And he won’t. This is not real, this is not happening.
But this is happening, this broken man standing in front of him, this person who needs his help; this man who is about to step outside.
A cool draft on his face brings him back to his senses.
‘Don’t,’ he says, and takes Myles by the arm.
Myles turns to face him and Drover is sickened by what is missing from the man’s face. Worse, though, is the pathetic look in his eye. Drover is sure he is crying and wonders how that’s possible.
And then he is aware of someone beside him. It’s Lily and she is trying to look past Drover to the forest.
It all happens very slowly and yet takes only a few seconds. Drover hears Lily speak and she is calm. She simply says, ‘I don’t want it, Grandpa.’ But, as soon as she has said it, Drover feels that the eyes outside are no longer on him. And, then, he hears Myles say, ‘You could have stopped this,’ with blood bubbling in his throat and spitting from his ripped lips. And, then, Lily replies to her father, ‘You shouldn’t have started it,’ and Drover is caught between the two. He can see Myles’ sad face a few inches in front of him.
And, then, it is gone. The man is taken, snatched somehow by what is outside and the screaming starts again.
But it is short-lived. It’s the sound of a pack of ravenous dogs feeding on the defenceless body of some abandoned creature. Nothing would stand a chance. It is the sound of flesh being torn from bone, bone crunching, and guts being spilled.
Drover thinks he will throw up.
Pam is there, slamming the front door. She pushes Lily back into the sitting room, throws one look up the stairs and, then, pushes Drover too. He stumbles back in, his mind frozen with what he has just seen. He feels someone put a solid arm around him and feels a face pressed against his. Someone lowers him onto the sofa and he sits, sick with shock and numb with confusion.
‘It’s okay, Drover,’ Pete says as he helps him down and sits next to him. ‘I’m with you.’
Drover looks up and is aware that the sounds have stopped. Everything seems to be on pause, except that Lily is now sitting down and Pam is taking a swig from one of the whisky glasses. Drover could do with a drink, his mouth is so dry.
‘Put that down,’ Pete says, and Drover has no idea what he is talking about.
Until he looks down to see Myles’ arm still clutched in his hand.
He drops it, turns, and throws up over the edge of the sofa.
Pete is rubbing his back. Pam comes across the room and kicks the arm under the sofa, hiding it. It’s like she does this kind of thing every day and she’s not bothered. Drover nearly laughs. Pam pours some whisky onto the floor to cover the stench of what Drover threw up, pieces of half-digested meat. Drover looks away. They remind him of what he just saw.
As soon as he has his body under control he turns to face Pam, who is pacing at the window, her head tipped towards it, listening. He shrugs Pete off and says, with slow, measured words, ‘You need to do some fucking explaining lady.’
Pam is staring at the curtains and then she looks at Lily. She is thinking, while Lily sits there all innocent, smiling sweetly.
It makes no sense to Drover. ‘What is going on?’ He shouts it, and hearing the power in his voice seems to boost him out of his confusion. He feels more confident. He follows Pam’s gaze back to the curtains and realises that whatever is out there is silent now. That’s all strange and horrific, for sure, but what’s worse is that neither Pam nor her weird daughter seems in any way bothered about what just happened to Myles. Who are these people, Drover wonders, and his mind slips back to Pete’s stories; the Missing in the forest. Fed to some cannibal who is worse than a cannibal. The one who eats the sinful, all of them, bones teeth, thoughts, words, deeds, sins and everything. It’s just all too outrageous to be true.
His mind is in danger of wandering and spiralling downwards into some black madness when Pete’s voice stops it.
‘Please,’ he says, quietly. ‘Is he the Eater? Are those the Missing?’
Pam looks across at him sharply, then at the clock, then to Lily, and then, finally, she sits down.
