Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

The stretcher sped through the white corridors almost knocking me to the floor. I rushed after it as Maria’s screams filled the air, they were worse than they had been, for the ten hour flight to Paris she had screamed on and off. Now they were the last desperate cries for help, screams of someone who knew they were dying.

I was glad that she sped by at such speed, I saw her exposed leg briefly flash in a blur across my eyes, it was dark purple, an infection had spread. I ran after her as the two nurses pounded their feet on the white lino. It was a typical hospital corridor, but it seemed never ending as the wheels of the stretcher threatened to break off from the speed they were going. The screams only rang out louder though, the further Maria got from me.

Even though it was the middle of the day all the overhead lamps were on and no natural light shone into the building, the heat was causing sweat to fall into my eyes. I heard no footsteps behind me, I saw no one following me, I only knew I had to get to Maria, she was going to die, and it was partly my fault. I should’ve taken her to hospital from the moment we saw her.

Finally the corridor ended, and I crashed against the door just a moment too late. It was slammed in my face and I pounded my fists on it, they didn’t know what had happened to her, I had to tell them. I saw Maria’s strained skeletal face and watched the doctors pulling on surgical masks. Then I saw a heavy circular saw, my dad had one in his shed, it revved like a motorbike as Maria screamed and the blind was pulled over the glass partition. I could see no more.

A hand on my shoulder made me leap out of my skin. I turned still breathing heavily to see a doctor with a smiling jovial face. He had the look of a friendly uncle or a family friend, but not in a creepy way, his blue eyes twinkled happily behind his glasses and the hand on my shoulder felt reassuring. This irritated me, there was a young girl’s life at stake and he looked so utterly calm and relaxed.

‘You have to stop them,’ I wheezed, I was still out of breath, ‘whatever they’re doing in there.’

He smiled calmly, ‘it’s okay,’ he said softly, his accent was smooth and educated.

‘It’s not okay,’ I insisted, refusing to be kept quiet, ‘they don’t know what happened to her, they going to kill her.’ I was aware of my wild waving arms and how white and crazy my face must’ve looked.

He smiled wider, as if at a private joke. He took a firm grip on my shoulder and pulled me around to face the empty corridor. I imagined he was in his early fifties, almost as tall as me, but much stronger. ‘Where do you think everyone is?’ he asked, in that same soft voice full of understanding.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I shot back.

‘How many Hospitals do you know that are this empty on the middle of the day?’ he said, ’they know exactly what they’re doing, this isn’t a normal hospital.’

I heard that monstrous electric saw start up again and I tuned back to the door as I heard Maria’s sickening screams. ‘No!’ I shouted weakly, bashing my hands against the glass.

The doctor’s hand grasped my shoulder, a little too firmly, and pulled. My palm mashed against the glass for the last time before he prized me away. The terror gripped me as I fought against him, the screams died to soft gurgles, but the roar of that saw still carried on. I heard surgical instruments being dropped with metallic crashes.

‘Please come away,’ he said softly, his voice was warm and understanding, but I hated him. I felt the beginnings of tears forming in my eyes, this was another person lost in this whole bloody mess, a young girl whose life had barely begun.

‘She’s going to die?’ I said, my voice thick and choked.

‘Maybe not,’ the doctor said grimly, ‘but she’ll lose her leg for sure.’

‘The poison,’ I managed to say, ‘she was poisoned, they need to know.’

‘They already know,’ the doctor smiled sadly. It was the controlled and rehearsed smile of someone who was used to death. ‘There is nothing they can do, she may live yet, but some would rather die.’

‘She’s going to become one of them?’ My voice shuddered in the middle, I didn’t want to say these things, I didn’t want to believe these things.

The doctor shuffled a little awkwardly, ‘not exactly,’ he said, ‘if she lives she’ll be neither one of them or one of us. The timing is too important, and this was all wrong.’ He shook his head in disgust, ‘this was the result of someone’s evil science experiment.’

‘Alex,’ I whispered under my breath, then I was hit with a new panic. ‘I don’t think he’s really dead,’ I gushed.

The doctor nodded gently, ‘we’re handling it,’ he said.

I stared around me, a cockroach scuttling across the floor would’ve sounded like a stampede of rhino, it was that quiet. I only then registered what the doctor had said about the empty hospital. ‘Where’s Lisa?’

‘She’s being questioned,’ he said.

‘But you know we had nothing to do with this,’ I said, anger creeping into my voice.

‘We know,’ he said, ‘but we just want to get a grip of the situation, and how you two know so much.’

‘You should be trying to save Maria!’ I shouted, ‘what we know isn’t important.’

‘I can assure you that Maria is getting the best possible care,’ there was impatience sliding through his words like slow moving dark clouds.

‘But what about Alex?’ I shot back angrily, ‘how much time are you wasting on us while he’s still alive?’

‘Alexander Donnely is detained, you can trust me in that.’

‘Detained is not enough,’ I snapped back, ‘I saw him getting shot in the head, and somehow I know he’s still alive,’ there was a shudder in my voice again, it was becoming familiar every time I had to speak about things which defied everything I believed.

‘We know how to handle Alex,’ he went on, ‘please believe me.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ I spat back. ‘You haven’t even told me your name.’

‘Dr Stewart,’ he said without hesitation, ‘Peter. I’ll be happy to answer any questions, it doesn’t matter how you found out about us, I’m guessing your world feels a little like it’s unravelling.’

I ignored his last few words, I didn’t want him to know he was right, ‘what is this place?’

‘It’s a rehabilitation centre,’ he said straight faced.

‘I know that’s a lie,’ I said rubbing my face in my hands, Maria’s screams still echoing in my head. ‘Stop bullshitting me and tell me where I am.’

‘A rehabilitation centre,’ he repeated, ‘our aim is to integrate these people back into society.’

I realised for one awful hopeless moment that he was telling the truth, ‘you’re going to let a monster like Alex back into society?’

‘Not immediately,’ Doctor Steward said patiently, ‘please, let me show you the monster, and maybe you’ll understand better.’

‘Maria,’ I muttered at my feet, knowing there was nothing I could do to save her but trying feebly to imagine there still was.

Doctor Stewart shook his head sadly and motioned for me to come away, I stole a glance back at the door. There was no movement or sound at all now, the chaos was all over as if it had never happened. I couldn’t even hear machines or voices, just deathly silence.

As we walked through the corridor I peered curiously into some of the rooms. Every door had a glass partition fitted into the white wood, Inside each room we passed I caught glimpses of the same smooth white boxes, like the storage units fitted to car roof racks, rounded and shinny plastic.

I was led into a new corridor with only one room sprouting from it, everything was just as white as the previous corridor, and the lights burned as brightly, the floors were spotlessly shimmering.

Doctor Stewart open the door and motioned me inside, it was a small windowless room without any decoration. On the floor rested one of those big white boxes I had seen passing through the corridors, the lid of the box was slightly open and there were tubes trailing along the floor attached to a drip on a highly polished chrome stand. The liquid in he drip was murky white.

Doctor Steward lifted the lid of the box. There was a boy sleeping inside, snoring softly with his mouth slightly open. He looked like he was in his early twenties, but he was younger than me, about twenty-one maybe. He had long light brown hair spread out over his shoulders and was sleeping with his arms sprawled over his bare chest, dressed only in faded jeans which were torn and patched.

‘Will he wake up?’ I asked in a whisper.

‘No,’ Doctor Steward pointed to the drip feeding the liquid through the tube into the young man’s arm. ‘A strong garlic solution,’ he explained, ‘he’ll be out for as long as we need him to be.’

‘A garlic solution?’ My head was spinning.

Doctor steward nodded calmly as if this were the most natural thing in the world. ‘He doesn’t look too dangerous does he?’

I studied the young man carefully; he looked like a student crashed out on a sofa, like he would wake up at any moment for a bacon sandwich and a can of Red Bull in front of daytime TV. He looked perfectly normal and harmless, I shook my head.

