Larry proceeded to tell Janet all about Thomas's situation at work and the false accusation made against him. He explained about how he had found him in a state the previous evening, but thought that he had gotten it out of his system.

"I knew he was nervous about telling you, although I'm not sure why. I think it's because of you guys planning to move in together and that he is scarred that if he loses his job that maybe won't happen. Congratulations by the way!" Said Larry.

"Such a silly sod, of course I'm not going to be anything other than supportive. What the h.e.l.l was he thinking drinking so b.l.o.o.d.y much?"

"I have never seen him like this, it has really affected him. Probably not a good idea to tell him about the brick when he comes around, I will arrange for someone to get it fixed in the morning if he can go back to yours after he has been released from the hospital."

"Agreed." Said Janet.

The orange glow of the cold lounge was interrupted by the steady pulse of blue, signifying the arrival of the ambulance. Larry opened the door to them and as the 2 paramedics walked into the flat, the blue pulse doubled in time as the police car also pulled up outside.

Thomas found himself sitting in a doctors waiting room. He was not alone, two other men also sat there. The room seemed very distant even though he was sit within it. He opened his mouth to call to the men, no words came out. The 2 men turned to face him. He knew their faces. Thomas awoke.

Thomas opened his eyes gingerly and closed them again. The room was bright and he wasn't ready for that. He lifted his right hand to his face and felt the gentle tug of resistance from the saline drip that he had been attached to. He tried again. It was as he first suspected, a hospital ward.

The hangover the previous morning was bad, this one was pure evil. Through squinted eyes and a swollen brain, Thomas a.s.sessed his surroundings. The ward he found himself on was quite busy with lots of nurse, patents and visitors coming and going. He turned his attention to himself. He was still wearing his pajama bottoms and his favorite T shirt, only now the whiteness of his 16 year old Level 42 T shirt had been replaced by a large black cloud. He guessed correctly that after he had managed to drink himself unconscious that Janet had discovered him, rushed him to hospital where they set about pumping his stomach full of activated carbon in an attempt to save his life.

"Yes, its carbon." Said Janet as she walked up to the bed. "How are you feeling? Sorry I wasn't here when you woke up, I needed to pee and fancied a coffee."

"How long have I been out of it?" asked Thomas with a very quiet and croaky voice.

"I don't know Thomas. I found you at around 8:30pm yesterday, but Christ knows how long you were out of it. Its 11:30am now." Replied Janet with a tinge of impatience in her voice.

"when can I get out of here?" Asked Thomas.

"Well, I saw the doctor in the ward next door and I presume that he is coming this way, so if he is happy with you very soon I should think. What are you planning to do when you get home? Drink?" said Janet sarcastically.

"I don't know." Replied Thomas, "I just want to go home."

Janet sat in the chair besides Thomas's bed and cupped his left hand in hers. "Larry told me everything, it's going to be ok you know."

"I don't think it is," replied Thomas in a very sober voice. "This kid has well and truly f.u.c.ked me over and destroyed everything I have worked so hard for. I was at the first few steps of my career and its effectively over and for what, for a f.u.c.king little lying s.h.i.t to do that and think nothing of doing it. I'm f.u.c.ked Janet, well and truly f.u.c.ked and there is nothing I can do about it."

"You can't that say for sure, there is a lot that can still happen. He may see sense, they may have had a similar accusation before, they may simply not believe him. What you are thinking may not happen, and you're right there is nothing you can do about it, but drinking yourself to death is not the answer Thomas. I am sorry this has happened and I can't for a moment imagine how you are feeling about this other than confused because I'm certain that I would be, but I love you Thomas and I'm here for you, just cut out the b.l.o.o.d.y drinking."

"Thanks Jan, I love you too." Replied Thomas through a pained smile.

The doctor approached Thomas's bed flanked by 2 juniors, pulled out the chart from the bottom of the bed and began to read though squinted eyes. He pa.s.sed the chart back to one of the juniors and began rubbing his untidy grey beard.

"Well Mr. Mc Cann, how are you feeling this morning?" asked the doctor.

"Like death." Replied Thomas honestly.

