Plagued (9 page)

“A woman came by — young, blonde, and her clothes
were all covered in blood, she looked like
shit
. She was limpin’ so
Harold went out first, to see if he could help. Not many people walk the way
you came and the ones that do are usually lost. When it's a young girl, with an
injury like hers, you expect the worst. Rape, mugging, all that jazz.”

They got to the top of the landing and faced an
entrance ahead and three to the right. None had doors. She took them to the one
straight ahead, a small bathroom. It had a porcelain toilet with a flowery
seat, next to that a small sink and a bath with a shower inside. She stood in
the entrance with the lantern held high and turned to face them.

“You see, I thought it was strange as soon as I saw her. A wound to the neck,
especially as deep as hers would be causing her more discomfort than what it
did. Blood gushed out of her neck like a fountain. Now me being the suspicious
woman that I am, I told him not to go rushin’ out there all half-cocked but as
usual, he never listened. It's as if he purposely ignores me.” She let out a
small cackle and then her face dropped. “
Ignored
. Anyway, he went out
there like a knight in shiny armour and opened the gate for her. Probably
didn't even notice there was anythin’ wrong. But I did.”

“This is the bathroom, by the way, there's runnin’ water from our own tanks,
it’s not Water Company clean but it’ll be a little warm as long as the generator
holds up. No tellin' how long that will be, gasoline is nearly all gone. If you
can get any more juice out of it, you can clean yourself up. I prefer a cold
shower these days anyway.”
“Thank you,” Sarah said kindly and smiled.
Annie nodded curtly, smiling a little but as she walked towards the doorway to
the right, the smile faded.

“This was our bedroom. You two can have that, much
more room in there and I don't wanna go in. Not anymore.” Annie’s voice broke.

“I'll be sleeping in the room at the end of the
hall. It's smaller but it's just right for me, plus it's close to the front
window so I can see anyone entering my land....that's how I saw you two.” She
grinned a little. “So wash yourselves up and I’ll cook something for you, it’s
just dried rice in tinned soup but when you’re hungry, it’s the best damn thing
you’ve ever tasted. Then I'm goin' to rest for a while...”
As she walked downstairs, Sarah said, “Annie...you said you shot your husband?”

Annie turned to her and said, “Aye, I had to, he and his new friend tried to
bite me.”
Sarah closed her eyes and winced, as if stung by the words. “I’m
so
sorry,”
she said, thinking of her own situation.
“He was my whole world you know, just him and the animals. Now they're all
gone.” Annie's eyes started to look distant and her face filled with sadness
again. “Those fucking things attacked them one night while I was sleepin’. You
won’t believe the mess they made of ‘em. Bastards.”

“If there was another way, something else I coulda done that day, Harold would
still be here... I'd still have something to live for,” she said croakily as she
went downstairs.
Finding an oil lantern on the side table, the only piece of furniture left in
the room, Mark lit it and looked around. The room was bathed in an orange glow.
Shadows danced across the walls. The windows were boarded up in here too and
Mark drew the curtains over them just to make sure no light escaped out.

The room was empty besides the king-sized bed which had a white, old-fashioned
frame. The duvet and pillow covers were white with a pink floral decoration in
the corners — exactly what you would expect in a country home.

The walls shone pale pink and the floor was
littered with clothes that would have once been in a wardrobe or chest of drawers.
Pictures hung on the walls, most of which consisted of Annie smiling next to a
greying man; both of them smiling happily. Some contained pictures of a blonde
girl with pig tails and a brown haired boy much younger than the girl, playing
in the mud. Sarah looked at them and wondered whether they were alive
still...and where. She tried to stop her thoughts from wandering back to her
parents and Jack.
“Looks like we're sharing tonight, sunshine. Least it's a proper bed this time
and not the floor,” Mark said, a cheerful tone to his voice. “Thank God she
didn’t throw us out. Or shoot us.”

Sarah turned and smiled. “Yeah, and it
is
a
big improvement. I could sleep for another six months,” she laughed quietly. She
sat down next to Mark on the bed, rubbing the ankle she'd sprained earlier and
winced. “It's been a really crazy few days.”

Mark nodded and turned to look at her. “I'm glad you slept through the worst of
it. I spent weeks wishing I could join you until things get better.”
Sarah looked at him back, smiling. “I'll never be able to thank you enough for
what you've done for me...and Albert too. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you two.”
 Her eyes welled up with exhausted tears and she wiped them away, leaving a
streak of clean skin through the dirt.

Mark moved closer to her and put his arm around
her shoulders, comforting her.  “It was my pleasure; I wasn’t going to leave
you there.”
She rested her head on his shoulder, her dark hair flowing over his arm and they
sat side-by-side. “You could have, no one would have blamed you.”

