Tír nAill : Part Three

6.
She needed to call Stephanie, Stephanie had a masters in British folklore and had, several years ago, focussed on the Scots and Irish. Norma suspected the others were The Aos Si, the Sidhe, the folk from under the mounds. That was about as much as she knew, but Stephanie, she could tell her much, much more. Immediately she tried her phone but there was no reception. She rushed over to where her father was, by the doors. He and some of the guests had, once again, decided to prop the tables up against it. “Dad, do you still have that phone that works?”

Henry looked at her quizzically. “What for?”

“I think I know what that thing out there is.” She answered.

“What? It's an alien, surely.” Henry said.

“Well… sort of, if it is what I suspect then well, it's… and I can't believe I'm about to say this… a fairy.”

Her father and those around him started to laugh. “That's no fuckin' tinkerbell.” said someone.

“No, it's not.” She sighed. “It's one of the fay folk, like in Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm useless at this stuff but Stephanie, well she studied folklore, this is her field of expertise.”

“So you want to phone her to talk about fairy tales?” Henry asked, not understanding that she was serious. He had that look on his face that said, “stop fooling around.”

“No I want her to tell me if she knows how to deal with them so we can get to Mantik and shut down their portal.”

“You don't really believe in fairies, do you?” he asked.

“Not any more than I believe a company could use standing stones to open a stable rift in space-time which leaked out unstable exotic matter which is currently terra-forming the town. But you know what?” She stated.

Henry shook his head and held up his hand. “Alright, alright, I take the point.”

She opened her palm gesturing for the phone. He pulled out the phone from his trouser pocket and placed it in her hand. She closed her fingers around it and said “Thank you.”

She dialled the number and pressed connect, but there was no signal, well, no connection signal, instead was a haunting, keening song. It was in an unintelligible language which she assumed was the kind of Gaelic Clare had mentioned. The song was being sung by an eerie, plaintive, feminine voice with no instruments accompanying. She disconnected and tried once more. The song was still singing. It chilled her, made her feel deeply despondent, it was a song of unremitting woe, even though she could not make out the words. Norma pulled herself away from it. “People,” she shouted, “Could you check your phones, all I'm getting is a weird singing.”

The group began to pull out their phones and listen, it took only an instant before she could see on their faces that there was no connection to any transmitter, only the disquieting song coming through the speaker. Norma ran her hand through her hair and wondered what to do next. As she handed back the phone to her father there was a heavy thump against the door. The Sidhe was not giving up, it wanted to get in.

“We have to deal with that.” Tommy said.

“We do.” Agreed Norma. “I need to get out of here and try and get this thing sorted.”

“Well I don't know about you,” Charlie began “but I'm in no hurry to tackle that fucking thing.”

It was the Peters boy -the other one- who spoke next. “There's a big roll of tarpaulin in the back, what we do is open the doors an' trap the thing in it, then smash its head in with bottles.”

People were shocked by both the simplicity and callousness of his plan but after a few moments began to put it into practice. The tarpaulin, which was dark green and perhaps two meters high was, when unravelled, wider by several feet. Henry rounded up most of the able bodied men to help hold the tarpaulin while he and Tommy secured the door. The tension mounted as everyone got prepared. Finally they were ready and at the count of three pulled the door open. The creature took no time at all to rush straight into the room and was, within seconds was wrapped up in the tarpaulin, shouting angrily.

As it struggled, Tommy kicked it in the back of its legs and the thing dropped to the ground. Everyone was on it, beating it with bottles until Charlie lifted and then slammed one of the edges of a table where he predicted the thing's head would be.

That stopped it struggling completely. After a few moments, to make sure the creature was not faking it, they unwrapped it from its binding. It lay there, it's face swollen and bloody. It's blood was red, Norma noticed. The creature was breathing but seemed to be unconscious. Norma reached down and picked one of it's heavy cleavers.

Right.” she stated, with a sigh and walked out of the door.

Immediately her father and the other men began protesting. Her father shook his head. “What are you doing? Get your arse back in here, Norma.”

“No, Dad. I need to get to Mantik. I need to stop this.” She insisted, while she kept walking.

“Wait!” Tommy said. “I'll come with you.”

Tommy's wife Daisy looked aghast. “You will fucking not!”

