One More Dawn Read online

  One More Dawn

  John Riley

  Published internationally by Golden Keys Publishing House:

  © John Riley 2017

  Terms and Conditions:

  The purchaser of this book is subject to the condition that he/she shall in no way resell it, nor any part of it, nor make copies of it to distribute freely.

  All Persons Fictitious Disclaimer:

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Closure

  1

  The grey dawn had been filtering through gaps in the thick bedroom curtains for about twenty minutes before Sarah noticed the change in light. Her eyes had glazed over after hours of staring emptily at the mobile phone cradled in her bruised and battered hands. Daniel hadn't returned her numerous calls, their mutual friends had no idea where he had gone; had even scoffed slightly at her obvious panic. In a normal situation, she wouldn't have worried; he hadn’t been gone two hours before she had started to ask around. But this wasn't a normal situation and that time had felt more like a week.

  Her dark hair fell in front of her eyes and she tucked it behind her ears in reflex, grimacing at the stiffness in her fingers. The barely lit room swam out of focus as she moved, she was tired, terrified and her body was calling on the debt she owed. Steadying herself with one arm she put the mobile down and reached to switch on the TV, it's brightness almost blinded her and she blinked until the news channel she had checked earlier came into focus.

  “...were called to the scene and apprehended the man. There were none injured in the incident and it is assumed he will face charges for assault. Local news now, a woman at the Moreton hospital will be breaking the hospital's personal record by giving birth to quintuplets, a spokesperson for the hospital said...”

  She turned the television off in confusion. It had been the same before, no mention of the horror, not a word of the violence; it should have been enough to make the local news if not the national. After getting home and calming down enough to talk she had called the police. The rather annoyed woman on the other end told her that they'd had several reports of a similar disturbance and officers had already investigated to find nothing. When Sarah had become distraught, the woman had insinuated that she was drunk. What Sarah interpreted from the call was that the police wouldn't help and hearing nothing from even the news made her question her own sanity, or as the woman had mentioned; her sobriety.

  Closing her eyes, Sarah replayed the night in her head; the blur of drinking and celebration to begin, moving from club to club, Daniel dancing with her and smiling, laughing. Their friends finally coming to an abrupt halt and calling it quits, leaving her alone with her new fiancé to dance close and be held, moving slow despite the pounding beat. Next came the scream. A piercing, high-pitched noise that cut through the loud music like a knife and pulled Daniel from her grasp as he turned to locate the cause. Being relatively short, Sarah didn't see the ripple in the crowd like wheat bowing away from a scythe, but Daniel must have recognised something was wrong because he grabbed her hand and rushed her towards the nearest wall, bulling through the shocked crowd. The music was still pounding so his warning was lost on her ears but Sarah had seen the look of horror on the faces of people following in panic.

  A woman no bigger than her burst from the throng before them, her dress torn. She had make-up stained blood streaming from a horrific wound down the length of her face. Sarah met the woman’s eyes filled with tears and terror before she was jerked to a stop by somebody or something grabbing her hair from behind. The bloodied woman screamed as her head snapped back, identifying herself as the origin of the first scream and making Sarah flinch. The press of people closed and Sarah lost sight of the woman, Daniel was shouting, shaking her and eventually just pushing her ahead of him, making his way to the exit. Others saw what he was doing and suddenly the crowd was moving as one, a single beast looking for nothing but escape. In the press Daniel's hands slipped away from Sarah's shoulders and she couldn't turn to get to him, she was instead forced out of the doors, the yelling and thunder of feet now over-powering the sound of music.

  Back in the present Sarah's phone bleeped, snapping her out of the memory. She scrabbled for it in the murk and stared disappointedly at the e-mail notification, she caught sight of the clock on the screen before locking the keypad; it had been more than three hours now. She unlocked the mobile and typed the number for emergency services again, but her fingers froze over the call button. Three hours. They had been out drinking, he was a full-grown man and there was no news of what had happened. Sarah felt as though she'd had a horrendous nightmare that'd somehow leaked into the real world and plucked her fiancé out of her life. She tried to calm herself down, tried to reassure herself that he would call, that he would creep into the house with a sheepish grin and then just hold her and tell her it'd all been a dream...

  He'd proposed to her the night before, adamant for her sake that her parents' money wouldn't be a part of the proposal at the very least; he'd dropped to one knee in the restaurant they'd had their first date in. A small, non-glamorous establishment with all the warmth, care and attention to detail that Daniel possessed himself. She remembered the embarrassment, the excitement and the hope for their future. He had been saving money for months, she’d known. Considering their life had quietened down since college she assumed it had been for a new car. She’d dared to hope that it’d been for one of the holiday’s she had always loved even. But no, it had been to buy the ring, something her parents would scoff at but another sign of dedication that proved she'd made the right choice. She stroked the ring now, staring down at it and making silent prayers to any God that would listen; just to bring him back safe. After a moment, she pulled her fingers away from it in revulsion, noticing the spot of dried blood marring the small diamond. Rubbing it on her sleeve resulted in removing the blood, but also dislodging a small piece of skin that must have been torn from one of the clubbers in her escape.

