Chapter XIV
The intercom buzzer came on repeatedly.
"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Samantha said to the intercom receiver. She reached the wall, pushed the button, and said, "Yeah?"
"Hi, it's Amy!"
"Hey, you okay?"
"I've forgotten the security code for your block!"
"Oh, it got changed last week and I forgot to tell you. Sorry! It's red, yellow, purple, purple, green."
Samantha heard a loud tone sound and then the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. She opened the apartment door and waited for Amy to appear.
"Hey," Amy waved as she mounted the last set of stairs.
"Hey!" Samantha waved back.
"All ready for tonight?"
"Not quite," Samantha admitted, ushering her friend in from the communal corridor. "I'm just gonna pull on some tights and finish my make up and then I'll be with you, okay?"
"No rush," Amy said, closing the apartment door behind her. "The girls aren't going to be at the club until nine anyway, so we have plenty of time."
"What time is it now, then?"
"Seven thirty."
"Lauren and Mum are going to meet us there in an hour, so we can start early or we can just go into a pub and wait for the others to arrive first."
"We can go to the pub," Amy said, taking off her jacket and taking a seat on one of the breakfast bar stools. "That way we don't have to wait out in the cold and we won't miss them when they come in."
"Good thinking," Samantha said, disappearing into her bedroom.
"So, what's Pete doing for his stag night?"
"I'll give you one guess," Samantha called from her bedroom.
"Strip club?"
"That's the one!"
"Has Stuart gone with them?"
"Yeah," Samantha said, reappearing from the bedroom, carrying a pair of tights and one shoe. She put the shoe down next to another that was sitting under the coffee table. She then sat on the sofa and proceeded to pull on the tights. "Stu and Matt decided that if there weren't any men in the show, they'd just go to their usual haunt."
"Which strip club have they gone to?"
"Dunno. I didn't ask."
"Any instructions?" Amy asked suggestively, an eyebrow raising as she pulled an impish grin.
Samantha returned the grin. "Well, I told him to be home by eleven, of course (!)"
"Seriously!"
"Nah, I trust him. Don't trust his brother much though. I threatened him with public humiliation if Pete finds himself tied up naked in the middle of nowhere tomorrow morning!"
"His brother's the teacher, yeah?"
"Yeah, Ben I think his name is. I've only met him a couple of times, including earlier this afternoon."
"Don't you think it's weird having a hen night a month before you get married?"
"No, not really," Samantha said, hitching her tights up fully and then sitting again to put on her shoes. "It's too risky, really. All that drinking and the late night. The next day you'd have a hangover and be all pallid, with a few spots added, no doubt. No, for the whole week before the wedding I'm having an early night to try and shift these dark circles, and then the day before the wedding, I'm locking myself up in the bathroom and doing nothing but pampering!"
"Cool! I might do that myself, actually!"
"Okay, I'm ready!"
"Good!" Amy said, standing up and reaching for her mobile. "I'll call for a taxi."
Amy moved her thumb over the keys on her mobile phone and held it up to her ear. Samantha went back into her bedroom and put her door keys and some money into her bag. She looked over to her mobile phone. The battery had gone and, despite sitting in the charger for an hour, it still wasn't fully charged. Even if she took it out now it probably wouldn't last the evening. She decided to just leave it. She doubted she'd get any calls and she could always use Amy's if she got stuck.
"Taxi will be here in five," Amy said, poking her head around the bedroom door. "We should wait down stairs in the car park."
"Sure," Samantha said, grabbing her jacket off the back of her bedroom door and shutting the door behind her. She switched off the flat lights and they both made their way down the stairs to the darkened car park.
It wasn't all that cold for March but Samantha still felt that she needed the denim jacket she now had tightly buttoned over her dress.
"So, is everything sorted now?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, thank God!" Samantha said. "Pete got one of the local restaurants to open the top floor exclusively for us, so we dropped the hire at Cockfosters and we'll just hold the reception there instead. I spent all last week contacting everyone by phone to make sure they knew about the change in arrangements and, of course, while they were on the phone, I was chatting to them about stuff since we'd last met. I was on the phone for ages some nights! I'm dreading the bill when it comes through!"
"At least everything is sorted now, though."
"Yeah. It's all plain sailing now from here on in!"
A car careened around the corner and skidded to a halt outside the block of flats. The taxi light came on and Amy and Samantha slowly approached it.