‘You always have to remember,’ Doctor Stewart began, ‘Alexander Donnely is someone’s son, someone’s boyfriend maybe. He had a job and friends and a life before all this, he didn’t ask to be what he is.’

‘But Maria,’ I said still whispering even though the doctor wasn’t.

‘Maybe he was evil already,’ Doctor Steward continued, ‘growing up he could’ve been the kind of boy who tortured his neighbour’s pets the way he tortured poor Maria. But just maybe, he’s new, reckless and he doesn’t fully understand yet,’ Doctor Stewart continued, ‘no matter what they’ve done, they’re still human.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ I asked, thinking about the white boxes in the rooms and the lack of daylight, looking at the garlic solution and picturing what this ordinary looking boy did to Robert Thompson.

‘Come with me,’ the Doctor said, ‘I have a lot to explain.’

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sorry for the long wait

Chapter Twenty-Three

I wasn’t too happy about the dark now, it was a stupid superstition, but ever since I heard the ‘V’ word I had been dreading the night. I could’ve kicked myself for being so gullible, these were code words, every company used them. Especially when the company was involved in what Project Forty Five seemed to be. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I was determined to find out.

That’s why I was tiptoeing out of the office, comfortable as the square of floor I had been given to sleep on was. I was armed with only a Spanish phrase book and my own patience, which was short at best. If I could find out more about Alex I might be able to understand exactly what Project Forty Five did, maybe he had confided in Maria.

I couldn’t do what Lisa would, use threats and lies to get the information I wanted, but I could be kind and gentle, maybe try and ease her pain somehow. That disgusting liquid seemed to work for that, I didn’t approve of taking medication that was left on a street corner, but Robert had said they were going to give her proper medical attention when they got to a secure location, I guessed they were taking her to France.

When I approached the van, out of place amongst the beautiful but battered cars. Old though it was, the van hadn’t been built with any of the skill and grace of the American cars. It stood out under the dim street, ugly and boring. Across the way a restaurant’s peeling paint glittered and the cobbled streets almost looked wet with the starlight, I looked up and saw a giant moon. I sighed as I shivered, trying to chase the childish thoughts from my mind, picturing all the things I had seen like a horror moving playing only in my head.

A long glance all around me, staring deep into the alleys jutting off from this road, before I slid the key into the lock and turned it as quietly as I could.

Robert really shouldn’t have kept the key with the van’s logo on it, it was a giveaway and a stupid mistake for such a secretive organisation. Lisa had taught me how to take things from under people’s noses without them even noticing, of all the things she had been in her past life, apparently pick-pocket was another one of them. I felt a little stab of guilt thinking of Lisa, I had gained some of my humanity back since the meeting with Robert. I had decided that maybe I did care about her, just a small bit.

Instead of throwing the door open I slid it back slowly, trying to create as little noise as possible, I glanced out every so often onto the dark streets, just to check. There were no screams from behind the doors, which meant two things, either she had been given a dosage of that liquid, whatever is was, or she had been moved. I thought the second unlikely given the secrecy and how her stretcher was bolted to the van. At least that meant she would be lucid, even if the van did stink.

Of course it was pitch black inside as I crawled in, but I wanted to wait until I was sure there was no one else around before I used my torch, even the tiniest light would show through the cracks in the door. The van didn’t smell at all, well, it smelt faintly of damp, but not of open drains stuffed with week old food. I wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or not.

My right foot stuck to the floor as I moved in my crouched position, ‘Maria,’ I called out softly. There was no answer.

The floor was wet, I could feel something soaking into my trousers where I was kneeling. I started to feel a cold panic slide over me, something wasn’t right here. There was one thing I knew for sure, Maria wasn’t here. There was so smell, no screams, and for some reason I felt alone. I reached a hand down to steady myself and I felt something squelch under my fingers. It felt like a soft mushroom, or soggy bread, it was warm.

My heart jumped into my chest, I snatched my hand away from the floor and wobbled trying to balance on my toes. I didn’t want to do it, because I already knew what I would see, but that horrible dark curiosity took over me and even though I should’ve been running in the opposite direction I didn’t, I took out my torch.

I instantly regretted it. I shone my torch up the walls of the van, they were smeared with blood. The whole floor had been flooded with blood and it dripped steadily from the roof, there didn’t seem an inch not covered. I shone the light on my hand, the golden beam glistened over the deep red, too red, almost purple. I looked to my left and saw what I had put my hand into.

It was a human chest, or what was left of a human chest. The ribcage had been punched in, shards of bone lay scattered over the floor, floating in the dark puddles. I shone the torch over the rest of the body with a shivering hand.

Robert Thompson’s face was frozen in shock, his mouth hung open and his eyes were wide and staring, dried blood stuck to his moustache. My hand was shaking so much everything I saw came through in hazy shapes. I swung the torch as I began to feel dizzy from the blood, through the funnel of light with its undefined edges I saw the stretcher, Maria was gone. But in her place there was a leg, blood dripped steadily onto the floor. I swung the torch back to the body, the flesh under Robert’s knees was torn, there were teeth marks in the skin.

I found myself hyperventilating and staring at my bloodied hands with eyes that were hurting as they strained in their sockets. The torch shone on Robert Thompson’s open chest and I felt my mouth fill with bile. I leaned into the bloody river and vomited, the stinging in my throat was strangely real and reassuring. It almost controlled my shaking.

I took a moment crouching in all this filth and death to slow my breathing. I closed my eyes and turned off the torch, regulating those deep rasps. Just as I was pulling myself together a flash ran through my mind, a mouth dripping blood in a deep snarl. I snapped my eyes open and my knees wobbled. I held the torch close to my body and tried to calm down. As I held the reassuring light against my chest I realised that I didn’t really know what could be crouched in the darker corners of the van, had I shone the torch over everything?

The sense of helpless stillness passed me over at that thought and I immediately turned to the door. I started to claw at the edges of the van. I felt drops of blood on my neck as I saw Robert Thompson’s beaurocratic sneer, his giant moustache twitching, his chest ripped open.

I fell head first onto the hard pavement, gasping for air as the concrete scraped along my cheek leaving a ragged scrape. In the darkness I saw my jeans blackened with blood, already beginning to dry. I bent close to the wheel and tried to hold back another stream of vomit.

Footsteps were approaching and from somewhere close and I held myself low, keeping against the side of the van. There were more than one set, more than two. All wore heavy-duty boots bashing furiously against the pavement like an army marching. The street was deserted apart from me and that old brass statue still mocking me, the steps echoed out like thunder.

There were four men, and they were dragging someone with them. The person they were dragging was screaming and twisting against the strong hands that held both her arms firmly. She was wriggling like a worm on the hook and speaking in a sharp pleading voice. Each man looked unimpressed and blank, all four wearing a grey suit embroidered with the same garlic symbol. Behind the marching group car lights shone brightly over the scene as a slow moving four by four crept behind them like a monster.

The woman was Lisa. My first feeling was annoyance, she had found me again somehow. But as they got closer I saw how scared her eyes were and how hard she was straining against the men dragging her. I grew some sympathy for her, after all Robert Thompson had spoken about her as if she were a large threat, and I knew she didn’t have anything to do with this mess except for Angelica’s sake.

I still didn’t move to help her, even though that twinge of sympathy was worsening. The car behind them came to a slow stop that somehow made me shiver, I thought it was the way the headlights flashed like eyes. Lisa saw the blood on the pavement and in the heavy glow her eyes looked like a wild frightened animal, darting around, wide and thickly veined. I had never seen her so utterly devoid of control in a situation.

