12

Sam didn't hear Floyd calling him. He was crouched down on the wooden floor up in the den at the end of the house with his head in his hands which were clawing at his scalp. It wasn't until fingers dug deeply into his bad shoulder that Sam came back to where he was and tried to pull away from whatever it was hurting him. It sent shockwaves of agony down his arm, ribs and up his neck to the side of his face. For a moment he thought that the horrible nagging demon had ripped half of his body away, but it was Floyd… Floyd hurting him even though he'd said he'd not.

'That hurts!' Sam screamed and wriggled away, but Floyd was quicker.

Floyd pulled Sam up to his feet, hands now gripping hold of Sam's upper arms and a voice shouting and spitting in Sam's face. 'Why?'

And the word was being asked over and over again like a needle caught in the grooves of a record. 'You're hurting me!' Sam cried.

'I'll fucking do more than hurt you. What are you doing?' Though Floyd knew what Sam was doing. He wanted to hear it from Sam's lips.

Sam glanced around the mess in the room. Things hauled over, pushed aside, dragged along… torn… 'I – I lost an ear-ring.' Sam muttered.

And Floyd did what he'd wanted to do for a while now with his fingers pressing in hard into Sam's arms he shook him. Sam's head rocked back, his hair flew back from his face, his knees gave way and something inside Sam's head popped. Sam felt it pop. It was like a bubble of vile hate which had been slowly growing there suddenly released its contents.

'I want you to myself! I don't want to share you with Spencer. I'm glad he's dead. I'm so fucking glad. I know you don't like me and you use me when you want something to hit and now that Spencer has taken you from me I've taken you from Spencer and it makes me feel drunk with delight. I wanted to wipe my arse on his dead face! I wanted to sing with happiness, but I'm not allowed to be happy. I have to be dragged around after you and be second in everything. You don't care that I was in a ditch for two days. You don't care that everyone hates me… and I've had enough. I don't want to be your dog any more. I've swapped you for something else. You can't touch me now. I don't belong to you and now you've got nothing. I've taken it all from you! And I've not been this happy since forever.'

During this little rant, Floyd just stood there holding Sam so tightly that he could have broken those skinny arms… but he stopped shaking Sam and now looked deep into those dark eyes. 'Liar.' He spoke calmly. 'You didn't take Spencer from me.'

'Well he's gone so does it matter?' Sam spat into Floyd's face.

'Do you know what will happen to you if you find the scrolls and destroy them?'

'I will be… I will… look, now just look… get off me and I'll explain.'

Floyd shook his head. 'You don't need to explain. I know what happened. You were laying there dying and something came and offered to help. It told you that it could help you… and maybe in a way it did, but that's not what I asked you. What I asked was… do you know what will happen to you if you find the scrolls and destroy them?'

'I will have completed my goal and I will be free.'

'As were the Specksons.' Floyd pushed Sam back onto a green and brown embroidered cushion. 'It will kill you. It will rip you apart and that, dear Sam, will be the very end of you forever. No coming back from that, because if you really gave yourself over to that monster then you are no longer mine… which then asks the question… why am I allowing you to speak of Spencer in that manner if you're not my dog? Why don't I kill you? Why don't I just stop you here? The scrolls will be safe. You'll be gone and I'd have done what I need to get Spencer back again.'

'You're lying.' Sam got back up to his feet. He could feel he was shaking. His teeth chattered together madly. 'You make deals all the time and they don't kill you. Why will this kill me? You just don't like it because I got one over on you… and if you'd paid me attention in the first place then this wouldn't have happened.

Floyd stepped towards Sam. Hands at his side, his heart pounding in his chest. 'I got you a horse.'

'Oh woopy fucking do! A horse… then you told me that you wanted me to smell like some old lost love of yours.'

'I didn't. I never said that. It's beside the point and probably much too late now, but hear me Sam, Spencer is living inside of me. He's a part of the air I breathe and part of the food I eat. I'm not going to let some creature who is lurking in the background, skulking around snatching at anything it can get it's miserable hands on, hurt him.' Floyd grabbed at Sam's arms again. Dark bruises were all ready popping up on Sam's arms, but this time Sam didn't pull away and this time the shaking was minimal, just to emphasise some of his words, just to get through to Sam that this was how things were. 'I understand that when you lay bleeding and something comes to offer you help that you'd take it. You'd grasp a hold of it and you'd never want to let that go, Sam, I understand that. Spencer understood that too. One of you took up the offer and the other didn't.'

Sam took in a shuddering breath. 'You don't know that. You don't know what happened to Spencer. We just arrived too late and he was dead. That's what happened and… and… and… Stop shaking – me! I can't – Talk!'

'I need you to listen to me. I have to have you understand what I am going to do and why I am going to do it.'

'Just kill me! Why don't you just break my neck and have done with it? Go on!'

'I will… but I need you to really understand why. A millennia ago when places were becoming places…'

'I don't want to listen to how you fucked some bloke.' Sam told Floyd. 'I don't want to hear about your conquests any more than Spencer does. We're both sick to your stomachs listening to your bragging. You love someone, kill them… move on. We both know that. Tell me something I don't already know.'