"You want a taxi, ladies?" the driver said, winding his window down.
"Yeah."
"Name?"
"Amy."
"Amy, Amy…" the driver muttered, shuffling papers about. "Okay, a lift for two to Verve's, mobile number prefix zero seven seven nine eight?"
"That's right," Amy said, opening the back door to the car. She clambered into the back seat and Samantha eased herself into the car seat next to her.
"My name's Barry," the driver said, sounding bored and reeling off the information as if he was a robot. "My license is on the dividing window, if you have any questions please ask the receptionist at the call centre, please use the seat belts, they are there for your safety and to comply with the law, have a nice journey and enjoy riding with Terry's Taxis."
The driver finished his reel, switched the taxi light to 'In Service', and then slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The taxi shot off into the side road and Samantha felt pinned to the back seat. She reached out for the seat belt and pulled it tightly across herself and snapped the clip into the buckle. She glanced over at Amy who was hurriedly doing the same. The car careened around the roundabout and Samantha swore she felt it tip slightly. Did the car really just have only two wheels in contact with the road? She gripped the door handle with her left hand and the bottom of the seat with her right. She braced herself against the back of the seat as she saw speed bumps coming up ahead. She shut her eyes tightly and 'bang'. The car had hit the bump and the back suspension bounced into the air.
"D'ya mind slowing just a little, please?" Amy asked. She was also gripping on to the door and the seat and had turned slightly pale. "Only I've just eaten and I really don't want to see my dinner on the taxi floor."
"Going slower will cost ya," Barry shrugged, the car bouncing off another speed hump.
The car suddenly braked to a halt and Samantha was thrown forwards, only for her seat belt to catch her and cut her slightly across her chest.
"Okay, I'm getting out now!" Samantha said. She unbuckled herself and opened the door.
"We're not there yet," Barry said. "Close the door."
"You have got to be joking!" Samantha said, hauling herself out of the taxi. "This car is a fucking death trap!"
Amy followed suit and threw a five pound note at the driver. As soon as Amy had slammed her door shut, the driver shot off again in a cloud of exhaust fumes.
"That guy is gonna find himself wrapped around a lamp post one of these days," Samantha said.
"I thought I was going to be sick," Amy said. "Okay, how far did we get?"
"We're on Lincoln Road."
"I think Verve's is just round the next block, actually."
"We are so getting a bus back!"
"You're telling me!"
The girls made their way down the street, passing numerous closed shops and cafés, and looking for the club they were supposed to be at.
"Have you ever been to Verve's?" Samantha asked.
"Yeah," Amy replied, "but only the once. My cousin went for her birthday a few months ago. It was a really good night out. That's why I suggested it."
"Lauren said that Mum knew it so they would have no problem in finding it, but I couldn't think where it was. I've never heard of it."
"Oh, it's barely visible from the outside, but inside it's enormous. You'll see when we get there."
They turned the corner, and the only light Samantha could see was from the pub on the corner of the street. Revellers stood outside in the cold, waiting to go inside and grab a drink. Two burly looking bouncers stood on the double doors, hands neatly folded in front of them, and giant radios sticking out of their jacket pockets. The pub itself was packed with people, the bar barely visible from the crowd of people that stood around it, waving ten and twenty pound bills in the air to try and catch a bartender's eye. The jukebox was blaring out She's Electric by Oasis and a few drunken men and women were dancing in front of it, pints held up in the air and falling on to each other. A man and a woman were playing snooker by the far wall, with piles of coins lining one side of the table, acting as a queue for use of the game.
"We are never gonna get in there," Samantha said to Amy. "This queue of people may never get shorter until at least ten o'clock tonight, if not later."
"We're not going into the pub," Amy said. "We're going into the club next door."
Samantha looked at the building in front of them. It was darkened and was visibly abandoned. The door had been boarded up and the windows had hardboard against them on the inside, and bars across where glass once was on the outside.
"You're not suggesting that there's a club inside that abandoned building, are you?"
"No, it's there!" Amy said, pointing to a small unassuming door on the side wall of the pub. She grabbed Samantha's hand and pushed through the queue of people waiting to get into the pub. She pushed the door open and a man with a mop of curly hair looked up from a newspaper sitting on his desk.
"Hi, welcome to Verve's," he said.
"Hi," Amy said. "I'd like entry and a coat check, please."
