I slept in the office. I didn't mean to. I really had meant to go home, back to Jude, but I got caught up in looking up references to 'walls coming down', in mediumistic literature, in spiritualistic literature, hell, even in novels, but I got nowhere. Nothing seemed to make any sense, and all I could hear was those footsteps, and Alison screaming that they couldn't have me.
I think she'd saved my life.
I fell asleep in my chair in the early morning, and woke up in the afternoon, after dreams of fear and confusion and chaos and darkness, always with Alison standing in the middle of them. It was mid-afternoon, and I just had time to go home and change and try to make excuses to Jude before dusk, before going back to Alison.
Jude was waiting for me, that sad sweet smile on her face again. She asked where I'd been, and why I'd slept in the office, and all at once I couldn't lie to her.
"Alison's in trouble. I'm trying to help her."
"Alison." she laughed bitterly. "I thought we'd put all that behind us. I thought you'd moved on with your life, Robert!"
"No, I didn't, that's the problem. I just moved back to my old life, trying to make it all the same as it was before Joshy died. Well, I can't, I have to go on, and Alison needs me!"
"I need you!"
"No, you don't! And honestly, I don't need you either. I did once, I loved you once, but that's all in the past and I never should have tried to resurrect it."
"Alison's taken you away from me."
"No, I'm taking me away from you." I said quietly. I had suddenly seen the truth of what I had been trying to do. I'd hadn't just been running away from Alison. It was from me too. Basic psychology, and I'd missed it. I looked out the window. The faintest suggestion of night was brushing the sky. "I have to go, Jude."
"If you go now, you don't come back." she said, trying to be strong but tears were running down her face. "I'm sorry to be so dramatic, but there it is. Either you stay now and try to talk this through with me, or you go now and never come back."
I didn't have the time to do this. Dusk was coming.
"I'm sorry, Jude." I turned to go.
"Do you need her?" she called after me as I opened the door.
"Yes. Yes I do."
"And do you love her?"
I couldn't answer that. I was running out of time.
Alison was running out of time.
When I got to her house, the door was open. I pushed it open wider gingerly and went into the kitchen. She was sitting there, a glass of wine in front of her, although she wasn't drinking it. She smiled a little when she saw me.
"I didn't think you'd come." she said. I sat down opposite her.
"I said I would."
"Yes." she glanced out the window. "It'll be dark soon, and then they'll come."
"Who? Who'll come? You have to tell me, Alison."
"Why? So you can say I'm delusional and it's all in my own head?" she asked, bitterly.
"No, so I can help you. You have to let me help you, Alison. You owe me that."
"I owe you?" she said, angrily. "How do you work that one out?"
"I mean you helped me." I said, patiently. I could already hear scrabbling upstairs. "You helped me with Josh. Now I have to help you."
There was a footstep upstairs, and then another. She looked up, then back at me.
"Alright." she said. "I suppose it'll make for a good chapter in your next book. The dead come and talk to me, do you believe that?"
"Yes." I said, and I meant it. The footsteps were louder now.
"Sometimes they come willingly, sometimes not. The point is, they're not supposed to be here. I'm a gateway for them. Do you understand?"
"Yes." they were whispering her name, over and over, soft and gentle, calling her like a lover.
"But gateways swing both ways, and now they're trying to take me back with them. Do you understand."
"Alison..no..how..." I could hear footsteps on the stairs, and now I was afraid too. The air around me was so heavy, I could barely breath it.
"They're going back and they're trying to take me with them. Like Josh tried to, do you remember?" she stood up, facing the door. I could hear them now, on the other side of the door, scrabbling at it.
"But you didn't go with Josh!"
"I almost did. He was only a little boy and I couldn't stop him. There's so many of them, Robert, and I'm so tired of fighting them."
She was standing up, facing the door, and the handle was slowly turning and I wasn't about to let this happen. I jumped up, pushing myself between her and the door.
"No, Alison. Josh didn't take you because I didn't let him, I kept you here and I'm keeping you here this time. They won't take you."
"But I'm ready, Robert." she said, sinking to her knees. I heard the door open behind me, and I felt a huge oppressive mass at my back, all calling her name, but I didn't turn around. I looked only at Alison.
"I'm not. I'm not losing you, Alison. I made you stay before and I'll keep you here this time."
"There's so many of them!"
And there were, chanting her name, and reaching past me with hands I couldn't see but could feel as they brushed my shoulders, reaching for her. I pulled her towards me, trying to get in front of them, to shield her.
"I'll keep you here. Just hold on to me, Alison. Just think about me!"
She started to reach out to them, but I pulled back her hand. I held onto her arm, feeling the ridge of the scars running up them, scars all over her body, proving she'd survived before. She'd always survived.
"Don't let them, just tell them no, you can do that, Alison."
There was heavy darkness all around her now, swallowing her. It was so thick I could taste it, the bitter taste of bile in my mouth. She stared past me, into the faces of whatever was trying to take her
"Alison, please, "
"I want to go to the dark." she said softly. "It's peaceful there. I can sleep."
"No, no, Alison, stay here. Stay with me. Look at me, look only at me. They're the darkness and I'm the light and if you look at me the darkness will go. Alison!"
She glanced once at me, but then back at them, and I knew unless I could drag her back to me, make her focus only on me, I'd lose her. I pulled her towards me and kissed her.
It wasn't a soft or pleasant kiss. I held her so tight I must have hurt her, and every part of me that ached for her, that craved her, that needed her to stay with me or I'd die burnt into her lips. It was a last, desperate attempt to keep the woman I loved by my side.
I only pulled away when I felt the darkness had gone, both from her and the house. I opened my arms and saw only a twilit kitchen. Nothing was behind me. Alison didn't look around. She only looked at me.
"That was one hell of a kiss, Robert." she said, a spark of the old humour flaring up, and then she fainted.
She didn't take 27 days to wake up this time. Barely 27 minutes. She woke up on the sofa, with me kneeling beside her.
"They've gone?" she asked.
"As far as I know, yes."
"They'll be back." she said, trying to sit up. I helped her up, and gave her a glass of water. My arm stayed round her.
"And I'll be here to protect you." it sounded too heroic, but I meant it. I would protect her and save her, even from herself if I had to. It was the only thing in my life to have any real meaning.
"You can't promise that." she said, trying to get up. I pulled her back down onto the sofa again.
"I can. I do. Promise, I mean. I will always be here for you. Now drink your water." she smiled, and snuggled into my shoulder, awkwardly, as if she wasn't used to the idea of a loving arm around her. I kissed the top of head, and let her fall asleep in my arms. She was safe there.
THE END