Chapter Twenty Eight
Tom woke up to the sound of his phone ringing downstairs. He quickly got up and rushed towards it. As he went down the stairs he could feel his body aching and he almost stumbled in his just-woken-up state. He quickly picked up the phone in his sitting room: it was Jodie, which made him feel better straightway.
‘What, not awake yet, sleepyhead?’ asked Jodie.
Tom liked the way she called him this. ‘What’s the time?’
‘Oh, not too late, only twenty-past-eleven in the morning. Yes, I know it’s early and believe me I’m bloody tired myself – my body feels like it’s been run over by a big truck and my head still hurts – but my mum got me up. After I told my parents last night the police wanted us to make a statement today they insisted I do so as soon as possible. My dad even tried to wake me up at 8.30 a.m. would you believe?
Anyway, I thought we could go together; otherwise, my mum will insist on coming with me. What d’you think?’ Jodie finished.
Tom’s tired brain was still waking up. ‘Yes, of course, we’ll go together. It’ll be safer this way, just in case the driver has managed to find out where you live. I tell you what I’ll pick you up at your house in about an hour.’
‘Oh, you really are my hero,’ said Jodie. ‘All right then, I’ll tell my mum you’re coming round. She’s never met one of my boyfriends before. See you later.’
Tom felt extremely happy when she said this. He knew it was strange for him to do so in the circumstances he and Jodie were in but the thought that she considered him to be one of her ‘boyfriends’ made him wake up very quickly with some positive energy. As he had a shower and got ready, however, he felt a little negative about the ‘one of...’ What was it about girls: they always messed with your mind, he thought.
He met her just under an hour later at 12.15 p.m. and after being introduced to her mother, who told him to make sure she returned before 6 p.m., he left with Jodie to go to Brent Cross Tube station. He would have gladly got a bus, but Jodie insisted they go by tube to Golders Green, to exorcise their fear of the tube.
They pulled into one of the southbound platforms of Golders Green tube station at 1.05 p.m. There were not many people around at the station at this time, as they got off the tube and walked towards the exit stairs.
But as they got closer to them, Tom thought he could make out a familiar figure coming towards them. No, no, he couldn’t believe it. He got in front of Jodie to protect her. It was the driver!
Earlier that morning, the driver had been out of breath as he went through the gates to North End and towards the woods leading to Highgate, where he lived; he had wanted to avoid all the roads he could in case he was seen. His leg was throbbing with pain but he forced himself to move forwards in the damp night.
There he remembered having heard something the previous morning about the creature attack on a tube worker while he had been changing tubes at Golders Green. But he had been so absorbed in his plans for the teenagers that it did not register. Hell, nothing was going right for him at the moment.
As he continued his journey through the dark and wet woodland, he felt sad and lonely. His only friends in the world, the creatures, were now gone and the authorities would soon discover what had gone on.
He would also soon lose the only job he had ever done and liked – this, even though his colleagues had given him a hard time because he was a little different. These colleagues would love it when they discovered what he had been up to; ‘tube rat’ and his creature friends would provide them with much entertainment for years to come, he thought bitterly, as images of their making fun of him and laughing came into his head.
He also realised that he could go to prison for a long time for what he had done. This filled him with dread.
Why oh why had he kidnapped the girl for the creatures in the first place? he asked himself. He had known that she as a young person would mean more attention. Damn, he had been stupid. And the boy! He should have gone after him when he recognised him from the creatures’ description at Golders Green; just as he should have killed the teenagers sooner or allowed the creatures to do so. Yes, it would have been messy, but he could have cleaned it up – as he had just done with the creatures.
Why did nothing go right for him in life? he wondered, now feeling completely depressed. Not only was he a little strange-looking but good things never seemed to happen to him. He did not deserve such bad luck. Ok, so he was not the best person in the world in terms of his morals; he had been involved with many deaths with the creatures. But these people were mostly looking for death anyway, being alcoholics and down-and-outs. Anyway, which humans were completely good? Certainly not his work colleagues who mostly made fun of him and ignored him; likewise other people, who gave him funny looks all the time. No, he was not the worst person in the world, he felt, as he finally reached his flat.
Before he went to sleep, he checked on the internet about the creature attack story in the local newspaper. Bloody hell, he thought, as he read about Micky Ford’s account, it really was over now. This made him even more depressed as he went to his bedroom. On the way, he noticed the picture of his now dead mother, which he had on his mantelpiece - the only other person who had had any time for him apart from the creatures.
When he got to bed, he fell straight to sleep in his clothes; so tired was he that he did not care if the police did come to arrest him.
But a few hours later he woke up and could not get to sleep again, even though he was still very tired. The pain in his leg had eased, though it was now quite stiff, but this did not prevent him from fidgeting to try to find a comfortable position to sleep again. Eventually, he decided it was pointless trying to do this and that there was only one thing he could now do. He felt very depressed and lonely about it but knew he had no choice. He checked the time: it was 12.02 p.m.
Just over an hour later, the tube he was on pulled into Golders Green tube station. He got off it, ignoring, as he usually did, the funny looks he got from others. He knew he now looked worse than he usually did, for he had not washed or shaved or even changed his dirtied and bloodied clothes. Don’t worry; not long now, he said to himself, as he walked down the stairs to the southbound platforms, where it would be easier to do what he wanted.
