And Coyle O’Halloran bellowed and charged.
I waited until he was barely an inch away from me, and weaved away from the impact. Coyle still landed me a glancing blow on my shoulder that served as a painful reminder of the damage the man could do. I staggered backwards but remained upright as he came back for a second attempt to take me down. This time I was ready for him, and landed a decent right into the centre of his bloated face. I felt the cartilage in his nose crack under the impact of my fist, but he hardly noticed.
‘That the best you can do?’ I gasped. ‘I’m busted, knackered and rattling to all hell. Best chance you’re gonna get, and all you can manage is
this
? Pathetic…’
Coyle responded with a left hook to my jaw that nearly knocked me into the next life. ‘Gonna fuckin’ kill you now. Then I’m killing her,’ he panted, and dived on me, sending us both crashing to the floor. I managed to roll on top of him, and pummelled him with everything I had left, until hi
s whole face was painted scarlet
. All the while he was raining blows on my head and chest, roaring curses that became less and less intelligible with each breath, and doing his best to finish me.
Coyle fumbled amongst the fragments of shattered glass and grabbed the remains of the oil lamp, now nothing more than a brass base with a few jagged shards still attached. He wrapped his bloodied fist around it and brought it up to smack
me
hard across the temple, and I knew that I wouldn’t last much longer now he’d found his weapon of choice. I slumped backwards, stunned, and he used the opportunity to throw me onto my back.
‘You ever heard of foreplay?’ I spat a fine spray of blood over him as I spoke, and realised he’d managed to knock one of my back teeth out.
‘Dirty
bastard
! Fuckin’ AIDS all over my face!’ Coyle raised his hand, and this time he held the broken lamp like a dagger, with the slivers of glass pointing at my throat. I twisted my head to the side as he brought his improvised knife down and sliced my cheek open. He lifted his hand again, and this time I knew he would cut my throat, and I didn’t have the strength left to stop him.
All I could think was that I had been so close. I’d been an hour away from leaving this shithole, and now the great, hulking, stinking son of a bitch was about to take everything away. I wanted to be with Lilith, and feel the warmth of
Spain
begin to thaw my aching bones, and I wanted a life where I could wander down a street hand-in-hand and buy a beer with her whilst we watched the sun set, and every other dumb, trite cliché that came with being happy.
‘Not. Fucking.
Fair
!’ With my last iota of strength I grabbed Coyle’s wrist as he made his move, and kicked out so that we fell against each other. Now I was above him again. I twisted the lamp in his hands even as he roared with incoherent rage, and fell on top of him, spent, as the longest fragment of glass plunged deep into his right eye. I left him screaming like a snared rabbit and scrabbling on the flagstones, and dragged myself over to Lilith.
The whole chamber was filled with choking black smoke now, and the wooden timbers in the roof were beginning to smoulder as the flames leapt from the remains of the bed. My chest burned with each breath, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep going, let alone Lilith.
I loosened the straps at her wrists and we tumbled to the floor. I had to hold my fingers to her lips to see if she was still breathing; I couldn’t see straight from the smoke and the battering I’d just taken from Coyle, and the desperate little gasps she was making didn’t fill me with any hope. I pulled her near-lifeless form towards me as though I could keep the smoke and flames from touching her just by holding her close, and shut my eyes. Numberless stars sparked behind my eyelids as Lilith slid her hand into mine and gave it the gentlest squeeze.
*****
My first thought was snakes, which didn’t make any sense at all, but the incessant, deafening hissing could only be snakes. Then I was covered in freezing mist, and someone threw a sheet over me and I was coughing hard enough to bust a lung and Henry bloody Masterson was screaming in my ear as he ran past me with a fire extinguisher to keep the flames at bay for a few more precious seconds.
‘Oh, you daft, reckless young bugger.’ Sergeant Ed bent down. ‘Come on, lad – time to get out of here before the whole place goes up, eh? Henry reckons this blanket’s fireproof, but I’d rather not put it to the test.’ He lifted me up and I tried to fight him off, but I was too busy coughing up my ring.
