Free All or Nothing by Stuart Keane Page B

minute she was outside the uninviting hotel, which she noticed was called The Easy Sleep. Leaning forward, she looked through the windows, but no lights were on and no movement was obvious. The place was empty, there was no doubt about it.
    What the fuck is going on around here?
    The theatre was closer now, its light illuminated the whole street. From this distance, Kathryn could see that the letters above its entrance had gaps around them, and whatever lettering that had been there before had been ripped off. Chunks of miscellaneous glass letters still remained.
    The glass doors of the theatre were shattered, one was hanging off its hinges and another lay three feet away in the street, bent in half and buckled at the hinges. The interior of the theatre’s foyer had a plush red carpet and the marble walls were faultless. Green graffiti had been plastered all over the pavement outside the establishment. Six posters, three either side of the main entrance, were all advertising Z-list celebrities posing as fabled pantomime characters. These had all been defaced with obscenities:
    BG WAS ‘ERE!
    SUCK MY PHAT ONE!
    BD + JK 4EVA!
    DON'T LIKE MY GRAF? DIAL 01892 EAT MY BALLSACK!
    CUNTZ R US!
    PANTO IS GAY!
    Kathryn couldn’t help but smile at the profanity. Such uneducated words, and in some ways she could almost have felt sorry for the people responsible. The theatre had been defaced so badly, Kathryn hated to look at it, so she turned round.
    Behind her was a tall, nondescript building. Its front had a huge head-height wall with a set of steps heading up to a glass door with a card reader beside it. The building had many windows, none of them lit up, apart from one. About three storeys up, one window had light shining from the room within.
    There was a person staring out at her.
    The face was there for a split second, then it was gone.
    Kathryn shivered.
    You've got to be shitting me!
    Kathryn backed off from the building and headed back to the theatre, and the road leading off from it. She imagined the road made a complete loop back to where the freaky monkey stood on the pavement. She would find out in due course.
    The sound of a car’s engine broke the silence, which was not unusual for a night like this, in a town like this. Unless the town was deserted, of course, and in that case, you have to start worrying.
    It was a rough noise, that of an engine that had never seen an MOT. She didn’t know much about cars, but she knew a shit engine when she heard one. Her neighbour always liked playing at being a mechanic late at night, and Kathryn was reminded of the many times she had wanted to stave his head in with a shovel. This noise had the same effect on her. It set her teeth on edge, made her want to scream.
    A jeep shot into view, from behind the theatre. Heading straight towards her. The road beside the theatre was separate to the main road and was several inches up an incline. A ledge provided a makeshift ramp. The jeep shot across the gap onto Kathryn’s road. It clanked down as its suspension adjusted after its sudden jump from the ramp.
    Kathryn was standing in the middle of the deserted road, exposed, unprotected. The vehicle was still about forty feet away, but Kathryn was caught off guard. She didn’t move, didn’t know what to do.
    The jeep stopped, straight ahead of her.
    The occupants of the jeep saw her.
    There were four of them, all male, and all half naked.
    The driver wore a mask with metal spikes protruding from its top, and a red bandana round his forehead. His hands were gloved in black and his arms were heavily tattooed. His scrawny torso was also tattooed and he looked as if he was in need of a good meal.
    The passenger next to him had long, greasy black hair which plastered to his scalp, despite the wind rushing through it. His face was covered in acne and his left ear was missing. He smiled, displaying decaying teeth and gaps. His bony body was also tattooed.
    The two men standing up behind them