I stayed crouched close to the ground, pressed into the van’s side. I hardly dared to breathe, anything which could scare Lisa that much was not something I could confront easily. She was still kicking out, her legs flailing in every direction. The men had glazed expressions, they weren’t answering her shouted questions or responding to her in anyway, they just kept dragging her

The doors of the van were thrown wide open. The blood spilled onto the pavement in a dull splash, trickles of it crept into my hiding place as I shifted my hands away. Lisa screamed, a desperate, hollow sound. The men spoke then, they shouted in coarse and guttural French, making hard vowels on every word.

One man’s voice sounded out louder and fiercer than all the others. Lisa pleaded with him but none of the men paid her any attention. Heavy hands pushed Lisa to her knees and she screamed again. Now was time to do something, ideally, I should’ve done something the moment I saw her, I should’ve charged in and saved her. But I hadn’t, and no matter what I thought about her, she had never lead me intentionally into danger.

When I finally sprang to my feet the man were shoving Lisa’s face close to the blood. I saw Robert Thompson in the full glare of the headlights, ripped apart and mutilated. The blood on the van’s sides had dried to the consistency of treacle and was slowly oozing down the grey metal.

‘Hey,’ I shouted lamely, uncertainly. The four men all turned to face me in what seemed like one singular movement. The lights almost blinded me and I swayed weakly on the spot, also experiencing a head rush. A narrow pistol was pointed at my chest and I realised I couldn’t be the hero, there were four of them and they seemed heartless. The blood pounded past my ears.

‘Fucking P.V.R,’ he spat at my feet. He spoke like a dirty chimney clogged with ash, his deep accent was so thick and buried in tar. He lit another cigarette as one of the four men clicked open the four by four’s expansive boot.

‘This is your fucking God.’ The body bag hit the floor with a heavy smack.

* * *

Of course they found us in the end. We ran, I can assure you we ran until our feet were bloody, but they found us, and they dragged us right back. Lisa didn’t know what she was running from, and I think her need for answers made her cave in without a fight in the end. She would sit on that plane with gritted teeth. a corpse by her feet and a teenager screaming in pain were mere inconveniences to her if they meant that somewhere in this whole unhappy mess she would find the truth.

The only truth I was interested in was the mind numbing shock of what Angelica’s slow smile could still do to me, even in the body of another girl. So when she smiled and squeezed my hand I was helpless too, but I hated myself for it.

Chapter Twenty-Two

There were two new chapters added this weekend incase you missed the first one!

Chapter Twenty-Two

How many times could you blackout without causing yourself serious brain damage? That was the only thought I had when I opened my eyes for the second time that day, and once again having no idea what I would see around me.

They had moved me, I was no longer in that cramped van that smelt like an open toilet. I was sitting up, and the air smelt vaguely of lemon, the sort of sterile bleach lemon smell I associate with the school nurses office.

My legs were numb, and I panicked for a moment that they had paralysed me when they moved me, but I felt that familiar painful tingling sensation, pins and needles, nothing more serious. My head was still throbbing with pain through, and the bright lights I had awaked to were stinging me, I viewed the room through half closed eyes to avoid looking directly at them.

It looked like a lawyer’s office. There was a cheese plant in one corner of the room, on a thick grey carpet, an oak desk lay out in front of me, and the chair I was sitting in was a spinning brown padded office chair. There was a large stack of papers on the desk and big open windows behind it. I saw the tourist district of Havana through the window, with expensive shops and bars.

Behind the desk sat a man with a receding hairline and rimless glasses, he couldn’t have been older than forty, but his eyes were sagging and tinged with red. His suit was a badly crumpled, thick creases ran through a symbol I recognised, a clove of garlic in silver thread

The man had his hands folded together on the desk, and was looking at me with patience, yet he still looked angry, as if he had better things to do, but this was a welcome distraction for him anyway. As everything slid into focus, I heard the familiar office sounds in the background, a photocopier started up and casual laughter rang through the room.

As soon as I had opened my eyes fully the man in front of me opened his mouth.

‘Good afternoon Lawrence, may I call you Lawrence?’

I was so happy to hear his Brummie accent that I didn’t care how he knew my name, I didn’t care where I was. His voice was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.

‘My name is Thompson, but you can call me Robert,’ He extended his hand for me to shake, I didn’t take it, only because I still wasn’t moving and functioning properly. I wondered if I were still dreaming, if I was still passed out on the street. The only move I made was to pinch myself, which I almost managed, though my arm felt like lead.

Robert Thompson laughed at me, ‘No,’ he said, ‘I can assure you, you are fully awake. It may take you some time to recover though, you’ve been moving a little too much after receiving your head injury.’

‘Where am I?’ I asked, even my voice was heavy, my tongue felt like a dead slab of meat in my mouth.

‘A local law firm has kindly given us use of this office, just for the moment.’ Robert said, he smiled at me and I wondered how he had much a large bald patch on his head when his impressive moustache seemed like it would take an army to budge. The hair on his head hung down like a shower curtain in one of those circular booths.

‘Now,’ Robert went on, he picked up some papers from the desk and shuffled them, looking official. ‘I am the British representative for Project forty five, so, technically I’m in charge of you.’

I sat up like I had a cannon under my seat. ‘Project forty five?’

‘Yes,’ he said briskly, ‘I can tell you it’s going to take a lot of work to get you cleared this time. Our European associates have had just about enough of the P.V.R this time.’

‘P.V.R?’

He ignored me. ‘Do you have any idea the damage you caused to yet another major investigation? That girl’s life is in danger because of you.’ He shook his head heavily and sighed, ‘with fresh V.B there’s a change she could’ve survived, at least until rehabilitation.’

‘What the fuck are you on about?’ I asked angrily, I had only just found someone who spoke my language, but Robert Thompson might as well have been speaking ancient Greek at me.

‘Here’s one thing you will understand,’ Robert said, he didn’t even flinch when I swore, he really was from the midlands, and he was in Cuba. If I wasn’t so confused I would’ve been laughing. ‘Where is Lisa Taylor?’

‘I don’t know,’ I answered honestly. For all I knew, she could be in Mexico.

Robert sighed, ‘I understand your situation,’ he said. ‘For you, things aren’t so bad, catch the next flight back to England and we’ll never bother you again, providing you never interfere with another investigation. For Lisa, things don’t look too good.’

‘I don’t know where she is,’ I repeated. ‘And I don’t care.’ I shrugged and looked away from him, at the moment it really was how I felt, I didn’t know why things weren’t okay for her, but whatever happened it was probably less than she deserved.

Robert laughed, the sound made me cringe, it was so joyless and official. ‘We know all about Lisa’s past, after Afghanistan, I imagine she’s some kind of poster girl for the P.V.R.’

‘You have the wrong woman,’ I said. ‘Lisa has never been to Afghanistan, and I have no idea what The P.V.R is.’

He laughed again, I heard the photocopier crashing in the office behind me, a microwave beeped angrily. ‘Don’t be so cocky with me, we know about your little visit to Jarl Hansson.’

‘How?’ My voice crocked.

‘Lisa Taylor isn’t as talented with a computer as she’d like to think,’ Robert snorted, I was starting to dislike this stuffy little man more every second. When he stood up I would’ve bet his head didn’t reach my chin. ‘When you dig around in Government files, you leave a trace, and that makes you very easy to find.’

Flashes started to run through my mind, everything Lisa had done, all the police files she had shown me, all the times she lied to get what she wanted. There was every chance she had lied to me about everything, she was so good at it I didn’t really know who she was at all. I felt so stupid, I had travelled halfway across the world with her. Maybe Robert Thompson was right, maybe she was involved in this P.V.R, whatever it was.

‘You have to understand something,’ I told Robert, my voice still heavy and coming out with a rasping tone following each word. ‘Lisa Taylor is dangerous, she’s prepared to do anything to get what she wants.’

He smiled, ‘Alexander Donelly is very dangerous too,’ he said in a mocking voice.

‘Alex,’ I said softly, Lisa would give her right arm to hear the name I had just heard. ‘Who is he?’

