Psychopathia: A Horror Suspense Novel (17 page)

She turned and grinned at Toby. ‘
Things can go back to normal now,’ she said.

Toby scrunched back into his chair and cringed away from the babble of voices all around him. He’d never noticed how loud it was in the pub before. But then, it was a Friday night. Blinking, he tried to remember the last time he’d been here. Back when they were living at the cabin, he supposed. Before the whole thing with the asylum and the spirit.

Lara
plonked down into the chair next to him and grinned, her teeth white and perfect in the gloom.

‘So, it’s done then. I wish I’d been able to see it.’ She widened her eyes. ‘Was it really dramatic? Tully said th
e old woman looked about to keel over afterwards.’

Toby dipped his gaze to his drink. He didn’t want to talk about
anything to do with the blessing, exorcism, whatever it had been. ‘Want to go outside for a smoke?’ he asked.

‘I thought you’d never ask!’
Lara leaned over the table and nudged her boyfriend. ‘Matt,’ she said and made a smoking gesture. ‘Coming?’

The pub backed onto the canal, and Toby slipped through the fence and took a seat perched on the concrete river bank. The water was running low,
hardly any rain to feed it, he guessed. The late evening sun sent drifts of light over the city and he raised his face to them.

‘Shove over,’
Lara said, sitting down next to him. ‘So, what was it like?’ She wasn’t going to let the subject drop.

‘Ask Tully,’ he replied, and pulled the old cigarette case out of his pocket. He’d already rolled the
night’s joint. He pinched it between his fingers and stuck it in his mouth, groping for the lighter.

The smoke was smooth, mellow. He breathed it slowly out, and passed the joint to
Lara. ‘Where’s Matt?’

‘Didn’t want any,’
Lara said, sucking the smoke into her lungs like a drowning woman.

‘Nor did Tully.’ His turn again, and he sat back with it in his mouth, waiting for the smoke to wrap him in a cushioning layer of cotton wool, a layer of batting between him and
the world. It was better that way. No harsh edges to cut himself on. No strange desires. He breathed out and watched the smoke rise in a drift towards the high clouds.

‘So, tell me,’
Lara said.

‘Tell you what?’

‘What happened, of course. Tully didn’t have much to say about it.’ She stopped to toke on the joint. Spoke through a cloud of smoke. ‘I wish it had been the real ghost hunter guys. That would have been cool, made all this worthwhile, you know? Especially if they’d done an investigation first – for their show. We could have taken them back to Seacliff – what did you call that place, the forest?’

‘The Enchanted Forest.’

‘Yeah, that’s it. We could have taken them there – done a re-enactment for them, you know what I mean?’ She giggled. ‘Well, we’d change it a bit, obviously. Matt and I wouldn’t – you know. We’d go walking in the woods with you, then when the spirit chased you, it could chase all of us, and they could film that.’ She sucked on the joint again and passed it back to him. ‘They could have done some special effects thing to show the spirit rushing at us.’ She nodded. ‘Oh yeah, the ratings would have gone through the roof for that one. And then add in the footage I got with the video camera, you know, when we were doing the Ouija.’ She leaned forward. ‘Shit, we could make a whole movie, you know? We’ve already got a heap to work with.’ She grinned. ‘I’m really onto something, Toby, you know? Matt could write the screenplay. He’s the big English geek, he could do that in his sleep. I could rope a couple guys in from my film course, they’d be right into it. We have to do a short film or something this year anyway, it would be perfect.’ She turned to Toby and lit a radiant smile. ‘What do you reckon?’

‘That you’re totally smashed.’

