Pushed upstairs

Chapter Fourteen

HE STOOD behind me, too close. Debility seeped through me and I felt that a slap would cause me to crumble. A cold quiver ran up my legs.

His hands were on my calves! His palms ran up the back of my thighs and cupped my buttocks. He pushed me up one more step. I wanted to resist, to defy the arrogance that touched me so intimately.

I felt as if my body were drugged, that it was not my own. Yet, still I had the strength to feel an utter loathing for my captor. I resisted the idea that he was my captor and felt defiance rising inside me.

The seat cushions were scattered over the deck; but that was not what struck my attention as I climbed the last step.

Halfway along the aisle one of the handrails had been wrenched free and bent into a loop. Crushed between the loop was a human leg!

I could see the naked lower back of a body hanging upside down. Skin had been flayed from the body and hung in thin strips over a seat handrail. The skin hung in narrow strips like wet bandage.

I had seen meat in butchers shops hanging on hooks, slapped on trays, chopped and cut into tiny pieces, but now to see human skin neatly place beside the victim caused me to choke with horror.

Suddenly blind strength galvanised by instinct caused me to lash out at the monster behind me. I struck his face with my forearm. Confused with terror my blows were ill directed.

I overreached, lost my balance and stumbled. The conductor seemed totally unaffected and continued to climb the stairs. I had the advantage of being slightly above him and kicked him hard in the stomach.

He made no effort to grab me, or pull away; he did not even flinch. Then with all the force my new found strength could muster I kicked him between the legs. He ought to have doubled over, but again he took the blow as if it were no more than a slap. I fell back and he climbed the last step.

He looked at me as though I were no more to him than an insect. I was amazed at his strength. He blocked the stairs like a wedge; there was no way that I could get past him.

A short whirring sound made me look at the new ticket dispenser he had around his waist. I had not noticed it before.

A 'ticket' rolled out. It glistened. Small beads trickled down its curled length like saliva, as if it were a lolling tongue.

It wavered, almost trembled, and another 'ticket' rolled out. It came out not in a smooth roll, but forced, as if it were being squashed out by something in the dispenser.

The attached tickets looked as if they were a too long tongue freed from a too tight mouth. They hung and seemed to deliberately curl, as if they were alive.

I was both horrified and mesmerised by the sight. Then the conductor took the 'tickets' in his fist and squeezed them, like a man might squeeze a bandage freshly drawn from a wound.

A thick red liquid oozed between his fingers. I looked round at the flayed body with its exposed sinews and muscle dripping with blood. I looked at the narrow strips of skin lolling over the handrails.

I vomited. I heaved until I thought my chest would implode. I could hardly see. My eyes were running with tears. I coughed until my throat was raw. I had fallen onto the last but one seat beside the stairs.

Leaning over the back of the seat I wiped the tears from my eyes. I was facing down onto the rear seat. The cushion of the seat had been removed leaving only the trunk-shaped bottom.

At first I thought that the trunk was full of water. My face was near the surface and I thought that I could see my refection in the water. Then, aghast, I realised that the bloated face staring back at me was not mine.

The head lay squashed between a tangle of wet clothes and a severed arm. Next to that was another head, face down. It lay on a half-submerged pile of internal organs. Paralysed with horror, a scream locked in my throat, and full comprehension came to me.

Human parts were pulped together in the 'trunk', like butcher's meat in a sink. A rib cage protruded out of the mess and arched over the trunk like a skeletal hood. I flung myself away from the sickening brew of dismembered cadavers.

I staggered and collapsed; and darkness fell upon me like a guillotine blade.