‘The P.V.R would like to imagine that he’s some scared, lost boy,’ Robert turned his chair to face the window, as he looked out over the city, the sun sparkled from his bald head. ‘But he is a criminal. You know as well as I do that Criminals have to be apprehended, he has to be arrested and taken to rehabilitation before he can hurt anyone else.’

‘Rehabilitation?’

‘You and all others like you seem convinced we want to do away with these people, kill the, sweep them under the rug,’ Robert sighed, ‘all we want is to help them.’

‘Where is this rehabilitation centre?’

Robert smiled smugly, ‘You know I would never reveal the location to anyone from your organisation.’

A sound like a key opening a lock played in my mind, ‘France,’ I whispered under my breath. I couldn’t help but smile to myself, ‘an exclusive rehab centre in France,’ how many times had I heard those words over the last few months?

‘Lets pretend I didn’t know anything about this,’ I tried another angle, ‘and I asked what the P.V.R was, what would you tell me?’

Robert got up from his chair and peered into the office, convinced that no one was listening, he turned back to me with a sneer on the thin lips below his gigantic moustache, ‘people for Vampire rights, of course.’

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

I saw the grey concrete spread out before me, it seemed an endless mass, as if someone had paved over the ocean. I forgot where I was and panicked for a moment, I wondered what had happened to my flat and my comfortable life.

It wasn’t until I started to struggle that my chest pushed into the ground. I wasn’t looking at a world of grey, I was just facing the floor. I heard heavy voices speaking near me and remembered everything, Lisa, being chased, the blow to the head and blacking out. I stayed very still even though the angle I was laying in made it painful to breath quietly.

The people I heard spoke in French, in thick guttural accents. I turned my head as much as I dared and I saw the wheels of an old van resting against the pavement. I saw smart shoes coming from a grey suit, almost the same colour as the ground. Then I heard a scream.

I recognised the scream the instant it began, though it was soon muffled out by the French voices. What I had witnessed in that small apartment would stay with me for a long time, and Maria’s desperate, pained cry was all too familiar. I almost tried to get onto my feet when I heard it, but I held the illusion that I was still knocked out. I didn’t know who these people were or what they wanted, it was safer to let them pass by if they were going to do so.

It didn’t last for long, I was pushing my face into the concrete to make my breathing less obvious and trying to keep still but maybe something twitched or maybe my act had worked but I was just in the wrong place.

Rough hands grabbed my forearms and hoisted me upwards. The monk statue was still glaring at me, the steel pushing into view with my rude awakening. I couldn’t understand anything the men were saying, were they asking me questions? My head still throbbed painfully and their frustrating, rapid speech wasn’t helping.

Heavy fingers dug into me as I was pulled onto my feet. When they let go I felt myself stumbling forwards again. The black spots refused to leave my eyes and I was shaking and wobbling on my. They were still talking, either at me or at each other, but their faces were so blurred I had no idea. One thing that was clear was the emblem on their grey suits, a simple glove of garlic embroidered with silver thread.

I was pushed roughly, all the time with the hoarse French voices barking at me. I tried to tell them that I didn’t understand, but my weak voice was drowned out, my head was throbbing so badly that I thought I was going to pass out again. I closed my eyes for just a second and my head rolled onto my chest, I collapsed forward but was bought crashing back to consciousness by being yanked up again.

The doors of a white van slid open in front of me, the same van I had seen from my waking view of the pavement. I should’ve fought back, but I could still barely stand, and my vision was only just getting back to normal, the black spots were still invading. Before I could do anything, or say anything that might be heard, I was pushed head first into the van. The door crashed loudly behind me and I was locked inside. I tried weakly beating my fists on the doors but they made no impression. Any type of physical activity made me feel dizzy.

Behind me there was a stretcher, it was bolted to the floor, and there was someone lying in it, I could hear their breathing. A drip was feeding blood through a narrow tube, and I realised how much the van stank of raw sewage and rotting food. I pressed my hand to my mouth.

Maria was tied to the bed with leather straps, but she looked serene and comfortable at the moment. Her face was so pale it was hard to make out any features I looked at the drip and then at her calm face, it was the same look she had in the cramped apartment after drinking from that cup. Somehow this was worse than the screaming.

I approached her carefully, moving along the floor on my knees, the van shook a little with me. I imagined she must’ve been pretty before all of this, her eyes were hollow and staring, her cheekbones corpse like. While I was revisiting my memories I made a connection, like it was always waiting in my mind and I had been too stupid to see it before.

‘Do you speak English?’ I asked. I wasn’t sure how much sense I would get out of her but I had to try.

She nodded, it was hard to see in the half light provided only by the crack in the van’s doors. ‘Little,’ she said in a voice that was so soft I wasn’t sure if it was just a breath that sounded like words.

‘You have to help me,’ she looked back blankly. I tried another tactic, ‘Alex,’ I said, and her eyes widened. I pointed to the bump on my head, hopefully she could see it, ‘I think Alex did this.’ I think she understood me this time, there was a brief rationality on her wasted face.

‘Did Alex touch you?’ I asked, she stared at me with glazed eyes. ‘Alex,’ I repeated, and I touch her arm. She screamed and I snatched my hand away. I made a sympathetic face while I waited for her to stop screaming, I hoped the shushing noise was universal.

‘When Alex,’ I made the motion of touching her again but I was wiser this time. ‘Did it feel like, everything was okay? There was no pain?’ I was really clutching at straws, she didn’t understand a word of what I’d said. I only saw Teresa in my mind, and I remembered what I had felt lying in the pavement.

‘Do you know where Alex is?’ I asked hopefully, I felt that she was overestimating when she said she knew a little English. I did what any Brit on holiday does, I shouted. ‘WHERE IS ALEX?’

That didn’t help at all, I frightened her as she flinched at my voice. ‘Alex,’ she said softly, pleadingly, at least she understood that word. I put my head in my hands. I almost wished Lisa was with me, then I remembered, I needed to warn Maria about Lisa. She would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, I knew that now, and Maria’s knowledge about Alex put her at risk. That’s if the poor girl made it through the night, every time she spoke a hollow rasping sound followed her words.

‘No baby,’ she said. This time I was the one who stared at her in blank incomprehension.

‘No baby,’ she said again. She pointed with her withered hand at her stomach. ‘No baby.’

‘You’re not pregnant,’ I clicked, ‘but why did you tell your family you were?’

It was useless, of course, why did I keep talking? ‘No baby,’ she repeated one more time.

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ I snapped angrily.

‘I being born.’ She whispered. I didn’t get a chance to respond to this because I heard something from outside that bought relief crashing through me. An English accent, only an Englishman could butcher the French language like that.

I moved as quickly as I could in my crouched position to the van’s doors and banged loudly. ‘I need to speak to you!’ I shouted hoarsely through the gap. I had moved too fast though, and my head started swimming again. I fell forward and bashed against the metal with a harsh scrape, the black spots returned to my eyes as I tumbled over.

Chapter Twenty

New project 45 promotional video is up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us3CDpI-iQM

Chapter Twenty

As I felt something like death’s icy breath brush my skin I had an experience halfway between a memory and a dream.

It had happened, I know it had because I could remember it in every day life, sometimes it crept into my head all on it’s own. That warm had that had relieved me of my pain for a few short moments was the trigger, for that weightless second she was there again and it was as though the two years since had never happened.

I knew in my deeper thoughts that I was still face down on the pavement, but there was still this image of Teresa that pushed though. She wasn’t exactly as I knew her, time had smoothed out all her flaws so that she appeared a beautiful ethereal Goddess.

I only ever had one night with her, and it was my only one night stand. Trust me, I’m not the type of man who goes to bars in the hope of sleeping with someone. That’s mostly because I know I never have a chance of sleeping with anyone, I don’t make a first good impression, and I’ve tried letting my personality win over my physical flaws, but it’s never worked.

