TWENTY-ONE
Back at the lifeboat office Pete Mulgrave stared through the window as Williams and a naked smoking man stood facing each other like two very unlikely gunfighters and hoped to hell he was dreaming. Behind him Suzy Munro was still kicking and struggling at the door to the other room which was still inexplicably stuck somehow.
“Suzy? Just how dead was that bloke Ian brought back?” Pete asked. It seemed a reasonable enough question considering what he was seeing taking place outside.
“Very,” Suzy replied with irritation. She turned to him panting with the exertion. “Come away from the window and give me a hand will you?”
“I only ask,” Pete continued. “Because he’s outside now with Ian.”
It took Suzy a moment to register what he had just said. “What?” She came over to the window and nudged him aside. And sure enough there they were. Suzy gasped at the strange sight. He had been dead, she was sure of it. But still there he was and from what she could see from the meagre flood light attached to the side of the prefab, he was very much alive, naked and smoking it seemed, but very much alive.
The radio close by began to spit static and both of them started in shock, but neither could look away from the surreal scene outside. Then a voice began to be heard through the static, at first Suzy thought it was the mainland, but it soon became clear it came from somewhere else.
“Mary...” Suzy glanced at the radio’s speaker. The word was distorted and seemed to have been spoken by half a dozen or more different voices all in unison. There was something about them that sent a shiver down her spine.
“Mary?” Suzy repeated. A sound behind her drew her attention to the once jammed office door which was now ajar. Mary was standing in the doorway looking directly at the speaker.
“Mary...” The voices on the radio said again. Suzy made out at least six, maybe more. She could have sworn one of them was a child.
“I must go to him,” Mary said out loud. “I’m so sorry, this is my fault.” Mary began to move over to the front door, but Suzy stood in her way.
“Mary, what’s happening here? That man, the one from the dock? The victim. He’s outside.” She said.
Mary fixed Suzy with such a cold lifeless gaze that the police woman nearly physically wet herself. Her once young natural features had grown pallid and grey. It was like looking at a walking corpse. “That man is no victim.” She said her voice as lifeless as her eyes.
“Christ, Mary your back.” Pete said from behind them.
But the young woman didn’t register the remark. Suzy couldn’t get out of the way fast enough when Mary moved over to the front door. As she left Suzy could see a large bloody patch on the back of her blouse.
The door shut with the finality of the closing of a tomb.
Out in the rain Williams stood watching the impossible man as if in a trance. He was vaguely aware that the man was moving closer more from the increasing hissing sound that as emanating from his steaming body than any actual signs of movements in his limbs. He could have been hovering over to him for all his legs seemed to move. Perhaps he was, either way a moment later the man came through a cloud of foul smelling vapor like something emerging through the gates of hell themselves. He was grinning but it was anything but humorous.
“You should be honored,” the man said now that he was within three feet of the policeman’s face. There was an air of something akin to envy in his voice.
But P.C Ian Williams didn’t feel honored at all, he pissed his trousers then and there and felt oddly thankful that it was raining to cover his shame.
“I’ll carve such beauty onto your back,” the man continued his voice had dropped to that of a lover’s whisper promising untold pleasures to come and moved closer still. “Then you’ll fly.” He looked up to the heavens and Williams followed his gaze skyward.
Williams didn’t see the blur of rapid movement that killed him. He felt three sharp blows to his neck in quick succession then a gout of blood hit the man’s chest and hissed like fat on a hot plate. The policeman instinctively grabbed the man by the shoulders but instantly pulled away as the skin was seared off the palms of his hands. He looked dumbfounded at his red raw hands and got a whiff of burnt flesh which would have made him vomit if the next two blows from the screwdriver hadn’t taken out both his eyes.
“No!!” Suzy screamed from the office window as she and Pete watched on impotently as Williams crumpled to the ground like a rag doll. She screamed in frustration and hammered hard on the Perspex glass but it didn’t give. Tears came and she felt Pete grab her but pulled away. She ran blindly over to her duty belt which was hooked on the back of a chair and pulled out her baton.
“Suzy, no!” Pete yelled. “You can’t go out there!”
He recoiled back as Suzy turned on him and almost snarled. “I’ll fucking kill him,” She growled.
“You can’t,” Rachel said from the doorway to the other room.
Her sudden appearance caught Suzy off guard for a moment she shook her head in incomprehension as everything hit her all at once.
“Suzy, there’s nothing we can do.” Rachel said and the calmness of her voice knocked Suzy to her knees.
“We, we, have, to, do, something,” Suzy sobbed in faltering staccato.
Rachel ran over to her and sank to her knees. She grabbed Suzy and pulled her close as the police woman began to sob her heart out. “There’s nothing we can do here,” Rachel whispered into her ear.