Mortal Sin - Sin Book II

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Stay still."

I wasn't moving. I couldn't. Being face down with a knee in my back and handcuffs meant I could do little more than converse with the ants, one of which was running towards my face. Its haphazard path, winding past bumps on the ground I couldn't see. Did it think I was a gigantic sweet it could hike up onto its back to carry me back to its nest?

"Hey, Queenie!" it would say. "Look what I've brought you!"

And it would be rewarded, maybe get a plush suite-with-a-view in the up-market end of the nest. And the ants would dine on me till their great-great-great-grandkiddies were old and I was just an untidy mass of nibbled bones.

I was pulled, forcibly, to my feet, a whirlwind of faces making me giddy as I tried to steady myself. A hand in my back pushed me forwards. The crowd separated to let us through - the policeman a Moses amongst men without even realising. Probably, though, it was me that made the people part. Their vulturistic tendencies couldn't bring themselves to be too far away from this blood covered monster, but they were wary enough to not come too close.

I might bite.

"Come on," the officer said. "You're coming with me. We need to find out where all that blood came from and what happened to the other guy!"

My voice still seemed intent on hiding at the back of my throat, worried it, too, might be cuffed and dragged off to the station.

A woman squeezed through the sea of stares and stood in front of us, holding up her hands.

"Wait," she said. "You've got it wrong!"

"I'd move, lady," the officer ordered. He hadn't even taken the time to ask my name or find out what happened. The blood had been enough to convince him he needed to lock me up first, then find out all those boring details.

The woman stood her ground, her arms outstretched, palms forward. She wanted us to stop.

"Stop!" she insisted.

Told you so.

The officer, a man slightly above my height and weight, bulked up by his thick body armour vest and a utility belt which made him look like a Smart Price Batman, stopped. I was impressed by the woman. I imagined she would have made a great job in a female only version of Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, playing Amelia Dent (rather than Arthur) and laying down in front of the oncoming bulldozers while the Vogon Construction Fleet prepared themselves up in space.

My arrestor, having been arrested, looked at a woman for a long moment. She, in turned, looked at him. Neither looked at me. All I needed was the superhuman power of invisibility and I'd be able to make my escape. I moved my foot to the side, wishing the desire for such an ability might make it so. The official hand on my arm squeezed, telling me I wouldn't be joining the X-Men in the near future.

"Yes?" asked the policeman. His left eyebrow raised followed by his right. Ignoring the Mexican wave spreading across his brow, the woman said:

"He's with me."

I would have to have tossed a coin to see who was the more surprised by this statement - myself or the policeman.

"Oh," he said.

Oh, I thought.

"Sorry," she continued. "He's with me. He's recovering from a head injury and was helping out on the hospital float."

"Oh," said the policeman again. I resisted the urge to tell him he'd already said that. "So the blood...?"

"Is fake. He's meant to be a zombie."