When they bought in the smoking ban, instead of the heady and toxic smell of ash that hits the back of your throat, all you smell at a club is people. Sweat and dirt and the stench of a hundred bodies rubbing together, I imagine that’s what an orgy smells like. I was waiting for my friends to finish their drinking and dancing, sitting in an empty corner of the bar. It was late so the only people left on the seats were kissing couples and those few who actually made a connection and were shouting into each other’s ears.

There were more men like me occupying the empty tables near me, though instead of being fed up with the atmosphere and the smell, they were nursing their last drink of the night and thinking of that girl they almost kissed.

I wish I could say she drifted in like a dream, but my table was situated uncomfortably close to the bathroom, and she stumbled through the door and crashed right into my table. My beer wobbled pathetically and then rolled onto its side, she jumped out of the way but my trousers got the full hit, the worst part of the trousers too. I stood up surveying the damage helplessly.

She looked mortified. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she shouted over the din of music.

I ignored her, angry that my awful night had ended in embarrassment. I used a few paper napkins to dab some of the beer off, but there was little visible effect.

I saw her hand move to the one remaining napkin on the table. ‘Let me help,’ she screamed in my ear.

‘No,’ I immediately shouted back, I didn’t want some random drunk girl to be that close to my private area.

‘Can I at least buy you another one?’ She shouted.

‘The bar is about to shut,’ I said.

‘What?’

‘The bar is about to shut,’ I screamed. I hoped that would get rid of her, there were no other pleasantries to exchange. My new plan was to get a cab straight home, I could phone one of my friends in the morning. I didn’t think they would miss me anyway, there was no chance I would be invited out again after being such a let down tonight.

‘Can I please buy you a drink?’ She said, she seemed to be talking softer, but I heard every word. ‘They’re not closed yet.’

I looked at her for the first time, really looked passed the drunk girl at a club. She had dark blonde hair that was pulled up tightly, the ponytail streamed over her shoulder, over some bright spangled top hung with silver sequins. She was attractive, very attractive, she had big rose bud lips and pale blue eyes which glittered in the dull light and the reflection from her clothes.

‘Why the hell not,’ I forced a smile. She was out of my league, I didn’t expect anything to happen, but the idea of walking through the club with suspicious stains on my trousers filled me with a sudden dread.

She returned with two bottles of beer, when she clinked hers on mine a little froth landed on my shirt. She grimaced apologetically and I shrugged.

‘You don’t belong here,’ she smiled.

‘How could you tell?’ I shouted back. As I finished my sentence the lights flared up and the music stopped, the dim light was replaced by a blinding neon glow. I squinted as I heard drunken cries from below, some still singing along to the last song. The great hurricane of feet making their way down the stairs was intercut with the loud boom of the bouncers barking orders at the crowd.

She made no attempt to move, no one asked us to leave. Then I felt an unexplained shiver run down my spine, the bar had definitely been closed. She just smiled at me and sipped her beer.

‘Finally we can talk,’ she said.

‘I think someone’s going to kick us out,’ I said looking about nervously.

She shook her head and continued to smile.

‘What about my friends,’ I ventured, ‘they’re going to worry about where I am.’ I was starting to feel uncomfortable. She didn’t look drunk at all, and I could feel all the beer I’d had swirling in my stomach.

‘They don’t care,’ she said. ‘You spent all night avoiding them.’

‘How did you know that?’

She fixed her pale eyes on mine and I felt that shiver ripple through me again. ‘Lawrence,’ she said calmly in a half whisper, ‘come home with me.’

‘Okay.’ I didn’t even ask how she knew my name, my head was clear of all doubt.

The streets were deserted as we hit the cold air. The club had only just closed, there should’ve been a queue outside the kebab shop, there should’ve been a crowd still fighting over taxis. There was no one, and I could see the sun trying to force its way out of the darkness.

‘I’m Teresa,’ I had been about to ask her name but the words hadn’t come yet. I didn’t question it, she had her arm around me.

I don’t remember the journey back to hers, I strain my mind but I can’t grasp any details. When I think about that night I think about the cold air and the deserted street. I think about her eyes glittering and her sweet full lipped smile, but that’s all I can hold onto.

She took me up a narrow stairway into a room with red draped everywhere. There were red curtains tumbling too long and spilling onto the floor, a red bedspread and a deep plumb red colour on the walls. She kissed me in this red room, her lips were sweet under the faint tang of the beer she had just drunk and she placed her hands on my back and pushed me into her. I’m only a man, of course I reacted to having her body so close.

Not one word had been exchanged between us since she had told me her name, but it didn’t matter as she pulled my shirt off and started to undo my belt. Before I could make sense of the situation we were both naked. I found myself transfixed by her small breasts and the shadow of her ribs. She pulled me to the bed.

‘Wait,’ it felt strange to be speaking, my words felt slurred and clumsy. I found my wallet in my jeans pocket, because every man has one in his wallet, right?

She saw what I was doing and still without speaking she took it out of my hands and shook her head. It was awkward, how did I know she didn’t do this every weekend? She was beautiful and could probably have anyone she wanted, I just wasn’t sure if I wanted them too. I felt my hardness slipping embarrassingly away.

There was a moment when the air seemed to stand still, nothing moved, even the loose strands of her hair didn’t blow in the breeze from the open window. I was scared, blinking wildly, my heart racing. She took my hands in hers and looked into my eyes. She didn’t just look at me, she saw through me, she saw everything that had been and she knew who I was.

I was ready to get my clothes back on and leave, the intensity of her eyes was painful. She placed her hand on the back of my head and that warm touch was enough to destroy all my fear, I saw flashes of blue cross the red walls. She pulled me back onto the bed and kissed me again.

It was as if the room were spinning, all the shades of red blurred together as I found my way inside her. She held my head in her hands and fixed my eyes on hers, she never broke the gaze. Her touch was warm and she made quiet shallow sounds, pulling me into her. I didn’t want to finish, I felt such a clarity, I was cleansing myself of so much. My hopeless life and all my disappointment was absolved in a moment. Maybe this was it, the life changing sex that no one really has.

It was her eyes, I still felt that she knew me and accepted me, and I wasn’t afraid of that anymore, I just let myself drown. But it couldn’t last forever, and I was soon sleeping like a baby as she ran her warm fingers through my hair.

When I woke the next day she was gone. I had to tiptoe out of an empty house with no clue how to get home, and I didn’t have her number. All I had was a name and one night. My legs were shaking as I found my way to a train station, I didn’t think it would get any better than that. I resolved to start living after that night.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Lisa looked at me with smug triumph as Maria gave another scream and shook violently. I would’ve felt foolish but I was holding back the bile at the smell and the disgust at Lisa’s expression. She had found her clue, and that was all she cared about. I supposed, in that moment, that she had been right, coincidences happen. There was a nagging feeling in my gut that this was more than that, someone had led us here.

Anna whispered something over the screams which continued to rattle around me. The bed shook and several bottles on the nightstand tumbled to the floor.

‘What did you mean?’ Lisa hissed, ‘what medicine?’ Since I was unable to speak Spanish, I was left bewildered again.

Vala didn’t say anything to us, she simply nodded and left the room. She returned clutching a beaker with thick dark liquid swirling inside. The horrible smell of decay worsened and I saw Vala visibly pale, the smell was coming from the liquid.

At the return of Vala, the screaming jolting girl stiffened and sat up weakly. Anna placed a hand on her arm and spoke soft words. Maria’s eyes were fixed on the liquid, not the container, they were following its movement. It was placed in Anna’s hands and the old woman bent over Maria, pushing her back onto the covers. She tipped the beaker into her mouth and Maria drank hungrily. Anna had to snatch it away as Maria’s hands reached out weakly for more. There were dark lines running from her mouth, the liquid looked reddish in the light.

The girl slumped back into the covers, quiet and barely moving, but she had a small smile on her face as Anna wiped her mouth.

‘What is that stuff?’ Lisa asked.