  She remembered having her back scraped painfully against the edge of the doorway as the crowd had forced its way out, only to find more violence outside. The flood of drunk and terrified patrons had compressed then, people trying to escape from a threat from both ahead and behind; Sarah had been ejected from the press of bodies like a bar of wet soap. She'd hit the floor hard, catching herself with her hands and causing their current stiffness. She'd rolled onto her back and sat up in shock, allowing her to see that the cause of the violence was a pack of terrifying feral beasts. This image of animalistic “otherness” stayed with her as the closest of the monsters moved into sight; it was a man, but stooped forwards with lean muscles shining beneath a shirt that had torn and was hanging loose. Chin length lustrous hair swung freely in a curtain around a face seemingly chiselled from purest marble, obviously beautiful yet currently twisted into a furious animal snarl. Foaming saliva dripped from between his perfect white teeth, marred
further by flecks of blood from his current victim, who's head he had between his powerful hands.

  Before Sarah had gotten over the shock of the fall and man both, a second creature commanded her attention. This one as obviously a woman as the other had been a man, her skin seemed to radiate a soft glow, her every feature a statement of feminine superiority. Never mind the blood that had been smeared across her face and dripped from her fingers, the viscera on her ruined jacket and the rage which made her body shake. She'd moved like an animal, lithe but hunched, her fingers grasping at the air with her eyes locked on Sarah. Sarah almost didn't move, her eyes trying to drink in the woman's perfection; the foot of a terrified man stepping on her shin and tripping backwards into the woman's grasp had snapped her into her right mind and she had flinched, hissing in pain.

  She'd then glanced behind her from the floor, seeing the empty street as her avenue to freedom; she alone had managed to escape the main group. The drunk mass had been herded from the other side, Sarah had seen the feet moving back towards the club. She'd taken one look at the man who had tripped on her and the demonic woman furiously slamming her fists against his head. Then she'd started to stand, backing up as she did. Once on her feet, Sarah had turned and ran, her shin sending jolts of pain up her leg every time her foot hit the floor.

  Before she'd ran out of hearing of what had by now seemingly become a massacre, she'd stopped with her heart in her throat; Daniel.

  She'd span on the spot, the first thing she'd checked for was pursuit, of which there hadn’t been and she had sighed with a guilty sense of relief. She hadn't seen the man she loved once since getting outside, but then again, she hadn't been looking for him; the guilt swelled to overtake her fear. After all, how could she say she loved him if she ran?

  By then the crowd was either back inside the club, or on the ground, with limbs bent at odd angles or heads pointing the wrong way. Sarah had moved to the edge of a building and looked over the bodies for some sign of Daniel, finding instead that not all the fallen were dead; some were twitching. One woman whose ear was parallel with her shoulder had been thrashing, to the point Sarah hadn't been surprised when one of the beautiful deadly monsters, another man this time, clambered over the dead out of the club towards her. Almost on all fours he'd raised a fist above his head and threw all his weight into a blow to the neck which stopped her movement. The man, with his hard-chiselled chest heaving like a wounded animal, had then turned his head to stare at Sarah, their eyes had locked at a distance and he'd roared. The tendons straining in his neck before he charged. Sarah had taken one last glance at the pile of corpses and ran, turning off the road. The thing hadn’t chased her, too occupied by the other, closer people it could kill perhaps. Regardless she remembered collapsing eventually outside a taxi office, no sign of her pursuer and racked with heavy sobs, the fear of the night finally hitting her.

  Shaking herself out of her memories Sarah shuddered, flicking the small piece of another human being she'd carried home with her off her arm and reminding herself for the umpteenth time that Daniel must be ok. She was drunk, or somebody drugged her, or she was crazy, or all of the above. Lifting her feet up onto the bed she hugged her knees and pressed her face into them, trying not to hyperventilate. Because of this she didn't see her phone light up and jumped at the sound of it ringing, before grabbing it and answering in a rush,

  'Hello?' She croaked, her voice off from disuse, 'Daniel?'

  'Hi,' a voice she didn't recognise, 'we've found this phone?' Sarah checked her screen, Daniel's face smiled back up at her.

  'Oh...'

  Sarah ended the call more confused and lost than before taking it. Daniel's phone had been found by a cleaner at the club and passed on to the manager who'd called the number under “Emergency contact”. He hadn't seen Daniel, nor had he seen any of the dead people piled up outside his club's doors. He promised to keep the phone safe until they came to collect it and seemed relieved to reach the end of the call. Sarah stared at the phone in her hand blankly for a few seconds, then dropped it onto the bed and stood up, rubbing at her exhausted eyes. So she’d lost it.