Floyd gave another small shake, but pulled Sam in close as he did it and wrapped his arms tightly around his poor little dog. 'A millennia ago when things were first becoming as they are now… things crossed from one side to the other. It was as though the world wobbled… fissures opened up in the ground releasing monstrous things, but those fissures also tore up into the sky and poisoned the air we breathe and the words we say. They turned people mad. They ripped their way through the world causing the seas to rise and then to boil. As the waters dropped back they froze. The mountains slid up out of the ground, the volcanoes heaved and sighed and spat. And those fissures in the ground… they mostly closed. They are still there is you search hard enough, they burst out of the ground, angry and hot and they cause men to turn against man and animal to fight animal… they destroy and maim in every way they can, but as I said, those places are so rare now that really you would have to search hard for them. What is more dangerous though are the places in the sky. The places where they slide on through and then the clouds arrive and cover their exit. They become trapped. Some end up as monsters which curl up in their own self pity at being foolish enough to come here. Some turn to man and they try to blend in… Iolanda is a fine example of that… Some though can't… they can't blend, they don't want to be seen as a mortal. They want to rip and harm… and poison the minds of others…

'Sanctuary is one of those places. It's been like it for a long time. I've tried many times to close that rent in the air, but I can't do it. All I can do is take orders occasionally to send thing back whence they came. I think because of the nature of the place that you are susceptible to the change in the pressures. You might be able to home in on the aura of the place because of your own personal nature. Maybe I should never have brought you here if I intended to keep you alive, but honestly, I didn't. I was going to use you as bait and draw the creature to me. I was going to let it have you and whilst it devoured and took what it wanted from you, I was going to send it back to where it came from.'

Sam was shivering and shaking in Floyd's arms. He was listening though. He was listening to the words Floyd was saying and he could feel his heart hammering in his chest in time to Floyd's heart. 'Where are these places?'

'All over the world. You don't need to know precisely where. There's one in Italy, one in the Middle East. There's one over the sea somewhere. There is but one small and very insignificant one in Nevada and there is one here. Sam I'm going to have to follow through with what I had originally thought. I am going to have to let you go. This time though not as a bait because you've foolishly already given yourself to the creature, but I can't have you stopping me.'

Sam let out a small sigh. 'I just wanted to be loved.' Sam sobbed onto Floyd's shirt. 'I'm sorry. I didn't really want Spencer to die. I know what he means to you and I hate having to share.' Another long sobbing breath. 'Will you be able to get me back again if I let you top me?'

Floyd shook his head. 'You're no longer mine. Dead is dead. I'll pass on the message to Spencer though. I'm sure that his horrific and terrifying death will be made all the more meaningful knowing that you held me back to give the thing a chance to kill him.'

'I didn't!' Sam wailed and now tried to push away from Floyd. 'That's not what happened! I didn't! It came to me and offered to help me if I got rid of something for it. I never told it about Spencer! I didn't even know Spencer was missing! Fucking hell Floyd. I'll accept that I was stupid and I'll accept that I could have handled it better but I'm not like you! I'm not some super monster who can regenerate and recover and be reborn… I'm not like you and I'm not like Spencer… pure… blotless Spencer… I'm just me! And I have to rely on you to keep me safe and I was dying! Yes my bowls were torn… I could feel them sliding out of my arse! I could feel that my insides had been mashed and you were no where and Spencer was no where and something offered to help me! What did you expect me to do! Why do you think that I'd wave it away and tell it that I'm fine laying there in my own insides in a ditch! And … AND it was raining and my hair had bits in it. And now I have a voice screaming at me in my head telling me what I have to do and it's making me feel sick and stupid and I just want it to all go away.'

'Methandusa.' Floyd called out. 'You see what I brought with me? A man so loyal he'd die before asking for your help and a dog who will give himself to anyone in exchange for nice hair. You erred when you stepped on my toes again you fucker! And I don't need the damned scrolls. They were destroyed years ago. I saw to that.'

Both of them heard a hissing sound like air escaping from a steam pipe. The floor vibrated and then stopped and Floyd let his face fall into a small smirk. 'We are safe here.' Floyd grabbed hold of Sam's arm and dragged him across the room towards the back wall. 'It will require something in exchange for you.' Floyd told Sam, winding fingers through his hair… desperately trying to think of another way out of this, but Sam had really brought this on himself and now Floyd didn't think that there was a whole lot he could do to stop the wheel from turning and crushing them all. The only thing he could do was to throw a spanner into the proverbial works and Sam was the only spanner he had to hand.

'I don't have anything! What's going to happen?'

Floyd again pulled Sam close and now hunkered down with him. 'You owe Methandusa your life.'

'But…'

'And it will collect.'

'You can stop it!'

Floyd pressed Sam hard against his chest. 'I can't, Sam. I can't stop it. What I can do is make your passing from here easier, but you need to request that. I can't do it unless you ask me to.'

'You're saying that I need to ask you to kill me? But then what will happen? What will become of me? Will I just be dead forever?'

'No… I promise you that much… you wont be dead forever.' Floyd felt his words catching in his throat… he hadn't lied, but he'd been very shy of the truth too. 'Give yourself over to me. Ask me to finish it… I wont let that creature come here and hurt you, but you have to ask.'