"Okay, that'll be six fifty," the man said, getting up from his chair and grabbing a coat hanger from under the desk. He took her coat and pinned a raffle ticket to the collar. He then gave Amy the other side of the ticket and she put it inside her purse.
"The same please," Samantha said, handing her jacket over the counter.
"Six fifty, please," the man said, taking her jacket from her and handing her a raffle ticket. "Okay, have fun girls!"
The man sat down again and returned to reading his newspaper. Amy took Samantha's arm and they made their way through the double doors. They made their way down a staircase, lit up by neon tubing lining the walls. The music from the club got louder as they ascended the stairs and suddenly hit them full force as they walked through another set of double doors at the bottom of the staircase.
Amy was right. The club was enormous. It must have covered the entire basement that the pub above them was standing on. The whole place had black paint on the walls with the very bottom of the wall covered in mirrored panelling. The dance floor was a very large circle of hard wearing laminate and was set lower than the rest of the club, which was covered in a mixture of carpeting and metal ridged tiles, like the flooring of a commercial lift, to stop trolley wheels from slipping. Steps down to the dance floor were situated in front of the entrance door and at both sides. The back of the floor was panelled up high in matt black, and a DJ was clearly visible above the panelling, set behind a plastic sheet in a high-level booth.
Samantha and Amy began to circle the club, taking in further their surroundings. The side they walked around now had a bar all along the one wall, broken up by large columns situated about five metres apart. Rails separated the club floor from the sunken dance floor, and metal tables and chairs had been set up by the rails. As they reached the back of the club, they saw that the DJ booth was panelled all the way to the back wall of the club, so it was like a huge column sitting on the back of the club. There was no way around the back. All traffic had to make its way from side to side around the front. Samantha could just make out the shape of a door in the black panelling. She reckoned it was probably how the DJs got into the booth. She walked with Amy back round to the front of the club and stopped at the far end of the bar.
"Drink?" Amy yelled into her ear over the music., making a drinking action with her hand.
"Yeah!" Samantha yelled back, nodding.
Amy fished into her purse for a five pound note. She leant on the bar and attracted the attention of a female bartender. She leant far over and pointed at the bottles in the fridge, all with brightly coloured liquid inside them. The bartender pulled out two bottle of bright blue liquid, plied open the lids, and slammed them on to the bar. Amy handed over her fiver and the bartender slashed a swipe card through the till and fished out a two pound coin. Amy took the money and handed one of the blue bottles to Samantha.
"What is it?" Samantha yelled to Amy.
"Vodka," Amy yelled back, swigging the blue liquid back.
Samantha followed suit, and tasted a raspberry flavour in her mouth. It wasn't like a real raspberry flavour though. It was more like the bad flavouring that normally occurred in cheap soft drinks. She studied the label on the side of the bottle. Raspberry vodka, made in Sheffield.
"I didn't know they made vodka in Sheffield!" Samantha said.
"What?" Amy yelled.
"It's made in Sheffield!" Samantha said loudly, pointing at the label.
"Weird!" Amy agreed, making her way to the dance floor.
Samantha followed her, knocking back more of her drink, and saw that Lauren was down there, with a few of her friends from school. Samantha's cousins, Jayne and Marie, had also made it, as well as a bunch of friends from work and college. A lot of hugs and air kisses ensued, and bottles of drink were clinked together in congratulations at Samantha's impending nuptials. The group then broke off into smaller sections and they began to dance to the pounding dance music.
Samantha spun around and looked at the other people in the club. Most of them were dressed causally, with the girls in dressy jeans and sparkly tops, and the men in various coloured shirts and black trousers. Samantha's cousins had already found male dance partners and were laughing and joking with them. Lauren was dancing with her friends, all taking it in turns to spin under each others' arms. Samantha smiled at Amy and she grinned back, taking Samantha's arm and dancing around in a circle.
Samantha looked up at the ceiling and saw neon tubes on a gurney, moving in a circular motion around the dance floor. Six laser beams were projected from a small hole housed in front of the DJ booth and reflected off the tiny mirrored disco balls situated all over the ceiling of the club. Lights flashed everywhere and Samantha embraced her surroundings, dancing among all the coloured lights in the company of her friends and family.
"Do you want another drink?" Samantha shouted into Amy's ear.
"Sure," Amy yelled back. "The same again, yeah?"
Samantha made her way over to the bar and saw Lauren.
