Doctor Who_ History 101 - Mags L. Halliday [48]
It was nearly 8 p.m. when the planes turned and didn’t reappear.
* * *
There was something monstrous, loose in the city.
That was the only conclusion she had managed to draw from the data. Anji was cross with herself. Cross with the Doctor for getting them into this. Cross with the guard posted at the top of Parc Güell who had denied the newspaper report of what he had seen. They had been forced to walk for most of the climb up to the place, which had put her in a bad mood even before the guard had started claiming he’d just seen a wild animal. His eyes had been darting about and she could sense the other guards smirking and nudging each other. Exasperated, she stomped over to the edge of the hillside, trailing Eleana in her wake like a balloon. She crossed her arms and scowled at the city laid out below her.
There was something monstrous, loose, wild, in the city.
From the top of Parc Güell, the city filled the slope down to the Mediterranean. The grid of the fin-de‐siècle streets dragged the eye towards the dark slit of water on the horizon, where the bombers appeared from. Only the Sagrada Família broke through the order, clutching at the sky. Eastwards, Montjuïc squatted, a sudden bump in the horizon with the jumble of the Barri Gótic nestling close at its feet. Laid out below her, with a few lights flickering on and the sun slipping away, it looked simultaneously like two different cities. Three, as she could overlay her pin-map across it all. There was no geometry to the events, no ability to predict. She hated it.
‘Anji?’
‘Si?’
They set off back through the grounds, taking one of the tracks that zigzagged through the parkland with Eleana in the lead. Dusk was starting to fall now and somewhere birds were giving it their all, singing and whooping with the change in light. Eleana plunged them down a series of jagged steps that linked the looping levels of the narrow roadway. The steps were built of slick stones, uneven, slippery with wet leaves and Anji had to slow her pace to get down them without feeling like she was about to fall. Off the path, the young trees hid the sky and the sounds of the city totally, just the faintest hint of dark blue remained of the day. The ground was thick with the acid smell of decaying leaves, fallen over previous autumns. Anji paused to rummage in her bag, searching for the old bicycle lamp she kept in there.
The birdsong stopped.
Anji felt the sudden silence, the fine hairs on her neck whispering of its importance, before she even realised what she was reacting to. She could see the darker shape of Eleana still moving down the steps ahead of her, apparently unconcerned. There was no distance: all Anji had to do was run down the shiny, slippery, slimy steps and she’d catch up with her. Just put one foot out and drop to the next step, once she started she would be away, running fast. Skidding, her crappy worn soles taking her out of control. She didn’t dare move. This was ridiculous. She could call out. She wasn’t some terrified girly-girl.
‘Eleana?’
Anji started at her own voice, at its sudden timidity. And Eleana didn’t slow down, fast disappearing into the darkness instead. Almost against her own will, Anji found her shoes skittering across the stone, her body propelling her forward and down in what felt like full flight. She moved fast, faster than she knew was safe. If she thought or slowed, she’d fall, she knew it instinctively. Her right foot slid and kicked backwards, throwing her off balance but she didn’t slow. Didn’t dare slow. Her ankles jolted as she hit a level bit where the road cut through the staircase. She didn’t pause but plunged on, her left arm up to shield her from the almost invisible branches whipping at her.
What the hell was she running from?