After the figure disappeared into the darkness, I checked the time and rubbed my eyes. I stepped into the underground station and then straight back out again and I jogged to the bus. I had to check on Merry. I wouldn’t sleep if I didn’t.
I sat up top and tapped my legs until the bus pulled out onto the road. The abandoned warehouses went by cloaked in the dark of night. The same rhythmic thud from the building under the spotlights broke the silence of the night.
I got out at the same stop as I had when we went for breakfast. I navigated to the alley and down the hill and to Rogerios. The sign lit up like a beacon on an otherwise dark street. I looked across to where the man has been in the coat and the hat. There was no one standing on the corner now, only regular folk coming and going.
I checked the time again. I calculated the time to my next shift and subtracted how long it would take to get home. Home and bed would be nice, but I could not ignore the rising dread in my stomach, the sort you feel when you know you’ve made a mistake but aren’t quite sure what the consequences might be. Something wasn’t right with Merry. She hadn’t asked me over on account of my looks or my charm. She had been scared. She was asking for help.
I hurried the couple of blocks to her street and was out of breath when I made it. I turned down her street and stopped at the gate guarding the terraced house that had been carved up into apartments. The sensor light clicked on. Merry’s window faced the road. The blind was down.
I opened the gate and went to the side and to the box attached to the brick wall. My finger hovered over the button or the first floor. The box had a little speaker. Even if she didn’t let me up, even if she told me to get lost, I’d feel better hearing her voice. Knowing she was ok would relieve a weight and I could put it out of my mind. Or so I hoped.
Wait. What was the time? It was still too early. No one would be awake. Sometimes when you work nights you forget that everyone else works on a different schedule. But Merry’s roommate would be up soon. Then the light would turn on and I could press the buzzer.
I went back to the road and looked each way and then to the sky. No moon and no stars. The sky was a blanket of darkness. The damp from the rain the day before lingered and reflected the streetlights. I walked far enough away from the house that the sensor light turned off.
I stood in the street feeling foolish. I considered heading to Rogerios and ordering some more pancakes. But then I might miss Fay. But equally standing in the street at this time of morning would raise suspicion. I crossed the road and walked the street until the apartment was almost out of view and then turned and walked back the other way, pacing back and forth.
Cars and taxis and the occasional van drove by and I kicked at the small stones flicked onto the footpath by passing traffic. An elderly man shuffled down the footpath behind a small dog straining to go faster. The dog sniffed for a place to piss and chose a brick letterbox.
On what must have been the hundredth time passing the apartment the light in the kitchen flicked on. I ran to the apartment but as I came up to it the light turned back off. Had someone gone for a glass of water and then gone back to bed?
From behind the door came the sound of footsteps. A thin girl in skin tight jeans opened the door. She jumped and let out a shriek at the sight of me standing there on the doorstep. I held up my palms.
“Do you live here?”
“What’s it to you?” She fumbled her keys and took a step back towards the stairwell and safety.
“Do you know the girl in the first floor flat? Merry.”
“Are you her boyfriend or something?”
“No. I work with her. She wasn’t in today. I wanted to see if she was ok.”
“Are you some sort of creep?”
“I know how this looks, but if you could check on her.”
“You should call her.”
“I don’t have her number.”
“You are a creep. You need to leave before I call the police.” She pulled out her phone to show me she was serious.
“All I want is for you to go up and look in on her and make sure she is ok. She sleeps with the light on so you’ll see her.”
“How do you know that?”
“I was with her last night.”
She rolled her eyes. “I thought I heard something. If she wants you to come over then she’ll invite you.”
“I don’t want to go up there. I’ll wait here. Just check on her for me.”
Fay checked the time and sighed. “Wait here.” She closed the door behind her and I heard the muffled thud of her footsteps on the stairs.
I rubbed my eyes and stepped away from the building and looked up at the window. Then I heard a scream. Footsteps thudded down the stairs and the door burst open and Fay stood in the doorway panting and wide eyed.
