The Weight of Souls

29 THERE HAS TO BE A CURE

“It’s gaining.” Terror bleached Justin’s voice and even though he was right at my side, his words sounded like a distant cry.

Fireworks flashed in my vision. I dug my fist into my aching side as we sprinted through a silent world and ahead, people parted like a biblical sea, unknowingly moving for the Darkness.

As we turned the corner a Routemaster pulled away from the bus stop.

Justin propelled me forward. “Get on.” He literally threw me toward the back of the bus. With my last ounce of strength I grabbed the bar; then moved out of Justin’s way. He leaped on after me and gripped my hand as we turned to see if the bus was going to be able to outpace the spreading tide of black.

Shadowy fingers reached for the wheels and crept up the sides of the vehicle.

I retreated into the glowing interior.

The bus was full but the noise inside was muffled. A couple of kids pressed their fists against their ears as if they had just popped.

“It’s here,” I whispered.

“I know.” Justin pushed me ahead of him to the stairs and I ran up two at a time. The top floor was empty, but we’d trapped ourselves; there was nowhere else to go.

For a couple of seconds, at the top of the bus, sound rushed back into the world and my ears pounded with the roar of the engine, horns from outside, a lone siren and a bus of chatting Londoners.

I allowed myself to inhale, then the void came crashing back down and everything was muffled once more. I wheeled. The steps behind me were black; as I watched, the last one vanished under a dark blanket.

I looked at Justin, focusing on his chocolate eyes. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”

He squeezed my hand and I had to strain to hear his reply. “I wasn’t sure about this moving on thing anyway.” He fingers crushed mine. “We need more time.”

I trained my eyes back on the Darkness, clinging onto a childish feeling that the thing in the dark couldn’t get you if you watched it.

The bus shuddered to a halt and I staggered. The lights that glared into the window were red. The Darkness advanced more quickly.

“I wish you hadn’t had to hear that back there, about your friends.”

“They weren’t my friends.”

The seeping shadows seemed to be taunting us, surrounding us on all sides, but not yet closing in.

Suddenly the bus lurched and sped up. I glanced out of the window. We were finally on the Westway, able to move much faster.

I held my breath and the Darkness slid back as if it were a blanket being yanked off a bed.

“We’re beating it.” Justin punched the air.

We stood beneath the fluorescent lights in the centre of the aisle and when sound returned to the world I threw my head back, closed my eyes, bathed in the racket and tried to forget that it was impossible to outrun the Dark.

At the end of my road we leaped from the bus straight into a sprint and hurled ourselves directly towards my house.

“Nearly there.” Justin pulled ahead and half dragged me behind him.

We ran through the pools of orange light cast by the streetlamps. Light-dark, light-dark. Each time we left a circle of brightness I caught my breath, fear clutching at my throat as my foot landed outside the glow and pitched me into the twilight of the spaces between.

I didn’t know why I was running for home. The Darkness would find me there as easily as anywhere else. I only knew it was the only place I’d ever felt safe, and my Dad was there. Part of me needed to hide behind him, but really I wanted to say goodbye.

We pounded up the steps and I fumbled with my key as Justin watched the road behind us. “Tay.” His voice contained a warning, but I knew what I’d see if I turned around: the shadows linking the streetlamps growing murky and starting to flow together.

“Quick.” I grabbed his hand and dragged him through the door. Then I ran for the study. “Dad!” For the first time I burst inside without pausing at the threshold.

I staggered to a halt. It was bright in the study, electric lights blaring yellow as sunshine. Dad was bent over a microscope. As I entered he straightened and a smile cracked his face. “Taylor, what good timing.”

“No more samples.” Automatically I put my hand behind my back.

“Not that. I’ve got good news.” He rolled back from the desk. “Look at this.” He gestured towards the slide beneath the scope and I glanced at Justin then released his hand. I put my face to the eyepiece then blinked. “What am I looking at?”

“Now look at this.” He slid another slide underneath.

Red shapes blurred and curled under my vision.

“Are they meant to look the same?”

Dad grinned. “Yes. No. One is your blood and one is mine. Normally you’d be able to see a difference. But now you can’t. Know why?”

I shook my head.

“I’ve successfully injected some of your mitochondrial DNA into this sample. Now my blood here is just like yours.”

“What does that mean?” My heart thudded.

“Your blood changed mine. It infected it. It makes what you have communicable.”

“We’re back to this.” I stepped away from the slide. “If you were going to catch this, you would have.”

