The Demon Inside, page 14
Sighing, she left the house and Callie to their own devises. Lucy trotted alongside her as she walked down the driveway, before racing ahead to squeeze beneath the gate and wait for her on the other side, ears pricked and tail wagging. Punching in the code, Darcy slid through the gap as soon as it was wide enough and was just crossing the road when she heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she watched Lucy race over to Alec as he barely managed to squeeze through the gate before it clicked shut again. Once he was by her side they began to walk up the road together in companionable silence, hand in hand.
“Morning, Poppy,” Darcy called, raising a hand in greeting as they waited outside the gate, having just rung the intercom, “good morning, Amber.” Staring across the lawn at them with wide owl-eyes, Poppy hesitated, dropping a hand onto the little girls shoulder when she ran over to cling to her leg, clutching the hand of the little boy she’d been leading outside, decked out from head to toe in blue waterproofs. A moment later she lifted the toddler onto her hip and hurried back inside despite the boy’s shrieking protests. Amber followed. However, the door didn’t close and a minute later, just when they were considering walking away, the gates began to whir and slowly ease open. Glancing at each other, they entered, meeting Poppy on the front steps of the big house.
“Hi,” Darcy smiled, trying to look as friendly as possible, even as she made a grab for Lucy who shot straight past her and bounded up the stairs, circling the little group standing in the doorway. Both children pressed closer to Poppy, eyes wide, but after a second Amber stepped forward, pulling away from her babysitters grasp, to stroke the excitable canine skittering around her. Brows drawn, Poppy watched as the child flung her arms around the greyhound’s neck, laughing as Lucy tried to lick her face.
“This is Lucy,” Darcy introduced, starting an awkward, largely one-sided conversation, during which Alec wondered off and out of the corner of her eyes she saw him picking up a football left abandoned on the grass. Playing it over his feet in intricate patterns, he kicked it high into the air and began to bounce it on his knees, leaving wet, muddy smudges on his jeans.
Watching him, Amber eventually ventured over. Letting the ball land with a wet splash, Alec kicked it gently towards the little girl and so the game began. It didn’t take long for little Oscar to join in, stumbling after the ball in his Thomas the Tank Engine boots. Occasionally he tripped, muddying the knees of his rubber trousers, but he simply laughed as Alec picked him up and set him back on his feet. After a while the conversation died out and both she and Poppy simply turned to watch the children play, happy smiles on their faces, their light, childish laughter joined by Lucy’s wild barking as she darted excitedly back and forth and a deeper, masculine laugh which warmed Darcy’s heart; she had known Alec would be good with children.
“Hey,” a voice called, sounding far away as the wind rose to a dull wail, and they all stopped, glancing over at the front gate where David’s stepson, Rory, the teenager with the wild brown curls stood with two young girls, who were both the spitting image of their mother.
“Hey,” Rory repeated, “mind if we join ya?” Biting her lip, Poppy looked over at Darcy uncertainly.
Meeting her gaze, she shrugged. “It’s your choice, it’s your house.” After a moment, Poppy went to open the gate.
With the involvement of more players the game became more competitive, though they continued to include the younger children; Alec ran around carrying Oscar, the little boy’s legs kicking above the ground as he tried to hit the ball, laughing hysterically. However, the children soon tired and within an hour Oscar came toddling over to where Darcy and Poppy sat on the front steps watching the game.
Babbling incomprehensibly, the boy lifted his arms up to her. Surprised, she hesitated, glancing over at Poppy briefly before leaning down to pick the child up and sit him on her lap. Immediately, he snuggled against her, his head of white blonde hair resting against her shoulder. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around him, pressing him tightly against her heart and stroking his silky locks.
Several minutes later his little body was limp against her as he snored softly with his mouth open, his chubby arms linked around her neck, one hand fisted in her hair. It staggered her to hold something so vulnerable and trusting in her arms, to know someone so tiny depended on her. Feeling her heart clench, she dropped her head to kiss his cheek, breathing in the unique baby smell that clung to his skin.
“Do you guys want a drink?” She heard Poppy ask the girls, who had also congregated around them to watch the two older boys race across the lawn in a rougher one-on-one game, stripped down to their t-shirts despite the cold weather.
“Yes, please,” Charlotte, the older of Joanne and David’s two daughters, answered politely. “Do you have any squash left?”
“No, I’m sorry,” Poppy answered apologetically, her face colouring, “we ran out a while ago.”
“That’s okay,” the girl sighed, “we ran out, too.”
Frowning, Darcy asked, “Why don’t you just get more?”
“Where from?” Poppy replied, perplexed.
“Sainsbury’s isn’t far from here, that’s where we’ve been going...”
“Sainsbury’s,” she repeated, her confused expression morphing to one of horror, “but we can’t leave the house.”
“The monsters will get us,” Charlotte added with eyes as wide as saucers.
“Not if you go during the day. They’re never out in daylight, because the sun hurts them.” Darcy explained, “You still have to be careful, but you can go and stock up on food. If you haven’t restocked, surely you must be running low on supplies?” The blood which filled Poppy’s cheeks was her answer and she suddenly noticed how skinny the girl was, her clothes baggy on her bony frame, her eyes looking too big in her thin face. “What were you going to do when you ran out completely?”