“There’s something up there,” she said.
I pushed past her and took the steps two at a time. The door to Merry’s apartment was open. I almost slipped turning from the living room and stood at the top of the hall. The door to Merry’s room was open. Merry lay contorted on the bed. One leg protruded from the covers and her head tilted all the way back so that she was looking up at the ceiling. Her eyes were open but she did not move. In front of the bed lay a crumpled coat. On top of the coat was a hat, the kind you might expect to see in an old Hollywood movie.
I took a step towards Merry’s room. Something in there hissed. It sounded like a snake but came rhythmically and at the pace of breathing of someone who had just done a swift lap around the block. The sound did not come from Merry. She lay silent and still.
A foreign limb slid into the door opening and snatched up the coat and the hat from the floor. The limb was shaped like the wing of a bat but the skin was white. On the white skin were thin red veins, hundreds of them snaking and forking in all directions. It grasped the coat and hat with three slender digits ending in black claws.
“What the fuck.”
The sound of Fay on the phone came from behind. She had called the police. I took a step back and turned so I could see the open front door. Fay stood in the doorway her phone pressed to her ear. It came to me too late that I stood between whatever was in Merry’s room and its escape.
A gentle tapping sound sent my already racing heart into overdrive. My head snapped back to the doorway to Merry’s room. It had moved to the doorway. It was naked and its legs and torso were almost human like, but too thin and too angular - there was something about the bone structure that didn’t look right. It’s entire body was white and covered in red veins. Pure black eyes looked like they were painted on and apart from a small slit where the mouth should be, the rest of the head was smooth and white.
The creature waited a beat and advanced. I scanned my immediate vicinity for something to use as a weapon. The Spartan apartment yielded nothing. I shoved my hand in my pocket and grabbed my keys. The creature had only a few paces of ground to make up. It staggered as if it was drunk or disoriented. I made a fist around my keys and thumbed the big brass front door key such that it protruded like a thorn on a rose stem. The creature swept a white wing and I lashed out with my closed fist and felt the key grab in the skin. The creature recoiled and shrieked and my head filled with pain. It was as if the sound was being fed not via my ears but directly to my brain. I pulled my hands up to my head and fell to my back. The creature stepped over me dragging a thigh over my forehead. The texture felt like a tongue sapped of moisture with thousands of tiny granules. It went for the kitchen window and leapt out head first and I heard a dull thud and the shrieking inside my head ceased. A trail of blood led from the hall across the kitchen floor and to the window.
Footsteps came and went. It was Fay. She had her phone to her ear and she described the scene to whomever was at the other end of the line. She went to Merry.
“I don’t know if she’s breathing,” she said.
Fay knelt beside the stricken Merry, still laying unresponsive on the bed. Fay held the back of her hand over Merry’s mouth.
“She’s breathing.”
I staggered to my feet and followed the trail of blood to the window. Outside there was no one. I felt a pain in my hand. I unfurled my fingers and I’d been holding my keys so tight they had drawn blood on my palm. A couple of drops fell to the floor beside the drops left by the creature. I put the keys back in my pocket and washed my hand in the sink.
“What the fuck was that?” Fay sat on the bed with her legs folded in front of her and used them to support Merry’s head. “What the fuck was that?” I could hear the muffled voice coming through the speaker on her phone telling her to stay calm.
“I have no idea.”
“What did it do to her?”
“I don’t know.”
Merry’s head jerked sideways and she groaned. Fay leaned forward and wrapped an arm around Merry’s neck and stroked her hair. I wanted to do something to help but I couldn’t think of anything, so I just stood there.
Beside the lamp on the small table lay a needle with a few drops lingering in the plunger.
Then came the sirens blaring through the open window.
“They’re here,” Fay said. The person on the other end told Fay to stay on the line but she didn’t listen and hung up the phone. A second set of sirens followed. An ambulance.
“Go and get them.” Fay pointed to the opposite wall.
