Die Tryin' (17 page)

‘Church is round here ain’t it?’ Tony asked as he stared.

‘It’s a big stone thing with a pointy top, Tone,’ Nick replied. ‘To be honest mate, you can’t really miss it.’

‘Don’t get clever,
re,’
Tony said in a firm voice. ‘Just look out for it.’

‘It’s up ahead on the left,’ Charlie said from the back, his eyes never ungluing themselves from his window.

Tony nodded his head in appreciation of the advice, and carried on going. ‘There it is,’ he then said, pointing.

He pulled up outside.

They looked around anxiously for Nick XR2, but he was nowhere to be seen, nor was his car. The front doors of the church were locked and there were no other cars around. The place was dead.

‘Well, where is he?’ Nick Black asked Tony.

Tony shrugged and killed the engine. He took his mobile from the dash and dialled. ‘We’re here,’ he said into it soon after. ‘Where are you?… No, it’s just us… The place is empty … all right.’ He clicked ‘end call’ and looked at Nick Black.

‘Well?’ Nick asked.

‘He’s round the back.’

‘What’s he doing round there?’ Charlie asked before Tony even finished his sentence, his head twitching.

‘He didn’t say. He just said to get round there fast and not let anyone see us.’

‘How we gonna do that?’ Nick asked. ‘How do we stop someone from seeing us?’

‘Well, shutting the fuck up and getting out of the car is a good start,
re
!’

Nick Black tutted and swung his door open. A cold breeze cut into him. ‘I don’t like this,’ he said to Tony.

‘You’re not the only one,’ Charlie informed him.

Nick Black looked around, suddenly feeling suspect like he was about to commit a crime, unable to understand why he felt that way. The big church looming over him, dark and brooding was freaking him out even more. He wanted to be anywhere else right then. Anywhere.

‘Come on,’ Tony said, and headed for the back of the church.

Nick Black took a final look around him before he followed. Charlie took up the rear, and they headed single file into the block of darkness awaiting them.

They made it round the corner into the shadows when without warning Nick XR2 popped up from nowhere, stiff like a cardboard cut-out.

Tony virtually walked straight into him. He stopped dead and flinched back in shock.
‘Christ, re!’
he shouted, grabbing his chest. ‘You almost gave me a fucking heart attack!’

‘Did anyone see you?’ Nick XR2 asked edgily. His eyes were big and anxious, the sort of eyes Charlie would make, but not Nick XR2.

Never Nick XR2.

‘No. No one saw us,’ Tony replied. ‘What’s going on,
re
?’

Nick XR2 rubbed his chin and puffed his cheeks. ‘Follow me. Quickly.’ He spun round and marched off.

Tony turned to Nick Black and Charlie, and shrugged before they all followed. Nick XR2 led them through the shadow round to the back of the church, where a security light attached to the wall above them bathed the area in a pool of harsh white light. Behind them was a thin alleyway, which was invisible from the street and that disappeared into the distance; it was currently clogged by Nick’s XR2.

‘What’s this all about, Nick?’ Tony asked as he followed him into the white light. He was getting pissed off, his patience wearing thin.

Nick XR2 came to a halt, and spread his hands out in front of him.
‘That’s
what this is all about,’ he said.

A confused frown emerged on Tony’s face. It quickly disappeared once he looked to where Nick XR2’s open palms were pointing.
‘Oh Jesus…’
he said monotone, and that was all.

‘What is it?’ Nick Black enquired, rushing up next to Tony, eager to get a look. When he saw it, he jumped back in fright.

Taki was lying on the ground, slumped up against the church wall, half-naked, and very, very dead.

The words SEE NO EVIL had been carved into his bare belly and chest with what looked like a very thin blade; a Stanley knife or something similar. Blood oozed out of the wounds and pooled in fat droplets at the bottom of each letter.

It was like something straight out of a slasher film.

Nick Black’s hands went up to his cheeks, and his mouth became an O. He stood in stunned disbelief, unable to digest what he was seeing. ‘What happened to his eyes?’ he finally asked in a weedy voice that was really more of a whimper.

‘They’ve been gouged out, Nick,’ Nick XR2 said matter-of-factly.

Nick Black squinted and craned his neck forwards to get a closer look. There were two black voids where Taki’s eyes should have been. Blood dripped from the holes and down his cheeks. In the white light they looked like black tears.

Nick Black’s stomach twitched and he felt his dinner coming up. He covered his mouth and turned to the side to let it out.

