second that he was about to strike her, but instead he bent down and kissed her. Mary smiled, patting him gently on the cheek although she never lost sight of the television.

  ‘You take care, my boy.’

  ‘Will do, Mum.’

  He walked back towards Anna, but he wouldn’t meet her eye. He passed her, and went back into the bedroom. Toby was standing in front of Ben, mid-karate stance.

  ‘Seriously. I was like, half-ninja, half-commando, half-batman!’

  Ben had his arms folded, staring at the kid like he was a lunatic.

  ‘Come on,’ Terry said. ‘Let’s get out of this shithole.’

  He grabbed his things and headed for the front door. There, he stopped and looked at them.

  ‘And watch out for the cameras.’

  *

  Ben pulled his baseball cap down as he and Toby walked together along the street. They’d travelled away from the estate and towards the centre of the city. They’d avoided public transport and the busier streets where Terry would make covert gestures to the cameras that looked down from every vantage point.

  The cameras. In Terry’s company, they seemed to be everywhere. In shop windows, in doorways, on lamp posts and street signs. Ben glanced at the people they passed: shoppers, workers, mums with prams, men on phones, sly schoolboys truanting with cigarettes in their mouths. None of them seemed to notice or care about the cameras. He’d been like that.

  They walked apart, trying to be forgettable. Sometimes Ben would walk with Anna. They spoke little. She seemed scared and fidgety, and he wondered why a woman so fragile would take such risks for a boy she barely knew. When he looked at her more closely he realised that she was actually very pretty. If she walked more confidently and wore more ‘showy’ clothes, then he thought she might be a real looker.

  Each time they reached the end of a street, they’d regroup. Sometimes Ben would walk with Terry, who would mutter weird things about ‘them’ using ‘speech recognition codes’ and warn Ben not to say the same phrases more than once each day. Ben found him bizarre. On other occasions he walked with Toby and the boy stuck close to him, like a beaten dog next to its master. He’d noticed some of the lad’s scars when they’d been in the flat, and from what Anna had whispered as they walked, it sounded as though he’d been in the wars. He understood the boy’s need for protection. As big as he was, he yearned for it himself. Something familiar, something safe. Carrie’s kisses, Emma’s tight embrace. He was thinking about Joe and smiling sadly at the memory when Toby pulled at his sleeve.

  ‘Can I ask you something?’ Toby said.

  Ben nodded, his eyes on the crowd.

  ‘You know that place, the place where I saw you?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘I keep seeing it, dreaming about it. All the time.’

  Ben tried to hide the unease he felt. He looked around; no one was near them. Anna and Terry were on the other side of the street, a few yards ahead.

  ‘Do you?’ Toby asked. His hand still clutched at Ben’s sleeve.

  ‘Yeah, yeah I do.’

  ‘And loads of other things are coming back too. The things I did, the things they made me do. Is that the same with you too?’

  Ben nodded. He didn’t want to talk about this. About knives and hammers. He shivered.

  ‘It’s sort of like,’ the boy continued, ‘sort of like now we’re free from them, they can’t keep it all stuffed away. It’s all coming back up.’

  Ben nodded again. He saw that Terry and Anna had stopped and were waiting for them at a street corner. Terry caught his eye and made a discreet gesture – we go that way next. Ben nodded to show he’d seen it, then felt another pull on his sleeve.

  ‘If you don’t want to talk about it, then I’m totally down with that.’

  Toby hurried across the street on his own, leaving Ben behind as they’d agreed. He joined Anna and they walked on, a new couple. Ben walked alone for a while. Dark memories stirred within him. He tried to think about Carrie instead, to calm himself, but he couldn’t picture her face. It was like she was falling away, as though she was just a dream too and he would soon lose her forever. No, he thought to himself. Never, never, never.

  They reached the building a couple of hours later. Ben stared at it from the opposite side of the road – a grand, rather beautiful facade. From the outside, it looked deserted. Stained by soot, pollution and pigeon shit, its white front was now dirty grey. What would once have been a fine set of double doors was now a steel shutter, covered in graffiti. The windows were also boarded up, similarly tagged and paint-splattered. Cars roared past. Maybe a couple of hundred years ago this was a cobbled street with trams or carriages, or some such. Now the road was wide enough to suck through speeding trucks. Official notices were stuck to the building’s door and to the lamp posts outside: a date for its destruction.

  Terry grinned at Ben as dust and grit caught in his eye. ‘Nice, eh?’

  He led them around the block to the back of the building and pointed out a metal fence, which looked intact but had been cut at the sides so you could pull it up and slip underneath. The back was worse than the front – rubbish was strewn all over the place, asbestos had been dumped along with smashed glass and other detritus. Ben spotted a bloody syringe amongst the debris.

  At the back of the building was a set of stairs, leading down to a basement. There was a sturdy padlocked chain holding the gate in place but Terry revealed that this was a facade – someone had sawn through the lock so that you could pull it open with ease. Once done, Terry carefully replaced the lock as he found it; to anyone not in the know, this place was a fortress.

  At the bottom of the stairs he banged three times against the sheet metal. It seemed an age before someone called out from inside.<
br />
  ‘What?’

  ‘Daz, it’s Terry. And some mates.’

  No reply.

  ‘Oh don’t be a cock, open up!’

  A pause, and then the noise of a drill or something, an electrical whirring. Another pause and then the sheet metal was pushed open – a young man, thin with blond rasta dreadlocks, peered out. His nose, eyebrows and ears were pieced and his earlobes swelled with large African wooden discs. He wore beads around his neck, a brightly coloured mohair jumper and baggy green corduroy trousers. His toes peeked out beneath the trouser’s turn-ups – bare feet. He stood half in, half out of the doorway, squeezed against the metal sheet.

  ‘Hey, man,’ he said warmly, then glanced at the others, offering a much cooler nod.

  ‘We need a place to stay, Daz.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘They’re all good, I can vouch for them,’ said Terry. ‘They’re in the shit, need a place to disappear for a bit.’ He pointed to the sky, as though something up there was threatening them.

  Daz frowned. ‘They don’t look the sort, Terry.’

  ‘Do they ever, man? It came after them, you know how it is.’

  ‘True words, my brother. True words.’

  Anna glanced at Ben – what were they talking about? Ben shrugged back at her, equally lost.

  ‘So come on, Daz, don’t leave us hanging.’ Terry’s voice had changed slightly – from the scowling yoof to a more furry twang.

  ‘How long do you need?’

  ‘How long till we get world peace?’

  ‘I hear you. Come on, brothers and sister.’ Daz’s teeth were crooked but his smile was warm and infectious. He pushed the metal sheet a bit further open and gestured for them to come inside. ‘You don’t want to be out there, it’s well nasty, eh?’

  ‘It’s okay for us to come in?’ said Anna.

  ‘Of course. Anyone’s welcome. Not like it’s ours, is it?’

  ‘All possession is theft, Miss,’ said Terry with a wink. ‘I’d have thought you’d have known that.’