Clive Barker - Weave World

It hung on the wind for a moment, its form caught in a sliver of sun.

‘Done for,' said Freddy.

The words stung Cal into moving. He was through the back door and out into the garden before the Rake could fall upon the pitiful figures below.

The beast drew Cal's astonished eyes. He saw the morbid fashioning of its skin, which made it billow and swell, and heard again the howl that he'd thought was simply the wind. It was nothing so natural; the sound came out of this phantasm from a dozen places, either the din or the breath it rose on

drawing most of the garden's contents out of the ground and throwing them into the air.

A rain of plants and stones came down on the occupants of the garden. Cal covered his head with his hands, and ran blindly towards the spot where he'd last seen his father. Brendan was flat on the ground, shielding himself. Nimrod was not with him.

Cal knew the route the garden path took like the back of his hand. Spitting out mud as he went, he headed away from the house.

Somewhere above, now mercifully hidden, the Rake howled again, and Cal heard Lilia cry out. He did not look behind him, for ahead he now saw Nimrod, who had reached the back fence and was attempting to tear at the rotted timbers. He was having some success too, despite his size. Cal ducked his head down as another rain of earth fell, and ran past the pigeon loft towards the fence.

The howls had stopped, but the wind was far from spent. To judge by the din from the other side of the house it was tearing Chariot Street apart. As he reached the fence, Cal turned round. The sun stabbed the veil of dirt, and he saw blue sky for an instant - then a form blocked the sight, and Cal threw himself at the fence and started to scramble over, as the creature moved towards him. At the top, his belt snagged on a nail. He reached to release it, certain that the Rake was at his neck, but Mad Mooney must have been pushing from behind, for as he pulled his belt from its mooring he fell over the far side of the fence, life and limb intact.

He stood up, and saw why. The boneless beast was hovering beside the loft, its head weaving back and forth as it listened to the pigeons within. Silently blessing the birds, Cal ducked down and tore another plank of the fence away, sufficient to pull Nimrod through.

As a child he'd had the dangers of this no-man's land between fence and railway track beaten into him. Now such dangers seemed negligible beside whatever it was that loitered at the loft. Picking Nimrod up in his arms, Cal climbed the gravel embankment towards the rails.

‘Run,' said Nimrod. ‘It's just behind us. Run!'

Cal looked North and South. The wind had reduced visibility to ten or fifteen yards in both directions. Heart in mouth he stepped over the first rail and onto the oil-slicked space between the sleepers. There were four tracks altogether, two in each direction. He was stepping towards the second when he heard Nimrod say:

‘Shit.'

Cal turned, heels grinding in the gravel, to see that their pursuer had forsaken bird-fancying and was rising over the fence.

Behind the beast, he saw Lilia Pellicia. She was standing in the ruins of the Mooney garden, her mouth open as if to shout. But no sound emerged. Or at least none that Cal could hear. The beast was not so insensitive however. It halted in its advance, turning back towards the garden and the woman in it.

What happened next was confused both by the wind and Nimrod, who, forseeing his sister's slaughter, began to struggle in Cal's arms. All Cal saw was the billowing form of their pursuer suddenly flicker, and the next moment he heard Lilia's voice swoop into an audible register. It was a cry of anguish she let loose, echoed by Nimrod. Then the wind blew up again, shrouding the garden, just as Cal glimpsed Lilia's form swathed in white fire. The cry stopped abruptly.

As it did so, a tingling in the soles of his feet announced the approach of a train. Which direction was it coming from, and on which track? The murder of Lilia had further excited the wind. He could now see less than ten yards down the line in either direction.

Knowing there was no safety the way they'd come, he turned from the garden as the beast let out another scalp-crawling commotion.

Think, he told himself. In moments it would be after them again.

He wrenched his arm around Nimrod, and looked at his watch. It read twelve thirty-eight.

Where would the train be heading at twelve thirty-eight? To Lime Street Station, or from it?

Think.

Nimrod had begun to cry. Not an infantile bawling, but a deep, heart-felt sob of loss.

Cal glanced over his shoulder as the trembling in the gravel grew more insistent. Again, a tear in the veil of dust gave him a glimpse of the garden. Lilia's body had disappeared, but Cal could see his father standing in the devastation, as Lilia's killer rose above him. Brendan's face was slack. Either he failed to comprehend his danger, or didn't care. He moved not a muscle.

The shout!' said Cal to Nimrod, lifting the child up so that they were face to snotty face. ‘The shout she made -'

Nimrod just sobbed.

‘Can you make that shout?'

The beast was almost upon Brendan.

‘Make it!' Cal yelled at Nimrod, shaking him ‘til his gums rattled. ‘Make it or I'll fucking kill you!'

Nimrod believed him.

‘Go on!' Cal said, and Nimrod opened his mouth.

The beast heard the sound. It swung its ballooning head around, and began to come at them again.

All this had taken seconds only, but seconds in which the reverberations had deepened. How far away was the train now? A mile? A quarter of a mile?

Nimrod had ceased the shout, and was fighting to be free of Cal.

‘Christ, man!' he was yelling, eyes on the terror approaching through the smoke. ‘It's going to kill us!'

Cal tried to ignore Nimrod's cries, and dug for access to that cool region of memory where the dates and destinations of the trains lay.

Which line was it on, and from which direction? His mind flipped through the numbers like a station announcement board, looking for a train six or seven minutes from departure or arrival at Liverpool Lime Street.

The beast was climbing the gravel embankment. The wind

gave it skirts of dust, and danced in and out of its lacerated frame, moaning as it went.

The percussion of the train's approach was enough to make Cal's belly tremble. And still the numbers flipped over.

Where to? Where from? Fast train or slow?

Think, damn you.

The beast was almost upon them.

Think.

He took a step backwards. Behind him the furthest track began to whine.

And with the whine came the answer. It was the Stafford train, via Runcorn. Its rhythm rose through his feet as it thundered to its destination.

Twelve forty-six from Stafford,' he said, and stepped onto the humming line.

‘What are you doing!' Nimrod demanded.

‘Twelve forty-six,' he murmured; it was a prayer by numbers.

The slaughterer was crossing the first of the Northbound lines. It had nothing but death to give. No curse, no sentence; only death.

‘Come and get us,' Cal yelled at it.

‘Are you insane?' Nimrod said.

By way of reply Cal lifted the bait a little higher. Nimrod bawled. The pursuer's head grew vast with hunger.

‘Come on!'

It had crossed both the Northbound lines; now it stepped onto the first of those headed South.

Cal took another stumbling step backwards, his heel hitting the furthest rail, the voice of the beast and the roar in the ground shaking the fillings loose in his teeth.

The last thing he heard as the creature came to fetch him was Nimrod running through a celestial checklist in search of a Redeemer.

And suddenly, as if in answer to his call, the veil of dirty air divided, and the train was upon them. Cal felt his foot catch on the rail, and raised it an inch higher to step back, then fell away from the track.