The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (47 page)

‘He’s good,’ she said. ‘He finally
managed to get an agent interested in his book.’

Jared forced a smile. ‘Poor agent.’

Rebecca merely laughed. ‘He’s so
happy when he writes,’ she said and took Jared’s hand. ‘It’s like he’s on
another planet; out there with all his characters and their adventures and not
a single care in the world.’

‘Sometimes I think he spends more
time with his silly characters than his own family,’ Jared said.

Rebecca turned away from Jared and
for a moment just stared through the window at the scenery outside without
saying anything. ‘He just loves writing,’ she finally said. ‘That’s all.’

Jared didn’t respond. He knew that
he had overstepped the boundary. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said and gently placed his
hand on her shoulder. ‘It came out wrong.’

She didn’t answer. Finally she
rubbed at her face and pointed at the window. ‘Look at the beautiful day
outside.’

Jared’s eyes softened. He would
humour her attempt at misdirection. ‘It’s nice,’ he said. ‘Wish I could be
there.’

‘Soon,’ she said and turned to face
him again. ‘As soon as you’re ready, I’m taking you home.’

Jared nodded. ‘I’d like that.’

For a moment there was a comfortable
silence between mother and son. Both probed their memories for light-hearted
family topics of the past, but neither of them spoke of those times.

‘Tell me more,’ Jared said finally.

Rebecca frowned. ‘More? About…?’

‘Tell me more about Simon.’

*   
-    -    -    *

Skyscrapers of paper. Justin stood
at the foot of the columns constructed entirely from manuscripts and almost
lost his balance. The reams of paper reached beyond the clouds. He walked
around one of the paper pillars, examining the reams more closely.

‘So many to choose from,’ Justin
said and lightly ran his fingers over the edges of the manuscripts. The columns
of paper extended in every direction as far as the eye could see; each breaking
through the clouds high above.

From a small pile at his feet,
Justin picked up a thick manuscript. He flipped through it, and when he closed
it, gasped when he saw the name printed with thick, black toner. ‘The Reaper
& Mr. Smith.’ He breathed the words and rubbed his fingers over the
lettering. ‘By Justin Greene.’

Seeing his own name on the
manuscript made his heart thump hard and his mouth feel dry. He re-read the
title and his name. This was it. The full manuscript. Someone wanted it.
Someone would soon pay him good money for it. Justin clutched the manuscript to
his chest. Soon, the whole world would be able to read his words. Soon, people
would approach him for his autograph.

Justin didn’t feel the burning
sensation at first, but when he smelled the smoke, he looked down in time to
see the flames. His reaction to the flames that engulfed the document was pure
instinct. He threw the burning pile of papers through the air and it crashed
into one of the manuscript pillars. The flames climbed the buckling tower at a
rapid pace, swallowing the tower of novels in smooth stride. The fluttering
sound made him look up, just in time to see piles of heavy manuscripts rain
down on him.

Justin woke up screaming. He wiped
the perspiration from his head and inhaled deeply as he familiarized himself
with his surroundings. It only took a few seconds to recognize the living room.
He checked his watch. Midnight.

The burning building on the
television caught his attention only for a moment. He had seen this movie
before. Justin pressed a button on the remote and the image disappeared. He
went to the kitchen and took some apple juice from the fridge as he tried to
piece together the fragments he could remember of the dream. He could remember
seeing his manuscript. He could remember hundreds and thousands of manuscripts
piled on top of one another. A cold chill crept down his spine as he remembered
the fire and the books tumbling down on top of him.

‘You’ll be a smashing success,’ he
said and chuckled at his own joke. ‘Book sales will be on fire.’

Justin’s smile vanished as he placed
the rim of the glass to his mouth. He placed the glass down on the table in
front of him and brought his face next to it for closer inspection. He smelled
the content and gagged. The liquid in the glass wasn’t apple juice.
Not
again,
he thought as he dipped the tip of his fore finger in the glass and
rubbed his thumb over the crimson content on his finger. Justin closed his eyes
and inhaled deeply. ‘This isn’t real,’ he said. ‘It’s just apple juice.’ When
he opened his eyes again, the result was the same. There was no mistake about it.
The liquid in the glass was blood.

*   
-    -    -    *

It was almost noon when Justin woke
up. He opened the curtains and squinted as the light flooded the room. The
house was unnervingly quiet.
Monique must have left already
, he thought
as he entered the kitchen. What day was it?

On the counter stood a glass filled
with apple juice. He remembered the previous evening. He had left the blood on
the counter for closer inspection the next day, but now it was nothing more
than pure juice again.

‘You’re losing it, Justin Greene,’
he said and chuckled softly to himself. He took the glass and emptied the
contents in the basin where it quickly ran down into the drain. He left the
glass in the basin but as he turned to leave, a stain on his index finger
caught his attention. He studied it, rubbing it with his thumb.

Dried blood.

‘What...?’

He took the glass. It was clean.
Justin replaced the glass and washed the blood from his finger. Something was
wrong. He could feel it. Stuff like this didn’t happen unless it was to tell
him something; to warn him against imminent danger. The question that now
remained was
what
it was that he was being warned about, and exactly
what did
he
have to do with it?

*   
-    -    -    *

Two weeks felt like two agonizing
years to Jared. The walking exercises were the most painful. Although extremely
relieved that he could see again, he was still bothered by something. What
bothered Jared wasn’t the physical pain of the rehabilitation. It wasn’t the
awkwardness of losing an entire month of his life. What bothered Jared the most
was the creatures that he saw. The hideously deformed people that, for some
reason, only he could see. They came and went at will, disappearing into thin
air. They entered his room at night and towered over his bed. They walked
through walls.

