Semianimus Read online

  SEMIANIMUS

  By C.R.J.SMITH

  Copyright © 2015 by C.R.J. Smith All Rights Reserved

  Printed by CreateSpace

  Published by C.R.J. Smith No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover Drawing By Plokimju Art

  Cover design, texts and illustrations: copyright © 2015 by C.R.J. Smith

  IBSN: 978-1511901116

  1-The Man The man had just put the CD on and was about to get started, when a scream distracted him.

  He went to the window and opened the curtains. From the speakers, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two began playing I Walk The Line. Behind him his girlfriend made muffled noises through her gag but he ignored her.

  What he saw outside was much more interesting.

  A woman in a nightdress, bleeding heavily from a head wound, was sprinting barefoot down the road. A guy wearing shorts and a sleeveless top was giving chase. Her screams became hoarse and jagged the further she ran and the closer her pursuer got. She was caught right outside the window he was watching from.

  The mansmiled as the guy leaped on the woman"s back. She managed to stagger a few more steps, giving the guy a piggy back ride, before she buckled beneath his weight. She hit the tarmac face first and her screams stopped. Her assailant began to bite and claw at her face and neck.

  The commotion had brought people from their houses and some now ran into the street, shouting at the guy to leave her alone. The attacker looked up, a chunk of the woman"s cheek dangling from his mouth, and advanced on them, leaving her bloodied and torn body on the ground.

  This sent most of the would-be heroes scrambling back to their homes.

  One middle aged man, who had come armed with a golf club, stood his ground. He managed to get one good swing of his nine-iron and made a sound connection with the side of the guy"s head. The piece of cheek flew from his mouth, but the attacker barely broke stride and sank his teeth into the hero"s throat.

  Before this victim even hit the ground, the guy turned his attention to a woman who had come out. She had stayed when the others had fled, but had been slowly backing towards her garden gate. She now turned and made a dash for safety.

  The man leaned forward in anticipation as the guy closed in on her. His nose was touching the bedroom window, his breath fogging up the glass. Johnny Cash continued to provide the soundtrack.

  The attacker caught the woman just as she reached her gate. They fell into the garden and landed behind a hawthorn hedge where he couldn"t see what was happening.

  He felt a pang of disappointment missing out on this kill but didn"t dwell on it as his attention was soon caught by a commotion further up the road.

  A man was dragging two small children from a house to a people carrier parked on the street. He flung the children into the back seat and was getting behind the wheel when a woman sprinted from the house. He only had time to shout the words „Laura, no," before she launched herself at him, slamming him into the side of the car. After a brief scuffle, he managed to push her off and staggered down the path holding his hands to his throat. Blood flowed between his fingers and his „World"s Greatest Dad" t-shirt turned from white to crimson. He made it ten feet before he collapsed in a heap.

  Mother then turned her bloodlust towards the screaming children in the back seat, climbing awkwardly in through the open door to get to them. The child locks on the car meant they couldn"t escape, and although the man couldn"t see what happened, their terrified shrieks carried through the air and his imagination did the rest.

  Having seen enough, the man turned away from the window just as Cash was humming the songs outro.

  He returned to the bed. The woman bound there held no interest for him now.

  „Sorry, my dear," he said, „but there"s been a slight change of plan."

  He picked up the knife from the bed side table and slit her throat from ear to ear. She gurgled and twitched for a few seconds, then lay still.

  He felt no satisfaction in ending it so quickly, but he had things to do and what he had just witnessed would complicate matters.

  He cut the body loose, wrapped it in the bed sheets and dragged it behind him from the room.

  2- Ellie & Ernie Ellie Sheridan was sitting at the kitchen table eating Coco Pops.

  Her mother, Sharon, was frantically finishing all the last minute jobs before they left for the airport.

  Sharon had begun packing a week before and had everything planned with military precision, yet she couldn"t help herself checking her handbag for their passports and tickets every ten minutes as well as checking and rechecking that various things were switched off, locked and put away.

  „Are you sure Ernie"s gonna be let on the „plane?" Ellie asked.

  „Yes honey, he"ll be fine. Now hurry up with that bowl so I can wash it."

  „I"m nearly finished.Are you sure he doesn"t need a past port?"

  „Yes I"m sure."

  „Will he have his own seat?"

  „No he"ll have to sit with you"

  „How will he wear his seatbelt?"

  „He doesn"t need a bloody seatbelt Ellie, he"s a teddy bear."

  Sharon stopped washing the cup, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She turned around. The look on her daughter"s face, all smiles a moment before, made her feel awful.

  „I"m sorry honey, I didn"t mean to snap."

  Ellie looked up at her with big eyes, on the verge of tears.

  „We"ll ask the stewardess what we can do with him, okay?"

  „Okay mum," said Ellie, her smile reappearing in an instant.

  Sharon smiled back and said,„Here, throw this bread out on the path for the birds."She took the half empty packet of bread that wouldn"t be used and handed it to Ellie.„That should keep them happy „til we get back."

