Darkroom (2 page)

They kissed again, and this time they went on kissing until Bobby had to put down his glass of wine in case he spilled it. Without a word, he took hold of Sara's hand and led her into the master bedroom. This was decorated on a nautical theme, too, with a huge brass bed and a deep-blue bedcover with a seagull motif. On the walls hung pictures of bare-breasted mermaids with blue nipples and seductive smiles, surrounded by lustful lobsters waving their claws.

‘Sorry about the pictures. That's my dad's idea of porn. Prawn porn.'

Bobby fell back on the bed and Sara climbed on to it next to him. She kissed him and kissed him again. He tugged up her tight pink T-shirt and pulled it over her head. She was wearing a white lacy see-through bra, but Bobby immediately shut his eyes.

‘What's the matter?' she asked him.

‘I'm closing my eyes in case this isn't really happening.'

She laughed and kissed him and started to unbuckle his belt. ‘You ought to open them. You wouldn't want to miss anything.'

He looked up at her and his eyes were bright with pleasure. ‘You're right. Who cares if it isn't really happening? It
looks
real. It
feels
real. Nothing else matters, does it?'

‘No,' she said. ‘It's just you, and me, and this big blue bed.'

‘Oh, God,' he exclaimed, suddenly sitting up and looking around him. ‘My parents!'

‘What about your parents? Your parents are in Phoenix for the weekend, aren't they?'

‘No, but this
bed.
My parents have you-knowed in it.'

‘They've
what
?'

‘You-knowed.
You
know. They've done that thing you can't believe your parents still do but they do.'

‘What do you care? If you go to a hotel it's even worse. Total strangers have you-knowed in your bed. Hundreds of total strangers. People you wouldn't even want to sit next to on a bus.'

Bobby looked dubiously down at the dark blue throw. ‘I guess you're right.'

‘Come on,' said Sara, and sat astride him, pushing him back on the bed. ‘I thought you were going to show me that there
is
life after Brad Moorcock.'

Bobby reached around and unfastened the clip of Sara's bra. He fondled her and nuzzled her ear, tugging gently at her earrings with his teeth. ‘I'll show you just how great you make me feel,' he whispered. ‘You make me feel like King Bobby the First.'

He rolled her over, touching and stroking her hair, and then he felt in his pocket. ‘Condom,' he said, holding up the packet. ‘I've been saving this one in case I ever got ravished by the most gorgeous girl in Special Class II.'

‘Only in Special Class II?'

‘I'm sorry. I meant the universe. Easy mistake to make.'

He found the zipper at the side of her short white skirt and was just about to pull it down when he stopped, lifted his head, and listened.

‘What's the matter?' asked Sara.

‘I don't know … I thought I heard something.'

‘The wind, probably. Or maybe the curtains. You left the door open, didn't you?'

Bobby kept on straining his ears. He could faintly hear the ocean, slapping against the pier, and the boats knocking, but he was sure that he could hear something else, too. A soft, complicated sound, like an insect.
Ker-chikk.
And then a long silence. And then
ker-chikk
.

‘You can't hear that?' he asked Sara. ‘It sounds like some kind of bug.'

Sara listened, gripping Bobby's hand. There was an even longer silence, but then it came again.
Ker-chikk.
And this time, inexplicably, it sounded much closer.

‘It's the faucet dripping in the kitchen,' said Sara.

‘I don't think so. I'm sure it's a bug.'

Sara grabbed hold of him and bounced up and down. ‘What does it matter? If it's a bug it's only a bug, and if it's the faucet dripping, it's only the faucet dripping!'

Ker-chikk.
This time it sounded as if it were right outside the bedroom door. Bobby grabbed Sara's wrists to stop her from bouncing, and said, ‘Ssh!'

‘Oh, come on,' she protested. ‘It's nothing.'

‘There's somebody in the living room.'

Sara immediately grabbed her T-shirt and covered her breasts. ‘You're kidding, right?'

‘I don't know for sure. Ssh!'

