Dead Flesh kh2-1

by Tim O'Rourke

  “Let’s go!” I yelled, already turning and heading back through the bushes. The face reminded me of the featureless statue I’d seen in the forbidden wing at the manor.

  “I think you’re right,” Sam groaned, coming after me.

  Nettles and thorns scratched at our faces and snagged our school uniforms as we fought our way out of the bushes. Desperate to be away from the body and the bush, Sam raced forward, shoulder-barging me out of the way. I pushed back, and both of us collided, falling in a heap outside the entrance to the camp. We lay on our backs, arms flapping as we fought to untangle ourselves from each other. Once separated, we stood panting and sucking in air.

  “Kayla, there’s a dead man in my camp!” Sam gasped.

  “You’re not kidding,” I wheezed, catching my breath.

  “Do you think he’s been murdered?” Sam asked me.

  “How should I know? And I don’t think we should hang around long enough to find out!” I told him.

  “Did you see his face and hand?” Sam asked.

  “What face? He didn’t have one, did he?”

  We stood in the woods, which seemed to be darkening by the minute, and looked at each other, both of us waiting for the other to say something. Sam spoke first.

  “What should we do?”

  “Get back to school,” I said. “We’ve been away long enough. Someone might realise that we’re missing.”

  “Don’t you think we should go and tell the police?”

  “Police!” I gasped. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, looking confused. “We’ve just found a dead body, Kayla.”

  “We can’t go to the police. If we get the police involved they could cause all sorts of problems,” I warned.

  “For who?”

  “For us. Who else do you think? If we go to the police they’ll want statements and God knows what else!”

  “So?”

  “So that will lead them back to Ravenwood and McCain and he’ll know that we’ve been over the wall!” I explained.

  “We can’t just leave that body in there,” he said, hooking his thumb in the direction of the bushes. “It wouldn’t be right.”

  “He’s dead — in case you hadn’t noticed!” I yelled. “It’s got nothing to do with us. Don’t get involved, Sam. Please, for both our sakes.”

  Sam looked at me, and he seemed almost disappointed, as if he had expected more from me somehow.

  “If you don’t want to get involved, go back to Ravenwood,” Sam said. “If this gets back to McCain, then I’ll say that I came out here on my own. I won’t mention you.”

  I stood and watched Sam start to walk away.

  I couldn’t let him go on his own.

  Birds sprung out of the trees above me, their wings sounding like shotgun fire as they beat together in the stillness of the wood. How did I get myself into this? I wondered. I just wanted to leave the camera for Isidor and get back to the school. With Sam heading away from me, I took the camera from my pocket and hid it beneath a pile of dead leaves by the entrance to the camp. Then, seizing the opportunity while I was alone, I quickly sent the following message:

  Kiera, camera hidden on south side of school near to stream and huge pile of bushes. If Isidor can’t track my scent then he should be able to smell the dead body! Will have to explain later. Got to go! Kayla xx

  Happy that I’d hidden the camera, I headed after Sam, hoping that I could change his mind about going to the police. I hadn’t taken more than a few steps, when I heard a rustling noise come from the bushes behind me. I spun round to see the faceless figure crawling out of the bushes.

  I jumped in fear at the sight of him. He now had one eye, and it was fixed on me. It was blue and cold, and bore right into my skull. His second eye wasn’t quite formed yet, just a wet socket and it oozed pussy tears onto his cheek.

  “Sam!” I shrieked. “Wait up! I’m coming with you.” Then turning, I ran as hard and as fast as I could through the woods. I didn’t dare look back, not even once. Sam turned around at the sound of my voice, and seeing the figure coming after us, he started to run. Branches and brambles tore at our faces and clothes as we darted blindly away. We flew over fallen logs, crawled under broken branches, and splashed through the stream. Then, Sam fell flat on his face. I glanced back over my shoulder and he looked as if he had been shot in the back. He lay face down amongst the pine needles and leaves, his nose buried in the dirt.

