Chapter twenty
Amanda stumbled backward against the hospital wall after Yvonne the nurse threw the brackish water at her. She remembered thinking that the liquid may have been acid, but it didn't burn on contact. And then her world folded in on itself, quite literally.
Snatches of crazy images played over in her mind and at one point she felt her head crack hard against a surface and she lost consciousness for a moment. Then she was on her feet, bracing herself against the anticipated assault. But the onslaught never happened and Amanda stepped forward, snarling as the pain kicked up her aggression levels. Then she halted as she took notice of the changed world around her.
A grey sepia tint drained colour from the world.
It was the same room, the same bed, the same view from the window. But everything was without life and vitality and in some way that made her queasy, without definition. Smudged by the deft touch of an artist's eraser, the suggestion of dimension and relief lay in the dark and light shading.
A blurry figure moved in front of her and she recognised the heavyset nurse. Her features and clothes were grey, her face a charcoal sketch. But within her skin, wearing her body like a baggy jumpsuit, was a hollow eyed creature, more bone than flesh. It was looking away from her, staring at the prisoner. Pinprick yellow eyes bore into the figure on the bed.
Amanda rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands. She couldn't move, couldn't react. The situation was skewed, chaotic, and things seemed to be happening fast.
She looked about desperately, trying to make sense of the situation. It must be a result of the knock to the head, she thought, I have to move. To get some help. Perhaps Kirkwood can -
Amanda looked over to where Kirkwood lay slumped on the bed - and caught the scream in her throat.
A grotesque, brightly coloured creature sat on top of Kirkwood's body, chewing on one of his fingers. The thing regarded Amanda with cobalt cold eyes. Its skin was the painful scarlet colour of a fresh wound, flashes of brilliant white that were its long nails and teeth, and eyes of purest blue.
It looked so real. Squatting on Kirkwood's faded figure like a demon from a horror movie. It reminded Amanda of a demonic imp from a wonderful religious painting she had stood in front of on a school Museum trip. The stark bright colours. The ungainly posture. The impossible reality inhabiting the real world.
Kirkwood lurched to his feet and leant over the prisoner. The demon flopped from him and landed on the floor with a squeal. Kirkwood mumbled something then stumbled toward the nurse. He picked up speed and grabbed her around the waist, his head tucked to one side in a classic Rugby tackle. Both were momentarily indistinct sepia silhouettes against the daylight, until his momentum carried them both forward and through the window.
There was no sound of breaking glass, just the picture of Kirkwood and the nurse flailing through the window and disappearing from site.
Amanda rushed to the window, but the ground below was an oilslick grey of movement. She couldn't make out if Kirkwood had survived the fall, or whether the nurse was still alive.
'Officer Morgan, are you there?' A whisper.
The demon remained still, hunched on the bedside cabinet. It stared at her.
Again, the hushed voice called out. 'Officer Morgan, can you hear me?'
Amanda turned slowly, not wanting to lose sight of the creature. Afraid that if she didn't keep it in her vision it would scurry up at her. The blurred figure of the prisoner was closeby, she could see the shadow of his mouth open and close.
'Yes, I can hear you,' she said. 'I've hurt my head and everything's strange.'
'You have to remain calm.' The voice was muffled and badly lip-synched. She massaged her ears to feel any sensitivity or pain. There was none.
'What was that liquid the nurse threw at me?' Amanda asked. 'Was it poison? Am I drugged?'
'It was a something to send you to another place. Now please, do not make too much noise. Do not draw any undue attention to yourself. I have to consider what to do next.'
Amanda reached out to touch the prisoner. Make some connection with something solid and human. Her hand grabbed at his wrist, but failed. It felt as if she were sinking her hand into custard, then it passed through his arm. She whipped her hand back, staring at it. She reached out again, this time to his chest. There was slight resistance, and then her hand sank into his body.
'Have I gone insane?' she said aloud.
'What?' The prisoner said, unconcerned that her hand has midway in his chest. 'Insane? Yes. Why not. You're mad and have withdrawn into a fantasy world. You're on some monstrous acid trip.'
Amanda withdrew her hand. 'No. I'm not. I would know insanity. This is not it. I've had bad reactions to a pill or two - and they just leave you feeling sick and demented and not a little paranoid. This is something far wackier - and anyway, you know what's going on, don't you. You knew to call for me and you knew what that muck was that the nurse threw at me. So, what exactly has happened to me?'
'Ok. Brace yourself, because what I am about to explain may be hard to accept.'
'Hard to accept?' She said, eyeing the creature by the door. There are not many things I would find hard to accept at this point.
'You are between our world and one of seven hells. Trapped there by the liquid thrown at you by the nurse.'
'You see, that's not so hard to take in. Nurse, water, and now I'm in a hell.' The demon chewed on a nearby cable and continued to watch Amanda. She narrowed her eyes at it.
'I didn't mean to scare you. It's not a hell as such, no. More of a midway point between the real world and another, darker place. A penumbra between your world and the next.'
'That crazy old coot,' Amanda said, half laughing. She warmed to the memory of the conversation with Mr Loo in his China town emporium. 'He warned me not to risk upsetting the devils.'
'It's important that you don't draw attention to yourself. It is very dangerous where you are.'
'Dangerous?' The creature shifted its weight on the cabinet, stretching bandy legs.
A pause. Harvey whirred around. 'Is there anything with us in the room?'
'Some thing is sitting on the cabinet. It was attached to Kirkwood when I first saw it, treating him like a buffet table. How is Sergeant Kirkwood? The other detective?'
'He's dead, I'm afraid. He freed me and took the nurse through the window.'
'Dead,' Amanda mumbled. She wanted to cry, but couldn't feel anything in her stomach. She couldn't feel the sadness she knew was there.
