Black soul rose by John Jones... - HTML preview

Herbie

The sun had emerged from behind clouds, and was bathing the countryside with 19 degree heat. Herbie wished he could remove his jacket, but these are the hazards of being a detective he supposed.

Persist he must, he told himself, as the children he was following were walking deep into the countryside. By now it must be around four miles, along lanes and fields.

He was around a hundred metres away, and saw the children climb over a wall into another field.

However, they stopped, and he saw them form a makeshift circle. Herbie was near a wall to another field, crouched, peering over.

It was clear they were talking. One of them quite animated.

“I can’t believe we’re fucking lost,” said Sam, exasperated. They all looked around, as if the path would just open up to them.

“I’m convinced it was around here,” said Jordan, “let’s get out of this field and follow the lane further up”. They all sighed but went along.

Back over the wall they returned a few yards, looking in Herbie’s direction. He crouched further down, but they turned into a lane and carried on walking.

They walked along for another mile. A Land-Rover passed them, the man in the driver’s seat wondering why seven children were just walking out in the countryside without an adult when they should be in school, but he drove on.

None of his business.

“How much further?” said Boyd, “I’m knackered”.

133

“Not much,” said Chantelle, pointing at a collapsed stile to a field. “I think I remember us climbing over that stile. It’s broken and wasn’t easy to get over,”

“Oh yes, think I do as well,” said Glenn.

“Which means further up this lane we take a right,” Chantelle continued.

So they did, with Herbie eighty metres behind, looking as shifty as it was possible to be. Round sunglasses and long light brown raincoat. Perhaps the Land-Rover driver would have been more curious at him.

The gang eventually came to a crossroads, turned right and continued for around five minutes before they came to another stile on the left.

“I think we crossed this field,” said Sam.

They all agreed that it seemed familiar. There were two cows munching grass who barely glanced at them as they traipsed past.

Eventually they came to another stile over in the far right and clambered over.

“Look,” said Boyd, “a little bridge over a stream. I remember seeing that”. They murmured agreements and crossed over.

There it was. In the distance on the right.

An abandoned bowling clubhouse.

Herbie was almost losing them as he walked across the field, taking a wide berth on the cows in case they charged. Were cows territorial? he did not know, and was relieved when he was climbing the stile.

He crossed over the bridge, and there they were, single file on the lane up ahead.

After a few minutes, he watched them turn right into the car-park of the building.

Okay, he thought. Stealth mode. If they’re going in there, I may need to stake-out, or sneak in to see what they’re up to.

He needn’t have bothered however, as the children never entered the clubhouse.

134

There were trees and bushes on the right side of the lane, with barely enough room for a walker. He could see through them onto what used to be the bowling green itself. Long overgrown.

The children were walking across it.

Herbie stopped, entered the bushes, careful with his footsteps. They were only around forty metres away, so any sound he made could potentially be heard. He crouched and took off his sunglasses, watching.

Watching as they stopped and looked up at a knarled old Ash tree that looked like it had seen the construction and closure of the clubhouse.

“Here we are,” said Sam.

“I feel like we’re tree worshippers,” said Chantelle. They were quiet for a few moments, mainly resting after their long hike.

“Everyone still got your weapons?” asked Sam, not expecting a reply, “then let’s get the seeds out,” Boyd and Glenn ended up digging, using a knife and a screwdriver, even though they didn’t have too much effect, so both ended up using their hands.

The others paced around in anticipation.

What if it was gone?

What if someone had found it and covered everything back up?

What if..?

“Here we are,” said Glenn, lifting out the metallic flask.

Like excited eight-year olds, they crowded around as if it was some trophy.

“Finally we can leave these bodies,” said Dorothy. Glenn unscrewed the top and poured out several seeds that resembled apple pips onto his hand, except they were jet-black.

“Careful,” said Ian, “each one is precious”.

“I know,” said Glenn, pouring them slowly back.

“So now we need to find people to possess,”

“Didn’t think we’d be here again for about seventy years,” said Jordan, forlornly.

135

“We will need to find people alone if possible” said Ian, “we’re just kids so more than say two adults will be hard for us to overpower. So I think the best place is around these lanes”.

“Agreed,” said Chantelle, “around here will probably be best. Away from prying eyes. We’ll just have to wait for the odd dog walker or rambler, or anyone really”.

They all agreed.

“anyway talking of people on their own,” Chantelle continued, “I know who I want to possess first,” They all looked at her curiously.

“That cunt in those bushes over there whose been following us,” she pointed and they all looked in the direction to see the shape of a person through the leaves of the bushes.

A surge of fear ran through Herbie.

