by West, Sam
“You’re entitled to your opinion, young man. In fact, maybe this tour isn’t for you. If you are going to belittle everything I say, then I would prefer it if you just went and didn’t ruin it for those that actually want to be here. Don’t worry, I won’t charge as we haven’t even started yet.”
“You know what, Mr Eric Flu, you’re right, this was a mistake. It’s cold, I’m bored and I could murder a fucking pint. Anyone coming?”
“What do you say?” Andy asked Tracy, who was hanging off his arm.
“Fine, but I’m not going to some strip-club.”
“Tracy!” Georgina gasped. “You can’t go.”
“I can and I am. Do you want to come?”
Georgina locked eyes with her friend, feeling quite torn. She wanted nothing to do with Andy and Gavin, that was for sure, but at the same time, she didn’t relish the idea of leaving Tracy alone with them.
She’s a big girl, she can make her own decisions.
She knew she shouldn’t feel guilty about not wanting to go for a drink with them; if Tracy was going to go home with Andy, then there was nothing she could do to stop her anyway.
“Look,” Tracy said, “why don’t we all meet up at the Red Lion when you guys are done here?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Jim said. “What do you two think?”
Although it was obvious to Georgina that he was talking to her and her alone. Nigel might as well have been invisible.
“Sure,” she shrugged.
“Fine by me,” Nigel muttered. “So long as we get a break from listening to the Neanderthals.”
Despite his fighting words, Georgina noticed how low he kept his voice.
“What’s that you say, geek-boy?”
“He didn’t say anything, Gavin. Just go, we’ll meet up with you guys later when we’re done here,” Jim said.
“Whatever,” Gavin replied.
Gavin, Andy and Tracy moved away from the group, retracing the way they had just come. In a matter of seconds, the darkness and clutter of the half built theme-park had swallowed them up.
“And then there were three,” Eric Flu said.
He grinned, and Georgina shuddered. The darkness made it near impossible to see the minute details of his lean face, but she was sure she saw something move inside his mouth.
Don’t be so ridiculous. What the hell is with you? It’s a trick of the dark.
She glanced at Jim and Nigel. Jim threw her a small, comforting smile, and Nigel’s face remained impassive and weasel like.
“Please, follow me, I have such sights to show you, you may decide you never want to leave.”
He walked away from them, cocking his forefinger for them to follow. Georgina felt light-headed and strange – she was beginning to seriously regret not going with the others. Even if the others were a pair of nut-sacks and a drunken tart looking to get laid when the clubs shut.
Unfair, Georgina, unfair.
“You okay?” Jim asked her.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You heard the man, let’s do this tour,” she said with a plastered-on smile.
The three of them followed him deeper into the bowels of the soon to be re-opened theme-park. Her heart tripped wildly and when Jim reached out for her hand she felt slightly less on edge.
But only slightly.
Their tour-guide produced a slim flashlight from the back pocket of his jeans and switched it on, bathing their passage in a beam of light.
“So who are you, really?” Jim asked the back of the man’s head. “Are you working on the site, or something? How comes you know so much about this place?”
Eric stopped, abruptly spinning round and shining the flashlight into their faces. Georgina squinted, shielding her eyes from the harsh light with her hand.
“Let’s just say I have a powerful and profound connection to this theme-park.”
“How do you mean?” Jim persisted.
“Do you believe in God, young man?”
Georgina was entirely taken aback by his odd question. So, apparently, was Jim.
“Er, no, not really. I guess I’m an atheist. Why do you ask?”
“An atheist. How lovely. I do love the company of an atheist, and I especially love the company of three atheists.”
Georgina wished she could see his face, but she was blinded by the brilliant light.
What a weird question. What the hell is his problem?
Then it occurred to her that she and Nigel hadn’t told him anything about their religious beliefs, or lack thereof. She couldn’t vouch for Nigel, of course, but he was spot on with her.
