Dark Dream

12. Hospital Leave

"And that's what happened," Davo said to Charlie, even though he'd knowingly left out a few details. The most important details, those of his pursuer holding the life-force of a long dead enemy, he thought best not to mention.

"Wow, that's quite a story!" Charlie said, without a shadow of ridicule. Any other night and he would have dismissed such a yarn but tonight was different. Tonight he'd seen stuff that had made his own hair curl, stuff that just couldn't be dismissed.

"Yes, it is." Davo said guardedly. "I don't know why I told ya this, it's just that..."

"Perhaps you just needed to tell someone? What did you tell the people in the hospital?"

"Only what I had to—no more. I made it out to be a near mugging, a crazed druggy looking for a quick fix. It's not as if they'd believe any more than that and I could well do without being sectioned."

"Did you get a look at the thing that--?"

"Stuck things in me?" Davo finished. "No, not really, not when he was above me, the light was bad. Its face was all in darkness."

"But?"

"But I did see its face when it moved away." Davo confessed. "I think I saw some of its body too."

"And?" Charlie felt as tense like a spring.

"And....it was like nothing I'd ever seen before; but it was strangely familiar in a bizarre kind of way."

Charlie almost dreaded the confirming words so he didn't press Davo. He just waited.

"It had no hair. It was bald. Its skin looked dark brown or grey, I'm not sure. I thought I saw black markings, like tattoos, but again I couldn't be sure." Charlie inwardly shuddered as Davo continued. "Its eyes and nose were completely black. In fact, I don't think it had a nose. I saw its profile and it looked eaten away, like a skull's. Its ears too—I couldn't say that it had any."Charlie braced himself. "What struck me the most though, was that its hand or fingers were long and taperin', like the roots of a tree." Charlie had a flashback of the monster he'd seen in the wine bar. "I think these roots were the things it forced into my body. I'm not sure, but this is what I feel. It fed from me Charlie. I know it sounds crazy but I think it was takin' somethin' from me while at the same time leavin' somethin' behind. Maybe it infected me with somethin', I don't know. Perhaps I should get the doctors to run some tests on me?"

Charlie nodded. His mind was reeling with his own memories and thoughts. What Davo had said fitted in with what he'd seen of these creatures. By this time, Charlie and Davo had moved to a bench under one of the hospital lamps and both could more clearly see each other's faces.

Davo had said all he was willing to say. He sized Charlie up anew. Charlie almost sensed his thought processes and knew what was coming next. He waited and the question came. "So tell me, Charlie, what do ya know about all of this?"

He paused, not just for effect, and then thought what the hell. He started his own story. In its own way, it was a relief to talk about what had been bothering him for so long, of the dark shapes that had occupied his dreams and waking hours. As he spoke he understood that they might be both as psychotic as each other, both as mad. Through the telling he wondered if this wasn't just some confessions of the crazy men, revisited, retold and regurgitated. This was not a normal reality they were both discussing. To the outside world this was pure, unadulterated, madness. But Davo listened and nodded at everything he said. They seemed to be on the same wavelength and understood each other perfectly.

It was strange because Charlie knew that they came from two sides of the same coin. They both lived on the fringes of society. While most people partied, Charlie made it his living by protecting people who often didn't see the dangers that lurked within the push of the crowd. When Davo and Spud lost themselves to drink, they did it away from the rush of humanity. They looked after each other and gave each other validity in some unspoken way. They held a combined finger up to the society that had rejected them and had found their own world much less confused and straightforward. They protected it, just as he and his fellow bouncers protected their world, with an unwavering faith for what was right.

He came to the end of his story and Davo just kept on nodding. Finally he said "I think we understand each other."

Charlie could hardly find fault in this statement. "Yes, I think we do. Even if we don't quite know what the fuck's going on."

"Ha, well said, my friend, well said."