Dangerous Games

Chapter 17 part 1

When I woke, the first thing that hit me was that the whole thing had been a dream. Coming to with a start, I felt my head swim and throb. I was in some sort of bed, though it couldn't have been mine. My bed was a double bed, rather uncomfortable if you didn't know the exact spot to lie in. This bed was very plush and comfortable, and it was single.

Nevertheless, comfortable bed or not, my body ached all over and it was a struggle to force myself into some sort of upright position. I looked around me in puzzlement at my surroundings, still vague and fuzzy after my deep stupor. Where the hell was I?

"Oh, thank God. You're awake." At first I didn't recognise the voice, but then I turned my head and my vision came back into clear focus, to reveal Claire getting up from a seat at the bottom of the bed.

"What on Earth's going on?" My voice was thick, like treacle, and I could barely get the words out.

"Ah," she smiled. "I just lost a little bet that I had with myself. I bet that your first words would be 'Where am I?'"

"Sorry you lost the bet. All right, then. Where am I?" My second utterance seemed more confident than my first. The power of speech was returning to me as well.

"Kingston Hospital."

"Next question. What the Hell am I doing in Kingston Hospital?"

"When you were found in that lift by a couple of residents – you and Anita, that is – you were a right bloody mess. They found you both huddled in a corner of the lift, with blood all over you, and smelling of sweat, urine and vomit. A right sight by all accounts. They thought you were a couple of homeless people or druggies who'd simply overdosed and crashed out."

Vomit? I didn't remember being sick. Or wetting myself for that matter.

"How's Anita?"

"Ah, that's more like it. More like the Tim Pritchard I've come to know and love. Asking after the girl. She's fine, we think. She's not in here, though. As soon as her parents found out she was still alive they whisked her away back home and she hasn't been seen since. A bit ironic really."

"She hasn't been seen since? Good God, how long have I been out?" I sat upright very quickly, causing my vision to swim again and making me feel a little dizzy. I regained my sense of balance only to find that I was in the bed naked. Claire laughed uproariously at my surprise and obvious discomfort. It was a good thing that she was so pretty as that might have wounded the ego of a lesser man than me.

"Your clothes were not fit for human habitation when we found you. They might as well have been a tramp's clothes. Oh, don't worry. They didn't end in the hospital furnace. No, we've sent them to be dry-cleaned." Good thing too, I thought. That was my one and only police uniform!

"So, they undressed me."

"No they didn't. I did!" She gave me a coy look. Of course, it wasn't the first time she'd seen me naked. Or me her either, for that matter of fact. "And to answer your question, you've been in that bed for a couple of days."

"How did I go to the toilet?"

"For some reason you haven't needed to. Those sheets are as clean now as when they put you into them."

I looked away, remembering the food I'd eaten – or rather hadn't eaten – in the netherworld. It brought it all back to me. Claire leaned in, noticing what must have been a far-away look in my eyes. She had a look of genuine concern on her face.

"What happened up there, Tim? Where did you go to for that month?"

"Month?" This brought me back to reality. "I can't have been away for a month. That's impossible."

"Look, when I waved you goodbye in that lift it was mid to late August. Now it's the end of September. I'll go out and get you a newspaper with today's date on it if you like."

"When I was ... where I was, I couldn't eat anything and I certainly didn't drink anything. Neither did Anita. If we've been away for a month, why didn't we die of thirst, or hunger?"

"Look, I don't know what to say, Tim. You've been missing for a month. The Anita Patel case was starting to go cold, media interest was draining away, and we all assumed that she was really dead – you too, of course. The Patels had engaged solicitors and they were writing us nasty letters. And then, as if by magic, you both turn up in the same lift where you disappeared, looking and smelling like homeless hobos. Now, I ask again, what really happened up there?"

"Oh, how long have you got? Look, one day I'll write it all down and give you first viewing of my report. Deal?"

"Just make sure you do."

I looked around at what appeared to be the inside of a private room. You could tell it was in a hospital though from the faint smell of ether that permeates hospitals all over the globe. Ah, welcome back, my old sense of smell. God, I've missed you!

"If I'm not injured, I'd like to get up please. Are my clean clothes somewhere around."

"They're bound to be around somewhere. I'll just see if I can track them down." She paused, and gave me a half puzzled, half quizzical look. "Before I go, just give me some idea of what you've been through. What was it like there? Please, Tim, just give me something."

"Well, it was dark. That's the main thing. Everything was perpetually dark. You could just about see things within arm's reach, perhaps a little beyond, but your eyes never get used to it."

She sat on the end of the bed, for all the world like a small girl waiting to be told a bedtime story. How could I refuse? So I gave her the basics of what you've read here, though not in quite such detail. I did describe the two monsters that I had encountered – the demon woman in the lift and the red cross racing to ... well, kill me, I suppose – and I didn't pull my punches. I described the seemingly endless journeys down the the corridor stretching out infinitely ahead of us, the flat whose door I had to kick in and where I had met Anita. Looking at Claire, I couldn't tell whether she believed me, but she certainly didn't dismiss what I said as lies or fantasy.

"Well, what do you make of that?" I asked.

"It's amazing. You've been where nobody's been before, beyond the boundaries of our universe, and you've returned to tell the tale."

"No, I'm not the first. Anita was first. Then that other girl, and then the professor. And, there've probably been I don't know how many people before them. I'm just the latest in a long line."

"Anyway," she patted my arm. "I'm very proud of you."

"Thanks. Clothes?"

"Oh, yeah. Right." She went out through the door. I lay back on the pillow. It was only at that point that I allowed a mixture of relief and pride to enter my thoughts – pride at a task well and truly completed. I had indeed gone somewhere magical and dangerous, had fulfilled my mission to bring home a missing child and had returned to the land of the living. Job well done, Tim!