Tabitha (30 page)

‘Don’t you
threaten me, you little bastard!’ Jim yelled, and jumped up into the room to
punch the darkness where Chris was lying. Laika started barking.

‘Jim, it’s me!’
Tabitha protested, holding her hands out against his punches. Jim found out the
hard way though, as his knuckles connected with her metal palms.

‘Jesus, I’m
sorry lass!’ he said to the darkness, gripping his sore knuckles. Tabitha
shushed Laika, pulling her back by the collar. They heard Chris laughing in the
blackness of the room.

‘Excuse me,’
came Sylvia’s voice upstairs. ‘Could we keep it down a bit please, while the
children are asleep?’

‘Sorry, of
course,’ said Will. ‘Gents, go back to sleep or take it outside.’

‘Fine,’ said
Jim, crashing into the kitchen table as he wandered about in the pitch black.
‘Come on then,’ he said.

‘What?’ Chris
replied.

‘We’re taking
this outside. I might even see you better out there anyway.’

‘…Alright, fine.
I’m sorry,’ said Chris, hesitating.

‘No, we’re
settling this like men,’ Jim insisted, opening the door to reveal a starlit
sky. ‘No one tells me they’re going to kill me in my sleep.’

‘Go on, Chris,’
said Liv. ‘If you talk like a bitch, you’re going to get smacked like a bitch.’
Tabitha burst out laughing. Chris didn’t move from his bed. Jim walked back in
with the dim glow of the moonlight to see by, and dragged Chris from the floor.

‘Get off me!’
said Chris, struggling. Jim dragged him on regardless.

‘Don’t do t-too
much damage,’ said Liv. ‘I am
not
getting up to help you carry him back
inside.’ Jim pushed Chris out of the keep, and shut the door behind them. The
others heard their shuffling feet outside, followed by a shout and a fall. A
few seconds later the door opened again, and Jim popped his head in.

‘Someone help me
get him back in,’ he said quietly.

‘Jesus Christ,
Jim!’ Liv yelled, jumping out of bed. ‘Is he bleeding?’

‘I don’t think
so.’

‘
Shh
!’ said Sylvia upstairs.

‘
Er
, excuse m-me!’ Liv called up the stairs.

‘Liv,’ said
Will.

‘No! I won’t be
shushed in my own castle!’ Liv snapped indignantly.

‘Liv, I’ll get
Chris,’ said Will. ‘Just calm down.’

‘Don’t tell m-me
to calm down!’

‘I’ve got him,’
said Jim, dragging Chris back in through the door.

‘Is he
bl
-bleeding?’ said Liv, patting Chris’s scalp. It felt dry
enough. Chris mumbled something as they lay him back down on the floor.

‘Well he’ll
sleep tonight, the little tyke,’ said Liv.

‘Jim, can you do
that every night? Before he even starts?’ said Tabitha. Liv and Will laughed
and agreed.

‘I’m sorry lass,
about hitting you,’ said Jim, mortified about it as he closed the keep door. ‘I
thought you were Chris, I couldn’t see anything.’

‘It’s fine,’
Tabitha assured him. ‘I didn’t feel a thing anyway. How are your hands?’

‘Oh, don’t worry
about them,’ Jim replied in the dark, grunting as he sat back down on his coat
by the wall. ‘As long as you’re not hurt.’

‘I’m fine Jim,
honestly,’ Tabitha said gently.

‘Right, can we
all finally get some sleep now?’ came Sylvia’s voice down the stairs.

‘Will you shut
up
?’
Liv shouted at her. It sparked an argument between them at either end of the
staircase.

‘Jesus Christ,’
said Will, wrapping himself in a blanket and walking outside.

‘You look tired,’
said Liv, pouring Will some fresh tea at the kitchen table the next morning. He
didn’t seem to acknowledge the gesture though.

‘Well, I slept
outside last night,’ he replied wearily, rubbing his eyes.

‘Did you?’ she said,
putting the tea pot back on the side. ‘I didn’t n-notice.’

‘Yeah, because
you were busy having a shouting match all night,’ he replied, hunched over and
sipping his tea.

‘Sylvia was
being rude,’ said Liv defensively. ‘They’re our g-guests. Guests should be
polite.’

‘They’re not our
guests, Liv. They’re family now,’ said Will.