The game was up, and he stepped out sheepishly onto the bowling green, until he remembered he was a hard-nosed detective.

“Chief inspector detective Herbie. I understand you are possessed by pensioners. I need to ask you a few questions.” The gang all took out their weapons and advanced on him.

Herbie stumbled back, “now look here…” he said with as much authority as he could manage, trying to cling onto whatever confidence he had left in the face of murderous children coming towards him bearing weapons, scrabbling to retrieve his phone from his pocket to call the police, but dropping it in the grass.

Dorothy reached him first and jabbed the pen-knife as hard as she could into his calf. Herbie yelled and fell into the grass.

“No,” said Chantelle, “just hold him down. I want to possess him. Get me the seeds”. Glenn carefully took out two seeds. He walked across and handed them to her. Sam was gripping Herbie’s hair with his head held back, holding the craft-knife to his throat. The others wielded their weapons around him as if eager to use them.

“Pleasepleasenopleasenoplease..!” muttered Herbie, tears streaming down his face.

“Alright,” she said, looking at the seeds “farewell Chantelle”.

136

She swallowed one of them, then quickly stepped forward and pressed the other into his mouth, forcing it down his throat, past his gag-reflex. He could do nothing but swallow it.

It didn’t take long, maybe twenty seconds, for Chantelle to lose consciousness and collapse into the long grass. Herbie was the same, lying as though asleep.

After around a minute, with everybody staring down at him, quiet, Herbie slowly opened his eyes, then smiled at those looking down, and they smiled back, because they knew it had worked.

Herbie slowly got to his feet, flexing his arms and legs and shoulders as though he was getting ready for exercise.

“Hello guys,” he said, “Chief inspector Chantelle at your service. What did he say his name was?” The others all looked jealous, because they were.

“Herbie,” said Jordan, “well done, congratulations on the new body,” the others muttered agreements.

Herbie then buckled slightly and cried in pain, grabbing the side of his leg.

“Dorothy, why did you have to stab me?”

“Oh, sorry. Thought we were killing him.” The pain wasn’t too intense, but caused a slight limp which would gradually improve.

Glenn picked up his phone from the ground. The screensaver was a picture of Herbie in dark glasses, brown jacket, leaning against a wall in dramatic light.

They played around with it for a while, and found the videos of Ian and Jordan, laughing while watching them,

“I wonder,” said Herbie, “whether this has a direct line to Kieran”. He found recent contacts and there it was ‘Kieran’.

“If I speak to him as Herbie, he might tell me where he is”.

“Then we can kill him,” said Ian.

He tried the number, but there was only a beeping sound. It was switched off.

“Well I’ll keep hold of this,” he said placing it in his pocket.

They gathered around the body of Chantelle.

“What are we gonna do with her?” asked Boyd.

“Nothing,” said Sam, “leave her here. She’s out of sight in the long grass,”

137

“There’s police tape across the doors on the clubhouse. They found our bodies, took the van, so they might come back and find her”.

“I think the police are done here,” Sam said, “and if they do find her, because she’ll be reported missing, then we’re just innocent lil’ kids lost our friend, and they’ll be trying to find a cause of death, so that’ll fuck them up for a while.

We’ll be fine”. They all nodded agreements, then walked back across the overgrown bowling green. Dorothy walked across to the main doors of the building and took the tape down and crammed it all into her pocket.

“If we’re going to possess anyone,” she said, “we can’t use the weapons we have. They’ll cause immense pain for us. So we’ll have to strangle them”.

“Alright,” said Sam, “lets go,”

“Thanks again Dorothy,” Herbie said with sarcasm as he limped at the back.

A Range-Rover passed by. Glenn saw there was only one occupant and hooked out his thumb, hoping to maybe possess them.

However, when they stopped and he approached, he saw it was pensioner.

Somebody who looked older than he was when the boy was possessed. He shook his head at the others.

“No, too old…go on fuck off,” he said at the driver, but the man took umbridge and left his vehicle.

“Now don’t you dare speak to me like that young man…” but then he saw the others creeping towards him, and saw their weapons, and hastily got back in his car, slammed the door and drove away.

Onwards they rambled, until they came to a cross-roads.

“Let’s just wait here and let them come to us,” said Jordan, “someone’s bound to be along soon”. They agreed.

Twenty minutes later a mini appeared. Dorothy stepped into its path and the shiny vehicle which looked like it had driven straight from a car showroom ground to a halt.