  Ellie took the bread from her mother and Ernie from the table and ran out to the back garden.

  „Throw it down the end of the garden," Sharon shouted after her.

  „Okay."

  She took the bowl from the table and washed it. As she dried her hands she had one more look around and everything seemed to be done. She resisted the urge to check the travel documents again.

  They were all ready to go, except her husband. She had heard him moving around upstairs when Ellie came down for breakfast and they had to leave the house in twenty-two minutes if they wanted to stay on schedule.

  She went out to the hallway and from the bottom of the stairs shouted up „Martin."

  He didn"t reply. „Martin what are ya at up there at all? We have to be leavin at a quarter to one."

  Again there was no reply but she could hear him moving around.

  „For God sake," she said as she started up the stairs.

  Ellie and Ernie were at the end of the garden. She was taking the bread from the pack and tearing it up and having him throw it on the path.

  Ernie was a Koala that Ellie had had since she was four. She had seen him in the window of a charity shop and it was love at first sight. The only times they had been apart in three years was when her mother managed to convince her that he needed to go in the washing machine. She even brought him to school with her.

  She was wearing a t-shirt with a cartoon koala on it giving the thumbs up and declaring “I Have The Koalafications”. Though she was as excited as any kid would be when her she heard they were going to Disneyworld for her eighth
birthday, it was the news that they would also be going to Miami Zoo to see real Koala bears that really thrilled her. After that, if she"d heard Mickey had been killed in a giant mouse trap, she wouldn"t have cared.

  She held a pi ece of bread at the end of Ernie"s arm, pulled his arm back and then forward as if he was throwing it.

  „Good throw Ernie. We need to leave lots of food for the birdies cos we're goin to Florda for two weeks and we get to go in a plane and everything. Won"t that be fun?"

  She turned his head, nodded it and said „Mmm hmm."

  „And then we get to go to the zoo, and see all your friends."

  „Yay, that"ll be fun."

  „And then..."

  She was cut off by a shriek coming from the open window of her parent"s bedroom.

  „Mum?" she said, looking up.

  The sound of glass breaking, furniture being toppled, screaming and growling emanated from the room. Ellie hugged Ernie tight in front of her as her eyes stayed fixed on the window. Her mouth was moving, slowly forming words but no sound was coming out. Something slammed against the glass. It looked to her like a monster and it left a streak of blood on the pane as it moved across it. When it reached the open window it shouted down in her mother"s voice „Run Ellie. For God's sake, get away."

  Ellie stood still in the garden, dumbly looking up..

  „Go, now."

  Just then something that looked like her father grabbed her mother by the shoulders and jerked her backwards.

  There was another scream and at this, Ellie turned and ran. Standing on an upturned bucket, she opened the latch on the back gate and, clutching Ernie by the hand, she fled.

  3 Watching from a nearby power line, a crow, noticing the garden was now empty, took her chance and swooped down for some bread. She was soon joined by a dozen other birds, so she took her share and took off.

  She landed on a chimney stack and surveyed the area.

  On the street, people were running in every direction, some trying to get back to their houses, others being chased from their houses and trying to reach their cars or their neighbours. Most didn"t get very far before they were taken down and taken apart.

  The crow didn"t care for this commotion so she set off again over the estate, and south across the fields towards town.

  She came to rest once more upon the church spire on Morrigan Street. From here she cast a beady eye over the whole town.

  Again people were running hither and thither, many seeking sanctuary in the bowels of the church beneath. Numerous vehicles had crashed. Several buildings were ablaze. Broken bodies lay among the shattered glass and debris on the streets. Screams, car horns and sirens melded into an unholy wail.

  The crow flew east across town and landed on the round tower that stood overlooking the towns other church and its cemetery. This part of town was practically deserted. She tarried here a while and ate her bread. Shortly after she was done, she flew south-east, crossing over the main road that bypassed the town centre. A major pile up had blocked the road and there were tailbacks in both directions.

  Leaving the bustle and noise of the town behind, she headed towards the river. There she landed in a tree, underneath which a man was sitting on a bench.

  4- SHANE Shane sat and watched the river flow by. He had been here for an hour, listening to music and enjoying the peace. A cigarette would have topped it off nicely, but he was used to going without them now.

  It was an uncommonly hot day, but an occasional breeze cut through the dead heat and made it bearable. He normally felt listless and miserable in hot weather and always found it was easier to warm up on a cold day than cool down when the sun was splitting the rocks.

  But nothing was going to get to him today. In fact, this past year not much had been able to get him down. The trivial, everyday things that would have stressed him out or pissed him off before were just trivial, everyday things now. He turned the music off. He had to psyche himself up for what was about to happen.

  The clock on his phone read 12:59.

  Walking through town that mornin g, he"d had a smile on his face, as he almost always did when he was going to meet Siobhain.

