Organ - Chapter 18

ORGAN

Chapter Eighteen

Nights had become an unwelcoming cold for the better part of a month, Oscar was still missing, and the anxiety made Katies bones rattle beneath her flesh, but that evening it was a brief respite, in the temperature breathing through her window at least. Mary Rubens was let into the secret fountain of knowledge that wadded with stories of her sons doctor becoming abusive and threatening towards him, but Katie still felt the guilt and the lack of action was giving her no undeserved period of comfort. Drifting rhythmically in and out of that sleep so deep it conjures drool from the corners of mouths and murmurs from the resting tongues, Katie held her dreams tight hoping they would stay pleasant. She eventually dreamt of her family home, perhaps due to the afternoon spent in Oscars own family home, the warm fire her father would insist on lighting the second the cool breath could be visibly seen outdoors, the times she would play with her sister in the garden and the Christmas mornings that felt a multiverse away. 

“What are you up to?” Katies mother playfully asked bobbing her head past the doorframe and catching her daughter playing in the living room still luminated and warmed by the contained fires.

“Just dancing with teddy” Katie innocently replied.

Looking down at her hands and seeing the same beige bear adorned with a red silk bowtie and bell that hung around its neck. It was a gift, one that Katie had long since lost to time but one that apparently lingered in her memory, this was not the first time she had dreamt of her dearly departed teddy, or their practice ballroom dances around the living room that would get under everyone’s feet. Her mothers eyes looked glassy and hollow but still contained within them the colour of amber stones, surrounded by her high cheek bones and scraggly blonde hair that she always wore in high curls, her mother’s face was a joy to see and in the waking world a large smile crept across her sleeping face gazing into her pillow. 

“Don’t be too long, you still have to find your friend” her mother called out now lost somewhere in the kitchen creating noise that was indistinguishable from the enticing vibrations of the living rooms bubbling crackling fire. 

“What do you mean?” Katie asked dumbfounded by the question. 

“Teddy is right here?” she continued searching hopefully for the meaning behind the casually dropped confusing sentence. 

There was silence again as Katie looked timidly at the door, hoping her mother would reappear and give her some clarity. The tap began running in the kitchen and her mother continued clattering about but added a sweet haunting humming song to her orchestra. 

“Mum?” Katie asked again gripping her teddy tighter in her little fist. 

That humming song she sang continued, but her voice now spoke over it, a confusing backing track to her vocals.

“You need to find him Katie, he needs your help” her mother replied with bodiless voice. 

“Find who Mummy? You are frightening me” Katie replied now pressing her teddy to her chest with both hands and tucking it into her childish chubby chin. 

“Oscar, Katie, you need to find him” her mother’s voice called out once again “but don’t take too long, he doesn’t have much time left little lady” the upbeat nature of her voice only added to the itching uncertainty Katie felt. 

“I can’t find him Mummy, I lost him, and he is in trouble” Katie pleaded with her mother almost desperate for her wisdom and guidance. 

“Don’t be silly, you know where to look, just think really hard, silly girl” the words from her mother hung in the air before a slamming of the kitchen door caused the younger vision of herself to jump in her skin at the loud echoing crash. 

Katie stood in place looking around the room,

“Mummy?” she quietly asked into the emptiness, 

Aware of this nightmare growing Katie began to stir in her sleep moving the covers with her shifting body. Her hand was suddenly rocked by a strange vibration, teddy was shifting, not animated but shaking as though suddenly possessed with bouncing static with no outlet to arc away. Katie stared at her shaking hand that still clutched teddy tightly, her beloved bear spasmed once more and fell to the floor causing the young child to jump back in fright, his tremors continued as he micro-bounced his way across the living room carpet and towards the still glowing fireplace. Dithering crept into the young girls mind, Katie was unsure whether to burst forth and rescue her tiny fitting teddy that sought his way into the fire pit or agree with her fear and stand watching, allowing imagined safety to fall over her for a brief while, Katie chose the latter as all children would. Continuing his doomed journey teddy fell closer in trembling terror towards the fire place, before his tiny fuzzy blonde paw could contact the embers, the fire died out with a whirling gust of wind darkening the space she stood as observer. 

“Not safe…..little one” a voice called out in the dark. 

