The Beast (10 page)

Right then,
I thought.
Here goes nothing
.

‘What do you mean, “she’s not here”?’

Billy spun the office chair he was sitting on a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, then leaned back with his hands behind his head. On the other side of the police station’s reception area, Guggs knelt by the window, looking out.

The journey from the house to the police station had gone perfectly smoothly. I’d actually laughed with relief as I’d arrived at the front door and banged on it until Billy let me inside.

I wasn’t laughing now.

‘She’s not here,’ Billy repeated. ‘I thought she was with you?’

‘No, she isn’t,’ I said.

I turned from the desk and hurried back towards the door I’d just come through. From the corner of my eye, I saw Guggs stand up.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked. ‘You can’t go back out. You know what’s out there.’

‘Yes,’ I nodded. ‘My friend. And I’m going to find her.’

‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Guggs told me. He pointed at me with his metal bar. ‘We stick together. Strength in numbers. You go and you’re putting us at risk. Tell him, Bill.’

Billy looked at his cousin, then back at me. He stood up and took something from the desk behind him. I looked down at the walkie-talkie as he pressed it into my hand.

‘Keep it on,’ he said. ‘If she turns up, we’ll let you know.’

I clipped the radio to my belt. ‘Thanks,’ I said.

Billy nodded his head, just barely. ‘Good luck,’ he said. ‘Make sure you come back.’

‘I will,’ I said. I turned to the door, then hesitated. ‘One thing. What’s the Beast?’

Billy shrugged. ‘Don’t know. Haven’t seen it. Just seen what it can do.’

‘Like what?’ I asked.

He swallowed hard. ‘Trust me,’ he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. ‘You don’t want to know.’

There was a story there, I knew, something Billy wasn’t telling me. It could wait. Ameena couldn’t.

‘Fair enough,’ I said, then I opened the door, pulled my jacket around my neck, and stepped back out into the harsh, biting cold.

scampered, crouched-over, across to the scene of our earlier car smash, keeping my eyes peeled for trouble. The lights of the vehicle we’d hit were still flashing, but the alarm had long since stopped. There were no screechers around the crash-scene, but there was no Ameena, either.

I squatted down by the car we’d been in. Aside from the now almost deflated airbag, everything was just as we’d left it – keys in the ignition, engine running, three of the four doors standing wide open. If Ameena had come back to the car, she’d left no trace behind.

Keeping low, I crept down to the back of the vehicle and knelt in the snow beside it.

Ahead of me, I could see the entrance to the maze of alleys I’d run into. I wondered if the screechers were still there, still banging against the locked door of the house, trying to get inside.

They didn’t seem to be very smart, but I doubted even they would stay there forever. They’d come looking for us soon enough, which was why I kept out of sight behind the car until I could figure out my next move.

The last time I’d seen Ameena had been here. She’d got out of the car at the same time as I had. We’d watched Guggs and Billy make a bolt for it, then I’d run off, assuming she was right behind me.

I cast my eyes over the snow around the car. No blood, other than a patch a dozen or so metres away, where Guggs had fought the screecher. We’d left the man lying on the ground with a shattered knee, but now there was no sign of him. Presumably he’d crawled off towards the alleyway, following the others.

So, the screechers were more or less accounted for, but Ameena? That was another matter.

I looked at the houses around me. ‘Where
are
you?’ I whispered.

A sudden
thump
from inside the boot made me jump.
The policewoman!
I’d forgotten she was even in there, somehow still alive. For a moment, I considered checking on her. But only for a moment, and even then, not seriously. Having seen close-up what the screechers were like, I knew that letting another one out would be a very stupid move.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

She banged again on the inside of the boot, each strike harder than the one before. Dead or not, she was bloody determined.

THUMP. THUMP. CLANK!

The frosty paintwork creased like paper as a powerful blow hammered against it. A raised imprint of a clenched fist buckled the boot lid. I fell back as another dent appeared in the metal, then another, and another. The lid began to pull away from the body of the car. An eye flashed in the gap, black and bulging, before two rows of gnashing teeth took its place.

