After Dark by Dominic Nolan

Author:Dominic Nolan [Nolan, Dominic]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Crime, Thrillers, Suspense, Mystery & Detective, General
ISBN: 9781472254689
Google: ozWeDwAAQBAJ
Published: 2020-03-04T11:00:00+00:00

31

Boone came to again on the hard floor amid a warm bloom and realised she’d wet herself. The pain in her finger had annexed her hand and was drawing up invasion plans for the whole arm. It was a wave she couldn’t quite get her head above for long enough to take a proper breath. Not really wanting to, she stole a peek at it.

Didn’t seem real.

A gag from a movie.

She felt light-headed. Sally was gone but the goblin remained, sitting at the table reading a magazine. She saw the cover and probably he wasn’t reading it exactly. Boone laughed, couldn’t help herself.

‘I’m trapped,’ she said, when he looked over. ‘And my finger’s ruined.’

The goblin grinned as best he could and nodded his head in a manner suggesting there wasn’t much to be done about either of those things. Momentarily, Boone was relieved. She didn’t want to have to do anything about them. Didn’t want to do anything at all. She understood it was easier to accept that circumstances had got out of hand and were now beyond her control.

Gradually, however, she began to think about things that had happened in the past, in rooms not unlike the one she was in. She was in bad shape and no help was coming. It briefly crossed her mind that she had brought this all on herself, and to those gods that existed only to be pleaded with in such perilous situations, she promised a thorough review of her behaviour later, just as long as she made it that far.

The goblin leered at her over his years-old copy of Knave. She wondered what promises had been made to him. Like the dog, she would provide him with treats.

‘Meet many nice girls here?’ she said, smiling.

His eyes squinted into a grin again as he jounced up and down in his chair.

Staring down at her jeans, she said, ‘Pissed meself.’

His moist laugh sounded like a death rattle. Boone twisted round and got on her knees. She’d read about techniques whereby pain could be boxed away in the mind and overcome, but her finger wasn’t having any of it and she had to pause, her hands shaking badly. There was less blood than she would have expected, part of her having been turned inside out, but she felt cold sweats across her body.

‘Made a right mess,’ she said, battling to her feet, having to stoop to where her hands were bound to the pipework.

The goblin stood, wary of her movement.

‘Does it show much?’ she asked, turning her bum to him. ‘The dark patch?’

A gout of drool hung from the corner of what used to be his mouth and he whinnied like a donkey. She’d got him laughing, his guard down.

‘Dunno why you’re laughing at me,’ she said. ‘Not like it’s my fault you’ve got an arsehole for a mouth.’

He fell silent, staring at her.

‘I mean, God. That’s a face even a mother couldn’t love.’

He recoiled at the sudden betrayal, any understanding between them gone off a cliff now.

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