The demon let out a hiss. Its mouth curved up and it looked as if it was smiling.
'The thing is creeping me out,' she said.
'Keep away from it. I'm going to see someone in Chinatown that may be able to help. I may be some time. But I will return. It is very important that you stay here and do not draw attention to yourself.'
The sepia prisoner left the room and Amanda stared at the colour-splashed demon.
A flicker of movement caught Amanda's eye. Another creature was in the room. This one resembled a shadowy newt running across the top of the wall. Crystalline black skin with pinpoint ruby eyes. The thing ran in an 'S' motion along the edge of the ceiling.
Amanda wasn't the only one who had been attracted to the motion. The other demon watched the newt's passage with the interest of a cat.
'You are one ugly, evil little critter.' Amanda edged around the bed, keeping herself as far away from either creature as she could. Unfortunately, moving was a mistake. The larger demon rose slowly onto its haunches, scratched its belly and regarded her with renewed interest.
'Down boy,' Amanda said, backing against the wall.
The demon hopped onto the bed and walked, like a bowlegged clown, down the length of the bed toward her. Biting down on the bile of panic, her hand reflexively gripped the truncheon still in her hand. The reassuring touch of a telescopic steel baton.
The demon stood at the end of the bed and risked a claw, swiping it at the air in f
ront of her. Amanda gripped the baton, and felt a tingle through her hand and down her arm. The baton illuminated with a soft blue. The demon's eyes widened and its head followed the strip of light, hypnotised by the glow.
With a quick step, Amanda whipped the baton against its head. The creature screamed as it snapped to the side, a smoking crack running over its skull. It reared up and hissed and Amanda struck it again, bringing the baton down solidly on the crown of its head. It slumped onto the bed, lifeless.
The smaller, black carapace newt scuttled from the wall and leapt onto the bed next to the creature. It opened jaws impossibly big for its tiny frame and gnawed its fill.
Amanda panted, long drawn out breaths filling her lungs to painful capacity before exhaling slowly. Whatever the things are that inhabit this place, whether this place is a figment of an insane mind or indeed the next step to hell. At least they could be hurt. This gave her courage. Allowed her to focus on more than the weirdness of the room and her dead colleague. More than the prisoner with a promise to help.
With a growing confidence, Amanda opened the room door. The corridor was empty, but with distant sounds of movement. Amanda stepped out of the room and walked through the grey passages of the hospital. Where there should have been sharp antiseptic smells there was only a stale earthy smell, barely susceptible. Hardly recognisable as Christmas decorations, garlands of dark tinsel were strung throughout the halls.
It was as she remembered from the morning's visit - but with no colour or vibrancy. The place accentuated shadow and dark corners and even the strip lights running along the centre of the hallways were cloudy dim.
The hospital had lost any life and vitality, draped as it was in grey shrouds, darkening in odd blotches throughout. The shapes of sepia people were all around too, either passing her in the corridors or slumped on beds within wards. Everyone shuffled or moped or plodded, seemingly as sapped of energy as they were of colour.
Amanda walked along the halls, looking around in sad amazement. Many of the people had brightly coloured demons clinging to their backs, or their heads, or dangling from various parts of the body. These creatures chattered to each other as their hosts passed in the corridor. They swung playfully from hair, digging claws deep into the flesh to ensure their purchase on their host was secure.
She moved closer to a particularly large demon who clung to the back of a doctor. It's green, warty carapace shone with greasy yellow boils, and its large blood-drip eyes regarded her with contempt. The doctor, whom the demon was sitting on, bent over and gobbled some pills from her pocket. The demon seemed to preen and squeal with delight, scratching at the doctor's neck and chest. Amanda edged closer, curious at the horror of what was happening. Suddenly, it hissed a mouthful of razor teeth at her, spitting and snarling. Amanda leapt back, slamming into the opposite wall. The thing on the doctors back continued to hiss as the doctor staggered on her way into a children's ward. Amanda's last glimpse was of the thing glaring at her, defying her to approach again.
The hospital waiting area was gloomy and dark. Huddled people sat in uncomfortable chairs. Most of them had a colourful glittering demon clutching to them. Amanda walked by and out through the open doors, careful not to approach too close to any of the demons, who were obviously unsettled by her presence.
The streets of London were as drab as ever. The grey landscape bleaching what little colour the city had. A clotted sky diffused any shadows with an overcast light so that far away objects and buildings seemed to merge together and it was difficult to perceive any sense of depth or distance.
The people too seemed to merge together. Like a grey mercury stream that softened features and individualism and allowed a blending into the greater mass. Some individuals managed to break free of the clinging form, to slouch briefly in the lank streets, only to be pulled once more back into the mass as a flow caught them up and moved in the same direction.
A leaden figure, a small girl from the height and indistinct clothes, stumbled in front of Amanda, and she instinctively reached out to help her. A hissing claw narrowly missed her arm as an imp, clinging to the girl, scratched out. Another imp, a twin to the first and perched on the same child, joined its kin, furiously clawing at the air inches from Amanda. The small figure regained her balance, half pulled to her feet by a matronly woman leading her by the hand, a fat, sparkling blue demon riding atop the woman's shoulders.
'Why does she have two of those things?' Amanda said out loud. No one answered her.
She watched the young girl, her feet dragging, as she was led down the street. The two demons sank their claws deep into the girls back and shoulders.
Unbidden, Amanda followed.
The girl and her ward stopped outside an imposing building. Thick black threads clung to it like vines, dark cracks running up the walls and windows. It was a bank, a hunched and crooked doorway leading into an inky interior.
The little girl with the twin demons was dragged inside and swallowed up by the gloom. Biting hard on her lip, Amanda walked up to the bank and followed into the foreboding darkness.