‘What’s on your face?’ Matt gripped the chair, chest heaving. ‘What the hell is on your face?’
‘Bugger smeared me with something,’ Keech touched his mouth, then he leant over and instantly started to vomit. In the dim light, Matt could just about make out an odd shape at the bottom of the door. A circle, rolling. Wait … he stepped forward. The rim of a metal bucket, tipped on its side. Mary Wasson’s dead cat slid out in a pool of its own fluids.
Matt heard a bizarre voice snap out from the darkness, shouting a word.
The word was ‘Eat!’
Bob’s groan. ‘Turn the fucking light off.’
Then a bigger shadow moved above the cat in the bucket. A shadow strode over it, pushing the bucket aside. Not a man. Not a hellish rabbit creature.
But an animal, none the less.
Something on all fours. Springing from the door and bolting for Keech.
That voice again. ‘Eat.’ Then the door slammed shut.
The white dog raced across the dust and leapt through the air at Keech.
And Matt knew in the bullet time moment that this wasn’t just the creature that had ripped a chunk from Bob’s leg. It was the one that tore the throat from Steph Ellis. And the one that peered in at a frightened old lady in the dark. Muzzle caked with blood.
His phone toppled over. The light went out.
And the world turned black with male screams and tears and ravenous growling.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Rachel blinked.
Rabbit was back.
Hope, dumb as it was, died.
‘I’d like you to recite the Lord’s Prayer, please.’
It was an unexpectedly gentle voice. Echoed and muffled, but soft.
‘Why do you—’
‘From the beginning and say it all the way to the end, with no mistakes. You have three chances.’ The rabbit scraped up a wooden stool and sat on it. Perched. His fingertips now looked wet and sticky-looking. He was holding something black. ‘Now, please.’
She frowned at him and looked back at all the newspaper clippings on the wall, and the door next to it. For the first time she thought, maybe this wasn’t hell after all. Maybe Jo and Steph and Kassy and Holly were going to burst through the door with a camera crew and say, ‘Ha ha, our epic, years-long prank is complete! We got you good, didn’t we?’
And maybe the rabbit would pull off its mask as well and it’d be Debbie saying, ‘Hey, hey! You have passed the test! You are way tougher than I thought you were. Let’s get married!’ Applause. High fives all round.
Is that what it was? A mask?
As she thought about all this, the rabbit stared at her through the holes in his face. ‘You can’t even start The Lord’s Prayer?’ he said. Not angry, but pleased.
When she spoke, it was through a long, fretful groan, ‘Our Father …’
‘Yes?’
‘Who art in heaven … hallowed be … hallowed be thy name.’
The rabbit dragged his seat forward a little, scratching the floor. ‘Yes … yes?’
‘Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven …’
‘Heaven, yes …’
‘… er …’
He sat suddenly upright, head twitching to attention. ‘Stuck?’
‘… is in heaven …’
‘Yes,’ he nodded. ‘On earth as it is in heaven …’
Wait … What was next? On earth as it is in heaven …
– forgive.
– Forgive?
– Give!
‘Give us this day … our daily bread.’
The rabbit sighed and wiped his sticky fingers on his knee. Then he lifted the black thing in his hand. She heard a click. A hefty beam of light shot out of his hand. Dust, hair and flies danced in it. The glow shone up his face and Rachel could see that despite his calm, pleasant tone, his eyes were wild and bulging behind the small latex holes. He turned his head and followed the torch beam. He took one of his long fingers and pointed it in the direction of the light.
‘Carry on …’ he said. ‘Our daily bread.’
She turned to see what he was pointing at, ‘As we forgive those—’
The words froze in her throat. Literally froze, sharp enough to cut her.
‘Yes?’
No sound came out. How could it?
‘You can’t finish it?’
‘Kassy?’ she said into the beam of light.
‘Finish it now or you’ll have failed the test.’
‘Kassy?’
‘Please, I’m serious. Finish the test.’
‘Kassy!’
The rabbit was on his feet, shaking his head. Leaving the torch on the floor so he could freely wander along its beam of light toward Kassy. She was unconscious and tied to a chair.
Rachel called out her name again while he started slapping his palm hard across Kassy’s cheek, trying to wake her up.
Is this in my mind? Is this a breakdown? Am I sitting in a doctor’s surgery right now, back in Salford, while nurses shake and prod me awake …
‘Well, it looks like you’ve both failed the test,’ he said into her ear.
‘Did Holly send you?’ Rachel said to the rabbit, crying now.
It was the only thing she had said so far that slowed him down. Rabbit paused, and looked up at the red ceiling. ‘In a way, yes.’
‘But I’ve told her I’m sorry. For what we did to her.’
‘Oh really? And what about them?’ He pointed over at the wall with the newspaper cuttings plastered on it. ‘And what about all the other children you’ve corrupted?’
‘What children?’
‘You’ve forgotten their names? They’re nothing to you, I bet.’
‘What children?’
‘Well, how about I remind you? Penny Mendelson, Stephanie Billing. Rachel Tovey. What about Helen Bexley or Louisa Ford?’ He shook his head. ‘And what about that little girl in the park the other day? What about her?’
‘What? Who are you talking about?’
‘Your victims!’ He shouted it so loud, so sharp, that it felt like the bricks might instantly loosen from one another and the vaults would bury them all.
Rachel was bewildered but she noticed Kassy’s eyes were fluttering open. One of them looked black from some sort
