Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [131]
He heard the sound of wailing music coming from the next room. This was one of his nightmares: a corridor with no doors, no beginning and no end. Somewhere along it he could hear the sound of crying. He felt his way along in the total blackness. He could not see his feet. He did not know how high the ceiling was above him. The heat bounced off the walls. It ran down his face; it stuck his shirt to his back. He ran his finger along the wall and touched something wet and sticky. He smelt blood. He smelt panic. Mann stopped. His heart raced, the blood pumped in his ears as he strained to listen.
Nina was crying.
‘Nina…’ Shrimp could barely speak. ‘I can help you, Nina. I will do anything for you. Please, don’t do this to us.’
Mann moved along the corridor in the dark. He didn’t want to alert anyone to his presence. He felt his way in the darkness. His shirt stuck to his wounds, stinging now from the sweat in them. But he didn’t notice. He had one purpose left for his body, one more thing he asked it to do. His fingers tingled with adrenalin as he gripped Delilah tightly in his hand and called out.
The candle flickered a ghostly sheen up the white tiles and over the faces of the dolls.
Nina sat on top of Shrimp and felt along his ribcage.
She picked up the scalpel and cut along the bottom of his rib.
‘All right, Nina.’ Shrimp struggled to talk through the pain. ‘You kill me now but understand one thing, Nina…’ Nina cut him again twice more. She lifted the section of skin and exposed his ribs ‘…I will love you forever.’
He couldn’t talk any more. Nina picked up the skewer. The pain shook his body and he gave one deep cry; all the pain and all the love found a harmony in the last few seconds of his life. Nina slashed through the artery in her left wrist. There was a pause and then blood shot out and covered the wall behind and extinguished the candle and, in pitch darkness, Nina pressed the point of the skewer into Shrimp’s heart.
‘Shrimp?’ Mann’s heart pounded in his ears as he waited for an answer. There was none. He felt along in the pitch darkness. He came to the second door and he turned the handle, pushed, and stepped into the room. In the darkness he called out again. From the far end of the room he thought he heard what sounded like Shrimp’s voice. Mann inched forwards. At the far end of the room he felt a curtain beneath his fingers and behind it the solid feel of a door. He felt for a handle and turned it.
The door opened and the heat from the room stuck in Mann’s lungs along with the smell of atomized blood as thick as a cloud. He heard the sound of dripping. His fingers tingled with adrenalin as he gripped Delilah tightly in his hand. He took another step and his foot touched something on the floor. He shone his light into the room. Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared back at him. In the middle of the room were bodies. Nina slumped forward, naked, her long hair hiding whoever was underneath. Mann knelt down beside them. Mann saw Sheng, what was left of him. He pushed Nina over. She rolled to one side on top of Sheng.
Mann’s heart broke when he saw Shrimp. His chest was opened. His ribs showing. He was covered in blood. He wasn’t moving and a skewer was deeply imbedded in his heart. Nina’s weight had driven it in. Mann looked closely; there was the faintest sign of movement; the heart was still beating. Shrimp was hanging on.
‘I’m here, Shrimp. Stay with me. Hold on. You’re going to be all right.’
Mann turned and shouted out for Daniel Lu. He looked back at Shrimp. The heart was barely beating now, growing fainter every beat. He knew he shouldn’t remove the skewer but it’s all he wanted to do. It was killing Shrimp and he couldn’t stop it.
‘Shrimp, stay with me. For fuck sake listen to me and stay alive.’
He looked around for something to pack inside the chest cavity to try and stem the bleeding that