On The Moors

Chapter Five

Yawning, David cracked an eyelid open. It took him a moment to remember that he had been sleeping on the floor of Lavern's house. The room was dark. Obviously at some point he must have turned the light off after they had fallen asleep. Somewhere nearby he heard something scrape on the floorboards.

Reaching out with a hand he nudged Kathryn in the side. 'Kathryn?' he whispered. He had no idea where Lavern was sleeping and didn't want to wake him. As much as he had appreciated him taking them in he had woken with an uneasy feeling as if someone was watching over him. 'Kathryn,' he whispered again a little louder as he shook her.

As he looked up at her sleeping form on the sofa he felt something drip on the side of his face. 'You won't wake her,' Lavern's voice said quietly in the darkness.

Almost jumping out of his skin, David rolled over, his eyes now wide open. Standing over him was Lavern but that wasn't what drew his attention. In one hand he was holding a long carving knife. The thing that had dripped on the side of his face was the blood from the knife.

'What the hell!' David shouted as he scrambled away from Lavern, his eyes not leaving the bloody knife.

'We have to make the most of the things that we find on the moors,' Lavern said levelly as he stepped towards David. 'You look like you have nice strong bones and I have a chair that needs some new legs.'

For a second David froze in confusion. Slowly his mind made the connection with the jar of teabags in the kitchen. 'Wait, the teabag jar in the kitchen is actually a skull?'

'Well done. I'm impressed you made the connection. Normally they're too scared to think,' Lavern said. 'Or dead,' he added with a shrug.

Backing away David glanced at Kathryn lying on the sofa. As his gaze fell to her legs he saw that her jeans had been cut off just above her knees, the flesh underneath hacked open to reveal a bloody mess of muscle.

'What the hell is wrong with you?' David shouted as he backed away, his eyes not leaving Kathryn's legs.

'I have a chair that needs new legs,' Lavern replied. Glancing away from Kathryn, David saw him holding a blood covered bone in his other hand.

'Is that?'

'A bone from her leg? Yes,' Lavern said. 'A very strong bone I might add.'

'That creature was yours as well wasn't it,' David demanded. 'You're a murderer!'

'A murderer?' Lavern said slowly as he advanced on David. 'I don't think so. I've never killed any of them.'

'She's still alive?'

'Just about,' he replied as he placed two bloody fingers against her neck. 'She's probably got another couple of hours, give or take.'

'You won't get away with this,' David said as he spotted the mug on the floor beside the sofa. Slowly he inched his fingers towards it.

'Who's going to tell people what happened?' Lavern asked as he took his hand away from Kathryn. 'Your friends are dead or will be soon and no one knows you're out here.'

Snatching the mug up, he hurled it as hard as he could in Lavern's direction. Without waiting to see if it found its mark he hurdled the sofa, running out of the room. Behind him he heard Lavern shout out and the sound of the mug breaking.

As Lavern's footsteps thundered across the old floorboards David threw whatever he could find in the path behind him as he ran, searching for another door.

'You can't leave!' Lavern screamed as he appeared in the doorway, the rifle he had had on the moor in his hands. Backing away, David found himself trapped in a corner.