Girl, There’s A Better Life For Me And You
Mr Mortimer Harbinger
5th of November, 1975 — Death
Mr Harbinger heard words he couldn’t understand and Mrs Even jerked back and swung around, involuntarily freeing him in the process. He saw Death just inside the pub with the doors now fully open to freedom and the noise and bustle of the traffic outside. He knew youth culture was strange but, still, he’d never even heard of anyone like this. He wasn’t a he but a she. Her height fooled him but not her voice. Man or woman, it was obvious there was no way she could help him.
His eyes watered at the pain inside his mouth but he still managed to shout, “Run,” at her and received a brutal slap on his cheek from behind for his impertinence. His eyes swam and his collar filled with blood from the three deep gouges across his cheek. It must have been one of the daughters who did that as Mrs Even now had her back to him, staring at the newcomer who was now staring directly at him. Somehow he felt her stare, her assessment, her anger, despite her hood still obscuring her eyes.
Eventually, she answered him. “Thank you.”
He despaired. He wanted her to run and get help somehow but that hope was dashed when the door to the free outside slammed shut behind her, the finality reverberated around the room. People outside must have heard that but there was no investigation. He was on his own with this young weirdo he now had to protect—somehow. His despair reached new depths.
Mr Harbinger took advantage of a pause between them to try and get his body to respond properly again, despite the pain in his mouth, cheek and knees. He wanted to fight back.
Somehow he managed to gain some sort of control and could work out what was going on. He pulled up his underpants watching the backs of his enemies. They each took a step back and then another. Mrs Even’s back was close to him now. He looked around for a weapon but saw none, so he balled his fist and hit her as hard as he could in her kidney. Pain enveloped his hand as he felt as if he’d hit a wall but it must have done something for she jerked and stepped back into him. He fell back onto his bum and rolled away. He pulled up his trousers as quickly as he could and when he looked up again, Death was slowly walking towards his enemies.
It looked obvious Death was winning, especially when Mrs Even screamed, “Get her,” and both Gertie and Jo raced toward their foe. Gertie was closest. He saw her evil smile before her mouth opened impossibly wide and her canines and claws extended as she leapt at Death. Death did nothing until the last second when she pivoted and gave a sidekick, one of those Asian martial art kicks.
Everything happened so fast he couldn’t take it in. Death kicked and then Gertie was lying among the scattered frozen crowd. She looked dead but he didn’t trust that.
Death took a few steps back while Jo halted her advance and waited until her mother came so they could both physically attack together. Mrs Even screamed and attacked. Again, the speed was incredible and he couldn’t work out what happened, but it ended up with Jo surrendering and Mrs Even lying dead on the floor. Well, she looked dead. Death ignored her so she must be.
Mr Harbinger was having trouble with his interpretation of events. He knew this but couldn’t do anything else but try to sort events out. He saw Death and Jo talking, then Death approach Jo carefully and Jo let her. Then Death sprang back fast. He couldn’t believe anyone could be that fast. Eventually his brain settled down when he realised Jo was sitting on a chair and was tied to it.
Death approached Mr Harbinger and held out her hand. Her black nails looked evil to his ancient eyes, but he forced himself to ignore that and accept her proffered help while wondering how he ended up on the floor again. She was considerate and used just enough strength to assist him up rather than fully control the action. He noticed she positioned herself so she always had Jo in her sight.
She stared at his face and raised her hands to gently touch the sides of his head. “Sh,” she said when he started to ask a question. “I don’t know if this’ll work on you but it won’t do any harm to try.”
She stared into his eyes and he stared back. He felt nothing. Nothing at all. He couldn’t see, but it wasn’t blindness. It was as if there was nothing to look at. He couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t even remember what seeing was. The sensation came so suddenly he wasn’t prepared. He felt as if he was just a mind in a sea of, literally, nothing.
As suddenly as it happened it stopped and he saw her arms leaving his face. His heart instantly raced and he looked around, panting, to verify everything was where it should be. The pain in his mouth and knees had gone. His eyes widened and he started to speak but she got there first.
“Looks like it worked. Good. I’ve taken away the pain, but the damage is still there. We’ll have to sort that out later.”
