As the Light Dies (43 page)

Collin froze to the spot unsure what he was seeing. He tried his best to focus despite the darkness, and for a second he thought h
e’
d actually spooked himself over nothing and was just about to move on whe
n
i
t
moved and he realised he was looking at someone. He was looking at Leann.

He cocked his head to the side frowning
.“
Leann! Is that you? Why are you down there? Are you ok
?
”

He hurried towards her hunching over a little. Leann brought a shaky hand up by her face and pointed towards the front of the shop
.“
Out there
,”
she said barely audible.

“
What
?”
said Collin moving closer.

“
Shush Collin! Hide. Please
.
Just get down!”

“
What
!”
said Collin. He was confused, his mind was running at a hundred miles an hour trying to work out what was happening and why Leann was hiding in the dark when there was an almighty thwack on the front doors. Collin stopped and whipped his head up to look. Leann shrank back disappearing behind the ki
d’
s ride-on car.

“
Collin, please do
n’
t go near the doors. Stay away, keep back from the windows
.
”

Collin could
n’
t figure out what was wrong, why did Leann want him to stay away from the windows. Why was she hiding and what was hitting the glass? He stared at the front of the supermarket and saw a shimmer of movement outside in the ash and snow. He walked forwards towards the front of the supermarket, moving closer to the thick reinforced glass that made up the shop front.

“Collin please,”
Leann pleaded.

He saw the flutter again as though someone was just outside moving around just too deep in to the ashy snow to be seen clearly. Then the thwack came again, making him jump.

“
Collin, please do
n’
t go near the glass
,”
Leann pleaded again.

Hearing her Collin leaned back on his heels about to turn and go back to her when he caught a tiny glimpse of what he thought looked like a figure just outside the doors and it was lying on the ground.

Holy shi
t
, he thought
.“
Hang on a sec
,”
he told her
,“
I think I can see someone
.
”

“
No Collin no, do
n’
t
!
Don’t go!”

He barely heard Lean
n’
s murmur as he made his approach towards the shop front, all he heard were her trainers squeaking on the floor as she shuffled further in behind the machines.

Burrowing in
,
he thought, and he wondered
.
What could’ve possibly happened
?
He needed to see, needed to know. Especially now that his overactive imagination was telling him that he could see a body!

Then something started rubbing along the outside of the glass in front of him. It squealed with friction.

“
Collin
?”
Leann called.

He wanted to go back to her, knew he should. But he needed to see what was outside, see if i
t
wa
s
a person lying on the ground or if his eyes were just playing tricks on him. He looked down where he had seen what he thought was a figure but the ash had thickened and closed in hiding what h
e’
d seen
.
Damn
,
he thought taking another half step ready for another thwack at the window or for whatever it was to rub up against the glass again. When nothing happened he took another half step almost a shuffle and the ash cleared away just enough for him to see and he half gasped and called back to Leann
.“
Hey Leann, Maggi
e’
s fallen over
!
”

“
No Collin
,
DONT!”
Leann shouted, but she was too late. Collin was already trying to open the front doors, trying to slide them apart but they were stuck fast. They were wedged at the bottom. He dropped to his knees to focus his energy on the bottom and there was another thump against the glass just above him on the next panel along. Something dark and misshapen pressed up against the glass and started to sink down the window squealing against the glass as it descended.

Frowning trying to figure this out Collin glanced back at Maggie as the blob against the window continued squealing towards the ground
.
It was he
r
, he thought. It was Mad Maggie, he was sure of it. She was lying on her back, face up and as the black snow danced around her he was just able to make out her eyes, they were still open. He stared at her for a second waiting for her to move, certain she would, but she did
n’
t. He went to tap the glass then remembered the black squealing thing and he looked at it. It was still sliding down the glass!

He reached out quickly and slapped a palm against the glass and called out
.“
Maggie? Hey, Maggie are you ok
?
”

She did
n’
t move. He shuffled closer to the glass wanting a better look, hearing Leann behind him pleading for him to come back
.
Just a secon
d
, he thought and then he saw her.

He wished he had
n’
t, he was unnerved when he finally got a half decent look and he did
n’
t know what to think. She looked like she was screaming.

He leaned back a little still looking at her. Her face was contorted all out of shape, twisted in to a horrifically tormented scream. He found it hard to look at her, scary even! He called to her again
,“
Maggie? Hey, Maggie, are you ok
!
”

She did
n’
t budge. He noticed that flutter in the ash again. He looked up at it and saw it move away from the dark squealing lump that had reached the ground without him realising. The shimmer moved towards him. Towards Maggie!

