Sleeping With Ghosts

Sleeping With Ghosts1

Chapter One:
The Stranger2


BOOM BOOM BOOM3

Music Surrounded the atmosphere making it tingle with electricity. Bodies moved together as one and sweat and drugs filled the empty gaps. A syringe lying here, a tiny bit of heroin falling slowing onto the floor, an empty packet of weed there, the sweet smell wafting up into the air.
Crystal Castles rumbled on the floor, the base moving in everybody and the strange melodious lyrics drifted in and out of their ears.
But Cathy wasn’t paying attention to the lyrics, she danced, not with anybody but just with herself, enjoying the music and drugs flowing through her veins.4

DI DI DI DU DO DU DI5

“Come with me.” the whisper flowed into the girls ears like a secret song, known only to her. Her breathe was taken away and her knees suddenly felt weak, she turned around to face the stranger.
Coke thought Cathy, she wanted coke.
She moved through all the other bodies, dancing all the while until she came out into the open air of the back of the club, the music still pounded through the walls, and her ears were ringing with noise.
She got out her little packet and spread out a line on her hand, a group of guys were doing poppers to the side of her, and a lone girl was standing on the other side smoking a cigarette.
“AHHH!”
A scream rang out through the night making Cathy spill her coke onto the floor.
“Fuck.” She swore softly.
Then became aware in her semi-conscious state that someone was in trouble. She looked around looking for the source of the scream, no one else seemed too bothered. Then she saw it: A man of about twenty five was holing up a girl against a wall and seemed to be - oh God - he was raping her!
Cathy ran over without thinking and grabbed the strangers shoulder, he turned around and suddenly Cathy regretted running over, she regretted ever coming out of the club, or even going out tonight.
Blood dripped from his gnarling teeth and there was a thirst in his eyes, a long thirst which Cathy had never seen before, she took a step back as he went to grab her.
“Tony,” A warning voice called out, they both turned.
A man in a smart black suit stood two metres away and Cathy’s breath was taken away by his beauty. He was tall and his beauty was dark, but beauty nonetheless. He had black curls which licked his forehead and brown almost black eyes which were now looking at her with cat-like curiosity. He had striking cheekbones which made his face almost Jonny Depp like. But he was by far the most gorgeous man she had ever encountered.
“I’m sorry … Tony is a new born, he has no manners. I am Gaius.” He held out his hand to shake, Cathy looked at his pale out-stretched hand, then back to Tony who had composed himself and was surprisingly good looking with long black eyelashes and fire-red hair which was in a messy style. Then she looked at the pale girl who was slumped on the floor with blood surrounding her too thin body.
Someone has slipped me some serious LSD Cathy thought before turning around and running.6

