Roachville

Vi’s vacant property was an old squat in a sought-after position. Conveniently located near all amenities (dodgy pub, drug dealers and run-down park), it was within walking distance of the town centre. Jubilee Close itself was extremely difficult to locate and Mina Park wasn’t far, but that was no consolation for spending the night in this dive.

We had two sleeping bags and a big bottle of mineral water with us. Bek had remembered some candles left in his boot from a music festival and he had given us a bagful. Ely and I cleared what presumably used to be the dining room; even in the feeble light of the candles, all the other rooms looked too bad to sit in. At least there was no soggy carpet here and it had the only intact window left in the house. The kitchen was derelict and smelt of wet dog and the lounge by the entrance door was filled with assorted debris. So there we were, by the dancing light of the candles, sitting on our respective sleeping bag on the bare wooden floor. The doors were shut and the naga had found a place between us, drawing all lights and attention. We gazed at it for some time, its delicate limbs and curving neck, warm red wood and shiny polished surface.

The wind rose and the house responded with sinister creaking noises. Just like the place where I had spent my teenage years, in a house perched on top of a hill, overlooking a godforsaken village in the middle of nowhere. My bedroom had been on the highest floor, facing towards the bottom of the enclosed valley below. Often the wind would rise and keep bashing the house for days, giving me restless nights and dreams filled with slithery spirits.

‘I hate the wind…’ I said, ‘but I hope I’ll get over this particular phobia one day.’

‘As long as your wind-o-phobia doesn’t get between us,’ replied Ely.

‘I wonder what the scientific name for wind phobia is?’ I said, listening to the hissing sounds enveloping the walls.

‘I have no idea. To be honest I’m more interested in what was going to happen before we saw the destruction in your house.’

He removed the naga from between us and came very close to me. I could see the tiny freckles on his skin and small lines at the corner of his blue eye.

‘We were flirting.’ Butterflies fluttered in my stomach, but I managed to speak. ‘Ely?’

‘Hum?’ he replied, stroking my hair, making me lose myself almost completely.

‘You can call me paranoid, it wouldn’t surprise me… or even presumptuous, because… well, it’s obvious that I fancy you, a lot, and you fancy me too?’

‘Those are your powers of observation that I like...’ He nibbled my ear.

‘I mean...’ I went on, tilting my head at an impossible angle, ‘doesn’t all this stuff freak you out? Any normal bloke would have run a mile by now.’

He leant forward and kissed me on the mouth. ‘I do fancy you. Enormously. In fact, I can’t remember the last time that something like this – like you – happened to me. And, yes, there are crazy things happening around you at the moment, so maybe I should run away from you, away from it all. But I feel compelled. I want to get to know you. And your friends might be black belt in Tae Kwon Do, but I reckon you need some extra special protection right now.’ Scooping the naga under its rounded belly, he looked squarely into its round wooden eyes and spoke like a mystic from a wide-open plain. ‘This is what has brought us together. You’re its guardian for now and even though we barely know each other, I have to be here for you. Everything is linked together.’

All I wanted to do now was to jump on him and take off all his clothes. Clearly he had the same idea, as he unzipped my brown cord jacket and threw it to the side. He grabbed my face and we started kissing as if we were in a big-budget Hollywood movie. Before I knew it, he was lying on top of me and the wooden floorboards were pressing hard against my back but I couldn’t care less. He pulled my t-shirt up and my bra down. My head moved to the ceiling and I breathed fast, but then a loud noise startled us. We looked at each other and slowly, languidly, Ely removed his mouth from my left nipple.

‘Fuck… I’d better go and check what’s upstairs,’ he said.

I acquiesced while readjusting my bra and finding my jacket. He got briskly out of the room and I heard his quick footsteps going up the stairs. One of the candles had gone out while we’d been groping each other. I found the matches and tried to light it again. After wasting three matches to re-ignite the wick, I gave up, took a fresh candle out of the plastic bag, and struck another match – but again, the wick put itself out. One by one the four other candles on the windowsill and around the room went out, leaving an acrid smell that seeped into the back of my throat.

I sat back on my sleeping bag, wrapped my arms around my knees and listened out for Ely. Muffled noises came through the ceiling. I called out Ely’s name a couple of times, without any response. A very small amount of light still came through the dusty window. What was outside this room again?

