Doctor Who_ Bad Therapy - Matthew Jones [82]
‘Wait!’ Gordy said, angry and upset to be publicly admonished by the devil.
‘I want Billy Spot to do it.’
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‘No!’ Carl cried. ‘He’s mine. I was promised.’
‘Shut up, Carl,’ Gordy snapped. He could deal with his brother later. ‘It’s time for Billy to prove his loyalty to the firm. Are you ready to work for me and my devil?’
Billy Spot appeared to consider this for a moment and then nodded. Gordy watched him lift the unconscious boy out of Carl’s reluctant arms. Gordy had to physically intervene to persuade Carl to give up his razor.
‘Once you’ve done this, then you can be one of us,’ Gordy encouraged, willing Billy Spot on. ‘Then you’ll be in the gang.’
For a long moment, Billy Spot stood next to Carl, with the limp body of the boy tucked under one arm and the cut-throat razor in the other.
But Billy Spot didn’t use the knife. Instead, without once taking his eyes off Gordy, he closed the razor neatly and quickly stretched out with one hand and pressed his index finger to Carl’s forehead. There was a faint buzzing sound and Carl toppled backwards on to the ground and was still.
‘Enough of this,’ Billy Spot said, without a trace of a London accent.
Gordy’s mouth fell open, but he couldn’t find any words at all.
And then Billy Spot removed his face. He grabbed hold of the skin under his chin and pulled his hand up across his face, tearing a huge pancake of flesh from the front of his head.
In an instant Billy Spot was gone and, revealed beneath was a face Gordy had little trouble recognizing. Its features were pink and raw, and covered in tiny blisters, but the face was unmistakable.
It was the little Scotsman, the one who called himself the Doctor.
‘Surprise,’ he said.
Gordy didn’t move. Couldn’t move. He just stood and stared at the man in front of him as his conscious mind tried to ask a thousand questions at once and failed.
‘It’s not possible. Not possible,’ he managed, and began to back away slowly from the red and grinning face.
How could Billy Spot be the Doctor? How could you hide yourself away in another person’s body? Gordy had talked to Billy Spot that morning when the man had come to work for him, just as the devil said he would. Had the devil sent the Doctor? No, that was impossible, the devil was on Gordy’s side. The devil was his friend. So how had the Doctor managed to get in here? What kind of magic did the little man have?
Jesus. He’d thought that Billy – the Doctor – had wanted his approval and his praise, but that had been just a ruse to stop Gordy hitting the Doctor’s little queer friend. Gordy felt sick. How stupid did the Doctor think he was?
Something hard and cold pressed against the back of his thighs. Gordy reached down with his hands. It was the top of the open safe. The safe where 137
he’d kept all the letters and photographs before the Doctor had come and spoilt his blackmailing operation. Just like he was spoiling everything Gordy tried to do.
The safe had belonged to his older brother. Gordy had been forbidden to go near it when Albert had been alive, because it was where Albert kept the gang’s payroll and their father’s service revolver. It was still there on the bottom shelf. Gordy had been surprised when he’d discovered that the Doctor hadn’t taken it when he’d burnt all the documents.
Gordy quickly knelt down and retrieved the gun from the back of the safe.
It felt cold and incredibly heavy in his hands. It had always scared the life out of Gordy. He pointed it directly at the man who had been Billy Spot. Well now it was going to scare the life out of the Doctor. Permanently.
Everyone in the room backed away from him a little. Gordy was pleased to see the smile slip from the Doctor’s blistered face. They were scared of him now. Good.
‘Not so frigging clever now, are you?’ Gordy said, trying to keep his voice level, but it kept cracking. ‘We’ll see how frigging clever you are with a frigging bullet through your frigging face.’
The Doctor only stood there, silent and impassive.
The room brightened as the disembodied voice of the devil spoke again.