A barely visible figure, a shadow in the darkness swam through the dancing black snow towards Maggie and disappeared at the last second moving deeper in to the ashy snow around Maggi
e’
s body that was mostly out of sight. Colli
n’
s mind had gone blank, he could
n’
t think of anything to do. He leaned a little closer to the glass trying desperately to see when suddenly Maggi
e’
s body was snatched away in to the darkness. Collin flinched back with fright and looked down at where sh
e’
d been laying and nearly bit his tongue off with shock! Maggi
e’
s body had been dragged away but her head remained where it had been, staring at him silently screaming!

Collin pushed himself back from the window with a jolt and knelt there in a dazed shock.

He could
n’
t take his eyes off Maggi
e’
s head, despite the horror of it he just could
n’
t look away.

He knelt there glued to the spot just looking, too scared to actually move. He felt faint and realised he was holding his breath. He tried to breathe and started hyperventilating as he stared at Maggi
e’
s screaming head. He tried counting his breaths in and then out again, he felt dizzy and faint from holding his breath for so long and then hyperventilating.

He heard Leann calling for him again but could
n’
t answer. He closed his eyes, it was the only way he could break contact with Maggi
e’
s screaming head, and gradually he started to gain control of his breathing. It was
n’
t great but it was better and he did
n’
t feel so faint. He went to get back up and realised that he was rigid. He was too scared to move
.
What if I’m being watche
d
, he thought
,
what if they can see my but I can’t see the
m
, he wondered? He started a countdown from ten, his plan was that when he hit zero h
e’
d get up and go back to Leann but at the count of eight the hazy figure came back out of the darkness.

Collin watched transfixed as it went to the lump that had just slid down the glass, the figure moved like it was made of smoke and dust only slightly darker than the dark snow that surrounded it. It reached out and started sliding the black lump back up the glass.

Collin watched the black shape squeal back up the glass until whatever it was stopped three quarters of the way up and held there for a second before it moved. It turned ever so slightly to the right, then back to the centre and then over to the left a little, and then back to the centre again. Then it shook from side to side a few times, before it started thumping the back of the glass, disappearing and reappearing as it leaned forwards out of view and then came rushing back hitting the glass. It thumped the glass several times getting harder with every strike until it suddenly fell and landed right beside Maggi
e’
s head, right in front of Collin and all the air he managed to work back up to filling his lungs with, rushed back out, and his stomach started cramping.

The odd dark shape was what was left of Jimm
y’
s head.

Colli
n’
s body completely locked up freezing him to the spot.

Jimm
y’
s face hung from the bone like an old rubber Halloween mask that had been pulled and stretched beyond all recognition to the point of tearing. His lips were gone leaving his teeth and gums horribly exposed. His right eye looked like it had been squeezed and had burst in its socket, and a torn flap of skin hung loosely from his forehead quivering in the wind. Jimm
y’
s head was still attached to his body and the body seemed to shake a little as if he was shivering or someone was doing something to his legs out of sight under the cover of darkness.

Collin watched helplessly unable to move as Jimm
y’
s head rolled over with the movement. Acid rose up from Colli
n’
s stomach burning his throat. Jimm
y’
s head had been opened up by force. The skin from his bald patch had been ripped open, pulled away from the skull underneath where there was a lumpy window into Jimm
y’
s hollowed out head.

Collin stared in through the back of Jimm
y’
s empty head paralysed with fear as his lips turned blue through lack of oxygen. The shimmering movement reappeared and this time Collin saw a hand reach out from the black snow towards Maggi
e’
s severed head. It was black and gnarly. Collin thought that it looked burned and charred as it wrapped its meaty fingers around Maggi
e’
s twisted jaw and lifted her head up and carried it off in to the darkness.

For a split second Collin felt like Maggie was staring at him, silently screaming, in utter terror begging with her eyes for him to do something, begging him for help!

Collin was in an oxygen starved daze unable to believe what was going on right in front of him. The ash black snow danced in all directions trying to confuse him. He felt dizzy. He felt faint.

A pair of legs appeared a few feet back from the window for a moment before they were smothered behind the wall of black snow. Collin watched holding his eyes open wide looking for any little movement wanting to see who was out there, wanting to see who had done this. He was slowly being hypnotised by the mesmerising movements of the dancing ash as it rushed against the glass. It made him feel like he was moving forwards, sliding towards it, being pulled in, dragged into the darkness.

“
Shit
!”
he said and he dug his heels in pressing them hard in to the unforgiving linoleum floor and clawed at it with both hands trying to anchor himself to the spot. He saw a vague outline of a head and torso standing outside. It did
n’
t move. It just stood there watching and waiting.

Shit it’s watching me
,
he thought.

The figure held its arms up as though holding its hands over its ears. Suddenly it looked like it had a badly misshapen head. It almost looked like the figure ha
d
tw
o
heads, thought Collin thinking of the elephant man. It really did look like one head had grown out of the other like a giant cyst.