Almost half a minute went by. The ocean went slap, slap, slap. Then
ker-chikk.
The noise was quite distinct this time, more like precision machinery. It certainly wasn't a bug.

‘
Hey!
' Bobby shouted out. ‘This is private property and if you don't get out of here right now, I'm within my rights to shoot you!'

They waited. No response. Sara leaned close to Bobby and murmured, ‘I don't think there's anybody there. It's something blowing in the wind, that's all. But why don't you go take a look?'

‘Yes,' said Bobby without moving.

‘Well, go on then. Take a look. I bet you it's only a lampshade, or something like that.'

‘Yes,' said Bobby. ‘You're probably right.'

He was about to climb off the bed when they heard it again.
Ker-chikk.
And this time, abruptly, all the lights went out.

‘Who's there?' Bobby shouted, and his voice sounded much more shrill than he had meant it to.

A moment's pause, then he shouted out again. ‘Who's there? I'm warning you, I have a shotgun here. If you don't get the hell out of this house right now, I'll be shooting to kill.'

Again there was no response. The bedroom was seamlessly dark. Bobby squeezed Sara's hand and then said, ‘I'm going to go for the light switch.'

‘Don't!' said Sara, and now she sounded seriously frightened. ‘Why don't you call nine-one-one?'

Bobby crawled awkwardly across the bed and located the nightstand. He groped around his father's bedside clock until he found the phone. He picked up the receiver but as he did so he heard
ker-chikk
and the line went dead.

‘Phone's cut off,' he whispered.

‘Don't you have a cellphone?'

‘I left it in the kitchen. What about you?'

‘In my purse. In the living room.'

‘Shit.'

The bedroom was so black that Bobby was beginning to see dark crimson shapes swimming in front of his eyes. They looked like squid and jellyfish from the depths of the ocean, where the sun could never penetrate, and the pressure was so intense that a man would be flattened. He groped his way back to Sara and found her shoulder and her back.

‘I still don't think there's anybody there,' Sara whispered. ‘This is just a power outage, that's all.'

‘If you don't think there's anybody there, why are you whispering?'

‘In case it
isn't
a power outage, and there is.'

‘This is crazy. I'm going to go for the light switch.'

‘Bobby, be careful.'

Bobby felt his way off the edge of the bed, holding on to the brass rails to guide himself, and swinging his left arm from side to side to feel his way.

‘Are you all right?' asked Sara. ‘How can it be so dark? You'd think that there'd be
some
light, coming from the highway.'

‘I'm almost at the door,' Bobby told her. ‘I can feel the door frame. I can feel the light switch.'

He clicked the light switch up and down, but nothing happened. The beach house remained totally black, without even a chink of light from the shuttered windows. Normally, the sky was filled with sodium light from the Pacific Coast Highway, but not tonight.

‘Maybe the circuit-breaker's gone.'

‘But if there are no lights
anywhere
, it must be the power company.'

Ker-chikk
. Now it was really close, only inches away from Bobby.

‘I'm warning you!' he yelled. ‘I have a shotgun here and I'm going to count to three and then I'm going to fire!'

‘It's no good shouting at it if it's an insect,' said Sara.

‘It's not an insect! I don't know what the hell it is! It's right here! It's right in front of me!

He waved his arms wildly from side to side but he couldn't feel anything. ‘There's nothing here! There's nothing here! Oh
shit
, Sara, there's nothing here!'

‘Stop it!' Sara screamed at him. ‘Stop it, you're scaring me!'

Bobby took two or three steps backwards and collided with the bed. He negotiated his way around the brass bed rails and climbed back on to it, reaching out for Sara's hand. He was panting with terror.

‘If there's nothing there,' said Sara, ‘there's nothing for us to be scared of.' She didn't sound at all convinced.

‘There's something there, but it's
nothing
.'

‘What do you mean, it's nothing?'

‘I don't know. But it's there. I mean, we can
hear
it, right? Even if we can't feel it.'

They waited for over a minute. Normally, they would have expected their eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness, but even after all this time, they couldn't see anything at all. It was almost like being buried alive.

