Chapter 2 - Faces
“James,” my brother said again. “Come home, James.”
Something clicked on in my head, somewhere inside me, something glowed red. “You sick fucker,” I growled. “My brother is dead.”
I ended the call and stood there, the phone gripped so tightly in my palm that the plastic creaked threateningly.
How dare they? How fucking dare they?Except that it sounded so much like David. No, no – it was stupid to even think it could be him. David was dead. I’d watched them bury him. I hesitated for a moment and then rang him back. For an eternity, I stood there listening to the electronic ringing, gritting my teeth.
Eventually, it occurred to me that no one was going to answer. Cowards. I could just picture the bastard, maybe one of David’s stupid friends. Yes. A prank call. Obviously.
I needed to find Lucy. I turned slowly on the spot for a moment and then began walking in the direction of the village. Without the car, my options were limited, but perhaps I could a taxi to take me to the hospital. After that… well, one step at a time.
Keep calm, that’s what Lucy would say, with that knowing little smile of hers. I could picture her now, laughing at me for worrying. I re-examined the picture of her I’d found. There were lines about her mouth that I didn’t recognise, and a kind of hollowness in her eyes. I remembered the inscription on the back and took another look, trying to recognise the handwriting.
It said, simply:
7979? What was the significance of that? It couldn’t mean 1979. That was the year I was born, and Lucy was younger than me. I tucked the photo into the inside pocket of my suit jacket, making a mental note to ask Lucy about it when I saw her.
After about ten minutes, I found myself on the village high street. It was empty. My stomach sank.
Empty? How could that be? Yeah, it was a Sunday, but even with the shops closed there should still be people around, still be cars. Feeling my skin crawl, I listened, turning my head either way.
It was silent. No noise from the buildings around me. No people talking. Not even the distant sounds of traffic. There was something almost serene, dreamlike about the place. It made me feel like something had walked over my grave.
Wait, no. There were footsteps.
I spun around, trying to locate the source of the sound. The footsteps were uneven, as if the walker was staggering, struggling. Another sound cut through the air. A kind of strangled sob.
“No… no…”“Hello? Is someone there?” I shouted, on one level feeling stupid for asking but then again, there was nobody else around.
I heard a sound like a sharp intake of breath, and the footsteps began running, the sound echoing off the buildings around me.
A woman shot out of an alley to my left. Her hair was wild and knotted and her face was streaked with dirt. She wore a blue wool cardigan that hung loosely from one shoulder. Our eyes met and I saw her face crumple with misery as she took off running up the high street.
“Wait!” I chased her. My black formal shoes pounded on the pavement, the only noise I could hear above my own ragged breathing. She moved faster than me, slowly drawing further and further ahead and I struggled to keep up the pace.
She veered to the left, disappearing back into another alleyway and I followed, crashing into the crumbling brickwork.
“Come back!” I cried, all but collapsing against the wall. She took no heed, running until she vanished from view around another corner.
I tried to shout her again but my lungs were on fire. My shoulder burned where I’d hit it against the wall, and I tried to massage some life back into it as I stood there, listening to her footsteps fade away. Thick silence descended on the world again, broken only by my own harsh breathing.
What was she running from? And that look in her eyes when she’d seen me, like someone had torn a hole in her world.
When my breathing had evened out, I turned back to the street. It was still just as empty as before. There was nobody about. I scanned the scene around me, looking for any sign of life, but there was none. I might have been the only man on the planet.
I needed to find my wife. I needed to find my way to the hospital. I needed to find some other person to talk to just to convince myself that this wasn’t all a dream.
“Where the fuck is everyone?” I screamed as loudly as I could. “Hello?! What the fuck!”
There was a sound, like a dirty engine approaching. I could swear I could feel it vibrating up from the street and through my shoes. A grey bus rounded the corner and approached, trailing a thick torrent of dark smoke behind it.
The front windows were so caked with grime that I couldn’t see the driver. The windscreen wipers soldiered back and forth across the glass, but it seemed to be getting no cleaner. The creaking of the dry rubber made my skin crawl like nails on a blackboard.
Engine coughing, the vehicle passed by me and came to a shuddering halt just down the street. With a protesting wail, the doors opened.