The whole car started shaking, squeaking as it rocked back and forth. Inside the boot, the policewoman thrashed around as she fought to force her way free. A piercing scream emerged from within the boot. It was muffled, but still loud enough to attract attention.

‘
Ssh!
’ I whispered, backing away. ‘Shut up!’

The bent metal buckled further as more blows were rained upon it from the inside. Another scream, this one even louder than the one before, came through the widening gap. Somewhere not too far away, other screechers howled in response.

‘Kyle!’

The voice came at me through a hiss of static. I almost screamed myself, before I remembered the walkie-talkie on my belt. ‘Come in, Kyle. You there? Over.’

I fumbled the radio free, then pushed down on the talk button. ‘I’m here,’ I whispered, my eyes never leaving the battered boot of the car. ‘What is it?’

Silence.

‘What is it?’ I asked again.

‘You need to say “over”,’ Billy told me. ‘Over.’

I bit down on the radio in sheer frustration. This was no time for walkie-talkie lessons. ‘I don’t care!’ I hissed. ‘
What do you want?
’

More static, then Billy spoke again. ‘Right, fine. Guggs has been up on the roof. He thinks he saw your girlfriend. Over.’

‘On the roof ?’

‘No, not on the roof, you moron,’ Billy sneered. ‘At the shop. He was on the roof when he saw someone moving around at the shop. Over.’

I was already running, leaving the car and the policewoman behind, racing as fast as I could towards the village shop.

‘And it was definitely her?’ I asked.

A pause. Another hiss of static. ‘You should really say “over”, or it’s hard to know when you’re done talking. Over.’

‘
Billy
, was it definitely her?’

‘Not definitely her, no, but definitely
someone
. Over.’

‘Right,’ I said, turning on to the street where the shop was. ‘I’ll let you know.’

I clipped the radio back to my belt. After a moment, I clicked the switch that turned it off. There could be anything waiting for me in the shop. The last thing I needed was Billy’s squawking voice giving me away.

The shop was at the far end of the street, right on the corner where this road met the next one. The street was deserted. I jogged along in the middle of the road. It made me visible to anything lurking nearby, but it also meant I’d have plenty of warning if something decided to come running at me.

Fortunately, nothing did. In no time, I was standing outside the shop. The sign above the door called it a “Supermarket”, but there was nothing super about it.

The whole shop area was barely as large as my living room and kitchen combined. There were two rows of shelves in the middle of the floor, creating three very narrow aisles that ran almost the full length of the building. On a good day, the shelves were half empty. On an average day, it was more like three-quarters.

At the back of the shop, a set of swing doors led through to the store room. I’d only been through there once, when I was much younger and needed to use the shop’s toilet. It was, if memory served, even more grim than the shop itself, with scratched and rusty metal shelving units and boxes stacked on every available surface.

The shop’s main door and window were set back into the wall, creating a little outside alcove area where the two supermarket-style trolleys were stored. I used to wonder why there weren’t more of them, until I realised the narrow aisles couldn’t handle any more traffic than that without a major pile-up happening.

Only one trolley was parked outside when I approached the window. The rotting paintwork of the wooden frame was rough beneath my fingers as I crouched down and peeked in through the grimy glass.

The shop looked no more or less messy than usual. There were wire baskets on the floor, but then there were always wire baskets on the floor. A cage stood at the far end of the middle aisle, stacked with boxes of crisps, washing powder, eggs, and more.

There was no blood. No bodies. No chaos. The shop looked like the shop always did – just a bit sort of... crap, really.

Confident there were no screechers inside, I approached the door. The handle turned without any problem, and I pushed the door open.

DING-A-LING!

The cheerful tinkle of the bell above the doorframe almost made my heart stop. The counter where Peggy stood to serve the customers was right in front of the window. I dived behind it, taking cover in case anything should come crashing through from the back store room.