‘We have little time left,’ she says. ‘He will be back. This is his house. It is angered, and on tonight of all nights. But it is feeding now. We have some time before it comes back. We need the cartridges. They are the only things that are going to slow it down. Shooting William will keep it down for a while but when it recovers, when it heals and wakes again it will be worse than this. Peter, you need to go back for the ammunition.’
‘No way,’ Drover says, and sits up. He wipes his mouth and realises he has Myles’ bloody spittle on his face. ‘He’s not going out there.’
‘What do we do, then?’ Pam says, and her voice is sounding almost dreamlike. So calm and soft suddenly, it’s like her words are floating from her and just hanging around in the air. ‘There is no hope if we stay here. We cannot run. We cannot drive away.’
‘There’s the car in the garage,’ Pete says. ‘You’ve got the keys.’
‘And Myles parked our car right across the garage door,’ Pam says. It’s like she is telling them of a dream she has had. ‘We parked there as we always do, but you won’t be able to move Myles’ car because of what’s outside. The Missing won’t let you pass. This is the night, when the dates coincide. This is the one night the gift can be passed on willingly, or taken by force. You are here. We are all part of it now. We can’t leave.’
‘Then, we will wait here until the morning,’ Pete says.
Pam laughs, softly and thin. ‘Daylight isn’t going to make any difference. They are angry because William is injured. They protect it, you see? They stand guard and won’t go away until it’s either given, kept, or taken.’
‘Until what is given, or kept?’ Drover asks, angrily.
Pam looks at Lily. ‘You know, don’t you?’ Lily just scowls back at her. ‘William will kill us all,’ Pam says.
Lily shrugs.
‘William…’ Drover screws up his fists and thumps them on the sofa beside him. ‘I shot him. He was dead.’
‘William can’t be killed,’ Pam says, softly, and points up to the window. ‘He’s out there, for now. He is feeding. It is biding its time, but he will come back, soon. We have… You have interfered and so, now, it is going to pick us off, one by one.’
‘For the love of…!’
‘No, Drover,’ Pete says. ‘I know she is right.’
‘Stories, Pete. Not now.’
‘More than stories, Drover. I felt it. Earlier. I knew they were coming, the Missing out there, coming for something. I knew the man wasn’t dead.
‘It’s why we came here today,’ Pam says, and looks sideways at Lily. Lily just stares back at her as if she is interested and amused to hear what her mother is going to say next. Pam sips her drink and glances at the clock. ‘Telling you earlier would not have helped,’ she says, ‘but, now this has happened…’ She takes a big intake of air and lets it out, fast. ‘Yes, we came here today to kill William.’
Pete gasps, Lily giggles. Pam ignores her.
‘But, for a very good reason,’ she says. ‘William has this… this gift, this ability. You can rip open his flesh with your pellets and his body will be weakened for a while, but, he will come back. His gift cannot be killed. By shooting him you only angered it. William’s body is not his any longer, hasn’t been since the gift was passed on to him. The gift has taken over and it won’t rest until everyone who plotted to take the gift is dead.’
Drover scoffs. ‘We didn’t plot to take nothing. Just some money.’
Pete digs him in the side and makes him look into his eyes. Drover can see that Pete believes all of this, that he is not only sincere but also terrified. Drover looks back at Pam who raises her eyebrows.
‘Yeah, but...’ Drover gets a sick feeling in his stomach. ‘What you saying?’
‘What do you think you were eating?’
He can guess.
‘You see,’ Pam says, as Drover puts a hand over his mouth and swallows down whatever was about to come up. ‘It won’t see it any other way. You came here, stole its food and then tried to kill it. It thinks you want to steal the gift and so it thinks we’re all in it together. But, there is only one way that William can be killed and the gift taken. It has to be done all in one night and in only one way. That’s when he can pass it on if he wants to, to family, to someone else, to whoever knows the story and knows what to do. But, it has to be done correctly and you went about it all the wrong way.’