"Hi!" Samantha said, brushing her sister's back gently.
"Hey!" Lauren said loudly back, hugging her sister. "Do you want a drink?"
"No, my round!" Samantha insisted. "What can I get you?"
"My usual would be good!"
"Where's Mum?"
"She's at Aunt Joan's tonight. I think she's trying to break another barrier."
A male bartender came over. "Can I help you?" he asked loudly.
"Yeah," Samantha replied loudly. "One of those blue bottles, a G and T, and a Jack Daniels and coke."
The bartender pulled a blue bottle out of the fridge and opened the lid with one hand as he pulled a glass down and ejected gin and tonic water into it with the other hand. The bottle was put down and another glass was reached for and had Jack Daniels poured into it. The first glass was placed on the bar and that free hand then dispensed coke into the second glass. Samantha saw the dispenser was actually a pump of water gushing through the hole with a thin jet of coke arching into the water. Coke flavoured water, Samantha thought to herself. No wonder the prices haven't been hiked up in here.
She handed over her money and waited for her change, pushing the G and T towards Lauren. The bartender gave her her change and she deposited it into her bag and grabbed the drinks. She headed back towards the dance floor and saw Amy coming up the steps towards her.
"I'm gonna go grab a seat," Amy yelled at her, pointing towards club chairs on the other side of the club. Samantha gave Amy her bottle and they both walked over to the club chairs, sitting down with their backs to the wall so they could survey the club. The chairs were leather upholstery with large buttoned pins, the kind found in a smoking room of an old fashioned gentleman's working club. Samantha's grandfather took her to the club he was a member of one time, and she could remember sitting in a chair very similar to this one, watching groups of old men surrounded in cigar smoke, sipping glasses of whiskey, and hunched over playing cards.
"Dancing tires me out!" Amy said loudly, playing with her bottle and slowly picking off the label.
"It's good fun though!" Samantha said back, watching Lauren dance with her friends. It was good to see Lauren thoroughly enjoying herself after having such a tough time. The situation with her mother had improved slightly. It had turned out that her mother wasn't pregnant after all, as Lauren had feared, but had actually hit menopause.
"She's hit menopause?" Samantha had queried.
"Yeah," Lauren said over the phone. "I sat down and talked with her, like you said I should, and she just blurted it out."
"Wow."
"Yeah, well she said that that was what she meant to tell us at Christmas and, you know, it does explain a lot of things."
"Yeah, it does actually!" Samantha had agreed. "I can't believe we didn't see it before, to be honest. I mean, all the signs were there! The weird mood swings…"
"The sudden desire to rediscover life…"
"The whole drinking thing…"
"Not to mention the stomach rubs and anguished looks!"
"Yeah, poor old Mum has had it rough, hitting menopause so shortly after Dad's death."
"Mum said that she went to the doctor and he said that it was probably brought on because of the death. These things can put a strain on the body and actually cause the onset of something like that."
"Well, it's better news than her being pregnant, I can tell you that!"
"Yeah. I'm just glad that now it's all in the open, we can talk about it better and just go through it all one step at a time."
"Lauren, I am so proud of you!"
"Really? Are you?"
"Yes, because you have managed to overcome a big breakthrough and demolish those barriers that had built up between you and Mum. Now you can talk to each other about the big things, the little things will be easier to deal with."
"Yeah, I guess. But I suppose I should thank you, Sam, for forcing me to talk to Mum."
"Oh, you just needed a push in the right direction, that's all!"
Samantha smiled at the recollection of the conversation they had had earlier that week. Everything had been going so wrong a few months ago and now, everything seemed to be going right. Of course, there was that little niggling in the back of her mind about Pete's revelation about going to America. She deliberately hadn't discussed it with anyone else in case nothing came out of it. She reckoned she was also afraid of changing her mind and actually being enthusiastic about the move, something which she had so vehemently been against when Pete first told her about it. They would simply have to discuss it in more detail at some point.
Samantha looked at her glass. It was empty. Amy was finishing off the contents of her bottle and slammed the empty bottle onto the table in front of them. She then grinned at Samantha and pulled her up from her chair and on to the dance floor again. The dance floor was a little more crowded now and Samantha couldn't see most of the people there to celebrate with her. The DJ put on Yeah! by Usher and suddenly, the bar was bereft of people as everyone dashed on to the dance floor to gyrate and move in time to the popular hit. Samantha felt her personal space increasingly invaded and felt smothered by the sudden onset of people around her. Amy had managed to stay next to her, but Samantha signalled to her that she was leaving and put her hands in front of her, trying to tunnel her way through the bodies that were in the pathway between her and the door.