“Why do you ask if we believe in God?” Jim asked again, a note of exasperation creeping into his voice.
“Would you mind lowering the flashlight?” Nigel asked.
“Of course, where are my manners?” Eric replied, ignoring Jim. “This is the spot I wanted to show you, anyway.”
Georgia shuddered. They were stood by the entrance to the ghost train. A huge clown face was painted on the front of the black building, the wide, grinning mouth painted over the double doors.
How original, Georgina thought. But still freaky, especially at midnight on Halloween.
“Not entirely original, I will agree, but still entirely freaky, especially at midnight on Halloween.” Eric said.
She froze, her stomach twisting into a big, fat knot.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jim asked, his hand squeezing hers.
She could only look up at him with what she was sure was a moronic, wide-eyed stare of terror.
Christ. This guy was seriously starting to freak her out. She wanted to leave, but she didn’t want to make a scene.
I’m just being jumpy, it’s coincidence, that’s all.
Eric laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound.
“On this special night, in certain spots throughout the world, hell can partially materialise on earth. Especially on a rare full moon, such as tonight.”
“Come again?” Jim asked good-naturedly, but Georgina could detect the tremor in his voice.
“It’s really quite simple, young man. For one night a year, hell and the real world can merge. And tonight is the strongest bond between your domain and mine since the beginning of time.”
“I think the guy is a nut job,” Nigel hissed at them.
“Me too,” Georgina hissed back.
She smiled at Nigel in the gloom, but he didn’t return the gesture, glaring at her instead.
What have I done to upset him?
“That’s all very interesting,” Jim said, as if to appease him. “But if that’s true, then why here? Of all the places in all of the world, hell chooses a theme-park in Broadgate?”
Georgina sniggered at his naff choice of wording straight out of Casablanca. The smirk froze on her lips at Eric’s well thought out reply.
“All theme-parks are attractive to the devil. Just as in hell, those whom abide in it are firmly in one of two camps; entertained or terrified. Or maybe it’s the noise of a theme-park that attracts the devil. The screams of terror and of joy mingled together. I’m not saying war and mass genocide are not music to the devil’s ears, because believe me, it is. As delicious as the wails of the agonised and dying are, the devil does like to hear shrieks of joy mixed in with the terror. It is an audio illusion of course, but it just sounds so nice.”
That had to be the weirdest thing Georgina had ever heard someone say.
“That sounds a bit silly to me,” Jim said in a too-bright voice.
“It’s just a little quirk of the devil. But more importantly, this theme-park is built on one of the most powerful ley lines in the whole world.”
Georgina had heard of ley lines, although her knowledge of them was sketchy at best. Once she must have heard them been called ‘energy highways’ and the term had stuck in her head. They were supposedly invisible, mystical and mythical lines running over the surface of the earth, or some such thing.
“Energy highways. Yes, that’s a good way to
put it, I like that,” Eric said, pausing as if for effect.
Her skin crawled. He can’t be reading my mind. He just can’t.
She leaned against Jim slightly and he looked down at her with concern.
I should just go, maybe I can catch up with Trace…
But she couldn’t bring herself to move. She didn’t want to make a scene, and she was inexplicably too frightened to walk away by herself.
“What, exactly, is a ley line, then?” Nigel asked.
“From a scientific point of view, ley lines are cracks in the earth’s tectonic plates that release magnetic energy,” Eric said. “But they are so much more than that; ley lines are the cracks between realms. And this line is especially strong; it has been blackened by countless occult practices that have been performed on it over the centuries. A blackened line is a glorious thing, it means the cracks deepen and hell and earth can be as one. On this perfect night, the sun, moon and five major planets are in perfect alignment, opening those cracks wider still.”
His words were too strange, too out there and something clicked inside her. She had heard enough.
“Please don’t think me rude, but I’d like to end this tour now,” she said to Eric Flu. “Jim? Would you like to come with me?”
