Epiworld (13 page)

‘What have you done to her?’

‘Nothing; I told you, she has a headache!’

‘Get up!’

I drag him to his feet. He lunges at me with something clenched in his fist; it’s a syringe. I grab his wrist, and he drops it. Demi’s sleeve is rolled up, and there’s a small red mark on her arm.

‘You’ve drugged her!’

Chase goes for me again, but years of fighting practice gives me the upper hand, and I twist his arm behind his back.

‘Move!’ I push him out onto the landing towards the bathroom.

‘What are you going to do to me?’ he whines.

I fight the urge to fill the basin with water and shove his head in. As tempting as it is to kill Chase I can’t add another murder to the list! While I hold him firmly by the hair I pull the light cord from the ceiling. Then I force his wrists behind his back, and tie them tightly together.

‘You won’t get away with this, Travis,’ he pants as I push him back to the bedroom. ‘They’ll catch you.’

‘Shut up!’ I snap. ‘You planted evidence at the farm, didn’t you? You wanted them to think I murdered Demi’s dad!’

‘Yes.’

‘To get me away from Demi, make her hate me?’

‘Of course; but she doesn’t believe you’re guilty. I’ve just given her a powerful truth drug I brought from the future to jog her memory as to where you might be hiding.’

‘You might’ve guessed I’d go to the cave.’

‘When I suggested looking there Demi wasn’t keen on the idea, but I don’t like taking no for an answer.’

I tighten the light cord so that it cuts into his wrists. ‘What were you going to do once you’d found me? Kill me?’

He laughs as I push him to the floor.

‘Yeah, I want to kill you,’ he says callously, ‘like I killed Fraser! He was standing in the way of my happiness with Demi, trying to get her to chuck me. You’re in my way, too, but Demi isn’t the only reason you must die! I thought a nice spell in prison would be a good way of keeping you out of my way for a while, but you wouldn’t be safe from me there; and no, I won’t tell you why I really want you dead. You’ll find out soon enough.’

I smack him across the face for that.

‘
You
killed him!’ I’m seething. ‘I should’ve known! You cold-hearted, nasty little runt! That’s the Chase I know and love!’ He cries out when I ram my knee into his back. ‘What about Demi? She can’t make sense of what happened in between the beach, and finding out her dad was dead. The rest came back to her in the end, but that part didn’t! What else have you done to her?’ When he doesn’t answer I pull his ear. ‘Tell me! Have you done something to her brain?’ I drag him to his feet, and we stumble to the bed. ‘Did you operate on her?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! How can I operate without her noticing? Anyway, I don’t have any instruments here.’

‘But you do have syringes! Have you been injecting her in the head, then? Yeah, there it is!’ I brush aside her fringe, and find a small pink puncture hole in her forehead.

All my hatred for Chase spills over into that one moment. I can’t stop punching him; his head flops from side to side. Blood and spit fly out of his mouth and nose. Only my respect for Dr Mac stops me from finishing him off. I’m not going to kill him in his house, and leave more evidence for them to convict me with.

‘I had to stop her memory from coming back completely,’ he gabbles when I run out of punches. Blood is pouring from his nose, his eyes are puffed and bruised, and his mouth is swelling up. He’s having difficulty talking. ‘I knew the hypnosis wouldn’t be enough, it’s only a short term solution. Something always triggers the memory to return; that red jumper, for instance. She said she was having visions of events on the beach, so I guessed it wouldn’t be long before the murder came back to her, too.’

I grab his throat. ‘She saw what you did?’

He nods. ‘She told me she was visiting a friend, so I went to the farm to have it out with Fraser. He was tanked up to the eyeballs. Our fight spilled out into the lane, and Demi saw me hit him on the back of the head with a stone. I didn’t know she was behind me. I used the hypnosis on her to shut her up, but I couldn’t just rely on that, or the trauma of what she saw to make her blank it out completely, so while she was under I took her back to the hotel, and injected her temporal lobe with an antiphein agent before telling her to go to the beach. By the time she got there she was out of the trance, and had forgotten what she saw.’

‘Well, you wasted your time!’ I growl. ‘I’m going to tell her!’

‘She won’t believe you!’

‘She’s believed me before, she will again!’

‘I should’ve killed you while I had the chance! I should’ve killed Demi, too, but I couldn’t. I love her.’

‘You love her!’ I sneer, punching him again. ‘I’ll make you sorry you didn’t kill us!’

‘Finish it!’ he moans. ‘Or so help me I’ll come after you!’

