The Nightmare Man

Chapter Three

A short journey took Harrison up from the Ministry to a small street. He ventured out slowly and then jumped back. There were sounds.

Many, many sounds that was strange to his ears. There were so many sounds and they were loud. He clamped his hands over his ears and pressed back at a cold stone wall. The buildings were large and tall and he swirled around. The guard was standing silently near the exit to the Ministry, staring at him.

Harrison laughed. He laughed loudly. His eyes roamed wildly over the buildings and he was beginning to spin around staring at it all. He must look like a loony. He felt like a loony to be honest but the laughter wouldn't die down. It just got worse.

Finally he fell down. It was hard and his hands moved away from his ears. He felt the surface he was lying on. The guard stared down at him. Harrison grinned.

"This is tarmac," he said and knocked on it. "This… this is bloody tarmac. And those are walls, and the sounds… oh, the sounds!"

He got up and ran. He cast spells over himself and the guard still following him so they weren't noticed, and then threw himself into the crowds. He danced around people, dragged at their clothing, poking them and staring at their bags, their shoes and then the cars on the roads. He jumped in front of a few of them, escaped narrowly and when he had no time to dart to the side he simply jumped over them.

Finally he came back to the side of the road, trembling almost, and dragged the guard with him further down.

"So many people! Oh, I've missed people. Hearing them, seeing them… I want to destroy their happiness, their little bubbles of safety, it would be so fun! They're Muggles, the lot of them. I don't like Muggles. I've never really met Muggles who are completely nice to me."

He leaned back against a wall, calming down. The guard swallowed and said:

"Do you know… this place?"

"If I know this place? Lad, I may be old but I'm far from what you think. Of course I know this place. It's London, bustling, lively London! I really have to dig out those old memories. This is so much fun."

He ran further, dragging the guard with him all the way. Harrison watched the people, tripped them just for the hell of it, then played with cars and busses on the street. In the end he couldn't help causing a small accident between two cars.

Of course he knew of plains containing nothing but grass and the wind. He remembered the old times with dirty towns and few people. He remembered plagues and sickness that haunted villages and people's minds. He loved it. There were no cars or busses, people didn't walk around in trendy clothes and long heels. He remembered times with rough clothing and hard labour.

Not that he had done much of that, unless one counted the times he had to manually drag bodies around. That was hard for him. Rather his back.

So he remembered the old times, but what no one else knew was that he remembered the new times as well.

"I remember the previous minister came to visit me once, to tell me I could never survive in this society." Harrison looked around. "I'd never been told that before. I guess it's a good thing I waited until I came to a time I definitely knew."

"What…?"

He turned around to face the guard.