***7

That night Cathy slept fitfully, dreaming of blood and Tony and that mysterious Gaius. Her dreams were filled with his painfully beautiful face and his outstretched hand reaching out for her, begging her to take it, to save him … but from what?
She awoke with bags under her eyes and a thumping headache from last nights drugs and music. She reached for her cigarettes and lit one up.
The smoke swirled around her darkened room, dancing with the little light that was filtering through the blinds. She yawned and got up to move to the mirror to assess the damage she caused herself last night.
Not bad. She thought with a cynical smile.
Cathy wasn’t bad looking: in fact most people said she was stunning, with her big green eyes and long black hair that stopped at her breasts. It was now a mess and needed a good brush, she had done up her eyes dramatically but now the mascara and eye liner was smudged all over her pale face. The only blemish in her face was her crooked nose which had been broken back in secondary school. She had called the school’s Bitch fat and this was now what she had gotten to show for it.
Her athlete’s figure was covered by only a big T shirt which used to be her brothers.
She sighed at herself and then made her way to her en-suite bathroom having put out the cigarette in the over-flowing ash tray which had marijuana shapes all over it.
She quickly showered and dressed in skinny blue jeans and a black top with the famous saying: ‘Come to the Dark Side … We Have Cookies’.
“Hi mum, dad.” She greeted when she entered the kitchen. They both grunted in response, her father was reading The Sun, always the Dear Deidre pages, Cathy thought it made him feel better about his life, reading other people’s messed up ones. Her mother was staring at her empty bowl as if it would suddenly magic up cereal. Cathy sighed, they had been like this since Josh died at the ripe age of nineteen. Cathy had been Seventeen at the time and it had devastated the entire family. The truth was they were rapidly running out of money: her father, Paul, had been fired from his job which had involved selling cars, and the compensation from her brother’s death had almost run out after years of drugs and parties that Cathy had thrown herself into after the event.
She quickly made herself breakfast and was out of the door before her father had turned the page to his star signs.
“Cathy!”
Cathy turned around and came face the chest with her best friend, Mark. She smiled instinctively and hugged him. He hugged her back crushing her against him.
“Where were you last night?” he asked while they both started walking towards the town centre. Mark was tall and buff, he should be since he went to the gym five times a week and played football all day on Saturdays with his old school friends which he never seemed to out outgrown.
His short brown hair accented his chocolate brown eyes which always seemed to be crinkled in the corners with a smile.
The town centre was busy as usual with people walking fast to where ever it was they were going. The majority of people were however either old people busily chatting to their old friends, or mothers with small children pushing them around in prams and window shopping.
Cathy and Mark made their way down a dodgy alleyway which everybody seemed to steer clear from. The stench was that of piss and sex, a poor old tramp lay to one side muttering in his sleep and shaking even in the warmth of the day.
The came across The Fallen Unicorn, being infamous there was a group of tourists listening to a dreary looking man who was currently explaining The Fallen Unicorn’s gruesome history.
“People used to say that vampires drank and dined here, all nonsense of course.”
Cathy ignored his comment trying not to think of those two weirdoes she met last night. Mark push open the door and Cathy followed him into the dark dank atmosphere of the pub. Not many people would dare step foot in here, having heard stories about the people who come here, the landlord-with his massive hunchback and rotting teeth, there were rumours about him taking people into the back of the pub with promises of good wine and then he would kill them with an axe and feed their remains to the cannibalistic customers.
All nonsense of course, the landlord, Trevor, did have a hunchback but was one of the nicest man you could ever meet, they greeted each other warmly before Cathy and Mark took a private seat near the back. Trevor, knowing his best customers well, brought them both their favourite drink before leaving them alone to talk.
“So how was Crystal Castles then?” on the walk Cathy had described her night to Mark, leaving out of course the (dare she say it?) vampires.
“Yeah, they were good. But you know me, I’ll dance to anything, especially when I’m high.” they both laughed. Cathy took a sip of her cocktail savouring the taste of her first drink of the day.
She sparked up a cigarette and offered one to Mark which he took.
“How’s … err … thingy?” Cathy stumbled. She could never keep up with Mark’s girlfriends: he got bored easily and in the past month had gone from girl to girl five times.
“Jamie. She’s gone. She was boring and a shit fuck.” he laughed and then took a big gulp from his lager. Cathy didn’t find it very funny but laughed along anyway. Mark was always quite crude and always came up with very crude jokes every time she saw him.
“Hey, Cathy, What do a Rubix cube and a penis have in common?” Mark smiled gleefully and Cathy rolled her eyes.
“I don’t know.” Cathy said boredly.
“The longer you play with them, the harder they get.” They both cracked up because of how lousy the joke was. “I got that one from the internet.” mark said once they had both calmed down. “Talking about the internet, do you ever see that psycho, whatshisface?”
“Peter, no.” Cathy said not wanting to go on with it, a year ago, when she was twenty she was really into her internet relationships, only one guy-Peter-had gotten really obsessed with her, he had mental health problems (schizophrenia) and took someone into hostage thinking they were her and seriously messed them up, the last she heard from him (or rather his mother shouting down the phone about how she had wrecked his life) was that he was in a secure unit in Northampton.
“What a dickwad,” Cathy swore. Laughter came from the booth next to hers and she turned around and came face to face with Gaius.
“Do you mind if I join you?” in an instant he was standing by the table and looking straight at her with those dark piercing eyes which reflected none of the warm lights in the pub.
“Err.” Cathy choked thinking is he stalking me?
“Sure, have a seat.” Mark said kindly: he was always up for meeting new people though Cathy could tell by the look in his eyes he already didn’t like Gaius but was just being polite.
Gaius wedged himself next to Mark, they were such a contrast, sitting there together, with Mark being buff and Gaius being slight. Gaius sat straight, formal, whereas Mark was relaxed leaning against the table.
“I’m Mark.” he held out his hand for Gaius to shake which he took.
“Gaius.” He introduced himself in return in that monotonous dangerous voice. “And I believe we have already met, but you never gave me your hand.” Both of the mens attention was on her now, she felt her ears heat up under their eyes and said nothing. “Well?” All she could was his eyes which seemed to look right through her, assessing her, making her feel naked. She held out her hand reluctantly.
He took it and, surprising both Cathy and Mark, pressed it gently to his lips.
“I-I have to go. I need to see Damien. Bye.”
Cathy stood up and did anything but run out the pub leaving the men to stare at her half empty drink.
Cathy needed to think, was he vampire? Did she believe in vampires? There was no doubt that man - Tony - had drank that girls blood. She was dead. Cathy didn’t want to think about, she thought she could just forget about it and move on but the appearance of Gaius meant that she had attracted his attention and he was not going to let her go. Maybe they were to kill her too?
Distracted by thought she didn’t notice someone grabbing her arm until she was dragged into a dark alleyway.