Tommy ignored her and ran after Norma. He was followed by the Peters boy who was not DJing. “I'm coming too.”

Kelly followed him. “Wait, I want to help.”

Norma smiled and felt tears of appreciation well up in her eyes. “None of you need to do this.”

“This is our town, Ms Jenkins, we need to do this.” the Peters boy said.

Norma couldn't argue with that, especially since she realised just how much the landscape had been altered. The buildings were all ruined, filled with trees and moss and strange plants. The ground was covered with thick grass in which small rodent-like creatures skittered about. There were odd, large birds flying in the dimming purple-orange dusk sky and perching on the broken roofs. For a moment it took her breath away, the realisation that this was a fraction of another world she was walking through. The others seemed to share her moment of wonder, except for Tommy who said “Can we get a move on. I don't think that prick in the Hall was alone.”

That was all they needed to get going. “So,” Norma began. “Tommy, you got a vehicle we could use? Something heavy?”

Tommy smiled. “Absolutely. Follow me.”

Kelly grabbed Norma by the arm and together they walked with Tommy in front, at quite a pace. The young Peters lad seemed a serious individual Norma thought and so as they walked she said. “By the way, you can call me Norma.”

He nodded. “Okay, thanks.”

“I didn't catch your name.” Norma added.

“Oh… yeah, right. I'm Andy.” he answered.

“Pleased to meet you Andy. Thanks for coming.” Norma said.

“No probs.” The lad replied.

They walked up the ruins of main street and passed the gutted bank when Tommy stopped, his face pale. “Jesus...” He gasped.

“What?” Norma asked walking forward to see what had shocked him. She wished she hadn't. Danielli's had been busy when the world they were in had leaked through, and there were ribbons of flesh and bone strewn all over the inside of the shop, smeared over the eroded windows and stuck to the road. Grass grew though a warped, deformed skull of a child, the thumb, index and middle fingers of someone were being gnawed at by one of the long weasel like rodents, it had grey fur, matted with thick red clots.

“Awww that's wee Gemma.” Andy said suppressing a deep sob. “Is the whole town like this? Did it get everyone?”

“Not everyone.” Norma said. “We're here.”

“I was thinking about my mum.” Andy said.

At that Tommy turned and said. “Enough, we knew this was going to be a shitshow, right? So let's focus on what's at hand, there'll be time enough to cry and shit after we get this done.”

While she thought Tommy was being unreasonably harsh, Andy seemed to take something from it she noticed. Not much, a brave face if nothing else, but it was enough. She recalled he and his brother had lost their father. Was Tommy a surrogate, a momentary role model? She didn't really know, but wasn't about to confront Tommy. Especially since she realised he had his own kids that someone had been taking care of while he and Daisy had come to the party. “Jesus this is a nightmare.” she whispered to herself.

There were more twisted, warped and shredded remains as they walked up the street, she didn't really look and it seemed everyone was taking as little notice as possible. They turned off Main street into one of the narrow lane that cut on to Sawyer Row, where Tommy's garage was. Halfway down the lane was just a pile of serrated bone, chunks of still clothed limbs, spatters of meat and a congealing puddle of blood. Norma imagined it to be the remains of two canoodling teenagers. That lane had always been where kids in Duntreath had got romantic. They moved on.

The Garage was in pieces, like most of the buildings and people. The metal gate was warped and hanging off its hinges but was still locked. Tommy unlocked the padlock that was wrapped around the chain which held the gates shut. Behind it was the tow truck that had dragged her car, also there, into town. Both were twisted metal, large stands stretched out from the body like they'd been re-sculpted by some deranged outsider artist. Norma felt gutted, the vehicles were ruined, shredded beyond repair.

“Right.” Tommy said, still cheery. He walked past the trashed vehicles to a shuttered part of the garage which had remained in tact. He pulled up the heavy brown shutters to reveal, inside, a dirty white van. “Tah-dah!”

There was a distinct lack of reaction but Tommy just shrugged. “It's pretty manky, I use it to carry heavy equipment.”

“If it works, it'll do.” Norma answered.

Tommy climbed in and turned the ignition. The engine started immediately. He climbed over the front seats and opened the back doors. “Jump in” he yelled.

Kelly instantly climbed into the front, which Norma had a chuckle at. As she walked round to the bag she saw Tommy give Andy a crowbar. “Just in case.”