‘Lilith…’ I gasped.
‘Henry and Nat have got her. It’s fine. It’s all going to be fine. The air ambulance has been scrambled for the pair of you – didn’t think either of you would come out of this one particularly well. Now do me a favour and keep still, will you? Those steps are going to bloody ruin my knees.’
‘I can make my own fuckin’ way…’ I began, and then the darkness closed in, soft as velvet. I was vaguely aware of Ed catching me as I fell, and nothing more.
*****
I came to on the snow-covered lawn, flailing and gasping for breath like a landed fish. An oxygen mask covered my mouth and nose, and the smoke-laden air was filled with noise. Wailing sirens on the far shore competed with the heavy thrum of helicopter blades, ambulance crew and police ran and yelled, and above it all I could still hear Coyle’s high squeal; some eejit had obviously decided to drag his sorry arse out of the flames, but there was nothing I could do about him now.
Nat knelt at my side as a nervous young paramedic began to examine the gash to my cheek. By his expression, I guessed I looked like I’d been exhumed, and I could feel his hands trembling through his latex gloves. Apparently it was work experience week in the emergency services. ‘Um,’ he faltered, ‘I can tape this for now, but it’ll need stitching once we get to -’
I swiped the mask away. ‘No. Not ‘til I’ve seen Lili. Where the hell is she?’
‘Just across the way there, see?’ Nat said. ‘She’s in good hands. There’s a doctor working on her now. Ed and Gabe are over there as well, so they’ll keep an eye on things – you seriously need to get patched up a little before you fly.’
I had just grudgingly consented to getting my face stuck back together when Gabriel came sprinting over to us. He looked terrified.
I shoved the paramedic away, and he toppled backwards. ‘What the fuck’s happening?’
‘Don’t know.’ Gabriel looked terrified. ‘They’re saying she’s struggling. The smoke, her asthma…’
‘Got to see her.’ I attempted to get to my feet and the paramedic put a hand on my shoulder to keep me still. I would have decked him if it wasn’t for Nat catching my fist before it made contact with the young guy’s chin.
In my defence, I was blindly lashing out in all directions by the time Ed came over; it was just unfortunate that he was the first person I managed to hit. He landed flat on his back in a snowdrift and I realised I was about to get arrested for lamping the only decent police officer I’d ever met. From behind me, I heard Nat give a whispered, ‘Oh fuck.’
Ed stood up and calmly swept the snow from his trousers and jacket, then simply wrapped his massive arms around me. I had one last go at landing him one before I came to my senses and all the fight went from me; for an old fella he still had some strength, and I wondered if he was going to cart me off or just crush me to death.
‘Right, son. This has to stop now,’ Ed said. ‘I know you’re scared, and God knows you’ve got every right to be a bit pissed off, but they’re talking about sedating you before you rip someone’s head clean off. That means they’ll whack a needle into anywhere they can find and that’ll be you cabbaged until an week next Tuesday, and that’s not going to help Lilith, is it? She needs you now, Finn. She needs you to be there for her.’
‘What if… Jesus, Ed, I mean what if…’ I couldn’t even say the words.
‘She’s going to be okay.’
Adrenaline began to drain away, and I hurt everywhere. ‘D’you promise?’
Ed looked down at me. ‘I promise.’
It was time to wake up. I’d begun the long, slow climb out of oblivion hours before, but that certainly didn’t count as wakefulness, just a collection of sounds and sensations that reassured me I was still in existence. The hours were measured by the blood-pressure cuff on my right arm automatically inflating and deflating; by the pouch of saline emptying itself into the back of my hand, drop by steady drop; by some gentle, sweet-voiced nurse checking the display that would tell her my heart was continuing to beat. I had a concrete slab on my chest that I had to lift with my ribs whenever I wanted to take a breath, and I couldn’t even manage that simple job without the oxygen flowing into my lungs from a nasal cannula, but I was most definitely alive, which meant that Blaine and Coyle had lost, and Finn and I had won. So now it was time to open my eyes.
