Free Depravity by Ian Woodhead Page A

decided. You should have listened to us before you went off on your own. You were warned back then.”
    “Yeah I remember. You were wrong then and you're wrong now.”
    Alistair sighed heavily. “Why do I even bother in trying to make you see reason? Look, you impetuous fool. We have been engaged in this for over twelve millennia. Do you not think that by now we would have perfected our art?”
    His younger self growled. “You're making a big fucking mistake.” As soon as the last word left the boy's mouth, he vanished. Kevin watched the chains slang against the stone. He vaguely wondered if he was losing his mind.
    Alistair turned his head and gazed down at Kevin. “There, we're alone at last. Weird. He was the one who wanted you to come down here. He certainly didn't want you to go back into your parent's rooms.” The boy smiled, showing off his glistening white teeth. “You don't often think about the woman who told you that she was your mother. Now, that doesn't surprise me. As I can see exactly how you tick, and believe me, thanks to him, you're one fucked up individual.”
    The door still wouldn't open. Kevin considered running past the nasty fucker and taking refuge in the other room, just until he left him alone. He would too, if the contents in that other room didn't scare him more than the boy on the wall.
    Dad once showed him what was kept in there. His father, wasn't the most creative of individuals, as far as he was concerned. You disposed of the inedible bits of human, which is why he bought the wood-chipper. Before him though, the owner before him and the ones before used to turn the bones into grotesque creations. They used to give Kevin nightmares.
    “You're the clay that needs re-shaping. It won't be easy and it's so going to hurt you. It's something I should have done a long time ago.” The boy opened his mouth and began to howl. The noise increased, just as his jaw stretched, as though his flesh has turned into warm toffee.
    Kevin dropped to his knees and slammed his hands tight against his ear, but it didn't halt the howling vibrate throughout his body. His closed his eyes and rolled over, curling himself into a tight ball. He started to howl himself as the noise became too much to bear.
    Just before the screaming man blacked out, a nauseating stench of decomposing meat rolled over his body. Kevin managed to get his mouth closed and catch his breath before the foul smell almost choked him. 
    4
    Dazzling blue light tortured Kevin's eyelids. The vile stench still lingered but at least the howling had gone away. He rolled over and rested his cheek on the cool stone, before tentatively opening one eye.
    Kevin hadn't needed to see to know that he was no longer inside the place of screams. In fact, he wasn't inside anywhere. He opened his other eye and slowly sat up. Kevin arched his back and stretched out his arms. The sun beat down on the pavement where he sat. The scent of fresh cut grass tickled his nostrils. Kevin found himself grinning. He knew where he was. His hotel stood majestic in the background.
    He had no idea how on earth he could have magically moved from a hidden room below the hotel's left wing and into the gardens and right now, seeing how there was no explanation, he cast it to the back of his head.
    His smile faltered just a tad when he found himself staring at the dining rooms windows, specifically, the frames around them. Only last month, he had them all replaced, part of his programme to refurbish the entire hotel. He was only able to replace the ground floor window before he ran out of money. 
    Right now, all he saw were the old crumbling frames, that have barely held those windows in place for the last few decades. The frown changed to unease when he noticed a very familiar figure float through the back door, a basket in one hand, a pair of snips in the other. Even though the woman's face wasn't visible, the long flowing dress, holding in a huge amount of flesh gave the game