Midnight is a Lonely Place

XXII

In his bedroom Patrick frowned. The mathematical formula he had been working on wasn’t going to come out. Somehow he had to try it another way. He paused for a minute, staring into space. He could hear the music from Allie’s bedroom blaring down the passage. Even with two doors closed in between it was deafening. He sighed. Yelling would do no good. If anything it would make her turn it up louder. He frowned for a minute pondering on how she had persuaded Greg to fork out for a new radio cassette. Their father had said that the insurance would probably pay in the end, but why had Greg put his hand in his pocket so fast? He puzzled over it for a few minutes more but already his mind was going back to the figures on his screen.

Around him his books, their spines all neatly aligned, were gleaming, friendly companions in the semi-darkness. The only light in his room came from the anglepoise lamp on his desk and from the screen of the computer.

He thumped the enter key a couple of times and tried again, conscious suddenly of the sound of the sea in the distance and the whine of the east wind and the patter of rain on the window.

Before him the screen shivered. He frowned and rubbed his eyes. A letter had dropped from the top of the screen to the bottom. Then another, then another.

‘Oh, no! Oh fucking hell!’ He stared at it in disbelief. ‘Not a virus! Not a fucking virus!’

Holding his breath he tapped at the keys frantically, trying to save what he had been doing, but already the screen was blank and the cursor was moving purposefully up to the top left hand side once more. Slowly a message appeared.

May the gods of all eternity curse you, Marcus Severus Secundus and bring your putrid body and your rotten soul to judgement for what you have done here this day…

Patrick stared, clutching at the wooden arms of his chair. For a moment he sat without moving, reading the message through and through again, then he stood up with such violence that his chair fell onto the floor behind him.

‘Allie! Allie! I’m going to wring your bloody neck!’ He hurled himself at the door. ‘What have you done to my computer, you stupid, silly cow?’

He pounded the six short strides down the passage and threw open her bedroom door.

After the comparative darkness of his room, hers was a shock. At least six light bulbs blazed in there – two spotlights, a ceiling light and three desk lamps, sitting at strategic angles on the floor. No wonder she had migraines!

His sister was lying on her bed, still fully dressed, a dazed look on her face as she listened to her Sisters of Mercy tape for the thousandth time.

Patrick flung himself on the machine and pulled out the cable. ‘You cow! Do you realise what you’ve done? You’ve only fucked up my project, that’s what!’

‘What?’ She stared at him blankly. The sudden silence after the blare of music was strangely shocking.

‘The message on my computer. Very funny! Very droll! Let’s all have a good giggle!’ He was almost spitting with fury.

‘What message?’ She lay back again and put her arm across her eyes. ‘I haven’t touched your silly computer.’

‘Then who has?’

‘I don’t know and I don’t care. Get out of my room.’

‘Allie.’ His voice was suddenly very quiet. ‘I am warning you.’

‘I told you, I don’t know anything about it,’ she repeated. ‘Get out.’

He leaned forward and seized her arm. ‘Come with me.’

‘No!’

‘Come with me!’ He dragged her off the bed.

‘Paddy! You’re hurting me!’ she wailed as she followed him unwillingly down the passage and into the womblike darkness of his room.

‘There. Explain that!’ He flung his arm out in the direction of the screen.

She leaned closer and peered at it.

‘It looks like maths,’ she said. ‘I haven’t a clue what it is.’

‘Maths?’ He pushed her aside. The screen was neatly ordered, the formula complete. Nothing flickered. He stared at it in disbelief. ‘But it all fell off. There was a message – a curse – ’

‘Bullshit!’ she said rudely. ‘Can I go now?’

He didn’t hear her. He was running his finger over the screen. ‘I saw it. A message. A curse – ’

But Allie had gone, slamming the door behind her.