Shift (31 page)

I find a set of keys in a drawer that have a tag attached which has
Storeroom
written on it. There’s a colour-coded plan of the hotel on the desk too, so I use it to try and find
out where the storeroom might be located. As I do, I sense movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn to look at the CCTV images and although there’s nothing there now, I’m sure
something – or someone – just sped in and out of the camera shot. I look at the touchscreen and am trying to work out how to press rewind when Johnson walks back out into the lobby,
carrying GG in his arms.

‘Well look at me!’ GG flutters his fingers at me.

I am staggered as GG clings on around Johnson’s neck. He doesn’t have a scratch on him.

‘You won’t believe what that beast did to me.’

‘Can I put you down now?’ asks Johnson.

‘Give me another minute, I’m still very woozy.’

‘What happened?’ I am already heading towards GG and Johnson.

‘He was so quick. And so rough,’ says GG.

‘Found him tied up and gagged,’ Johnson tells her.

GG shudders. ‘Poor GG suffered.’

‘He didn’t kill you though.’

‘I don’t like to boast, but he said he’d save the best till last.’ GG buries his head in Johnson’s shoulder and continues playing up to us. ‘Being gorgeous is
all that saved me.’

Johnson lets GG down out of his arms. ‘I think I prefer the other one,’ he says with a wry smile.

GG makes a big show of not being able to stand without staggering and sort of half shuffles, half flounces to a big leather armchair that sits under one of the huge paintings.

‘Any chance of a gin and tonic?’ asks GG, and I am so glad he’s still with us that I forget what I was doing at the CCTV screen.

‘Evil-GG was so vain he couldn’t bring himself to kill you?’ I ask.

‘I know,’ says GG. ‘Can you imagine anyone being that self-obsessed?’ He raises a knowing eyebrow and I bend to him and give him a big kiss on his forehead.

‘It’s out of this world,’ I say, thinking it’s quite a clever comment, all things considered. Billie and the Moth have joined us and we’re ready to leave.

‘We need to go,’ says Johnson. ‘Like right now. It’s dark out and we might get lucky and not be seen.’

‘What about the Ape?’ I ask.

‘Call him. We’ll need a car.’

I fumble for my phone but as I do, one of the lifts just off from the lobby dings.

We freeze, listening to the lift doors open. The bank of lifts are out of view from where we are standing, but we are all here. Johnson, Billie, GG, the Moth and me. All present and correct. So
unless the Ape has come back, there’s only one person left for it to be.

The footsteps on the marble floor are laboured but still it only takes a few seconds for Evil-GG to appear in the lobby.

He isn’t as cocky or all-powerful-looking as before, but his talons are out and he looks as dangerous as ever.

‘Uh, Rev?’ queries Billie. ‘You said you got him.’

‘Never look a window of opportunity in the mouth,’ says Evil-GG, his voice deep and hoarse now. His throat is bruised and sore-looking, but with every step he takes towards us he
seems to regain some of his swagger. ‘Not sure I like the new voice though.’

‘REV!?’ shouts Billie, who clearly now thinks I’m the go-to girl in dealing with these creatures. But it’s Johnson who acts first. He grabs the chair I threw at Carrie
earlier and breaks the legs off it. They come off, leaving rough but sharp wooden points. He tosses one to me.

‘The throat,’ he whispers.

I nod.

Evil-GG tenses when he sees what we are planning to do.

‘Think you’re quick enough?’ he asks in his new husky voice. Evil-GG then waves his hand at me and, before I can move, his nails have shot from his fingers and are hurtling
towards me. His other hand twists towards Johnson and he sends another set of nails straight towards him.

I drop to the floor and feel the whoosh of the nails soaring over my head.

Johnson does the same, but we quickly realise the nails are just a way of occupying us, because Evil-GG leaps with unbelievable speed straight at GG. He lands upright on his lap and, looming all
over him, he stretches his fingers and more nails appear to replace the ones he fired at us.

‘So gorgeous. So sorry,’ says Evil-GG as he raises his hand and drives the talons straight at the helpless defenceless GG. But they don’t reach because Billie has somehow
roused herself and charged at Evil-GG, with what’s left of the chair Johnson broke the legs from.

Evil-GG is knocked from his perch on GG’s lap but twists gracefully in the air and lands on his feet. He giggles hoarsely and turns towards Billie. ‘I’m loving what
you’re doing with your face. Those scars are divine. Want some more?’ He leaps at her and she swings the chair with all of her might.