Katie recognised the sound, much to her dismay she did indeed recognise that bodiless voice, it was the same timbering crawling scratch of a noise that peaked her ears that night she first met Oscar, that night that her entanglement with the young man began. Her drowning moment. Here of all places, it found her, dreaming tightly of her family home, the safest place she could remember, somehow it had crawled through the ethos and found her. In heart pounding roar, the walls on all four sides fell away like a present held together with structural bow, the younger apparition of herself stood alone in the dark void with only the dwindling hissing former flames and her quivering teddy bear at her disposal for anchoring objects to keep her centred and away from drifting into the sea of dimness. Katie shivered and then it appeared to her, a small but glowing light in the distance, it was obscured from complete clarity, but the outline was this small man, a boy perhaps, cowering with knees tucked into his chest, pulsing made entirely of this yellowing light that ebbed and flowed keeping the black at bay in a silent battle. Katie stumbled treading carefully through the murky ground beneath her infant feet towards this glowing being off in the distance, unaware if the next step would send her falling into the abyss below. 

The voice called out once more now echoing all around her “Pain,” that whispering unnatural voice still sending chills down her spine even here in the calm of her mind. 

Before Katie could reach the glowing one, the figure began to audible cry out, a sob so visceral it paused her in place and Katie felt it in her organs, it was Oscar, and he was suffering. 

“Katie…” he called out through the distance, “Katie please” his voice now desperate through the gasps of flowing anguish and tears.

“Oscar?” her small voice replied hoping it would carry the remaining gap between the two. 

Before her question could be answered, the being wriggled in worm-like struggle, twisting, and squirming in apparent pain before melting back into the ground. 

“Find me…I’m running out of time” it whispered in echo that danced around her ears and off into nothing. 

Katie sprung awake in bed, dripping soaked in sweat and the shaking pounding heart. Sliding to the side of her mattress and placing two heavy feet slapping to the floor, Katie brought her hands to wipe the crusty sleep from her eyes and shaking away the remnants, the dream was still bright in activity bouncing across her mind’s eye, she couldn’t sit by any longer, Katie decided on that uncomforting sleep that she must join the search for Oscar herself. Another body and another pair of eyes on the streets to find the lost boy could only help find and also help lift some of this deep shame she wore around her soul.

In a cosmically ironic twist of fate, what drove Katie out onto the street that night alone and in hastily equip was a bad dream, not the day’s events with Mrs Rubens, and completely unaware of the same horrific dreams that the man she searched for had been suffering for weeks nor their severity. Oscar was out there somewhere; Katie was now determined through somewhat vapid fleeting recollections of her dream that evening that she would be the person to find him and either bring him home or at least speak some sense into him before he became an unfortunate expected headline in the newspaper. Katie drove to a car park that she knew was within walking distance to the bus terminal, the last place she knew Oscar was likely to have passed before returning home, plenty of homeless would drift around this part of the town and could make for a perfect place to “blend in” for someone who did not seek to be found. Locking the car behind her, parked under the seemingly only working streetlamp in the lot, she strolled in the twilight of the early morning air and darted her eyes in scanning sweeps of the area, every step feeling heavy with risk. 

Shouts could be heard nearby but out of sight, angry shouts, Katie guessed either drunks or another drug addict having an episode that had become unfortunately common place in their county over the past year or so, Katie was aware of how dangerous it was for a solo sleight female to be out and about wandering in one of the rougher parts at that time, but with the odd bus pulling in and parking up for the night it was still receiving some normal activity that kept her from feeling entirely at the mercy of the unwelcoming underbelly of the community. It was not long before she made her way to the doors of the terminal, one guard seemed to be pacing around purposelessly on the worst of all night shifts and outside two bus drivers sat the night away on a bench smoking foul smelling cigarettes in silence, likely just clocking off she thought observing their tired faces. 

“You lost darling?” a vulgar crackling voice called out from behind her as she passed through the sliding doors and into the terminal.

Swivelling around she was met by a bald-headed man with several missing teeth, the others stained a dank yellow of rot, the sunken features of his face left her with little guess work on this man’s vice. 

“Leave me alone” she snapped back making her way to the desk clerk who sat on their phone wasting hours on their shift. 

This vagrant knew when the evade trouble and turned to walk away at the sight of the night guard heading back in his direction, Katie was apparently not a real target for him, just a momentary means for entertainment in the few moments of energy brought upon by the recent high of some poison or another.

“Excuse me” Katie asked as she interrupted the young man working at the desk, he sat behind a glass screen with a hollowed-out series of holes at the centre of the window for the exchange of tickets for cash.

More likely coins judging by the scattering of small bronze pennies around her feet that seemed devoid enough of value to stop and collect for anyone able to book a ticket out of town. This younger man put away his phone rather hastily, a clear sign this was not allowed while working.