‘What the hell's wrong with the power company?' Bobby complained. ‘Why don't they put the lights back on?'

But then, very faintly, they saw a shimmering shape in the doorway. It shifted and rippled, as if they were viewing it through running water.

‘What is that?' Sara whispered. ‘It looks like a moth.'

Bobby stared at the shape intently. It had two white blotches on either side, which could have been wings. But as it gradually brightened, he realized that they weren't wings at all, but eye sockets. The shape was a human face, except that it looked like a photographic negative, with white hair and black skin and shadows in varying shades of white and gray.

‘Oh my God,' said Sara. ‘What is it? It's not a ghost, is it?'

‘OK, whoever you are!' said Bobby in the most challenging tone he could manage. ‘I can see you now, OK? And you have to get the hell out of here, because this property belongs to Mr and Mrs John D. Tubbs and you don't have any right to be here. So just go.'

There was silence, but then there was a soft
ker-chikk
, and the face was suddenly much closer. Because it was negative, it was impossible to tell it if was young or old. But its white eyes were wide open and staring at them, and its black teeth were bared.

Sara was gripping Bobby's hand so tightly that her false fingernails were digging into him. ‘What is it?' she gasped. ‘Oh God, make it go away!'

But Bobby couldn't speak. The face brought back all of the nightmares that used to wake him up when he was younger. It was the face of everything terrible that hid during the day, but came out of concealment as soon as it grew dark. The things that hid at the end of the alleyway, inside the rusty old water tank. The strange faces that looked at him from passing buses; or disappearing round the corner; or reflected in storefront windows. You turned around, and they were gone; or else they had never been there. But they were frightening beyond all reason because they
knew
you, and they knew where to find you, and they knew what really scared you.

There was another
ker-chikk,
and the face jumped right up to the end of the bed. Bobby couldn't stop himself from jerking backwards, his heart thumping like a rabbit.

‘
Go away!
' screamed Sara. ‘
Go away and leave us alone!
'

The face stayed where it was, staring at them. But then they heard a slurred, muffled voice, like somebody talking in another room.

‘Thought you could walk away, did you? Nobody walks away. Not without regretting it. Not without paying the price.'

‘What are you talking about?' Bobby demanded. ‘We don't even know you!'

‘Oh, you know me better than you think. And now you're going to suffer for it.'

‘What do you want? Just tell me what you want. You want money? My parents have money. Just take what you want and get out of here, please.'

‘You know what I want. I want to see you pay the price.'

‘Price? What price? What are we supposed to have done?'

‘The price of disloyalty, my friends. The price of contempt.'

There was something in the voice that Bobby recognized. He peered at the face more intently, and then he sat back on his heels. ‘This is a trick, isn't it? This is a goddamn practical joke.'

‘What?' said Sara.

‘They've fooled us.' He waved his hand in front of the face, and it didn't even blink. ‘This is some kind of projection. I'll bet Dudley set it up. They're watching us now and they're probably wetting themselves. “The price of contempt,” my ass.'

‘Are you serious? This is just a joke?'

‘Of course it is. Look at it.'

‘But how did they know we were going to get together tonight? How did they know we were going to come here? How have they managed to make it so
dark
?'

‘I don't know. But I'm sure going to find out when I sit on Dudley's head.'

‘
You think this is a trick?
' asked the negative face.

‘Yes, as a matter of fact. For the simple reason that I don't believe in ghosts or demons or … or faces that hover at the end of the bed. Are you getting this, Dudley? I'm going to have your guts for a golf bag, I warn you.'

‘
You think this is a joke
?' the face persisted.

‘Yes, I do.'

‘Then smile.'

Bobby was just about to say something when the entire world went white. The bedroom was blotted out with intense, dazzling light, as if a hydrogen bomb had gone off. He felt a shock wave of unbearable heat that scorched him all over, and as he tried to twist himself away from it, the last thing he saw was Sara with her hair on fire and her face charred black.