Human - phan

Seventeen

Peeling plaster fell around my shoulders and I spurred my legs on, pushing faster and faster through darkened corridors. I rounded a corner and skid out of control, nearly tumbling head first down a flight of steep concrete steps and into the blackened basement. Blood pounded in my head. The sound of their running feet pushed me forwards again, no time to recover from my scare. Their calls and taunts followed me through the black house. Every step they were gaining on me, I tried to run faster but it seemed as if I was slowing down. They were almost behind me and I slammed into a broken, ruined bathroom; wrenching the door behind me and gasping for breath. As I turned, the quiet splash of thick liquid hitting tiles hit my ears. I wretched. Blood was smeared over the mirror, forming distorted, dripping letters. I tried to make them out, my stomach heaving. Detcidda? Decidida? Detcidida? Knuckles was pounding on the door and yelling, but his cries faded into the hiss of steam as the shower poured red. My eyes were fixed on the bathtub. A hand, wrinkled and bloated by the water and pale grey in colour was reaching slowly over the side, halting and convulsing. The flesh was rotten. Green and rancid, with great black welts that flaked and fell as it moved.

I tried to open the door. Knuckles and Jake and Gabes were nothing compared to this, but now they were holding it against me and laughing.

'Ballerina Daniel!' they taunted. 'Dancer Dan is going to die! Die Dancer Dan!'

I screamed, rattling the door handle with all my might, throwing my weight against the stubborn wood again and again and again.

The creature in the tub was pulling itself up. I could see the top of a head, a mop of dark hair mottled and caked with black blood and rot and chunks of flesh – bone flashing white beneath wiry hair. I writhed and cried, my head spinning, my mouth shrieking.

Slowly, it turned its neck. Not towards me, but towards the tiled wall. And still it kept turning, all the way round with a sickening crack. I slipped down to the floor against the door. I already knew what I was going to see.

I tried to scream but I was mute. Silent tears were streaming down my face and I pushed again, pain flaring in my muscles. Jakob's eyes stared back at me, dead and milky white. As I watched, he started to lift himself out of the bath.

*

I woke with a cry, sweating and shaking, bolt upright in bed. I turned my head wildly, then groaned as warmth floated down on my clammy skin. My duvet felt sticky around my shoulders and I wiped the tears angrily from my face before giving up and collapsing back down to muffle my sobs in the pillow.

My bed was lonely, the room silent and empty. Suddenly I missed Phil with an ache that had me doubled over at the gut. I needed his arms around me, holding me, telling me it was all okay. That it was just a dream. I even missed PJ's snores and Chris's quiet snuffling; and the orange glow of the lamps outside the window. Here in my bedroom there was no one I could call for help.

More than ever now I wanted to move into the boarding house with PJ and Chris and Phil. They had each other, there would always be someone to look after them. Together, they were invincible.

And I was all on my own.

*

Rain pattered blearily against the grey concrete of the college. It had been raining all night and all day, as could only be expected for England. I sighed, pulling a folder out of my bag as I climbed down from the bus. I sprinted towards the double doors, English notes over my head, cold wind driving the rain into my face. The bus had been late - rain always meant more passengers and more stops - so I walked briskly through the corridors trying to shake the water from my hair. A girl three years below caught sight of me and snorted into her scarf. I frowned. Did I really look that awful? As the group of people I was walking behind turned into a classroom, the corridor cleared and I could see Knuckles ahead of me, his grey tracksuit covering every inch of pale skin. My stomach twisted into a sick knot of dread and I shrank into the walls. I knew he couldn't hurt me here, but the reaction was automatic. I was too late of course, he caught sight of me as he turned and made a beeline towards me with a twisted grin on his face. I slowed to a halt and started backing up, glancing desperately over my shoulder.