I descended the stairs in a daze. Two police officers had already exited the car and I made eye contact and pointed them to the open door and the stairs. The first officer reached me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Where is the woman who made the call?”
“Upstairs.”
“Are you hurt?”
I looked down at my hand dripping blood onto the pavement. I balled my hand into a fist. “No.”
I followed them up and shrunk into the corner while the apartment filled with more and more uniformed personnel. They strapped Merry to a stretcher and carried her down the narrow staircase. At the sight of the blood trail and the needle, the police officers started taking photos and soon led Fay and I out of the apartment and onto the street. We were separated and asked what happened. I told my version to a young officer who raised his eyebrows when I got to the part about the creature and he stopped writing in his notebook and flicked it shut and put it in his pocket.
“I know how this sounds,” I said. “I wouldn’t believe it either.”
Beside the gate separating the property from the street, Fay slumped down and leaned against the fence post. She buried her head in her hands. The officer knelt over her and put a hand on her shoulder. The sky brightened and sunrise came.
At the station they tested us for drugs and alcohol. They led me to a small room with a single table pushed into the corner surrounded by three chairs. I sat there for about half an hour and then two officers entered. One was the young officer who took my statement outside the apartment and the other didn’t seem much older, but she carried herself with a surety her colleague lacked. She pulled a chair close to mine and leaned forward, her green eyes locking onto mine. The senior officer did all the talking leaving the other to take notes.
“I’m officer Tilley and you’ve already met officer Richards.”
“Am I going to be here much longer?”
“Do you have somewhere to be?”
“I work nights. My shift starts in a few hours and I haven’t slept.”
“You don’t think after the day you’ve had you might want to call in sick tonight?”
“We need a doctor’s certificate and I don’t think I’ll get one.”
“I can write you a note.”
I pictured the notice hung on the wall outlining acceptable excuses for absence. Police interview wasn’t there.
The officer continued. “We won’t keep you much longer. Officer Richards has told me your story. If you wouldn’t mind running us through it one more time.”
“I saw what I saw. I know how it sounds.”
“I just want it to sound like the truth and to hear it from you.”
I told Officer Tilley everything, starting from the night previous and Merry’s strange request that I stay in her room. Tilley listened patiently until I came to the part of the story where the creature came at me in the hallway.
“You say you cut it?” Tilley said.
“I think so.”
“The blood we found on the floor?”
“Is from whatever that thing was. There might be some of mine in there too. I cut my hand with the keys.”
Tilley tapped at her thigh. She ran a hand over her pulled back hair and sighed. The pen in Officer Richard’s hand stopped scribbling and he looked up at her.
“A couple more questions for the record. Do you use drugs James?”
“No.”
“You on any medication?”
“I didn’t dream this. This was no hallucination. Ask Fay, she saw it too.”
“Did you ever see Merry take drugs, or hear her mention it?”
“No. There was a needle in her room. I saw it when I walked in.”
“The hospital detected trace amounts of heroin in her system.”
“Heroin? I had no idea she did that. Did she overdose or something.”
“The hospital says she only had a trace amount in her blood. Whatever caused her to be unresponsive wasn’t that.”
“Do they know what was wrong? Is she going to be ok?”
“I don’t have any more information. The interview is over, you’re free to go.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. If we need anything else we’ll call. You’re not planning any trips away?”
“No.”
The sun dropped towards the horizon. A light drizzle fell. I checked the time and I could make it home for a shower and a change of clothes and get to work before my shift started. I wished I could call in sick but I didn’t have time to get to a doctor and even if I did what would I tell them? I need a night off because I just saw a monster? It wouldn’t wash with the doctor and it wouldn’t wash with Keith and as shitty as my job was, I needed it. There was barely anything in my bank account at the end of each fortnight. I walked a tightrope requiring I be constantly employed.
I rode the train home and the rumble and rocking of the carriage almost sent me to sleep. At each stop the warning alarm on the closing doors snapped me awake again like an alarm clock.
