Free The Darkest Corners by Barry Hutchison Page A

tearing through the fence, its claws slicing through the wrought-iron bars as if they were cardboard. My breath fogged the glass and the monster vanished behind a cloud of condensation. By the time the pane cleared the thing would be inside the hospital. It would be up the stairs in moments. Everyone in here was as good as dead.
    The distant thunder of gunfire ricocheted from somewhere near the village centre. A scream followed – short and sharp, then suddenly silenced. There were no more gunshots after that, just the triumphant roar of something sickening and grotesque.
    I heard Ameena take a step closer behind me. I didn’t need to look at her reflection in the window to know how terrified she was. The crack in her voice said it all.
    â€˜It’s the same everywhere,’ she whispered.
    I nodded, slowly. ‘The town as well?’
    She hesitated long enough for me to realise what she meant. I turned away from the devastation outside. ‘Wait… You really mean everywhere , don’t you?’
    Her only reply was a single nod of the head.
    â€˜ Liar! ’ I snapped. It couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be happening.
    She stooped and picked up the TV remote from the day-room coffee table. It shook in her hand as she held it out to me.
    â€˜See for yourself.’
    Hesitantly, I took the remote. ‘What channel?’
    She glanced at the ceiling, steadying her voice. ‘Any of them.’
    The old television set gave a faint clunk as I switched it on. In a few seconds, an all-too-familiar scene appeared.
    Hundreds of the creatures. Cars and buildings ablaze. People screaming. People running. People dying .
    Hell on Earth.
    â€˜That’s New York,’ she said.
    Click . Another channel, but the footage was almost identical.
    â€˜London.’
    Click.
    â€˜I’m… I’m not sure. Somewhere in Japan. Tokyo, maybe?’
    It could have been Tokyo, but then again it could have been anywhere. I clicked through half a dozen more channels, but the images were always the same.
    â€˜It happened,’ I gasped. ‘It actually happened.’
    I turned back to the window and gazed out. The clouds above the next town were tinged with orange and red. It was already burning. They were destroying everything, just like he’d told me they would.
    This was it.
    The world was ending.
    Armageddon.
    And it was all my fault.

I watched for a few more seconds before the horror of it all became too much. I turned away from the window. Ameena hadn’t moved, and nor had any of the people in the chairs. They continued their reading and their puzzle-solving and their dozing like they were off in some different world that wasn’t in any way connected to this one. I envied them that.
    â€˜I did this,’ I muttered as the truth began to sink in. ‘Everything out there. The world. People dying. I did this.’
    Ameena nodded. ‘Yep, you did,’ she said. I shot her a wounded look, but she didn’t flinch from it. ‘The question is, what are you going to do about it?’
    â€˜Do? What can I do? I can’t stop that. No one can stop that.’
    â€˜You’ve got special abilities that no one else has.’
    â€˜Not any more!’ I cried. ‘Don’t you get it? This is the Darkest Corners now. I’m powerless in the Darkest Corners. That’s why the hospital isn’t finished, because the barrier came down while I was still creating it. Don’t you see? It’s over. It’s too late to stop anything. I’m a kid. I’m just a kid.’
    She chewed her lip. ‘But you’re going to try, right?’
    â€˜Try what, Ameena? Try what ?’ I demanded. ‘What can I try against all that? And… and why are you even here, anyway? You work for him , remember? You’re on his side, not mine. You made that very clear. You should be out there celebrating with the rest of them. With your own kind