Kristin (5 page)

Nine

Thom spent the remainder of the day staring
into space, sitting on a muddy patch of earth behind a grocery store whose
front windows had been smashed out.
What he had seen could not be real. It could not
have actually happened
,
no matter how realistic it had seemed. His brain must have been fried
by the monotone. It was some type of signal
,
he was certain
,
an instruction to act
,
to degenerate
,
to inflict
suffering
,
pain
,
death. How many had been brainwashed he wondered
,
just those in the immediate vicinity
?
All of London
?
The whole world
?
Who had
produced the sound — the terrorists who
 
acted in the name of Allah
?
The North Koreans
?
Was this a new form of warfare
?
Perhaps the
siren had been a precursor to a nuclear attack
?
They would wait until the societies of the
West had completely broken down
,
were unable to retaliate
,
and then finish them off.

But none of it was real. He was
losing his mind.

Evening approached. He
considered returning home.
If it was all in his mind why should he fear doing so
? He prayed
for the nightmare to end. But it would continue, and dusk became the blackest
of nights.

Thom stood on the doorstep and leaned his
head against the flaking wood of the door frame, his breathing laboured. He
turned the key and in the gloom ascended the staircase soundlessly, his
bloodstained, sweat-sodden clothing adhering to his skin.

The lounge door was a
couple of inches ajar. Fearfully, he prodded it open and walked into a darkened
room full of ominous silhouettes and macabre shadows.
The stench of rotten meat had returned.

‘ ...
Why didst thou leave thy love
?’ grated
the menacing voice.

He whirled.

‘Why didst thou abandon
her?’

‘ ... Because ... ’

‘
Yes
?’

‘ ... Because I was
frightened ... ’

‘
Frightened
?’ it snorted. ‘As well thee
should be, because I have only just begun.’

‘ ... What do you mean?’

‘Thou wilt learn.’

‘ ... What are you?’

‘I am part of thee, the
part thou wouldst deny.’

‘ ... There’s no part of me
that’s like ... ’

‘BE QUIET!’ it screeched,
coughing up something that splattered onto the carpet. ‘Didst thou not kill one
of thy fellow men this day, impale him on a
 
spur of iron? Shocking, is it not, the horrors man is
capable of?’

‘
... But I didn
’
t mean to kill him
,
I was angry
,
I was trying to defend the woman.
’

‘Ah, that open-legged harlot!
Thine efforts were in vain, she left this world, along with her unborn, bastard
infant, in a medical vehicle.’

‘Liar!’

‘Thou didst slaughter him
needlessly, the wounds he inflicted upon her were fatal anyway.’

‘It’s a nightmare! A
fucking nightmare!’

‘One from which thee, and
thy kind will never wake.’

He wiped his tears away.

‘What happened in the
park?’

‘I incinerated the lush,
green foliage, killed many. I obliterated the air transport, atomized those
inside.’

‘Where is Kristin? Only she
could know these things.’

‘Precisely, only she could
know.’

‘ ...
Where is she
?’

‘Here.’

‘If you’ve hurt her, I’ll
kill you!’

It cleared its throat and
spat an unseen volley of bile across the room that hissed and burned when it
landed on the exposed skin of his left arm and he screamed with pain. He hurled
himself against the wall, threw the light switch and lurched backwards, falling
hard on the base of his spine.

She sat on a wooden dining
chair in the far corner of the room, shrivelled, gaunt, as if sucked dry of
blood, and the carpet at her feet was spotted with black scorch marks.

‘ ... Where have I been?’
she asked, her eyes red and raw. ‘What have I done?’

‘Are you Kristin?’

‘ ... Yes ... I think I’m
Kristin.’

‘Is this real?’

‘ ... Yes.’

‘Did I dream today?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t
remember today, I can’t remember anything at all.’

‘Some terrible things have
happened. They’re still happening.’

‘I know, I can feel them.’

‘What were you ... a moment
ago?’

‘I’m not sure ...
Thom
?’

‘Perhaps we’ll wake in a
moment?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘I’m scared.’

‘So am I.’

The doorbell chimed.
                      

Ten

The knuckles of Nathan Van Allen’s hands
were bruised and bloodied. He bore a large graze on his forehead and a deep,
five-inch laceration, bleeding heavily, extended from the bridge of his nose to
the lobe of his right ear.

‘Thom ...
what the fuck is
happening
?’ he groaned, clinging to his friend.

Thom led him upstairs to
the bathroom. He opened the cabinet and took out some antiseptic cream and
bandages.

‘What happened?’ he asked.

‘I was attacked ... by this
big, black guy. I could see him staring at me from a window above a shop. Next
thing I knew he was out in the street, laying into me. When someone’s that size
and they’re driven by hatred there’s not a lot you can do.’

‘This needs stitches, it
won’t stop bleeding.’

‘Forget it, I’m not going
out there again.’

‘What did he use on you?’

‘Broken bottle. What
happened to your arm?’

‘ ... Did you hear the
tone, the siren?’

‘I smashed my place up,
tore up photos of my family. I was being manipulated.
Something was making me do it
.’