"Good." Replied the doctor abruptly, "you will be fine, just as long as you cut this nonsense out. Your blood tests have come back fine and your liver seems to have coped quite well with the ordeal you have inflicted upon it. I am happy for you to go home and will be happier still Mr. Mc Cann if I never see your face again. This is a busy hospital with lots of genuinely very sick patients who have not chosen to be here." With that the doctor turned, aggressively retrieved the chart, signed it and deposited back in its home at the end of Thomas's bed and stormed off with the junior doctors in tow.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, that told me!" said Thomas gingerly swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

Janet pulled the curtains around the bed and set about helping Thomas get dressed from the bag of clothes she had packed as Thomas was bundled in the ambulance.

A short taxi ride and Thomas was tucked up in bed with a cup of tea.

"I am going to have to go I'm afraid. I have to pick up Billy in a little while." Said Janet.

"Ok, no problem. Thanks for looking after me, I think I have a little bit of sleep to catch up on anyway." Replied Thomas.

Janet kissed Thomas tenderly on the forehead and turned to leave. She stopped at the door way, "Just call me if you need anything. I will pop by after work tomorrow and see how you getting on. Let me know if you would like me to bring you anything. I love you."

"I love you too." Replied Thomas. With that, Janet smiled and turned. Thomas listened intently, the hall door opened and closed, then the large Victorian door. He dropped his left arm to the floor, fumbled for a moment and retrieved a brand new bottle of scotch, spun the top off and took a large swig.

"You f.u.c.k my life up you little s.h.i.t," Thomas said out loud to himself, "and I will f.u.c.king end yours."

Thomas took another deep swig of scotch.

Chapter 23.

Craig sipped his tasteless coffee and thought about last night's strange dream. He didn't recognize either of the unfortunate men and he had never seen the clearing or sports hall before.

Craig was a firm believer that dreams always contained a message, but for the life of him he could not figure out what on Earth these bizarre scenarios were trying to tell him.

His only theory was that both dreams were about a danger that was closing in and there was nothing that the victim could do about it. He considered that maybe he was the two characters in the dream and that the terminal situation that closed in around him was related to the situation that he now found himself in.

He reflected too on the painting. He was stood at the edge, dangerously close, but desperately trying to stride away from it amidst a storm pushing him back to the brink. Craig drained his coffee, tossed the cup into the bin, double checked the ease of retrieval of the bat and axe and strode off to the office to double check the cameras were recording.

As Craig clicked on the monitor to check the feed from the 3 new cameras the door to the showroom opened. Craig sprung away from the screen and dashed out of the office and back into the showroom, desperate to get back in range of his awaiting a.r.s.enal.

It was Tony. "Good morning sir, are you ok? You look a little flushed like. You haven't got a dose of that flu that's going around have you? I'm sorry to startle you and all, but I figured I would come in early and get the cars all washed up early so I can head off early ad I have a bit of a date thing this afternoon you see. I'm off to..." Craig cut him off mid-sentence.

"Tony, shut the f.u.c.k up and listen. You need to go and you need to go right now. I don't have time to explain everything to you but please trust me, you need to get the f.u.c.k out of here immediately!"

Tony's mouth fell open with shock, he had never heard Craig so much as raise his voice, let alone swear and speak like this to him.

"But Mr....." Craig cut him off again.

"Get the f.u.c.k out of here Tony! Get the f.u.c.k out of here now!" but it was already too late.

The two men Craig had met just the day before strode confidently into the showroom flanked by a further 3 very large men. All dressed identically.

"Mr. Mandeville, good morning to you." Started the larger bald man. "What a beautiful morning it is too."

Craig ushered Tony out of the way and walked to the other side of the counter in grabbing range of his weapons.

"I'm fine thank you." Replied Craig in the calmest voice he could muster.

"And who is this gentleman?" asked the larger bald man nodding in Tony's direction.

"He is a friend, he just popped in to say h.e.l.lo, but was just about to leave. Weren't you." Craig gestured to Tony with his head and hand to leave.

