The Beast (9 page)

he last time I’d seen my dad, I’d smashed a rock into the side of his head. He hadn’t liked that much.

I could still see a yellow-black bruise that ran across his temple and around one eye. The bruising seemed to bulge the eye outwards, making him look more deranged than ever.

‘
You
,’ I gasped. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Just checking up on you,’ he said. ‘Making sure you’re OK. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t check up on you every once in a while?’

He flashed me another smile, then turned and marched into the back bedroom. I held off for a moment, considering making a run for it and taking my chances with the screechers. But I had a lot of questions, and there was a very good chance he held the answers.

‘Quite a day, huh?’ he said as I entered the bedroom. He pulled the drawstring next to the window and the metal blinds rolled all the way up. He leaned on the sill and looked down at the garden, then whistled quietly through his teeth. ‘Quite a day.’

‘You did this,’ I said. ‘Didn’t you? You caused all this.’

He turned from the window and leaned his back against the glass. ‘Me? No. Wouldn’t know where to start. But you have to admire the handiwork. The whole village? Wiped out in one night?’ He blew out his cheeks. ‘You have to admire the handiwork.’

I stood my ground as he stepped towards me. ‘Oh, sure, there are a few survivors. A few stragglers still hanging around, but they’ll get them. Those things out there are nothing if not persistent. Am I right?’

‘Where’s my nan?’ I demanded.

‘I don’t have the first clue.’

‘Don’t lie!’ I snapped. ‘Where is she?’

‘My
guess
? She’s out there somewhere.’ He jabbed a thumb towards the window. ‘All black-eyed and chomping teeth.’ He lunged towards me and clacked his teeth together just centimetres from the tip of my nose. I flinched and pulled back, which made him laugh out loud. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Couldn’t resist.’

‘I swear, if you’ve hurt her...’ I told him.

He waved a hand dismissively and sat on the end of the unmade bed. ‘So,’ he began. ‘How’s things?’

I gawped at him. ‘What?’

‘How’s things? How’s life been treating you?’

‘Sorry... are you
mental
?’ I asked.

‘What? I’m just asking how you’ve been. What’s so bad about that? We’re bonding here.’

‘No,’ I growled. ‘We aren’t.’

‘Ah, suit yourself,’ he said, and he went back to looking out of the window.

‘What are you doing here?’ I asked him. ‘What do you want?’

He shrugged. ‘Some father–son time, that’s all. Not too much to ask, is it?’

‘Yes,’ I replied, coldly, ‘it is. What, you think after everything you’ve done you can just drop in for a cosy chat whenever you feel like it? It doesn’t work that way.’

‘After everything I’ve done?’ he said, looking genuinely puzzled. ‘Why, what have I done?’

I almost choked. ‘What do you...? What have you...?’ I began counting things off on my fingers. ‘You sent Mr Mumbles after me. You sent Caddie after me. You sent the Crowmaster, and because of that my mum is in hospital and Marion is dead.’

‘Whoa, back up. That’s not my fault,’ he said, holding up his hands. ‘You could’ve protected them if you’d wanted to.’

‘What? No I couldn’t!’

‘Of course you could, kiddo. With your abilities you can do anything you want.’ He gave a sad shake of his head. ‘Maybe deep down you just didn’t want to save them, after all.’

‘Shut up,’ I warned him.

‘What’s the point in being
special
if you don’t put your talents to use?’ he asked, breaking into a smile. ‘You could’ve saved them. You could’ve saved
everyone
. But no, you just flail around, too scared to realise your real potential. It’s a shame. It’s a damn shame.’

‘I know what you’re doing,’ I said. ‘The Crowmaster told me everything. He told me exactly why you want me to use my abilities, and he told me what would happen if I did.’

The grin stayed fixed on my dad’s face, but his eyes told another story. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘You mentioned that.’ He pointed to the bruise on his face. ‘Just before you gave me this, remember? What exactly did he say?’

‘That you want to bring the Darkest Corners over here into this world. And you need me to do it. The more I use my powers, the weaker the barrier between the worlds becomes. That’s right, isn’t it? He was telling the truth.’

To my surprise, he didn’t deny it. ‘Yes, son, the scarecrow was telling the truth,’ he said. ‘You might as well know. No harm in it. It’s not like you can stop it now, anyway. Every time you use your...
gift
, the doorway between this world and mine opens a little further. Use it enough, and we can all go free.’

‘You’re already free.’

‘Temporarily,’ he sighed. ‘Only temporarily. And, believe it or not, I’m not just thinking about me. I’m not the only one trapped over there, you know?’

‘Yeah, I know,’ I said. ‘You sent some to visit me, remember?’

‘I don’t mean those...
things
,’ he spat. ‘I mean normal people. Good people. Kids, even, all doing their best to hide out and stay alive.’

Immediately, I thought of I.C., the boy I’d found hiding in the hospital in the Darkest Corners. He had been scared and alone, but try as I might, I couldn’t bring him back with me to the real world. I’d had no choice but to leave him there, although I had – I hoped – arranged for him to be looked after.

‘You can help them, son. You can help all of them get out. They’d be safe.’

‘They’d bring all the monsters with them,’ I said. ‘They wouldn’t be safe.
No one
would be safe.’

He threw back his head and laughed. ‘OK, you got me,’ he cackled. ‘I couldn’t give a damn about any of them. Let the freaks tear every last one of them to pieces, what do I care?’

‘Then why are you doing all this?’ I asked.

