‘She shouldn’t have gone across to the bar on her own,’ said Valerie.
‘She needed a drink,’ said Jimmy. His mouth twitched briefly. ‘I always said it would be the death of her … But then she didn’t have anything else.’
‘She had her faith,’ said Valerie. ‘She was the one who brought Thomas into the Church in the first place. She knew it would be good for him. But her faith wasn’t enough to protect her in this awful place. And the blessings we put down together weren’t enough to save her, either. What could we have done to deserve this? What sins from our past could possibly justify what’s been happening here?’
‘If the demon was after us because of our sins, I would have been taken first,’ said Jimmy.
Valerie managed a quick smile for him. ‘You can’t stand the thought of anyone being worse than you, can you?’
‘A man has his pride,’ said Jimmy.
‘The demon only strikes when one of us is out of everyone else’s sight,’ I said. ‘If each of us stays in plain sight of everyone else, it will have to step out into the light and reveal itself.’
‘You say that as if you think that’s a good thing!’ said Jimmy.
‘If I can see it, I can get my hands on it,’ I said.
‘You honestly believe you can fight a demon?’ said Valerie.
‘I have to believe that,’ I said. ‘That’s what my whole life has been about.’
‘Ishmael has fought some very dangerous things in his time,’ said Penny. ‘And he’s still here, while they’re not. That should tell you something.’
‘What if it’s already here but we can’t see it?’ said Jimmy. ‘Because it’s too much for our human minds to cope with. How can you fight something you’re not capable of seeing or understanding …’
‘This is no time to give up hope,’ I said sternly.
‘You will tell me when it is time, won’t you?’ said Jimmy. ‘I’d hate to miss it.’
He was trying to be flippant, but his heart wasn’t in it. He smiled briefly at Valerie.
‘Maybe if you and I hold hands and refuse to let go, the demon will have to take both of us together. I don’t think I’d feel so bad if we were to disappear at the same time. Wherever we end up, it might not be so bad if we’re together.’
‘All these years and you wait till now to learn how to be romantic!’ said Valerie.
‘Amazing what stress and sheer terror can bring out of you …’ said Jimmy.
‘Hold my hand and never let go,’ said Valerie. ‘And whatever happens, I will never let go of you.’
They clasped hands and stood together, smiling into each other’s eyes. Penny moved in close beside me, so we could talk quietly while they were busy immersed in each other.
‘We can’t stay here, Ishmael.’
‘We only stayed because Eileen refused to leave,’ I said. ‘Now she’s gone, I suppose there’s nothing to keep us here.’
Jimmy’s head snapped round. ‘I heard that! Is that all Eileen’s disappearance means to you? One less obstacle to doing what you want?’
‘You can’t honestly want to stay in this awful place,’ said Penny.
‘What if it was our trying to leave that made the demon take Eileen?’ said Valerie. ‘Nothing had happened for ages until we tried to escape.’
‘You can’t be serious!’ I said.
‘Try me!’ said Valerie. ‘We should never have listened to you.’
Jimmy smiled sourly at me. ‘So that makes all of this your fault, Mister I’m the One in Charge.’
‘We won’t go,’ Valerie said flatly. ‘It’s not safe out there. At least in here we’ve got a chance. Jimmy and I are staying put. You can’t make us leave …’
‘I don’t think we’d be allowed to leave anyway,’ said Jimmy. ‘The demon would stop us, somehow.’
‘We can’t be sure of that,’ I said.
‘Yes we can!’ said Valerie. ‘Look around you, look at where the rest of us used to be!’
‘We all need to sit down,’ said Penny, carefully keeping her voice calm and reasonable, even though I could tell she was getting a bit tired of having to do that. ‘It’s been a long evening and we’re all worn down.’
‘We should never have come here,’ said Jimmy. ‘Like lambs to the slaughter.’
He led Valerie by the hand to the table, where they sat down heavily in their accustomed places. Penny and I joined them. And for a long moment we all just sat there, looking at each other.
‘Do you think we’ll die when the demon takes us?’ Valerie said finally.