He squeezed her gently. “No, I couldn’t. I knew
you were special when I saw you. You seemed so small and innocent, lying there.
I knew I had to at least try to help you,” he said, stroking her hair with his
hand. “Who knew it would get me into so much trouble!”
“Well I'm very grateful you did.” Sarah laughed. “Or I'd be dead meat.”
Mark laughed with her. “Well don't speak too soon, there is still time, we both
could be dead meat before you know it.”

Sarah lifted her head from his embrace and looked up at him — her expression
turned serious. “Don’t get me wrong, I love that you’re here with me. I'd just —
I’d hate for anything to happen to you because of me.”

“Sarah, I
wanted
to come. I wanted to make sure you're safe. You're
doing what you have to do...and so am I.”
They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Warmth
spread through Sarah's body, something she hadn't felt for a long time. Mark's
bright eyes burned into hers and she didn't think she could look away.
He leaned his face towards hers until she could feel his warm breath on her
face. Her heart beat quickened and she panicked. She placed her hands on his
chest to gently push him away but as she did so, Mark placed his hand behind
her head and pulled her towards him.
She stopped resisting as he pulled her mouth to his. She felt his lips on hers
and she returned the kiss, softly and tentatively at first — but building as
she moved her hands from his chest to his neck and ran her fingers into his
hair, pulling him in deeper. He smelled faintly of sweat but it was the best
scent she'd ever smelled and she breathed in, burying herself in him.
Then she pulled away gently, a stab of guilt pained her and she couldn’t ignore
it. Her hands moved to his and she frowned at him in turmoil, opening her mouth
to speak — to explain herself. But Mark placed a finger on her lips.

“It's okay. I understand,” he said, breathing heavily. He shot her a warm
smile, but she could still see the hurt in his eyes. “Let's go get some food.”

Sarah nodded in agreement. They both went downstairs with Annie and ate in
silence, too exhausted to speak and neither of them ready to talk about what
had happened. The rice and soup dish was lukewarm from the old wood-burning stove
but tasted better than anything they’d eaten in a while. They both relished
every morsel.

When they’d finished, they said goodnight to Annie
— who was too weary herself to notice the tension — and walked wearily back
upstairs in silence. They climbed in bed still fully clothed.

As they lay in bed listening to Annie’s sudden
snoring, Mark turned to face Sarah and smiled. “This is amazing,” he said,
hugging the duvet.

She looked at him and smiled back, cuddling the
duvet tight to her chest. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see a bed again,”
she laughed. “Goodnight, Mark.”
“Goodnight gorgeous,” Mark said, taking her hand and kissing the top of it
gently.
Mark turned off the lantern, covering the room in blackness. They laid quietly,
thinking about all that had happened. None of it seemed real now they were in a
nice, warm bed in a cosy cottage. They felt safe. And after ten minutes, they
both slept soundly, exhausted from the day’s events.

A delicious smell of garlic and tomatoes aroused
Sarah from her slumber. She awoke at a dinner table. Long, red candles were lit
in the middle, stood on a crimson tablecloth decorated with rose petals. Held
on its surface were two empty plates and two half-filled wine glasses. On the
plates were the remnants of a deep, red sauce. The lights were off, only the
candles lit the room, causing shadows to dance around the walls like an eerie
pantomime.
Sarah was content. She was full, as if she had recently eaten and she felt the
warm, dizziness of being slightly intoxicated.

There was no one else in the room — the other chair was empty. A light shone
through the bottom of a closed door at the end of the room. Shadows of
someone's feet walked around the other side. Suddenly she remembered where she
was. She was at home — her home with Jack.
 It had been Valentine's Day, their second together. Jack had cooked her
favourite pasta dish and they drank wine and talked. It had been a lovely
night. Jack had gone to the bathroom before they settled down on the sofa to
watch a horror movie. Some clichéd story of a few young people stuck on an
island with a murderer. Sarah had loved those films.
Jack had been in there for a long time. No sounds came from the bathroom, but
his feet still shadowed under the door. He was standing at the sink.

“Jack?” she called, walking to the bathroom door.
No reply.
“Are you okay in there?” she asked, reaching for the door handle.
No reply. The tap was running in the sink.
She opened the door slowly, waiting for his response. Nothing again, so she
walked slowly inside. The light was on and Jack was leaning over with his head
over the sink. He was breathing heavily.

“Did you drink too much wine again?” Sarah asked, laughing quietly. She walked
to his side, placing her hand on his back and rubbing gently.
Jack moaned. It was short and croaky in his throat.
“I'm sorry, I was joking, honey. Do you want a drink of water?” Sarah reached
to stroke his hair and he slowly lifted his head up. She stood behind him and
couldn't see his face, but as he raised his head upwards, his reflection slowly
appeared in the mirror.
“I...don't feel so good,” he said, raising his head.
Sarah froze. Her throat tightened. She removed her hand from Jack's head with a
start, as if she had been electrocuted.
“Oh my God, Jack!”
“What...what's wrong?” he said. He turned to face her.
Sarah backed away from him, the desire to run from the room was becoming too
strong to ignore.