Shrugging, Poppy talked to the ground when she answered, “I don’t know, David sorts everything like this out.” Well, obviously he hadn’t been doing a very good job, she thought with an inward scowl, not if Poppy appearance was anything to go by; the girl was slowly starving to death.
“Oh, shit!” All eyes turned to Rory and then to the ball he’d sent flying through the air. It fell in an elegant arc and disappeared behind the wall separating this house from Mr Johnson’s. The sound of shattering glass filled the silence.
Chapter Twelve
From the safety of the other side of the brick wall, Darcy and Poppy eavesdropped on the conversation taking place on the other side, as the children played in the living room with Amber’s doll house.
“We’re really sorry,” Alec apologized, not for the first time, “I’ll go out and get you a new greenhouse tomorrow...”
“What good is that to me?” The old man demanded angrily and Darcy imagined his face red with rage, “All my plants will die of cold tonight.”
“I’m sorry, Sir,” he answered calmly, “is there no way we can move some of them into the house for one night?”
“Bring them inside?” The other man snorted, “They are supposed to be in a greenhouse, not inside, don’t you know anything?”
“With all due respect, Sir, I’m not going to keep apologizing and I don’t know what else to suggest. It will only be for one night, surely it won’t do them any harm?”
“Fine,” came the sharp, snappy response, though Darcy thought she might have heard a note of grudging admiration as the man continued, “bring them into the house. But just for one night, mind.”
It was almost an hour later when Alec and Rory returned, their clothes damp with sweat and streaked with soil. “He wouldn’t give our ball back,” Rory scowled, collapsing into one of the chairs surrounding the kitchen table where they were all sat, stealing one of his sister’s cups and gulping the contents down, before returning it to the table with a thud and wiping away the water that had dripped down his chin with the back of one hand. “God,” the teenager grumbled to nobody in particular, “who needs that many plants? The guy could start his own gardening centre.”
“It’s not a bad idea actually,” Alec’s tone was speculative as he accepted the glass Darcy pressed into his hands with a small smile in her direction. “Think about it. That food in the supermarkets isn’t going to last forever, even the tinned stuff will go off eventually, which means we need to start being more independent. We need to be growing our own food: fruit, veg, raising livestock, if we can find any.” His eyes unfocused as he sank deeper into thought, his voice rising with excitement. “Cow, chickens, sheep...”
“No sheep yet,” Darcy interrupted, her mind suddenly full of possibilities, “pregnant women aren’t supposed to be around them.”
“Why not?” Rory asked curiously.
“I don’t actually know,” she shrugged.
Taking it in, Alec nodded, “Okay, so we skip the sheep for a while, but maybe we could find some pigs and goats, things like that. They can’t be that hard to look after, right?”
“I’m sure we can find books on agriculture in the Library.”
“And we could fish,” Rory added excitedly, “I know how and I know all the best spots. I used to be really into it, I still have all my equipment in the attic.” He laughed suddenly, “And David always said it was a useless hobby!”
They headed home a little while later. Excitement filled them all and there was a new spring to their step as they walked down the street, turning back to wave at Amber, who stood by the gate, one hand curled around a bar, waving enthusiastically with the other.
Heading in the opposite direction, towards the house at the top of the road, Rory and his sisters returned home. A figure could be seen standing by the front door and upon seeing them approach she hurried down to the front gate. Joanna ushered her children inside and, though their words couldn’t be heard, it was clear that she was angry at Rory as he walked passed her. Darcy winced in sympathy; he was a really nice lad and frankly she didn’t understand his parent’s obsession with keeping everyone separate and penned up in their own houses. Nor did she understand why everyone else went along with it.
That night they talked more of introducing livestock and growing their own crops; Darcy drew up plans for outbuildings they could erect in the sprawling front garden and Alec made a list of the materials they would need. They also talked of increased security, like barbed wire on top of the walls, well into the night. Morning finally found them zonked out on the sofa, the coffee table strewn with loose sheets of paper, his arm wrapped securely around her like a seatbelt. Squinting against the watery autumn sun that shone into the living room through the barred window, casting stripes on the cream carpet, Darcy rubbed her eyes and gave a jaw cracking yawn, rolling her neck to get rid of the tightness born from sleeping at an odd angle. Curled around her, Alec stirred as she stretched out her cramped legs, her toes brushing along his calf, burying his face in the back of her neck and making a sleepy sound.
“Go back to sleep,” he grumbled, his scorching breath tickling her skin as he snuggled her closer.
“We should get up,” she protested, struggling to twist around in his arms and face him, their noses touching as her blue eyes looked into his drowsy hazel ones.
“What for?” He asked around a yawn which infected her in turn.
“You have a greenhouse to go get and then build,” she reminded him sternly, even as the fingers of one hand slid through his hair. Gripping the ends, she gave a gentle tug, saying, “You need a haircut.”
Leaning forward, he kissed her lightly. “Do it for me later?”
“Okay,” she agreed, smiling as he clambered over her to get off the sofa, “do you want a cup of tea before you head off to work?”
