Something of the Night (22 page)

The room was deceptively
large, much larger than any of the others. In fact, it was almost three times
the normal office space. In the centre, cutting its way into the darkness above
was a spiral staircase. The stairs looked ancient, a huge brass monstrosity
from an age long past. The smell of decay came from something other than that
of a decomposing body. The offensive smell came from the four walls. From
ceiling to floor, the walls were lined with row upon row and stack upon stack
of books: old hardbacks; paperbacks with deep creases or tears along their
spines; magazines and periodicals of various sizes; and finally, great tomes of
darkly bound journals and yearbooks, which sat purposefully and proudly at the
top of the bookracks.

On one side the paper had
turned to pulp as foul water dripped from a dark patch on the ceiling,
drenching everything underneath with its stagnant liquid. Slow, migrating paper
lava had forced its way towards the centre of the room, pushing tables and
chairs out of its way.

Jacob stepped around the
mush. As he did so, a pocket of gas burst open, leaking noxious fumes. The
stench made him retch. Holding his breath for a second time, he quickly made
his way to the opposite side of the room. There, the air was only slightly more
breathable. More books lay scattered about, forming the circular shape of a
large bowl.

He’d found the beast’s den,
and here were the bones he expected.

They littered the bottom of
the makeshift lair. Some looked as if they had been boiled clean, while others
had been chewed into short sticks. Yet it was one set of bones in particular
that drew the tracker’s attention. They formed a full skeleton, which, apart
from one or two small cracks, appeared to be undamaged. The entirety of the
thing looked even more morbid than the scattering of white fragments that
littered the floor all around him.

What the hell was this?

He stepped closer and began a
careful examination. Smooth bone shaped the front of the skull, the brow free
of any ridges, and Jacob guessed then that they were the remains of a woman. A
skeletal hand rested against the left side of her ribs. Something dull and
yellow had slipped from the third finger, and was in danger of falling off
completely. Jacob bent to study the ring. It was a plain golden band with no
jewel or discernable design. A simple wedding band, he surmised. Why the hell
was she so intact in respect to all the other bodies?

“What’s your story, honey?”
he whispered under his breath. The skull grinned back at him silently.

With a creak of hollow bones
the hand with the ring slipped away from the ribcage. The gold ring bounced and
rolled to Jacob’s feet. He looked down and stared at the yellow band. He could
just about make out tiny letters that formed an inscription. He reached down
and picked it up, then held it to torchlight.

The message read:
My dear
Marianna, thank you.

Jacob read it again.

What was she being thanked
for? He stood there for a moment, silent, trying to think what she could have
done. Then he chided himself for his own stupidity. Of course, it was so
obvious and simple. She’d married him – whoever
he
had been. Jacob
grinned and for a second he remembered his own wedding day. It had been a
beautiful sunny day and he and Hannah had felt like the only couple in the
world, deeply in love and excited about spending the rest of their lives
together. What a cruel joke fate had played upon them. He turned to the
skeleton and nodded sympathetically. Fate had crapped on everyone, and not just
him. He bent over and gently replaced the ring back over her finger. Taking her
hand in his, he lifted it with the intention of laying it back onto her ribs
and over her heart.

He stopped, and the blood in
his veins went cold.

A gaping wound had been
punched through her ribcage, leaving a huge jagged hole of split bones. The
wound looked as if a fist had caused it. And not just an ordinary fist, but a
large, powerful one.

“Dear God,” Jacob moaned.

The strangeness of the
complete skeleton made immediate sense. This poor soul had been brought here
alive and well, to become a… mate.

Oh… shit.

He spun on his heels and
looked frantically around. Now, he saw other limbs protruding from under piles
of books and paper. He reached the first and dragged the manuscripts away.
Another full skeleton, female – and another terrible wound. The right side of
her skull was depressed inwards and the eye socket on that side had narrowed
into a tight oval shape. Jacob shuddered. The wounds looked as if they had
healed to some degree. He moved to the next pile of books and found a third set
of bones. This one smiled back at him through a crack of missing teeth. The
mandible was split in two, right down the centre. He stood back and the walls
of books became a blur of motion as the room spun crazily around him.

He shut his eyes and took a
deep breath.

A single word broke free from
the recesses of his mind.

It was a name.

And the name was Hutson.

Chapter
Thirty-Six

A veil of anger covered Elliot’s features. The cloud
of annoyance had taken up permanent residence, and simply refused to dispel, no
matter what Squirrel or
Alice
said. “You should turn back,” Elliot insisted. The
mechanic and Alice stood silent. Squirrel kicked the dust at his feet, and
Alice
stared
back defiantly. She couldn’t believe how pigheaded and ungrateful he was being.

“We came to help,” she told
him.

“It’s reckless,” he snapped
at her. “Not to mention totally stupid.”

“Stupid?”

“Yeah.”

“To hell with this,”
Alice
huffed.
“Squirrel, we’re leaving.”

“What?” the mechanic asked.

“We’re leaving right now,
before this fool really ticks me off.”

“But what about the fire?”
the mechanic asked. The blaze had just about successfully chased away the
numbing cold from the room, and for the first time since leaving the
underground he could feel the ends of his fingers and toes. He was in no rush
to sit in the open truck and endure the snow and wind unless he had to. “I
think we should wait, see if the snow stops or the wind drops.”