The platform was busy. It was approaching peak hour for the folk doing regular hours and they were all heading home. I walked with the flow of the crowd and kept my eyes to the ground in front. The rain fell heavier from the black sky. A tall man pushed past me and brushed my shoulder. I turned back in annoyance but the tall man kept walking. I turned back to the feet in front and eye caught something in the crowd. In among the sea of bobbing heads there was someone in a hat. The kind you would expect to see in an old time Hollywood movie.
“It can’t be.”
Dread crept up in my stomach. I wanted to turn and look again. Maybe I’d see the hat belonged to a normal guy going about his normal life. Or maybe I’d see there was no hat at all and my mind was playing tricks. I had hardly slept the last couple of days. And I’d just lived through a real life nightmare.
I quickened my pace. I made it to the automatic gates and pressed my card against the reader and smashed my knee against the doors before they had a chance to open. I took a right out of the station and had to jump over the upturned hat placed in front of the beggar who occupied the corner with his dog. I had to cross the street but was greeted by the obdurate little red man on the don’t walk sign. I couldn’t wait. I saw a small gap in traffic and skipped out onto the street. Horns blared and I made it to the raised strip in the centre. I held up my hand to the oncoming traffic and skipped the rest of the way. Someone shouted, the sound coming dull through the rain, but I dared not look back.
It was two more blocks and then a left turn onto my street. I had never covered it in less time. I was almost sprinting when I reached the door. I looked back over my shoulder. And there it was. The figure in the coat and the hat. It knew where I lived.
“Fuck.”
My hands shook and I fumbled my keys until the lock gave way. I closed the door behind me and stood in the stairwell with my back pressed against the door. I climbed the stairs to the apartment.
No one was home. On any other day an empty apartment would have made me happy. No awkward dance in the small kitchen space. No bullshit small talk. I craved time to myself. But not today. Not when it was dark out and that thing was at the end of the road and seeking retribution for the cut arm or wing or whatever the hell it was.
I went to my room. Like Merry’s room, mine looked out over the road. I left the room dark and opened the curtains and watched the street. Nothing. At Merry’s it had come through the window in the back. At the back of my apartment two rooms overlooked the garden at the rear. The bedroom of the couple who owned the place and the lounge room. Both had big windows. Both would be locked. But maybe that didn’t matter to this thing.
A key worked in the lock and the front door opened and closed. It was one of the Italians I lived with. If it was him he’d go to the kitchen first and then the lounge. If it was her it was straight to the bedroom and the door would close and she wouldn’t come out until her husband was home. A few quick steps and another closed door. It was her. If the creature came in the back way she’d most likely hear it and scream. And I was watching the road at the front. My breathing slowed and I felt the adrenaline drain and fatigue washed over me. A small nap would do wonders, but I couldn’t take my eyes from the street.
He came home not long after. They cooked together and then shut themselves in the lounge room. I didn’t move from beside the window until it was time to go and I dressed for work. I went back to the window and looked up the road away from the train station. There was a man in his forties I sometimes saw on my way to work out at night with his dog, a small yapping type. I waited and watched the digital clock beside my bed. Knowing my luck he’d be sick or something and wouldn’t show. The numbers on the clock kept climbing. I’d be late if I didn’t leave soon. Then he was there.
“Yes.”
I raced down to the street and reached the road just as the man and his dog passed. I fell in behind them. I figured the creature might not show itself if there was someone else around. Merry didn’t want to be alone so maybe there was something to that. I couldn’t know for sure, but it seemed as good an idea as anything else. The dog kept stopping to lift its leg and piss and I had to keep finding reasons to stop and wait for them to start up again. I only had two shoes that needed to be retied so I ran out of ideas fast. The man gave me a glare halfway between my apartment and the end of the street. He was on to me.
Then I saw a man on the other side of the road. He power walked towards the station. He wore a smart jacket and trousers. He was heading out somewhere and to get to that somewhere he’d need the train. I skipped across the road and shadowed him all the way to the station. I didn’t see the figure in the hat.