She reached the steps up from the dance floor and breathed a sigh of relief as she managed to shoulder her way through the last row of people. Amy came close behind and pulled herself out of the crowd.
"Are you going now?" Amy asked loudly. "But it's not even ten thirty yet!"
"It's too crowded for me," Samantha replied. "And I'm kinda tired."
"Okay, I'll come with you then."
"No! Stay and enjoy yourself, yeah? I can easily get a bus back on my own."
"Okay, well be careful, yeah?"
"Sure. Say 'Goodbye' to Lauren for me?"
"No problem! I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Sure. Bye!"
Samantha hugged Amy and made her way through the double doors and back up the stairs. She reached the front desk and fumbled around in her purse for the raffle ticket she had been given. She found it and handed it over to the curly haired man, who was now watching a football match on a small ten inch television.
"Okay, number three four one," the man said, reading out the raffle ticket number and handing Samantha her denim jacket.
"Who's playing?" Samantha asked, jerking her head towards the television.
"Man United versus Juventus."
"Who's winning?"
"Man U," the man said, screwing up his nose. "I'm more of an Arsenal fan, myself."
"Right," Samantha smiled. "Hey, do you know a taxi service I could get?"
"I have a number for Terry's Taxis."
"Oh god, no!" Samantha said, backing up slightly and holding her hands up in surrender. "My friend and I were in one of those for about thirty seconds before deciding to get out before one of us were killed!"
"Barry, right?"
"How did you know?"
"He owns the company with his brother, Terry. People complain and he's never sacked!"
"Bummer."
"I could ask for one without Barry driving it?"
"Nah, don't bother," Samantha said, heading towards the door. "I can get a bus. Thanks anyway!"
"Sure, see ya!"
Samantha pushed the door open and made her way down the street, back the way she came with Amy. She reached Lincoln Road and looked for a bus stop. Not one in sight. She knew which general direction she had to go in so just headed that way, hoping that she'd see a familiar sight at some point and then be able to get her bearings correct.
It had been raining since she and Amy had entered the club, and she scanned the pavement for puddles, not wanting to splash into one. As it was, the pavement was slippery enough from the blossom that had fallen from the trees. The cherry blossom was really very pretty, like a fluffy pink coating for the tree branches. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few weeks at the beginning of every Spring and fell off the tree branches rapidly during the later months to make way for the new leaf buds. The tiny pink blossom leaves now sat on the pavement and in the gutter, a squidgey mass of sodden blossom mixed with the rain water and dirt from the roads. Samantha trod on a particularly large mass of blossom and felt her foot give way slightly underneath her. She corrected her balance and started to look extra carefully at the pavement.
She walked for ages before looking up again to see where she was. She didn't recognise any of her surroundings. The street lights had become farther and farther apart and barely lit the street any more. She stopped and spun around. The shops had disappeared and she was now standing in a narrow street of houses, all with darkened windows, save a few top windows giving out a dimmed light. She glanced at her watch. It was ten forty five. Did buses run this late in the night?
She heard a train pass near by. She must be near the railway line. If she found the line, she would be able to walk along the footpath and then she would know where she was when she hit one of the train stations. She moved towards where she heard the train running by and came to a fence. She could see power lines running above the fence where the trains obviously ran along. A small blue signpost directed Samantha down a dark alleyway, which was a public footpath and cycle path towards the town. Samantha peered down the footpath. She couldn't see more than a few metres down there and there wasn't a light to be seen. Her feet throbbed as she stood still, wondering whether to risk walking down the dark path on her own.
She decided it wasn't worth it and turned back down the street, trying to find an alternative way of getting home. She passed side street after side street, each as dark and foreboding as the last. She had managed to get herself well and truly lost. Samantha began to feel the cold more as the wind blew sharply into her face. Her feet were beginning to go numb and her right foot felt slightly damp. She looked at the bottom but couldn't see anything. She must have a small hole in the sole of the shoe. Damn.
She continued to head towards the high street from where she had started, passing endless houses and seeing narrow dark alleyways that made their way round to the back of the houses. Upon reaching the high street again, Samantha breathed a small sigh of relief as she saw a 'Lincoln Road' sign on the corner house. She turned into the street and decided to go in the opposite direction from before.