‘I saw a man attack a
pregnant woman on Hill Rise.’

‘ ...
A pregnant woman
?’

Her cadaverous figure
materialized in the doorway, unnoticed.

‘He just ran at her,
unprovoked, waded into her with his case. He was going to kill her and ... ’

Nathan glanced up, waited
for him to continue.

‘ ...
I killed him
. I think she died too, but
I’m not sure. If only I could believe she’d survived then it would mean ... I’d
feel ... vindicated.’

‘
Christ
,
you poor bastard
. But you’re not alone,
it’s going on everywhere.’

 
‘Can I help?’ she asked.

Nathan's eyes met hers and
he fell from the toilet seat onto the floor.

‘ ... Nathan, this is ...
Kristin.’

He stared at her open-mouthed,
unable to draw breath.

She left the doorway and
returned with a fine needle and a length of thread. Then, perched on the edge
of the bath, she proceeded to close Nathan’s wound with compassion and
dexterity.

‘We should eat,’ she said, when
she’d finished. ‘I’ll make us something.’

They moved into the lounge
as she rummaged through the dwindling supply of groceries in the kitchen

‘
Jesus
,’ Nathan shivered.

Thom looked at him.

‘
How long has she been here
?’

‘A few weeks, why?’

‘
Those
eyes. How can you have no whites to your
eyes
,
Thom
?
They look
like they’ve lived a hundred lifetimes, all of them bad. She’s overwhelming,
abnormal ... ’

Something fell noisily in
the kitchen.

Thom stood at the door.
She’d dropped a roasting pan onto the floor, spilling used oil over the tiles.
They looked at one another without exchanging a word then he opened a cupboard
near the sink, found a bottle of single malt and returned, pouring them each a
double.

‘How did you meet her?’

‘She was in the foot
tunnel, sleeping rough.’

‘Bit of a risk, wasn’t it?’

Thom held the glass to his
lips, drank half its contents and breathed out before considering his words
carefully. ‘Listen, I don’t know what’s happening out there, and I don’t know
what’s happening in my head, but I do know she’s all I care about on God’s
Earth, and I cannot explain that.

‘Everything was fine when
she moved in, but then things, unaccountable things, started to happen.’

‘
Things
?’

He knocked back the rest of
the whisky. ‘ ... Today I imagined I saw her commit an atrocity — two
atrocities, in the park.
I saw her burn the park to the ground
,
Nathan
,
saw her kill hundreds
.
She blew up an
airliner
! They were pure acts of will. And in this room, tonight, she
metamorphisized into something too terrible to put into words. But I know none
of it was real, how could it be?’

‘I wish I could tell you
that you were imagining everything, but the park
did
burst into flames today, there
was
a major
civil aviation disaster directly
 
over the city — an airliner bound for Zurich. Three hundred died.’

Thom dug his fingernails
into his scalp.

‘I’m not sure what’s
happening out there either, some sort of mass psychosis, maybe? According to
the reports things seem localized at the moment,
 
but there’s talk of disturbances outside London.’

Nathan drained his glass.

‘Get rid of her, Thom,
throw her out. At best, she’s a nutter or a psychopath.
But maybe she
’
s something much
,
much worse
?’

‘ ...
Oh
,
Nathan
,
come on.
’

‘Everything ties in with
her arrival, doesn’t it?’

‘ For fuck’s sake.’

‘How well do you really
know her?’

‘I know I love her, that I
must
have
her.’

‘I assume you’ve already
had her, Thom? Now get rid of the weird fucking bitch.’

Although they spoke in
hushed whispers, Kristin’s hearing was acute and
 
she digested Nathan’s every word. Her flesh prickled, her
brow darkened.

Fifty minutes later they sat at the dining
table picking at the meal she’d prepared, the silence punctuated by sounds of
turmoil from the streets outside.
The considerate, gentle woman who’d tended Nathan’s
lacerated face so humanely had gone and he squirmed each time she looked at
him, her eyes probing deeper and deeper, devouring him from the inside out.
She had heard
them.

‘So, Nathan, how long have
you known Thom?’ she asked, watching every move he made.

‘Long time,’ he answered,
brusquely. ‘Long enough to recognize when he’s made a serious error of
judgement.’

Thom stopped pushing the
food around his plate.

‘ And do you think he’s
made one?’

‘I believe he sometimes
thinks with his heart instead of his head.’

‘Nathan, leave it.’

‘No, please,’ she insisted.
‘I’d like to know if Nathan doesn’t agree with
 
something, doesn’t
approve
of me.’

‘I’m not saying that I
disapprove of you, I just don’t know you.’

‘You mean you don’t trust
me … ?’

‘I mean I don’t know you.’

‘I don’t know you, but I’m
not prejudging you.’

He strained to keep his
eyes on her. Her grip on the wine glass tightened. ‘I’m not prejudging you, I’m
using my eyes, my ears ... ’

‘To see what ... to hear
what?’

The peculiar scent of the
perspiration evaporating from her lilywhite flesh in waves made his stomach
turn.