Death was as tall as he was and looked straight into his eyes at his level. He could see her face clearly now her hood was down. Heavy black mascara topped by dark blue eyeshadow with long, false, eyelashes looked plain wrong to him, as did the black lips and the death-pale face.
There was a mascara flick up at the outside edge of her eyelids making a black tick. This coordinated with a flick down from the inside edge of her eyebrows. It boxed in her eyes most disconcertingly.
Her long black hair was all over the place and looked as if it hadn’t been combed in months but it never hindered her sight. He thought of vampires and ghouls but she didn’t project the fear the Evens did so he tried to control his shaking. The one thing she did project was extreme tiredness. She looked exhausted, despite her heavy makeup. He assumed the fight took more out of her than he thought, despite it looking relatively easy for her. He assumed he missed a lot of the real fight.
“What happened?” she asked, once she was confident he had recovered enough. “They targeted you. Why?”
That wasn’t uppermost on his mind right now. “What if they recover? And what about Jo?”
“They won’t. They’ve gone. Back to where they came from.” She nodded to Jo still tied in the chair. “Is that one Jo?” Jo just stared silently at them.
“Yes.”
“She’s spellbound. It won’t last but for now, she can’t change form or even use anything other than human strength. Don’t worry about her right now.”
He could think better now and see her properly. Her cape wasn’t black, it was dark blue, very dark blue. No doubt it had a name but Mr Harbinger had never bothered to learn beyond the basic colours. Her blouse was the same dark blue and just tight enough to hint at her breasts. She wore a short pleated skirt, the same colour as her cloak and blouse. Light blue tights and dark blue suede boots, flats, completed her ensemble. He was amazed. Underneath all that she looked to be a teenager.
She wore a belt so loose about her waist it could only be decoration. It looked like a series of red rubies connected together and draped at an angle, held up, somehow, by one hip. The rubies matched the one on her shoulder, the one that held her cloak together. Those jewels couldn’t be real. They were far too big.
Mr Harbinger looked around him. “What about the people here? Can you get them back?”
“No.” She had the arrogance of her youth. There was no softness or empathy in her voice. Just facts. He started to worry about his safety again.
“I need to know why you were targeted. Can’t do anything else unless I know that. So what happened?” She let go of his arm, righted a chair and directed him onto it. She was direct but not cruel. Mr Harbinger knew about youths. At one time he was one himself and, unlike most, he remembered. He started to like this teenager.
Once sat down, he tried to make things more civilised. That was important for him if not for this girl. He remembered what she just did and amended that to ‘this woman’.
“I’m Mortimer Harbinger.” He led out his hand.
She took it with a surprisingly hard grip for a woman. He wondered briefly why he was surprised.
“Raven.”
His eyebrows raised involuntarily at her name. “Thank you for your help, Raven. What happens now.”
She was patient and repeated her question after sitting down herself.
Mr Harbinger finally caught on and his mind refused to go there. His eyes started to flick around the room as if he was trying to see a way out.
Raven placed her two hands against his cheeks, ignoring the blood. She caught his attention which fixed on her. “Take two quick inhales through your nose and a long exhale through your mouth. Do it now.”
This was a command he couldn’t ignore and he did it automatically. His eyes never left hers.
“Again.”
He repeated the exercise.
“Again.”
He repeated automatically. This time she dropped her hands and he felt more in control of himself again. His thinking was more normal and his terror had abated drastically.
She had asked a question and he could try to answer it now, so he composed himself and answered.
“It started in nineteen thirty-nine before the war started. I was driving through the Yorkshire moors. It was a new route for me and I got lost when a storm started. The storm was vicious and just got worse and worse. I decided to stop off at the next place I could when the thunder and lightning started. It took a while but eventually, there was a pub and I stopped.
“I was soaked through just running from my car to the pub. That storm was like nothing I’d seen before or since. Inside there was only the barman, who told me his name was Stephen Even when we introduced ourselves. I was relieved when he said the pub took paying guests and I booked a room there and then.
“The room was basic but warm and inviting. He invited me to take a bath before changing my clothes and he would have my cases brought in from my car.
