Hellbound: The Tally Man (22 page)

‘While every human being has a capacity for love, its realisation is one of the most difficult achievements.’

Erich Fromm

Chapter Eighteen

23:18

OBADIAH turned off the engine outside the cottage and leaned back into the seat. The silence around him seemed almost prescient, a pulsing reminder of what had just occurred and what he knew was to come.

Nature doesn’t recognize good and evil…

He recognized the words; he had said them to Franklin the day of the interview. That someone was trying to send him a message was apparent. What the message was he hadn’t yet figured out. That they had used Eva to do so, a mistake.

He breathed deeply, quelling the rage within him. He couldn’t allow himself to lose focus as to why he had driven here. The compulsion he felt to keep her safe was powerful, driven by feelings he still didn’t understand. Yet he knew whoever had come for Eva would come for Ellie. And that he would not allow.

Obadiah climbed from the car and gently closed the door. Leaning against the roof he gazed up at the ecliptic, noting the full moon in its eerie glow. It was a harsh reminder of his current place in the universe; cloven and powerless. He forced himself to think when all he wanted to do was close himself off from everything around him. What had happened to Eva shouldn’t matter to him, yet he couldn’t shake his sense of righteous indignation.

Seeing her face flash before his eyes, Obadiah realised they were closed. Forcing them open he shook the image away, scooped up Ellie from the back seat and placed her on his shoulder. She stirred slightly when he knocked on the front door, the sound of footsteps approaching from the other side a few minutes later.

“Obi?” Mark Thorne’s voice was laced with concern at the late hour visit.

“Can we come in?” he asked flatly.

“Of course you can,” Mark replied, opening the door to allow them passage.

Obadiah moved into the living room and placed Ellie gently on the settee. He stared at her for a few moments before turning away and standing by the window.

“What’s happened?” Mark asked from the living room doorway as he tightened his dressing gown belt. Obadiah remained silent, turning to look at the picture on the mantelpiece he had seen the last time he was here before everything reset. Eva and him enjoying a moment frozen in time. A moment he still had no recollection of.

He felt a weight on his chest as though underwater, the recollection of her voice and touch pressed against his memory as though trying to force their way to freedom.

Mark moved to his side, gently touching his arm. “Obi, are you okay?”

In an instant, Obadiah’s hand was around his throat, slowly squeezing his windpipe. Mark grabbed at him, trying to free himself, eyes wide with fear and panic. The sensation of someone’s life being slowly extinguished and their accompanying high-pitched wheeze washed over Obadiah like cleansing water, reminding him of a time when he was the apex predator and people were simply cattle for his pleasure.

Eva’s body, cold and silent on the bed strobed through his mind, her killer’s hands around her throat, her violation harsh and brutal. As he felt Mark’s energy bleeding away, he momentarily felt ashamed and relaxed his grip. Mark fell to the floor, his stridor becoming less laboured.

Obadiah glanced over at Ellie, and satisfied she was undisturbed turned calmly back towards the window as though nothing had happened.

“What the fuck,” Mark exclaimed, massaging his neck. “What’s got into you?”

“Eva’s dead,” Obadiah stated coldly.

“What?”

He turned to face him, his expression causing Mark to take a few steps backwards. “She’s dead…murdered sometime tonight.”

Mark spluttered with laugher at the matter-of-fact delivery. “You’re joking?” “She’s lying on the bed, her throat cut.”

Mark stumbled and fell into the chair behind him. “What do you mean, her throat cut? You’re not funny, mate. Why would someone have killed Eva?”

“To get to me,” Obadiah acknowledged. “I seem to have brought something down on the people around me. Ironic really, given that once upon a time it would have been me…being played at your own game is distinctly un-amusing.”

“Get to you for what?” Mark sprang up from the seat, his hands shaking as he moved for the door. “You’re fuckin’ delusional, mate. I’m going to the house.”

Obadiah was in front of his host before he had a chance to open the door, his hand firmly grabbing the handle. “I wouldn’t do that. Not unless you want to be implicated in something particularly unpleasant.”

He stared at Obadiah as though trying to assess the reality of the situation before shaking his head and sitting back down.

Obadiah sat on the edge of the settee beside Ellie, his hands clasped together and resting on his knees as though about to pray.

“Someone broke into the house and murdered her to get to me. Who, I don’t know, but the message was very clear.”

“Which was?” Mark asked despondently.

“That I cannot care about something with losing it. It’s punishment, you see. For the things I’ve done. Eva saw someone she believed me to be, maybe the man I could have been, but not the man I am.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

Obadiah continued without elaborating. “Have you ever seen a dead body? The face swells in a matter of hours after death, the body bloating as it fills with gas. They tend to take on the appearance of over-ripe fruit, the skin taut yet at the same time withered, mottled. There is an accompanying smell, of course, but this occurs later, perhaps three or four hours later. And then there are the eyes. Often they take on the last expression the person had, peaceful or horrific depending on the circumstances. They can be discoloured, burst blood vessels and so on, but usually they simply take on a milky appearance, post-mortem cataracts obscuring any warmth they once held.