‘The only thing which calms her,’ Vala said as she took the beaker back into her hands and screwed up her face at the smell.

‘It’s medicine?’ Lisa’s voice was more forceful, harsher.

Vala hesitated. ‘Not exactly,’ she said, refusing to look into Lisa’s eyes.

‘What is it?’ The kind, patient tone had definitely left her voice.

‘It was left at the door,’ Vala said.

‘You gave Maria something that was left at your door?’ Lisa asked in disbelief.

‘There was a note,’ Vala went on, as though this excused everything, ‘it said that this tonic would help her.’

‘May I see this ‘tonic’ closer?’ Lisa asked.

It was handed over reluctantly. I peered at the liquid and the smell of decay was so forceful that I gulped back vomit. There was a pearly sheen over the surface like rainbows in spilt oil. The smell was like dead fish lining a beach, like spoilt meat and rancid milk. It was almost indescribably horrible, there was nothing else it compared to. I saw a twinge of red at the corners of Maria’s mouth and I felt the vomit rising again.

‘This doesn’t look like any medicine I know of,’ Lisa said in the doctor voice. ‘It’s probably poisoning her.’

‘What choice did we have?’ Vala’s eyes were filling with tears again, ‘we found a doctor, but he wouldn’t help her, he demanded money before he had even seen her, we don’t have anything to give.’ She said the last line apologetically.

‘I don’t think Maria is pregnant,’ Lisa said calmly, ‘I have seen poisons like this before. They give the sufferer some temporary relief, but it is this tonic which is hurting her. Maybe even killing her.’

Vala gasped, ‘she is dying?’

‘Maybe,’ Lisa said.

‘We’re just trying to dull her pain,’ Vala said, her tears making black tracks down her face through the heavy mascara.

‘You have to tell me what project forty five is,’ Lisa said. It came from the blue, I was shocked she had brought it up, she was clearly getting impatient of the situation and the stifling room.

Vala faltered, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said blankly.

‘I know you do,’ Lisa hissed back, all the soft edge evaporated. ‘I heard Anna speak about it.’

Vala threw a furious look at Anna, who was smoothing Maria’s hair back from her serene face. ‘You misheard,’ she shrugged.

‘I don’t think I did,’ Lisa sneered through gritted teeth. ‘Do you want Maria to die?’ Vala shook her head with her eyes on the floor.

‘She will die if you don’t tell me.’

‘Lisa no,’ I grabbed her arm to try and awaken her humanity, if she had any. Then I realised my terrible mistake.

‘I though you said your name was Karen,’ it was too late, Vala’s eyes were narrowed on us. ‘Are you even a doctor?’

The next thing that is really clear was the door being slammed in our faces. I remember there was shouting and pushing from both sides, Lisa’s crazed, determined eyes and Anna’s bewildered cries from across the room. It all happened in a second, Lisa was left shouting and banging on the door.

‘I can help you!’ She screeched while her fists mashed repeatedly against the peeling paint.

‘Give it up,’ I shot back angrily.

‘You idiot!’ She shouted at me, flailing her arms out like a child having a tantrum. ‘Why did you have to blow our cover?’

‘Why did you say you could help her?’ I snapped, ‘why did you say she was dying?’

‘I warned you how far I would go,’ she wagged a finger, ‘I expected you to get the message, but you never do. Nothing seems to penetrate your thick skull.’

I rubbed my face with my hands, glancing out of a window I saw that it was now totally dark. Once again we hadn’t listened to good advice and we were left unprotected in an environment we knew was dangerous. It was even worse this time because I knew what was out there, but I knew what was glaring at me from across the corridor. I would take my chances with the darkness rather than spend another second with that psychopath.

‘I’m going to find a hotel,’ I said blankly, making for the stairs.

‘We should do a little more digging while we can,’ Lisa smoothed down her clothes and followed me. ‘Now that it’s dark we’ll probably have more luck with certain unsavoury times. The kind of scum that comes out at night know a lot about what goes on in a city.’

‘I don’t think you heard me,’ I said as I clenched my fists in my pockets, ‘I’m going to find a hotel, you can do what you want.’

Lisa laughed at me, it was loud and harsh, her laughter hit me like fist and I was ready to abandon her in that moment, to turn my back and never think about her again.

‘Fine,’ she sad through her laughter, ‘you’ll need me again sooner or later.’

There wasn’t any energy left in me to fight with her, I simply stood up and walked away.

Maybe she was right, perhaps I couldn’t cope without someone who could climb walls or lie convincingly. I had never had to cope on my own before, in my job there was always some manager or head of department to take the fall for my mistakes, and now, when for the first time in my life I had needed to survive, I had Lisa to rely on. It was good to walk back down those rickety stairs not knowing the way back to the city centre.

I didn’t hear her following me even as I left the front door, I didn’t know if she had found another way out or if she was just so quiet that I didn’t notice her behind me. There was still a man sitting on the steps smoking a fat cigar, it could even have been the same cigar, I didn’t know how long we had been in the flat for. In that room with that smell and the poor screaming girl, it felt like hours. I shivered thinking of her, and thinking of what that dark liquid looked like.

I It was ten O’clock, not too late, I hesitated before I walked on, did I take my chances with the criminals back in the bright, popular centre or continue on these closed cramped streets. For some reason, the closed in skies comforted me then, it was almost like a protection, these were surely family homes, places where everyone knew each other.

So I continued in the same direction, winding through the small alleys. I thought about the structure of the city, and imagined that eventually I would find the district known for cheap tourist accommodation, old flats too run down to be used for more than a night. I knew it existed and, counting my money, it was all I could afford tonight.

As I walked I had that strange creeping feeling I was being watched. I put it down to the darkness and unfamiliarity of the location before I realised that I couldn’t trust my assumptions anymore, not after everything I had seen. I hid in a doorway and peered around the corner, the closeness of the buildings didn’t help the failing light, and there were no street lamps here. I stared out into the nothingness, squinting hard to find shapes.

My heart caught in my chest as I saw a shape emerging, a half formed shadow pushed through the darkness. Was it a shadow? The edges were blurred, I couldn’t see a human shape, it might have been a dog, but for some reason the sticky night turned cold.

I ran into a demon and screamed. I let out a high pitched squeal and beat my fists into something solid. I heard a harsh metallic clash as my hand smashed into steel, I heard my fingers crushing and snatched my hand back, it was throbbing and loose, hanging limply from my wrist.

It was a statue, a hooded monk, standing over the entrance to a shop. I would’ve laughed if my hand hadn’t hurt so much.

There wasn’t much of a chance to appreciate my safety, there was a rustling like dry leaves and something heavy hit me in the back of the head. I felt warmth as black spots covered my eyes, the warmth spread through me as I fell to my knees. Through closing eyes I saw grey suits legs rushing towards me.

A warm hand clasped my arm, and for a moment I was wide awake, all pain was gone. My fingers didn’t even hurt anymore, I could’ve got up any walked away. The black spots left my eyes and the ground ahead of me was clear. There was another feeling that came with this clear vision, I remembered someone I hadn’t thought of in a long time. That warm hand was like another that had touched me before.

A man’s voice shouted through the night and the warm hand dropped my arm. As all the pain returned I remembered falling on my face in the concrete.

Chapter Eighteen

Please read everything that comes before this or the story won't make sense

Chapter Eighteen

I realised my mouth was hanging wide open as I stared at the determination in her eyes.

‘You don’t think it’s just a bit of a coincidence?’ I tested, being as tactful as I could.

Lisa stared around the corner just to make sure the two women were still in front of us. ‘Sometimes coincidences happen,’ she shrugged.

‘No,’ I shook my head firmly, ‘no they don’t, not like this. The first conversation you happen to overhear and it’s over? You know how ridiculous this all sounds.’

She made yet another shushing movement with her hands and carried on her slow creep, apparently oblivious to the truth.