Right now, I was in the dining room and there were two doors, one leading to the stairs and the front of the house, and the other to the kitchen. But I didn’t know what was outside the window. It could just be an alleyway – or had Vi mentioned a courtyard? I wished I’d paid more attention. She had said something about ‘somewhere you couldn’t escape out of’. How could I have been so scatterbrained? As I tried to visualize my surroundings, the invisible hairs on the back of my neck pricked up all of a sudden. I grabbed my knees tighter and, sitting there in the dark, I felt the density of the air change, as if the molecules in the room had become thicker. I strained towards the door waiting for something terrible to happen but Ely’s voice floated in.

‘Hey, why is it so dark in here? Did you put the candles out?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ I replied as if talking from a great distance.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, finding his way over to me.

‘I don’t know, something weird is happening.’

‘Let’s use the mobiles then,’ he said.

‘I can’t find them in this darkness. The candles put themselves out. Have you noticed the strange atmosphere?’ I whispered.

‘I’m not sure, but it’s damn cold in this room… We should leave this place.’

‘I think it’s too late,’ I said, and I turned Ely’s face towards the naga.

‘What the fuck?’

A soft blue light radiated from inside the naga, making it look as if it was hovering over the floorboards.

‘It did it last night, too, after you’d gone.’ I grabbed Ely’s arm.

‘This is a warning. We need to get out of here.’

‘Okay, but which way? I don’t think we should go through the front door.’

‘I agree,’ Ely said, squashing my hand. ‘Let’s try to get out this window.’

‘Are you sure this isn’t a dead end?’

‘I don’t know. I wasn’t really concentrating when Vi dropped us off.’

He walked to the window and fumbled with the catch. I turned towards the door but I couldn’t see anything, darkness seemed to have swallowed the edge of the room, so I crept towards the naga. As I looked around in the general direction of the kitchen, I thought I saw a grey silhouette etched in the shadows. Icy arrows shot through my spine and I scrambled blindly towards Ely. I found his leg and held on to it.

‘What’s going on?’ Ely whispered urgently.

My teeth chattered. ‘Look, look! There’s something, a man in the room!’

‘Where? I can’t see anything. This is so fucking freaky!’

‘I promise you, I saw something, this is nuts! We’ve got to get out now!’ I said more loudly.

‘I’m trying, but this damn thing is jammed.’

Now even the dull light that was coming through the window had gone. We were surrounded by a blackness that could only be found at the bottom of a very deep well. The naga’s glow was fading. I stretched my arm like an elastic band and grabbed it by its delicate neck. Just like the candles had earlier, it put itself out. The catch gave in and Ely let out a hissing ‘yes’ through his teeth. Dank air came in as he pushed the window up.

‘Let’s get out of this hell hole,’ he said. ‘You go first. I’ll hold the naga.’

I stood up, shaking, and groped for the window.

‘Go!’

I contorted through the narrow opening, but my legs didn’t find any support. I lowered myself down while holding on to the ledge but there was nothing there. I ended up hanging from the windowsill without knowing where the bottom was.

‘There’s no floor,’ I said, panicking. ‘Help me back up!’

But Ely didn’t have time to answer. The front door crashed open; loud footsteps were approaching.

‘Annika, stay here,’ Ely whispered. ‘I’ll drop the naga. Like I said before, you look after it and I’ll keep them away from you. I’ll be in touch. Take care of yourself.’

The naga fell with a gentle sound. It didn’t land very far down. At the same time someone opened the dining-room door and shouted incomprehensible words. The window slid down with an almost imperceptible sound and I recognized the tiny click of the catch being put back in place. I wanted to shout to Ely to run, to be careful – but everything happened too fast. I concentrated so hard on noises coming from the living room that I stopped breathing. But it was no use; I had been disconnected from the inside of the house, and thick silence enveloped me like a triple layer of rock-wool insulation. All of a sudden a wave of irrepressible exhaustion flowed over me, my arms shook and my fingers slid from the ledge. I let go, not caring that much anymore, and I landed on my feet with a soft thud. The naga sent out a single pulse of dull blue light and I lowered myself down in the complete darkness. I wrapped myself around the naga, visualising Ely’s unsymmetrical eyes and my mind shut down, as I free-fell into deep sleep.