Dead Push (Kiera Hudson Series Two#7) (24 page)

“So if I was taken out of the picture, why did you have to keep spying on Kiera?” I breathed into his face.

“Because the Wolf Man was convinced that even though you were dead, you might show up again in Kiera’s life,” Sparky struggled to explain. “I never really believed the Wolf Man. I didn’t think it could be possible. But he was right. I don’t know how or by what magic, but you have come back, Potter.”

I started to believe that he didn’t really understand that the world had been
pushed
. I loosened my grip on him a little more. “So if you love Kiera so much, why have you set her up to die here tonight?” I snarled just an inch from his face.

“It isn’t Kiera I have set up to die here tonight,” Sparky wheezed, around my grip on his throat. “It’s you, Potter. Kiera met me for dinner the other night and told me that you had come back from ‘C’ Division. I never told her you were murdered. I loved her too much to cause her that pain. So when she told me that you were back… well, you can imagine what I must have been thinking. Kiera was too upset to eat, so she left for home. It was then I contacted the Wolf Man and told him you had returned, just like he feared you would one day.” 

“You haven’t changed,” I hissed, pushing him back down onto the bench. “You always were a fucking coward and a snake.”

“You make it sound like you once knew me in another time… another
place
,” he said, his eyes round and full of fear.

“Don’t you mean another
where
and
when
?” I sneered.

“So my dreams… my nightmares are true,” he whispered. “They’re memories I’m having. I dreamt that I was
a killer… tell me, Potter, what was I really like?”

“Honestly?” I said, looking at him.

“Yes,” he nodded.

“You were nothing but a piece of shit,” I said. “But the funny thing is, this Wolf Man who you have put your trust in, was known by another name. In that
where
and
when
he was called Luke Bishop and he murdered you!”

“But…” Sparky said, getting up.

I pushed him back down onto the bench. “So is this Wolf Man coming here to kill me tonight?” I breathed.

“No, he is sending another wolf to kill you,” Sparky said.

“Who?” I demanded to know.

Before Sparky had a chance to answer, there was a bang, sounding like a small explosion. His head snapped backwards, his brains jetting from the back of his head and splattering against the waiting room wall like a lump of raw steak. Sparky jerked, as if having a violent spasm, then fell into my arms.

There was another shot followed by the sound of Kiera screaming.

“Kiera!”
I roared.

Jack

Melody’s mother was lying prostrate on the chapel floor when I snuck through the window. Her deafening sobs drowned the sound of my approach. Unbeknown to her, I sat silently for some time on one of the pews and watched her cry and beg for forgiveness. She was pathetic. I started to chuckle at the thought of what I had planned for her. It was the
sound of my laughing that finally made her stop sobbing and look up at me. Discovering Uncle Jack watching her from out of the gloom, she screamed, scrambling backwards across the chapel floor.

“Shhh…” I cooed with a grin.

I could read the fear in her eyes and I felt that twinge of excitement I always felt at this point.

“Your eyes,” she murmured. “I have seen eyes like yours before.”

“Have you, indeed,” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“The devil
who put his seed in me had eyes just like yours,” she whispered, her face taut with terror. “Melody’s father was a devil just like you.”

“How like me?” I said, slinking from the pew and dropping onto all fours. I crawled slowly towards her, my eyes blazing bright.

“He was a wolf,” she murmured, staring back into my eyes. “He was the devil.”

So Melody’s father was a wolf. That’s why her mother hated her – feared her – so much. That’s why she took Melody’s head off with a spade. She feared strangulation wasn’t enough. The only sure way of killing a wolf was by cutting off its head. I thought of my brother Nik kneeling over the guillotine and I knew in my heart he was dead forever.

“Keep away from me,” she sobbed.

“Don’t you like what you see in my eyes?” I snarled. “Does it excite you?”

“Yes…” she whispered, her face haggard-looking with fright. 

“Good,” I
smiled, crawling towards her, my long, sharp fingernails scrapping across the cold stone floor. “Me and you are going to have so much fun.”

Just before dawn, and after more fun than I’d had in a very long time, I took the chains which hung from the cross. And just like the bonnet cord she had used to strangle her daughter, I wrapped the chains around momma’s throat. At first I think she thought it was just another one of the many depraved games I’d had her taking part in over the last few hours as I hung her from beneath the stairs which led out of the basement.

But as her eyes bulged in their wrinkled sockets and her tongue shot out of her mouth, she knew the fun and games had finally come to
an end. And so had she. Stepping back into my jeans, I got dressed and went upstairs to the kitchen. And after cooking and eating a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast, I left the house and didn’t look back. I knew my time here was nearly over and I was glad about that. I’d had enough.

I crept through the woods and towards the grate. Isidor was standing and looking down at it, a look of puzzlement etched across his face. He then bent down and took something that had been wedged between the metal bars.

I didn’t have to get a clearer view to know that it was the photograph of him and Melody he had just found. I had missed the photographer! Could he or she still be close by? I wondered, looking back over my shoulder. How was I going to go back without unmasking the photographer? What would this mean for the world I’d come from? What would this mean for my sister Kiera? I’d fucked up. I’d been too busy having fun with Melody’s mother when I should have been here, in the woods, watching the grate. Perhaps Potter had had more luck? Maybe his mission had been more successful?

Isi-bore placed the picture inside his coat and climbed down into the hole. I crept from my hiding place. Standing over the hole, I peered down into the darkness. There was a sound behind me. It was the sound of feet running over fallen leaves. I spun around to see a figure, its face concealed behind a grey coloured hoody. A camera swung about the figure’s neck. Before I could get out of the way, the photographer pushed me hard in the chest and I stumbled backwards into the hole that led
down into The Hollows. I clattered into the sides of the tunnel. Over and over I went as I raced towards the bottom. The tunnel became darker and darker until everything went black.