The sun followed us in pockets down the dark alley and where the shade was deepest it was surprisingly cold. I shivered a little. There were houses here, or they seemed like homes, tiny windows that were too dirty to look in and music cutting into the silence every now and then. It was a dull place, away from the bright colours that drew in the tourists.

‘When I’ve had a feeling about something before,’ Lisa whispered, ‘have I ever been wrong?’

I tried to think of a time when she had been wrong about anything, but I couldn’t. It made me angry to think that someone so together with their head screwed on right would be seduced by a string of familiar words. The road seemed never ending, and it was growing darker by the second, the buildings overhead seemed to close on me like a ceiling.

‘We had a plan,’ I reminded her, ‘buried somewhere, we had a good plan. Talk to the police, find out about local murders, we should be doing that.’

‘Trust me,’ Lisa muttered.

‘I don’t think I can,’ I answered honestly, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing.’

She turned and looked at me, with one eye still firm on the women, ‘it’s not just that,’ she said, ‘it’s not just those words,’ and from the anger in her eyes I thought she would have spoken harsher.

‘So what else have you heard?’

‘Anna, the woman with the cane,’ Lisa whispered, ‘her granddaughter is pregnant, by a man they don’t know called Alex. She’s ill and needs a doctor but she’s only seventeen and it’s shameful, so they can’t go to a doctor they know. When they talk about medical help they keep saying the number forty five.’

‘That could be the doctor’s age,’ I hissed back immediately, ‘it could be his address.’ Lisa sniffed at me as if I were being stupid. ‘You’re dragging us into someone’s family,’ I continued, ‘I don’t want to be involved in this.’

I had spoken too loudly, the woman named Anna turned and looked at me. She stared at me with eyes filled with a blank and empty hopelessness. I wondered how hard life had been for her, how much she had suffered and how much she had seen. I felt guilty for being there, for following her and for listening to her problems. I felt myself blush with embarrassment as she stared.

‘You follow?’ She asked in thickly accented English.

‘You speak English?’ Lisa asked.

‘Little,’ Anna’s eyes were still fixed on mine, the other woman was staring at Lisa with distaste, looking her up and down repeatedly.

‘I couldn’t help overhearing,’ Lisa said, ‘I speak a little Spanish myself and I heard you need a doctor.’

The second woman gasped out loud but Anna continued to stare at me without a change in expression. Though I noticed fresh tears threatening to leak from her eyes,‘ none of business,’ she said, and they turned.

The other woman started hissing angrily in Spanish. ‘You’re right,’ Lisa shouted after them, ‘I am being rude.’ Something harsh sounding was directed at Lisa.

‘But I am a doctor,’ Lisa said, ‘I can help you.’

I tried to hide my own gasp as Anna was still staring at me. I felt colder than I had felt since we had been in Cuba, the sweat still trickling down my forehead felt like ice crystals.

‘You doctor?’ Anna asked suspiciously.

‘Yes,’ Lisa said, more convincingly this time, and she took a step towards the women with a reassuring smile. ‘I won’t ask questions, I just want to help, won’t tell anyone.’

Anna glanced at her companion, who shook her head firmly. I waited for a few agonising moments while Lisa spoke to them in Spanish, eventually the tone of voice got calmer, but everything else grew darker still. Overhead a woman glanced out from her balcony at the scene, she smoked a cigarette and ignored the childish screams from inside the flat.

‘We’re following them,’ Lisa said with something strange shining in her eyes. The look was of insane triumph, unfounded suspicions and leads that wouldn’t really lead anywhere. The pressure in the small alley was so harsh that I felt I was being boiled alive. I became lightheaded as the heat continued to close on me, a headache was forming and I felt unsteady on my feet.

She gave me another insane grin and bounded along after the women. Anna’s eyes were dry now, and she had a weak smile on her lips. She walked only on the support of the cane now and there was a noticeable gap between her and the other woman. The other woman threw dark glances back at us and whispered under her breath, words that apparently weren’t intended for anyone but herself.

Anna answered her often in a tone that suggested hope and blind faith in these two strangers who had agreed to help her with nothing to gain from it themselves. I walked on a few paces behind Lisa, who was still distancing herself from the women, though she spoke to Anna with the same hopeful tone to her voice.

After a few moments of enduring this I caught up with the missing steps to talk to Lisa.

‘Could you please tell them that I want to talk privately to you?’ I asked.

Lisa stared at me, ‘they won’t be happy about that,’ she scowled, ‘there’s a sick girl, had you forgotten?’ I felt that boiling sensation again and rolled my hands into fists to stay calm. ‘We could lose our only possible connection that way.’

I was aware of the way my mouth hung open in shock, though I was surprised that anything about Lisa could shock me anymore. ‘I really have to speak with you,’ I said through gritted teeth.

She stopped Anna and said something which made both women fix their eyes on me, since Anna had taken her eyes off me I had relaxed a little, but I remembered what it was like to be faced with that stony, helpless gaze and my anger only increased.

They sat down laboriously on the steps to a grubby front door. They sighed and creaked into the stone, still barely speaking to each other though, the other woman’s mouth was puckered into a thin line of disapproval.

I took Lisa into an archway which looked private enough.

‘What are you doing?’ I rounded on her.

‘Following a lead,’ she shrugged, for the thousandth time since I met her I wondered how she could be so cold and unfeeling.

‘You’re not a doctor,’ I spat at her.

‘They’ll hear you,’ she whispered, stealing a glance around the corner.

‘You’re not a doctor,’ I repeated, ‘how are you going to help this girl?’

‘I’m not,’ she said, plain and straight faced. ‘But what if this is the Alex we’re looking for? If I can get this girl alone for just a moment I can ask her.’

‘This is the worst thing you’ve done yet,’ I hissed back, ‘and you’ve done some pretty bad things.’

‘Sometimes you have to,’ she said, ‘to get what you want.’

That darkly determined look returned to her face and I took a step back. I knew she was capable of pretty much anything, but if we were messing with this young girl’s life, stealing time away from a real doctor, that made us morally bankrupt. I couldn’t help wondering if I was losing a part of myself in cooperating with this.

‘You don’t think you’re going too far this time?’

It happened before I could blink, she slapped me hard across the face. I felt her hand stinging once she had taken it away.

‘Listen,’ she hissed at me, her teeth were grinding together and her eyes were wide and crazed. ‘This is about my family, my sister, it always has been.’

‘I know that,’ I said in a diminished voice, I squinted hard to prevent my eyes from watering.

‘Then you should understand something, it’s only too far when I say it’s too far, because I would have done anything for Angelica. That doesn’t change even after her death.’

I could only nod, her eyes were like the fires of burning skyscrapers, I could see screams and pain behind them, all the things she was capable of. I had been scared of her before, but this was new. She relaxed her face into the reassuring smile she had reserved for Anna. Her expression changed so suddenly that I took another step back from her. Only when her back was turned and she was talking softly with Anna did I allow myself to press a cool hand to my face.

I looked back down the twisting alley, the way which we had come. It was brighter than the way ahead, but where would I go? Like a dog I crawled back to Lisa, kicked and down but still faithful. I had no idea why.

We entered an intricate system of turnings and alleyways. I would never have been able to find my way out again alone. With the two women leading the way the streets grew darker and narrower around us. Instead of tall and straight the buildings were squat and fat, with fixtures that looked stuck on, crumbling balconies and tin chimneys.

There had once been bright paint on these flats, but it was peeling and broken so that everything seemed grey, under the garish colours the wood looked delicate and decaying, this whole part of the city seemed under threat of collapse. There were no beggars down these streets, when we did pass people they were coming back from the town centre, clutching Styrofoam boxes of food, chatting freely and laughing. There were children playing football in one street. An elderly man banged against his grimy window every time the ball hit.