Suddenly, she felt a strong pair of hands grip her arms from behind her. She felt a sharp object prod into her back and a hand clamped over her mouth.
"Scream and I'll knife ya," a husky voice whispered into her ear. "Hand over the bag."
Samantha loosened the grip on her handbag and let the strap slip down her arm. Then she suddenly kicked her attacker hard in the shins. He yelped and let go of her. She whipped round and faced her attacker. His face was covered with a balaclava and all she could see was a pair of narrow slit green eyes glaring back at her. She went to turn and run but she suddenly felt a sharp pain go right through her stomach. She looked down and saw a knife being extracted from her stomach. She clutched the wound and felt a warm substance run rapidly over her hands and seep through her fingers. The knife went in again, this time a lot lower, and as the knife was pulled out a second time, Samantha's knees buckled and she collapsed on to the pavement, her clothes soaking up the rain water and blossom leaves sticking all over her. She saw a pair of boots run away from her and she tried to call out for help but couldn't find her voice. Her vision went all blurry and she didn't know if it was because she was crying from the pain or if it was because she was dying. Her hands were still pressed against her stomach, desperately trying to combat the bleeding. She heard voices and the sound of footsteps approaching but couldn't make out all the words. She felt her eyes become extremely heavy but couldn't fight to keep them open any more. She shut them and then heard the voices more clearly.
"Fuckin' 'ell, Scott, call an ambulance, quick!"
"Shit, Mike, d'ya fink she's still alive?"
"Dunno, jus' call an ambulance mate!"
Samantha managed to prise her eyes open a little and saw a young man crouched over her, his ear near her nose and mouth.
"She's still brea'fin', but I dunno if she's gonna stay tha' way."
"Ambulance is gonna be here real soon, Mike."
"She's bleedin' loads from her stomach, mate."
Samantha felt her hands being gently removed from her stomach and then an enormous amount of pressure being applied on top of the wounds.
"Shit, mate, wot if she dies, like 'ere, wiv us just sittin' 'ere."
"Don't say fings like that mate! It gives me the creeps an' everyfin'."
"Er, 'ello? Can you 'ear us?"
Samantha tried to move but couldn't. Her limbs felt increasingly heavy and she couldn't do anything. She tried to wiggle her fingers but even that seemed like too much hard work.
"Okay, we've got it from here boys."
An older man was speaking and Samantha felt the pressure from her stomach lift.
"No, no, reapply the pressure, mate, like you were. What's your name?"
"Er, Mike."
Samantha felt the pressure go back on to her stomach and then a plastic mask go over her nose and mouth.
"An' I'm Scott. I called yer. We found 'er just lyin' there wiv blood an' everyfin'."
"Okay," the older man was saying. "Did either of you see anything suspicious or unusual?"
"Not really," Mike was saying. "There weren't anyone else. Jus' me, me bruv an' this girl."
"There was this man runnin', though, weren't there?" Scott said. "'E was runnin' down t'wards the train station in tha' direction."
Samantha felt herself being lifted and placed on a gurney. She must be inside the ambulance. She suddenly felt a wave of nausea and blacked out.
Back to Chapter XIII
Go to Chapter XV
"Okay, okay, I'm coming!" Samantha said to the intercom receiver. She reached the wall, pushed the button, and said, "Yeah?"
"Hi, it's Amy!"
"Hey, you okay?"
"I've forgotten the security code for your block!"
"Oh, it got changed last week and I forgot to tell you. Sorry! It's red, yellow, purple, purple, green."
Samantha heard a loud tone sound and then the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. She opened the apartment door and waited for Amy to appear.
"Hey," Amy waved as she mounted the last set of stairs.
"Hey!" Samantha waved back.
"All ready for tonight?"
"Not quite," Samantha admitted, ushering her friend in from the communal corridor. "I'm just gonna pull on some tights and finish my make up and then I'll be with you, okay?"
"No rush," Amy said, closing the apartment door behind her. "The girls aren't going to be at the club until nine anyway, so we have plenty of time."
"What time is it now, then?"
"Seven thirty."
"Lauren and Mum are going to meet us there in an hour, so we can start early or we can just go into a pub and wait for the others to arrive first."