And he could see them.

And no one else could.

‘I thought this day would never
come,’ Jared said as he signed the release forms at the main reception. ‘How
long has it been?’

‘About a month and a half,’ Rebecca
said. She waited patiently until all the forms were signed and then gently took
Jared’s elbow as support.

Jared pulled his arm away and with
the use of his walking cane limped over to his luggage. ‘Well, it’s been a
month and a half too long,’ he said and motioned for the nurse to follow them
with the trolley that carried his suitcases.

‘This way,’ Rebecca said and led
Jared to where she had parked the car.

‘Tanya lent you her car?’ Jared
asked. He assisted the nurse with loading the luggage into the trunk and
thanked her. ‘You guys must be better friends than I thought. She wouldn’t just
give her car to anyone, including me.’

‘We’ve all seen the way you drive,’
Rebecca said and chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t let you get behind the wheel of my car
either.’

Jared laughed for the first time
since the accident. The feeling was awkward, almost as if it was the first time
in his life that he had laughed.

‘Buckle up,’ Rebecca said. She
started the engine and slowly drove out of the hospital parking lot. Soon, a
month and a half of Jared’s life disappeared in the distance behind them.

The rest of the drive was spent in
silence. Jared stared out the window in absentminded thought. Clothing and
convenient stores passed by at a lazy pace and to Jared they looked like
monsters pretending to be asleep, ready to gulp up an unwary pedestrian. The
thought of a sleeping monster triggered an image in Jared’s mind; a blown-out
store, a burnt-out car. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the image was
gone. Rebecca said something about lunch, but Jared missed it. His attention
was focused on rooftops of the various buildings sailing by. On the roof of
each building stood a row of men, all dressed in white and all powerfully
built. What intrigued him about the men was the fact that they were all looking
directly at him, following him with their eyes.

‘Who are they?’ Jared asked and
pointed at a building not too far off. ‘Who are those men on the roof?’

Rebecca leaned forward, straining to
see who or what he was talking about. ‘What men?’ she asked. ‘Where?’

‘Can’t you see them?’

Rebecca looked again. ‘I don’t think
so, no...’

Jared closed his eyes and opened
them again. The men were still there, looking at him. Rebecca stopped the car
at a red traffic light and craned her neck again, trying to see who Jared was
talking about. A sudden face in the window next to Jared made him jump. The
person’s face was mostly covered by a black hood, but what parts of the face
Jared could see appeared burned and scarred. Jared blinked. The figure was still
there. The disfigured man grinned at Jared, exposing rotten and missing teeth
while a forked tongue slithered in and out. Jared looked away and clutched at
his safety belt.
Go away!
his mind screamed.
Leave me alone!

‘What’s going on, Jared?’ Rebecca
asked as the car pulled away. ‘What’s bothering you?’

‘Nothing.’ He clenched his eyes like
a frightened little boy. ‘I’m tired, that’s all.’

‘We’re almost there,’ Rebecca said
and placed her hand gently on his. ‘Get some rest. I’ll wake you when we get
there.’ Jared merely nodded without opening his eyes again.

It was just over five minutes before
Rebecca brought the car to a stop and cut the engine. She lightly touched
Jared’s shoulder and waited until he slowly opened his eyes. ‘We’re here,’ she
said.

Jared unclipped the seat belt and
looked around. ‘Where are we?’ he asked when he realised that he didn’t
recognize any of his surroundings.

‘I’ve rented an apartment for you,’
she said. ‘Just for the next week or two until we leave Kelwick.’

‘You didn’t have to do that...’

She merely smiled, ignoring his
feeble protest. ‘There’s a rented car in the basement parking lot. The key is
on top of the microwave.’

For a long moment Jared didn’t say
anything. When he did speak again, his voice was soft and coarse. ‘Where did
you get the money for all this?’

‘It’s not much,’ she said. ‘I
managed to save most of what you sent us.’

‘That wasn’t the idea,’ Jared said.
‘You were supposed to spend it on yourselves.’

Rebecca leaned over and kissed her
son on the forehead. ‘It’s not much,’ she repeated. She rummaged through the
glove compartment and took out a pair of keys and handed it to him. ‘This is to
get into the apartment,’ she said. ‘There should be enough food in the fridge
to keep you going until the weekend. We’ll go buy some more groceries then.’

Jared merely stared at the keys
without saying a word.

‘I didn’t sit around doing nothing
for over a month, you know?’ she said. ‘Now let’s get you upstairs and in bed
so that you can rest your weary bones.’

Jared got out of the car and
unloaded only one of the suitcases. He walked to her window and waited until it
was fully opened. ‘I only need the clothes for now,’ he said. ‘You can keep the
other case in the car until later.’

Rebecca frowned. ‘It’ll be no
problem to help carry your luggage.’

‘No thanks.’ Jared shook his head.
‘You’ve done more than enough for me already.’

‘Nonsense,’ Rebecca said and got out
of the car. ‘You’ll never manage that suitcase in your condition. Here, let me
help.’

Jared merely shrugged and stood aside,
allowing his mother the space she needed.

‘Now,’ she said. ‘Let’s get you
upstairs.’

As they approached the building,
Jared scanned his eyes across the rooftops, making sure that whoever was
watching him earlier was now gone. So far, so good.

After what felt like forever to
Jared, the old elevator reached ground floor. The doors opened slowly, like a
huge dinosaur lazily opening its mouth. Rebecca pulled the gate aside and the
two entered the mouth of the beast.

‘What floor?’ Jared asked as Rebecca
closed the gate again.

‘Second,’ she said. ‘You’re staying
in number two-oh-six.’