  “Sam!” I called breathlessly. “Are you okay?”

  He didn’t move. I looked quickly around to see if the faceless figure was close. I scanned the surrounding area but couldn’t see or hear anyone. I gingerly made my way over to Sam and knelt down.

  “Sam, wake up!” I pleaded, shaking him.

  Nothing.

  I rolled him over and he flopped lifelessly onto his back. His eyes were closed and I could see that he had a large gash across his forehead. I shook him again.

  “Sam! Please wake up!” I begged.

  Then, without warning his eyes opened. He looked up at me and began to scream. I snapped my head around and glanced over my shoulder. Standing about two feet away was the faceless man. He stood there silently — not moving. The wet eye socket winked at me and my stomach lurched as if I were going to be sick. I looked back at Sam and dragged him to his feet. I threw his arm around my shoulder and screamed at him.

  “Run! Run!”

  I dragged Sam back to the tree by the school wall. He dropped to the ground and let out a mindless groan. I bent down and shook his shoulders with all the strength I had left in me. His eyes rolled in their sockets and I slapped his face.

  “Sam! Wake up!”

  He groaned at me again. I looked back over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of the faceless man approaching the tree line.

  Snaking my arm through Sam’s, I dragged him back onto his feet.

  “Get up!” I ordered at the top of my voice. Once he was standing, I gripped hold of his face and he blearily looked at me.

  “Do you want to fucking die?” I screamed at him.

  Looking back again, the figure was now striding towards us. I shoved Sam towards the wall and he began to moan at me.

  “Please, Sam!” I begged him. “I can’t do this on my own!”

  Sam started to sway slightly then straighten. He looked at me and I could see his pupils begin to sharpen and focus. I turned him to face the fast approaching figure and roared into his ear, “If you don’t get your freaking arse over that wall in the next two seconds, we are gonna die! Now move it!”

  At last, realising his impending fate, Sam turned to face the wall and began to scramble up it. I followed close behind. If I’d been on my own like I’d planned, I would have just flown over the wall and been well away from that freak. But I couldn’t do that now — I couldn’t risk anyone in this world that had been pushed, finding out I was a half-breed. We hoisted ourselves up onto the branch and shimmied across it. Sam reached the other side of the wall first and without any hesitation, he threw himself from the branch and to safety. I got myself into position to jump, but the urge to look back one last time was too strong to resist. I glanced over my shoulder to see the faceless figure looking up at me, his one good eye staring into mine.

  Then, he whispered something from a gash in his cheek. His voice was faint, but I heard what he said.

  “Where’s Alice?”

  “Who’s Alice?” I whispered back.

  “Sister,” he said.

  Then, he started to change. It was like his skin was turning grey. Cracks began to appear on his face and hands as he slowly turned to stone. Within seconds he stood motionless, like a statue that had been standing beneath the giant tree for hundreds of years.

  Swinging myself from the branch, I landed with a thump in the grounds of Ravenwood.

  Back in my room, I placed a wet towel across the cut on Sam’s forehead as he lay on my bed.

  “I thought that man was dead!�
� Sam whispered, still not really believing what he’d just seen.

  “So did I,” I whispered back, dabbing gently at the cut on his brow.

  “What the hell is going on?” he asked, as if I had all the answers.

  “I don’t know,” I replied, wiping away his blood. My throat began to turn dry, and my stomach knotted. I glanced over at my bag tucked beneath my wardrobe and pictured the bottles of Lot 13 hidden within it.

  “I think you know more than you are letting on,” Sam said, taking my hand from his brow and holding it in his.

  “Say what?” I asked him.

  “There is something about you, Kayla,” he said, looking up at me. “I know there is some crazy shit going on and I’m not just talking about the wolves and the freaky faceless dude in the woods.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said, trying to break his stare.