Work was a drag. The work week and lack of sleep and the events of the day weighed heavy. I packed the boxes mechanically. I wasn’t much in the mood for conversation and kept my eyes on my work.
At the break Keith approached me. He had his plastic coffee cup in one hand and with the other he shepherded a new employee.
“James, this is Kim. It’s her first day, why don’t you show her around a bit.” Keith tapped Kim on the shoulder and retreated to the corner.
This was just what I needed. All I wanted was to get through the shift and now Keith had dropped this on me. It occurred to me that this was Merry’s replacement. Kim pushed a pair of thick rimmed glasses to the top of her nose and cleared her throat.
“There’s not much to it,” I said. “Coffee machine is there, it costs a dollar a cup and it’s pretty terrible. Keep your beeper with you always and it’s 25 boxes an hour. It isn’t rocket science.” I shrugged.
Kim raised her eyebrows. “Do you get used to the night shift after a while?”
“No. There’s nothing natural about being up all night.”
“Good to know.”
“Sorry. I’ve had a hell of a week and I’m at the end of my run.”
“It’s ok. I think I’ve got it.”
I checked my beeper. Less than 2 minutes left of the break. I could handle an awkward silence for that long.
At the end of my shift I made straight for the station. I kept with the group going the same way, scanning the streets for the figure in the hat. Nothing.
My phone rang.
“Hello.”
“James, it’s officer Tilley. Are you done with work?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I need to speak to you in person. Where are you?”
“About to head down to the train.”
“Can we meet?”
“I’m really tired.”
“It’s important and it won’t take long. Can you meet me at Rogerios, where you had breakfast a couple of days ago? Is that ok?”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Yes.”
“Go inside and grab a table. I’ll be there soon.”
Rogerios had the look of having endured a long night. Tables and chairs were displaced and used plates and serviettes lay strewn next to spilled syrup and coke. It smelled of bacon and hash browns. I went to the bar and ordered a pot of tea and took a small table in the middle of the room.
Officer Tilley came in and sat opposite me. She was in uniform and she looked as tired as I felt.
“Do you want some tea? I got an extra cup.”
She put the cup in front of her and poured from the pot. “Thank you for meeting me.”
“Am I in some kind of trouble?”
“No. I’m not on duty, so ignore the uniform.”
“Is it about Merry? Is she ok?”
“They put her in an induced coma, but she’s stable. I’m checking in with her regularly.”
“You think that thing will come back?”
“Merry is safe where she is.”
“You didn’t see that thing. I know you don’t believe me.”
“I do believe you James.”
“You do?”
Officer Tilley turned and scanned the room and then leaned in. She pushed her cup aside. She lowered her voice. “Where I come from they tell a story to kids to get them to come home before it gets dark. They say there’s a creature that comes out at night and hunts its prey. They call them the Umbra. They say they’re all white and they have wings like bats.”
“The creature I saw was all white and had wings like a bat.”
“Do you know where Windhaven is?”
“Yes.”
“What you’re going to do is wait right here and drink tea and eat scrambled eggs until the sun comes up. Then you get on the first train to Windhaven. Opposite the pier is a hotel called The Light’s View. You go there and you ask for Ron. He’ll be expecting you.”
“Am I in danger?”
“They say something else about the Umbra. If you injure one, it will seek revenge. And it won’t stop. I can look after Merry while she’s in the hospital but I can’t look after you. Go to Windhaven and ask for Ron. Tell him everything that’s happened. I need you to trust me. Ron will know what to do.”
“It knows where I live. It followed me home.”
“You don’t go anywhere until the sun comes up. Understand?”
Tilley drained her cup and rubbed her palms over the table. She checked her watch. “I have to go. Stay here until the sun comes up.” She stood and walked hurriedly to the exit.
I leaned back in the chair. Around me people chatted and ate and drank. It all faded into the background. I checked the time. Still a couple of hours until sunrise.