‘What the fuck happened?’ Tony asked, ignoring him, instead just staring at Taki’s body with a kind of dark fascination.

‘A couple of hours ago,’ Nick XR2 began, staring at Taki as he spoke. ‘I was inside the church with him. He was losing his bottle. Talking about going to the police over what happened.’

‘So you killed him?’ Nick Black asked from his bent over spewing position.

Nick XR2 stared darkly at him. ‘You think I fucking done this? Look at him! You think
I
done
that
? Where’s the blood on my hands?’ He held out his open palms as he spoke.

‘Then how did you find him here?’ Nick Black then asked.

Nick sighed and answered slowly. ‘We had an argument; I left. But, while I was driving home, I thought about what he was saying, and so I came back to have another word with him just to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid. I couldn’t find him inside. I called his mobile from just out there, and I heard his ringtone from back here.

I followed the sound, and I found him like this…’

‘Nick didn’t do it,’ Charlie then said, stepping up next to Tony, his bug eyes never leaving Taki’s mutilated body. ‘Marco done it.’

Nick XR2 glanced from Charlie to Tony, before staring back at Charlie again. ‘Marco’s dead, Charlie,’ he said.

‘Yeah, but he’s back,’ Charlie replied, his head twitching.

‘What do you mean ‘he’s back?’ Nick Black asked, wiping the remaining sick from his mouth, and returning to an upright position.

‘He’s dead. But
he’s
back,’ Charlie said in a slow voice as if he were speaking to a bunch of kids. ‘Back for revenge, Nick.’ He pointed at Taki with his open hand. ‘This-
this
is the start.’

Nick XR2 looked at Tony and shrugged, scratching the back of his head in confusion.

‘What the fuck are you on about, Charlie?’ Nick Black asked. He was getting irritated by Charlie’s nonsense. At other times he could just laugh, but now…

‘Look. I-I…’ Charlie began, his head twitching like mad. He wanted to say something but couldn’t get it out. He stopped, took in a deep breath and then said:

‘I can see and hear dead people.’

Silence ensued.

Nick Black rolled his eyes and shook his head.
What the fuck is he on about now?

Tony was the first to speak. ‘You can see dead people? What you think this is,
re?
The Sixth fucking Sense or something?’ he asked, the veins in his neck popping out.

‘What’s that?’ Charlie responded.

‘It’s a film, Charlie. About a little boy who can ‘see’ dead people,’ Nick Black informed him. ‘He even says that same line, exactly what you just used.’

‘Yeah?’ Charlie replied in a flat tone. ‘Unlucky kid…’ he added, staring bug eyed at Taki again.

‘Let me just get this straight, Charlie,’ Nick XR2 said, rubbing his forehead with one hand as if he had a migraine. ‘You think Marco, the bloke who we buried the other day in a tomb with a lid that needs three to four people to lift, has risen from the grave like Lazarus, and is out there now—’

‘Like some kind of fucking zombie,’ Tony added.

‘Right,’ Nick said, pointing at Tony. ‘This…
zombie thing
is out there now, stalking
us
, the people who killed him and buried him?’

‘And only you can see him,’ Nick Black added.

‘And only
you
can see him,’ Nick XR2 reaffirmed. ‘This zombie, ghost man, thing.’

Charlie just stared at them with those big, black, drug-frenzied bug eyes for a few seconds. ‘Yeah,’ he said, and then his head twitched.

‘Jesus Christ,’
Tony groaned.

‘You’re something else, Charlie, you know that?’ Nick XR2 stated.

‘Well, how else do you explain this?’ Charlie said, getting on the defensive. ‘Huh? Who done this? Someone or some
thing
fucking did.
I mean, he didn’t cut himself shaving did he?
And I’m telling you now, Marco done it.’

‘But, how do you know that, Charlie?’ Nick Black asked. ‘How can you be so sure?’

‘Yeah,’ said Tony.

‘I told you. I saw him,’ Charlie answered.

‘Where?’ Nick Black.

‘Around. At the bus stop, in the park. I see him walking around like he’s alive.’

‘How do you know it’s him and not someone who
looks
like him?’ Nick XR2.

‘Yeah.’ Tony.

‘Because he talks like him too. And he had a Yin Yang tattoo on his neck as well! I mean what more do you want?’ They all just stared at him, unable to answer. ‘Anyway,’ Charlie said, shaking his head. ‘They talk to me, tell me things—’

‘Who?’ Nick Black.

