The orange faded to grey. He saw a TV unit with DVD playing Pink Floyd on loop, a boy with a basin cut wearing corduroy trousers, his fingers ahead of him breaking through the surface of the pool into frosty air.

His head burst through the surface into brilliant white.

In front of him stood the silhouettes of two men.

Tap tap tap.

Black.

Chapter 28.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l mate, it sounds like you have been to h.e.l.l and back. Do you think you need to see someone about this? To me it sounds like you are having some kind of episode. Maybe a bit of a chemical unbalance in your head. They have drugs for stuff like that you know, I really think you should see someone though. Why don't you book in to see the GP in the morning?" said Robert.

"So you think I'm going a bit mad then? I think you are right though, a chemical unbalance or something like that. It does feel like I am hallucinating I guess. I think I will see the doctor tomorrow, if you are right a few pills may just sort me out." Replied Howard.

"You have not taken anything recently have you?" asked Robert.

"Not that I'm aware of," replied Howard, "Not unless one of you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds spiked my pint the other day."

"Of course we didn't. you have not taken LSD or anything like that?" inquired Robert.

"No, I took it when I was about 19 with a bunch of friends but didn't much like it so never bothered with it again." Replied Howard.

"That could be it though you know, they do say that it can have effects later in life. Not just flashbacks, but strange hallucinogenic episodes. Similar to what you are experiencing. I tried mushrooms when I was in school, they were amazing but I had flashbacks for years. It was quite scary, but it pa.s.sed over time. The brain eventually sorts itself out I believe. But I bet you that these visions and experiences you are having are related to the LSD you took."

"Hmmm maybe," said Howard deep in thought, "you may be right. The visions do feel very dreamlike." Howard took a sip of his drink, then continued. "So you don't think that this has anything to do with that night?"

"What, the Ouija board night?" asked Robert.

"Yes" answered Howard.

"I seriously doubt it, but I do think that as it is your birthday tomorrow that it is probably providing you with the anxiety needed to bring about the episode I think you are experiencing. You are obviously nervous about the situation and worried in some way that the message you received is true. So your brain is working on overtime to make some sense of things. I think that it is playing out scenarios based around your anxiety." Said Robert.

"That does make a lot of sense. But what about those strange children, who the h.e.l.l were they?"

"f.u.c.k knows, you probably don't even know them. They are probably kids you have seen somewhere and not even registered them, but I think that maybe your subconscious has and they are now here, drawn out of your deeper memory by the chemical unbalance. I don't know though, just clutching at straws." Replied Robert.

"I like that, it makes sense. Maybe some kids I have seen in the past, or in a photo perhaps?" said Howard.

"Yes, exactly." Said Robert.

"Robert, when we were playing the Ouija board, did you push?" asked Howard.

"No mate, I honestly didn't. did you? Replied Robert.

"Well I certainly didn't. I guess it must have been Frankie, but we will never know. We should never have played, I should never have taken that LSD." Said Howard.

"Agreed, life is about choices and playing the Ouija board was certainly a bad one. You should never mess around with things that you don't fully understand, same goes for the mushrooms I took and your LSD." Replied Robert. "I think maybe you should stay at mine tonight and in the morning we will book you in to see the doctor and get this thing sorted out."

"That sounds great, I really don't feel like being on my own." Replied Howard.

The two old friends spent the rest of the evening chatting happily in front of the fire. They shared stories of school, of girls they fancied, of teachers they hated and lessons they truanted.

They discussed films, music and books, anything to keep their minds off of what had been happening in Howards mind and the Ouija board game.

The bell rang for last orders and the pair stood, thanked the barman and stepped out into the cold night. Robert's flat was thankfully just a 5 minute walk from The Old Railway. Howard felt a huge positive glow grown within as they opened the door and went into Roberts flat. The rain had stopped, he was dry and he had a plan.

Robert collected a duvet and pillow from the airing cupboard and set up a make shift bed for Howard on the Sofa.

"Now you make sure you have a good night's sleep and I will see you in the morning. Do you want to watch anything on the TV?" asked Robert.

"Thanks mate, this is perfect. Do you still have that live Pink Floyd DVD? I wouldn't mind watching a bit of that as I doze off." Replied Howard "I do indeed, I will hook you up now." Said Robert and he set to work recovering the DVD and setting up the TV for his friend. "There you go buddy, all done." He said as the DVD sprang to life. Robert pa.s.sed the remote controls to Howard and left the lounge for bed.