Andy nodded and climbed into the back. Norma followed him in as Tommy rummaged around in a large box filled with tools. The back of the van smelled of oil and a cocktail of solvents. Tommy pulled out a large wrench and handed it to Andy. “Pass that along to Kelly.”

Andy did as he was asked as Norma moved some tools and the newspaper they lay on so she could sit on a small bench on the side wall. Kelly frowned and looked uncomfortable as she took the wrench but Andy repeated “Just in case” and Kelly nodded. Norma suspected Kelly was having second thoughts.

“You okay Kelly?” She asked.

“Aye. I've just been thinking, that's all.” Kelly replied. “That song that was coming through the phones. It seemed familiar to me, I was trying to recall from where.”

“I know what you mean.” Andy said. “I was thinking that myself.”

Tommy closed the back doors, hard. The noise interrupted the developing conversation, leaving a nervous silence. He climbed into the front and dumped what looked like a three foot iron tube. It took a while for Norma to figure out what it was. “What the hell are you doing with a shotgun?”

“One of the old farmers needed his tractor fixed a few years back and was skint due to subsidy cuts or something. So he gave me this, said it was an antique.” Tommy said as he began to drive out of the garage.

7.

Norma wasn't happy with a gun in the vehicle but she knew it might be useful given the creature that they'd subdued earlier might not be alone. If it was one of the Aos Si, she worried that they might find worse, much worse. “Tommy, is there any way to get to Mantik without going down the main road?”

“Dunno.”

“Aye.” Andy said. “If you take the back road out of town, towards Graymouth, there's an entrance to one of the facilities about five or so miles form here. My Dad used it all the time.”

“Good, you can direct me then, eh?” Tommy answered.

“Aye.” Andy replied.

They drove up forest covered remains of Sawyer Row, up the slight incline to where St Andrew's Church lay, it's steeple had many holes in it, like it was a Swiss cheese wrapped in ugly thick green vines. Behind it was the old graveyard, which had been overgrown and neglected before this slice of Faerie was transposed onto Duntreath. As they passed Kelly gasped and waving her finger said “look.”

They all glanced in the direction she was pointing. On one of the moss covered gravestones sat another of the creatures like the one that had attacked the Hall. It was not paying them much attention, it was rummaging through a bloodstained handbag, and took particular fascination at a mobile phone that it had in its spindly, ringed, grey fingers. Hearing the engine it looked up at the van as they passed but seemed uninterested and went back to examining the mobile phone.

At the top of the incline they turned left onto Graymouth Road where the rubble of the last few houses out of town looked like ancient remains. As soon as Tommy was passed them, he accelerated and it wasn't too long before the weird landscape thinned slightly as more tarmac was revealed. They travelled along the wide valley, all four of them nervous, keeping their eyes peeled. They saw other human like creatures milling around the farmlands and hills in the middle distance but none in their direct path.

“It's not far from here. Down the road to the right, past the big hill.” Andy said.

Tommy followed his instructions and soon they were driving in a narrower valley with steep hills. Here the intrusive world had overwhelmed the original landscape, but as the sun was now hiding behind those great hills, it had turned mostly to shadow. The fences on either side were tangles of wire and stone but it was still easy to make out a small building covered with heavy equipment which was, mysteriously untouched by the leakage of the other world. The van drove close before parking beside a pile of wire and stone. They got out. The landscape was dark, quiet and eerie. Norma felt more creeped out standing there than she had since this whole thing started. As if reading her mind Kelly expressed the same thing. “This place is fucking weird.”

“Aye.” Tommy began. “No birds singing, no wind. It's like that moment before a storm breaks. I'm getting nervous. Let's get inside, quick.”

They all agreed to that and quickened their pace. At the front of the small grey building there was a metal door, painted red once but most of the paint had long flaked away. It was lying wide open and dark inside. As they approached they could see that it was little more than a set of stairs going down into the hillside.

“Wait here.” said Tommy almost in a whisper. “I forgot the torch.”

The van was less than twenty yards away but that didn't stop Norma from saying “be careful.”

Tommy nodded and began jogging back towards the van.

“This is the closest I've ever been to here.” Andy said. “My dad used to drop me off at the top of the road. I used to love to run home from here.”

Kelly was looking down the stairwell. “I can hear something down there.”