She shook her head. ‘No way. I’m good. It hasn’t even hit me yet.’ She pulled her phone out of her pocket and went scrolling through the screens. ‘I transferred the Ouija board session footage onto my phone, you want to see it again? It’s here somewhere, and I swear, it’s still as freaky as the day it happened.’ Her hands, with the phone, fell limp in her lap and she gazed up at the sky. ‘This is the best idea I’ve ever had. It’s perfect, you gotta admit it’s perfect. We have the story already, and some of the footage. We could even cut costs, and do it as found footage, you know what I mean? I know found footage is getting a bit old, but it’s cheap and easy, and done well, I really like it, what about you?’ She elbowed Toby and went back to looking through her phone. ‘It’s on here somewhere. Oh. Hang on. I think I deleted it to make room for something else. It’s still on my computer though. I even saved it to the cloud. Can’t be too careful.’ She turned the video on and pointed the phone at Toby. ‘Give me an interview,’ she said. ‘Tell me what it was like.’

‘What
what was like?’

‘The exorcism. That’s what it was, right? They crossed the spirit over?’

‘I don’t know if that is an exorcism. But yeah, they crossed it over. Or so they said.’ Something funny had happened in the living room of his dad and stepmother’s house that afternoon, but he couldn’t describe what it had been. Just…something, that was all. Tully had asked him if he’d felt the spirit press against him, or anything. And he had. He’d felt it. He’d felt it right inside him. Just for a moment. And then it was over.

‘So Tully said the crucifix fell over during the ceremony. Did you see that? Can you confirm that?’ She touched the phone screen and he knew she was zooming in on his face.
He shook his head.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,
Lara. Put that thing away.’ He held up a hand, blocking the camera, and was alarmed to see his hand shaking. He clenched it into a fist and dropped it to his lap.

Lara
lowered the phone, pouting. ‘But you’ll be in the movie, right? I don’t want to find anyone else to play you. It makes so much more sense if you and Tully are in it.’ She shrugged. ‘Because, you know, you guys were really there with us. It’s us, all four of us, we were there, we saw all the things it did, so we should be in the movie.’ Nodded her head. ‘Yeah, found footage is the way to go. The only way really, cos it’s not like we have a budget or anything, right?’ She giggled. ‘Pass me the joint, Toby. You’ve been hogging it all.’

Toby did as he was told and passed her the weed. He lay back on the grass and shaded his eyes, not worrying – for the first time in days, weeks even – about the shadows. The sun felt good on his body, and he imagined soaking it in like a man who hadn’t seen the light of day for so long, like someone who’d been trapped in a dark room, trapped behind thick doors, barred windows so tiny you couldn’t see more than a slice of the sky, and could never reach it, never touch it, never feel the light upon your skin.

He shook his head. He was being silly. He hadn’t been anywhere dark since…since the forest. Brightness all the time since then. No shadows, he’d banished all the shadows. He’d had to, because it had lurked in them. It had hunched over in them, crouched there, watching him from the shadows, always watching, waiting for him to come too close, waiting to snatch him and drag him into the shadows with it.

Snapping his eyes open, Toby sat up, so quickly he was light-headed.

‘Whoa, you’ll fall in, swaying all around like that.’ Lara grabbed him and laughed. ‘What, did you fall asleep or something?’

He blinked, and the sun dropped behind the hills, throwing them into shadow. Shivering, Toby looked around, saw someone standing by the fence, in the shadow of a tree, looking at him. A low mewling cry slipped loose from his throat.

‘What do you want?’ he asked. ‘What do you want?’

A touch on his shoulder. ‘Who are you talking to?’

Toby’s mouth was dry, full of ashes. It wasn’t supposed to be there, hiding in the shadows. It was supposed to be gone. He didn’t have to hide in the light from it – the old ladies had said so. Tully had said so. He shivered again, couldn’t stop trembling.

‘Go away,’ he whispered. ‘You’re supposed to be gone.’

‘Hey, Toby, you’re freaking me out. Who’re you talking to?’ Lara’s hand tightened on his shoulder, but he barely felt it.

‘You’re not there,’ he said. ‘Not there, not there, not there.’

‘You’re right about that, Toby. There’s no one there.’

Turning to
Lara, he stared at her face. ‘There’s no one there?’ he asked, and clutched at her. ‘True? There’s no one there?’

Her eyes flicked over to the fence where he’d been looking, then back at him. She shook her head. ‘Nope. No one there. Toby, jeez, I think you ought to lay off the weed for a while. It’s screwing up your faculties, you know?’

