The Beast (18 page)

He jabbed a finger towards Ameena. ‘Just like it made 
her
.’

I shook my head. I turned to Ameena, but she didn’t meet my gaze.

‘N-no,’ I stammered. ‘She’s real. She’s real.’

Ameena’s mouth flapped open and closed. ‘I don’t remember,’ she whispered. ‘My name. Or... or how old I am. I... I don’t remember anything.’

‘No!’ I insisted. ‘You’re real.
She’s real!
She’s not... She’s not an imaginary friend.’

‘You’re damn right she’s not!’ my dad said, his voice raised. ‘
I
was an imaginary friend.’ He pointed to the fallen body that had once been Rosie. ‘
She
was an imaginary friend.’

Ameena raised her head and looked my dad in the eye. ‘So... So what
am
I?’

‘You’re a
thing
,’ he told her, taking great delight in the way her face fell. ‘You’re an
object
, like the axe, or the lightbulb. You’re not a person, not even an imaginary one. You’re a
tool
designed to do a job. That’s all.’

‘You’re the only tool around here, mate,’ Billy said, but my dad didn’t acknowledge he’d even spoken.

Somewhere, not too far away, I heard the howls of the screechers, and the roars they made as they mutated into Beasts. My dad heard them too. He stepped back. ‘If you’re going to save your grandmother, then I suggest you get a move...’

Down on the ground, the Beast’s body was completely still. ‘Oh,’ my dad said. ‘Whoops. It seems I’ve kept you talking too long. Still,’ he shrugged, gesturing to the whole of her twisted, malformed body, ‘I’m sure it’s what she would’ve wanted.’

‘N-nan?’ I said, my voice hoarse and my throat tight.

Beside me, Ameena sat down in the snow. Her eyes were staring and her expression was blank. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t hear anything of what she was saying.

A red mist of rage fell over me and I felt the sparks begin to race in anticipation. I swallowed hard and tried to remember how to breathe. ‘I know what you’re doing,’ I croaked. ‘But it won’t work. You want me to use my abilities to attack you, b-but I won’t. I won’t let you win.’

My dad glared at me. I met his gaze and held it, not flinching, not letting him see how close I was to losing control.

‘Fair enough,’ he said, at last. ‘It was worth a go, though, right? Can’t blame your old man for trying. But you win, son. You win. I’ll go, and I’ll leave you in peace.’

He turned and began to walk away. I felt my heart race. I’d done it! I’d beaten—

‘Oh, just one thing before I do,’ he said. He turned back to face me and I saw he was holding the portable tape recorder in his hand. ‘You asked me about this earlier. Would you like to hear it?’

I hesitated. ‘What is it?’

‘Only one way to find out,’ he said. His thumb pushed down on the play button, and the sounds of chaos flooded out. It was just a noise to begin with, a big collective din that made no sense to my ears.

After a moment, though, I began to pick out individual sounds. Screams. Shouts. And the
beep-beep-beep
of a life support machine.

‘...protect the patient!’ a male voice barked. ‘Don’t let him...’

‘...got a gun,’ a woman screamed. ‘For God’s sake, somebody—’

BANG!

I jumped as the sound of a gunshot blasted from the tinny speaker.

‘No, no, no!’ wailed the male voice. ‘Jesus Christ, someone help—’

BANG!

The tape went silent, aside from the beeping of the hospital machine. Then there came another sound. A voice. My dad’s voice.

‘Fiona,’ he said softly. ‘Fiona, wake up.’

My whole body tensed at the sound of my mum’s name. My eyes went from the tape to his face. He winked at me and grinned his shark grin.

‘Fiona,’ the voice on the tape said again. ‘It’s time to get up now.’

There came a murmur, soft and faint, and the beeping of the machine became faster.

‘That’s my girl,’ my dad’s voice continued. ‘Open your eyes now. Open your—’

On the tape, I heard my mum groan. Her voice, when it came, was frail and weak, but I’d have recognised it anywhere.

‘Wh-where am I?’

‘Look at me, Fiona. Look at me.’

I heard her let out a sharp gasp.

‘N-no,’ she begged. ‘Please, no, don—’

BANG!

Once again, the tape went silent. For a moment, there was only the sound of the cassette’s wheels squeaking around, and then he switched the machine off, and there wasn’t even that.

I tried to scream, but no sound would come out. The sparks raged through me and the tape recorder exploded in his hand. He cried out in pain, but his face was twisted into an expression of demented delight.

‘Ooh, that’s it, son! That’s my boy! Punish me, make me pay for what I’ve done!’ He held his arms out wide and his whole body became engulfed by shadow. ‘Only thing is, you’re going to have to catch me first.’

And with that, he was gone, retreating to the Darkest Corners where I had no powers, no abilities with which to protect myself.

But I didn’t care.

Ameena hadn’t moved. She was slumped in the snow, still staring blankly ahead. ‘Look after her,’ I told Billy in a voice that sounded nothing like my own. It wasn’t one voice at all, it was a hundred thousand voices, all talking at once, as if every one of the sparks were speaking alongside me.

He had killed her.
He had killed her right there in her hospital bed.

I focused on a spark. The world around me became hazy and indistinct as I plunged myself into hell.

He had killed her. He had killed my mum. And that meant only one thing.

I was going to kill
him
.

Whatever the consequences.

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Copyright

1

Text copyright © Barry Hutchison 2012

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

ISBN 978-0-00-731518-5

EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007455393