Floyd felt Sam's head nod against his chest. The silly boy… the foolish child. Floyd spied the bread knife out of the corner of his eye. Sam had used it to shred some of the pictures on the wall. Slowly he walked towards the knife and then hunkered down pulling Sam down onto his lap so that Sam had his back to Floyd. He didn't let go of him though. One arm embraced his quarry tightly and his spare hand picked up the knife.

'Will it make the pain in my head go away? Where will I go?'

'You will be somewhere I can come and get you. Don't worry about that. I'll reclaim you.'

'OK. OK…' Sam muttered thinking that he'd be sent back to the tent where Albion had been… thinking that he'd sit in the shade of the green light and get high whilst he awaited the arrival of Floyd who would kiss him all over and… The pain in his neck! He put a hand up to see what was going on… a squirt of blood splattered on his fingers… hot red blood. Sam opened his mouth to scream and take back his agreement. There was a very odd feeling of something pulling and tugging across his throat. He tried again to scream but just sprayed blood out of his mouth.

'Take it!' Floyd was shouting. 'Take your little whore you son of a bitch! Come and get it and drag it back home with you!' Floyd pushed the twitching Sam off his lap and brought the knife down again into between Sam's shoulder blades, he heaved it out again and walked from the room leaving Sam to twitch his final twitch and die alone… Floyd loved his dog, but… well… The Old Woman could return Spencer to him now and the monster of the shadows… old Methandusa could go home with his prize. It was a win win situation really… unless you happened to be Sam.

o-o-o

Spencer opened his eyes and saw bright blue sky. Initially he thought he was still in the woodlands… but now he could feel that his hands were at his side and he seemed to be clothed in rough spun garments and not his cords. He turned his head to the side where he felt someone was watching him and saw The Old Woman and Spencer's heart skipped a beat. He'd died. He could remember the creature putting its hand over Spencer's mouth and nose and stopping him from taking in air, but the actual point he passed… Spencer couldn't remember that.

'Congratulations.' The Old Woman sighed her words at Spencer. 'You should be very happy.' But her words didn't sound as though she meant them.

'I don't understand.' He pushed up onto his elbows and looked down at what he was wearing. Unbleached woollen robes with a length of rope around his waist.

The Old Woman shook her head almost to mock Spencer. 'Well you wouldn't. I must say that I'm surprised that he chose you. I didn't think he had it in him to follow through. A deal however, is a deal. Welcome home Spencer. I'm afraid that your days of mortality are over.'

Spencer still didn't understand. 'Something killed me.'

She nodded at him and seemed to sink to the ground in a soft folding fashion and sat with her legs crossed next to Spencer. 'I think of him as my son. Floyd is very precious to me. I've given him so many chances and he is just not doing very well. He needs to rest. He needs to be brought home for a while. Soon he will come here and he'll realise that the trap he set is the self same one that he walked into himself. He's effectively

repelled himself from your world and as you only live there because of him…' She rubbed her hands together. 'I'll never fully accept you, Spencer. You were the ruin of Floyd. You spoiled something wondrous.'

Spencer now sat up and stared at nearly in the eyes. 'I what? I never spoiled him! He did that himself.'

'He became weak. He became a lesser being. He became confused and he wasted his chances. He became hopelessly infatuated by you. I can't see why. I can't see why he'd throw everything away just to lay with you. What is so special? What do you have that Sam couldn't give him. Two people who profess to love him. Two people who bitch and argue and fight over Floyd… and tell me, how did you win? What evil spirit lies within your chest which dragged Floyd down to the place you have dragged him?'

This was ridiculous. Spencer had never done that! He might have been irritated with Sam sometimes, but… irritation is normal. Jealousy is normal… that's not his fault. That's Sam's fault… Floyd's… not his. 'I love him!' Spencer burst.

'Well that's lucky for Floyd I would think. It would be a shame if he handed over Sam to the dark ones only to find that you didn't want him. I assume that you do want someone who just sacrificed Sam for you… to keep you alive. A death on your shoulders is going to be heavy. I hope that you're man enough to take it, but please… please don't assume that this life of yours is your own. You belong to me now… And a life in purgatory is perhaps not the most appealing. The end of ends. Everyone dead. I hope that pleases you.'

Spencer stood up. He could smell the oils Floyd had wiped over him. He felt light headed, sick… as though he was breathing in a gas which would tear him apart. 'Floyd…'

'Floyd will have to sort his own mind out. He will need time away from you. He will have to purge his body and start realising what he's lost. He can't just keep letting his wards die and expecting me to pick up the pieces. It's reached an end.'

'You'll send me back?' Spencer felt the panic in his chest now… the pure terrifying panic.

She smiled at Spencer and waved a thin arm around her. 'Welcome home.' She turned and walked away leaving Spencer standing there… and he could feel the grass tickling under his feet and growing high, up to his ankles and over his shins… he watched wild flowers pop up and open and then bow over and wither and die… and Spencer just stood and waited… and he waited… he waited for Floyd to come and get him.

a/n: I might end it there…. XOX