Dreamside - By Graham Joyce Page 0,68

clothes belonging to Lee. He disappeared from the kitchen to try them on.

When he returned, with his cropped hair combed back and wearing the oversized clothes, Ella started giggling. Brad retreated angrily, slamming the door, refusing to come out again and threatening not to make the return journey to rejoin the others. But finally she got him into the car. He climbed into the passenger seat and sat with arms crossed and with head bowed.

"I need to tell the others we're on our way," said Ella.

She stopped the car at a telephone kiosk to make a progress report to Lee. Stepping out of the car, she had a second thought, and reached for the keys.

"What's that for?" Brad demanded. It was the first time he had spoken since leaving the cottage.

"Reflex."

"What's the matter with you? Do you think I'd drive off in the car or something?" He was angry.

"Relax. I'm just going to make one phone call."

"You're taking the keys anyway, I see!"

Inside the booth, and away from Brad for the first time in over six hours, she sighed, leaning her head against the dial. Brad's behaviour was still unpredictable, and he was in a suggestible state. So far he had followed, but if he was to have a change of heart she would never be able to bring him back again. If she could keep her own head clear she might do it. She was terrified by the idea of what might happen if he or she experienced an attack en route.

She carefully phoned Lee's number. When the answer came, it was Honora on the line, though her voice could hardly be made out. The line was full of interference, strange electronic chirpings, and innumerable unfathomable ghost conversations, as if a hundred other people were trying to claim the line. Ella put the receiver down and tried again, but got the same results.

"Phone's out of order," she told Brad, back in the car. "It'll have to wait."

Brad only stared sulkily ahead of him. "This car will never make it," he said.

Ella could sense two forces working in Brad. One surrendered him completely to her judgment, and with blind faith asked her to take charge and deliver him from his nightmares. The other was a palpable terror, growing so fast she could smell it on his breath: a fear both of facing the source of his horrors, and of facing his fellow dreamers with whom he had brought the living nightmare into being. This terror, she knew, was already telling him that in coming with her he had made a mistake; and his apprehension of that mistake was increasing with each mile of their journey.

It was beginning to get dark. At a service station half-way up the motorway she stopped and tried to phone again. She got no better results—a line awash with interference, busy with sounds like whispered conversations which changed as soon as you tried to listen in on them. When she returned to the car park, Brad was gone.

She found him in the reception area of the service station, hanging over an electronic arcade machine. A space patrol game. His hand fumbled with the joystick as he peered darkly into the kaleidoscope of shifting pin-lights behind the black glass.

"Time to go," said Ella.

"But I haven't beaten the invaders. The earth's in peril."

"You have to put some money in to do that."

"Oh . . . sure." He released the stick and followed her back to the car.

Shortly after she had turned off the motorway, Brad suddenly seemed to emerge from a daze. "I need a drink," he said.

"Brad; it would be a good idea if you stayed off the pop."

He gripped her wrist hard enough to make her stop the car. "I need a drink."His eyes were almost crazy with fear and lack of sleep.

"Maybe you do. I'll find a pub."

She had to drive for a while along a winding and deserted country road. Dusk was slipping away quickly into darkness. She found a place with a dimly lit sign saying The Corn Man. It had the expectant hush of a pub just opened and too early for most customers. Brad marched up to the bar and ordered himself two large brandies, both of which he drank, leaving Ella to order herself a tonic water. He repeated his order, and the barmaid eyed him quizzically as she nudged his glass under the optic measure.

"Ease up," said Ella. "Lee will bring enough to keep you satisfied."

"Lee Lee Lee. Lee