I stared. Nobody came down the bus steps and there was clearly nobody around to get on board. I could see the faded number 79 over the rear window, which seemed to be just as filthy as the front one. I used to take that bus to the next town. I remember it went past the hospital.
Cautiously, I approached the bus. All of the windows were so filthy, it was impossible to imagine how any light could shine inside. It looked like there had once been one of those large advert pasted on the side of the bus. Much of it was gone, but a few remaining strips showed a woman’s cheek. Water had run through the grime and made it look like she’d been crying.
I approached the door and peered up at the driver. He gripped the wheel, knuckles white, and slowly swivelled his head around the stare at me.
“Do you go past the hospital?” I asked, placing my foot on the bottom step.
He stared past me for a moment, as if trying to recall something and then nodded. I fumbled in the pocket of my jacket for my wallet, stepping up into the vehicle properly. The second my right foot left the pavement, the bus lurched forward once, twice and then was on its way. I fell sideways as it picked up speed and the door folded shut behind me.
“You could let me get on board first,” I snapped. “Bloody bus drivers.”
He swivelled around to watch me again as I threw down a couple of pound coins. His gaze unnerved me, not just because he should have been looking at the road. I could see the whites of his eyes. The way they bulged reminded me of a toad.
“Forget the ticket,” I said hurriedly and scurried to an empty seat near the back, sitting down just as the bus lurched around another corner. The seat smelt stale and musty and when my fingers brushed the material, it felt unpleasantly greasy. Five people occupied various seats before me; behind me, two rows of empty seats.
I realised how dark it was in here compared to the near-dazzling brightness out there. A couple of the overhead lights were on, but barely. They flickered and the thick, congealed light they gave was a dull shade of amber.
Apart from the sound of the struggling engine, I couldn’t hear anything. The other passengers were not talking – none of them sat together. They all sat alone, huddled up to the window with their heads bowed like in prayer.
After a while, I realised that couldn’t see out the windows at all. How would I know when I came to my stop? I stood up and made my way back to the driver.
“Hey, mate, could you tell me when we get to the hospital?”
Again, the slow turning of his head and he regarded me with those frog eyes. His thin lips parted showing teeth like yellowed piano keys but he didn’t say a word. I waited, frowning.
“Mate, the hospital?” I said, through gritted teeth.
He looked like he was concentrating. His face moved oddly, like he was feeling around his mouth with his tongue. Finally he nodded. Realising that this was all I was getting out of him, I gave a sour smirk.
“Thanks for your help,” I muttered and turned back to my seat.
The other passengers were all staring resolutely at the floor, but even from the front they all looked very similar. I couldn’t see any distinguishing features on any of them. I couldn’t even see any of their faces. My hair prickled and I moved quickly back to my seat, trying to dislodge the feeling that they didn’t
have faces.
I fidgeted. The seat was lumpy and there wasn’t enough leg-space. I could feel my feet sticking to the grimy floor.
The person in front of me – was it a man or a woman? – sat with their shoulders hunched. Wisps of thin dark hair escaped from beneath a knitted hat and I could see beads of sweat sliding down their neck. I stared. There was nothing else to stare
at.As the bus wheezed on, I felt myself becoming sleepy. The air in here was warm and stuffy and even though my back ached from the uncomfortable seat, I could feel my eyelids grow heavy.
“James.”“Lucy?”
“Pay attention, silly.” A laugh.
“I’m naming the baby…” And then her voice was drowned in a sea of static.
“Lucy?”
“James!!”I sat bolt upright, crashing my knees on the seat in front of me. A light sweat had formed on my brow and as I looked down at myself, I saw I was trembling all over. Around me, the passengers paid no attention.
Had I missed my stop? I glanced at the window, snarling when I realised it was still too filthy to see through. I couldn’t have been asleep too long though. None of the other passengers had moved.
Gradually I realised that the bus was slowing down. It lurched to a halt and the engine gave one last whine before going almost silent. I looked around, expecting one of the passengers to get up and leave, but none did. With a creak, the doors opened.
After a moment, the driver swivelled his head around to give me an unconcerned gaze. I took this to mean we’d reached the hospital and stood up.
