Mary stepped out of the black cab and paid the driver. The cab pulled away, did a tight u-turn and drove away. Mary walked over to Jamie and they embraced.
“Thank you Mary, this means a lot to me,” Jamie said as they parted and held hands looking at each other.
“I know. I just hope I don’t lose it when I see him, and her.”
“Don’t be harsh on them, neither of them are bad people Mary, quite the opposite.”
“Sorry, I’ll do my best. They are both good people and Oliver is a lovely man, one of the best I’ve known. I know I need to find a way to forgive him.”
“I haven’t seen his nervous face at the window yet. Maybe he is having his morning wood being taken care of?” Jamie suggested.
“Good god, Minnie lives on in you doesn’t he?”
“I intend to be like a Minnie tribute act,” Jamie smiled and put his arm around Mary’s shoulder and they walked to the entrance of Olivers flat.
Jamie rang the intercom bell for Oliver’s flat. Oliver answered quickly and buzzed them in. Jamie and Mary stepped in to the hallway.
“Mind the tools,” Oliver whispered down.
Jamie and Mary stepped around the gardening tools, precariously balanced at the foot of the stairs. The resident collection of tools Oliver had often knocked over when drunk.
Mary looked up and saw Oliver’s smiling apologetic face. Her heart melted she missed him so much. Jamie and she climbed the stairs.
Jamie stepped into the flat and Mary followed him, she paused at the front door Oliver held open for her.
“Hello Mary,” Oliver said.
“Hello Mr fuck up,” she replied.
“I’m sorry Mary.”
Mary pulled Oliver towards her and their long standing friendship and love of each other melted her anger and softened his remorse.
They entered the apartment together and the door closed behind them. The clock was ticking, they only had ten minutes left.
“Hi,” Jenny said feeling awkward at seeing Mary again and sensing all the bad things she thought about her.
“Hi Jenny, so you fly off today?” Mary asked.
“Yes, well late tonight. How are you?” Jenny asked.
“I’m okay, given everything we’ve all been through,” Mary said with her eyes wandering around the lounge with its many packing boxes set out and about.
Jamie asked, “How are you leaving tonight with all this still to clear?”
“My friend from Brighton is clearing out these last few things, we couldn’t turn down the flights tonight they were too good to miss,” Jenny said.
“Nice to have friend’s like that. Can I use the loo Oliver?” Mary asked. As hard as she was trying Mary’s tone was clipped.
“Of course Mary,” Oliver said.
Mary left for the toilet. Oliver and Jenny let out big relieved sighs.
“Give her a minute she really does want us to part on good terms,” Jamie said.
“Okay, I’ll finish breakfast,” Jenny said pointing a finger towards the kitchen. She left for the kitchen.
Jamie run his hand through his hair, “Sorry mate, I just wanted to have a chance to say goodbye. I’ll open this champagne.”
Jamie took a bottle of champagne from the bag he was carrying.
“I’m sure she will be fine, Mary has every right to be pissed at me,” Oliver said.
Jamie opened the bottle of champagne and took four glasses from a cabinet in the corner of the familiar lounge. He poured the chilled champagne.
“It’s a bit early isn’t it?” Oliver asked.
“After the shit we’ve been through?”
Oliver sipped at his champagne.
“Smells good Jenny, is that meaty bacon I can smell?” Jamie called through to the kitchen.
“Yes, I said a prayer for it before I opened the pack,” Jenny called back. Jamie smiled.
“So Oliver, how exactly did you decommission your experimental laboratory? There was a lot of kit,” Jamie enquired.
Oliver sipped his champagne, “I’m doing the last bit today.”
Jamie spluttered on his champagne, “Fuck Oliver, you said you’d canned it?”
“I have, last bit will go today. Trust me.”
“But it has been there for weeks now, given the risks, just get rid mate.”
“The security guy is super trustworthy and he is well paid. I’m there at lunchtime, I will be sending the laptop to the bottom of the Thames and the papers up in flames. End of story. Good riddance to bad news,” Oliver said not wholly meaning it.
“I’ll drink to that,” Jamie said.
“Hey, I found some brilliant photos of Minnie from last years Monster Ball, let me get them for you,” Oliver walked to the far side of the lounge and began routing in one of the boxes.
In the kitchen Jenny held the bacon under the grill, her hand gripped the grill pan tightly. Blue static quivered across her fingers. Her fingers were touching the hot metal that adjoined the handle and the skin of her finger tips singed. She did not cry out nor flinch. The grill pan dropped from her hands onto the oven top with a clatter.
