All The Lonely People - David Owen Page 0,73

night, a few people noisily returning home from nights out. Paying him no attention at all. He reached the end of the road where he could turn towards Garden Hill, and shrank against some bushes as he thought he heard footsteps running past. Nobody there. His imagination trying to psyche him out and send him home. He turned the other way, only a few roads away from the dealership now.

More running footsteps, behind him this time. ‘Hey!’

Wesley whirled around, tensed to run, until he realised it was Jordan.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ he said when he caught up, leaning on his knees to try and catch his breath.

‘I couldn’t sleep,’ said Wesley, trying to hold his voice level.

‘And Dave’s keys are a cure for insomnia, are they?’

His brother hadn’t been asleep after all. Wesley hissed through his teeth, irrationally angry, like he had been tricked. He spun away and started across the road, but Jordan followed close at his side.

‘Tell me what you’re doing.’

Head down, feet moving. He had to stay calm, couldn’t let his brother get to him like he always did. ‘Why should I?’

‘Because I think you’re doing something stupid.’

They hurried through a residential street lined with trees greyed by the cars parked now between them, petrified under LED street lights. On either side the houses were set close to the road, almost every window dark except where the phantom light of a TV flicked and shifted. Jordan didn’t keep pushing for answers, but Wesley knew he wasn’t going to leave it alone.

It was better this way, really. Jordan would be able to see first-hand how wrong he had always been about his little brother.

Another corner brought them close to the industrial estate, the dealership coming into view ahead.

‘What are we doing here?’ said Jordan.

A figure dressed in black lingered across the road from the dealership. The sight of him made Wesley slow, before compelling himself to keep going. ‘Not we,’ he said.

‘You don’t have to do this.’ Either Jordan had guessed, or he didn’t need to.

‘According to you this is exactly the kind of thing I should be doing.’

‘I don’t want you to do anything because of me.’

‘You don’t get to decide,’ said Wesley. ‘I have to do this. I have to.’

The waiting figure came across the road to meet them. It was Tru, hood pulled close around his face, his bulk only making him look more conspicuous in his black clothes.

‘Who’s this?’ he said, lifting his chin at Jordan.

‘My brother,’ said Wesley, making sure his voice didn’t shake. ‘He’s cool. You’re cool, aren’t you?’

Jordan held his eye for a long time – a challenge or a plea, he couldn’t tell – and then nodded.

They moved between the cars towards the dealership office.

They ran, away from the square and through the streets, Kat always a few paces behind. Through streets and past people stumbling drunkenly home or simply out for late-night walks, until she realised where they were heading.

The hill was a dark rise against the sky. Safa finally stopped at the gate – lock broken for as long as Kat could remember – leaning against the Garden Hill sign but not breathing hard at all. In the darkness she was almost invisible. Maybe there was little need to breathe any more, hardly any body left to demand oxygen.

‘You felt that,’ said Kat, the last of the kiss’s power idling inside her like a fallen petal.

Safa shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It brought us back. What if it means—?’

‘This isn’t Sleeping-fucking-Beauty!’ Safa pushed the sign, the metal wavering. ‘You don’t get it – we can only feel like that if we join with somebody else. If it had just been me . . . the sooner we join our permanent Cradles, the sooner we can have that all the time. That’s why I’m doing this.’

Kat touched her fingers to her lips. ‘It was my first kiss.’

Safa exhaled, closing her eyes in something close to surrender. ‘Mine too.’

The air was bitter in her lungs, but she wasn’t cold. Every person she had entered inside the club had taken their piece of her, and away from the street lights there was no way to know what was left.

‘Why are we here?’ she said.

‘I used to come here as a kid.’

Kat smiled. ‘Me too.’

Without another word, they set off up the path to the top of the hill.

It all seemed too easy. There was no window to break, no cameras or security system to disable. Wesley simply unlocked the