“Hello, how can I help?” he politely asked with a scratchy prepubescent voice unused for hours that night. 

“I am looking for a young man who might have come through her in the last day or so, he is about a foot taller than me and has messy brown hair. Might look a bit unwell” Katie explained to the now slack jawed face looking back at her through finger print stained plastic screen, she sucked in her cheeks to demonstrate Oscars possible gaunt look. 

“I haven’t seen anyone like that tonight, sorry” he answered sharply, his apology did sound sincere.

“Maybe ask the drivers, they get about more than we do so they might have seen him” he added now actively engaged in her story and doing his best to get some boredom extinguished that night.

Katie thanked him and turned to head back outside, behind her now sitting on a bench of flaking paint was another unwell looking character, his face was withered and beaten with a lifestyle she would not wish to understand. The man’s eyes locked onto hers as she spun and he quickly climbed to his feet, following her outside as she made her way to the drivers having their night time smoke break. Katie noted the guards position again upon leaving the internal imagined safety, just in case she would need his help with the local wildlife circling as stalking glassy glowing eyed hyena in the night. 

“Excuse me” she asked of the drivers, doing her best to avoid wafting away the smoke cloud that surrounded them with her hand, both men looked up at the soft voice calling to them. 

“Yes dear?” the elderly driver at the far end of the bench asked, he had kind eyes but a tired face, a moustache that sat stained from years of tobacco. 

“I am wondering if you can help me, I am searching for a friend of mine who has gone missing. He is a young man with messy brown hair, tall and might be wearing a backpack” Katie paused sensing the barrage of information might be lost on tired minds. “He isn’t well, might be holding his sides occasionally or looking pale and sick” she added after a moment of absorption. 

The drivers must have shared an idea as they both looked around the two or three now circling drug addled zombies hovering in their aura like irritating blue bottles. 

“Is your friend having trouble like these fine folk?” the younger driver closest to her replied, his tone was annoyed and the look on his face equally vexed. 

“No” Katie quickly replied before they could dismiss her completely, “He only recently got out of hospital, he lives with his mother and isn’t taking anything” she was scrambling to find more words that would make her seem less attached to the unsavoury circumstances that clung to the rougher parts of the formerly sleepy town. 

“Well, I did see plenty of police cars around the old high street earlier tonight, damn near almost took me out at one point” the older gentler faced driver answered, taking a long inhale of that burning cigarette after as they both shook their heads at the dangerous driving quip. 

“I would check there plenty of places to hide out if you don’t want to be found” he continued breathing out a misty dull cloud of cancerous fumes. 

“Thank you, that’s helpful” Katie replied with a brief smile, the drivers muttered to themselves as she walked away but quickly called her back. 

“Don’t go there alone at this hour though, it ain’t safe anymore and most of the buildings are empty. You might get into some trouble” the younger driver explained, his face was shifting from annoyed to plain concerned. 

“I won’t go tonight” she answered, lying, but giving the men less reason to further involve themselves in her business. 

They gave her a half-hearted wave and exchanged goodnights before Katie began walking back towards her car, it was an idea, not a clue or a lead, but an idea to explore an even worse area than she had hoped that she came away with. Something tangible in her mind that she could at least aim for in hopes of finding him, it was a short walk back to her car. The night air was still, the sun was creeping up but not quick enough to cast any tangible light across the path she walked in the gloomy shadows. Coughing arose from the silence of her walk back to the car, an unmistakable sound, then following it a flem heavy huawk and spit to the ground. Katie was being followed by one, she prayed, or more of the suspect characters adorning the terminal.

With her heart beating hard enough to hear it in her ears, the pace of her footsteps quickened the car was not far away but this person behind her seemed to be keeping pace and her mind was only now wondering why she would even choose to venture out alone to begin with. 

“Hey gorgeous” the voice shouted out from behind.

Katie did her best not to turn around and see for herself the number following, but only one voice was calling out and she prayed silently that this was the case. She knew she had nothing in her possession of value worth stealing, apart from perhaps her car but that seemed useless to someone looking for a quick fix without the hassle or effort. It did cross her mind breaking through the thumping, pounding, and disorientating wallops of her heart that she had left her phone at home. In her minds eyes she pictured it sitting there on charge all snug beside her bed, tucked away from the snaggy crusty paws of the night stalker – or stalkers - behind her. Katie pulled her keys from her pocket and unwillingly placed them between her fingers, creating animal like metal claws to use as a weapon in case this creep following in toe caught up to her before her arrival back at her oh so inviting little car. “babe I heard you talking to those drivers” the voice now called out, his sound closer than before.