‘I hope so,’ said Jimmy. ‘At least all this madness will be over then and I won’t have to feel so scared all the time.’
‘There’s no evidence anyone is dead,’ I said.
‘Evidence?’ said Valerie, her voice dangerously angry. ‘You keep going on about proof and evidence! You really think things like that matter now?’
‘They always matter,’ I said. ‘That’s how we understand the world and what’s happening in it.’
‘I think we’ve moved way beyond that!’ said Jimmy. ‘This isn’t the world I thought I knew.’
‘There is a demon …’ said Valerie. ‘And it will come for us.’
‘Then it had better kill me straight off,’ I said. ‘Because otherwise I will beat it to death with my bare hands. And if the others are still alive, even if they’re in some other world, I will find a way to bring them home.’
‘He means it,’ Penny said brightly. ‘Isn’t he marvellous?’
‘Men don’t kill demons,’ said Valerie.
‘Then we’d better hope it’s an alien,’ I said.
‘I could be dead before morning comes,’ said Jimmy, almost wistfully. ‘There’s a thought I didn’t expect to be having when I got out of bed this morning … Hell, I never thought I’d have to think about dying for years and years yet! I never even got around to making a will.’
‘In my line of work you can’t avoid thinking about it,’ said Valerie. ‘A lot of the old-time stories are really nothing more than extended metaphors for death and how to deal with it. I suppose it won’t be so bad when we go, because we won’t be leaving anyone behind.’
‘That just makes it worse!’ said Jimmy. ‘No one left to give a damn that we’re gone … As if our lives have made no mark on the world at all.’
‘I’ll care when you’re dead,’ said Valerie.
‘And I will care about you,’ said Jimmy. ‘Though the way things are going, not for long.’
‘I never thought my life would end like this,’ I said. ‘Sitting around helplessly, trapped by an unseen enemy for no reason I can understand.’
‘I wonder what the Colonel will say when we’re gone?’ said Penny. She glanced at Jimmy and Valerie. ‘Our boss.’
‘Something irritated, no doubt,’ I said. ‘He’ll miss us, right up to the point where he picks someone else to do our job.’
‘For a long time after the rest of my family were killed,’ said Penny, ‘I didn’t know how to feel. I kept wondering why I’d survived when everyone else had died. Why did I deserve to live? And then I realized. I lived because you saved me, Ishmael. So I decided I would justify my survival by working with you and saving others. I like to think I’ve made a difference. And we had fun, didn’t we, Ishmael, defying the forces of darkness and doing things that mattered?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘We did.’
Jimmy laughed harshly. There wasn’t much humour in the sound. ‘All those things I meant to do with my life! And I never did any of them because I was too busy doing other things.’
‘You made a good living writing for the local paper,’ said Valerie. ‘Your work was always very … readable.’
‘Oh, please!’ said Jimmy. He didn’t actually curl his lip, but he sounded like he wanted to. ‘All I ever did was fill in the gaps between the adverts. Nothing I wrote ever mattered, never changed anything for the better. I did none of the things you’re supposed to do when you’re
a journalist. When I’m gone and someone else takes over, the readers won’t even notice. Except that the horoscopes will probably be a bit less depressing.’
‘At least you got published,’ said Valerie. ‘All those books I meant to write, and I never even started one! I kept telling myself it was because I needed to do more research so I could produce the definitive account … But I was just putting off starting because I had no faith in my ability to do a decent job.’
‘I had faith in you,’ said Jimmy. ‘I loved to hear you talk about the stuff you dug up. The old stories that everyone else had forgotten, and all your new insights into what they really meant. Out of all of us, I always believed you’d be the one to achieve something. To break out, get away, and be someone.’
‘You should have told me,’ said Valerie.
‘I thought you knew,’ said Jimmy.
They held hands tightly, clasped together on the table top. They only had eyes for each other, so it was just as well Penny and I were keeping a watchful eye on our surroundings.
‘What if we go to a better place?’ Valerie said suddenly. We all looked at her, but she pressed on stubbornly. ‘What if the demon takes us through its door, to its world … and it turns out to be a better world? We’ve all been assuming it’s somewhere terrible, but … what if it’s some kind of guardian angel and this is a rescue mission?’