  The place was buzzing. The combination of the weather and the annual street fair had brought people out in their droves. The town had been pedestrianised for the day and the roads were lined with stalls selling homemade preserves, breads and cakes. Others had handmade chocolates and fudge. One had spanakopita, baklava and borek, things that were very exotic in a small Irish town and were lapped up by people who immediately forgot about them again until the next year. It was the same with the soaps, candles, iron sculpture, wicker furniture and various trinket stalls. All of these things were available all year round in town but the majority of the people that bought them today wouldn"t look twice at them any other time. The handful of extra regular customers they would pick up might just help see the businesses through the next year though.

  Like most places, business was n"t exactly booming in Ballytermon.

  But people weren"t dwelling on problems or finances. There was a carnival atmosphere in the air. Almost every kid aged 12 or under had their faces painted, the game stalls were surrounded by people eager to throw a ball or a ring or a dart to win a prize. Every pub and shop had a steady stream of customers. A flatbed trailer on Main Street was doubling as a stage and a young four piece band were belting out Teenage Kicks. The polite smattering of applause they had received when they finished wouldn"t have given them confidence that they could be the next U2, but then every great band had more than a few stories about playing to indifferent crowds when they were starting out. Undeterred they launched into a pretty decent version of Beautiful Day. Shane had thought it an apt choice and had a spring in his step as he left the bustle of the crowd on Main Street and headed out of town on the Navan road.

  A steady stream of cars passed him by as he went, mostly families on their way to Ramor Lake in Virginia, a staple destination for people in the area on a sunny weekend. Shane had spent some of the happiest days of his youth there. One of the last times he could remember being truly happy, before meeting Siobhain, had been a day with his parents at the lake. It was one of the rare occasions he could remember when his father hadn"t been drunk. It was a day when his parents had acted like they actually liked each other.

  He hadn"t been back there since he was thirteen.

  Thinking about his past was not a happy pursuit and feeling some of the old sadness, the old Shane, creeping back into his thoughts, he reached into his pocket and took out the ring box. When he opened it, the sun caught the three small diamonds set in the white gold and actually made the ring look fairly impressive. He would have liked to get something bigger and more expensive but it was the best he could afford and he was happy with it. He knew Siobhain wasn"t materialistic. If she was she wouldn"t be with him.

  After a twenty minute walk he had reached the entrance of the business park where they both worked, Shane in O"Rourke"s cash and carry, Siobhain in the offices of a medical device company.

  Siobhainwouldn"t normally have been working on a Sunday, but an unusually high rate of absenteeism over the last week had created a backlog of work.

  Shane stopped at the business park entrance. The spring had gone from his step and his feet felt like lead weights. He felt faint and a wave of nausea swept over him.

  He had just taken it for granted that he would be engaged to be married today. He"d had it all planned out. He was going to meet Siobhain at the river, propose, she would say yes, they would kiss, hug, sit and talk for a while, head back into town, spend some time at the fair, go for a drink or two and then back to Shane"s where he"d cook dinner before going to bed where they would put in a few more hours practice for their wedding night..

  But a different, much more likely scenario had occurred to him.

  He would propose, Siobhain would looked horrified, say no, she was sorry, she loved him but wasn"t in love with him anymore, it was nothing he"d do
ne it was her, she hoped they could still be friends. Sorry. Goodbye.

  Of course that"s what was going to happen, how could he have thought it would go any different? As much as he"d changed over the last year, he was still cripplingly shy and awkward in social situations, and he was pretty sure her friends knew she could do better and had surely told her so. She was a smart, outgoing girl and he would just hold her back. Asking her to marry him would just put them in a situation where they"d have to face the truth about their relationship. It would be better to just keep things as they were. And he loved her too much to put her in that situation. She should be allowed to dump him in her own good time, on her terms.

  He"d been removed from this stupor by a sudden, shrill blast of sirens. He turned around to see two fire engines speed by, heading for Navan. The cars that had pulled over to the hard shoulder to let them by hadn"t had a chance to get back on the road when a Garda car came along, lights flashing, siren blaring.

  Snapped back to reality, Shane realised he"d broken out in a cold sweat. His T-shirt and boxers were soaked through from a combination of walking from town in the heat and his mini panic attack.

  He would have liked to have gone home to change. He wished he"d brought a bottle of water with him instead of the cheap champagne he had in his backpack, which now weighed heavily on his shoulders. He would have killed for some of those herbal stress tablets Siobhain had got for him. He closed his eyes, took long deep breaths and counted backwards from fifty in his head. With his mind clear and his feet back under his control, he set off again.

  The road through the Business Park was lined on both sides by identical factory units, all red brick and corrugated metal. If it weren"t for the signs outside each one, it would be impossible to tell the abattoir from the biscuit factory. About three hundred yards along there was a crossroads. Keeping straight on or turning right would allow you to do a lap of the main area of the business park and end up back at this spot. The road off to the left was a cul-de-sac with just the shells of three unfinished factories to indicate what it had been intended for. It was a good spot for learner drivers to come and practice and a popular fly tipping area.