"We can go to the pub," Amy said, taking off her jacket and taking a seat on one of the breakfast bar stools. "That way we don't have to wait out in the cold and we won't miss them when they come in."
"Good thinking," Samantha said, disappearing into her bedroom.
"So, what's Pete doing for his stag night?"
"I'll give you one guess," Samantha called from her bedroom.
"Strip club?"
"That's the one!"
"Has Stuart gone with them?"
"Yeah," Samantha said, reappearing from the bedroom, carrying a pair of tights and one shoe. She put the shoe down next to another that was sitting under the coffee table. She then sat on the sofa and proceeded to pull on the tights. "Stu and Matt decided that if there weren't any men in the show, they'd just go to their usual haunt."
"Which strip club have they gone to?"
"Dunno. I didn't ask."
"Any instructions?" Amy asked suggestively, an eyebrow raising as she pulled an impish grin.
Samantha returned the grin. "Well, I told him to be home by eleven, of course (!)"
"Seriously!"
"Nah, I trust him. Don't trust his brother much though. I threatened him with public humiliation if Pete finds himself tied up naked in the middle of nowhere tomorrow morning!"
"His brother's the teacher, yeah?"
"Yeah, Ben I think his name is. I've only met him a couple of times, including earlier this afternoon."
"Don't you think it's weird having a hen night a month before you get married?"
"No, not really," Samantha said, hitching her tights up fully and then sitting again to put on her shoes. "It's too risky, really. All that drinking and the late night. The next day you'd have a hangover and be all pallid, with a few spots added, no doubt. No, for the whole week before the wedding I'm having an early night to try and shift these dark circles, and then the day before the wedding, I'm locking myself up in the bathroom and doing nothing but pampering!"
"Cool! I might do that myself, actually!"
"Okay, I'm ready!"
"Good!" Amy said, standing up and reaching for her mobile. "I'll call for a taxi."
Amy moved her thumb over the keys on her mobile phone and held it up to her ear. Samantha went back into her bedroom and put her door keys and some money into her bag. She looked over to her mobile phone. The battery had gone and, despite sitting in the charger for an hour, it still wasn't fully charged. Even if she took it out now it probably wouldn't last the evening. She decided to just leave it. She doubted she'd get any calls and she could always use Amy's if she got stuck.
"Taxi will be here in five," Amy said, poking her head around the bedroom door. "We should wait down stairs in the car park."
"Sure," Samantha said, grabbing her jacket off the back of her bedroom door and shutting the door behind her. She switched off the flat lights and they both made their way down the stairs to the darkened car park.
It wasn't all that cold for March but Samantha still felt that she needed the denim jacket she now had tightly buttoned over her dress.
"So, is everything sorted now?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, thank God!" Samantha said. "Pete got one of the local restaurants to open the top floor exclusively for us, so we dropped the hire at Cockfosters and we'll just hold the reception there instead. I spent all last week contacting everyone by phone to make sure they knew about the change in arrangements and, of course, while they were on the phone, I was chatting to them about stuff since we'd last met. I was on the phone for ages some nights! I'm dreading the bill when it comes through!"
"At least everything is sorted now, though."
"Yeah. It's all plain sailing now from here on in!"
A car careened around the corner and skidded to a halt outside the block of flats. The taxi light came on and Amy and Samantha slowly approached it.
"You want a taxi, ladies?" the driver said, winding his window down.
"Yeah."
"Name?"
"Amy."
"Amy, Amy…" the driver muttered, shuffling papers about. "Okay, a lift for two to Verve's, mobile number prefix zero seven seven nine eight?"
"That's right," Amy said, opening the back door to the car. She clambered into the back seat and Samantha eased herself into the car seat next to her.
"My name's Barry," the driver said, sounding bored and reeling off the information as if he was a robot. "My license is on the dividing window, if you have any questions please ask the receptionist at the call centre, please use the seat belts, they are there for your safety and to comply with the law, have a nice journey and enjoy riding with Terry's Taxis."
The driver finished his reel, switched the taxi light to 'In Service', and then slammed his foot down on the accelerator. The taxi shot off into the side road and Samantha felt pinned to the back seat. She reached out for the seat belt and pulled it tightly across herself and snapped the clip into the buckle. She glanced over at Amy who was hurriedly doing the same. The car careened around the roundabout and Samantha swore she felt it tip slightly. Did the car really just have only two wheels in contact with the road? She gripped the door handle with her left hand and the bottom of the seat with her right. She braced herself against the back of the seat as she saw speed bumps coming up ahead. She shut her eyes tightly and 'bang'. The car had hit the bump and the back suspension bounced into the air.