‘You’re not making any sense, lady,’ Drover says. He’s wondering why Pam has turned white again, and why there is a trickle of blood on the side of her mouth. She must have bitten her lip in the panic just now.
‘It didn’t make sense to me at first,’ Pam says. She swallows and there’s a taste in her mouth. She screws up her nose and touches her lip. Examining her fingers and finding nothing she continues. ‘But, I read. The books, the lore. And, I believed, and we planned it all. Myles and me, all planned. Tonight, William can pass on his gift if he wants, if he has had enough of it. Or, he can choose to keep it until the next night when two family birthdays coincide, if one of them is an eighteenth birthday. That’s the lore. That could be hundreds of years. So, yes, we planned to get the gift in the only other way it can be done. By taking it. But, only if he didn’t agree to pass it on willingly.’
‘Hang on,’ Drover says. He is taking this in, ridiculous as it sounds, and he wouldn’t have even listened this far had he not just witnessed a man get ripped apart by his own father. But, then, William is not Myles’ father is he? Is that what she is saying? ‘Now I’ve heard it all,’ Drover says.
‘It is a very old story,’ Pete says to him. He says it so seriously that Drover knows that to laugh again would be insulting to Pete.
‘Very old,’ Pam agrees. ‘Whoever has the gift lives and lives, and eats and earns until they pass it on, or…
A groan from outside. Everyone sits upright, alert, ready for more of those strange sounds, more thumping steps, more signs that whatever is out there is going to come in and find them. But, the groan dies away and quiet returns. All the same, Drover realises they’ve been listening to this woman when they should have been planning an escape. He thinks about barricading the door, then realises that that won’t stop anything. There’s always the window.
‘It has to be killed, taken, in the correct way. Try it any other way and it just gets mad.’ She seems to snap out of whatever dreamy place she was in. Her eyes focus on Drover. ‘We have to be quick,’ she says. ‘He won’t be quiet for much longer.’
‘Give me the keys,’ Drover demands, and holds out his hands. ‘I’ll get the cartridges and come back.’
‘No,’ says Pete, really worried.
‘It’s okay, Peter,’ Lily says. ‘Grandpa will be quiet for a while now.’
‘How do you know that?’ Pam turns to face her.
‘I know lots of things,’ Lily says, with a meaningful smirk.
Pam reaches into her top and pulls out the car keys. She throws them to Drover who catches them and stands up on shaky legs. He puts his hand on Pete’s shoulder.
‘Come on, Pete,’ he says. ‘We’re getting out of here.’
Drover pulls Pete to his feet by his arm and Pete follows him to the door.
‘No,’ Pam protests. ‘You can’t. Just get the cartridges and come back. Quickly.’
‘Maybe we should do what she says, Drover,’ Pete says. ‘If their car is blocking the garage doors we won’t get past, and then there’s them standing guard outside. We should do what she says.’
‘Yes,’ Lily says, ‘this time you should. We’ll be safe in here. Grandpa won’t be back for a while yet. He’ll need time to recover.’
‘What do you know about it?’ Pam snaps at her, sharply.
‘As I said, I know a lot of things.’
‘Please,’ Pete says, and removes Drover’s hand from his arm. ‘Please, Drover, it’s the only way to help them.’
‘You care about these people?’ Drover asks. ‘After all she said about me?’
‘Yes, I do.’ Pete nods. ‘I’ll go with you, but we bring the bullets back here so they are safe.’
Drover can’t believe anything of what’s going on around him, but he knows that Pete is sincere. Whether what Pam said about Drover was true or not, Pete is still there with him. Would he still be there if he knew the real truth?
But, now is not the time for that. Pete is his mate, he has to trust him. He saw what William did to Myles, and he believes that whatever William is, it will come back for them. They need to be protected. No, he doesn’t care about this family, but Pete needs to be protected.
‘No,’ he says. ‘I’ll go alone.’