"I'll not be going anywhere if that's ok with you sir. I thinks that these fellows is up to no good. No good at all." Said Tony.

"Well well well." Said the larger man through an evil looking smile. "Up to no good indeed. Mr. Mandeville, have you thought about the arrangement we discussed yesterday? More to the point, do you have an answer for me?"

"I have thought about little else my friend. I have thought about the nature of bully's and victims. I have thought about rights and reasons and I have come to the following conclusions. You my friend and all your gang of followers are plain and simple bully's. I am a perfect victim on a whole number of levels, but a refuse to be. You do not have the right to be here, you do not have a reason to be here. You and the prehistoric family you represent have no right to anything which is mine and I have no reason to give it to you. I am not scared of you. I may receive a beating, you may even kill me, but I will die for what I believe is right. You therefore have to decide whether this is something you really want to see through. Do you have enough of a reason to begin this?"

"I am disappointed Mr. Mandeville but I respect your decision. But you leave me little alternative as I have superiors to report to and appease." The larger bald man nodded to the 3 large men and then to his slightly smaller accomplice. "It's nothing personal, I'm sure you understand."

The three large men scattered around the showroom and uniformly drew heavy metal bars from inside their bomber jackets. They approached cars and began their demolition work on the shiny display of cars.

The smaller bald man began to walk towards Craig. "You f.u.c.king little c.u.n.t, let's see how f.u.c.king brave you are after I cut your f.u.c.king ears off!" with that he pulled out a Stanley knife from his pocket and thumbed it to maximum length and advanced menacingly. Craig took a small step backwards and reached his hand behind the desk, circling his fingers around the baseball bat.

Craig's attention on getting a good grip was interrupted by a flash of colour as Tony dived across the room and rugby tackled the shorter bald man expertly to the floor. The tackle lifted the man clean off his feet and Tony landed on him winding the shorter bald man in the process. Tony put his left hand on the floor and pushed himself upwards, as he did the flash of the silver blade arced through the air and tore through the left side of Tony's neck.

Tony stood up at the same time that a jet of blood from his severed carotid artery squirted about 5 meters across the showroom. Then another, then another, then Tony fell clutching his neck, grimacing as his body rapidly emptied itself of blood. Tony inhaled sharply and closed his eyes.

The slightly shorter bald man stood up and again began his advance, blood dripping from the poised blade. Craig's finger grabbed the bat tightly as rage swelled in every nerve of his body. He grit his teeth and stepped forwards raising the bat high above his head.

The shorter bald man pulled the knife back and ducked to his right in an attempt to avoid any potential swing from the bat. Craig brought the bat down with awesome force and landed a blow just above the temple on the left hand side of the slightly smaller bald man's head.

The cacophony of noises erupted in the split second of the strike. The solid wood bats initial impact against the man's skull rang out a large hollow yet sickening thud as it landed. The thud turned into a crack as the slightly smaller bald man's skull gave way to the terrific force and split into a number of tiny broken pieces that were driven through the membrane below and into the soft spongy brain. The momentum of the bat took it forward a few centimeters more and the increased pressures and direction of the impact pushed the slightly smaller bald man's left eye forwards and out of its socket to the accompaniment of a soft popping sound. Craig raised the bat and swung again with greater force just as he hit the floor, smashing the slightly smaller bald man's cheekbone to bits and completely dislodging the left eye from the socket leaving it hang resting against his nose. Blood ran slowly out of the left ear, the slightly smaller bald man bit his teeth together as his brain bled out. One of his front teeth snapped under the strain, then he went completely limp.

Craig had never killed before and didn't have a lot of time to consider how he felt about it as the 3 large men had turned their attentions from smashing up his cars and were sprinting across the showroom to do exactly the same to him. The larger bald man extracted a metal bar from inside his coat, flicked it violently with his wrist and a long metal spring shot out with a small but solid looking metal ball bearing on the top. He too joined the advance.