"Oh, and by the way." Said Robert pausing in the doorway. "Happy birthday for 10 minutes time." Howard smiled as he turned the corner and settled in to watch the DVD.

Howard wriggled around on the sofa in an attempt to get himself comfortable and pulled up the blanket in an attempt to shield himself from the draft that had decided to dance around the room.

The DVD sprang to life and Pink Floyd walked out onto the stage to rapturous applause.

Tap tap tap went the drumsticks and the familiar first booming chord of 'Time' burst out of the antiquated TV speakers and Howard began wiggling his toes and tapping his fingers beneath his quilted sarcophagus. He yawned and felt the swell of tiredness engulf him, his eyelids dropped and his toes and fingers became still, he resisted it and stretched his eyes back to open and refocused on the TV screen and resumed wiggling and tapping. Howards eyes closed and stayed closed.

Howard walked back out of the library and back into the whitewashed tunnel. He turned left and resumed walking, the door with TRIP written on it slammed shut behind him. The doors were even more frequent now with a new one every couple of steps on both the right and left and sides of the corridor: 10 Benson and Hedges Highbury Cannabis GCSE's The loud groan roared out from behind Howard he turned back and could make out 2 small pinpoints of yellow in the distance.

'Holy s.h.i.t, It's that thing in the mirror!' Howard shouted in his mind and he increased his speed to a run. The doors flew by as he went: Amphetamines Dodging Trains Aunt and Uncles house Howard looked back again, the eerie yellow eyes were closing on him. A large shadow was also drawing itself out of the infinite black behind. Howard focused on his legs and broke into a sprint. The doors rushed by: Record Shop Bellingham 15,000.

Howard felt a sting in his thighs, it started in the middle of both and grew quickly around and then down, past his knees and to his toes. Howard was in agony and his legs could not push him forwards with the strength he wanted, it was as if he was suddenly trying to run in treacle, his running speed dropped to that of a brisk walk. The doors grew closer and closer together: Hoodies The Old Railway My 30th Howards legs continued to slow, panic was beginning to set in. he really didn't want to, but felt overwhelmingly compelled to looked back. He turned his head slowly fearing the worst. The yellow eyes and the tall grey man with the grey bark like skin was very close, less than 10 feet away and closing slowly. His long grey arms were outstretched, skin broken and seeping dark red blood which fell slowly to the red waxy floor below. The 100 pure white needle like teeth were exposed with thin grey lips pulled back. The mouth opened and a terrifying scream pushed Howard forwards and shook his brain in his head. He turned back and increased his effort. There was just one more door ahead, about 10 meters in front of him. Past that, just black. Nothing.

He reached the door, it said: 3 Smiley Faces He had no other choice. He turned the handle as quickly as he could, luckily the door opened. It was pitch black, but he had no choice. He stepped in.

The grey hand grabbed his T Shirt and a deafening groan again rattled Howards brain, he felt faint. He reached back and slammed the heavy metal door against the grey arm as hard as he could. It let go and he slammed the door.

Blackness.

Howards eyes sprang open. He was sat on a brown leather chair in an old lounge. 2 dead bodies occupied the sofa.

The DVD looped in the orange glow of the light above. The woman walked back from the cliff. The kids in the photos on the shelf looked on.

Howard felt a crippling pain in his stomach, he could do nothing but arc backwards over the arm of the chair. White vomit ran from his mouth. He could see the door behind him in his upside down pose.

The door burst open.

Before Howard could react the tall grey man was on him with his needle like teeth drilling into both sides of his neck.

Howard closed his eyes for the final time.

Black.

Chapter 29.

"Her you go sir, have a look at this." Answered Taylor.

Stevens reached out and took the lab report file from Taylor. Taylor looked on, still breathing heavily with a weird smile on his face.

"Thanks for this Taylor, good work getting the lab rats shifting on this. This case has been doing my head in. I can't for the life of me figure out how these poor guys pa.s.sed away." Said Stevens "Not a problem sir, you are very welcome. Do just bear in mind that the report is just the preliminary findings, we will receive the full and final report by lunch tomorrow, or so I'm promised." Said Taylor.

Stevens laughed to himself, then looked at Taylor with kind eyes. "Sounds to me that you, Mr. Taylor are indeed banging one of the staff in the forensics teem."

Taylor smiled back with a small quant.i.ty of embarra.s.sment reddening his cheeks. "Spot on sir." He replied.

"Well, good for you son, good for you." Stevens turned his attention back to the file Taylor had handed him. He opened it and pulled the contents out, placing the now empty file to one side of his desk.