‘Everything that’s
happening. Can’t you see it, can’t you hear it?’

‘All is as it should be,’
she muttered, her voice extraneous, hollow.

He pushed his chair back
from the table. ‘ ... What the fuck does that mean?’

‘Nathan, just leave
things,’ Thom urged.

He backed down, and they
sat in silence for some time.

‘Thom told me what happened
in the park,’ Nathan resumed. ‘He thinks it’s all in his head. But the park is
burned, hundreds of people are dead. There are dismembered, rotting remains of
people on streets all over London and nobody cares.
Nothing
is as it should be.’

She exhaled noisily, and
the glass exploded in her hand.

‘Nathan, shut the fuck up!’
Thom shouted.

Kristin slammed her fork
into the table, narrowly missing Nathan’s hand, and Thom grabbed her wrist. A
stream of bright red blood trickled from her nostrils and her eyes were wild as
she shook her head in vehement denial.

Nathan felt an invisible hand
constrict his heart. ‘ ...
Why
don
’
t ... you tell us
what you really are ... you
 
goddamned freak
?’ he groaned.

Thom lunged and caught him
with a sharp blow under the chin, knocking him from his chair. He picked himself
up, laughed bitterly and staggered to the bathroom.

‘.... He’s scared, that’s all,’ Thom said,
presently. ‘He’s searching for answers, we all are.’

‘And so you defend him?’

‘There are things happening
out there that are impossible for the human
 
mind to grasp, it’s bound to lead to overreaction.’

‘No, the fucker thinks I’m
responsible for all the bad things that are happening. Did you see the way he
looked at me? So certain. He wants me to go, he wants to finish us,
but I cannot let
let him do that
.’ She glared at the table and twitched imperceptibly. There
was a strangled scream from the bathroom, a loud snap.

Thom rushed to the door,
hammered on it, ‘NATHAN?’ He banged in
  
desperation, ‘NATHAN?’ He put his shoulder to the door
and barged, but the wood was oak, the lock brass, and it wouldn’t yield. He
stepped back and kicked out — the frame splintered and the door flew
open, crashing against the wall. Thom brought his hand to his mouth.

Nathan’s lifeless body lay
slumped forward over the edge of the bath, but
 
his face pointed at the ceiling. An immense purple bruise
circled his neck and a string of bloody mucus streamed from his open mouth onto
the linoleum flooring.

There was a sharp intake of
breath behind him.

He leapt at her, pinning
her to the wall, and grabbed her throat. ‘You’ve killed him you bitch ...
you’ve killed him!’

She grabbed at his hair. ‘
... Thom ... let me go ... I can’t breath!’

‘NEITHER CAN FUCKING
NATHAN! TELL ME WHAT YOU DID ... TELL ME!’

‘ ... Nothing!’ she choked.
‘What’s happened to him ... what’s happened ... to Nathan?’

His tears trickled down
onto her hands, which clenched his, trying to force them away from her
windpipe. ‘What are you ... in the name of Christ, what are you?’ He cracked
her head against the cutting, textured wall until it left a bloody mark. ‘What
are you ... what are you ....?’

‘Kristin!’ she spluttered,
her vision blurring. ‘I’m
 
...
Kristin!’

‘Kristin would have no
reason to do something like this!’

‘Kristin did not have a
reason ... I did!’ the monstrous voice gargled.

He let her go.

He was awake
,
sentient. His oldest friend lay contorted
,
dead at his feet and his lover had just
spoken to him
,
but in a voice that didn’t belong to her.

‘ ...
Why?
’ he asked, in the surreal
stillness.

‘He would have ... been a
problem, would have represented a threat to my purpose.’

‘...
Your
purpose
?’

‘Find the Christ. Fuck the
Christ. Kill the Christ.’

‘ ... Why have you chosen
her?’

‘She is just a vehicle for
my use, the reason for her selection is irrelevant,
 
she was chosen at random two thousand years ago.’

‘
Chosen
?’ By whom?’

‘ By the true child of
God.’

‘
The true child
?’ God only had one child,
a son, Jesus Christ.’

She roared bestially and hurled
herself at him, slashing his face with nails suddenly sharp and deadly. She
spat in his face as he struck her about the head with his fists. She forced her
head down to his neck and opened her mouth, revealing pointed, blackened teeth
and he smelt her suddenly putrid breath. But as she was ready to close her jaws
she squealed with pain and collapsed.

On his haunches, he looked
deep into her hollowed eyes and could see her tormentor had left her, that
she’d won this battle for her soul.

As she lay unconscious he sat on the bloody
floor, transfixed by Nathan’s distorted body. Some time later he stood, went to
the bedroom, pulled a sheet off the bed and wrapped Nathan’s body in it,
knotting each end.
He picked it up gently and carried it down the stairs.

Outside, he fumbled with
his car keys, folded the stiffening corpse into the undersized boot and slammed
the door. He leaned heavily on it, white and sick:
When he was done he
’
d tell Nathan
’
s parents that their son had been
attacked and
killed out on the street. How could he tell them the truth
?