Free Blood Water by Dean Vincent Carter

insides tried to force
their way out.
    Mr Waites was indeed in his classroom, as Phoenix had
guessed. When Sean and James burst in, he jumped and
had to steady himself on his chair.
    'Bloody hell, don't you two know how to knock?' He
put his pen down and scowled at them.
    'Sorry, sir,' Sean said, 'but we need your help.'
    Waites stood up. He was just over six foot, in his early
forties – though he looked younger – fit and strong
enough to put Mr Cole, the PE teacher, to shame. His
hair was long and dark, and he wore small, round, wire-rimmed
glasses.
    'What sort of help? Is it to do with the rain?'
Although he'd been too absorbed in his work to pay
much attention, Waites now realized that the weather
must be causing havoc.
    'Sort of,' Sean said. 'It's a parasite.'
    'What is?' Waites looked from Sean to James, whom
he vaguely recognized as Sean's brother.
    'It's something we found at the research centre where
I work,' James told him. 'It can get into people and make
them do things. It's got a mind of its own.'
    There was a moment of silence before Waites took
off his glasses, rubbed them on his shirt then put them
back on.
    'What the hell are you two talking about?'
    'Dr Morrow, isn't it? Good lord, you must be drenched.'
Mrs Rees was startled by the sight of the scientist
standing, dripping, just inside the entrance doors, and
approached him slowly, feeling that something was
wrong. 'Are you all right? Where are the boys?'
    She watched Morrow's eyes move from her to the
staff room above, so she followed his gaze. When she
turned back she was a little unsettled to see that Morrow
was now closer, though she hadn't heard him move.
    He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again as
Mrs Rees started to back away towards the staff-room
steps. He followed her at the same speed, smiling now
in a way she really didn't like. She was half expecting
him to suddenly jump on her and pin her to the steps
when he started coughing, then, after looking around
frantically, dashed into the boys' toilets.
    She turned and took the steps two at a time, glancing
back only once to make sure she wasn't being followed.
When she reached the top she turned to see all that was
left of Nigel Phoenix.
    Morrow stumbled into the toilets, coughing and
spluttering. His thoughts were churning again. He
could sense the creature screaming in frustration and
impatience. He had been telling it over and over again
that he knew nothing, and he sensed it had finally
decided to believe him. He didn't know what it was after,
and suspected that it didn't either, but he was pretty
sure he was holding no profound secrets. The creature
had scoured his mind, seeing many things – Morrow
retrieving it from the pool, taking it to the study centre,
conducting tests on it – but none of this was useful: it
was information it already possessed.
    Morrow staggered towards one of the hand basins
and felt his stomach heave. Then he felt a movement in
his head, and something dislodged itself, then wriggled
through impossibly small spaces to squeeze itself into
his mouth, then out into the basin below him. He spat,
stared at the black monster wriggling in the basin, then
heaved and vomited all over it. It sprang up and managed
to ooze up the spout of the tap, before contracting and
squeezing its body so that it could work its way up into
the spout and then into the plumbing system itself. As
it disappeared, Morrow sighed with relief, but then his
stomach turned again, and spasms of pain racked his
body, and he knew his ordeal was far from over.
    'I know this sounds like some sort of Doctor Who shit,'
James said, 'but it's true, and we need to stop it before it
infects everyone.'
    'Infects everyone?'
    'Yeah, Dr Morrow used it on a couple of animals at
the research centre. It poisoned them while it was inside
and they died once it had left them. It seems to have
had a bad effect on Mr Phoenix too – that's why we
need