‘Well, even more
r-reason to shout at her,’ Liv replied. ‘Families have rows, that’s what
th
-they do.’ Will sighed and sipped his tea.

‘Has sleeping
beauty woken up yet?’ said Jim, coming inside from the allotment. Liv shook her
head. ‘Jeez, I gave him a shiner there.’ He studied Chris’s black eye with a
particular pride.

‘He’s not moved
since,’ said Will, looking over at Chris. ‘Jim, I think you might have done him
some real damage there.’

‘Well, he
shouldn’t have said he’d kill me in my sleep,’ Jim replied in his
defense
, pouring himself a cup of tea.

‘Jim’s got a
p-point,’ said Liv, sitting down beside Will.

‘Thank you,
Liv,’ Jim replied, bringing his mug over to the table. He took a creaking seat
with a weary sigh. ‘Well, with any luck he’s in a coma,’ he added. ‘At least
it’d give us some peace and quiet for a few weeks.’

‘Jim!’ said Liv,
laughing in disbelief.

‘Nope, he’s
still alive,’ said Will, watching Chris stir and start to groan.

‘Well, I
shouldn’t get my hopes up like that,’ said Jim, sipping his tea. They enjoyed
the sunlight and the sleepy silence together for a little while; blows and tea
slurps being the only sounds to break it.

‘So Jim, the
er
, project,’ said Will, after a couple of minutes’
silence. ‘All going to plan?’

‘All coming
along nicely,’ Jim confirmed, sipping his tea.

‘This again?
What bloody project?’ Liv snapped. ‘What are you t-talking about?’

‘Well, I should
probably get going,’ said Will dismissively, standing up and stretching. ‘Lots
to do.’ Jim nodded, and got up and left Liv alone at the table.

‘What project?’
she demanded. ‘Why is it a secret?’ Jim coughed and headed outside. Will
whistled innocently and walked out after him. Annoyed, Liv sat alone at the
table and racked her brain.

‘What
p-project?’ she mumbled, frustrated. ‘
Grr
!’

The sun climbed in a pale white sky that
just couldn’t muster the energy for a bright blue day. Liv and Tabitha stood on
the curtain wall, watching the town beyond.

‘Sylvia just
doesn’t talk to me. At all,’ said Tabitha.

‘I’ll happily
trade p-places,’ Liv replied. ‘Every time she sees me, she’s got something else
to n-nag me about.’ They could hear Jim in the garden behind them, telling the
twins about his allotment. The kids were helping him to water it, though Robert
was more interested in getting
Laika
to bite at the
flow from the watering can. Paul and Natalie were sweeping the far end of the
garden path, but they couldn’t help but watch the twins laughing. It’d been a
long time since they’d heard them laugh.

‘I don’t think
S-Sylvia trusts you,’ said Liv, shrugging. ‘You know me, I’m not going to
sugarcoat
it for you. She probably just doesn’t like you
very much.’

‘I suppose so,’
said Tabitha. She watched a vivid green fly buzz down and land on the wall,
shining metallic in the sunlight. ‘I’ve never had anyone not like me before.
Now I’ve got two, and I’m living with them.’

‘Well, it g-gets
easier the more it happens, believe me,’ said Liv. ‘And if it’s any
c-consolation, I don’t think she likes me very m-much either.’

‘She’s over
there talking to Chris now, by the gate,’ Tabitha muttered.

‘He’ll have her
hating the whole lot of us b-before long then,’ Liv said with a grin. ‘Crying
shame.’ Tabitha felt her worry on the tip of her tongue. Better to just come
out with it.

‘She thinks I’m
going to turn into something,’ Tabitha confided. ‘Something that’ll hurt the
kids.’

‘That’s crazy!
She’s paranoid, that’s all,’ Liv said dismissively. ‘Ever since they got here,
she’s b-been telling the kids
don’t do that, it’s d-dangerous.
She’s
afraid of everything.’

‘I know, but
she’s not just being weird with me because I’m different,’ said Tabitha. ‘It’s
like she’s afraid of me. Like I’m going to flip and turn into a monster or
something.’ Liv laughed.

‘She’s insane,’
Liv said simply. ‘Wait… you don’t believe her, do you?’ Tabitha shrugged her
shoulders, and blinked away a tear. Liv looked at her then, and stopped seeing
the woman who’d taken Will’s affections. She saw her friend crying.