‘Good! I want you to.’

My mind is all over the place, confused, excited, and crazy. My head is warm and fuzzy; I hope I don’t have a seizure, and fall to Chase’s mercy. I pray for the medication to keep a fit at bay.

Something on the carpet catches my eye. I put my hand in my pocket; the pod has fallen through a small hole there. I pick it up, intending to put it in my shirt pocket, all the time thinking hysterically, ‘And so the great Professor Michael Charles Chase is a murderer!’

‘That’s right, Travis,’ his reply drops into my head. ‘Excuse the thoughts, by the way, but I can’t speak very well right now. My mouth hurts a bit.’

‘You’re using a pod!’

‘I had it inserted into the back of my neck before I came here, next to my probe, so I can use it all the time.’

I glare at him. ‘You still haven’t told me why you’re here, or how come you’re younger. I also want to know what “evidence” you planted to get me in the frame for Mr Fraser’s murder!’

A noise downstairs saves him from answering. Someone shouts up the stairs, ‘Hello?’

Mrs Dunbar! She’s not supposed to be here today!

‘Travis,’ she calls, ‘are you up there?’

I put my hand firmly over Chase’s mouth. ‘Yeah.’

‘I was passing, so I thought I’d drop off a bit of salmon. Mr Dunbar caught it yesterday in Loch Crian.’

‘Sorry, can’t come down, Mrs D; just got out of the shower.’

‘That’s all right. Tell Dr Mac I’ve put it in the fridge, will you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘All right; see you Thursday. Cheery-bye.’ The front door clicks shut.

‘Come on, you,’ I say to Chase, ‘we have to move. How do we wake her up?’

‘You’ll need the antidote.’

‘Where is it?’

‘Jacket pocket.’

I rummage in his pocket, and take out a small capsule filled with liquid. It flows onto Demi’s tongue as I tip it into her mouth. She starts to cough; then her eyes open slowly.

‘What’s – what’s happening?’ she gasps. She looks at Chase, and her hand reaches out to him. ‘Chas! Have you been fighting? Travis? What’s been going on?’

‘There’s no time to explain now,’ I interrupt. ‘I have to get out of here, and I’m taking him with me. Are you all right?’

‘Yeah.’ Demi runs her hand through her hair. ‘My head aches a bit, but – och, Travis, the police! They’re out looking for you! They think you killed my dad! You didn’t, did you?’

‘No, I didn’t, Demi, but I know who did.’ I pull Chase’s head back. ‘Tell her!’

Demi turns to him, her eyes wide with fear.

His voice is barely a whisper. ‘I did it.’

Demi swallows. ‘What?’

‘You saw me do it,’ gulps Chase. ‘That’s why I had to make you – forget. I’ve blanked it out of your memory.’

I tell her how he did it.

For a moment she doesn’t speak. I think there’s a look of recognition on her face, like she already knows, but doesn’t want to believe it.

‘The nightmares,’ she mutters, almost deliriously, ‘they weren’t nightmares at all; they were real! I saw my dad die! It was –
you...
’ She lets out a blood-curdling scream.

Then, as weak as she is, she finds strength from somewhere, jumps off the bed, and slaps his face before spitting into it. She kicks him, over and over, in the nuts, on the legs. I could let her finish him off for me, but that would mean two of us being done for murder, so reluctantly I drag her away.

‘
Why
?’ Tears are streaming down her face. ‘Why did you do it? Why didn’t you kill me, too?’

‘I couldn’t. I love you.’

‘
You love me
?’

She delivers one more fierce kick at his nuts before flopping down on the bed, spent with anger and grief. I haul Chase to his feet.

‘I’ve got to go, Demi. Are you going to be all right?’

Slowly she raises her tear-stained face. ‘There’s no need for you to go now, Travis,’ she says hoarsely. ‘He’s confessed. We’ll tell the police everything. Either that, or I’ll fetch Dad’s shotgun, put an end to him now!’

‘No, you won’t, Dem, he’s not worth you risking your freedom for.’ Chase, battered, bruised, bloodied, is barely able to stand, but I won’t let him drop back to the floor again. ‘There’s something I have to do.’

‘Just give him up to the police, let them deal with him.’

‘I want answers to a few questions first. It’s to do with – what I already know about him.’

‘You mean about him being from the future, like you?’ She gives Chase a look of pure hatred. ‘Is it true, then, about that? It wouldn’t surprise me, not after what I know now!’

