After an hour of browsing amongst the thousands of bookshelves he decided on the book he wanted and headed for the lower floor. It was then that he saw this girl on the opposite escalator and his frozen heart missed a beat. He felt that he had seen her somewhere before, no, not only seen her but had known her well, she had been part of his life and she had made him happy, very happy, an emotion that was completely alien to him. But he could not remember where or when he could possibly have known her.
She was nothing like the usual stunning, high-maintenance women with whom he was often associated. She was small and fragile-looking, barely five feet tall with olive skin and long curly brown hair dangling to her waist. Her tiny, delicate features were spellbinding. Her incredibly large brown eyes had a sad, faraway look and he could feel her pain eating away at his heart and he felt miserable because she was miserable. She looked up and their eyes met and he smiled, but she just blushed and looked away. He kept staring at her, trying to remember where he had seen her, and he almost went back up after her. But then she turned and looked down, giving him an odd look, and he thought against it. He turned his back on her and went to pay for the book. He had other things to do that day and so he quickly shoved the girl out of his mind.
He had no trouble finding the right bench hidden behind the oak tree and he settled down for a quiet read. ‘His father’ would eventually sit on that very bench. All Josh had to do was to wait patiently. He was halfway through the book when the girl he had seen in the bookstore walked past him and sat on a bench some distance away. He was surprised as this was not the usual place a girl would pass through or even sit by herself, unless she was a working girl looking for her next client, but she didn’t look like she was.
He observed her from a distance and he could feel that inexplicable aura pulling him towards her hypnotising presence. But she wasn’t his type at all. The plain tight jeans and black modest shirt she wore looked fetching on her but they did not scream out wealth, glamour or sophistication...things his circle of acquaintances usually possessed in abundance. She was unaware of his close scrutiny, in fact she seemed totally oblivious to her surroundings as she lost herself in her own private thoughts. She finally sighed sadly and rummaged through her bag. She conjured up the book she had presumably just bought from the bookstore and a stethoscope peeped out of her bag.
“So she’s a little doctor,” Josh murmured under his breath.
She kept yawning and rubbing her eyes and after some time she abandoned her book and leaned her head against the bench, immediately nodding off to sleep. She had naively let her guard down. How could she possibly sleep in such a perilous environment? She looked so fragile and vulnerable. He felt this irresistible urge to watch over her and he decided that he would only go home after she left the park.
Josh continued to stare at her as the wind played with her curls and rustled the overhanging leaves. He suddenly felt his surroundings shift and change…
.....He was sucked into this cold room which was bare except for the twenty or so trolleys lining the walls. These were covered with crisp white sheets and Josh could see equally pale white feet exposed at the foot of each trolley. There was a label attached to each big toe. With a start Josh realised that he was in a city morgue. He felt panic rise deep within him and he frantically looked for a way out of the room but he could not move for the door. He heard footsteps echoing outside in the hallway. A key turned in the lock and the sound reverberated around the macabre room. Josh was relieved, whoever had come would be able to help him get out of there.
Three men filed in but no one seemed to see him standing there rooted to the centre of the room. In fact they just walked right through him. It was as if his mind was present in that morgue but his body was still sitting on that bench in that park. He must be having one of his weird vivid dreams where he was transported to this tertiary world where only his mind existed. But why the morgue?
He turned his attention on the three men. One had a white coat and was obviously the pathologist in charge of the morgue. The other two men must be poor distraught relatives identifying their dead. The first man was on the point of collapse. He was a bear-like huge giant over six feet three inches tall. There was that tiny ray of hope in his warm bear cub brown eyes, but that hope was brutally crushed as the pathologist removed the sheet covering the body they had gathered round to see. The giant fell to his knees, howling in pain.
The other man did not dare look, his worst fears confirmed by his friend’s reaction. He had been completely dwarfed by the giant as they entered the room, but Josh now turned all his attention on him. He was almost six feet tall with a slender build and was immaculately dressed in an expensive and stylish navy blue suit and tie. There was deep anguish and guilt in his blue eyes as he nervously ran a hand through his fair straight hair. He took a deep breath and slowly moved forward, and he fell weeping bitterly on the corpse’s hand as he slipped a diamond ring through her finger. The giant looked up and the tame weeping bear turned into a vicious wild animal as he tore the ring from her finger and threw it across the room. He slammed his fist into the fair-haired man’s face and roared.
“You have killed my baby sister. How dare you defile her body with your ring? She loved you and you betrayed her. She would never have left if you had not gone sneaking off to your lover, her best friend. I swear that you will pay for this if it’s the last thing I’ll do.”
The pathologist called security and the struggling men were dragged out of the room. The corpse was left uncovered.
Josh looked at the woman’s face. A vast ache descended like a cold mist over his heart. His mind rebelled against his vision. He knew that the girl from the bookshop was still sleeping on the bench just opposite him; his body which he had left behind in the park could still sense her presence. Yet here she was, lying lifeless and beautiful, her long brown curls fanning her pale face. He looked at the open wound on her forehead and at her battered and bruised body, and he too wept bitterly… But the dream suddenly fragmented and changed...