As he reached the top of the southbound platform stairs, he almost fell back with shock: it was the teenagers – the damned teenagers who had been responsible for destroying the only life he had!
Then he calmed down a little. Maybe, this is not such a bad thing, he thought; he could get some kind of revenge on them as well, after all. He walked towards them, staring with ill intent.
Tom knew he had no weapon on him but got ready to defend himself and Jodie against the driver. But she moved alongside Tom, even though she was obviously just as scared as he – and looked it. He then heard a southbound tube about to pull in.
The driver noted Tom and Jodie’s fear with some satisfaction: he might be a freak but he still had the power to scare people. He then turned towards the fast approaching tube, whose driver he now spotted as one of his main tormentors, who would do for his purpose.
He had known what effect he was about to do would have on his fellow drivers; some gave up the job because of it, some took weeks off as a result of it - but all were affected badly by it. Ok, it would not be the perfect revenge on this so-called normal human being, he thought; only the creatures could have done that for him. But it would be some kind of punishment on him as well as the interfering teenagers now. In any event, there was no way he was going to rot in prison for the rest of his life while being the object of ridicule.
The driver then had one last look at the teenagers before smiling leerily and running and jumping in front of the oncoming tube.
Tom saw the tube hit the driver, who then fell under it. Some of the passengers on the platform screamed. There was blood on the front of the tube and then some more spurted upwards from the tracks as the tube screeched slowly to a
halt. Its driver looked red-faced and tense, obviously in shock.
Tom experienced the whole thing in slow motion and felt as if his stomach was in his mouth. But he quickly recovered himself and held on to Jodie, who seemed equally affected. He then sank down with her onto a nearby bench, still not exactly believing what had happened, even after all the events they had experienced in the last week.
He found himself holding Jodie’s hand. ‘It’s unbelievable.’ He looked at her and then the halted tube.
‘At least it’s finally over, Tom,’ Jodie said. ‘He was the last one.’ She seemed a lot calmer than him, thought Tom, as she stared at him. Tom then hugged her, no longer bothering about the increasing pandemonium around them; only concerned about finding comfort and giving some in return.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Tom checked his watch: it was 7.20 p.m. on Saturday evening, a week after the driver had committed suicide. He was outside Belsize Park tube station. It was dark but dry and not very cold, as Tom looked at all the passengers emerging from underground. Why was she so late? he wondered, getting a little worried.
As he continued to wait, he put this question out of his head and went over all the events since he had last visited this tube station on his way home from work nearly two weeks ago. He wondered if this horror story had really happened. I mean, he thought, was it possible that he had seen Jodie being taken down a tunnel in the disused station of North End by some dark creatures - creatures that kidnapped and ate tube passengers late at night, aided and abetted by a tube driver? And did he really rescue her and with her put an end to them and their helper? It was just too crazy to believe.
But Tom knew that it had happened and he had the scars both mental and physical to prove it. Now, however, he wondered if this horror story was really over. Firstly, there was the evacuation of Golders Green station after the driver’s gory end – Tom still could not get the driver’s final leery smile out of his head before he jumped in front of a tube and fell into the appropriately named suicide pit.
Then he and Jodie had given their full statements to an increasingly sceptical female detective called Sarah at Golders Green police station. She had eventually let them go, almost with relief Tom had felt, saying the police would be in touch.
Next, later in the week on Tuesday, a Detective Inspector had contacted them both and interviewed them again with another senior-looking colleague. He told them that they must not tell anyone else about what had happened, especially the media, or the police would be forced to act against them on possible murder charges.
This scared them a little but they had no intention of telling anyone else in any event, as people would think they were crazy. Jodie had not even told her friends or parents and Tom had no intention of saying anything to his mother, who was due to return home tomorrow from Essex. One piece of good news the Detective inspector did tell them about was that Detective sergeant Harry Edwards was out of intensive care and would recover.
After this, Tom was a little distressed that Jodie had not contacted him for a couple of days, but then on Thursday she phoned him, suggesting they meet at his restaurant on Saturday to celebrate their nearly-two-weeks anniversary of meeting each other.
He had not wanted to go there to eat: after all it was his job and he was due to return to work there Sunday night. But it was only right, she had said, that they should meet in the restaurant where it ‘kind of all began’ for their first proper date. ‘Proper date’ Tom had recited to himself as he put the phone down – yes, he had a proper date with his first girlfriend!
And now as he saw Jodie eventually emerge from the station – only half ‘n hour late, he thought sardonically - he was very happy to see her looking extremely attractive with her short blonde hair spiked up with plenty of makeup and an unseasonal short skirt. And now, as she kissed him on the lips, he knew that this horror story was definitely over...
Later that night in a disused tube station not too far away from Belsize Park, the old man who had had too much to drink that evening before waiting to get a bus home woke up - or was he still in a dream? Several strange-looking creatures with skinny bodies, large eyes, and wispy hair were carrying him down into a tube tunnel.
No, he was definitely dreaming, he thought to himself as he went back to his semi-comatose state. Hell, he thought, before he finally passed out again, he had to give up drinking one day - before it killed him.
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