II - Josh
Josh
stepped through the crumbling brick archway and felt the icy touch of fog on
his cheek. Outside at last and, if
Clara had been telling the truth, on the other side of the hideous barriers
which had blocked their progress before.
He smiled, then turned to see Paige, Henry and Charlie just a few feet
behind him.
“Is that
it?” Paige asked. “Are we out?”
“I think
so,” he replied, “it doesn’t look like the street we started on.”
Henry
edged his way past Paige and peered out into the street, then nodded. “Yes,” he said, “I know this street. We’re
going the right way.”
“You know
how to get to the city centre from here, then?”
“Just
take a right there and then you’re on James Street.” Henry pointed to the end of the road they were on.
Josh
nodded. James Street was Devara’s
second high street, full of all the strange little independent shops, charity
shops, hairdressers, off-licenses and a plethora of restaurants offering a
diverse range of international cuisines.
If they followed it for about half a mile they would reach one of the
city’s main shopping centres and, just beyond that the high street and the
place Clara had told him to head towards.
With luck he could justify passing through without needing any
explanation. He smiled again.
Thinking
of Clara brought with is a profusion of confusing emotions. That he should have his first time with a
woman under such circumstances, in the midst of such darkness, was both vaguely
logical and completely insane and now that he was back out in the dark his mind
kept drifting back to what they’d done and filling him with excitement and, to
his surprise, a kind of fear, perhaps even guilt. He supposed it was the secret of it all, not being able to tell
his companions. Still, Clara insisted
that it was all for their own good, all except Henry, she said, whose background
meant he would always be opposed to what was to come. She wanted him to keep an eye on the old man especially.
“Well,
are we gong to move or aren’t we?” Paige asked, rubbing her arms against the
cold. “I’d rather not freeze here if I
have nay choice in the matter.”
“Of
course, the sooner we move the sooner we can find somewhere more comfortable to
wait this all out,” Josh replied, stepping out into the street and beginning to
make his way towards the far end. The
fog swirled around them, thickening and thinning in imperceptible patterns,
reminding him of the monster in the courtyard, but strangely he wasn’t afraid
now, just anxious to get where Clara had told him to go. He knew she would be waiting for him there.
No comments:
Post a Comment