He was now in this large department store and he could see himself waiting patiently on a sofa. He could hear Rita, his personal shopping assistant talking somewhere in the distance. What was he doing waiting there? He abhorred shopping, Rita usually did that and delivered everything straight to his door and he always approved of her choice of clothes. But yet that Josh was happy to be there waiting.
Rita emerged from the changing room, followed closely by the girl from the bookstore. She was alive and well, her face all smiles. The big plaster covering the right side of her forehead did nothing to diminish her innocent appeal, if anything it made her more alluring. Josh looked at her wild curls tumbling down her face and his eyes travelled down her new clinging black dress; her revealing neckline, her tiny waist and her curvy hips hugged closely by the sheer fine fabric. He swallowed hard as he eyed her perfectly shaped legs. He thought of the long slender legs of the women he usually slept with, but all he wanted was this tiny and fragile porcelain doll. He could love no other after he had seen her.
“Josh, do you like the dress since you are paying for it?” Rita asked, breaking into his silent appraisal.
He cleared his dry throat, “Your tastes are impeccable as always, but you must admit you did have an easy job tonight because anything will look good on this young lady. Even my ridiculously large jacket looked appealing on her.” He smiled as he got up to leave. “We will be back for the rest of her clothes. In the meantime we can go and have something to eat.”
Rita grabbed his arm, “You are not going yet. You have to change that bloodstained shirt first.”
“I hate shopping and I have already waited for more than fifteen minutes whilst you two swooned on every dress in the department. I’m really hungry now and the dirty shirt will have to stay.” Josh laughed as he bent down to kiss the older woman on her cheek, he was used to her fussing over him.
But Rita blocked his way with determination, “No client of mine i
s going to take such a nice young lady to dinner looking like that. So if you are hungry you had better choose the colour fast.”
Josh sighed and asked the girl to pick a colour. She laughed and asked for blue.
“What is it with women and shopping and the right clothes anyway?” he grumbled as he started to unbutton his stained shirt. He flung it carelessly on the sofa and glanced at the girl. She was blushing heavily as she flicked her curls away from her rose-red face. For crying out loud, he just took off his shirt and nothing else and she was not an innocent teenager but a doctor and she must have seen thousands of patients undress before her, so why the bright beetroot colour?
“I’m sorry about your shirt...and your watch. I will pay for everything when I get my new credit cards,” she was mumbling as she closely examined her toes.
“Do you really think that I am that bothered about my shirt or anything else? Just forget about it, you don’t have to pay me for anything,” Josh said. And he quickly buttoned up his new blue shirt....
Josh opened his eyes. He was back in the park. The girl was still sleeping on the opposite bench and the wind was still playing gently with her long curls as they flew across her perfectly shaped face. He rubbed his throbbing head. What had just happened to him?
His overactive imagination must have highlighted the obvious truth. If he were to leave her on her own in the park she would end up in a city morgue and he must have conjured up a brother and fiancée crying over her dead body. But if he stayed, he was likely to end up in a department store with her as she chose something to wear and he would somehow have dinner with her. That was so weird, but then he had always been weird and eerie. He had accepted that a long time ago. He did sometimes get lost in his own mind, a sort of foreign world where he would roam about on his own, predicting what might happen after he had carefully studied and silently observed his surroundings. It was just pure speculation and there was nothing abnormal to it, Josh had often convinced himself.
He channelled his thoughts and purposely remembered his mother and the psychological torture he had been subjected to. That should dampen any inclination to get deeply involved with anyone. He just used girls for his own satisfaction and then discarded them the next morning. That was his doctrine. But this girl was different. She was playing with his mind...with his own beliefs and determinations...and with his heart. He liked her too much and that fact alone made him feel vulnerable. He did not want any female to break his icy covering. Besides, he would never deserve this girl anyway. No one really liked him for himself, they only endured his sulking presence because he was now famous and filthy rich.
So with these bitter thoughts infiltrating his mind, he rose to leave.
As he started to walk down the path his shadow fell on the sleeping girl and he was suddenly hit with the same sense of desolation he had experienced when he had seen her lying in the morgue. He stood in front of her bench, just a metre away from her. And he continued to observe her intently, surprising himself with the range of conflicting emotions that were playing across his frozen heart. He stood there for a long time, feeling like a sick psychopath craving for a beautiful unobtainable woman.
Then he retraced his steps back to his bench. He would not let an innocent girl die out of pure selfishness, just because he was afraid of someone touching his heart. He would watch over her till she left the park. That had been his original instinct. With him there no one would risk harming her, and after she left he could get on with his life and his eerie images. He did not have to talk to her after all.
He tore his eyes away from her and continued to read his book. He was soon so completely immersed in his own world that he did not notice three burly men approaching the girl. Her cry brought him back to the park. The hooded men had grabbed her bag and were about to dash for it, but instead of letting them go, she stood up fighting, desperately trying to retrieve her belongings. That was an extremely stupid move. She had no survival instinct whatsoever. Did she actually think that she could possibly overcome three men twice her size?
