He didn't even see the blow coming. INTERIOR: A low-ceilinged room lit by three flickering fluorescent lights. The walls are panelled with rough wood. Camera pans hard left, jiggling, the lights leaving hot yellow streaks as the autofocus catches on: DS McRae is slumped back against a chest freezer, blood on one side of his head. A man crouches over him, dressed in a butcher's outfit and wearing a rubber mask of ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The man has a knife in his hand pressed against DS McRae's throat . VOICEOVER: Oh God ... [the Flesher stares at DS McRae for a moment, head on one side, then lowers the knife] VOICEOVER: Oh God, oh God, oh God ... [the Flesher stands and turns to face the camera] VOICEOVER: Oh God ... [picture shakes as the cameraman backs up, then turns and runs] VOICEOVER: [panting and swearing - the sound of fabric rubbing against the microphone] Alec ran for it, too scared to feel guilty about leaving Logan behind. Back through the curtain, puffing already - why did he have to be such a fat bastard? 'Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God ...' Shut up! Shut the fuck up and RUN! He could hear the Flesher coming after him, closing the gap. OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGod ... Alec burst through the door back into the basement and slammed into a box of crappy romance novels. He went sprawling - the camera flying out of his hands, clattering against a pile of mating bicycles. The light blinked out, leaving him in darkness. OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGod ... He scrabbled to his knees, fumbling forward, trying to find the stairs, trying to find the way out before-- The door under the stairs opened, spilling pale yellow light into the crowded basement. The Flesher was here ... Alec bit his lip and tried not to cry. Keep low. Don't make a sound. A creak, the sound of a foot scuffing the floor: the Flesher moving between the stacks of boxes and mouldy debris. Quiet. Not a sound. Don't even breathe. Something brushed his leg and Alec flinched, staring terrified into the gloom. Oh God, please don't let it be ... A pair of black eyes glittered back at him - teeth, claws, naked pink tail.
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