Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [124]
He pulled harder as he saw Lilly’s hand weakening. She looked at him, terror in her eyes. ‘Hold on…hold on…’ He shouted down to her and with one almighty pull he lifted Lilly two feet upwards. Mahmud reached down and grabbed her other arm and pulled her up onto the ledge. The urumi snaked in the air as its coils unravelled. The only thing still attached to it were three of Mann’s fingers. The Outcasts scattered from the rooftop like scalded ants as they ran back down the stairs and through the Mansions.
Mann lay on the roof. His wounds were deep. He was losing blood fast. He felt the cold of the concrete under his back. He shivered. He closed his eyes. He heard Victoria talking to him and he heard the whoop-whoop of a machine overhead and then the world went dark.
Chapter 107
Shrimp lay in the absolute darkness trying to work out where he was and how he had got there. It was so dark he didn’t know whether his eyes were open or not. He tried to move his legs and arms and couldn’t. He was aware that he was naked. The last recollection he had was of being with Nina and now he was here in a place that smelt of death. There was an odour in the room of guts, faeces, carnage. He was lying on plastic. There was only darkness around. Next to him Sheng’s body lay. Shrimp felt its presence but he couldn’t see it. He could hear someone in the room with him.
‘Nina?’ he called. He could hear the sound of someone moving closer. ‘Nina?’ he said again.
The heat in the room was unbearable.
‘Nina?’ He was beginning to feel fear now. Then soft hands reached out to touch him in the darkness. ‘Nina, is that you?’ Someone ran their hand over his body lightly and then he felt the sting as a knife dragged across his thighs. Just once. Shrimp heard movement again, she was gone.
Ruby left Shrimp with a taster of what was to come later. For now she was busy. She went into the other room. She had to get her nurse’s outfit on, ready for the hospital. She took her spare urumi out from the cupboard, She had unfinished business with Mann. She knew which hospital they would take him to. There weren’t many capable of reconstructing a hand. Ruby slipped on her mac over her uniform and left.
Chapter 108
Mann lay in the hospital bed. His dreams took him flying on the back of the eagle. His eyes were on the horizon. He soared on the air currents, turned and faced the wind and then swooped. The wind was in his face, feathers beneath his hands, the sun on his back. Then he was falling through the air, hearing Lilly scream, seeing the terror in her face and hearing Helen calling him. ‘Wake up wake up sleepy head.’
Mann tossed and turned. He felt the stitches throb in his hand. Three hours of surgery had reconnected two of his fingers, but the third one, the forefinger, the eagle had recovered from the gardens below the Mansions and eaten it; it had developed a taste for fingers. The wounds from the urumi had cost him two hundred and forty stitches. Thirty of them were across his face; one more scar to add to his collection. He touched his face as he came out of the anaesthetic, prodding it with his numb bandaged hand. The fingers weren’t going to be working for a while.
He looked around the room. He heard Mia’s voice. He felt panic. He didn’t know why.
He heard the footsteps in the corridor. He lay there listening, hearing his heart hammer as he fought to come out from the anaesthetic. Mann heard the swish of a uniform, starch, shoes, leather soles slapping on linoleum. Mann stirred in his drugged stupor. Helen was talking to him again now. ‘Get up! Move. Run…run…she’s coming for you, darling.’ Click, clack down the corridor…He stumbled out of bed and doubled over with the pain. He pulled his clothes from the locker and rested against the bed as he got dressed.
Chapter 109
Run, Johnny, run. He staggered as he bounced off the walls of the hospital. He felt the adrenalin in his body as it met drug sedation head on and had nowhere