Craig swapped the baseball bat to his left hand and reached around the counter to retrieve the axe. One of the men reached his position and raised his metal bar. Craig swung the axe from his hip, it stuck in the man's face horizontally above his nose, the man fell to his feet with the axe firmly embedded. Another man was almost on him. He stepped on the man's face and jerked the axe free and drew it back for another strike. As the man reached him he swung it down, the man pulled his head back instinctively. The top of the axe blade split the bottom of his chin and the axe embedded itself firmly in the man's chest, he dropped instantly to the floor. He let go of the axe, he was cornered.

Craig clutched the bat tightly in both hands and waited. The two remaining men rushed him from 2 sides, the slightly larger bald man from his left and the last remaining large man from his right behind the counter. He swung the bat and managed to get off 1 more good hit to the slightly larger man's midriff as he ran in, the blow doubled him over in pain, Craig began to pull the bat back and turned to face the last man. The large man's metal bar swung into his field of vision, he felt a sharp pain, he felt himself falling and then fell unconscious.

Black

Chapter 24.

The icy cold winter air cruelly cut through Howards hoody. Within minutes of leaving the pub Howard was beginning to regret his decision to press on without returning to his flat to get a larger coat. His nose was frozen and his eyes could barely see on account of the river of tears that he seemed to be producing as a result of the wind which blew all manner of dust and debris his way.

The streets of Tooting were busy with people hunched and walking quickly, Howard made out their blurry shapes dashing this way and that as he pressed on towards The Old Railway.

Street after street Howard trudged, pa.s.sed park and supermarket, pa.s.sed taxi rank and cinema. 5 minutes from the pub Howard took a short cut through the cemetery.

Sunnytown cemetery by day was creepy, but by night it was a shadowy landscape of nightmares. Howard increased his pace the moment he pa.s.sed under the wrought iron arch and did his best to keep his eyes to the path. It was not a decision he really wanted to take, but it was either a 15 minute walk in the freezing cold, or a h.e.l.lish 5 minute walk to the warmth of The Old Railway. The freezing, h.e.l.lish option won.

Howards breath clouded as it contacted the air before moments later being beaten down by the rain that now drilled down from the heavens. Ice cold rain. Within seconds Howard was wet through. The rain drove in in one direction and then another as the wind twisted and turned around him as it attempting to ensure that every part of his being was struck with a rain drop.

"Howard!" boomed a deep sounding voice from behind. The rain stopped, wind ceased and the early evening sounds from the busy town which surrounded disappeared. Howard stopped in his tracks, he felt his chest rise and fall rapidly and turned to face the voice that called his name.

The silence, rapid change in weather and strange voice had filled Howard from head to toe with adrenalin. His wide eyes scanned the ever increasing darkness for the source of the sound. He saw nothing but 2 small human like shadows about 50 meters away. They were moving slowly towards him.

'It's those f.u.c.king children, this has got something to do with that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Ouija board I just know it.' Said Howard to himself with large drops of water falling from all over his body. With that he turned and started to sprint across the graveyard. As he did the noise of distant traffic filled in the gaps where the eerie silence had been. The rain began driving again. Howard reached the other side of the cemetery in just 3 minutes. He breathed heavily at the gates for a moment and looked back. Just the cold and lonely gravestones greeted his vision behind the sheeting rain. Howard caught his breath, scanned the graveyard one final time to see if he was being followed before setting off to meet Robert at The Old Railway.

Howard reached The Old Railway dripping wet and frozen to the core. He opened the door to the lounge and the warm air oozed out, wrapped itself lovingly around him and immediately made him feel better.

The Old Railway was a modern pub with a few old features that still managed to make it seem very cozy and homely. Howard walked in leaving a series of soggy footprints as he went. He looked at his phone, it was 8:11, he was late. Howard walked around the lounge, then the bar area. There was no sign of Robert anywhere. Howard returned to the lounge, bought a pint and pulled up a comfy brown leather chair as close as he could to the roaring log fire and began the drying out process. Howard stared deeply into the flames, lay back in the seat, yawned and fell asleep.

