just by seeing them lying next to him. His dancing took on a new energy as he let his feelings for Laura guide his creativity electrifying in his solo performances and choreographies.
His house had been transformed into a blissful paradise - despite the creeping expansion of pink fluffy cushions throughout the living room. The only real downside to her moving in was the availability of her Disney films and that miserable cat of hers. Tinkerbell, the stuck-up Tabby had quickly made herself at home, taking liberties at every opportunity. It made a point of sitting on the kitchen worktops when Connor was preparing food and became quite rude when he lifted it down onto the floor. Apart from the kitchen, Tinkerbell refused to share any other room with Connor and it would make a show of getting up and leaving at the first sign of him.
“She’s never like this with anyone else” Laura explained indulging the moggy with an affectionate tickle on the cheek. Tinkerbell purred loudly pushing her head into Laura’s leg whilst seeming to glare at Connor from its evil emotionless eyes. Connor resisted the urge to whisper, “I don’t believe in fairies” – he didn’t want to stoop to her level!
Tonight though, Connor had had to endure a marathon of all three Aladdin films and he now lay in bed listening to Laura breathing whilst trying to get the tune of ‘A Whole New World’ out of his head. Her breathing became slower and deeper as she slowly drifted into sleep. It was a soothing sound, almost hypnotic and Connor was soon on the edge of sleep himself but not quite relaxed enough to slip into a deep slumber. The song was still wailing on as he was carried away on a shallow tide of uneasy dreams.
He didn’t sleep well and as he turned over for what felt like the hundredth time he guessed he must have finally been asleep for a little while but not noticed it because the room was that much darker all of a sudden. It didn’t feel as if any time had passed and he couldn’t remember any dreams but he knew he had had them. Sensations, more than images lingered at the edge of his consciousness leaving a cloying, sickly sensation in his head like a mental nausea. Thankfully that song in his head had stopped but it had been replaced by the early signs of a headache which now throbbed with a dull ache at the back of his mind.
Then he smelled it!
The familiar rotten odour like long discarded takeaway trays wafted up his nostrils. The stench of disease and decay stung the back of his nose and he froze. Connor didn’t dare to move as he recognised the tell-tale pressure in his head for what it signified. There was no mistaking it; something had come through from the other world.
Connor eased his right hand up, still under the covers so as not to alert whatever it was that he was awake. Then he heard the words he had dreaded for the last eighteen months:
“I’ve been looking for you, Connor True”.
Connor tensed. The unmistakable voice sounded more terrifying now than it had done when he first heard it in his premonition back in Nazrul’s restaurant. The words dripped with a poison that chilled him to the core, yet also sparked a vicious determination to survive.
Laura! He suddenly regretted ever having asked her to move in with him. He pushed those thoughts aside; they weren’t useful, he realised as his training rushed back to him in an instant, banishing the last vestiges of sleep with a surge of adrenalin.
Go Connor, just dance man!
Connor didn’t look, he knew where Abiku would be standing and in less than a second the demon would spring onto the bed, as he had foreseen. Connor wasted no time: In one fluid motion he rolled off the bed, landing on his knees and snatching up the blade from under the bed.
Darkness seemed to emanate from the demon as she leapt onto the spot he had just vacated. As he rose to his feet Abiku turned and regarded him with red eyes that burned like twin furnaces, from under the black voluminous hood that hid her strangely alluring face. The demon seemed to tower over Connor appearing over twenty feet tall, yet at the same time containing itself within the confines of his bedroom. Connor was so scared it felt as if his skin was shrinking.
Laura turned over in her sleep, mumbling about the covers being pulled off her and Abiku looked down at this new victim. Connor saw his opening and with well-practiced ease he lunged forward as his training took over. He drove the blade straight, driving it towards Abiku’s heart, or where he thought the heart would be. He put all his strength behind the thrust but the blade never came close to the demon’s flesh. Abiku, without taking her eyes off Laura, stretched out a clawed hand casually caught the blade, holding it fast. Connor tried to pull it back, push it forward, prise it free but it would not move.
Then he became aware of Laura’s screaming.
Abiku had reached down and was lifting her up by her hair. Her exotic eyes and exquisite face was now screwed up in a collision of agony and terror. Like a beautiful work of art being defaced before him Connor felt repulsion and an urge for vengeance on every level of his being. Laura was grabbing at the demons talons as it lifted her up out of the bed so her legs were left kicking frantically on top of the covers. Abiku laughed hungrily as she regarded her second victim up close.
“Connor, Connor, what’s happening” Laura shrieked before Abiku smacked her head against the wall and she fell silent. Laura immediately stopped struggling and hung limply like a rag doll in the demon’s clawed hand.
As Abiku dropped her back onto the bed Connor saw the red stain spattered against the wall where her head had hit it. Something swelled within him; something painful and sad, swallowing all other emotion and smothering his rational mind. He cried out a challenge. His fear and rage burned though his throat and Abiku looked down at him and then glanced at the blade pointed towards her in mild surprise as if she had forgotten it was there.
“I so enjoy it when they struggle” Abiku gurgled to herself and without warning the blade shattered into a thousand pieces. Tiny black fragments of the demon blade fell to the floor like black rain and Connor’s hand closed on empty air from where the handle had been.
Connor stepped back a pace as Abiku flowed down from the bed with a cat-like grace. Connor looked around his room desperately searching for something he could use as a weapon but there was nothing that would inflict any harm; just books on computer programming; DVD’s of Maximum Impact performances; programs from Sheffield United’s recent matches. Instead he turned inwards and opened his psychic doorway onto the future. If he could see what Abiku would do before she did it he would have at least some chance to getting out of this. But instead of opening onto the future his door was already ajar, exposing his vulnerable mind to the other world. In the eerie pale light from that terrible realm Connor could see shadows moving. Silhouettes dancing like Chinese theatre puppets. It wasn’t just one but several - dozens in fact.
Abiku was not alone. More creatures from the Afterlife were coming for him.
Gritting his teeth Connor backed away further until he came up against the wall. The horde of black nightmare shapes were creeping closer and he would soon feel them squirming through his head like maggots burrowing through a corpse as they crossed over into the real world, into his bedroom to tear him apart and feast upon his soul.
Abiku swayed towards him her clawed hands reaching out, her eyes burning with dark magic. Connors limbs felt heavy and clumsy, weighed down by the horror of what was coming for him. With nowhere else to go he raised his fists in a fighting stance. The futility of the act was irrelevant: He had decided some time ago that he would not submit to the demon easily but he couldn’t help wishing that the fight would not last long because he knew his suffering would be eternal.
To be concluded in Book eight of the Connor True Series: True Spirit
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About Andy Morris
Andy has been writing short stories on and off for most of his life. He has had many stories published on various websites
and in both print and electronic magazines. Andy currently lives near the south coast of England with his beautiful wife and two amazing kids.
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Discover Other Titles by Andy Morris
CONNOR TRUE SERIES
Book 1: Dreams Come True
Book 2: Strange But True
Book 3: True Calling
Book 4: True Grit
Book 5: Forever True
Book 6: Too Good to be True
Book 7: True Believers
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Black Cat Tales: Where the Spiders Dwell and Other Short Stories
Black Cat Tales: Black Anne and other Short Stories
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