‘Who are we talking about?’ Charlie said crossly. ‘The fucking dead people! They talk to me in my head. I’m like a conduit.’

Tony stared at him nonplussed. ‘A what?’ he asked.

‘A conduit. A
con-doo-it,
Tone
.
It means they make contact with the living
through
me,’ Charlie said, slapping his skinny chest.

‘Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?’ Tony said, agitated.

‘I thought I did.’ Charlie flipped his hand on the air. ‘Anyway, back to the fucking point…’ He sighed. ‘First they told me that Marco wants to get us back for what we did to him. Next thing I know, I start seeing him around. And that’s when he told me he wants revenge.

Now this…’
He splayed his hands out towards Taki’s chilled remains.

‘Are either of you believing this shit?’ Tony asked the two Nicks.

Nick Black slowly shook his head, and then shrugged. He couldn’t make up his mind, caught in the middle of belief and disbelief. Nick XR2 cut a hand firmly across the air as if to say he didn’t believe a single word.

Charlie’s head twitched. ‘I couldn’t give a flying fuck what you all believe,’ he stated firmly. ‘It’s the truth. And you can try and hide behind all your jewels and your cars, but it won’t work. He’s gonna get us, gonna fuck us all for what we done!’

Suddenly, Tony’s back straightened and he marched towards Charlie.

Both Nicks clocked what was about to happen fast enough to get a head start on him. Tony managed to grab Charlie by the coat, and pull him across the ground before Nick Black grabbed one of his shoulders and Nick XR2 the other. They both yanked Tony backwards.

To Nick Black’s surprise, Charlie wasn’t bothered by Tony’s aggressive outburst. Instead, he actually started giving him shit.
‘What you gonna do, kill me too?’
he shouted at Tony with his bug eyes getting ever wider.
‘Huh?’

‘Yeah, I’ll fucking kill you if you keep talking shit about zombies!’ Tony shouted back just as the two Nicks managed to rip him off of Charlie.

Charlie just stared at him, his eyes hot like fire. ‘It’s your fucking fault!’ he shouted, pointing his finger accusingly at Tony. ‘It’s
your
fault. You brought this shit on us the second you killed Marco. You see that?’ he said pointing at Taki. ‘Your fault. And when that happens to us. Your fault!’ Charlie was by now a skinny whirlwind of rage. The veins were popping out all over his neck and forehead, and his Adam’s apple was protruding harshly. His eyes were now bulging so much, Nick Black thought for a second they were gonna pop right out of his skull and dangle there. He looked psycho, like a man that had finally snapped, and Nick guessed that however much speed Charlie had bombed that night was fuelling him like lighter fluid sprayed all over a bonfire.

The way Charlie was switching clearly affected Tony because he backed down. Nick would have laid money on him going for Charlie again, but to his surprise he didn’t. Instead he just poked a finger back at him. ‘It weren’t my fault, Charlie. It was
his
, talking
skata
about Maria. You know I don’t take that from no one.
No one!’

‘Well, I hope you’re proud of yourself, Tony, because this is what you’ve brought down on us…’ Charlie replied.

‘Look! Enough!’ Nick XR2 then said, cutting his hands across the air. ‘We’ll sort this shit out later. But, right now, we are two feet away from a dead body, and we’re making enough noise to wake the fucking dead.’

‘He’s right,’ Nick Black said, looking from Charlie to Tony, who were both giving each other daggers. ‘You two better kiss and make up, and we better get the hell out of here pronto.’

Nick XR2 shook his head. ‘Not before we deal with Taki.’

‘What?’ Nick Black asked as he walked up to Nick XR2. ‘What do you mean
deal
with him?’

‘Looks to me like he’s been pretty well dealt with already,’ Tony said out of the side of his face, still staring hard at Charlie.

‘Yeah, Nick. There’s nothing we can do, we better just get out of here and keep this shit under wraps,’ Nick Black said.

Nick XR2 shook his head again. ‘Do I have to spell
everything
out?’ He let out a sigh. ‘If we leave him here, Old Bill find him. Then they start a murder enquiry because that’s what they do when they find dead bodies with their eyes gouged out and strange messages carved into their fucking bellies. They then look for clues. Clues like fingerprints, DNA, clothes fibres, stuff like that. But more importantly, clues like eyewitnesses. The kind of eyewitness that saw me in the church at the same time as him an hour or two before he died. The result of which has Old Bill banging on my door at 6 am, making me the prime fucking suspect, which, by
de facto,
makes me the mug they’ll pin it on if they don’t catch the real killer!