The van door slammed shut and Norma looked over to see Tommy, with shotgun in one hand waving a large torch in the other. He began to jog back toward them. Behind him, emerging from behind the van, was some ghastly apparition, pale, white and skeletal. A feminine shape on all fours, it had long fingers and sharp claw like nails. It slunk behind Tommy, moving rapidly.

“Tommy, behind you!” Norma shouted.

Tommy turned just in time to dodge the pouncing beast woman. She seemed to swipe through the air and land, howling, a foot in front of him. Tommy moved back a pace and aimed the shotgun. His face was slashed with two long bloody lines.

“Fuck you!” he exclaimed and fired the gun but not before the creature had launched itself, a great salmon leap high above Tommy.

He moved quickly as she tried to land on him. The gunfire was echoing through the valley as Tommy began to run towards the others. The female creature gave chase, wailing angrily as she approached at lightning speed. One more pounce and she was suddenly on Tommy's back, all four limbs wrapped round him, he stumbled and with her weight on him sped forward carried by the momentum. The horrible thing began to dig through his shirt, shredding the flesh until the white was stained red. Tommy tried to keep moving, but knew he was going to fall and so spun, landing on his back, with the woman-thing still on him. There was a sickening crunch, which allowed Tommy to roll off the creature. As he did, it screamed once more and tried to get back to its feet. Norma stood, wide eyed and paralysed with shock, confused by more screaming coming from behind her. It passed her, along with Kelly who was sprinting, wielding the heavy wrench in both hands. As the beast managed to get to her feet, she turned to see Kelly swing the wrench right at her head. A heavy thump lead to a crack and suddenly the gaunt pallid face was covered in blood and the creature's jaw was hanging open, her grey slug-like tongue lolling and dripping. Tommy pushed the shotgun into the open mouth and fired. The head exploded and

the rest of the creature twitched wildly upon the ground.

Tommy, panting and with wide, shocked eyes stood there for a moment as his face and chest bled. “Thanks Kelly.” he said, his voice excited and trembling.

“Let's get inside.” Kelly ordered. “I can hear others.”

Norma listened and could also hear distant sounds, talking, whispering, something. She gripped her cleaver tightly and then nodded. “Lets go Tommy. We need to get you fixed up.”

Tommy seemed dazed, overwhelmed by what had just happened. Norma knew it was the adrenaline flooding his system and than when it depleted there was a chance he'd go into shock if they didn't deal with the wounds. Even though she knew his ears would be ringing, he could hear what they were all hearing now, she noticed. It was getting louder, but as yet they could see nothing, the hills just shadows now the sun had dropped below the horizon. She walked over and put his hand in hers. “Move. Now.”

As if waking from a dream Tommy looked at her, startled. “Aye.” he agreed.

The four of them quickly got inside the small building and at the top of the stairs sat Tommy down as Andy and Kelly pushed the heavy door over. Fortunately there was a locking bar on the inside. With a thump and a clang, it clicked shut. Whatever was outside, was going to remain outside.

Norma took the torch from Tommy and shone it at his face. He groaned in protest. The two slashes on the right side of his face ran from his cheek to his jawline, neither were deep. She pulled at the blood soaked rags of his shirt. There were several circular puncture wounds on his chest. Taking the cleaver, she cut away at one of his sleeves and then peeled it from his arm. She bundled the sleeve up and told him to apply some pressure and hold it against his face. Tommy acquiesced without saying a word.

“Here.” Andy said, passing her his jumper.

“Thanks.” she said. “I don't think you'll be getting it back.”

Andy shrugged. “It's fine.”

She cut the arms off, wrapping one around Tommy's head and tying it in a knot at the back while she secured the wadding on his cheek. “You feeling okay?”

Tommy nodded. “Yeah, I'm just baffled, what the fuck was that thing?”

“I'm not sure, but I think it might have been a Cat Sith.”

“A cat she? She-cat surely?” Andy replied. “It was like some kind of cat woman.”

“That sort of thing, yes.” Norma answered. “My wife would know more about it than me. She studied this sort of thing.”

“You still think this is fairy folk?” Tommy asked.

“It's my current hypothesis, yes.” Norma said as she dabbed the claw wounds on his chest. “It doesn't matter.”

“No.” He agreed. “I suppose not.”