I’m already running for Evil-GG, with the leg of the chair gripped tightly. But he must possess some sixth sense, because without even turning around he raises his leg and catches me full
in the stomach with his foot. It knocks the wind clean out of me and I slump to the floor, finding myself landing in Carrie’s blood.

‘Like I said, I’m the worst of the worst.’ He chuckles.

Evil-GG swipes the chair from Billie’s hands and then grabs her throat. He moves so fast I don’t actually see what he has done. One second Billie has a chair in her hands and the
next she is being lifted into the air by her neck.

Right about now the Ape should be arriving
, I think.

Right about now, Ape!

That’s what you do, Ape, you save the day!

But this time he doesn’t come. My angel of violence just doesn’t show.

Evil-GG brings Billie closer to him and he takes a moment to sniff her. He then giggles again.

‘Ah poor Billie-clone.’ With that, he gives a flick of his wrist and sends Billie flying through the reception area, where she crashes into a wall before slumping to the floor. As
soon as she lands she starts having some sort of fit. It is ugly and violent and her body arches so high I’m scared she’ll snap her spine. I go to her as Johnson snatches up the sharp
talons that Evil-GG fired at him and, gripping one in each hand, calls to Evil-GG.

‘Hey!’

Evil-GG turns to him and grins. His teeth are as sharp as his talons. ‘Now I like that macho pose, Johnny Johnson. Let me get a photo. Say cheesey wheeze.’ He leaps onto the wall
and, with his talons digging in, he starts running horizontally along the flock wallpaper towards Johnson. ‘Gravity’s such a drag.’ He grins.

Billie’s fit leaves her as suddenly as it began but her eyes have turned black again, and worse, they have stayed black. But Evil-GG is homing in on Johnson, who readies himself, eyes
zeroing in on Evil-GG’s bruised neck.

Evil-GG leaps from the wall and is almost upon Johnson when he suddenly clutches his head in agony and crashes down onto the hard marble floor, letting out a high-pitched scream.

‘Rev?’
Other-Johnson’s voice slams into my head.

I turn quickly and see a battered and bruised Other-Johnson, barely able to stand, in the doorway to the hotel. He is hunched over, holding his head.

‘I’ve got his mind,’ he pants, and then does something that makes him cry out in agony.

I have no idea what he’s done but he collapses from the strain.

Evil-GG’s body doesn’t move. It lies there still and lifeless. I can’t figure it out.

Johnson is as confused as I am until GG screams.

We turn and see Carrie – as in dead, battered Carrie – getting to her feet. Her eyes spring open and she laughs.

‘Hi-de-hi.’ She flutters her fingers and I realise Other-Johnson has grabbed Evil-GG’s mind and thrown it straight into Carrie’s body.

We watch her stumbling forward as Evil-GG tries to get used to Carrie’s body. She/he frowns.

‘What the hell?’ Her/his eyes have settled on Evil-GG’s body and this rocks her/him to a sudden halt. ‘Are you kidding me?’

Carrie/Evil-GG takes a good long moment to try and take in what she/he is seeing. She/he looks down at her/his skinny wrists and then touches her/his bloodstained blonde hair.

‘Mother always said I should’ve been born a girl.’ She/he lurches towards us.

‘No,’ I say under my breath. ‘No, there can’t be another one.’

The Moth whirrs forward when he sees what he thinks is Carrie standing there. He shoots from despair to delight in a millisecond. ‘Carrie!’ He slams his wheelchair into full throttle
and speeds towards her, when Johnson gets in his way.

‘Whoa, Moth, wait.’

‘Carrie!’ I see true love in the Moth’s eyes as he swerves past Johnson and barrels forward.

Carrie/Evil-GG looks at the Moth coming towards her/him and pulls the biggest, most disgusted face of all time. ‘No. Now you stop right there. Oh, no. I’m sure you’re really
sweet but seriously, the wheels, the glasses, the acne.’

For the third time in my life, after Moth Two and Evil-GG, I try and inflict irreparable damage on another being. I grab the fallen chair and without hesitating I smash it into the back of
Carrie/Evil GG’s head, knocking her/him to their knees, whereupon I hit her/him again until she/he pitches forward into an unconscious heap. She/he falls still instantly, like someone’s
thrown a switch and turned her off.

The Moth slams on his brakes and stops dead, wide-eyed and frozen with shock. ‘What the hell, Rev?’

‘That isn’t Carrie,’ explains Johnson.

‘Yeah, it is,’ says the Moth, confusion obvious on his face.

