The Beast

‘But we’d better wrap up,’ Ameena continued. ‘Or we’ll freeze in that snow.’

‘We’ll grab coats from the cupboard downstairs,’ I said, turning from Mum’s room and striding along the landing. ‘There should be one about your—’

THUD.

The sound came from the living room. It was a single low knock; the sound of something heavy hitting something solid.

Ameena had the knife raised in an instant, the other hand on my chest, holding me behind her. But I was beyond that now. For too long I’d relied on Ameena to protect me, when really it should’ve been the other way round.

I pushed her hand aside, more forcefully than I meant to, and crossed to the stairs. I may have been desperate to find Nan, but I wasn’t stupid, and didn’t rush straight down to the living room. After creeping down a couple of the stairs, I squatted down and looked through the gaps in the wooden banister.

Nothing moved in the room below. I tiptoed further down, feeling Ameena close behind me.

I should’ve been watching out for trouble, but as I reached the bottom of the stairs my eyes were fixed on only one spot. A patch of carpet, stained with blood. A patch that should’ve been covered by the policewoman’s body.

‘Where’d she go?’ I muttered, finally looking around. The living room appeared to be exactly as we’d left it, minus one fresh corpse.

‘Maybe she got better,’ Ameena suggested.

‘What, better than “dead”?’

‘Well, you can’t exactly get much worse.’

I stepped further into the room, ready to swing with the table leg. ‘Someone took her,’ I said. ‘Someone came in and took her.’

There was silence in the living room then, broken finally by Ameena asking the question that was bothering us both.

‘Why would someone do that?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘And who would do it?’

‘Whoever killed her,’ I said.

‘Nah. They’d have just taken her at the time, surely?’

I dug my fingernails into my palms. ‘Not if they were already carrying somebody else.’

It took a moment for what I was saying to sink in, then: ‘Oh.’

Nan. Had whoever took the policewoman’s body already taken Nan? Just the idea of it made my heart race and my legs spring into action. I ran through to the ruined kitchen and hurled myself through the back door, out into the swirling snowstorm.

‘Nan!’ I shouted, but the falling flakes seemed to absorb most of the sound. I staggered along the path and out through the open back gate, wading knee-deep through snow that was now only faintly tinged with pink. ‘Nan, where are you?’

‘Kyle, come back!’ Ameena’s shout was a whisper in the distance. I blundered on, along the back of my row of houses, shouting for Nan the whole way.

The cold gripped my legs up to the knees as I forced my way on. My hands were raised in front of me, shielding my eyes from the driving snow. My village gets its fair share of snow in the winter, but this was like nothing I’d ever seen before. It was too severe, too sudden to be natural. Something had to be causing it. Great. Another thing for me to worry about. Always one more thing.

I emerged from behind the houses into the street. The snow covered the few cars here like a thick white fur. Normally I’d be able to see my front garden, but the blizzard made it impossible to see more than a few metres in any direction.

The houses around me were in darkness, but the streetlights were on. For all the difference they made. It might have been early morning, but barely a glimmer of sunlight was making it through the snowstorm. I stood in the pool of light cast by one of the street lamps, making myself as visible as I could.

‘Nan!’ I cried. ‘I’m here! Where are you?’

A hand caught me roughly by the shoulder and spun me around. I found myself looking into Ameena’s scowling face. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she demanded.

‘I was—’

‘Being an idiot?’

‘No! I was—’

‘On a suicide mission?’

‘What? No!’

‘Well, what then?’ she snapped. ‘Because, from what I can see, you’re freezing to death, standing in plain sight and making a racket that’s going to draw the attention of everyone in town.’ She stepped out of the pool of light, dragging me with her. ‘Not to mention the attention of whatever killed that cop.’

‘I have to find Nan,’ I told her.

‘I know. But here’s a suggestion – don’t get violently killed before you do. Stealth, kiddo. Stealth.’

I thought about the policewoman, and about the blood on the ceiling and walls. ‘OK,’ I said quietly. ‘Point made.’

‘Good,’ she said, giving me a gentle punch on the shoulder. ‘Now, come on, let’s go get warmed up then we’ll figure out what to do.’ She began trudging up the street towards my front garden, glancing at the houses on either side of the road as we walked. ‘It’s just a miracle no one heard you and came out to see what the ruckus was about.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, only half-listening. ‘A miracle.’

‘Didn’t even see a light come on,’ she continued. ‘Must all be deaf, the noise you were making.’

‘Deaf,’ I agreed, trudging along behind her. ‘Yeah.’

I stopped walking.

‘Wait,’ I said.

‘What?’

I looked across at the other side of the street, where I could just make out the darkened outlines of six houses.

‘Why’ve we stopped?’ Ameena was asking. I didn’t answer.

The houses on this side of the street were in darkness too. Now that we were closer, I could make out the lights we’d left on in my house, but they were the only ones on in the entire block.

There were a few vehicles parked along the street – a couple of cars, the van of the window-cleaner who lived at number five – but nothing moved in any direction along the road.

‘Listen,’ I said.