We stopped, mercifully, by the entrance to what looked like a block of flats, flats that had been taken from three completely different blocks and stuck together. The door was painted turquoise with a black rusted knocker. The paint was flaking, but the colour was still visible over the grey. On a balcony a young woman nodded sombrely at Anna and her friend and eyed us darkly.

We dodged past a man smoking a fat cigar on the tarnished steps. Frothing water wound through the crack separating this building from the next.

As we made our way up the rickety winding stairs I turned to Lisa. ‘If I carry on, I can’t go back.’ I whispered.

‘Of course you can go back,’ she sighed, ‘just follow the path we came on.’ She pretended she didn’t know what I really meant, but of course she knew.

Anna stopped by a door also painted brightly, a lime green this time, a light in the dark hallway flickered and buzzed, I could see the outlines of dead moths inside the glass globe. She turned to speak to Lisa and Lisa answered in that caring, understanding voice that made my stomach turn. Anna placed her hand on Lisa’s and ran the other along a cross which hung from a gold chain around her neck. I panicked inside, what were we about to face, if Anna was so willing to put her trust into a stranger. She briefly looked at me again, with sad, kind eyes.

As soon as the door was opened two women came rushing to us. One was the woman we had seen on the balcony.

She looked young, but there were worry lines pressed into her face. ‘English?’ She asked.

‘Yes,’ Lisa pushed forwards, ‘I’m Karen, this is Jack.’

‘Vala,’ she said with narrowed eyes, she looked at Lisa’s outstretched hand but she didn’t take it. Vala’s eyes were heavily made up and her hair curled from a loose bun. The blue eyeliner had worked into the creases above her eyes, I noticed this as she turned the other woman, whose name we still didn’t know, and they exchanged dark glances.

Anna pointed to us and spoke to Vala. They spoken pleasantly enough, and the suspicion died from Vala’s eyes a little. She still puckered up her mouth into a thin line though, it was a look of distaste we had seen from Anna’s companion, and I had to assume they were related.

The second younger woman seemed just a teenager, and she stayed behind, demurely or sullenly watching the floor, I hadn’t decided which yet.

‘Can we trust you?’ Vala asked us in clipped English.

‘Yes,’ I Lisa said firmly.

‘We don’t want the authorities informed,’ she went on, ‘and we don’t want the local doctor to know. Are you practising in England?’

‘Yes,’ Lisa lied, ‘I’m a family doctor. We’re on holiday here.’ She signalled to me and I wished she wouldn’t acknowledge me. Vala’s eyes rested on me just a little too long, my expression must have betrayed how I felt.

‘I’m sorry,’ Vala smiled, ‘but we’ve already had problems with one doctor, and Anna is willing to trust anyone. You understand.’

Lisa nodded, one look conveying her promise of discretion and an unwavering honesty that was so far removed from Lisa’s real character I could have laughed. A shrill scream ran through the small flat.

‘Maria!’ Anna wailed and she rushed through a doorway.

‘What exactly is wrong with her?’ Lisa asked Vala. The scream had shaken me and left me cold, but Lisa was composed as ever. Hanging next to the balcony there was a washing line, the garments on it were bright and fashionable, the sort of things a teenage girl might wear, there was a poster of a shirtless movie star on the door which Anna had rushed into. I swallowed hard to hide my guilt.

‘She is having a baby,’ Vala turned her eyes to the floor. There was a blush in her cheeks and disapproval painted into her creased face. I couldn’t understand the fear, but I knew how different my own society was to this one, and Anna wore her faith for everyone to see. That was when I saw the religious icon juxtaposed with the movie star, there was more shame here than just in what the neighbours thought.

‘She is in labour?’ Lisa asked.

‘No,’ Vala shook her head firmly, ‘she has many months to go.’

‘How far along is she?’ The concerned doctor voice was surprisingly well rehearsed despite this being that particular persona’s first outing.

‘We don’t know,’ Vala said, she seemed shocked by the question.

‘Is she showing?’

Vala stared blankly at Lisa.

‘I’m just trying to get a clearer picture before I examine her,’ Lisa smiled, ‘are you sure that is the problem, that she’s pregnant?’

Vala sighed at the floor. ‘She told us,’ she sounded angry, ‘after she met that boy,’ she hissed the word angrily, ‘she fell ill, she stopped eating and drinking. She couldn’t move from the bed, and she complained of a fever, then she felt extreme pains in her chest. She told us what she had done because she was worried the pain might mean the baby was in danger.’ Another scream seemed to shake the whole flat.

‘I would very much like to meet her now,’ Lisa said calmly, ignoring the screams.

‘She may not be able to speak,’ Vala said with her voice shaking, ‘she has moments of intense pain where she can’t talk to anyone.’

Lisa nodded. Vala barred the door when I tried to enter, ‘my boyfriend is a medical student, he might be able to help.’ Another lie, lies just fell out of Lisa effortlessly.

She looked at me, I knew she didn’t believe for one second that I was a medical student, but I was allowed to enter the room all the same. I wish I could’ve waited outside, but in my strange way I really did hope I could help. If Lisa was so far into all this that she would carry on the lie at the risk of the young girl’s health I might be able to stop her, somehow.

The room was dark, heavy black curtains were drawn across the windows and the lights were off. The teenage girl who had come to the door was leaning against one wall biting her lip, and Anna was kneeled at the foot of the bed, she looked as if she were praying, the other older woman was comforting her with a firm hand on her shoulder.

It was the smell which hit me first, it was a burning acidic smell, too sweet. It was the smell of decay, and I recognised it with a flush of excitement which sickened me. It was the same horrible smell that had been on the children in Norway.

Lisa approached the bed, adopting an official look to her movements. The smell made my eyes water, it was like stagnant water in an open sewer. I found it strange that it was confined to this room.

‘Maria?’ Lisa asked the thing on the bed with gentle concern.

At first I thought the bed was empty, it was so dark I couldn’t see properly, but the person in the bed was so diminished that their body was moulded into the sheets. I forced myself to move closer as the smell got worse. She was deathly pale, shinning in the dark, and her mouth was slightly open, her lips dry and cracked.

Dark hair was spread out on the pillows like weeds on a beach, tangled and greasy. The body was giving off small jerks every few seconds.

‘Alex!’ The girl called out so abruptly that it made me jump. Then she screamed again and jolted, her arms thrashed out wildly. Anna grabbed the flailing arm and whispered scared prayers to her granddaughter.

‘She keeps asking for Alex,’ Vala’s lip curled up in disgust.

‘And Alex is?’ Lisa asked.

‘Who do you think?’ Vala spat back, ‘are you going to try and help her?’

‘Of course,’ Lisa said briskly, she approached the bed. I thought I saw her stumble for just a moment. She said something to Anna who nodded and wiped back tears as she stepped away from the bed. Lisa peeled the blanket away from Maria’s frail body but the girl lashed out with her arm, her body jerked as she screamed again. Lisa pulled harder and the blanket fell away to leave a starving thin body.

Lisa gently knelt down and pulled the nightgown over the girl’s thigh. I gasped, there was a deep gouge on her leg, a chunk of flesh had been ripped away, the skin was torn and rough, I could see that much. There was purple bruising around the wound, and the dried blood was black in the dark room.

‘How did she get this?’ Lisa asked in English.

‘We cleaned it properly,’ Vala said, ‘it’s not a problem,’

‘How did she get it?’ Lisa asked, less calmly.

Vala looked at the floor again. Anna began to speak, Lisa’s face was somewhere between disgust and intrigue.

‘I’m sorry you had to hear that,’ Vala said, ‘Anna is not as mindful of her words as she should be.’ She threw a reproachful glance at the old woman.

‘What did she say?’ I asked as Maria called out for Alex again. A solitary tear fell from Vala’s make-up caked eyes.

‘She told me that she knows all about European men and the kind of depraved things they like to do to women.’ Lisa said.

‘You mean?’ I held my breath as she smell crept over me again.

Lisa nodded, ‘he bit her.’