“What is it?!” he yelled, his voice cracked as he spoke, turning into a
gravelly voice she didn't recognize.
She turned around to run but he grabbed her arm.
“Don't you love me anymore, baby?” he said, his croaking voice filled with
cruel amusement.
She turned to face him again, shaking with fear. Sweat dripped down her face.
She saw his face for the last time as purple boils appeared on his cheeks,
oozing with pus. Parts of his skin rotted off before her eyes and fell to the
floor. His mouth contorted into a snarling grin and he flashed his rotting
teeth. His eyes were wide with rage. He laughed at her then — an evil sound
that resonated through her body.
She opened her mouth to scream but no sound would escape her. The world swirled
as she weakened and her legs buckled beneath her. She fell to the floor, her eyes
rolling to the back of her head and she escaped into blackness.

~

Sarah leapt up from bed screaming and Mark put his
arms around her, his eyes wide.

“Whoa! It’s okay! It was just a dream, just a
dream!”

Sarah whimpered — covered in sweat — and then the
real world came back in a flash. She sighed with relief and wiped her forehead,
her body freezing in the dampness. “I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly, “bad
dream.”

“It certainly was!” Mark laughed. “Are you okay?”

Sarah smiled and the goose bumps on her flesh disappeared.
“Yeah I’m fine. The first night’s sleep in a proper bed and this happens.” She
smiled weakly.

Mark laughed quietly and opened the curtains to look
out of the gap in the windows. It was still dark outside, grey clouds covering
the sky and the ground below was wet from the overnight rain. The wind-up clock
on the end table next to him read 5:21AM.

“If that clock still works, then it’s still early.
Go back to sleep for a while, you could use the rest,” he said, stroking her
arm.

“I don’t think I could if I wanted to,” she said
as she turned to him. “Mark, do you think Jack is still alive?”

Mark turned away and looked down at the duvet; he
had hoped he would never have to answer that question. Sarah’s large blue eyes
rimmed with tears. He didn’t know to say.

“Be honest,” she croaked, holding back tears.

“I…I don’t know, Sarah. It’s been six months. I
don’t want to sound pessimistic, but —” he sighed and let the sentence trail
off.

Sarah turned away from him and wiped her eyes, her
chest sank with the feeling that he was right.

“I’m sorry,” he said, putting his hand on her
shoulder. “I really don’t know. I could be wrong. He could be fine. I just…I
don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

She turned back to face him, her eyes now red and
puffy. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“It’s okay. Part of me thinks he
is
dead.
But the other part wants to find out for sure and I don’t even want to think
about my family,” she said, her face lined with worry. “All I’m going to let
myself think is that they’re doing just fine down there, holed up at home like
we were and waiting for me. But Jack is different, Mark, because if he is
still
alive, why didn’t he try to find me?”

“How do you know he didn’t?” Mark said, feeling a
tight pang of jealousy in his chest.

“Like you said, it’s been six months.” Then she
smiled, and added, “But you could be right, we don’t know that he hasn’t. He
could have been out there all this time, looking for me, hoping I was alive
like I am doing now.”

“…maybe…” Mark said, turning away from her and
climbing out of bed.

Sarah climbed out of bed too, looking in his
direction. She thought he looked upset. “What’s wrong?” she asked, watching him
as he walked out of the room.

“Nothing,” he said, “I’m just…it doesn’t matter.
Going to see if there’s enough water for a wash.” And he left the room.

A few minutes later she heard the clatter and
clangs of the boiler working and the running of water.
God bless hot water and
God bless Annie
, she thought to herself. She lay back in bed and hugged the
pillow into her chest.

Six months ago, she had been in a two year relationship
with a man who loved her and now she could only recall snippets of it, like it
hadn’t existed at all. Twenty four months of her life basically wiped away. Two
days ago, she couldn’t even remember what her mother looked like. She still
couldn’t recall more than a handful of memories of them but at least they were
coming back.

Last night’s dream gave her an unpleasant feeling
in her stomach — it had felt real. The pleasant, peaceful dreams of the first night
had been replaced by a horrific feeling of dread. Though she knew it was just a
dream, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something important she
wasn’t remembering about her past. It was like déjà vu, the feeling of having done
something before but not being able to remember where or when and the more you
thought about it, the quicker it disappeared. That’s how she felt about last
night’s dream.

