Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [55]
‘I’ve downloaded the camcorder recording. You can see a lot more on this big screen than you could on the camcorder’s screen.’
Anusha clicked the mouse and an image appeared on the screen. Zaki saw himself, back to the camera, sitting on the edge of the landing stage. It was the recording Anusha had made that morning.
‘Wait, I’ll fast-forward it; nothing happens for a bit except for that stupid woman with the dog.’
The image jiggled and there was a scrabble of sound from the surrounding speakers. The woman and her dog appeared and seemed to scamper about like comic figures in a silent movie, then the picture steadied and the sound returned to the soft sighing of the wind. A gull flew in from the left side of the image and settled on the landing stage not far from the seated Zaki.
‘Can you stop it there?’ asked Zaki.
Anusha froze the image just after the figure of Zaki turned to look at the gull.
‘Yeah. Now can you zoom in?’
The image got larger in a series of jerky steps until the head of the gull, with its bright yellow eye, filled the screen.
‘OK. Go on, and watch the eye,’ said Zaki, knowing instinctively that the eye was what they should be looking at.
Anusha unfroze the image; the eye blinked but still retained the gull’s characteristic glassy stare. The eye blinked again and it was as though a shadow passed across its surface, like the wind-ruffled shadows that race over the water on a sunny day. When the shadow had gone, the eye appeared to have gained added depth, reminding Zaki of peering down into deep water on a still morning. Although the eye was the eye of a gull, it no longer appeared to be the spirit of a gull that looked out through it.
‘Did you see?’
Anusha nodded. ‘It changed. It stopped looking like a gull’s eye. It was you, wasn’t it. You were looking out of the eye.’
‘Yeah, it was me. I know it’s weird, but . . .’
Anusha gave another little nod; he didn’t have to go on; he didn’t have to explain. She had seen it and she believed him.
The eye still filled the screen.
‘Can you zoom out?’ asked Zaki.
Several clicks of the mouse and Zaki’s seated figure came back into frame. There he was, sitting beside the gull, except . . . the gull was now him and the thing that looked like him – was what? Something, somebody else.
‘Shall I run it on?’
‘Yeah – please.’
Anusha allowed the action to resume; the gull took off and flew out of frame, the camera remaining on the seated figure. Obviously, Anusha had been quite unaware of the significance of the gull while she was filming.
‘Can we run it back?’
‘There’s something more important you need to see.’ Anusha’s fingers click the keys and the image jumped forward. ‘I kept the camera running as I walked towards you.’
Zaki heard Anusha’s voice on the soundtrack call his name. He saw the figure’s head and shoulders turn and the eyes looked straight into the camera. Anusha froze the image once more and zoomed in on the face – his face – but not his face. Not his face because the eyes were not his eyes.
A chill of fear ran up Zaki’s spine. A cornered wolf might look like that just before it leapt for your throat – treacherous, vicious, cruel, waiting to attack.
Anusha allowed the recording to run on in slow motion. The wolfish eyes shifted uneasily and then the head turned away as though trying to hide the face from the viewer. A few moments later the screen went black.
‘That’s all I have. Do you want to see anything again?’
‘No thanks,’ said Zaki.
Anusha was busy for a few minutes shutting down the equipment, then she swivelled her chair to face him.
‘I’m sorry if I didn’t believe you straight away – about being the gull and about it not being you that attacked me – but it’s all so strange. Where do you think that thing – the thing that took over your body – where do you think it is now? Maybe it died when you – when it – when your body fell over the edge. Maybe it’s gone – maybe you’ve killed it. Do you think?’
Zaki tilted his head. ‘Is the cut on my cheek still there?’
Anusha leant forward. The only light in the room was the glow