“I hope that’s not my breakfast,” Jamie called in.
Oliver crouched over the box looking for the album with Minnie in Frankenstein costume and standing in various hilarious poses.
“I’ve just seen them this morning,” Oliver said with frustration.
Mary had flushed the toilet and washed her hands. She exhaled slowly to calm herself, she would be nice, she would be nice. She returned to the lounge to see Oliver’s bum sticking up from one of the boxes. The sight made her giggle as it captured his gangling manner in life.
“What are you doing Oliver?” she asked.
Jenny gently stroked her fingers across Jamie’s face. She had returned to the lounge and stood behind and over Jamie. Jamie was slumped on the sofa sipping champagne, waiting for the photographs of Minnie Oliver promised. The gentle caress of warm finger tips took Jamie by surprise.
“Jenny, I knew it, ever since Vietnam,” Jamie said lifting his hands to embrace Jenny’s caress of his face.
“Here they are,” Oliver said, lifting an album of pictures from the box.
Mary asked, “Whose pics are those?”
Oliver did not have the opportunity to answer. He dropped the album to the floor which made Mary jump and then follow the direction of his gaze.
“No,” was all Oliver could manage.
Jamie’s first moment of concern arrived with the look across Oliver’s face. Oliver’s jaw had dropped at the sight of Jenny with her hands on his best friends face. Not a look of jealousy but one of abject terror. Jamie registered the concern and turned to check out what was unsettling Oliver, he briefly saw Mary’s face with her mouth wide open and the beginnings of a scream.
Jenny stood dominant over Jamie. Her face was distorted by the force of possession imposed on her by her visitor. He or she undulated under her skin as they exacted full control. Jenny’s eyes were empty and her actions without human conscience. Jenny’s mouth, cheeks and nose contorted under the pressure of such great power. Her arms were taught with energy and determination. Under the direct influence of the visitor she hosted Jenny tightened her grip on Jamie’s face.
“Jenny?” was the simple disbelieving question Jamie asked.
The power in Jenny’s hand crushed hard on his skull creating popping noises as bone fractured. With a simple but sharp ninety degree twist, she broke his neck. So hard was the force Jamie’s head was practically inverted. Jenny tossed Jamie’s corpse forward and it crumpled heavily onto the carpet floor of the lounge. Blood ran from his mouth and nose over his twisted head across his cheeks and into his staring eyes.
Jenny hissed a final observation on the proceedings, “We tried to warn you subject Oliver, you all have to be deleted, submit to our hope.”
Jenny lumbered forward. Oliver stood slowly, disbelieving what he was witnessing and not realising Mary was emitting a piercing scream. Horrified he stagg
ered towards Mary. Jenny was moving slowly but her path was indomitable. Her body was full and glowing blue with maximum power from the future. Oliver knew the Jenny he had loved was no longer with him.
Oliver picked up one of the heavier packing boxes. He stepped forward three paces and hurled it towards Jenny. It struck her sharp in the face and chest sending her flying back and throwing her to the floor.
“Run,” Oliver shouted to Mary. They both ran for the front door and left the apartment.
Oliver shouted at Mary to move quickly as they descended the three floors of stairs that led from his apartment to the entrance hall. Mary’s racing feet caught the gardening tools as she careered off the last step into the hallway. Her stumble to the floor sent two spades, a fork and rake scatter noisily across the tiled vestibule.
Oliver tried to quickly kick them to one side so he could pull the front door open and escape. He glanced upwards but could not see Jenny in pursuit.
“What the bloody hell is that noise?” Albert shouted from behind his door as he began opening locks.
“Stay there Albert, stay inside, for fucks sake do not open that door old man,” Oliver shouted at Albert in a way he never had before.
Oliver slid the last gardening tool out of the way and pulled Mary to her feet, “Get out go.”
Oliver pushed Mary towards the large wooden entrance door. He stretched out his hand to open it and placed his other hand on Mary’s back readying himself to propel her out of the converted house and into the street towards safety.
Oliver pulled the door back and urged Mary forward. She stepped out onto the doorstep.
Oliver did not hear Jenny silently falling three flights through the air. Her host knew Jenny was strong but slow and decided a direct route was needed to close in on their target. They hurled themselves over the banister on the top floor and spread armed glided down the three floors of the vaulted hall and stairs.