She didn’t recognize the scene, just the
feeling
she got from it. Something bad had
happened to her back then, of that
she was sure, but anything more than that was blocked off like a locked door in
her mind that she couldn’t find the key for. She hoped that it would all come
back to her soon, and that the past two years of her life — hell,
all
of
her life hadn’t vanished completely.

As she lay in bed, looking at the ceiling in a
stranger’s house, listening to the running water of the shower in the other
room, her eyelids grew heavy and slowly she fell back into a dreamless sleep.

~

She awoke with a jump, hearing a ‘thud’ at the
side of the bed. She opened her eyes quickly and bolted upright.

“Sorry to wake you, I banged the bed-side table,”
said Mark, who stood there wrapped in a green towel with water dripping down
his tanned skin. He rubbed his shin frantically. “The only furniture in this
house and I manage to bang against it.”

Sarah blushed at the sight. She couldn’t remember
the last time she saw a man almost naked and her eyes were drawn to his
physique.

He dried his hair with another towel and it fell
on his face in waves. Water droplets dripped down his skin. “That was amazing.
Can’t remember the last time I had a hot shower,” he laughed. “Well, a lukewarm
shower, I should say. We had a little electricity at home from our generator
but no water besides the bottled kind. You don’t even want to know how we kept
clean.”

Sarah laughed, trying to pry her eyes away from
the half-naked man in front of her.
I’m a pervert.

Mark untied the towel around his waist and paused,
looking at Sarah, his face reddening slightly under her gaze. “Is everything
alright? You’re looking at me funny.”

“Sorry,” she said, turning her head the other way
and blocking her sight with her hand.

“That’s okay,” he laughed, drying his arms, “I
didn’t want to dry in the bathroom, there’s no bathroom door. I didn’t want to
give Annie a fright.”

“I don’t think she’d have a problem with that,”
she blurted and instantly scolded herself.

Mark laughed quietly. “I’ll take that as a
compliment.”

Sarah blushed, kicking herself mentally. A memory
came back to her then of being a teenage girl and her crush waving to her in
the street, causing her to go into a fit of nervous giggles. Her stomach filled
with butterflies and she resisted the temptation to turn around and have a
peek. Pervert
,
she thought again, slightly amused at herself.
What is
the problem? He’s good to look at and he saved your life like ten times.
That
she couldn’t deny. Laid next to him in bed she had felt safe. The safest she
had ever felt — at least the safest she could ever remember
feeling.

You’re falling for him, her brain retorted.

She was surprised at this, because it was true. Their
relationship had changed noticeably since it started and even her thoughts of
Jack didn’t change the growing affection she had for Mark. Though she didn’t
want to forget about Jack just yet, she couldn’t deny that right now, she was
happier than she had been since she woke up in the basement room of his house —
and that was undoubtedly because of Mark. She heard the zip of jeans.

“It’s okay now, you can look.” A voice said from
behind her.

She turned around. He was topless still but had
put on his jeans. She stared at his muscular chest and the small scattering of
dark hair on his stomach made her heart thud.

Mark noticed her staring again and smiled to
himself. “Do I pass?” he said, grinning.

Sarah looked at him in surprise, horribly
embarrassed that he had caught her. “Sorry?”

He laughed again. “That’s the second time you’ve
pulled that face today.”

“What face?” she squeaked.

“That one! It’s the kind of face a man pulls when
he’s watching women’s tennis.”

“I was not '
perving'
on you, if that’s what
you’re getting at, buddy,” she said, faking disgust but the urge to laugh
overwhelmed her. She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment and burst
into laughter. “Okay, maybe a little.”

“You have a nice laugh,” he said and sat down next
to her on the bed. “It’s nice to hear it.”

Sarah blushed and clamped her mouth shut, ridding
herself of her smile.

“Don’t stop, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”

“Thank you,” she said putting her arm on his naked
shoulder and her smile returned, “it’s been a while since I felt so…” Her voice
broke off, she cleared her throat again, but there was a lump that she just
couldn’t swallow.

“So…what?”

“So happy,” she admitted quietly, not daring to
look in his eyes.

“Well I’m glad
you’re
enjoying yourself
here,” he teased.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” She laughed, still
avoiding his gaze. “I mean that, this is the best I’ve felt since all this
started. I feel like there may be hope in the world yet, thanks to you.”

Mark was touched— he hadn’t expected her to say
that. He didn’t know what to say back. Instead, he reached out and touched her
cheek. She jumped at the touch but then relaxed and put her hand over his,
their fingers entwining as he stroked her face gently. She looked in his eyes
and he did the same, his eyes searching her face. Truly beautiful, he thought.

Sarah’s heartbeat quickened under his gaze, she
could feel him studying every feature of hers and it made her feel breathless. She
reached out and touched him with her other hand, running her fingers over his
chest and across his collar bone. He was dry now and his skin was smooth, a
faint smell of soap and flowers drifted off him.