Read North End Page 21


  Chapter Twenty One

  The driver was walking towards North End Road. It was raining heavily but he was happy: he was finally rid of the teenagers, whom the creatures would now have caught and...He did not finish the thought, though he did smile to himself. He then reflected how he had been totally preoccupied yesterday by how he could find the teenagers and what he would do to them when he got on a tube to go home at Golders Green after finishing his shift.

  He had not been sure if they had already gone to the police or whether the police had not believed them, but he thought the teenagers would probably not just forget about him and the creatures. They would try to find some way of convincing the authorities or try to do something themselves. In fact as he had looked up at North End as the tube passed by it in the tunnel, he almost resigned himself to being at the mercy of the teenagers and eventually getting caught.

  Then when he got off at Camden Town to change over to the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line he had the feeling he was being followed. This feeling continued as he got off the tube at Highgate, where he lived. He became nervous and thought it could be the police. He did not look around, however, in case he alerted them, and continued to go home to his flat.

  There, he tried to act as normal as possible by looking as though he had got home, got undressed, and went to bed. But from his bedroom window he looked outside to see if whoever was following him was still there. Then, he saw who was trying unsuccessfully to not be seen watching his flat: the teenagers!

  He was nervous then excited. The teenagers’ following him probably meant either that the authorities had not believed them or the teenagers had not gone to them. There was the possibility that the police were using the teenagers to trap him, but this did not make sense. If the police did know about the creatures and him, they would surely have searched North End and arrested them by now as well as him. No, he concluded, the teenagers were trying to do something themselves.

  He then realised that he could finally rid himself and the creatures of these troublesome teenagers: he could lure them into a trap. He wondered how he could achieve this. He did not want to kill them himself, for this was not something he did: he only caught people for the creatures. No, he would have to get them to come into North End somehow, and then the creatures would deal with them. But was it likely that the teenagers would go into the disused station again after their experiences there? he wondered. Probably not.

  He then remembered there was another tunnel the creatures used, which led to the surface via a sewer. They did not actually go to the surface, which scared them, but used the sewer to get water.

  But how to get the teenagers into it? wondered the driver. After a few moments the answer came to him. It was so obvious and so clever. He would record the screams of a girl from one of the horror films he had on dvd and then play it in the creatures’ tunnel leading to the sewer. The teenagers who would probably be following him would then come into the tunnel to try to save the girl they would believe was in danger.

  It was a perfect plan, thought the driver, because even if the teenagers did not come into the tunnel they had no evidence of any wrongdoing and if they tried to get the police involved they would look like fools.

  The driver would visit North End tomorrow after his early shift and tell the creatures what he was planning and what they had to do. In fact, he had been so confident in his plan that he decided not to get the creatures the animal meat he had promised them: he knew they would be happier with that of two fresh humans.

  Yes, he thought as he now reached the bend in Sandy Road, leading to North End Road, the teenagers would not only be gone but would also give him more time before he had to get another victim for the creatures.

  His plan had gone so well, he reflected. After he had lured the teenagers into the creatures’ tunnel, turned on the tape machine, and waited for them outside the tunnel to enter it, he had closed it behind them and left the sewer, putting the manhole cover back on. Yes, he was happy that he now had his old life back.