Invaders From Beyond by Colin Sinclair

Author:Colin Sinclair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd

6

WE KEEP OUR heads down.

Gail don’t feel like leaving the sofa. I never seen anyone watch so much shit TV. Channel 5 and Sky Living. Two mugs on the coffee table are full to the brim with fag-ends. I guess you could say she’s been living with me the last couple of days, but only because she can’t quite get up the energy to leave.

“Take me back,” she says.

I shake my head, like always. Just the thought of her all spaced out and drooly up there at the bothy is enough to give me the shivers. At least I know she can’t go on her own now. The keys to her Corsa are in my jeans pocket, digging into my leg. You won’t see me giving them keys back to her.

I fill up Gail’s glass with tequila. It’s what you might call a short-term solution. She deserves not having to be the barmaid for a while, though—not that she’s even set foot in the Beast, last couple of days. Who knows who’s keeping that place going right now.

“It’s bad for you,” I say, meaning the Blighter, not the tequila, though it might as well be both.

“It was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me.”

“Didn’t look like it. You looked like a mental.”

Gail’s face does something complicated. “I was so happy, Becky. It was more happiness than I’ve ever known. That Blighter up there must be more powerful even than the one in Portugal. What they say is right. I’m not religious, but it was like looking into the face of God.”

That’s a bit much. First, I was there in that circle of white stones, too, for a bit, and it was more like drinking shitloads of cheap champagne really fast when you’ve crashed a wedding. Second, looking into the face of God just sounds proper awkward, like when opticians lean in close and they have gross coffee-breath but part of your brain tells you you should kiss them anyway.

I do remember the stories about the Portugal Blighter. As soon as someone let the cat out of the bag, all the locals buried it under this little church to stop other folks wandering too close. They made the circle—the radius, that is—smaller. They did it just after them American scientists proved that the happy calm feeling got less and less, the more people were allowed near to a Blighter. A one-way process, them scientists said. Let too many people have a go and the thing’s knackered for good. But the ones who did get into that church, inside the radius, they had a fine old time, giggling and rolling around. People looking through the windows said they saw them speaking in tongues.

“You told me to kill you,” I say.

“I didn’t know what I was saying,” Gail says, “and that’s not how I felt.”

We both sip tequila. I think I’m going off it.

Yesterday’s Westmorland Gazette is lying on the coffee table. They still keep up Dad’s subscription, even though I

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.