Graham Masterton - The Doorkeepers

Josh crossed over to the wheeled carriage where Boudicca lay. She watched him from the middle of her dried layers of human flesh as he lifted his sword and pointed it toward her neck.

“What are you doing?” screamed Master Spire. “If you kill Boudicca, the six doors will close for ever!”

“I’ll tell you what I’m doing,” said Josh. “I’m making sure that Miss Andersen goes free, and that you give her safe passage through the nearest door. If you don’t, I’ll cut your precious Boudicca’s head off. And don’t think I’m joking.”

Frank Mordant stepped forward. “You’re an idiot, Mr Win ward. I always said that Yanks were idiots. If you kill Boudicca, then you’ll be trapped in this world for the rest of your life – which probably wouldn’t be very long, if the Doorkeepers have their way.”

“That’s a risk I’m prepared to take.”

“My, my! You are selfless! But, you see, I’m not going to let you hurt one wrinkle of our lovely Boudicca’s skin, because you won’t be the only one who’s trapped here. I will be, too. And without the doors, I won’t be anything more important than the sales director of an electrical company out on the Great West Road. So you see – I can’t possibly have that, now can I?”

Nancy said, “Josh, I’m not going without you. There’s absolutely no way.” There was a wide bloodstain on the sheet that she had wound around herself.

“Honey, it’s the only way. I want one of these people to take you to Star Yard. When you’re there, and when the candles are lit, I want you to call me from the phone booth down on the corner of the street. Tell me that the Hoodies are staying at least a hundred feet away from you, and that you’re ready to go. Then run, and jump, and get yourself back to the real world.”

“I can’t live without you, Josh.”

“You’ll have to. We don’t have any choice. Now, go.”

Nancy still hesitated. Josh said, “Please, Nancy. Don’t make it any harder than it is already.”

He held out his left hand for her. At that instant, however, Frank Mordant ducked and feinted like a boxer, and snatched Josh’s sword. With a grunt of exertion, he lifted it like a giant dagger and aimed it directly at Josh’s heart.

But Abraxas was even faster. He bounded from the floor, landing right on Frank Mordant’s shoulders. Frank Mordant shouted out, “Shit!” and stumbled forward, catching his foot on the frame of Boudicca’s carriage.

Josh saw it happen almost as if it were in slow motion. Frank Mordant’s expression, wide-eyed, horrified. Boudicca’s ghostly face, staring at him in an extraordinary mixture of fear and relief. And the sword breaking through the layers of dried skin, crumbling and cracking, deep into her many-layered abdomen.

The silence in the theater was overwhelming. Boudicca’s eyes looked down at the sword that was piercing her many bodies, almost up to the hilt. She let out a thin, reedy whine, and a trickle of watery blood ran down the side of her chin.

“You’ve killed her,” said Master Spire, rigid with shock. “You’ve killed Boudicca.”

Frank Mordant stepped back, licking his lips. Boudicca’s chest rose and fell, rose and fell. One of her desiccated hands twitched up, its fingers curled like an autumn leaf. Nobody moved. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Boudicca coughed, and it sounded as if she were trying to say something.

“She’s not dead yet,” said Frank Mordant. He turned and stared at Josh. “She’s not dead yet ! ”

Josh suddenly understood what he meant. As long as Boudicca was still alive, the doors would still be open. He seized Frank Mordant’s sleeve and said, “Get us all out of here! Now! The nearest door you know!”

“What? So that you can have me arrested?”

“If you get us back through that door I’ll forget I ever heard of you.”

Two of the Hooded Men approached them, their swords held high. Without hesitation, Josh bent down and swept up the sword of the first Hooded Man who had fallen, and stalked toward them, swinging it wildly around his head. Abraxas jumped at the Hooded Men, too, snarling and barking. They backed away, confused, and as Nancy and Frank Mordant and Josh retreated out of the operating theater, they made no attempt to come after them.

Josh said, “They’re not even following us.”

“They don’t think they have to. The second Boudicca dies, that’s it – we’re going to be trapped here, and they can hunt us down at their leisure. And you can imagine what they’ll do to us then.”

They reached Frank Mordant’s car in the hospital parking lot. He fumbled with the keys, but he managed to open the doors and start up the engine. Josh sat in the front. Nancy sat in the back with Abraxas. The dog was quivering with excitement and Nancy had to stroke him to calm him down. He obviously couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to continue biting Frank Mordant’s head off.

Frank Mordant was sweating now, and he backed out of the hospital gates with a jarring clash of gears.

“Candles?” asked Josh. “Do you have any candles?”

“Glove box,” said Frank Mordant. Josh opened it and took out a carton of six.

They sped through the City, weaving in and out of traffic, running red lights. They drove across Ludgate Circus at nearly fifty miles an hour without stopping. A double-decker bus had to swerve to avoid them, and two other cars slewed around and careered up on to the pavement. “We may be too late already,” said Frank Mordant, as the Armstrong-Siddeley squealed around the corner of Carey Street. He hit the curb, switched off the engine, and yanked on the handbrake. They scrambled out and ran up Star Yard as fast as they could, dodging in between passing pedestrians.

Frank Mordant knelt down and lit the three candles with trembling hands. “Oh God, don’t let her be dead yet. Please God don’t let her be dead.”

He and Josh recited the rhyme between them. “Now, go!” Josh urged Nancy.

Nancy jumped awkwardly over the candles and started to walk into the niche. Abraxas jumped after her.

“Please God, let it still be there,” prayed Frank Mordant.

Nancy limped to the end of the niche. She stopped. Then she turned around and said, “It’s OK! It’s still here! I’m going through!”

She disappeared from sight. Frank Mordant stepped back in preparation for following her. As he did so, Josh punched him hard in the face, and then in the stomach. Frank Mordant gasped and dropped on to his knees.

“I’m going to keep my promise,” Josh told him. “I’m not going to hand you in to the cops. But you deserve to be punished, you bastard. You murdered my sister and God knows how many other girls. You would have stood there today and watched us die, and enjoyed it. Well, this is your punishment. Staying here with the Hoodies. I hope you live a long and miserable life.”

With that, he punched Frank Mordant again, so that he fell backward on to the pavement, and lay there, stunned.

Then, with a last quick look at the world of the Doorkeepers, Josh jumped over the candles and started to make his way through the dark brick passage between the buildings.

He was only on his second turn, however, when he realized that the passage seemed much narrower than it had before. His shoulders were actually scraping against the walls. By the time he reached the next turn, he had to turn sideways, and even then it was difficult to force his way through. With a rising feeling of panic and claustrophobia, he realized what was happening – Boudicca was dying, and as she died her consciousness was fading, and the door was closing up. With him still inside it.

He dragged himself through the passage faster and faster, his knuckles scraping against the brick. He managed to maneuver himself around the last corner, and ahead of him he could see daylight, and Star Yard, and Nancy waiting for him, still wrapped in her sheet.