“The first unusual thing happened then, I was sitting in the bath when the door opened and a young lady came in. She had a bathrobe for me which she hung on the door after she told me her name was Jo. You may not know this but that was very unusual for the time. I expected a man to do that and was glad my privates were hidden from her sight but she didn’t seem to mind at all. I put that down to country people being different.
“Once I got back to my room my cases were there and my clothes had been removed and hung in the wardrobe. I returned to the bar after I dressed and had a pint with the landlord who told me the pub was called The Even Stephen which was his name reversed. He bemoaned the fact the pub wasn’t as profitable as he thought it would be. As it was he could keep his head above water but not much more. I only had the one pint as I needed my sleep, so I went to bed then. Mr Even was very hospitable.”
This next bit was embarrassing and he wondered how much he should say. He looked at Raven, who was following his every word with an intensity he’d rarely seen before. ‘I’d better just say it and get it over with,’ he thought. ‘She’s trying to help and she knows what she’s doing.’
“Well,” he drawled, before launching into the first steamy bit. “I was reading in bed when Jo came in. She was in her nightie which was far too over-familiar for the time. Nothing like that had ever happened to me before then.”
He knew today’s youths thought they were the only ones to accept sex but his upbringing made him wary of saying such things to a young woman. Her demeanour didn’t change which persuaded him to continue.
“Jo asked me if I wanted anything else. I was polite and said no.”
He turned back to Raven and added, “You must understand I was newly married then. There was no way I wanted any sort of dalliance.” He was relieved when Raven nodded, so he continued.
“Jo didn’t seem to know what to do then but she eventually nodded and left. I decided not to say anything to her father—or her mother if I met her. After all, everyone makes a mistake sometimes.
“Later, I was still reading in bed when it happened again. This time it was another young girl, she told me she was Jo’s sister, Gertie. Gertie was older and wanted the same thing but she was more insistent. She actually walked into my room a few steps before taking no for an answer and leaving.
“Soon after that, it was their mother. At first, I thought she was another sister but she told me she was their mother. I’ve forgotten her name if she ever gave it me. Mrs Even was the most persistent by far. She never actually touched me but she was so close I could feel her breath on my face. I had to say ‘no’ a number of times before she left. She offered herself most lasciviously and it was impossible for anyone to misunderstand what she was offering but even she, eventually, left and I was able to get to sleep, eventually.
“The next morning I overslept and decided to forgo breakfast. I met Mr Even and asked for my bill, which he gave but he wasn’t at all like he was the previous night. I asked if anything was the matter and he went off on a rant about how I turned down his daughters and even his wife. He took that as an insult and told me never to return.”
Mr Harbinger laughed. “He didn’t even try to give me my change and I didn’t press him for it. I just wanted to get out of there without letting them know how weird I thought they all were.
“Well, I got out and had just rounded a corner, out of sight of the pub, when I had to slam on my brakes to avoid knocking Jo over. She wanted a lift and seemed desperate. To be honest I didn’t blame her and told her to get in. As soon as she did I put my foot down and got away from there as quickly as possible.
“I obviously asked Jo exactly what was going on and she told me her story. I didn’t know what to make of it. She desperately wanted to get away, which I understood, but she couldn’t before because Mr Even had some sort of hold over her and the other women there. The way she explained it sounded like he could force them with his mind to do exactly what he wanted. She didn’t mention any other sort of coercion. Her exact words were, ‘I just did things, things I didn’t want to do, but I wasn’t forced to do them, I just had to do them.’ She didn’t say exactly what it was they were forced to do, but she inferred sexual slavery.
“I suggested the police but she said that wouldn’t work as they all would deny everything and it would look as if we were nutters for telling the story. All she wanted to do was get away from there and start again.
“I asked how she got away if he could control her with his mind. She answered that his control was weak or non-existent if they were out of his sight which they all were in the mornings, because of their duties. Normally that didn’t matter as there was nowhere to go but that day she decided to take a risk on me. To be honest, I was glad she did.
