Dancing Jax. Robin Jarvis

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ with the magazine. I know what happened to him. Jezza – stop. Come down!”

      The man reached the small landing. He half turned to grin at them. That conceited little grin which always preceded some proud, pig-headed action. Then, turning away into the wedge of shadow, he reached out with both hands and placed them squarely in the centre of the mould on the wall.

      “Stupid to the power of ten,” Shiela uttered in disgust.

      The three disciples waited. Staring up at the back of the man they knew only as Jezza, they watched and wondered. Jezza remained perfectly still. He made no sound. He just stayed with his hands against the wall and the moments dragged into minutes. Shiela dug her fingernails into her arms. The tension was unbearable.

      “That’s enough!” she said, unable to take it any longer. “This isn’t funny!”

      “Yeah,” Miller called. “Joke over.”

      Jezza did not move.

      Tommo smiled at the others. “Chill,” he told them.

      “Rich,” the girl said to Miller. “Go get him. Bring him down.”

      The burly man hesitated.

      “Bring him down!” she repeated forcefully, pushing him forward.

      Miller moved towards the stairs. Passing a puzzled-looking Tommo, he began to climb, reluctantly.

      “Come on,” he called up. “Enough’s enough. You’re spooking Shiela.”

      “You two are so over-reacting,” Tommo declared. “Jezza’s winding you up. Whirrrrrrrr – there you go.”

      Miller neared the small landing. His forehead began to sweat as he recalled the terror that had overwhelmed him before. He took a deep breath and smelled the same putrid reek of decay, and coughed as it caught the back of his throat.

      He took a step closer to Jezza. The man’s head was hidden in the gloom and when Miller leaned sideways to catch sight of his face, he could see nothing but a black profile.

      “Jezza, mate,” he said. “Stop this now.”

      In the corner of his eye something moved over the wall. He jumped back and stumbled down two steps.

      “Jesus!” he cried.

      And then Jezza stirred. He jerked his head back then turned slowly around. His narrow eyes danced over his followers as if viewing them properly for the first time and a smile spread across his face.

      “Look at you,” he laughed softly. “Doesn’t take much to panic my little chickens, does it? Another minute and you’d be screaming – and all for the fear of nothing at all. Very instructive.”

      “You’re bleeding hilarious you are,” Shiela snapped.

      “And you’re terminally predictable,” he answered coldly.

      His eyes left her mutinous, wounded stare and fixed on Miller in front of him.

      The big man was looking past him, at the wall. But there was nothing to see in the shadows there, just the staining mould.

      “You’re in my way,” Jezza told him.

      Miller shook himself. Whatever he had thought he had seen was no longer there. He lumbered about and stomped back down the stairs, glad to feel the floor beneath him once more. With far lighter, almost dancing steps, Jezza followed.

      “I wasn’t scared!” Tommo piped up. “Dunno what’s wrong with these two today.”

      “Shut it, you tedious prat,” Jezza instructed, without even looking at him.

      Shiela grimaced. Sometimes he repulsed her. He could treat people like dirt, even those closest to him. She saw Tommo react as if he’d been slapped and she wanted to be far, far away from this life she had chosen for herself. Why did she and the rest of them put up with it? Why did they keep coming back and seeking this creature’s approval? What did it ever get them?

      “I’ll be in the van,” she declared, moving back into the sunlight that streamed through the door.

      Before she even set foot on the porch, Jezza was behind her. He seized hold of her wrist and spun her around. Grabbing the back of her hair, he pulled her face to his and kissed her roughly on the mouth.

      Shiela struggled and kicked him on the shin.

      “Sod off!” she spat.

      “Don’t go yet,” he said, releasing her. “Come on, there’s more to see. Let’s me and you explore on our own. Come on, girl.”

      She blinked at him in surprise. He hadn’t kissed her like that for a long time.

      “Tommo, Miller!” he ordered, “You two go look through the rest of these rooms down here.”

      The men glanced at each other uncertainly. Neither of them wanted to be there any more.

      Jezza turned the full power of his stare on them. “Only this floor mind,” he warned. “No one, but no one, is to go upstairs. Do you hear me?”

      “I wouldn’t if you paid me,” Miller muttered.

      “Be about it then, rabbits,” Jezza said with a nod towards the other rooms.

      With a cautious look at Shiela to make sure she was OK, they made for one of the other doors leading off the hall. If they had rechecked the first one, they would have seen that the red leather of the armchair was now no longer covered in mould.

      “Just you and me, kid,” Jezza said, smiling at Shiela.

      The girl was wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “What have you been eating?” she asked, spitting on the floor. “Tastes like… soil or something. Have a mint!”

      “I’m just an earthy guy,” he said and there was that wink again. Then he surprised her a second time by taking hold of her hand, only gently, far more gently and tenderly than he had ever been. “This way,” he said, leading her further into the hall.

      “I don’t want to be in here,” she protested. “I want to sit in the van. I’ll wait there.”

      But he was so insistent, his voice so coaxing and persuasive, that, before she realised, they were standing before a door in the panelling beneath the stairs. With a flourish, Jezza yanked it open.

      It was pitch-black inside and a waft of cold, dead air flowed across Shiela’s face.

      “What’s in there?” she asked, backing away.

      “Cellar,” he replied.

      “There’s no chance in hell I’m going down there! Even if we’d brought torches I wouldn’t.”

      Jezza reached into the darkness and caught hold of a Bakelite switch dangling on a corded flex from the sloping ceiling. An instant later a dim bulb illuminated a flight of steps leading downward.

      “How СКАЧАТЬ