Stevens held just 3 pages in his hands, he began to read.

Thomas Mc Cann: The deceased was discover by officers on the left hand side of the brown leather sofa in the lounge.

The deceased was discover in a seated position with his head nodding forwards. A quant.i.ty of white vomit was located on the deceased clothing and on the mat which his feet were resting on. The deceased's air ways were clear despite a small quant.i.ty of white being present within the buccal cavity, esophagus and around the upper lining of the trachea.

The deceased had urinated and evacuated his bowels upon death.

The time of death: Is estimated as being Friday 21st February 23:00.

Cause of death: poisoning (see attached toxicology report).

Craig Mandeville: The deceased was discover on the right hand side of the brown leather sofa, next to the aforementioned Mr. McCann.

The deceased was sat in an almost identical position to Mr. McCann. A similar quant.i.ty of white vomit had also been ejected by the deceased. The vomit was present on the deceased clothes, the floor, buccal cavity, nasal cavity and esophagus. No trace was discovered in the upper respiratory tract leaving the airway perfectly clear.

The deceased had urinated and evacuated his bowels upon death.

The time of death: Is estimated as being Friday 21st February 23:30.

Cause of death: poisoning (see attached toxicology report).

Howard Phillips: The deceased was discovered on the brown leather chair in the lounge. Mr. Phillips was arced backwards over the arm rest on the right hand side (as you look at the chair). His arms were crossed over his chest and there was white vomit over his clothes, the floor in front of him, down the left hand side of his face, the arm of the chair and floor beneath. Airways were perfectly clear The deceased had urinated and evacuated his bowels upon death. Mr. Phillips had a small bruise on the right hand side of his neck, which would be consistent with a bite having been received to the region around 4 days ago.

The time of death: Is estimated as being Friday 22nd February 00:30.

Cause of death: poisoning (see attached toxicology report).

Stevens took a break from reading the file and turned his attention back to Taylor.

"Wow, poisoning eh. Is foul play suspected?" asked Stevens.

"You're going to have to read the toxicology report sir." Replied Taylor nodding at the pages in his hand.

Stevens smirked, shuffled the papers in his hands and refocused his attention.

Toxicology Report.

All 3 men were found to have a similar composition of substances within their bodies.

Thomas McCann A large quant.i.ty of alcohol was present in the blood stream. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) = 0.19% would have meant that Mr. McCann was extremely drunk at the time of death.

A range of cannabis derivatives were found in Mr. McCann's body with the quant.i.ties being consistent with that of a regular user or someone who had recently used a very large quant.i.ty.

Mr. McCann's urine tested positive for a large quant.i.ty of LSD.

The toxin strychnine along with extract of a mushroom called Amantia was found in the deceased and is considered to be the cause of death.

Craig Mandeville - A large quant.i.ty of alcohol was present in the blood stream. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) = 0.25% would have meant that Mr. Mandeville was extremely drunk at the time of death.

A range of cannabis derivatives were found in Mr. Mandeville's body with the quant.i.ties being consistent with that of a regular user or someone who had recently used a very large quant.i.ty.

Mr. Mandeville's urine tested positive for a large quant.i.ty of LSD.

The toxin strychnine along with extract of a mushroom called Amantia was found in the deceased and is considered to be the cause of death.

Howard Phillips - A large quant.i.ty of alcohol was present in the blood stream. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) = 0.31% would have meant that Mr. Phillips was dangerously drunk at the time of death.

Mr. Phillips blood contained a number of NSAIDs which is consistent with the medication prescribed on his medical records.

A small trace of Amphetamine Sulfate was detected.

A range of cannabis derivatives were found in Mr. Phillips's body with the quant.i.ties being consistent with that of a regular user or someone who had recently used a very large quant.i.ty.

Mr. Phillips's urine tested positive for a large quant.i.ty of LSD.

The toxin strychnine along with extract of a mushroom called Amantia was found in the deceased and is considered to be the cause of death.

The 2 toxins found within each of the deceased were present in particularly high concentration and either alone would have resulted in death.

The white vomit seems to contain a high lipid concentration. None of the drugs found in the body would have caused an effect like this, at this stage we believe it to be as a result of a combination of them working together which is producing this unusual effect.

In addition to the initial findings on the bodies of the deceased, we tested the LSD tabs and cannabis found at the scene. Both contained a high % of strychnine and Amantia and are identified as the likely source. The dose of LSD in the tablets is particularly high and would have caused extremely intense hallucinations.

Stevens put the papers down, leaned back in his chair and looked at Taylor.