‘God Tabitha,
you c-can’t even think like that!’ Liv told her. ‘You’re the nicest person I
know.’

‘But what if
something changes, inside me?’ Tabitha replied, looking into Liv’s eyes. ‘I’m
so
hungry
. What if I do need to eat …people? Like a spider?’

‘Don’t you
d-dare talk like that,’ said Liv, pointing a finger in Tabitha’s face. She gave
her a tight hug. ‘Your body’s just changed a little bit, that’s all.’

‘You sound like
my mum when she was giving me The Talk,’ Tabitha chuckled, sniffling. Liv
laughed.

‘Well, you’re
practically t-turning into a superhero,’ Liv said gently. ‘Of course your
body’s going to change a bit. B-But look at you, you’re awesome!’ Tabitha
smiled. ‘Your appetite’s just trying to catch up with your new body, that’s
all.’

‘Do you think
so?’

‘I know so.
Here,’ she said, producing a chocolate bar from her coat pocket. ‘This is my
top-secret stash,’ she said, looking around to make sure no one was watching.
‘The last three pieces of chocolate l-left in the world, and I’m giving one to
you.
That’s
how much I believe you’re not going to t-turn into a
cannibal.’ Tabitha laughed through her tears. Liv snapped off a piece of
chocolate and put it in Tabitha’s hand. ‘Now try and eat that.’ Tabitha watched
Liv as she raised the chocolate to her mouth. She smelled cocoa, milk, sugar.
The same old smells that she’d been hooked on, once upon a time. Every smell
jumped out. Now the cocoa smelled bitter, like dirt. The milk smelled sour like
rank cheese. The sugar, pure sickly-sweet. She would have stopped Liv eating
this, the way it smelled to her. There was nothing wrong with it though, that
was the thing; it was just ordinary chocolate. Liv mimed putting it in her
mouth, to spur Tabitha on. Tabitha held her gaze, and put the vile thing in her
mouth. She couldn’t help but cringe at the tastes on her tongue. She closed her
eyes, breathed out through her nose, and chewed. The piece cracked and mashed
and melted in her mouth, and felt big as a brick. An explosion of bitter, sour
and sickly-sweet. She clenched her jaw to stop herself gagging. She gagged
anyway, and then threw up her breakfast of water over the wall.

‘I’m so sorry,’
Tabitha mumbled, covering her dripping mouth. Liv looked pained and wanted to
help her; Tabitha just wanted to get past. ‘I need to wash the taste out,’ she
told her. ‘I’m sorry.’ Liv watched her run off down the steps, edging past
Chris and Sylvia into the keep.

‘What’s wrong
with Tabitha?’ said Natalie in the garden, watching her disappear inside.

‘She can’t eat,
love,’ Paul said quietly, looking up from the stretch of path he was sweeping.

‘She can’t
eat?
’
Natalie repeated.

‘Not a thing,’
he said sadly. ‘All she can stomach is water, since she changed. That’s what
Chris said, anyway.’

‘But if she can’t
eat, isn’t she going to die?’ said Natalie, turning to him in panic.

‘I don’t know,
love,’ he said quietly. ‘No one seems to know.’

‘We need to
talk,’ said Chris, shutting the trap door at the top of the keep.

‘What’s on your
mind?’ Will replied, as he studied the town below.

‘What?’ said
Chris. Will turned to him. ‘You’ve never said “what’s on your mind” before.’

‘Have I not?’
said Will, puzzled.

‘Makes you sound
like a manager,’ Chris said with a grin. ‘I think someone’s getting a
leadership complex.’ Will could only think how easy it was getting for Chris to
deserve black eyes these days. He was changing, and not for the better. Jim
really had given him one hell of a panda eye, and it probably wouldn’t be the
last.

‘Just tell me
what’s wrong, Chris,’ Will said impatiently.

‘It’s the food,’
Chris replied.

‘We’re running
out,’ said Will. ‘I know.’

‘Yeah, we are,’
said Chris, looking intense. ‘Having twice as many mouths to feed, that’s going
to happen. I want to know what we’re going to do when we run out.’

‘Well, we’re
going to get some
more
food before the
old
food
runs out
,’
Will suggested.

‘Where from?’
Chris snapped. ‘I’m not going out on a food-finding mission. Not out there.’