‘No,’ I tell him. ‘No.’

‘You just killed her!’

‘She’s not dead,’ I say. ‘And it’s not Carrie. You know it’s not! You’re in shock, but you saw Carrie earlier. Remember?’

‘How can you hate someone that much?’ he asks bewildered. ‘Hitting her with a chair. Not once but twice.’

I look to Johnson for help and he gets in front of the Moth again. ‘It was Evil-GG. He’s inside her somehow.’

The Moth doesn’t listen and just stares with absolute hatred at me. ‘You bitch. You horrible, hateful bitch!’

GG tries to keep the Moth sane by explaining a complete insanity to him. ‘Calm down, Moth. You see, what happened was the other me was getting pretty violent, then this other Johnson shows
up, and he does some blacky-magicky mind thing and then Carrie is back on her feet. You listening? Mothy? You following this? So she’s back up, but it’s not her. No. It’s not.
It’s him . . . Me. The other me. And he’s shocked. He doesn’t get it. Mothy, stay with me. Then he sees himself lying there and it’s all just kind of very weird. Not
something you want to particularly remember. It’s his mind, but Carrie’s body. Confusing, I know, but that’s the way things are going right now. It’s all just – well
– it’s not the way my days usually pan out. So anyway Rev whacks her, or is it him, with a chair and everything’s all right again. Amen.’

The hotel lobby looks like the aftermath of a war zone. Carrie remains dead, but I’m presuming whatever might be left of her mind is now in Evil-GG’s body, which is still sprawled on
the floor. Evil-GG is hopefully trapped forever in Carrie’s body, which lies close by. The Moth looks battered and bruised, but more mentally than physically, and I hope to God he’s
going to stay sane enough to read my dad’s work and then get us home. Right now he’s just whimpering as he tries to match what he’s just seen with GG’s less than clear
explanation.

Other-Johnson is slumped in the doorway, but he’s stirring as he gradually comes round. He gets to his hands and knees and starts coughing up that same black liquid we saw oozing from Moth
Two on the tracks.

His voice enters my head.
‘I had to play dead,’
he tells me even before I ask the question.
‘Had to pretend till the Ape got tired of throwing me
around.’

Having him back lifts me and I climb to my feet and go to him.

‘How badly did he hurt you?’ I ask him.

‘Scale of one to ten?’

I nod.

‘Twenty.’ He tries to laugh, but winces. I kneel down beside him and am about to put my arm around him when I remember that my Johnson is in the lobby too and because of what’s
happening between us I’m struggling once again to work out who means what to me.

‘C’mon,’ I whisper. ‘I’ll help you up.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘You don’t look it.’

‘Hey.’ He taps my wrist. ‘Aren’t you going to ask?’

‘Ask what?’

‘Why I’m here.’

‘OK,’ I say. ‘Why are you here?’

‘I came back for you, Rev,’ he whispers and reaches for my hand. I sneak a look at my Johnson; he’s with Billie. She looks shattered and is smoking again. I hope he
hasn’t heard what Other-Johnson just said. I’m not sure I know how to respond right now.

Other-Johnson squeezes my hand tight. ‘I’m crazy about you, Rev. Can’t get you out of me.’

And just like that I can feel him rushing back inside me, pouring his feelings deep into me like I’m an empty vessel that needs all the love it can get. I’ve never been wanted so
much. Thoughts about my dad abandoning me when I was so young swirl around me. I know now why I wanted to be with Kyle. I told him I had a huge gap in my life and he immediately said he would do
his best to fill it. His crass attempt at profundity swept me off my feet. All along I’ve been a sitting duck to any boy with the right key.

‘Where are the others?’ Johnson calls over to us.

‘We were about to leave,’ I tell Other-Johnson.

‘They won’t find you here,’ he assures me. ‘I could, because of what I can do, but they sent GG on a train. He told them he’d bring the Moth back.’

GG comes over to us. ‘I’m going to lock all the doors.’ He turns to the Moth who is as pale as a ghost now. ‘Want to give me a lift?’

I know GG is trying to draw the Moth away from all the carnage. Away from Carrie. He hops on the back of the wheelchair and leans past the Moth to steer the motorised wheelchair across the
marble floor.

Johnson turns and I can feel him watching me gripping Other-Johnson’s hand.

‘Billie’s out of it. We need to move her into a room or something,’ he says and heads for the concierge’s desk. There’s a tall luggage trolley behind the desk that
he pulls out and wheels towards the unconscious Billie.