There was a long pause as we all considered this new idea.
‘If believing that makes you feel any better, you go right ahead,’ Jimmy said finally.
‘You don’t?’ said Valerie.
‘It doesn’t seem very likely, does it?’ Jimmy said kindly.
‘We should arm ourselves,’ Penny said firmly. ‘So we’re in a position to fight back, whatever happens …’
‘Arm ourselves?’ said Jimmy. ‘What with? Kitchen knives? Meat tenderizers? To take on something so powerful it can drag people away in complete silence, with not even a sign of a struggle?’
‘That’s your great idea, is it?’ said Valerie. ‘Make the demon angry? Aren’t we in enough trouble as it is?’
‘What else could it do to us?’ said Penny.
‘You really want to find out?’ said Valerie.
‘The best way to fight the demon is to make it impossible for it to take us,’ I said. ‘There’s only four of us left now. Which makes it harder for the demon to trick us, or persuade us to go off on our own. We know better, now.’
‘So did Eileen and Albert,’ said Jimmy. ‘And they still went.’
‘We have to stick together,’ said Penny. ‘Be strong together.’
‘I don’t feel strong any more,’ said Jimmy. ‘Not that I ever did. I can’t stand not knowing when my time will come. I just want it to be over, one way or another.’
‘No you don’t,’ Valerie said firmly. ‘That would be letting the demon win, and after everything that little shit has put us through I’m damned if I’ll let it beat us. Man up, Jimmy! Our friends are gone. Be angry, like me.’
‘I can’t,’ said Jimmy. ‘There’s not enough of me left.’
Valerie was holding Jimmy’s hand firmly in both of hers and staring into his eyes. He was trying to care, for her sake. Penny was scowling, thinking hard. I sat back in my chair and looked round the dining room yet again. Searching for something, any small thing I might have missed. The candle-lit room looked back at me, calm and quiet and subtly menacing. Like it knew something I didn’t.
‘Be honest with us, Ishmael,’ said Jimmy. ‘You and Penny have encountered weird shit before, haven’t you? I can tell, because you’re not freaking out like the rest of us. Have you ever come across anything like this?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Not like this. It’s a mystery. But I will find the answer to what’s going on. It’s what I do.’
‘It is. It really is,’ said Penny. ‘And he’s very good at it.’
‘I think Olivia and Albert and Thomas and Eileen might choose to disagree,’ said Jimmy, ‘if they were still here.’
‘If the old stories teach us anything,’ Valerie said slowly, ‘it’s that some mysteries have no answer. That’s why the stories get passed down from generation to generation. Because the truth contained in them is just too big for us.’
‘I’ve never believed that,’ I said, a little more forcefully than I intended. ‘Every mystery has an answer, every puzzle a solution. If we just dig deep enough and don’t give up.’
‘I’d like to give up,’ said Jimmy. ‘I can’t help thinking it would feel really good to throw in the towel and stop struggling. To be able to relax at last, and not have to worry about anything.’
‘You’ll do no such thing!’ Valerie said immediately. ‘Because if you stop fighting, I’m lost as well.’
Jimmy smiled at her ruefully. ‘You always did fight dirty, Val. You know I’d rather die than let you down.’
‘Yes,’ said Valerie. ‘I’ve always known that.’
‘Why did we break up?’ said Jimmy.
‘Because you’re impossible to live with,’ said Valerie.
‘Really?’ said Jimmy. ‘I thought that was you.’
Valerie leaned forward, so their heads were close together. ‘If we do somehow survive this, I am never letting go of you again.’
‘You had to say “if”, didn’t you?’ said Jimmy.
They laughed quietly together. Jimmy looked at me.
‘How long have you and Penny been an item?’
‘Just under four years,’ Penny said briskly. ‘It’s never any good asking Ishmael about things like that, he’s never been any good about dates. He’d forget our anniversary if I let him. Ishmael isn’t the easiest person to live with either, but I can’t imagine life without him.’
‘You may have to,’ said Jimmy. ‘If he disappears before you do.’
