James Nally - Alone with the Dead - A PC Donal Lynch Thriller

Head still bowed, the figure started inching towards me. I sat there paralysed, powerless, as he got closer and closer; steady, unflinching, fearless. He grew bigger, until his black frame filled my vision. I realised that it had to be him. After all these years, Meehan had found me. Now he was going to finish the job.

Inches from my face, he raised his head. Fuck, no. I recognised those staring bloodshot blue eyes, that bleeding mouth. Marion Ryan glared at me with murderous rage.

Unblinking, deranged, Marion pushed her grotesquely distorted, milk-white face into mine. I screamed, but nothing came out. She smiled a malevolent smile that said: ‘You’re mine now.’

A loud bang made me jump. Suddenly she stood by the door, violently slamming it shut, over and over. Boom. Boom. Boom. I put my hands over my ringing ears and screamed.

In a flash, everything turned yellow. My squinting eyes finally made out Aidan’s horrified face in the house lights.

‘What the fuck?’ he cried, surveying me in undisguised disgust.

I could smell and feel warm puke on my chest.

‘It’s wine, just red wine,’ I gasped.

‘Jesus, I thought you’d been stabbed or something. What the fuck was all that about?’

I turned to the flat door: it was closed.

‘Just a nightmare.’

‘Jesus,’ he said again, and headed to the kitchen. I heard water pouring out of the tap. I took the glass of water and tea towel from him and wiped my mouth. I realised how grotesque I must have looked and smiled. It was the sheer relief of being alive.

‘It’s no fucking laughing matter,’ he snapped, ‘you’ve got to see someone about this shit. Oh Christ, the smell, get that shirt off, for fuck’s sake.’

As I unbuttoned I tried to convince myself that it really had been a nightmare. But I felt sure I’d been awake the whole time. Sitting here on the couch, everything around Marion in that streetlight orange glow – the lamp, the posters, the table, my jacket on the back of the chair. It had been real .

Aidan returned to the kitchen door, where he stood in judgement for fully three minutes.

‘You have to see someone, Donal. Not sleeping is one thing, but this …’

‘It was Marion, the girl from tonight.’

‘What?’

‘She appeared to me. I thought she was going to kill me. She seemed so angry. Did you hear the door slamming?’

‘All I heard was you howling at the fucking moon.’

‘I thought it was Meehan.’

‘What?’

‘I thought it was Tony Meehan, coming to finish me off.’

‘You’re raving now, Donal. Jesus. That guy’s long gone.’

‘I’ve been expecting him for three fucking years. Every night.’

‘What are you talking about? Why would he be wanting to finish you off?’

‘It’s why I can’t sleep.’

Aidan couldn’t have looked more bewildered.

‘Something weird happened that night, Aidan. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. I’ve never told anyone. You’ll think I’m insane.’

‘What with some of the people I deal with? I doubt it,’ Aidan laughed, but kindly. ‘Try me.’

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