“Yeah, I really think I would,” he said with a nervous laugh. “Nigel? Are you coming too?” The weedy looking young man nodded his head. “We will pay you for your time, Mr Flu, but my friends and I have decided to end the tour. How much do we owe you?”
“You owe me your lives.”
Georgina froze as surely as if someone had tipped a bucket of ice-water over her head.
“Excuse me?” she asked in small voice.
“You heard. You six are the chosen and your blood must be spilled. You didn’t find the tour, the tour found you.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jim said, his grip on her hand tightening so that she winced.
“You may thank the leaflets you found on the street, or rather, the leaflets that found you. Those leaflets were made in hell, and so by their very nature those leaflets will be attracted to pure evil. It is not that this merger of your realm and mine requires evil people, just that it is the natural by-product of finding sacrifices. Sacrifices can be good, evil or indifferent, it truly matters not. But one leaflet found Gavin alright and I’m so glad the rest of you came too. Georgina, the leaflet originally found that guy curb-crawling you in the car, now he really was a nasty specimen. But I’m so glad you came instead.”
“How do you know about the man in the car?” Georgina asked.
Then it hit her that none of them had told him their names.
“Because I am omnipresent. I see everything. And now it is time for your blood to spill. Your life force, your very essence will open the crack of the ley line into a chasm and at last hell will claim the earth.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Jim said, tugging on her hand which was still firmly in his. “You need help, mate.”
“Yes, I do,” he called after them, “I need your help. Run, the chase is on.”
“What a nutter,” Jim said, dragging her away from the tall man with Nigel hot on their heels.
The three of them ran back the way they had come. Georgina could hardly catch her breath and tears stung her eyes.
“Eric-fucking-Flu,” Nigel gasped as they plundered through the darkness of the building-site. “It’s an anagram. Eric Flu is Lucifer with the letters jumbled up.”
It took a moment for the magnitude of Nigel’s words to sink in, and when they did, it was a physical blow. She could run no more; the breath knocked out of her and she hunched over her knees.
“Come on!” Jim cried, stopping dead to yank on her arm. “We’ve got to go.”
Eric Flu…
She almost tripped over her own feet in an attempt to keep moving, that funny name bouncing around in her skull and making her head ache.
Except it wasn’t funny in anyway whatsoever.
I’m going to die tonight. The thought was crystal clear in her mind and not for a second did she doubt the truth of it.
5.
Andy shivered in the freezing night, wrapping the ineffective, thin jacket more tightly around himself. He would’ve worn his parka if he’d known he was going to be pissing around outside for ages in the middle of the bloody night. Still, at least he had Tracy to keep him warm. He pulled her closer towards him, copping a cheeky feel of her backside. She giggled and he wondered if they could go back to hers for a shag, seeing as the four of them had doubled up to save money and he was sharing a hotel room with Gavin.
“Why have you guys stopped?” Tracy asked, when Gavin ground to a halt.
Andy smiled to himself. To pounce on my dopey brother when he’s done with the tour and tie him naked to a lamppost and give him a proper, stag-night send off, he thought, but didn’t say.
Gavin leaned causally against a life-size horse on a big carousel ride. It was so dark that Andy couldn’t make out the details of the ride, but the elaborate, floral patterns in shades of grey shone in the moonlight, suggesting that it had been lovingly restored. Gavin patted the head of the horse he was leaning on.
“I thought we might have a bit of fun. What do you say, Andy?”
Andy looked at him blankly for a second. His head was so filled with the thoughts of the pussy he was bound to be getting later that the penny didn’t drop immediately.
“Huh? Jim won’t be done for ages yet.”
“I know that, dipshit, I mean some fun with Tracy here.”
Still he didn’t get it. Yes, the Gavin he knew was a bit of a prick, but he was a nice prick. Okay, so he was a Jack-the-lad and a loud-mouth, but there was no harm in him. Or so he thought up until the moment that Gavin yanked Tracy out of his arms. Completely stunned, Andy watched as Gavin held the squealing girl in a headlock with her back pressed against his front, his free hand pulling down her flimsy little top. Perky tits that were large for her small frame spilled out of her bra and Gavin squeezed one of the fleshy orbs.