Jenny struck Oliver hard crushing him to the floor. The impact stunned him and winded him. He hit the tiled floor hard with his face, jarring the bones in his hand and wrists. Mary just saw him disappear in a blur confused by what was taking place. Until she saw Jenny kneel up on Olivers back, grasping his hair and pulling his head back. Oliver knew he was due for the same execution Jamie had just suffered. He wriggled and twisted and his hair slipped from Jenny’s fingers. Oliver managed to turn on his back and despite the pain in his arms he pushed upwards trying to force Jenny off of him. He looked at her face. The Jenny he knew, the pretty angelic Jenny, was no longer there. Her gentle face replaced by a snarling banshee.
She sneered and spat as she fought him, “Now hear the legions cheer as you die.”
Jenny threw his arms off of her and they fell back leaving him spread beneath her. Jenny rapidly regained her grip on his skull and tightened her grip. She dropped her left shoulder ready to twist and rip his head from his neck.
The flat of the black steel blade struck Jenny on her left cheek. The force of the spade smashed her cheek bones and crumpled the front left curve of her skull. Jenny’s body flew to her right in response to the blow. She lifted off of Oliver and turned a full roll from the force of the strike hitting the bottom step in the hall hard. Oliver looked to his left to see Jenny lying motionless on her back. She was barely breathing and her face was indistinguishable, blood poured down her face. He looked down to his feet to see Mary stood with the spade raised above her left shoulder.
“I’ve called the Police you scumbags,” Albert called from behind the door.
Mary looked behind her from where she heard the voice. By the time she looked back Jenny had sat up and was starting to rise once more.
“Run,” Mary said throwing down the spade.
Oliver scrambled to his feet and with Mary fled though the front door and into the street. They ran down the avenue as fast as their legs could take them. At the end of Ramsden Road the junction opened onto a quiet Balham High Road. Oliver and Mary looked back to see a damaged staggering Jenny stumbling down the tree lined avenue towards them.
“Keep going,” Oliver said. They ran up the main road through Balham towards Clapham South.
“What are we going to do?” Mary asked through panting breath.
“I don’t know, keep running, find somewhere to hide, I need time to think.”
They ran a short distance passing a health food store, by a car park and towards the main drag of shops. Mary’s legs were quivering uncontrollably and she felt sick. She was numb with the thought she had just crushed Jenny’s head with a garden spade. Tears ran down her face a she ran.
Oliver turned as they ran to see Jenny emerge onto the main rood from his street. She was moving more quickly.
Oliver saw a cab headed their way, the only vehicle on the road. The black cabs ‘taxi’ sign was illuminated. Oliver slowed Mary and him down and hailed the cab.
“She’s catching us up,” Mary said panicking.
The driver saw Olivers arm waving and flashed his headlights in acknowledgement. Mary watched the vehicle drive towards them on the opposite side of the road. Standing still she felt the shock setting into her. She looked over her shoulder to see Jenny stumbling towards them.
The cab adopted a diagonal line driving towards them, as opposed to passing them by and turning around. The black taxi accelerated. Oliver and Mary stood and watched, not computing the emerging threat. Until they saw the ripples across the drivers face and the blank expression in his eyes. The cab veered left and right as driver and host each struggled to secure control over the other.
“Crap,” was all Mary could say and she lifted her arms up expecting to be struck.
As Jenny’s visitor had seen Oliver and Mary slow to a standstill, they had willed her dying body on for one further push to finish them off. In regression peripheral vision is limited and the visitor saw only their intended target from Jenny’s eyes. Jenny broke into a stumbling sprint to grab her distracted prey.
The cab was less than ten feet from Mary and Oliver as it hurtled towards them. Oliver pushed his shoulder down and into Mary’s side, he threw both his arms around her and with all his force launched them both sideways. They slipped behind the gable end of the corner of the first shop, falling to the pavement that led to Balham Grove.
Jenny arrived at the space they had occupied, only to see them slip below her outreached arms. Her visitor had a split second to turn her head to the side. All she saw was the blur of a large black vehicle a few feet before her.
The black cab smashed into the shop doorway, imploding the wooden and glass door and crushing Jenny in half against its brick surround. The cab driver left his seat and was propelled through the windscreen by the force of the impact. Glass shattered over him and the bonnet of the cab as he slumped out from the drivers’ cabin. Jenny’s eyes closed. Her body was almost cut in two and it slid down beneath the front of the car. She crumpled into a ball in the doorway and died amongst the splinters of wood and shards of broken glass.
Oliver and Mary huddled on the floor as they heard the loud bang and smash from the taxi striking the wall. Oliver picked Mary up and they walked the three paces back around the corner and looked at the scene. Oliver could only see Jenny’s twisted legs protruding from beneath the cab. He swallowed hard and looked up to the sky.
“We have to go,” was all Mary could think to say.
40.