“I can help” he followed up with an offer of aid that dared for a second to freeze her fast pace in its stride. 

“I don’t want your help” she shouted back still not turning her head but continuing her path onwards, car now in sight and keys still locked in attack position. 

“I know where your little boyfriend is hiding” he called out across the shrinking gap. 

Now Katie did slow down, thankfully at the moment she had her hand on the door of her car. Facing the trailing man behind her, separated by the car that now split the two apart, she slowly moved her keys between her fingers and placed them in the lock without raising much alarm from a fast movement. She recognised him from the terminal, the same man that sat behind her as she questioned the kiosk worker, and one of the same men that lingered around the drivers as they discussed Oscars possible hiding places. Katie opened her car door while insisting on keeping the stranger in her sights, he inched closer but slow enough that she did not feel the need to hurl herself into her car and slam the door behind her. 

“What do you mean?” she asked the stranger, he took his sleeve and wiped it across his face, the corners of his mouth now visible and noticeable cracked with drying blood and white dried globs of mess. 

This man was a sorry state and every fibre of her being was screaming out for her to get in the car and drive away, to go home, to go back to bed with the door locked tight behind her. 

Spitting out another disgusting discoloured glob of bodily fluids the man adjusted his hood around the back of his neck in twitching irritancies and continued “well I know someone who saw a kid climbing into a window down Miners Way,” the words made absolutely no sense to her. 

“You mean the high street” she asked without releasing the door handle from her grasp. 

He nodded back with a weird aggression as though the motion was difficult to maintain. 

“The bad one that they boarded up, I know a bloke that lives there in one of the shops. He said some kid was getting into no good and hiding out. These guys know everyone that comes through” he paused to widen his eyes and look up at the sky momentarily clearing his vision.

Katie guessed this was his high wearing off.

“He didn’t know this kid but stayed away, new junkies can be rough” he said bursting into a crackling boyish laughter. Katie pondered on the information for a little longer, ignoring the howling he made as she did, his hands noticeable twitching in his pockets. 

“Do you know which building?” she asked, and he shook his head too quick for her liking. 

“I don’t get down there anymore after I got picked up by the bill” he replied with some strange additional personal information.

Katie was now ever more suspicious of his intentions. 

“Well, thank you then” she said politely now attempting to open her car door with the least amount of noise, not realising she was dealing with a sentient human and not some sound triggered predator in the undergrowth. 

“Woah woah woah!” he called out stopping her descent into her driver’s seat, “I gave you something now I want something…only fair right babe?” he spat the words with an unnerving speed, his eyes moving erratically in his skull but never landing anywhere particular.

“What do you want?” she asked reluctantly. 

Empty eyes drifted up and down her body for a moment of discomforting lusting, Katie moved behind her open door to hide her figure. Something he noticed. 

“Nothing like that! You ain’t my type anyway!” he barked with real anger in his voice, apparently being an admitted drug addict criminal was okay, but he drew the line at sexual crimes, it did put Katies defences at relative ease. 

“What money you got on you?” he asked sheepishly but with clear direction.

Katie panicked patting down her pockets, not feeling anything of worth. 

“Let me look inside the car” she stated leaning into her driver’s side door, “you stay there” she called up while rummaging through the glove box very unhappy with the idea of taking her eyes off this man even for a second. “Ah!” she called out in joy.

Katie found a ten-pound note scrunched up behind her old road maps, her emergency note that Dad always told her to keep for emergencies in the car. 

“I found a tenner, that’s all I’ve got” she stated with pleading notes hoping this would satiate his desire for payment. 

“Ain’t a lot is it babe?” he scoffed and let out a horrible shallow giggle.

“Well, I don’t have anything else unless you want a road map of the South East?” she threw back the reply with annoyance and the man seemed dishevelled on the spot. 

“Whatever. Thanks for the tenner sweet tits” the stranger finally shouted out as he made a strange half jog away from her car and back towards the terminal “oh and good look finding your boyfriend” he shouted over his shoulder before vanishing. 

Not a doubt in her mind that his path would lead him directly to another fix, she did wonder for a moment if and when she would see this same fiend of the needle or pipe coming through the halls of Greenwood needing emergency care for an overdose. Dismissing the ideas of normal life, she climbed into her car and drove home, tomorrow she would search for Oscar in the newest suspected area. Until then she needed a shower to wash off the nights interactions.