Dark Night of the Soul

Chapter 15

Anna feels unsteady as she stumbles up the path to her cottage. She can't yet bring herself to unfold the fresh nightmares that the day has delivered. She fumbles in her handbag for her house keys, angrily shoving a cash-stuffed envelope aside.

Once inside, she visits every room in her neat house, closing curtains and turning on all of the lamps and lights. She checks that the front and back doors are locked before sinking into the chair where the adventure had begun. She glances at the bowl of pot pourri on the side table and grimaces at the memory of finding the device just a few days ago. What had she thought would happen? Once again, she feels ridiculously naïve.

'Why do these things always happen to me?' she muses to herself. 'It's not as if I even need the money. What was it they said at Narcotics Anonymous? "Disconnect from Desire".' She sighs: 'If only I could.' She takes the envelope out of her handbag and flings it across the room, knocking a small iridescent glass vase off the mantelpiece. It had been a gift from Seamus on the last day of the In The Night Garden shoot. She leaps from her chair to prevent it from crashing to the ground. As she carefully stands it back in its place she wonders where Seamus is now. 'I only wish I'd had the guts to jump with him,' she ponders.

Anna switches on her mobile phone and forces herself to call Dave. The phone rings for a long time before he answers, breathless. 'Yup, what do you want? Haven't we seen enough of each other for one day?'

'I am not calling to exchange pleasantries Dave, I just need to process what happened today. You are the only person I can talk to. Perhaps we can help each other out of this mess.'

'I'm listening...' Dave grunts.

'Did you have any idea that Seamus was going to jump like that? I can't help thinking that we should have jumped with him.'

'I doubt my knees or back could have taken the shock. Plus, you saw how angry those so-called hippies were. I don't want to mess with them. They probably have mafia links all over the world. Let's finish what we started and get on with our nice, separate lives.'

Anna sighs. She knows Dave is right but her anxiety over Seamus is eating her away inside. She ends the call abruptly and turns to stare once again at the vase on the mantelpiece.

Dave puts the phone back on the little bedside table. Kicking off his shoes he lays on the bed and reaches over for the TV remote, flicking through the channels, when he catches sight of something familiar. A skateboard park next to an industrial estate gives Dave a strange sense of déjà vu. Next to the ramps two police cars are parked at strange angles, their lights still flashing blue. The image then changes to a news reporter interviewing a greasy-looking man in a burger van.

'More reports of missing children have come in this afternoon,' says the news reporter. 'Mr Davies, you say that you saw something that may lead to some clues? Tell us what you saw.'

'Well, I was just going about my business as usual. I was chatting to two of my regulars when we heard a loud crash from the skatepark. It's not unusual to hear noises but this was different.'

'How was it different?'

'What was weird was the stillness. We were just saying how bloody quiet it was. I never notice the noise from the skatepark but when it goes quiet, well..'

'But did you see anything unusual, Mr Davies, or was it just the strange noises?'

'As I was saying, we heard a loud crash and then we saw a big brown furry figure whizz past on a skateboard, waving at us. No lie.'

'Surely something you've never seen before? Would you have any idea who this figure could be? Do the skateboarding children ever dress up in costumes?'

'You see all sorts of weird shit around here. Skaters don't tend to wear suits. But no, I have never seen one dressed head to toe like a kiddies' TV character.'

'I apologise for any bad language you may have heard there, but, strange and troubling scenes at the skateboard park. What we know is that just the day after three children disappeared from the park, five teenagers are still missing, having last been seen here, with reports of a suspect escaping dressed as a furry television character. And now, back to the studio.'