As I passed the other people, I heard a low giggle. One of the passengers to my left shifted in their seat – the only movement I’d seen any of them make. This one seemed smaller than the rest, though like all of them it was bundled up in heavy winter clothes.
“What?” I demanded of it, but it just gave another snigger before it jumped down from its seat, shoved past me and hopped off the bus. When I followed stepped down into the street, I couldn’t see it anywhere.
The bus had dropped me right outside the hospital gate. It was something of a relief to see people hurrying to and from the featureless grey building. As I approached the entrance, I saw an ambulance pull into the emergency bay. Two paramedics climbed out and took a person on a stretcher inside. Something inside me eased at the sight of things carrying on as normal.
Inside, about half the seats in the waiting area had people in them. There was a woman behind the desk and she looked up at me as I approached, giving me a distant smile. Her hair was honey-blonde, pulled back into a loose ponytail and she wore a blood-red cardigan.
“How can we help you?” she said sunnily.
“I’m looking for my wife, Lucy Harris?” I said, leaning my elbows on the counter. “She’s pregnant. Did she come in?”
“Hmm…” A puzzled look crossed the woman’s pretty features, before clearing. Once again she smiled brightly. “Please take a seat. We will be with you shortly.”
I thanked her and sat down. Only then did I look around at the other people in the waiting room. Like the people on the bus, they were all bundled up in heavy jackets with scarves pulled up over their mouths, or hats pulled low over their brows. I couldn’t see their faces.
I glared at the person nearest me. There was something about them… I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. My eyes watered as I looked at them, and it made my head hurt.
“Mr… Harris?” The woman behind the desk called me again.
“Yes?” I said, leaning on the counter again.
“We don’t think Lucy is here,” she said. She was staring at a point past my shoulder, and I cast a half-glance backwards too.
“What do you mean?” I said, my voice increasing in volume. “You don’t
think she’s here?”
“We’ve looked,” she answered, gesturing uselessly at the computer on her desk. “We have no record of Lucy Harris.”
“Well, look again.”
Stay calm, calm, calm. I sighed and tried not to shout as I said, “Please, just look again.”
The woman looked doubtful as she tapped away on the keyboard. I stood, watching, trying to remember the name of the doctor from yesterday.
“We’re sorry, sir-” But I cut her off.
“Can you ask Dr. Baron? He saw her yesterday.”
“We’re sorry, sir. Dr. Baron is not here.”
I thumped my fist on the desk. “Damn it, woman. Find her!”
The woman stared past me again. Some stupid trick to deal with confronting angry patients, but it made my blood boil. The stupid vacant look on her face - stupid bint probably didn’t have two brain cells to rub together.
“Fuck you.” I stormed to the door, kicking out at a rubbish bin. Plastic cups and foil wrappers spilled out across the floor. One of the people jerked like it was waking from a stupor and turned its head toward me, but I strode past it.
Outside, I sucked in as much of the cool air as I could stand. There was a thumping sound in my ears and there was
so much pressure in my head. It hurt so much. I massaged my neck.
Where the fuck was Lucy? God,
anything could have happened to her. Why would she take the car without even trying to ring me?
I should apologise to that woman, I thought, calming down. Poor thing probably has no control over anything that happens in that place.
I turned back to the door just as the thought caught up with me. There was something wrong with the people, I realised. They made my eyes ache to look at. Looking at them was like… like trying to look at something very far away. Everything about them was blurry and indistinct, like a photograph that is out of focus.
Then I heard the bells.
I turned, trying to see where it was coming from. None of the people around me seemed to notice it, even though it was so look it made my teeth chatter. No, they kept on hurrying back and forth from the hospital doors.
The pain in my head increased threefold. Fuck, the light burned my eyes, even through my closed eyelids. My eyes screwed shut and I could see swirling shapes like watching fog.
The bells were ringing, ringing, heavy and old. Each peal was like a physical blow to me, body and mind. I staggered sideways, fell to the concrete. Felt grit cut into my cheek. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eye sockets, anything to block that piercing light.
Everything was burning. White, white.
“Lucy!”And… the smell…
Like burning.
More freedom for you guys this time. Where does James wake up? Limited to places that could realistically be in the little town. Also, who was the woman in the street? Will he see her again? Why was she running? And... where the hell is Lucy? 
