Infinite Rooms: a gripping psychological thriller that follows one man's descent into madness by David John Griffin

Author:David John Griffin [Griffin, David John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781910692622
Publisher: Urbane Publications
Published: 2016-06-15T23:00:00+00:00

18

The train station was a vast area of brick, steel and glass. Pigeons flew high up in the vaulting and perched in rows on great metal spans, or roamed about the platforms pecking at invisible specks.

A dull pervading reverberation, broken only by a station announcement or trains moving out into the crisp daylight.

As Clement walked onto the concrete platform from the train, one of the schoolchildren, who had boarded earlier, gaped out from a carriage window. Those stone-hard eyes were neither interesting nor interested; a dispassionate stare only as though Clement was an exhibit at a museum. A man on the train turned away for a short time and his lips moved before another face joined him as a spectator. A woman at the far end opened the top of a window and was attempting to push her head through, while from a carriage door an arm held an accusing finger.

Embarrassment enveloped Clement though he felt a sense of satisfaction. The belief that he had become different in a mysterious way was being confirmed. If only Dr Leibkov was here in person, he told himself, he would see how correct I am.

But the satisfaction dissolved as some of his observers began to laugh openly. Clement’s breath quickened. With humiliation joining his shame, he wanted to stop them, to turn their heads, and those heads seeming to rise and fall as if attached to weightless astronauts.

He turned abruptly away from his audience, brushed himself down and walked briskly to the ticket barrier. Once through, he went onto the station concourse.

His job would invariably involve much sitting and waiting. He visited the newsstand to buy a writing pad and a pencil before finding the exit and going into the city morning.

Like an insecticide sprayed bluebottle bouncing from ceiling to floor, so Clement had within him emotion which acted the same. He felt elation at starting work again but anxious at the possibility of finding his suitcases on the doorstep the coming evening.

Throngs of pedestrians brushed by, stern-faced and marching. The autumn morning had brightened even more but still it shone a cold light. A row of taxis sat in a line in sharp shadows, the drivers reading newspapers or sitting as if asleep. Pavement slabs beside them were still covered with frost, each like a spore under a microscope. Cars, buses and lorries buzzed past, vying for position along the road. The wide street was banked on each side with shops. There were offices above, high edifices towering into whiteness.

A senior citizen stood by an advertisement hoarding. Her eyes shone like beacons from their barren landscape. They fixed upon Clement as he passed.

‘Would you like to know of eternal love?’ she asked in a cracked voice. ‘The day of judgement is upon us.’ Her bare, sinewy arm described some esoteric symbol.

Clement wished to inquire if she was cold. Her skirt covered past her knees, a blouse over her frail frame. Her coat had been taken off, covering a pile of leaflets to prevent them from blowing away.

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