The occupant looked annoyed but not too much when she saw it was a little girl.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” muttered Sam, leaning arms-folded against a field wall,

“another pensioner,”

138

“I’m doing it,” Dorothy said, looking back, “maybe it’ll be temporary until I get someone younger”. The others then surrounded the car. Dorothy approached.

The thin, white-haired spinster looked confused. Fear had not entered her mind.

Herbie just leaned against the wall, watching.

“What’s going on?” she asked, winding down the window. Dorothy handed Sam the tickertape.

“When she gets out do the honours,” Again, the expression on the woman’s face was one of perplexity.

Dorothy opened the car door, and reached in and grabbed her hair.

“Get out of the car,” she said, pulling the woman as hard as she could, but the seat-belt was on so she half-leaned out. Sam was onto her straight away, wrapping the tape around her neck, strangling her. Dorothy leaned in and undid the seat-belt, the woman hitting the ground. Glenn got seeds from the flask and stepped forward, shoving one deep into the woman’s throat.

“Dorothy,” he said, handing her one. She didn’t hesitate to swallow it, and a few moments later, gave a goodbye wave to the others, then, like the pensioner, fell unconscious.

Everybody stood back and watched.

A few minutes later, the woman opened her eyes and lifted up her head, then smiled. The others smiled back. She slowly got her feet, stretching her new limbs.

“Well fuck me,” she said, “now I’m your elder,”

“Temporary elder,” said Sam.

“Okay, what’s my name?”

“Dorothy,” said Glenn, “might as well be familiar, and it is an old ladies name”, Dorothy nodded.

“Ye, alright”.

They all just stood looking at the body, and car, but didn’t really know what to do.

“What do we do with these?” said Ian.

139

“I think I know what to do with all our bodies,” said Sam, “because don’t forget, we’re now missing, and possibly later on today there’ll be a manhunt, a manhunt which will probably encompass around here, so we need to possess everyone that comes our way”.

“Including him,” said Glenn, pointing at a jogger, heading their way from the other side of the crossroads.

“Including him,” the man, who was wearing shorts and a rucksack, and wrap around shades looked to be the type of man who was in military training, and this was a normal day for him, just going for a run along country lanes with a weighted rucksack.

Dorothy and Herbie and the children all stood back near the wall. It was impossible to hide the body, but none of them cared because here was someone to possess.

The man slowed down as he approached, but did not stop. Clearly this was something he’d never come across before on one of his country runs. Certainly not the body of child lying in the road.

He noticed it when he passed by Herbie, but didn’t have time to react as he was tripped up, staggered, but did not collapse. However, the children swarmed and kicked and punched him. Sam wrapped the tickertape over his throat. The man struggled, and Glenn took two seeds, handed the flask to Dorothy and stepped forward as Sam was struggling to strangle him and he was still being beaten, and shoved a seed into his mouth. The man bit hard, but couldn’t help swallowing the seed. Glenn yelled in pain, withdrawing bitten fingers that did not draw blood, then quickly swallowed the other seed.

“Let him go,” they did, and the man, shocked and confused, stood and stepped around.

“What are you little fuckers doin..?” he collapsed.

“Bye folks,” said Glenn, and the others waved farewell as he collapsed as well.

All was quiet for a few minutes. A hawk swooped overhead, and a large bee flew across the path.

Soon, they were all smiling as the military man started to move, then get to his elbows and smile back at everyone.

“Well done,” said Sam, “you can be called Glenn”.

140

Thirty-five minutes and there was no sign of human activity, having put the children’s bodies into the car and pushed it to the grass verge. Now they just lounged around in the sun.

Boyd was walking up and down, agitated.

“Boyd,” said Sam, “by the time the cavalry arrive we’ll be long gone”.

“I can’t help it. I keep thinking helicopters will be flying over any minute”.

“I think the kids have to be missing for a certain amount of time before the police bother looking. We should be okay for now,” said Glenn. It didn’t stop Boyd’s agitation.

Two ramblers appeared from the right side lane, all geared up even in the mild heat. Clearly they had done it for years, as they ‘looked’ like ramblers. A possible married couple in their early sixties. No kids, only pets. Only liked what was in their small comfort zone and rarely stepped out of it. Didn’t trust too many people. Judged them on first appearance. Could be called ‘snooty,’ but also liked to rough it sometimes.

Glenn approached them as they came with their walking canes they didn’t need.

The woman’s first impression was one of mistrust.

A middle-aged man in shorts with bare muscular arms sounded her alarm bells.

Those alarm bells were correct.

“Are you lost?” Glenn asked.

“What?” said the woman, but he stepped in very close, and she didn’t have time to step back as he closed his hands around her neck.

Herbie shoved the man to the ground, and the others surrounded them both.