“I’m not waiting here with
him
any longer,”
Alice
grunted.

Elliot watched as she barged
past and stomped through the passageway towards the front of the store. He made
eye contact with Squirrel and the mechanic shrugged. Damned if he knew what had
gotten into her. “Wait here,” Elliot told him. He spun on his heels and chased
after her.

Elliot caught up with her as
she was pulling open the door to the front of the store. The bell rang out but
it sounded little more than a faint chime in comparison to the bellow of the
wind.

“Hey, wait!” he called.

She continued outside, ignoring
his plea. He chased after her. The second he stepped onto the sidewalk, icy
slivers of snow slipped down his collar and in a moment he felt drenched again.

“
Alice
, come
on… wait.”

She stopped and Elliot saw
her shoulders tremble. Her golden-blonde locks had already become sodden,
sticking to her skin, hiding her face. He took hold of her and forced her to
turn. He ran his fingers over her face, clearing her hair away. Two teardrops
filled her eyes. “Hey, what’s the matter?” he asked, his anger forgotten
instantly.

“I only wanted to help,” she
told him. “Because… I care.”

“I care too. That’s why I’m
here. For the good of the underground and Jacob.”

Alice
shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. I don’t
mean them.” She paused for a moment, feeling that her last comment had sounded
harsh. “Wait, that came out all wrong. I do care about
them
, but I’m
here because of you.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Alice
paused again. She wanted to find the right words and
not mess this up. She opened her mouth and explained it as simple and as best
she could.

“I love you.”

Her words stole his breath.

“What?” he eventually managed
to ask.

She moved closer and took his
hands. “I love you, Elliot. I love you. That’s why I had to come, to make sure
you were okay.”

“You love me?” Elliot asked,
his face battling between happiness and disbelief.

“Yes,”
Alice
replied,
her own face a picture of joy, despite the icy sleet that stung at her cheeks.

His confused emotions
eventually faded and joy took its place. “You really love me?” he asked again.

“Yes, you stupid oaf,” she
said, and raised his hands to place a kiss against his frozen fingers. He
grinned, stupidly, his angular face an expression of delighted disbelief. “I …
I never knew,” he stuttered.

She mirrored his features
with an awkward grin of her own. “I’ve always felt like this.”

“Really?” he asked, amazed.

“Really.”

“Me too,” he said.

“Really?”

“Really…”

They stood there, soaking up
the icy rain and the sudden revelation of shared emotions. The moment dragged
out, both unsure as to what should follow.
Alice
eventually broke the awkward spell by leaning closer
and kissing him gently on the lips. He held her face between his hands and
returned the kiss with equal passion. They held on to each other. Elliot pulled
away and his face had taken on a more serious look.

“What is it?”
Alice
asked,
scared he’d changed his mind.

“Squirrel, what about
Squirrel?”

She looked to the floor,
unable to hide her concern.

“How will he take this? He’s
pretty keen on you, you know.”

“I know.”

“And?”

“And I think it’s gonna be
okay,” she replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I told him back at the
underground, and he still chose to come.”

Elliot remained surprised for
a moment. He hadn’t realised how lucky he was to have such good friends, who
both were willing to risk their safety for his.

“He cares about you too, you
know,”
Alice
told him.

He nodded. Squirrel had a
good heart and took his friendships seriously. He felt a slight pang of guilt
for loving
Alice
, knowing how Squirrel felt, but then he also knew
that it would have been impossible to hide his feeling indefinitely.

“I think you should go easy
on him,”
Alice
suggested. “It was my idea to come, and he only
followed to make sure I was going to be okay.”

“I guess,” Elliot said.

She squeezed his hands in
gratitude, leaned in and kissed him again. “Thanks,” she said, once she’d
broken away.

Elliot shrugged. “Don’t
mention it.”

“So we’re coming with you all
the way?” she asked.

The young tracker held her
gaze for a moment and then replied, “No.”

“What?”

“You’re going straight back
to the underground,” he declared, with serious conviction.

Alice
stood open-mouthed for a second. “I… I don’t
understand.”

“I still think what you’ve
done is both stupid and reckless,” he reprimanded her. His words stung more
than the frozen sleet.

“I don’t understand.” she
repeated.

“
Alice
, where
I’m going is simply too dangerous. I can’t afford to get … sidetracked worrying
about you or Squirrel.”

“Sidetracked?”

“You know what I mean,” he
said.

Her arms crossed over her
chest in a gesture of defiance. “Why don’t you explain it to me?”

“
Alice
…”

“No, come on Elliot. What do
you mean?”

“I mean, I care about your
safety, both you and Squirrel. Hell, Squirrel should be at the underground safe
and sound. Does Major Patterson even know about this?”

Alice
looked away.

“Well?”

“No.”

“Good grief.”

Her resolve wavered. “I’m
sorry but I just had to come. To make sure you were okay. Don’t you
understand?”

“Of course I do. That’s why I
need you to go back, so I know
you’re
safe. I can’t risk taking either
you or Squirrel with me. It’s just too dangerous.”

“Then we’ll take you near,
then pull back and return to the underground.” Her chin rose as a new
determination formed, and Elliot knew he was losing the battle.

“Just to the outskirts and
then you’ll go back?”

She grinned mischievously. “I
promise.”

“You’d better,” he warned.

“I will.”