‘Drop dead!’ he snarls, spitting at her feet.

‘Stay here, Demi.’ I grab Chase by the scruff of the neck. He wriggles, tries to get away, but I soon put a stop to that by kicking his shin. ‘You need to recover, and Dr Mac will wonder where you are if you disappear.’

‘Where will you go?’ she asks. ‘Unless you get off the island, there’s nowhere you
can
go. They’ll catch up with you.’

‘Well, if they do, Chase can own up then.’

She follows us out of the room. ‘Take some food with you.’

‘I’ve packed food, matches, and candles, and I was about to get my duvet when I ran into him.’

‘I’ll get it for you,’ she offers.

I shove Chase down the stairs while Demi carries the duvet. She finds a bin bag for it, and puts food and the other stuff in with it.

‘Take care,’ she whispers, hugging me.

‘Are you sure you’ll be all right?’

She shrugs. ‘Go on.’

‘Move it!’ I say to Chase, closing the door on Demi’s sobs.

––––––––

A
man is walking along the beach with a dog scampering at his heels. The dog is jumping in and out of the sea, chasing sticks. It trots up to me, panting, wagging its tail eagerly. I stroke its black fur, until the man whistles, and it runs back to him.

Before following its master the dog drops the stick. I put it into the bag with the other rubbish I’ve collected for a fire. The sticks are slightly damp, but I’m confident I’ll get them to burn.

The tide is out. I run across the stones, up the jagged steps, and into the cavern. Chase lies on the flat stone bed, still tied up, his eyes heavy with the effects of his own truth drug I’ve forced into him. I don’t trust him to give me honest answers without it. I swallow my pod; my insides are the safest place to keep it. It’s no good talking; Chase’s mouth is swollen, he can barely open it.

‘Answers,’ I demand.

His thoughts are weak, but just about decipherable.

‘You know how interrogation works, Travis. You have to ask me a question first!’

‘Why have you followed me?’

‘To kill you.’

‘Why do you want me dead?’

‘So you don’t kill me.’

A pause. ‘I didn’t know I was meant to kill you.’

‘You want to. You’re going to try, anyway.’

‘That’s not a bad idea. How did you get here?’

‘Through the hole.’

‘What hole?’ 

‘I came to this world through a time portal, in this cave.’

‘A portal?’ I stare around the cave walls. ‘Here?’

Time portals are fairly common phenomena in my time. They usually appear during violent electrical storms, encased in bright, golden lights, forming holes in the air, often drawing people through them into other time dimensions. I’ve never actually seen one myself, and I wouldn’t expect to see one in this world as the atmosphere isn’t hot enough to create such storms, but a portal inside a cave sounds a bit strange.

Then I think about the lights which always appear during my seizures, and I’m wondering now if they could be portals. That may be why I’m so drawn to the cave, and why I hear voices from my future. There may be a portal here all the time, trying to draw me back to my own world, but if so, where is it coming from?

‘It’s the electricity which triggers them,’ says Chase. ‘A portal isn’t very far away when
you’re
around.’

Of course! The electricity generated in my brain when I have a seizure! And there’s the electro-convulsive therapy, the ECT projecting me here...quickly I scramble that thought, so Chase can’t hear. I don’t want to drop Alexander in it.

‘They’ve got something to do with your seizures, I believe,’ he adds. ‘Sorry, I don’t really know how a portal works; I’m not a physicist. I only know how to control one once I’m in it. They can appear anywhere, you know, indoors as well as outdoors. That’s why they appear in the cave. One appeared in your room at the institution, just as you were having a fit, so I went through it, and told it where I wanted to go. That’s why I’m here now.’

‘You make out you use them like some sort of public transport!’ I sneer.

‘I do. That’s exactly what they’re for, if you know how to use them properly.’

I stop laughing. I remind myself he’s pumped up with the truth drug, so he can’t be lying. ‘Suppose I believe that; how did you know I was here?’

For one awful moment I think he’s going to say
I got it out of Alexander
, until he replies, ‘I read your mind with a cortexoscope.’

He goes on to explain how a cortexoscope works, but I already know. A cortexoscope is attached to the brain’s cortex, and can track a person’s thoughts and feelings. Every police guard has a cortexoscope program built into its software, so that it doesn’t have to bother extracting a confession from a live prisoner. The thought of Chase attaching one of those things to my brain makes me want to throw up. Even so it’s good to know my brain is still functioning in twenty ninety-nine, and there are still thoughts floating about in my head, even if my body is lifeless.