Twenty-one
PETE WATCHES THE DOOR close behind Drover, his tummy alive with nerves. He can’t remember the last time he was this scared. There’s something bad outside the house and it could come back in at any moment. And, now, Drover is out there and Pete can’t help him.
He looks at Pam. She is the oldest, she is the one who should be doing something, but she is looking pale and weak. She has sat down in a chair and is pulling a face like she’s eaten something bad.
He looks at Lily and she smiles at him. It’s a nice smile but it seems very out of place. He looks back to the door, wondering how long it will take Drover to get to the car and back. He is trying to make sense of what’s going on around him when someone speaks.
‘We need the book,’ Lily says, and the words draw Pete’s attention.
Pam looks across at her daughter sharply. ‘What?’
‘The Birthday Book,’ Lily continues. ‘It’s got things in it.’
‘What things?’
‘Like what we need to do now.’
‘You have no idea what you are talking about.’
‘I know that this isn’t going according to your plan.’
‘What plan?’
Lily laughs. It’s a startling, high squealing laugh, almost like a scream, and it starts high and stays high, and it’s loud; so loud that Pete moves away from her as the laugh bubbles and descends. It falls lower into Lily’s stomach which she holds as she laughs and Pete realises she’s putting it on.
‘Oh, Mother,’ Lily says, and now her voice sounds older. She sounds like she’s very grown up and Pete thinks her voice has changed. ‘You think I can’t read? You think I’ve not known what’s been going on in your selfish head? You think Grandpa and I don’t talk?’
Pete moves back as close as he can get to the wall. Pam is narrowing her eyes and glaring at her daughter and there’s a tension in the room that unsettles Pete.
‘What are you alluding to?’ Pam asks. Her voice is very quiet.
‘Your plan. Your hopes for tonight, of course.’ Lily leans back in the chair and drapes her thin legs over the arm. She looks very relaxed, like someone who knows that they have the upper hand, Pete thinks. And, then, he realises. Lily knows what’s going on.
‘And my plan is?’
Lily laughs again and puts a hand to her ear. ‘Listen, what do we hear?’
Pete listens. Nothing, just the clock ticking slowly over by the other wall.
Lily goes on. ‘No sounds of my father chattering nervously away, no sounds of Myles worrying. Not a whisper from my father because, where is he? Let’s see? Oh yes, he has just been torn to pieces by, by what? Well, that doesn’t matter, does it? Because Myles doesn’t matter. Not to you, Mother.’
/> She stresses the last word in such a way that Pete thinks Pam will be really angry.
Lily is not being nice, and she seems unbothered about what’s happened to her dad, just like Pam does. But Pete doesn’t linger on that thought for long. He is worrying about Drover. He should be at the car by now.
Pam’s face is pinched, her rat-like eyes fixed on her daughter.
‘So, you’re not bothered about what happened to Myles. You were expecting that at some point, weren’t you? No, you are more concerned about what Drover has done. What these two boys have done. They weren’t part of your plan.’
Pete feels Pam’s eyes on him, now, and it doesn’t feel good. He looks at Lily and finds that she is smiling at him.
‘But, you’ve really helped mine,’ she says. Pete doesn’t understand and his face must show this because Lily gives him a wink. ‘I’ll explain,’ she says. ‘Thing is, Pam and Myles came here tonight because this is the night that the gift can be passed on. Bequeathed, if you like, ’cos Grandpa would die if he didn’t have the gift in him, you see.’
‘Why bother explaining again?’ Pam says. Her voice is croaky. She clears her throat and takes a sip from her whisky glass. She notices that Lily is watching the glass intently as she drinks and her brow wrinkles like she’s thinking.
‘Because I may as well,’ Lily says. ‘I mean, we’re all in this now, and happen I may want to spare Pete and Drover from the same as what’s happened to the man you love.’ She laughs loudly again, high and shrill and descending down into the pit of her stomach, and all in the same breath she changes her noise from a laugh to almost a growl as she says, ‘My father.’
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