I hit the ground with a thud and opened my eyes. I was outside. There was a storm raging. Heavy black clouds lumbered across the sky. Dawn wasn’t far off.

Where was I? Was I back?

I stood up in the hammering rain. There was a building a short distance away. I looked down and could see I was standing in the middle of a set of railway tracks. Had the train brought me back? I couldn’t be sure. I set off in the direction of the building. I was in a valley.
Where
and
when
, I couldn’t be sure. Even before I reached the small wooden structure, I knew what it was. It was another freaking railway station. Perhaps I was back after all. Reaching the platform, I climbed on to it. Over the sound of the wind and the rain, I could hear voices. I crept along the platform, stopping outside a small waiting room. Very carefully, so as not to be seen, I peered through one of the windows. I stepped backwards almost at once and into the shadows again. Gathered inside the waiting room was Kiera, Potter, Kayla, Isi-bore, and a teenage boy was sleeping on one of the benches. I couldn’t be back from where I started from, I figured, my mind racing. Potter was here, but so was Kiera. Kiera thought Potter was dead where I had come from.

Then I heard Kiera say,
“Have you still got that photograph?”

I peered back through the window to see Isi-bore reach inside his coat pocket and pull out a folded piece of paper. I knew it was the picture the photographer had left for him in the grate.

I heard Isi-bore explain that after Melody’s death he would often go back above ground and visit the lake where he had spent so many happy hours with her. But going back became too painful. In the end he stopped going above ground.

“Did you never go back again?” I heard Potter ask.  

“I only went back once more, and that time, I went to the house where she had lived with her mum,” Isi-bore explained. “The windows were all boarded over. The front garden was overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. The house looked derelict and abandoned. I wanted to know what had happened, so I returned to the library and checked the local newspapers. I didn’t have to look for very long, as I soon came across an article about a local woman who had hung herself in a chapel constructed in the basement of her house.”

I turned away from the window and leant against the waiting room wall. Somehow I had been
pushed
forward.

I glanced to my right and saw Kayla looking out of the window. I crouched down, out of sight. 

“What’s wrong?” I heard Kiera ask.

“I can hear them coming,” Kayla said.

“Hear who?” Potter asked.

“Those berserkers, and there’s a lot of them,” Kayla gasped.

I squinted and peered into the darkness that covered the valley like a thick blanket. Then, I realised that it wasn’t shadows at all but a wave of Berserkers racing into the valley and towards the station.

From inside the waiting room, I heard snippets of conversation as the group planned to make their escape. Suddenly the waiting room door was flung open and Potter appeared in the open doorway. Pressing myself flat against the wall of the station, I edged my way a little further along the platform.

“A train is coming,” I heard Kayla say.

“The train is close, but so are those berserkers,” Potter snapped, racing back into the waiting room. I could hear him barking his orders at the others.

It was then I heard Isi-bore, say, “Kiera, I’m not coming with you.”

“Listen, kid, we don’t have time to fuck about. Get your shit together, we’re moving out!” Potter yelled at him.

“I’m not coming,” Isi-bore said again.

From within the shadows, I listened to the others as they pleaded with Isi-bore to go with them.

I looked out across the valley and could see the Berserkers drawing nearer. Their barking and howling added to the deafening boom of the thunder and sizzling lightning overhead. Isi-bore was still insisting that his friends left without him.

Run! Run! Isidor, I felt like screaming myself. He didn’t need to die – not today and not at the hands of the
Berserkers. I dared to glance back through the waiting room window. Isidor was smiling at his sister, just like how I’d seen him smile at Melody Rose.

“You go,” Isidor told Kayla. “I’ll stay and draw them away so you can escape.”

Run, Isidor! I howled inside as the Berserkers grew ever closer. In the direction I had come from, I could see the headlamp of an approaching train. I looked back through the window. Kayla and Potter were both now pleading with Isidor to go with them. Knowing that they were fast running out of time, Potter helped Kayla drag the unconscious-looking boy out onto the platform. I stepped back into the doorway of the station bathroom. Potter and Kayla passed by me, dragging the boy between them. The train drew nearer, as did the Berserkers. 

I then heard Isidor say something that made my twisted black heart stop. 

“I have to stay and wait for Melody,” Isidor said.

“But the berserkers will kill you while you wait for her,” I heard Kiera try and reason with him.

“But don’t you see?” Isidor said. “The berserkers can’t kill me because this picture hasn’t been taken yet. The fact that it exists says that I’m not going to die today.”

Isidor was going to die because I failed to intercept the picture. I had been too busy enjoying myself with Melody’s mother. If I’d only beaten my lust to kill for a few hours, then Isidor would now be escaping with his friends.

“I’m so tired of waiting – hoping that the moment this picture was taken comes,” he said. “So maybe by waiting for the berserkers, it will force her hand and she’ll come for me.”

Melody isn’t going to come for you! I felt like screaming. It’s a fucking trap, you dumb-arse!

“I love you, Isidor,” I heard Kiera say. “See you later, alligator,” she added before running from the waiting room and leaving her friend behind. From my hiding place in the dark, I couldn’t help but see the tears streaming down Kiera’s face as she dashed past me along the platform. I could see her pain. And I knew in my heart that the pain hadn’t been caused by the Elders – it had been caused by me because I hadn’t been able to stop killing – not for one single hour. I had failed to unmask the photographer and Isidor was going to die because of that.