His laughter stopped. ‘Everything I do, son – every
single
thing I’ve done for the past decade – I’ve done for one reason and one reason only.’ He looked me up and down, his face a mask of contempt. ‘To hurt you.’

I’m not sure why, but tears suddenly stung my eyes. I blinked them back. There was no way I was about to give him the satisfaction. ‘Why?’ I asked, hoping he didn’t hear the wobble in my voice.

‘Why?’ he shouted, flying at me. This time, I managed to stand my ground. ‘
Why?
Because it’s your fault I got sent to that place, that’s why. Fourteen years I’ve been stuck there, with the freaks and the demons coming for me every night! Fourteen
years
.’

‘I wasn’t even born fourteen years ago,’ I protested.

His hand caught me by the throat. My back slammed against the bedroom wall. ‘No, but you were
going
to be,’ he hissed. ‘You were
going to be
.’

He relaxed his grip and stepped away. When he spoke again his voice was distant, as if he barely remembered I was even in the room. ‘She was so lonely, your mum. No friends. Just her
own
mother for company.’

Sounds familiar
, I thought, but I kept quiet.

‘We found each other. She needed...
someone
. And I needed her to keep me out of that place. Getting her to fall in love with me was easy. She was eighteen, not bad looking, but no one had ever paid her the slightest bit of attention before then. I had her eating out of my hand in no time.’

‘You used her,’ I said, through gritted teeth.

His face darkened. ‘And then we found out we were going to have a little baby. And suddenly she didn’t need me to make her feel special any more. All of a sudden, she had someone else to love.’

‘Me,’ I realised.

He nodded. ‘You. Next thing I know I’m in the Darkest Corners, fighting for my life, while she’s out buying prams and knitting bootees. So tell me, son,’ he spat, ‘who used who?’

‘She thought you left her,’ I said weakly.

‘Left her? I’d have stayed with her forever.’ He shook his head. ‘I didn’t
leave
her, she sent me away.’

‘But... none of that was my fault! I didn’t do anything.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘You know what? You’re right. You’ve done nothing wrong. You’re the innocent in all this. I should be taking it out on her.’

‘No!’ I cried, stepping forward. ‘Don’t!’

‘I
could
have just killed you. That would’ve been easier. I could’ve ended you any time I liked, but after everything I’ve had to go through because of you, killing you just didn’t seem enough.’

He knocked on the window and gave a cheerful wave down towards the back garden. Even through the glass, I heard the screechers begin to howl and batter harder against the door.

‘I wanted you to suffer. Physically, obviously, but mentally too. I wanted you to be scared, like I was. And I wanted you all churned up and twisted with guilt over the people you let die.’

I cleared my throat. ‘Well,’ I said. ‘Mission accomplished.’

‘Oh no, son,’ he smirked, ‘trust me, you haven’t seen
anything
yet. You think you feel bad now? Just wait until you open that doorway for me. Just wait until you spill the blood of every man, woman and child in this world.’

‘That’s not going to happen,’ I insisted. Now that I knew for sure the Crowmaster had been telling the truth, the decision was easy. ‘I won’t use my abilities again.’

His face twisted with rage. ‘
I’ll
decide what you do and don’t do with your abilities. Me! What, you think you got those powers from your mother’s side? They’re all me, kiddo. I gave you them, and you’ll damn well use them, even if I have to make you.’

‘You won’t make me,’ I replied. ‘Whatever you send after me, I’ll find a way to beat it without using my powers.’

He raised an eyebrow and snorted. ‘Really?’ he said. ‘Good luck with that. The fact is, they’re part of you. You can no more stop using them than you can stop your fingernails from growing.’

‘I won’t,’ I insisted. ‘I swear.’

He rummaged in his pocket, eventually pulling out a small, hand-held tape recorder. ‘Well, if it comes to it, maybe this will change your mind,’ he said.

‘What’s that?’

He slipped the machine back in his pocket. ‘Insurance.’

A movement in the corridor behind me made me turn. A figure in a brown robe stood on the landing. A hood was down over the figure’s head, hiding his face. I’d seen this person a few times now, always lurking in the shadows near my dad. He never lifted the hood and never spoke a word. I wasn’t even sure if he was even a “he” at all.

My dad pushed past me, making for the door. Just inside the room he stopped, as if a thought had only just occurred to him. ‘Your friend,’ he said. ‘Ameena, is it?’

‘What about her?’

‘How much do you actually know about her?’ he asked.

I didn’t hesitate, not even for a second. ‘I know enough. I know that I trust her.’

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. ‘Interesting,’ he nodded. ‘See you around.’

And then he was stepping out of the room, pulling the door behind him.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I demanded, racing after him. But by the time I made it out on to the landing, neither my dad nor the figure in brown were anywhere to be seen. ‘Great,’ I mumbled. ‘Just great.’

What
had
he meant? Of course I could trust Ameena. She’d saved my life countless times. Without her, I’d have died on my front step, with Mr Mumbles kneeling on my chest. Or, if not then, then a hundred times since. The fact I was even breathing was all down to Ameena. I owed her everything.

Pushing my dad’s question from my mind, I took another look at the situation beyond the front windows. The snow was still off, and the street was completely empty now. The two screechers I’d seen earlier seemed to have stumbled away somewhere, leaving the route to the police station completely clear.

I took the stairs two at a time. There was a row of jackets hanging on the wall beside the front door. I found a warm one in about my size and pulled it on.

After zipping up, I stopped at the door just long enough to take a deep, steadying breath. My hand pushed down on the handle and the door slowly opened.