Howard found himself walking down a white corridor. The corridor stretched out in front of him as far as the eye could see, he looked back and the landscape was the same. The corridor was simple in construct, a brick floor painted with a thick waxy paint and poorly whitewashed walls which peeled and flaked, particularly where they met the low ceiling. The ceiling itself was the same as the walls apart from a long strip orange light placed every 20 meters or so. The orange glow from the lights flickered and spluttered constantly. Howard did not know which direction to walk in so he decided to just go the direction he was facing. He walked briskly, the corridor gave him an uneasy feeling. The corridor stretched out in front of him. He examined the walls as he went. A little more flake here, a few drips of whitewash on the floor there, but nothing else.

A soft groan came hurtling down the corridor behind Howard and entered his ears. Howard immediately broke into a jog and applauded himself for his wise choice of direction. Another louder groan and Howard broke into a run. He noticed a slight difference in the wall ahead and continued running towards it. As he approached he could see that it was in fact a door, a door in the corridor wall on his left hand side. Howard reached the door, stopped running and looked behind him. There was nothing, he turned his attention to the door. It was a large metal door which was slightly set back from the corridor. The door had also apparently received the same white wash treatment. Howard tried the handle, it was locked. Howard turned from it and continued walking briskly down the corridor. The groan rang out loudly from behind and he again broke out into a jog. Another door in the corridor wall approached, this time on his right hand side. As Howard reached the door he again stopped. This door had the word baby written on it in crude marker pen. He tried the handle, again it was locked. Howard jumped backwards with shock as a baby began crying loudly from within the room. Howard composed himself and tried the door again, giving it a good shake and bang for good measure, the door was locked tight. The baby's screaming became increasingly distressed, Howard decided he had had enough and set off down the corridor with a gentle jog.

The groan rang out from behind and Howard speeded up his job to a run. Another door was coming into view on the left, then another on the right, then left, then right. Howard decided not to bother trying further doors, he just wanted to reach the end of the corridor and get out. Howard noticed that some doors had words written on then whilst others did not.

He noted the door with writing on the: Mum Dad The Patch Junction Road Nursery Broken Arm Medication Garratt Lane Primary Broken Finger Fight with Billy James Sick in Restaurant Earlsfield High School Kissing Emma Wilson Fight with Billy James II Appendicitis The Lake District Howard read the next door and stopped dead in his tracks. It was the writing on the door which stopped him, it said TRIP. Howard reached out and tried the handle. It opened.

The room was dimly lit and Howard strained his eyes to see what was inside. It was no use he could not see anything, he walked inside. The room was familiar, very familiar.

Howard found himself in a library. Howard found himself in the library he stood in once a long time ago. Howard recognized the library as the same one he had once stumbled upon with Robert and Frankie on a field trip to the Lake District. Howard walked in and started looking around. The library was illuminated by a series of candles that were placed around the room. Howard stopped, he could make out the shadows of 2 figures ahead of him. They appeared to be sat down at a table with their arms stretched out in front of them. 'Are they playing with a Ouija board?' thought Howard. He started to approach slowly.

"Howard?" Came a familiar voice from the far side of the room. "Is that you? I'm so sorry I'm late, I got held up at work." Howard opened his eyes and looked into the smiling face of Robert who was now warming himself in front of the fire.

"Hi Robert, sorry I must have dozed off for a moment." Said Howard.

"You look tired buddy. Anyway, like I said I'm sorry I am so late, I got held up at work. I'm just popping to the bar, do you want a top up?" asked Robert.

"Yeah, go then. Just a half though please." Robert walked to the bar to fetch the drinks while Howard just sat in a daze staring into the fire. 'What the h.e.l.l was that dream about? Maybe I am going b.l.o.o.d.y mad. What the h.e.l.l was the deal with those doors? And that f.u.c.king groan?'

Robert returned with the drinks, "sorry I forgot you asked for a half, I got you a full one. Anyway, what's up?" asked Robert pulling up another brown leather chair.

Howard took a sip of his beer, set it to one side and began telling Robert everything that had been happening to him.

Chapter 25.

Stevens settled down at his desk for the evening. His freshly prepared cup of tasteless cop shop coffee steamed away on the desk.

He opened the first file, rummaged through the contents, fished out the summary sheet and began to read.

Thomas McCann DOB: 28/5/85.