Dead End (Dark Season VIII) Page 7

“Hey!” I shout, running after him and grabbing his shoulder. “Who -”

  He spins around and – I know this sounds strange – but he seems to growl at me. There's a look in his eyes, just for a moment, that seems darker than anything I've ever seen before. “Don't touch me!” he shouts.

  I back away. “What were you doing here anyway?” I ask.

  “Same as you,” he says. “Looking for somewhere to sleep. I'll have to keep looking”.

  A drip comes through the ceiling and lands on the top of my head. “We could look together,” I suggest. I've only been on the streets for a few hours, but it's clear that I'm going to need to make some friends – some reliable friends – pretty quickly.

  “Go home,” the stranger says again.

  “Can't,” I say.

  “You don't have a family?” he asks.

  I think about my answer for a moment. “I can't go home,” I say eventually.

  “If you have a family,” he says, “go to them. You can't live like this”.

  I take a deep breath and sigh. “Can you help me find somewhere?”

  “No,” he says. “Go home, or you'll end up like her”. He indicates the dead girl on the floor. I look down at her. She seems to be staring up at the window, moonlight reflecting in her dead eyes.

  “I'll go down to the river,” I say. “There's probably someone down there who can...” I don't finish the sentence. It's a stupid sentence. Hell, it's a stupid idea. I don't know what I'll do when I get down to the river. I guess I'll... Fuck it. I turn and walk over to the stairs. “Thanks again,” I say, hoping he'll offer to let me stay.

  “Leave,” he says firmly.

  “Whatever,” I say before noisily walking down to the ground floor.

  As I'm about to go out the door, I start hearing a strange noise from upstairs. It sounds like... like someone doing something on the floor, shifting about. I sneak back to the stairs and carefully creep back to the upper floor. When I'm halfway up, I stand on tip-toes and glance between the wooden slats.

  In the moonlight, the stranger is kneeling by the dead girl. He's leaning over her, and he's doing something, but I can't quite work out... It's almost like he's... My eyes widen in horror as I suddenly realise what's happening. He's eating her! As I watch, he's literally biting on her flesh and ripping huge chunks off with his mouth, then chewing the chunks.

  I open my mouth and let out a little gasp, which causes the stranger to notice me. We make eye contact for a moment before I turn and run down the stairs and out the door. I almost collide with a bunch of drunk party-goers on the pavement outside, but I just bounce off one of them, out into the street, and I don't stop running until I reach the river three miles away.