Free Don't Fear The Reaper by Lex Sinclair Page A

downpour earlier, remained
motionless and silent.
    ‘You got shit in your ears or what?’ the one with the torch barked,
strutting towards him with a confident swagger. He shone the torchlight
directly into the man’s face and involuntarily quivered at the sight. For the
man in the raincoat had shiny, scarlet eyes and didn’t wince at having the
unnatural light pointed at him, as anyone else would.
    The other man who only appeared in the background as a silhouette
approached the scene playing out in the heart of the alley, where water dripped
and plopped into puddles from exterior drainage pipes. ‘Who the fuck is this
guy, man?’
    ‘He’s no one,’ the one with the torch said. ‘Just some deadbeat who’s
gonna get his arse kicked if he doesn’t start talking real soon.’
    ‘What’s with his eyes? Looks like Freddy Kruger’s worst nightmare.’
    ‘Contact lenses. This one thinks he’s hard, love him.’ Then the one
pointing the beam of the torch turned to the unmoving man and said, ‘You got
five seconds to either turn around and go back to whatever shit-hole you
crawled out of or you’re gonna be having your next meal fed to you in a
hospital.’
    His friend brayed laughter.
    Then the man in the raincoat laughed too.
    ‘Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?’ the one with the torch asked.
‘Yeah, gonna be real fuckin’ funny when you’re sucking my dick.’
    His friend, gripping his sides, turned away, stumbling over a cardboard
box and fell down on his arse, unable to control the fit of mirth overwhelming
him.
    ‘Adam,’ the man in the raincoat said, getting Adam’s attention in a
heartbeat. ‘Why would you want me to suck your dick when Josh was doing it
before I was passing by? Surely you don’t think that you ought to be rewarded
with two blow jobs on this night, do you? To say that you and Josh are talkin’
bollocks wouldn’t be an insult but a matter-of-fact. So, please, be a good
little poof and continue as you were and allow me to pass. That’s not a
question, Adam. That’s sound advice. One way or the other, I will be getting
past very shortly whether you permit me or not.’
    The beam of the torch had momentarily dropped and illuminated the puddle
black surface of the alley before Adam could find it in him to raise his arm
and point it at the man in the raincoat. ‘How…? Who the hell are you?’
    ‘That’s up to you and Josh,’ the man in the raincoat said in an unwavering
voice. ‘I can be a man passing you two while you were gobbling one another, or
I can be the beginning of the end of you.’
    Adam’s arm started shaking uncontrollably. The torch made flickering
effect on the man’s lined, rugged face. The man in the raincoat waited no
further and rested his hand on Adam’s hitching chest and pushed him gently to
one side and walked past. Then he stopped and looked over his shoulder, his
features concealed in the dark shadows.
    ‘Oh, by the way, Adam – your mother already suspects you of being gay.
She doesn’t mind but wishes you stop doing drugs in your room. She found a
stash of weed in the top drawer of your bureau. I’d get rid of it before
someone else finds out and grasses you to the police.’
    And with that Adam and Josh watched in amazement as the steam billowing
out of the vents in the bricked walls swallowed the man in the raincoat
completely.
     
    *
     
    The
man in the raincoat got to the end of the alley, descended the three steps to
an unmarked scabby blue door and rapped on the metal. Five seconds later the
peephole opened at head height and from the dimness within someone scrutinised
the caller.
    ‘Who calls at this hour?’ the gravelly voice of an elderly person asked.
    ‘Number 3,’ the man in the raincoat said.
    From the other side of the door bolts were retracted, locks were undone
and the latch was taken off its hook before the big, rusty door opened outward.
    The man known as Number 3 stepped back, allowing the door to open, then
entered