Fear ran through her slowly like ice down her spine. Nora watched
through the bars. The door shut behind him, plunging the room back into almost
pure darkness. He did his usual routine; hung up his keys, took off his tie and
put down his briefcase. As he did so, the case flipped open and the contents
spilled across the grey carpet. Wigs, glasses, lumps of flesh coloured mould.
His lifted up a strip of rubbery skin. It was the bridge of a nose, slightly
raised.
‘Your daddy has a
lovely face,’ he said. He did not look at her as he spoke, but she knew the
words were directed towards her. They were alone as usual. ‘I really fooled you
with that one, didn't I?’ His voice was high and smug.
Nora did not answer.
She stayed curled into a ball, her knees held tightly to her chin. Tears
stained her cheeks, though she had lost the strength to cry days ago.
She winced. Now the
process had started. He turned to the window and made a cross symbol in the air
with his hands. She knew without looking that he was smiling.
‘Save me with your
greatness, for I shall do your bidding.’ He let out a little laugh. It was like
a snake shedding its skin. A rebirth, that’s what he called it. First he
removed his trousers and underwear, leaving his torso fully dressed. He then
slowly removed his blazer and began unbuttoning his shirt. It was at this point
that he always turned to her, still smiling. She pushed herself back against
the end of the cage.
It was demonic. He
stood, naked and white in the middle of the blackness. He removed his glasses
and pulled off his moustache. Then the hair. He let out a sigh of pleasure as
he lifted the wig, still attached to his smooth scalp by trails of thick glue.
They snapped one by one. He was like a huge, hairless child. The only things
which did not shine were his yellow teeth.
‘And I am reborn from
my chrysalis,’ he said. He raised his arms. ‘Into the realm of the Lord. And he
shall love me like no other, for only I can hear his will.’
*
He was sat on the sofa beside the cage, legs crossed and raised on the
table. He glugged down gallons of coke noisily. Nora wasn't too sure how God
felt about coca-cola, but the man’s teeth definitely didn't appreciate it.
‘It was always you,
Nora. I could sense it from the beginning. We are the chosen ones.’ He stared
at the wall in front of him as he spoke.
‘Shut it,’ said Nora.
It had taken her days to find courage to speak, but as soon as she did her
speech evolved immediately into shouts. ‘I want to go home!’
He laughed. ‘Patience.
We will be going home soon. Together. Into the kingdom.’ He sighed, re-crossing
his legs. ‘I felt a connection to you, Nora. I watched you. Watched you for so
long. You are the one, the other messiah. You made me...’ he paused, searching
for the word. When he found it, he widened his shining eyes towards her. ‘Excited.’
‘Weirdo,’ she said. She
began banging on the bars, singing the word violently. ‘Weirdo, weirdo, weirdo!’
This made him anxious.
His mouth contracted into a single line. He rushed over to the tiny table and
picked up his red pen. He drew line after line across his body and began to
shout. ‘Shut up!’
Nora did so. She had
never seen him so crazed. A mixture of terror and pleasure bubbled inside her.
As the hours passed the
tiny room was plunged even further into darkness, lit only with a misty red
glow from the setting sun. He had been pacing around for what seemed like an
age, muttering incomprehensibly to himself. Nora had not spoken in hours. In
fact, she was beginning to dose off.
She was shocked back to
reality by the sound of his voice. He barked as he turned towards her. ‘But enough
chit-chat.’ His smile was back. It was huge, splitting his face in two. ‘It is
time.’
Nora screamed as his
shadow engulfed her.
*
After Dave Buckard’s arrest, seven days after Nora’s body was found, a
familiar man was discovered by D.I. Dresdon hanging from a ceiling fan in one
of the station offices. Words were scrawled across his forehead in red pen.
In the name of the Lord
It
was not until D.I. Whittin’s autopsy that a surprising discovery was made about
his hair.
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