Raising an eyebrow at the teasing note in her voice, he stretched his arms above his head, his muscles flexing as he clicked his neck. “Please.”
Following her into the kitchen a moment later, he asked, “Don’t you want to come with me?”
Flicking on the kettle, Darcy turned to face him, leaning back against the kitchen counter and arching a brow sceptically as she asked, “Will you let me?”
“Yeah,” his lips quirked, “but I expect the very best from my employees and the working day starts at seven sharp, so if you want a shower you better get your ass upstairs stat.”
“Yes, boss,” she grinned, “What’s the pay like?”
“Minimum wage,” he made a sympathetic sound, “but it has amazing benefits.”
“Oh yeah, like what?” Darcy barely contained her squeal of laughter as he lunged for her, sweeping her into his arms and swinging her around before claiming her lips in a passionate kiss that seemed to last forever and yet ended too soon.
“Like that,” he grinned against her lips, rubbing his nose against hers affectionately.
“Well, you are very persuasive,” she leant her head back and tapped a finger thoughtfully against her lips, pretending to consider, “I think that’s the best job offer I’ve ever had.”
“I should bloody well hope so,” he growled, smothering her responding giggle with another hard kiss.
Leaving a little while after seven, having both showered and changed, Darcy told Alec about Poppy’s food shortage as they drove, finishing with “I suspect everyone else is probably running low as well.”
Nodding, his expression troubled, Alec said, “We’ll grab some food first, then try to find a garden centre.” A while later, having done just that and stopped to fill up on petrol, they drove around searching for somewhere which would sell greenhouses and plants. They passed through the town, driving down the high street, past generic shops like Waterstones and M&S, numerous cafés, charity shops and tiny boutiques which were unlikely to ever be opened again.
“We should have asked Mr Johnson where the nearest garden centre was before we left,” Alec sighed after they had been driving for several hours with no success. Mechanically glancing in his mirror, he began to turn the van around in the middle of the road, but paused, his brows drawing together as his eyes locked on something she couldn’t see.
“Or,” he murmured softly, his hands leaving the wheel to open the door, cutting the engine as he jumped out, “we could ask for directions.” Confused, Darcy scrambled out after him, rounding the front of the van as he reached back in for his rifle. Following his gaze she stopped short. A man crouched in the mouth of an alley between two buildings, his back to them, hunched over, his long, raggedy trench coat pooling on the ground around him.
Whipping out a hand with disconcerting quickness he snatched something off the floor and smacked it against the wall. Grabbing Alec’s sleeve, she manoeuvred closer to him, watching the man warily; if not for the fact that he crouched outside of the shadows in a shaft of sunlight she would have mistaken him for one of those creatures.
“Hey,” Alec called out, “you there.” Slowly, the man’s head swivelled around to look at them through eyes which were sunken and bulbous and told of many years of hardship. However, they weren’t white and that was all that mattered. Shoving aside a greasy hunk of lank brown hair, which protruded from beneath his ratty deerstalker hat, he shoved whatever was in his hand into the pocket of his coat.
“Well I neva,” his words were lilting and she was unable to place his accent, “would ya look a’ dat.”
The man, they never found out his name and he never enquired after theirs, was living rough, just as he had done before those creatures crash landed on Earth and began creating havoc, they discovered.
“You should come back with us,” Darcy suggested; the thought of him, of anyone, out here alone and unprotected at night sent shivers of dread down her spine.
Looking briefly surprised by the offer, Alec glanced at her before adding his voice to hers, “There’s plenty of room and we have running water and electricity, for as long as it lasts anyway.”
Just the other day they had been talking about losing power and other amenities; with no one to work or maintain the power stations it wouldn’t last long, in fact, it was surprising that it had survived this far. In response to this likelihood they had begun making contingency plans. In the summer they reckoned they would be more or less alright, their only real problem being security; if the electricity went how would the electronic gates work? Would they simply fall open, or would they weld themselves shut? However, their main problems came with the fast approaching winter months when they would be left with no heating or lighting should the electricity fail. They had sorted out solutions to all the problems they had been able to think of, but still everyone was dreading the coming months and praying the power stations held until spring.
“I’ve lived too long outside,” the man shook his head in rejection of the idea, giving them a broad smile which revealed broken, rotting teeth and a gap where his two front ones should have been, “I’d go crazy inside stone walls.” The smell, which reached her from a fair distance away, almost made her gag.
“It’s dangerous out here,” she protested, “aren’t you worried? Where do you sleep? Surely not outside?”
“Don’ you worry, I’ve been lookin’ after me self for a long time an’ if I die, so what?” He shrugged, “My life means nothin’ to no one anyway.”
A pang hit her deep inside and she had to bite her lip to stop it from trembling. So what if I died? That statement echoed one she’d had a million times, but the fact that he had no one to mourn his death struck a chord deep inside.
Orange and pink were beginning to streak the sky by the time they decided it was time to leave. Darcy attempted one last time to get him to return home with them, but he simply cast her a patient, indulgent look, like you might give a persistent child, and clasped one of her hands in both of his.