  Her parents had spent her entire life attempting to instil in her the spark of motivation, always pushing her forward and creating the rift between her and them in the process. What it didn't do for her relationship with her parents however it made up for in coping with what she now had to believe was a mental breakdown.

  'Shower.' She croaked into the silence. Crossing the room to the door to the bedroom's en-suite, she entered and flicked the light on. The room held not only a shower and toilet, but also a middling sized bath and a bidet. The entire bathroom was still obviously new and the general expensive feeling still caused her a mental frown even over the horror of her night. Turning the shower on to heat up she winced out of her clothes and with a sigh she stepped under the water.

  Sarah loved her shower, to the point it was the one expensive item in the house -all paid for by her parents, of course- that she didn't loathe. A long time had passed since she realised voicing her irritation at her general lack of money-worries caused most other people to get sour and it wasn't as if she didn't know she was blessed in a way; but her parents took it much too far. When she was younger it had been fun of course, having her parent's money to go out with, not realising until she was well into her teens that they had used money as a substitute for their time and attention. The final straw -much worse than the literally identical gift baskets she had received for the past five years on her birthday- came when they refused to accept that Daniel could and would support her financially. She had recently started work as a personal trainer and with Daniel's teaching job's wages added, it amounted to enough for them to live, start a family on their own perhaps. This wasn't good enough for their little girl however; and her Father would still grumble at her about how she was worth much more than the life she’d chosen, she’d taken to ignoring his calls more often than taking them.

  Tired, scared, confused but at least now clean, Sarah made her way carefully out of the bathroom in a towel. Her aches and pains had lessened under the hot water and she found that she could walk without too much difficulty, but sitting on the end of the bed still drew a sigh from her.

  So what now. She was high strung, too much filled her head and battled with the exhaustion but she was afraid to sleep, afraid of the inevitable nightmares. Besides, Daniel was still missing, or out at least and she needed to know he was ok, if she could keep her eyes open. As far as she could figure it she had two options: Sit and wait for Daniel's inevitable return, confusion as to her disappearance and swift trip to a psychiatrist after her explanation.

  OR.

  Now this was the problem, Sarah didn't feel crazy, or hysterical. Sitting in the darkness naked but for a towel, she felt nothing but gnawing worry for her fiancé. She stared hard at the wall opposite and saw again the feral faces of the monsters in her mind’s eye. Did she believe that they could be real? It seemed like she did because Sarah desperately wanted to believe that there were two options and if the first was acceptance then the second was to prepare.

  Whether these were monsters or just men, a cover up or a truth so terrifying that almost everybody chose to deny or forget, she had to protect herself, find Daniel and get away. So that was that, drying her body quickly and leaving her hair to dry itself, she ferreted in draws and collected together clothes. A thin white cotton cami, an old comfortable blue buttoned coat, her work yoga pants and clean underwear.

  Sarah dressed sluggishly, tying her damp hair up out of the way, then pulled a faded backpack from the top of her wardrobe and filled it with some of her and then Daniel's clothes. Leaving the bag about three quarters full -they could always buy what they didn't take- she picked up her phone blinking at it owlishly to see that nobody -Daniel- had called or messaged. She put it away in her pocket.

  What next? She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands and yawned expansively, the fading heat of the shower seemingly taking
the last of her energy with it. Obviously, the excitement, fear and late hour had took their toll and she swayed where she sat. Without bothering to undress -the vague idea of leaving in a hurry flashing across her mind- Sarah fell backwards onto the bed and was asleep.

  2

  She woke with a start, her mind fuzzy and confused as to what had woken her. The incessant noise and vibration of her mobile phone ringing continued to attempt to make its presence known, in sudden clarity Sarah groped around herself madly, managing to answer before it stopped.

  'Hello?' She breathed quietly, her heart in her throat.

  'Hey Baby,' It was Daniel. Relief flooded through her, clutching herself with her spare hand she stole a glance at the screen of her phone,

  'It's nearly seven, where are you, who's number is this?'

  'I know,' He sounded sheepish, 'I'm at a payphone on the edge of town, near that restaurant you like.'

  The restaurant wasn't anywhere near the club, it was at least thirty minutes’ walk on the opposite side of the town to the house, Sarah wasn't sure what to say, how had he ended up there?

  'Can you hear me?' Daniel spoke louder, a tinge of worry added to the sheepishness, 'I'm sorry, I guess I overdid it last night, are you okay?'

  Now Sarah really didn't know what to say,

  'What's the last thing you remember?' She tried, ignoring his question for now.

  'Dancing in that club with you, after the Bull, Flash or whatever it's called. Did I leave without you or did we have an argument or... Something?' Real worry coloured his words now and Sarah thought to herself; what the hell is going on?