“Anyway, she didn’t say much else after that. She was quiet and hugged herself. After a half-hour or so she pointed out a hamlet where there was a rural train service and I dropped her off there. I offered to take her to Leeds but she refused. I also offered her money which she accepted after I insisted a few times. She told me she took the till money, but there wasn’t much cash there as the pub hadn’t had many people in recently
“I never saw her again until today and she hadn’t changed at all. You just killed Gertie and Mrs Even and that’s Jo right there,” he nodded towards Jo.”
Mr Harbinger paused for a moment in his memories. Raven kept her silence. “Anyway, I did go back after the war. Nineteen-forty-seven it was. I took my service revolver with me as well, just in case. It took me a long time to find it. The hamlet, I mean. It was destroyed, flattened, but it looked natural as if it’d been that way for centuries. I got out and walked around. Nothing. Nothing until I felt something after a few minutes. Something vile. I don’t have the words to explain properly but I felt as though something was watching me. Something evil. That scared me and I got into my car and drove off. It took a good while for that feeling to leave. I’ve never been back.”
Raven started to speak but held off when she saw he had more to say.
“On my way out, after that feeling left, I saw someone walking in the distance. When I got closer I saw she was a hitchhiker. Remember this was back in forty-seven and female hitchhikers just weren’t a thing. I was worried about her so I gave her a lift. I thought I recognised her but she showed the top of her leg when climbing in and that distracted me but she went on as if she didn’t know she’d done that, so I thought it was an accident. By then she was talking. She could talk for England, that one. I never got a word in edgewise. I got her whole life story and what she thought about everything and everyone in her life. Every now and then I could see something out of the corner of my eye, her blouse pulling tight over her breast or the top of her stocking showing, things like that kept me distracted. Eventually, she said ‘there’ and pointed out a hamlet with a train in the distance, coming in. I parked and let her out. It was the same place I dropped Jo off at.
“She had just left when I remembered her. She was Gertie. I got out of my car to talk to her but the train was pulling out and the queue and Gertie were gone. I was certain I had more than enough time to, at least, talk to her before the train left, but, there she was, gone. I drove home and never heard of them again.
“Until today, that is. I stopped by this pub for a pint and all those women were here, Jo, Gertie and Mrs Even. You know what they did. I still don’t understand anything at all.” He paused before adding, “Mrs Even told me Mr Even had gone the instant I left the pub because he failed to get me for their Lord but she wouldn’t fail. I’ve no idea what that means.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Is there anything else?”
“No, I don’t think so. What are they?”
“Just daemons. Low-grade daemons at that. They didn’t think there would be any opposition at all. How did you call me?”
“Call you? I didn’t. How would I do that?”
Raven looked around at the frozen ones.
“I was hopin’ you’d had enough training to do that. You’d have had to have had it in your youth though.”
“That sounds ominous. Are we out of danger?”
“Don’t know. I’m wondering how these people are still frozen and who called me. Whoever it is knows our ways. I would’ve accepted it before, but she drilled confirmation into me. It wasn’t them. Someone else called me and I don’t know who. That’s why I waited so long before interferin’. That and waitin’ for the backup I called for before I started out. But things started happenin’ before he could get here, so I intervened.”
He saw her eyes stop flicking around the room. She was remembering something. He didn’t interrupt.
“Were there any ravens in your story?”
“What?”
“You know, ravens. The birds. Were they around when that happened to you in Yorkshire? There were a couple cawing when I was watching this place.”
He didn’t get exasperated like most old men who had lived a life and knew everything. He took his time and thought back.
“Yes, I think there were. There were some in that hamlet each time I dropped one of the daughters off and when I raced into the pub in the rain. Well, they could’ve been crows, I suppose. I can’t tell the difference. Is it important?”
“Probably, especially if you’re right and they were sounding off in the middle of a thunderstorm in the middle of the night. That’s absolutely not natural. They’re definitely ravens outside now and if yours were ravens as well then Grimnir’s around somewhere.”
“Grimnir? Who’s that?”
“I’m Grimnir,” said a voice. “Well done Elizabeth. That was very intelligent and knowledgeable inductive reasoning.”
She turned bristling at the man in the blue fedora with the matching blue patch over one eye and his companion who were now not frozen.
“Raven,” she said emphatically. “Me name’s Raven.”
Jo stared at the newcomers in shock.