Finn sat by my bed. His face looked as though it had been dragged along a cheese grater, and I guessed he hadn’t slept since he’d got to the hospital, but I’d never seen him so happy, or so relieved.
Or so beautiful.
‘Hi there,’ he smiled.
‘Hi. You look like shit.’ My voice was nothing more than a croak; I supposed I’d still been intubated not so long before.
‘Yeah? Well you look fantastic. That whole, ‘Tubes stuck up your nose’ vibe
really
works for you.’
‘Thanks. How long was I out?’
‘Two days. The doctor, she said it could be a week, maybe more, but you were just, like, ‘Fuck this, I’m Lilith fuckin’ Bresson’, so they stopped the sedation and took the tube out of your throat this morning ‘cos you were doing so well. You’re bloody amazing, you know that?’
‘I’d heard rumours. How are you?’
‘Ach, you know. Bit of concussion, this scratch on my face – oh, and you were right about my knee; it
is
that ligament thing. Completely fucked.’ He grinned.
‘Medical term. They admitted me as well, so at least I get morphine.’ He held up a spectacularly bruised hand to show me his wristband. ‘I’ve got the room next door, but I haven’t actually been in it yet. The staff have been brilliant; they’ve just let me stay here with you.’
‘And I’m so glad you did. Where are the other guys?’
‘All safe. Okay, let’s see – Gabe and Nat have stuck around. They’ve blockaded the relatives’ room down the corridor, so they can hide out from Gabe’s mental fans, and Henry’s goin’ to be so gutted that he’s missed you waking up. He’s just gone to the staff canteen with an off-duty midwife called Victor – from Nigeria, apparently – seems like a decent fella; their eyes met over the coffee machine yesterday evening, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.’
‘Henry’s
pulled
? The freedom must have gone to his head.’
‘Yeah, would you credit it, the wee tart? I think Ed’s the only one missing; he had to go into work, but he said he’d be back later with some kind of official update. Told me I had to ring him the second you woke up, but I don’t think he’ll mind waiting another five minutes.’
I wrinkled my nose. ‘You smell of smoke.’
‘Yeah, I found that if I stand on the toilet seat and stick my head out of the window I can grab a cigarette without setting off the smoke alarm.’
‘No, I mean
smoke
smoke. From burning things.’
‘That would be Albermarle Hall. Well, the big pile of charcoal that
used
to be Albermarle Hall, anyway.’
‘What, all of it?’
‘Pretty much. Turns out that centuries of built-up evil is an even better fuel than paraffin, and you’re a bit stuffed for getting a fire engine across a lake.’
I paused, remembering. ‘Is that why Coyle was screaming?’
‘Nah. He was screaming because I poked his eye out with a piece of broken glass.’
‘Ah. Well done.’ I swallowed, and it felt like gulping down gravel. ‘Ouch.’
‘You want some water?’ Finn picked up the crutches that were propped against the chair and made his way to the cabinet by the window to pour out a plastic cup of water. He pushed the blinds aside and even through the double glazing I could hear the yells of the photographers camped outside as they caught a glimpse of their target. ‘Fuck me, it’s crazy out there – I think we’re on the front page of every newspaper in the country, thanks to Nat’s mail out. Gabe’s put his two pet gorillas at the front doors for now, but I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when we leave here.’
‘Oh God, it’ll be ridiculous for a while. Totally insane. But it’ll pass. It always passes. New stories, new scandals. And soon we’ll be thousands of miles away, and it won’t matter. Trust me.’
Finn set the water by my bed. He frowned and fell silent, and I was suddenly afraid that this would all be too much, too soon, and that all he’d want to do was run a million miles away from this lunacy I’d created. ‘Um, can I ask you something?’
‘Sure,’ I said, and began to prepare for the worst.
‘D’you think I could maybe hug you right now? Y’know, if I’m really careful, and promise not to break anything, or detach anything? Because that’s all I really want to do. Just fuckin’ lie there next to you and hold you, so I know this shit’s for real. Would that be okay?’