Forever True - Book Four of the Connor True Series Read online

it felt as he took it in his hand.

  “This is what we use to fight the demons” Captain Blake answered his unspoken question. “It is a scale from a demon’s flank. Some of the creatures are covered in these. They are hard and tough to penetrate but if you can break one off it can be sharpened into a blade and will then pierce the hide of a demon where you can inflict some significant damage”.

  “Have you ever used it on a demon?” Connor asked. Captain Blake just looked at him with an expression that said ‘what you do think?’

  “So I’ve got to find Abiku and try to stab her with this?”

  “No. The demon will come to you. Your grandmother had a plan which might give you an edge when the demon comes. You need to open your doorway into the living world and throw the blade through. Then, when you wake up in the real world you can retrieve it. Your grandmother believed this would work and she knew a hell of a lot more about this kind of stuff than I do. Now, there’s no time like the present. You need to put the dagger where no one is likely to find it”.

  Connor obeyed without hesitation. Captain Blake seemed to know what he was doing so he conjured his doorway as ordered. The psychic gateway hovered silently just in front of him opening back into the darkness of his comatose mind. Connor could use his doorway to see anywhere and as he visualised his bedroom the image swam into focus dissolving the blackness into a sea of colour. Bright daylight shone in through his window warming his senses. It was like he’d never been away and he wanted to step through into the real work again but without his physical body there was little point. He half expected the blade to vanish as it passed through the doorway but to his amazement as he tossed the blade through the door it sailed into his bedroom - into the real world - and bounced off the carpet and under his bed.

  Connor kept the doorway open a moment longer looking out at his room and wondering what was happening in the real world and how much time had passed. The regional heats of the UK Street Dance Competition starting soon and he had planned to take his dance crew to the finals. Life was going on without him and he released a weary sigh. Then he thought of Captain Blake beside him and realised he had no right to feel sorry for himself. He had a life to go back to, unlike his new friend whose ties to the real world were all permanently severed. He closed the door and immediately felt something was wrong.

  “Can you feel that?” Connor asked as shiver ran up his spine.

  Captain Blake was immediately alert, scanning the horizon in all directions. “Feel what?” he asked warily.

  “I don’t know” Connor struggled to put it into words. “It feels… close, like a thunderstorm is about to break”.

  “Come on” urged the other, leading Connor forwards with an urgency that increased his unease.

  “Is there something coming?” Connor asked.

  “You know there is” said the other impatiently. “You have been here for too long already and we’ve been fortunate that the enemy have not been drawn to us but I think our time is up. Whatever happens next, wherever it comes from just remember your training. Remember your training and you will be fine. Do you understand me?” Connor nodded suddenly unable to speak as a twilight haze began to descend about them heralding the arrival of the monster.

  The grey evening dusk deepened. In the distance a rumbling sounded and at first Connor thought it was thunder but quickly realised it was laughter; deep guttural laughter that dripped with malice.

  The night quickly swept in around them like a sudden fog. Blake took out another black demon-scale blade and held it ready turning in a tight circle, looking to see where the threat would present itself first. The darkness condensed around them becoming deeper and darker by the second. Connor tried to remember what he had learned but his mind was suddenly blank. He sensed rather than saw shadows moving in the blackness. It had taken only seconds but now his eyes could not penetrate more than a few feet into the gloom.

  “Oh shit” Captain Blake whispered. His hushed voice was tense as the sound of mocking laughter echoed from all around them. Connor’s fear but he held it in a tight grip as Captain Blake had instructed. Peering into the sudden night he saw forms detached themselves from the blackness, pacing, prowling and slinking back and forth. There were shadows within shadows writhed and twisted as they closed in on their prey.

  There wasn’t just one demon out there; there was a horde of creatures surrounding them. They could not hope to fight them all. His joints threatened to seize up in psychological paralysis as the horror of the situation took hold and corroded what little courage he had left but he knew if he froze they would be lost.

  “Can we use that trick with their abilities?” Connor asked.

  “No. It won’t work with if there’s more than one nearby” replied the Captain through gritted teeth.

  Connor opened his doorway again but could not see it against the blackness of the demonic night that had enveloped them. The carnival of nightmares pressed in around him like a pack of hungry wolves. Connor forced his legs to step to where he thought the threshold of his doorway was, grabbing the Captain’s arm as the first demon sprang at him. Connor thought of his mum briefly before everything went dark.

  In the waking world, in a totally different dimension Connor’s sleeping form stirred in his bed. Those gathered around him watched as he became more animated, like a drowning man taking his last gasp of air before going under the water. In that moment his eyes flickered open.

  “Mum?” he asked weakly.

  Her kindly face hovered over him like an angel. The faces of his sisters were also there to welcome him. Then the world went black as his eyes closed and he was gone again. The others watched helplessly as Connor slipped back into his unending dreams. It was as if his consciousness had been snatched away by some unseen hand. Or as if he had been about to walk through a door but something had pulled back at the last second.

  Laura had been in Connor’s room that night he stirred. It had been over a week ago now since she heard his voice for the first and last time. She knew she would never see him again now that he was gone and the painful acknowledgment had cast a dark cloud over her being. She’d never felt this way about a patient before and she was annoyed that she’d let herself become so attached to Connor True in the first place. It distracted her so much that she was losing track of time. Another depressingly joyless shift was almost over. Losing Connor was bad enough but coupled with the situation with her flat she was getting close to the edge.

  The boiler had stopped working now. It had broken down the other night leaving the temperature in the flat near freezing in the evenings. Could life get much worse? She was normally able to see the positive in everything and rationally she knew things would improve at home but she just couldn’t believe that right now.

  As she trudged past room six she glanced inside and saw that it was still empty and lifeless. The monitoring machines were switched off, there were no sheets on the bed and the jug of water on the side had been taken away. This room had been full of life; it had been vibrant and fun. Now where the swinging music had filled it with style and personality, the room now screamed and banged in a cacophony of silence. Where the constant stream of visitors had brought life to the room their absence spilled out into the corridor outside. Laura wished she had had more time with Connor. In her quieter moments when she was sat at home in her cold damp rotting flat she would think of all the things she had said to him and all the things that she had wanted to share with him as he lay in his endless sleep.

  Last night a fuse went in her building, plunging all four flats into darkness. Laura had been watching Brother Bear on DVD. The theme of loss in the film was somehow comforting, making her feel she was not alone in her heartache. When the power went she stayed where she was; huddled under her fluffy Tigger blanket, alone in the dark. Usually she would be the first to go out and fix it but last night she no longer cared. There was no point. As a build-up of frustration and grief swelled up she let the emotion c
ome. Insignificant, petty issues paraded through her mind, things that were usually so insignificant that they hardly warranted any attention at any other time had now reduced her to tears. She wept softly in the darkened living room grieving for someone she hardly knew and whom didn’t know her at all.

  “Don’t worry” Betty said from behind the Reception desk as Laura dropped off a pile of blue patient files she had been writing in.

  “You’re shift is nearly over. Some of us have got to stay until 5:30 today!”

  “I know” Laura tried to smile. “The problems with my flat just keep getting on top of me”.

  “Is it just that?” Betty asked perceptively.

  Laura leaned against the reception desk with her elbow. “It’s really silly isn’t it? He never even spoke to me but there was something about him. I should be experienced enough to not get emotionally involved with a patient but there was something about him and it wasn’t only that he was nice looking” she lowered her voice. “He seemed such a nice person, interesting and… I don’t know he just had that certain; something. You know?” she took a deep breath. I’m sure I’ll be back to my old self soon”.

  “That may be sooner than you think, dear” Betty suddenly sat up straighter and