Chapter Twelve
By Tallulah
The garage was baking, and when Mew hurried back inside it the heat struck her like a wall of sponge. Yawning, she rubbed dusty sweat off her nose, and tried not to feel sleepy. She had to think. She had to get this right. If she got it wrong –
Well, she had no clue what would happen, but it wouldn't be good.
"Guys!" she yelled. There was silence. Good. No GGs to get in the way of this.
Okay. Okay. Think. Tab needed to come back to the garage –
Well, if she was right about what Indigo was doing to him, sooner or later he'd be feeling pretty weird himself. So maybe he'd decide he'd got sunstroke or something –
But by then he could have been nearly mentally obliterated.
Okay. Okay.
She got to her feet, and hurried over to the sound system, thanking her lucky stars that Beat had a slightly retro edge to his taste that had caused him to invest in a record turntable as well as a radio.
Her fingers were sticky, and left smears across the shiny surface of the record. This was the first one – the one that had started all the trouble – part of her really wanted to snap it in two, but if she did she'd never save Tab.
Or Indigo.
Trembling, she fitted the record onto the turntable, placed the needle on the groove. Everything she touched was cool, and her hands seemed to become stickier and clumsier the more she used them. But eventually the song was ready to play.
Okay.
She went into the bathroom, and found a half-open packet of earplugs that Piranha had bought when Cube had been planning to listen to the all-night Marilyn Manson Marathon.
Then she lifted her watch to her mouth and set it to contact Tab's.
"Tab? Get back to the garage, now!"
A long, static-ridden silence, and then he snapped, "Shut up."
"This isn't about me! There's something serious going down!"
"Yeah. You're a big fat liar. I…"
There was another silence. Mew felt her stomach wriggle with nerves. When you were cursing someone you didn't just stop…
Finally Tab spoke again. "I'm not coming back."
"You're hallucinating, aren't you? Your head's going funny."
"I…"
"I can help you! Come back and I can help you!"
"How can you help me – you come on Miyazaki, how can you help?"
Tab's voice, but he'd never known her real name –
"Tab, get back here!" Mew heard her voice crack, and swallowed as tears burnt at her eyes. "Please. Before it's too late…"
"I'll come back to tell you exactly what I think of you…"
And then his voice trailed off again.
Mew cursed a few times, her voice shaking, before rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, taking a deep breath, and marching over to the garage door. There she leant against the wall, just next to where the door would land if someone flung it open.
Each minute was like a bite out of her. What if he didn't come? What if he did and he was fine, just hating her still? What if the monster had got him? What if she couldn't pull this off and him and Indigo were lost forever?
I can do it. I can do it.
Don't be dumb, she reminded herself. You probably can't do it and if you can it'll be only luck.
If I could do it – if I could save their lives – I wouldn't be Miyazaki the bitch – I'd be Mew who's cool and helps people –
Helps people? Like a Girl Guide? A form captain? Oh please. You never wanted to be like any of that lot.
But I don't need to be a bitch either –
In the GGs I'm not a bitch –
In the GGs you're a pathetic little kitten who plays up to everyone.
Well so what? It's not important any more. What's important is I help them now. I – I killed Yo-Yo – I got to make amends somehow –
And I was a bitch to Indigo –
She didn't like that thought. It tangled in her ribs like a snake.
But if I can do this, I can save her, I can maybe make up for it…
Footsteps outside. Stumbling, skated footsteps. Mew imagined the wheels of the skates scattering the fine, milky dust that coated the alleyway. And shadows deep and dark against the hot, graffiti-covered wall. Quickly she squinched the earplugs up, and popped one into each ear, and sound flattened and left her in a cocoon of silence.
The door opened, and Tab staggered inside.
Mew waited until he'd reached the middle of the garage floor, then crept forward, pushed the door shut and locked it.
Tab turned, and frowned. "What – what are you doing?" His voice was faint and far away as if she was listening through fog.
"Don't worry. I'm just trying to –"
"Let me out –"
He rushed towards Mew. She didn't waste time trying to block the door, just dodged round him and ran for the record player, and even as Tab grabbed her wrist, she reached out, switched on the music, then charged into the other room, where Indigo/Scarlet/the monster's body lay, and dropped to her knees and clutched its cold wrist, trying not to think yuck…
"What – that music –" Tab blinked. She'd dragged him in here with her. "It's – it's dangerous – isn't it?"
"No. Why don't you groove a little?" Her voice rang in her head, like it did when she got a cold. "It might make you feel better."
She was praying Tab's memory of what dancing to this music did had already been obliterated…
Tab shrugged, then started bobbing his head and swinging his arms to the rhythm. Mew could only faintly hear it, like it was on someone else's Walkman, and part of her really wanted to pluck out these plugs and dance till her feet burnt off…
No. Not until the right time.
She watched Tab, and kept a grip on Indigo's wrist.
And slowly, slowly, he changed – no longer staggering. Walking taller, and – and prowling, yeah, and his eyes seemed darker under his hat, and slowly, slowly, a cruel smile crept across his mouth…
Yes.
With her free hand, Mew reached up and plucked out the earplugs. Sound rushed back into her skull, and she started to move to the music (as well as you could when kneeling and holding someone's wrist with one hand). It wasn't as hard as she'd thought it would be. The song licked her, hot and smooth like rolling naked in sand…and her body was just part of the music anyway…
"Tab. Tab."
She kept whispering it as the walls fell away and the sunset beat down on her. The music wrenched at her arms, struggling to keep her dancing, but she tensed, and whispered his name over and over again.
And now she could feel it.
The monster was still alive, and it was pummelling at her head, snarling and screaming in hate.