He grabbed my elbow. “You aren’t hearing me. It’s incredibly hard to catch, to do this I had to put your mitochondrial DNA straight into mine and that was hard enough even with medical equipment. That isn’t the point.” His eyes glowed. “Listen. If your so called ‘curse’ is communicable that means it is a disease. And that means there has to be a cure.” His mouth opened on a happy grin. “Don’t you see? I was right all the time.”

“Dad…” My mouth emptied of words. How could I tell him he was too late?

“Taylor.” Justin’s voice in my ear was quiet, but it made me turn as if I was on a spit. Inside our room, light still reigned, but in the hallway the Darkness had arrived. It pressed against the door like a dammed tidal wave, a wall of blackness past which I could see nothing.

“What is that?” Dad started to roll towards the door.

“Don’t.” I pushed him back with my clean hand then I showed him the stain on my other one. “It’s the Darkness, it’s come for me.”

The air itself inhaled and a familiar pressure began to build in my ears. Sounds that I hadn’t even been aware of faded away: the hum of the fridge in the distant kitchen, the constant exhalation of the central heating, the mechanical whir of Dad’s computer, the sound of our breathing.

“Taylor.” Dad shook his head. “The Darkness is all in your head.” But he didn’t move any closer to the doorway and he kept shaking his head as if his ears had filled with water.

“Justin,” I whispered. He threw his arm around me and didn’t even suggest running. He knew we’d come to the end of the line.

Abruptly he pressed his lips to mine. To Dad I must have looked crazy, but I didn’t care. I threw my arms around Justin’s neck and kissed him back for all I was worth.

Suddenly my knees went weak and I half collapsed against his chest.

I was exhausted, I was terrified, but I’d never fainted in my life before today.

Finally my ears registered Dad’s shouts. “Taylor, what are you doing? And who’s that?”

I pulled free of Justin’s lips and half turned in his arms.

“Y-you can see him?”

“He wasn’t there before.” Dad wheeled slowly forward. “What are you?” He was speaking to Justin.

Justin looked at me, his brown eyes wide. “Your Dad can see me.”

“Tamsin could too, after the last time we kissed.” I looked at Dad. “Dad, he’s a ghost. You can see him?”

Dad’s chair lurched forward. “Get away from my daughter.”

Justin half jumped back and I clutched at him with arms that felt like spaghetti. “Justin, I think I know what’s happening. Kiss me again.”

“Your Dad–”

“Do it,” I hissed with one eye on the door.

Justin kissed me. I opened my mouth against his and the room swum. My legs went altogether and Justin had to hold me to stop me from collapsing to the ground.

He pulled back. “Tay, you’re too weak.”

“You’re taking my life force or something. Every time you kiss me, I get weaker and you get less ghostlike.”

“More alive,” he whispered.

“Get away from her.” Dad rolled towards us, murder on his face.

“No, Dad.” I grabbed Justin’s face. “Keep kissing me. Take it all.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure who cried out the loudest, Justin or Dad.

“The Darkness is coming for me.” I gripped Justin’s biceps urgently. “I failed. Don’t you understand? Without me you’ll never be able to move on. I’ve seen ghosts stuck here for decades waiting for justice. They’re trapped until their murderer actually dies. Pete could live till a hundred.”

Justin’s face paled.

“If you do this you’ve got a chance. It might not work, but it might, you could live again.”

His chest rose and fell under mine. I knew he wasn’t breathing, was he trying not to cry?

“Tay, I’m not going to kill you.”

“I’m dead anyway, or near enough.”

“Taylor, get away from him.” Dad’s chair banged into the back of my legs and his arms went around my waist. He started to drag me back, but I clung to Justin’s shoulders.

“Do it Justin, kiss me one last time. I have to do this for you.”

He hesitated, lips trembling then he kissed me. On the forehead. Light as a feather. With firm fingers he unlocked my hands from around his neck and pushed me away.

I didn’t have the energy to do anything other than fall into Dad’s lap. I struggled, trying to rise, but he held me in an iron grip. “He’s doing the right thing, Taylor.” Dad’s voice was tinny and distant.

“Let me go,” I insisted.

“No,” he growled.

“It’s OK, Dad, I can’t make him kiss me. I just need to stand up.” I have to be away from you when the Darkness comes.

I turned and pressed my lips to his cheek. “I wish Mum was here,” I whispered. Despite the muffling effect of the Darkness he heard me.

“I know,” he replied. Momentarily his arms relaxed and I staggered to my feet, moving quickly out of his reach. I looked from one beloved face to another then stepped to the centre of the room.

I opened my mouth to say goodbye, but it was too late.

The Darkness crashed past the door like a wave that had been too long held back and hit me like a hammer.

I threw my arms out and the pure blackness eclipsed my last sight: Justin diving towards me with tears streaming down his face.