I knelt there, down by the till rolls and the “Caution: Wet Floor” sign, listening to my breath rasping in and out.
Idiot
. I should’ve remembered the bell. If anyone was in here, then they knew I was here too.

But nothing happened in the shop to suggest anyone
was
here. Nothing moved along the aisles. Nothing charged through the store-room doors. Nothing at all.

I had just stood up when the
hissing
of radio static made me duck back down. I grabbed for the walkie-talkie. It was halfway to my ear before I remembered it was switched off.

The static continued to crackle. I searched around, eventually finding an old hi-fi system hidden behind a small sliding door beneath the till. It was switched to radio mode, but the numbers on the LED display were whirring past as it tried to pick up a signal to lock on to.

With a press of the big round power button, I switched it off. The static hiss died away, leaving the shop in silence once again. By leaning left and right at the till, I could see that all three aisles were clear. There were no screechers along any of them, and no Ameena either. All there was was the other trolley. It was down at the far end of the middle aisle, stacked high with items.

So, there was nothing interesting in the front shop, but there was still the store room. My hope of finding Ameena here was fading fast, but I had to at least go and check to see if she was through the back somewhere.

Creeping out from behind the counter, I made my way along the right-hand aisle where the frozen food was kept. I was barely past the fish fingers when the speaker on the wall above me hissed and spat.

I stopped and stared up at it, listening to the sound of radio static. A voice suddenly crackled from within the speaker. It was broken up and distorted at first, but then the radio locked on to the station and the shop was filled with a chillingly familiar tune.

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise
...

I felt my arms goosebump, as my skin turned as cold as the fish fingers beside me. No. No, it couldn’t be.

If you go down to the woods today, you’d better go in disguise...

That song. It was
that song
. But... how?

For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because...

How many times had I heard that song? How many times had Doc Mortis played it to me when I was trapped in his hospital in the Darkest Corners? Although the more pressing question was...

Today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

...why was it playing now?

I ran back to the till and punched the hi-fi’s power button. The display went dark and the song was cut short halfway through the next line. I watched the little display screen, counting in my head.

I had just reached “three” when the stereo system lit up again. The numbers on the frequency display rolled past. Then they came to an abrupt stop and a DJ’s voice chattered over the speakers.

‘...keep your requests coming in,’ he urged. ‘Got one here that’s just come through.’

My thumb was on the button again, about to switch it off, when the DJ stopped me.

‘It’s a message for Kyle Alexander,’ he chirped, ‘and it says “Not long now, kiddo”. Bit cryptic, that one. And that comes from... who’s that from? Where’s my—? Here it is, that’s from Kyle’s dad, and he’s asked us to play this. It’s
Firestarter
by—’

The radio shut itself off. I stared at the display, half-expecting it to kick in again, but the speakers stayed silent this time. Still, I was shaking as I approached the door leading to the store room. How had he turned the radio on? How had he turned it to that station just as his message to me was read out?

And why make it play
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic?
After everything I’d been through at the hands of Doc Mortis, just the thought of that song made my blood run cold through my veins. Had he played it to scare me? Or to tell me that Doc Mortis was somehow still alive?

A clatter from the back store pushed these thoughts from my mind, though. I was already crouching behind the counter, out of sight. I stayed there, looking around me for a weapon as the store-room doors swung open at the other end of the aisle.

Footsteps shuffled across the vinyl-covered floor. The wheels of the abandoned trolley began to
squeak
, reminding me of another trolley – the hospital trolley I’d been strapped to by Doc Mortis and his porters.

My heart began to race and my throat tightened, making breathing difficult. The footsteps and the
squeaking
were steadily drawing closer. No longer worried about drawing attention to myself now, I rummaged through the cupboards below the till, searching for something – anything – to defend myself with.

My fingers brushed against something metal. I grabbed it and stood up, holding my newly-acquired weapon out in front of me, ready to... to...