  “I have dreams, Kayla,” he said. “Dreams about the world — but it’s not like this — it’s different somehow. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m going to tell you something, Kayla,” he said, his voice dropping. “I’ve never told this to anyone before ‘cos people would think I’m mad.”

  “So why are you going to tell me?” I tried to smile.

  “Because I reckon you’ll believe me,” he smiled. “I get the feeling that you know there is something wrong with this world, too.”

  “I don’t know what you mean…” I started to lie, but he began to talk over me.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Kayla

  “Both of my parents were strong swimmers,” Sam said, getting up and crossing to my bedroom window. “I don’t think they loved me very much, but they were strong swimmers.”

  “All parents love their kids, don’t they?” I said, acting surprised by what Sam had just told me. I knew that not all parents loved their kids, but I was still trying to do the whole ‘let’s play dumb’ routine. “I’m sure your mum and dad did love you.”

  “Nah, they didn’t,” Sam said, still looking through the window. “They loved me enough to feed me and put clothes on my back — but it always felt as if they were just going through the motions. There was never any heart put into it. It was like they always expected more of me — as if they were waiting for something to happen.”

  “Like what?”

  “It was like I had disappointed them in some way,” Sam said and this time he did look at me. “I thought perhaps they wanted me to be captain of the school football team or get better grades, but that just wasn’t me. My thing is drawing. I draw comics — but it wasn’t enough. Not for them, anyway.”

  “What’s wrong with drawing?” I asked. “I think that’s cool.”

  “It’s nothing,” Sam said, changing the subject back to his parents. “They were away a lot of the time. I never understood what they did, but my dad always seemed to be flying off here, there, and everywhere for meetings and my mum would go with him. People would often visit the house — men in smart suits. I never really got a good look at their faces as I was always ushered up to my room and the door would be closed. I would try and listen to what was going on, but they would always speak in hushed voices. So I spent most of my time escaping. You know, like in your head. I’d make up characters and would bring them to life in comic books.”

  “So apart from your mum and dad being a bit secretive, what was so weird about that? All parents have secrets — don’t you think?” I said, thinking of how my dad had kept the fact that he was a Vampyrus from my mum for years and the fact that she had a son called Isidor. That was a secret that he had kept from me, too.

  “It was what happened when they drowned that day — that’s what was so weird,’” Sam said.

  “What was weird about it?” I asked him, and in the back of my mind all I could really think about was if Isidor was already on his way to collect the camera. But Sam had been a good friend to me and I liked him, so I wanted to hear him talk about himself for a while.

  “My dad stood and looked at me sitting in the sand. He was mad again. He was always mad about something. I’d been drawing again — even on the beach, I’d been drawing.

  “‘Are you coming on this boat trip with me and your mother or what?’ he asked me.

  ‘Nah, I think I’ll stay here and finish this picture, if you don’t mind,’ I said, not looking up from my drawing pad.

  ‘Actually, I do mind,’ my dad said, reaching down and yanking the pad from my lap. ‘For once in your life you’re going to take your head out of those goddamn clouds and do something worthwhile.’

  ‘But…’ I started; he wasn’t in the mood to listen.

  ‘Don’t you dare argue with your father!’ Mum shouted. I remember she was dressed in a swimming costume,” Sam said.

  ‘We didn’t bring you all the way to Cornwall just so you could sit here doing those ridiculous drawings!

  ‘I told you we should’ve left him at home, Sue,’ dad groaned as he chucked my art pad into the sea. ‘I don’t know, we try and do the kid a favour and this is the thanks we get.’

  “I looked up at my dad, then at my art pad as it floated away,” Sam said, and I couldn’t help but feel sad for him.

  What kind of dad would do that to his son? I wondered.

  Sam stood and looked out of my bedroom window, and I could tell that he wasn’t watching the school kids who wandered about below or the Greys, he was reliving the day that his dad had thrown his pictures into the sea like they were little more than rubbish.