“Eva isn’t at that stage quite yet, but she will be soon and therefore if you wish to remember her as she was, you will stay away from the house.”

Obadiah took a deep breath and moved back towards the window. He noted the look of surprise on Mark’s face as the phone rang, a call at this time obviously unusual. His surprised expression turned to unease as he answered it and then handed the phone to him.

“It’s for you,” he said, puzzled.

Obadiah glanced at Ellie, watching her stir slightly before putting the phone to his ear only to hear a tut of disapproval.

“You’ve been a naughty boy.”

“Tommy,” Obadiah announced. “I don’t speak to you again after I moved to America, and since my execution I’ve spoken to you twice in the space of an evening. How did you know I was here?”

Tommy chuckled under his breath. “I know, almost prescient, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Obadiah agreed. “Which means you know I’m going to kill you for this.” His hands were clenched so tightly he could feel his nails cutting into his palm.

“You haven’t learnt anything have you,” Tommy said with disapproval. “But you’ll figure it out soon enough. I wish I could be there to see it when you do…your big brain finally slotting all the pieces into place. Your apotheosis will be something to behold. But you’re obviously not quite there yet.”

Obadiah ignored his monologue. “So, come on then, fill me in.”

“Obadiah, I can’t do that,” Tommy mocked. “Besides, I don’t really need to. You’ve always known what this is all about, your brain just hasn’t quite caught up.”

“I gather this is all part of the grand plan you were regaling me with to make me suffer. You need to do better.”

“Of course I don’t,” Tommy said gleefully. “The intention behind it has already been set in motion. Did you really think that you could do all the things you’ve done and not be punished?”

“Isn’t that what Death Row’s for?”

“Theoretically, yes. But for some people, it’s just not enough. What, you thought you could be put to death and the universe would balance itself out? There is no return to balance after your actions. This however, may come close. You just need a little more of a push to make you start to see.”

“See what?”

Tommy laughed. “You’ll see.”

Obadiah clenched the phone tighter in his hand. “When I find you…”

“You’ll what? I’m already dead, dumb arse. You’re not paying attention, and it’s getting a little irritating. None of this is my doing, nor anyone else’s…it’s yours. It’s all yours.”

“I didn’t touch her.”

Tommy tutted again. “Oh Obi, for someone with an I.Q as high as yours, your fuckin’ thick mate. But don’t worry, you don’t have long to wait. Once Ellie is taken care of…”

“You won’t get anywhere near her,” Obadiah interrupted.

“Oh, I believe you. I just want you to know it won’t make any difference. There’s nowhere you can go where you won’t be found. You can’t hide from yourself, Tally Man.”

Obadiah placed the phone back in its cradle, ending the conversation without a reply. As he moved back towards Ellie, Mark intercepted him.

“What the fuck is going on.”

He knelt before Ellie, gently stroking her hair. She stirred at his touch and mumbled something incomprehensible but didn’t wake. He paused for a moment, staring at her intently as though trying to memorise every aspect of her face.

“I have to keep her safe,” Obadiah said softly under his breath. Sighing, Mark shook his head. “Obi, I don’t understand. Who the fuck was that? You come in here in the middle of the night with your daughter, tell me Eva’s dead, give me no explanation as to what’s going on…Eva was right, you are getting worse. Whatever is going on in your head, it’s making you ill, mate. Don’t you see?”

“I see perfectly, but I have to keep her safe,” he repeated, his voice still a whisper. “Safe from who?”

“From me,” Obadiah replied, his tone flat and emotionless. He lifted Ellie gently from the settee and moved towards the stairs, stopping to look at Mark with a silent question about where to take her.

“You can put her in the spare room, top of the stairs on the left.”

Obadiah nodded and began to climb the stairs. He placed Ellie on the blue duvet and covered her with a blanket. She drew her knees up in a fetal position and turned over, pulling Snoopy closer to her breast. He sat down beside her in the darkness, his stomach beginning to heave at the thought of someone hurting her.

He knew they would come, whether it be Tommy or a stranger, someone would come and try to take her. Obadiah would be ready. Whatever the reason was for his being here, it had all begun to spiral apart, something Obadiah now suspected had been the intention all along. He had arrived here a monster but discovered a man hiding in plain sight. Eva and Ellie had loved him, trusted him, cared about him. He had been allowed to feel, for the briefest moment, something he never thought possible; hope. But the man had gone, leaving behind only the monster. A monster forced into being once more.

Damn them for making me care.

Obadiah stood and gently tucked the hair on Ellie’s forehead behind her ear.

“Thank you,” he whispered in her ear before moving out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Mark was stood in the space Obadiah had previously occupied. He turned as Obadiah entered the room. “So, what happens now,” he asked.

“Now, we wait.”