‘If he does, I’ll go after him and bring him back,’ said Penny.
‘She would, too,’ I said.
‘Good luck with that!’ said Jimmy.
‘Jimmy!’ said Valerie.
‘People have been saying my name in exactly that tone of voice for years,’ said Jimmy. ‘And I’ve never understood why.’
‘You’re the only one who doesn’t,’ said Valerie. And then she stopped, as a thought struck her. ‘Albert and Olivia are gone, Thomas and Eileen are gone. That’s two couples. And now there are two couples left.’
Jimmy looked at her sharply. ‘You think that means something?’
‘It has to mean something,’ said Valerie. ‘Everything has to mean something. It’s the only hope we’ve got.’
‘The others weren’t taken as couples,’ I said. ‘They went separately. Not even one after the other.’
‘All right,’ said Jimmy. ‘It’s my turn to have an idea. If the demon wants couples, why don’t you and Penny volunteer to be taken? If you went willingly, that might please the demon so much it would let Val and me go.’
‘Jimmy!’ said Valerie. She sounded honestly outraged, but I couldn’t help noticing the speculative look she turned on me and Penny.
‘You really think that would work?’ I said.
‘I’d sacrifice the two of you to save Valerie,’ said Jimmy.
‘I wouldn’t want that,’ said Valerie.
‘I’d do it anyway,’ said Jimmy. ‘Because I’d rather have you around to be mad at me than not have you at all. Because you matter to me, and they don’t.’
‘That’s actually rather sweet, in a heartless sort of way,’ said Valerie.
‘I thought so,’ said Jimmy.
‘Don’t we get a say in this?’ said Penny.
‘Of course!’ Jimmy said earnestly. ‘That’s the whole point. A willing sacrifice. Like throwing a virgin into the volcano to appease the gods … Ishmael keeps saying he’ll do anything to protect us. This is his chance to prove it.’
‘You’re grasping at straws,’ I said. ‘Still … our unseen enemy does like to make a point of staying unseen while he works. Maybe volunteering to be taken tog
ether, while remaining in the light, would be enough to tempt the demon out of hiding.’
Penny stared at me. ‘You’re not seriously considering this, are you?’
‘I’m asking you to do this because it’s the right thing to do,’ I said. ‘And because I’m damned if I can think of anything else.’
‘Oh hell!’ said Penny. ‘If you put it like that … Go for it, space boy!’
‘On it, spy girl,’ I said.
‘I hate cutesy nicknames,’ said Jimmy.
I walked into the middle of the room, and Penny came with me.
‘I need to fight back,’ I said quietly.
‘I know,’ said Penny. ‘I’m in the mood to kick the crap out of something.’
‘Never knew you when you weren’t,’ I said generously.
‘You say the sweetest things, darling,’ said Penny. ‘Shall we make a start in the kitchen? It’s the only location from which two people have vanished.’
I moved over to the closed kitchen door and kicked it all the way open. The kitchen was full of shadows, but candlelight spilled in from the dining room. The floor was covered with wreckage, and some of the fittings hung drunkenly away from the walls. The whole place looked like a raging storm had hit it, and in a way it had. Penny squeezed into the doorway beside me. As much for company as to show solidarity. I heard Valerie push her chair back, get to her feet, and head in our direction.
‘Val! No!’ Jimmy yelled at her loudly.
‘I need to know what’s happening,’ said Valerie. But her footsteps stopped a cautious distance short of Penny and me.
I heard Jimmy push back his chair. ‘Stay where you are, Val. I’m coming to join you. I don’t want us to be separated, even for a minute.’
‘Don’t start getting clingy, Jimmy,’ said Valerie. ‘I’m beginning to remember why we split up. I can look after myself.’
‘Just wait for me,’ said Jimmy. ‘And then you can look after both of us.’
‘Stay together,’ I said loudly, not looking back from the kitchen. ‘Penny and I are the bait. That’s the point.’
‘And if it should all kick off,’ said Penny, ‘Ishmael is going to need room to work. You don’t want to get demon blood on you, do you?’
‘I could live with that,’ said Jimmy.