And as it roared, the sky darkened, and the clouds peeled and cracked like dead skin, and the sand rushed away, pouring around her feet, and she stood in the meaty, crimson darkness.
Tab was still dancing, a few feet away from her.
She rushed towards him, calling his name, but he didn't seem to hear her.
"Tab!"
But as she got closer, he seemed to grow – no, it wasn't him, it was the faint blue aura around him – it was oozing towards her like water – and it lapped at her feet, and she took a deep breath, and dived in, and was hit by a million pictures.
Music that's violently smooth – Jet Set Radio! Oops, didn't mean to trip you there, Taro. I don't care if your mummy said you can't, I'm gonna make you! Skates. Not bad, are they? Let's check your qualifications. I think I'll call it the GGs. Gum-chan! Of course I didn't scratch your skates, would I do a thing like that? Kogane summer and the air smells so bad my nose is dead. Benten winter and it's only warm under the neon. Shibuya spring and damn those cherry blossom petals, they stick in my skates. Super Mario rules, what are you, stupid? Say you're a freak, Taro, go on, say it. Shut up! Leave me alone! Mew…Mew, come on…don't die girl, I need you and if you go you'll drag me down and then I'll be so mad with ya…you bitch, you bitch, nasty skanky bitch damn it how could you do that –
And suddenly a clearing, and a pulse of purple floating like old newspaper in the middle of the blue.
"Indigo…"
Did she call it? How could she? If she opened her mouth, Tab's memories would drown her…
There. Indigo lay still, eyes closed, skin pale as semolina. Purple-black light still fizzed from her body, and every so often another picture-memory was fried.
Okay. Okay.
Mew took a deep breath, and ran (swam? Thought?) towards Indigo's body.
"Come on, girl," she murmured (thought?), grabbing hold of Indigo's wrist. "We're getting out of here…"
Yeah. They would get out now.
Okay. Okay.
How exactly would they get out?
Wait until the music had finished. That was the only thing to do.
She tried not to notice the sparks still shooting off Indigo, tried not to think of the memories being vaporized like straw in a bonfire. Tried not to wonder what Tab, possessed by the monster, could be doing in the real world. Tried not to look at Indigo's pale face and claggy, dead skin. Tried not to worry that she could be stuck in here forever – maybe years had passed already – maybe she would die in someone else's mind –
Wait.
The music had been singing still, far away where she could only just hear it – and now – now it had stopped –
And suddenly the purple sparks burnt themselves out, and around her, a thousand Tab-memories seemed to flicker into life again, and she smiled…
And then the blue around her peeled away like torn sky, and she was left kneeling in the darkness, clutching Indigo, and the voice roared out of the darkness and it knew she was there and it hated her and it was going to catch her and –
You wretch! I'll kill you for this!
Rip Tear Slice Cut Bleed
Mew heard herself sob, and she wrapped her arms round Indigo's body, and yelled, "Wake up….oh please please please wake up…Chloe…"
Go on, cry! Cry, scream, it's all good, rip you up
"I want to go back…I want to get out of here…"
You'll never get out of here…never…never…never
"I will. I've got to. None of this is real."
Never…never…never…
"None of it! It's all a big dumb hallucination! It's not real!"
never…
And even as she began to scream properly, she felt herself falling back into her body. Her legs and arms stopped being virtual and became part of her again, and the bones were heavy and the blood beat in her wrists and fingertips like hail stones.
And Indigo turned into purple light, and leapt out of Mew's clasped arms and down into the cold-skinned wrist that the GG had been clutching.
Indigo didn't know exactly when she woke up – didn't remember it – all she knew was suddenly she was there again.
Ceiling; clumps of dust in the dark corners, and an uncovered, cracked light bulb.
Hard, gritty floor.
Terrified fingers, the nails digging into her wrist.
Indigo sat up, and saw Mew, eyes vacant, holding onto her –
And Tab – blinking, looking dizzy and clutching a bread knife in one hand like he didn't know what to do with it.
Mew tried to open her eyes, throw off the darkness of the monster's head like it was a picture from a dream –
Something grabbed her by the mental throat.
I told you…you're not getting away so easily…
"She's…in its head?" Tab whispered. "I – I don't get it…"
Indigo blinked, and looked around. She was sitting in a small, dark room, and beyond its doorway was another, bigger area – a car – a dog kennel – a sound system –
And on top of the sound system –
She yelled, "Mew, stay in its head!"
Then she leapt to her feet – tried to ignore the sudden needles of blood running through her veins – and ran for the sound system. Snatched the first record off the turntable, snapped it in half, grabbed the second one, slammed it down and set it to play.
"Hold onto it, Mew!"
And the music roared out – whispering, but angry whispers, the song of vengeance and attack, filling the garage like a rock fall.
Mew struggled, kicked, tried to scream, but the blackness was sticking to her, as damp and hot as blood.
It'll kill me and there's nothing I can do –
Tab…
And then suddenly the music began, like a ray of sunshine leaping through the dark.
Mew felt the darkness shudder as if it was sick, then it wriggled away from her – she was becoming herself again – it was leaving –
"Oh no you don't," she whispered. "You be scared for a bit…"
And she reached out, and wrapped her fingers (mind?) in it as if she was scrabbling in mud.
No! No! No!
And as she clutched at it, the music's light grew stronger and stronger, and the darkness swayed and struggled, and tangled itself around Mew's hands, but there was nowhere for it to run – and it shrivelled –
Shrank –
Rushed away –
And Mew was left, sitting on the garage floor, staring at nothing but light and dust and Indigo and Tab's confused, nervous faces.