The rogues must have been thinking the same thing because one of them laughed scornfully and roughly grabbed her hair, bashing her head against a nearby tree. Blood spurted out of her forehead. She sagged and the man wound one beefy arm around her tiny waist, drawing her back against his chest. With the other hand he started to squeeze her throat as he tried to drag her off the path. She gasped for air but somehow managed to gather her final ounce of strength as she pointlessly tried to struggle out of his grip.
“Take her bag and let her go. I have phoned the police, they are on their way,” Josh lied as he calmly approached them.
“Police?” the man scoffed, “that’s a rotten lie.” But he stopped strangling her and looked at the expensive and stylish attire of the man standing before him. “What is a rich toff like you doing here anyway? Were you looking for someone like her? You know what...I don’t want any trouble with you, the four of us can share her. She won’t mind, she must have come here asking for it. I can tell you that she smells really good.” He buried his face in her neck and sniffed hard. “So what do you say, do you want the first go? I don’t mind waiting.”
There was nothing but sheer terror in the girl’s brown eyes as she painfully lifted her head and looked pleadingly at Josh. He sent out a silent message of comfort which she must have read because her panic instantly receded and she slumped her head back against the man’s chest and stopped her ineffective struggling. She completely trusted him to get her out of her impossible situation.
Josh looked at the blood smeared on the tree trunk. This was his living nightmare. It had eventually materialized and he knew that he had to stop them dragging her deep into the undergrowth. He glanced at the opposite bench, there was no tall dark-haired man there. He was on his own and he was the only one who could possibly prevent those echoing heartbreaking screams. He quickly analysed the situation. They looked so drunk and drugged that he hoped he could at least put one down before they turned on him too.
“Why the hesitation? Do you want to see more of her?” The man smirked as he slid his free hand under her shirt, ripping it wide open. One of his friends licked his lips, impressed by what he saw. Josh seized that moment of distraction and punched him hard on his face. That punch was too much for his fragile drunken state and he quickly toppled over.
That was easy, thought Josh. One down, two to go.
“Come on man, we’ve got her bag, let’s go before it gets nasty,” the third man said as he helped his unsteady friend off the ground. Both men scuttled away clutching the girl’s bag, but the man holding her stayed put. The smell of her soft body had aroused him and he had no intention of backing off before his needs were met. He fished a knife out of his pocket and held it against her bare chest, scraping her skin off. Tiny drops of blood started trickling down. He felt invincible and omnipotent. He could so easily snap her neck in two or drive the knife through her bountiful breasts. The rich guy seemed intent on being a hero but he had no say in the matter. He could choose to either run off or share his bounty after he had had his fill. He didn’t mind either way. He began to slowly inch his way off the path.
Josh went for gentle bargaining, all the time keeping an eye on the sharp knife blade. “Your friends have left, it’s just you and me now and you can hardly stand on your own two feet. If it’s money you need then I can pay for the girl,” and he put on the bench all the bank notes he had in his pocket together with his expensive watch. He then started advancing slowly. “Come on, you can pay for a hundred willing girls with that watch and still have enough left to buy a month’s supply of heroin. Give me the girl and disappear with the money before I change my mind.”
The man seemed to hesitate, but then he roughly shoved her onto Josh’s chest, grabbed the valuables and raced after his friends.
Josh held her close. He had that strong inexplicable feeling that this was where she belonged, that he had often held her this way and comforted her. She too s
eemed to have found her safe haven as she leaned heavily against him, closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest.
“You’re bleeding,” Josh said gently as he lifted her chin up and shifted the lock of hair covering her forehead. He gasped; it was the same open nasty wound he had seen on the corpse’s forehead in the morgue, down to the last rugged edge. How had he predicted such detail? He dismissed that thought and filed it in a forgotten corner in his vast mind, he will think about its significance later. His first priority was to fight off the rising feeling of nausea and panic he always had at the sight of an open bleeding wound. The girl needed his help and this was not the time to give in to his hysterical phobia. He let go of her lock of hair. The wound was covered again.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said in a strong English accent as she tried to unsuccessfully wipe the large bloodstain on his white shirt.
“That explains it all; you’re a British tourist who happened to stumble on this park without knowing the consequences of doing so. It’s not a very good area unless you had intentions to entertain guys like them.”
She looked up at him, something clicked and she recognised the baseball cap, “You’re the bookshop guy. Were you following me? If it’s a bad area then why are you here?” She gently pushed his hand from her waist, stepping away from him.
“I really don’t know why I’m here,” he replied honestly. He had to concentrate hard to focus on her face as his eyes kept wandering down to her ripped open shirt. In the end he adjusted her clothing to cover her bruised chest. She looked down in embarrassment and quickly clutched her shirt tight around her. She had forgotten her naked vulnerability. Josh smiled. He took off his jacket and gave it to her.
“Here, this will free up your hands.” The jacket was far too large but she thankfully zipped it up to her neck.
The Blake Soul Page 2