“You're lucky none of these are deep. Again just add pressure for a few minutes until they congeal.” Norma said. “Just rest for a few minutes.”

“I can still hear something, down there.” Kelly said. “Some kind of humming noise.”

“Perhaps its engines or air conditioning.” Andy said.

“Maybe, but it doesn't sound like it.” Kelly answered, her voice becoming concerned.

Andy walked down a couple of stairs to try and hear what was making Kelly nervous. He stretched his neck out, and screwed up his eyes. “I'm not hearing anything.”

“Well I am.” Kelly answered, huffily.

The four proceeded in silence, just listening. Norma could hear something, it sounded like an echoing groan, somewhere far below in the distance. For a moment she wondered if it was Geoff, lying in the dark, far below, injured by another one of the violent and deranged denizens of Fairie. The blood on Tommy's chest was already drying into a thick dark gel. It would be sufficient for now, she realised. “Looking okay now, they'll need antiseptic at some point. You feeling okay?”

Tommy nodded. “Aye, that was a bit of a shock but I'm fine. Just took the breath out of me.” He grunted and got to his feet. “One problem though. The shotgun only had two shells”

Norma shrugged. “Use is as a club if you have to. We need to get moving.”

Andy didn't wait, he started going down the stairs before the others.

“Slow down Andy, we need to stay together.” Kelly said but immediately followed him down. Tommy who was still holding the torch, quickened his pace and Norma was right behind him. The four descended the cold concrete stairs, which had not been affected by the matter from another world. The walls however had a strange violet moss spreading across them like stains, or bruises.

At the bottom of the stairs a corridor stretched off into the dark. Underneath patches of the moss, parts of a sign could still be seen, which listed different departments. Tommy used the shotgun to scrape off the sign.

“Mantik Technologies. Research Section 3

Sub-level 1: Engineering

Server Room

Information Technology

Sub-level 2: Research and Development

Loug Systems.

Storage and Analysis Laboratory.”

“Loug Systems.” Norma said. “That's what Geoff was saying. Quadrant of Loug systems needed to be shut down.”

Tommy nodded. “Well then, we're on the right track.”

They walked down the dark claustrophobic corridor as the groaning gurgling sound grew louder. It echoed off the walls but in a muffled way since most of the walls were now smothered by the damp and pungent violet moss. “Can you hear it now?” Kelly asked.

“Yeah.” Andy said.

Kelly took the moment to grab her long brown hair and twist it, sliding a hair-band onto it, and fixing it into a tight ponytail. “That doesn't sound like ventilation does it?”

“I don't know what that sounds like.” Andy confessed. He slowed his pace, the others did the same. Soon they approached a set of windowed double doors, they were still attached but the glass had mostly gone and the frames were twisted and eroded. Behind them was a fair sized room. There were tables and computer equipment but most of it was toppled over or smashed or lying broken on the floor, along with several bodies, illuminated by the pale glow of the few working monitors. They had been hacked to death. Some limbs lay feet from the rest of their owners.

“That's not good.” Tommy said stating the obvious.

“We need to take a look.” Norma insisted, not waiting for the others. She pushed open the doors and walked inside the room. Glass cracked beneath her feet, there were sparks blooming from several of the broken monitors. Others were flickering and strobing, giving the room an unsettling, unstuck look, reminding her of the unstable leakage from earlier. Navigating the room was difficult, she felt unbalanced by the lighting but stepping over the human remains made it treacherous. Nevertheless she negotiated her way to what looked liked a functional computer system. Norma tapped the enter key a few times but the GUI interface seemed frozen on the screen. There was no cursor flash on any of the boxes. She read through some of it, to try and understand what they were up to but there was nothing of much real interest. It appeared to be for database entry, nothing more.

She sighed. “Not working.”

Andy marched over. “Let me have a look.”

As he weaved through the broken glass shattered computers Tommy stood at the doorway guiding him with the torch. Kelly stood behind him, staring down the corridor, nervously.

“Tommy...” She whispered. “Shine the light this way.”

Tommy spun the light from the room down the corridor. It illuminated a large dark shape in the distance, something that walked directly into the light. It was a dog, a great black dog, as large as a tiger with fur sleek and glossy as leather, covering powerful muscles. It's eyes appeared to twinkle like fire and it seemed to be grinning as it padded towards them.

“Greetings.” The huge beast growled.