War Bird

6. Tear the Seams

"You sure about this?" Asher's deep whisper by my ear makes me jump. I turn to look at him but it's so dim out here I can barely see his face.

"This is Ed's idea," I murmur.

“Yeah, but-”

"Will you be quiet!" Ed whips his head around. "This ain’t never gonna work with you two messing about back there."

"What are we doing again?" Asher sounds really confused but I know he's just trying to wind Ed up.

"Gonna sneak in and nick his stupid record player aren't we? Hide it somewhere, that’ll teach him!" Ed reminds us impatiently. “You two are such a liability, I swear.” He sounds so prissy, Asher and I have to hide our giggles in our gloved hands. 

It's Sunday night and Bridget has taken Mr. Pelham to evening mass. We're in dark clothes, crouched round the side of Mr. Pelham's flat, and Ed is jimmying open his sitting room window. The totally deserted Green is behind us, and it’s shadowy enough down here that Mr. Pelham’s upstairs neighbours can’t see us unless they poke their heads out of their windows.

"Alright, alright, keep your hair on," Asher snorts.

"Shut up and keep a look out!" Ed hisses. I can't make out exactly what it is he's doing from where I'm crouching, but suddenly there's a pop and then Ed and Asher are easing the entire window frame out of the wall.

"How did you do that?" I say as they lower it out of sight.

"Little known fact,” Ed says. "Old windows pop out pretty easily. Especially them windows what're rotten. Like this one." He points to the woodwork around the gaping hole where the window had been. He's right. The wood looks all soft and splintered. Smells fusty too. "We'll slot it right back in once we're done, no one will be any the wiser." He speaks like he’s memorised this speech off by heart. I ain’t got time to wonder how he knows this stuff as we are sliding in through the window, one by one. Asher’s iPhone has a torch app, so we use that to help light the way. We stay crouched down and catch our breath, waiting for any signs of life. There’s just silence and we know we done good.

"Split up," Ed whispers, pulling his own phone out of his pocket. "It'll be quicker." He  boots up his own torch app and creeps off towards the front where the kitchen is. Asher and I exchange a glance and without saying a word, decide we're sticking together. It doesn't take long for our eyes to adjust to the weak light and soon we can see what we're dealing with. Mr. Pelham's front room is laid out exactly like Asher’s, small and square with a mantlepiece along the inner wall. There’s a tiny sofa as well as a massive bookcase taking over one of the walls. I see a coffee table in the centre of the room and I open its drawers. Empty. Asher is by the book case, holding his phone up to it.

"Hey Sis, check it out," he says. "He's got some freaky bedtime reading material here."

"Like what?" I imagine old porno magazines, books on torture, God knows what. I really don't want to be here, and I'm glad it's dark so Asher can't see how frightened I am.

"Mally-" he struggles to pronounce the title. "Mally-us... Mally-e-car...mally-e-carium." Is what it sounds like to me. Asher curses. "What is this stuff?" He pulls out another one. "''Rites of Expulsion.'" He shoves that back, grabs another. "The Otherworldly and the Reich." He steps back and shakes his head. "Seriously mental." 

I shrug. It might be weird but it don’t sound like we're in serial killer territory. "Don't look at it then," I tell him. 

“No for real, come and see this!” He says.

“Fine.” I drift over to where he is and look at the books. I pick one up. It’s thick, with a cover made from soft leather. The writing is in raised, curling black letters.