Lara was beautiful in the dying light of the sun. She caught a stray sunbeam and glowed. And she was telling him there was no one there. No one there. Just the weed messing with him. That’s all. He could see the fine hairs on her cheek, and her dark hair had caught fire in the slanting sun, a dark red explosion. He grabbed her face and kissed her.

She shoved him backwards. ‘Toby! What the fuck? What do you think you’re doing?’ She scrambled to her feet and he followed her lead, reaching for her.

‘Lara. You’re beautiful,’ he said. ‘Let me. Let me, okay? Please?’

Her head shook vigorously. ‘No way, jeez Toby, we agreed years ago it wasn’t like that between us.’
Light turned her skin golden. ‘I’ve got Matt, remember. Wow, I can’t believe this.’

He reached out for her, grabbed her shoulders, tried to kiss her again. Her lips looked so soft. She was so beautiful, a creature made of light, glowing like the sun
, skin so translucent he could almost see the blood burning in her veins.

Her hands pressed against his chest,
hard knots against his ribs, and then she shoved, and he stumbled backwards, dazed, blinking, holding his hands out for balance, precariously close to the side of the canal, the wide concrete sides of it. He looked at her, wounded, wondering why she shoved him, and she was in darkness, no longer burning with the flames of the sun, but standing there, pale and anemic in the shadows, her eyes wide, dark pools, staring at him trying to drown him. His foot stumbled against a rock, and he went down, hitting the ground with a solid oomph, grazing his tailbone, while something laughed at him from the shadows.

Lara slid into the seat next to Tully and leaned close to her ear. ‘Toby’s flipped his lid,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘Is this my drink?’ Lara leaned forward over the table and snagged her glass.

‘What did you just say?’ Tully strained to hear over the noise of the band.

‘I said your brother has flipped his lid.’ Lara took a gulp of her drink and leaned closer. ‘I was outside with him right, having a smoke? And all of a sudden, he’s talking to someone who’s not there.’ She widened her eyes and shook her head. ‘Then – he’s grabbing me trying to kiss me! Just like that – not even any warning!’

Tully couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Toby had never shown any interest in
Lara before. Not like that. They’d been friends for years. She would have known if Toby had those sorts of feelings.

Lara
was talking again. ‘I pushed him away, of course. You know I don’t think of Toby like that. I mean gross, he’s practically my brother – and I’ve got Matt. You know I have.’ She picked up her drink again. ‘So anyway, you might want to wean him off the weed a bit, you know what I mean? It might be frying a few brain cells.’ She finished off her drink and waggled the empty glass in front of Tully. ‘I’m going for another, you want one?’

‘No, thanks.’
She had to go find her brother. Picking up her bag, she got up. ‘I’ll see you later, okay? Sounds like it might be time to get Toby home.’

‘Sure, but let’s get together tomorrow, okay? All of us. I’ve had the most brilliant idea – I want to tell you about it.’

‘Um, okay. Call me, we’ll get together.’ She touched Lara on the arm. ‘And Lara?’

‘What?’

‘Sorry about Toby. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately.’

Lara
smiled. ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. It’s Toby, you know? Just make sure he knows not to paw me again, or I really will chuck him in the river next time.’

Shit. He was stumbling around out there by the canal? Why hadn’t she said? Tully gave a swift nod and made for the door.

It was almost dark outside. She stood still a moment, scanning the clusters of people at the outdoor tables, but none of them morphed into her brother. Perhaps he was still on the river bank. She’d always hated his habit of sitting there, always afraid that one false move would send him skidding down the concrete embankment into the rushing water at the bottom. It had happened before – not to Toby, obviously, but every now and then a student fell in. Usually drunk, usually extremely sorry for themselves by the time they were fished out. She ducked through the fence and sure enough, there he was, sitting hunched over on the bank.

‘Toby? You all right?’ she asked.

He turned to her. ‘Who are you?’

Down on her knees, reaching for him. ‘Toby? It’s Tully. Are you all right?’