Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth

Author:Simon Kurt Unsworth [Unsworth, Simon Kurt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Fiction
Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2012-05-20T22:00:00+00:00

Nakata 5: Under Great Moore Street, Manchester

The tiles were still in good condition, glimmering in the dimness and reflecting Hammond’s torch beam where it fell on them. From floor to about five feet up they were a marbled green colour with veins of pale pink and yellow running through them; above they were much paler, a blue-tinged off-white reaching to a ceiling perhaps ten feet above their heads.

“Clever, isn’t it?” asked Hammond, playing his torch up and down. “Restful: oceanic at the bottom, light and airy above. Puts people at the ease, see?”

“Yes,” replied Nakata. He could hear the sound of distant traffic, heavy and constant; dust hung in the air, shivering to the vibrations. It smelled in here, of stale urine and dampness and wood blooming with decay, and disinfectant. “Was it always this way? The layout, I mean?”

Hammond nodded. “Yes. The cubicles to the left and the urinals to the right at the rear, sinks and the attendant’s station here at the front. Here, have you seen this?”

The older man went past Nakata, his high visibility jacket a startling green in the gloom. He pointed his torch at the wall to Nakata’s rear. Along the wall were three gaping holes in the tiles, their black maws ringed by the jagged remains of the ceramic squares, spitting plaster dust in long trails to the floor. In among the holes were two urinals, large porcelain cups held on the wall by rusting pipes and stained mortar. Hammond aimed his torch into one of the urinals, pointing it at what Nakata thought at first was a dark smudge. “Look,” said Hammond.

Nakata went closer, peering at the smudge. Closer to, he saw it was a small drawing of a bee, glazed into the urinal’s curved wall about two thirds of the way up from the drain at the bottom. “It showed the Victorian gentlemen where to aim their flow,” said Hammond, laughing, “so as not to get piss spatters on their boots. It’s a bee, see? Latin for a bee is ‘apis’, see?”

At first, Nakata didn’t see and then he did, and it made him smile. “Victorians, see? Everyone thinks that they were humourless buggers, but they weren’t, they were just subtle. Unexpected, see?” said Hammond. Nakata grinned at him, thinking It was white and it was screaming and screaming. He glanced down at the papers in his hand, the printout of the email and photocopies of old newspaper articles, leafing through them until he found the passage he was looking for. I was at the end urinal, the end near the door, halfway through doing what I needed to do, when I heard a noise. I turned because I knew there was no one else in the toilet, it was locked, and something white came out of the cubicle furthest away. It was white and it was screaming and screaming, and I screamed as well and I ran.

Nakata went to the end urinal, or at least where it would be if it had still existed, stood in front of it as though urinating, and turned.

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