“Let me go, you fucker!” Tracy had time to scream before Gavin let go of her tit and clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Feisty little bitch, ain’t she?” Gavin said.
At last, Andy found his voice. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Cleaning my teeth, what does it look like?”
“Let go of her,” he said, his heart beating uncomfortably hard and his mouth dry as sandpaper.
This couldn’t be happening, Gavin wasn’t like this.
“Oh, come on, where’s your sense of humour gone? I’ll even let you have first go, so long as you take the pussy ‘cause I like it better in the backdoor.”
Unconsciously, Andy’s hands balled into fists.
What a bastard he is. What a complete and utter cunt…
Despite thinking this, Andy was having great difficulty in tearing his eyes away from Tracy’s breasts. They were every bit as perfect as he’d hoped they’d be and for the briefest of seconds, he had the most vivid image of bending her over a carousel horse and banging her hard. He shook his head to dispel the image.
“Just let her go, this ain’t right.”
“Don’t be so fucking soft. We’ve got to do something while we’re waiting for your twat of a brother.”
Tracy squirmed and moaned, her bared tits jiggling pleasingly as she did so.
Andy wrenched his gaze up to Tracy’s eyes and her look of pleading, wide-eyed terror snapped him back to himself. His hard on deflated in a heart-beat. What was he thinking? The poor girl was terrified, he had to help her.
Calmly, he went up to the struggling girl and placed a gentle hand on Gavin’s forearm that circled the girl’s neck.
“Mate, this isn’t cool,” he said in a low voice. “Just stop, okay?”
“I didn’t know you were such a wimp, Andrew Pearson. Fuck you, you can’t stop me. You want to fuck her as much as I do.”
With that he spun the girl rou
nd, and like a re-enactment straight out of Andy’s fleeting fantasy, he bent her over the horse. Andy felt dream-like and strange, swallowing dryly when Gavin pulled down her knickers and yanked up the miniscule skirt, exposing the cutest little arse that Andy had ever seen.
The girl squirmed and screamed, her rounded backside wobbling pleasingly. Gavin held the struggling girl down by the scruff of her neck and slapped her exposed bottom.
“Christ, girl, your wailing is giving me a headache,” he said, clamping one hand over her mouth, the other still on the back of her neck. “Come on mate, it ain’t going to fuck itself, you know. I said you could go first and I am a man of my word.”
Andy couldn’t pretend he didn’t have a raging hard-on. It was so much easier when he couldn’t see her face and her screams were muffled. He licked his dry lips, imagining how soft and tight her pussy would fee wrapped around his cock.
No! Christ, what the hell is wrong with me? I’m not a god-damn rapist.
“No,” he said, none too convincingly, backing away.
“Suit your-fucking-self, loser.”
He had to let go of her mouth to un-zip his fly and when he did, she renewed her pleading and screaming in earnest.
“Help me, Andy! You can’t let him rape me, you can’t…”
Her words tailed away into sobs.
You have to stop him…
But the sight of her getting used like this was crudely arresting, he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze off her and his hard-on was showing no signs of abating anytime soon.
“Go on, do it. You know you want to.”
The voice directly behind his left shoulder made him scream and spin round.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” Andy gasped, clutching his heart.
“The second you consented to the tour, I never left you.”
Andy stared down at Eric Flu, the man that looked so much like creepy Uncle Alex. He had no clue what he meant but his words chilled him. Eric Flu’s head suddenly snapped back, as if attached to an invisible string.
“My powers are gaining strength. On earth, as it is in hell, give us this night our nightly bloodshed.”
Even Gavin had stopped in his tracks and stood there slack-jawed, staring at the funny little man with his head thrown back and his arms outstretched like some parody of Jesus Christ on the cross.