  “I followed my mum and dad up the beach. The boatsat alongside a short jetty. It was packed with tourists. There were two empty seats and my mum and dad took them. I kinda felt uncomfortable and left out again. My mum said that I was standing in her way and blocking the sun, so I was to go and stand someplace else.

  “Without saying anything, I moved away from them. What was the point in inviting me along if they couldn’t even bear me standing next to them?” Sam explained, and I felt really upset for him.

  “I leant over the edge of the boat and looked back at the beach. There were hundreds of people sunbathing. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, except for me.

  “The boat left the jetty and we made our way out to sea. Peering over the edge of the boat, I glanced back at the beach as it slipped into the distance and I saw something odd,” Sam said, turning to look at me.

  “What did you see?” I asked him.

  “It wasn’t a something, but a someone who had caught my attention. Standing on the shoreline was a figure, their feet were half in and half out of the water.”

  “So what was so odd about that?” I asked Sam.

  “It was really hot and this person was dressed in jeans and a blue hoodie, with the hood pulled up over their head. I tried to see their face but I couldn’t, as it was covered by the hood. Then, the screaming began and I turned away,” Sam said.

  “Screaming?” I asked him.

  “‘Man overboard!’ someone screamed,” Sam explained. “I made my way to where the other passengers were standing. I could see that the seats which my mum and dad had taken were now empty. I couldn’t see them anywhere.

  “‘They fell overboard! They just jumped!’ said this big guy,” Sam said, coming back across the room and sitting next to me on the bed.

  “Some woman started shouting that a man and a woman had jumped overboard and this other guy said that they had just flipped over the side of the boat.

  “I pushed through all the people, and saw my dad’s shirt floating on the waves. Then it disappeared beneath the boat. The captain raced towards us. He was telling people to get out of his way. He wanted to know who it was that had fallen over the side of the boat. I told him it had been my mum and dad,” Sam said.

  “What happened then?” I asked him.

  “The captain stood and stared at me,” Sam explained. “Then, he put his hands on my shoulders, and the captain asked, ‘you sure about that, kid?’<
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  “I just nodded, Kayla. I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock or something,” Sam said, and I took one of his hands in mine. “My parents’ bodies were never found. And in the end the captain decided he should take the boat back to shore. We were met on the jetty by police officers, paramedics, and Life Boat crew.

  “The captain spotted me standing alone in the crowd and pointed me out to a police officer. Everything seemed to slow down and I felt my knees begin to buckle beneath me. But before I fell down, an arm was snaking around my shoulders and holding me up,” Sam explained and his eyes had grown wide.

  “Who was it, Sam?” I asked him.

  “I looked sideways to find I was being supported by the hooded figure I had seen standing on the beach,” Sam breathed. “My eyelids felt heavy, and I had to fight to stop them closing. But the figure held me tight, then lent forward and whispered into my ear.”

  “What did he say?” I asked, totally wrapped in Sam’s story.

  “‘Everything is going to be okay. I promise.’ That’s what the figure said. ‘Who are you?’ I whispered back, unconsciousness nearly taking me. But I managed to tilt my head back just a fraction, in the hope I could see who it was beneath the hood. Then, the police officer came forward and took hold of me. He asked the stranger if they knew my name.

  “‘Brooke. Sam Brooke,’ the stranger said, letting go of me.

  “‘Do you know him?’ the police officer asked the stranger.

  “‘Kinda,’ the stranger said, then stepped away. The police officer tried to support me with one arm as he fumbled for the radio attached to his belt. I slumped in the officer’s arms, and then fell to the ground. Rolling onto my back in the sand, I struggled to open my eyes. I needed to see who it was beneath that hoodie, Kayla.”

  “What did you do?” I asked Sam.

  “I called out as the stranger walked away up the beach,” Sam explained. “Turning, the figure looked back at me. Then, pulling back the hood, the stranger revealed their face to me. All I could do was stare in wonder — they were beautiful.”

  “Who was it?” I gasped, almost ready to pee myself.