Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [8]
‘It’s just so I know who you are,’ Zaki said. Pain stabbed through his left shoulder as he eased his hand out of his pocket to hold the torch, then he picked the little metal band out of the sand and twisted it around in the torchlight. The metal was green with corrosion. The inner surface was flat and the outer surface slightly curved with a pattern of inscriptions running all the way round it. Some sort of writing, maybe. He tried it on and found it just fitted over his own hand and hung, loosely, on his wrist.
‘I’m not stealing it, but I think I should show it to somebody. I’ll bring it back.’
Zaki closed his eyes as a throbbing ache spread down his arm from his injured shoulder. Had he broken something when he hit the cave wall? His stomach tightened and he thought for a moment that he would be sick. He sank slowly on to the sand. Was the light from the torch getting dimmer? Perhaps he should turn it off and save the batteries.
He felt giddy, almost as if something was taking him over.
Now the darkness seemed comforting.
He switched off the torch and let the darkness enfold him. It was soft and dense.
He lay back on the sand and breathed the darkness in and out. It brushed his face. It poured into his ears. It made no difference whether his eyes were open or shut. He was safe. Cradled. He heard his own voice say ‘Mum, I’ve hurt my shoulder,’ and he thought a hand stroked his hair.
Someone, something would take care of him.
There was light now.
Somebody coming?
Bright light – but where? His eyes were shut. Was it inside his head? Getting brighter.
And voices talking, talking, talking, talking! A man’s voice then a child’s, then a man’s, talking, talking, shouting, screaming! Voices shouting! Voices screaming! Talking, shouting, screaming – all at once – all together.
‘Who’s there?’ Zaki called.
Smoke – he could smell smoke. The air grew thick with it, making him cough. Perhaps the light came from a fire. No – not a fire – inside him. The light was inside him.
And faces – lots of faces – crowding – drums beating – eyes full of fear. Who are you? Now just one face – a monstrous face – eyes of fire – teeth stained with blood! Who are you? Why are you staring? What have I done?
I didn’t hurt you.
I didn’t hurt you!
I’m the one that’s hurt.
Can’t you see? I’m the one that’s hurt!
Help me!
Help me!!
Gone.
Hiding – can’t see them any more – but I know they’re there.
Climbed into my head – they all climbed into my head – it’s all inside me – everything.
Zaki lay on the sand. The light that had been so bright shrank and shrank and shrank until it was a tiny, glinting speck in the vast, empty darkness. He clung to the vanishing gleam. Focused on it. If he lost it, there would be nothing.
The speck flickered and was gone.
All was black. All was still.
Zaki waited. What now?
In the stillness Zaki became conscious of a familiar sound. Water. Lapping water. The sound of water nearby.
Water! The tide! Water in the mouth of the cave!
How long had he been in here? Can’t have been that long? The tide hadn’t even turned when he came in. Should have been hours before the water reached the cave.
Zaki rolled on to his right side, then slowly on to his knees. In the disorientating darkness he had the strange sensation that he was now upside down. His head swam and he had to lower it on to the ground between his knees.
When he felt a little steadier, he groped around in the sand for his torch. There it was; a familiar, reassuring shape. His thumb found the switch and clicked it on. The narrow beam sprang out across the cave’s sandy floor. To his immense relief the battery wasn’t flat. Zaki swept the light around the chamber, over the