"D'ya mind slowing just a little, please?" Amy asked. She was also gripping on to the door and the seat and had turned slightly pale. "Only I've just eaten and I really don't want to see my dinner on the taxi floor."
"Going slower will cost ya," Barry shrugged, the car bouncing off another speed hump.
The car suddenly braked to a halt and Samantha was thrown forwards, only for her seat belt to catch her and cut her slightly across her chest.
"Okay, I'm getting out now!" Samantha said. She unbuckled herself and opened the door.
"We're not there yet," Barry said. "Close the door."
"You have got to be joking!" Samantha said, hauling herself out of the taxi. "This car is a fucking death trap!"
Amy followed suit and threw a five pound note at the driver. As soon as Amy had slammed her door shut, the driver shot off again in a cloud of exhaust fumes.
"That guy is gonna find himself wrapped around a lamp post one of these days," Samantha said.
"I thought I was going to be sick," Amy said. "Okay, how far did we get?"
"We're on Lincoln Road."
"I think Verve's is just round the next block, actually."
"We are so getting a bus back!"
"You're telling me!"
The girls made their way down the street, passing numerous closed shops and cafés, and looking for the club they were supposed to be at.
"Have you ever been to Verve's?" Samantha asked.
"Yeah," Amy replied, "but only the once. My cousin went for her birthday a few months ago. It was a really good night out. That's why I suggested it."
"Lauren said that Mum knew it so they would have no problem in finding it, but I couldn't think where it was. I've never heard of it."
"Oh, it's barely visible from the outside, but inside it's enormous. You'll see when we get there."
They turned the corner, and the only light Samantha could see was from the pub on the corner of the street. Revellers stood outside in the cold, waiting to go inside and grab a drink. Two burly looking bouncers stood on the double doors, hands neatly folded in front of them, and giant radios sticking out of their jacket pockets. The pub itself was packed with people, the bar barely visible from the crowd of people that stood around it, waving ten and twenty pound bills in the air to try and catch a bartender's eye. The jukebox was blaring out She's Electric by Oasis and a few drunken men and women were dancing in front of it, pints held up in the air and falling on to each other. A man and a woman were playing snooker by the far wall, with piles of coins lining one side of the table, acting as a queue for use of the game.
"We are never gonna get in there," Samantha said to Amy. "This queue of people may never get shorter until at least ten o'clock tonight, if not later."
"We're not going into the pub," Amy said. "We're going into the club next door."
Samantha looked at the building in front of them. It was darkened and was visibly abandoned. The door had been boarded up and the windows had hardboard against them on the inside, and bars across where glass once was on the outside.
"You're not suggesting that there's a club inside that abandoned building, are you?"
"No, it's there!" Amy said, pointing to a small unassuming door on the side wall of the pub. She grabbed Samantha's hand and pushed through the queue of people waiting to get into the pub. She pushed the door open and a man with a mop of curly hair looked up from a newspaper sitting on his desk.
"Hi, welcome to Verve's," he said.
"Hi," Amy said. "I'd like entry and a coat check, please."
"Okay, that'll be six fifty," the man said, getting up from his chair and grabbing a coat hanger from under the desk. He took her coat and pinned a raffle ticket to the collar. He then gave Amy the other side of the ticket and she put it inside her purse.
"The same please," Samantha said, handing her jacket over the counter.
"Six fifty, please," the man said, taking her jacket from her and handing her a raffle ticket. "Okay, have fun girls!"
The man sat down again and returned to reading his newspaper. Amy took Samantha's arm and they made their way through the double doors. They made their way down a staircase, lit up by neon tubing lining the walls. The music from the club got louder as they ascended the stairs and suddenly hit them full force as they walked through another set of double doors at the bottom of the staircase.
Amy was right. The club was enormous. It must have covered the entire basement that the pub above them was standing on. The whole place had black paint on the walls with the very bottom of the wall covered in mirrored panelling. The dance floor was a very large circle of hard wearing laminate and was set lower than the rest of the club, which was covered in a mixture of carpeting and metal ridged tiles, like the flooring of a commercial lift, to stop trolley wheels from slipping. Steps down to the dance floor were situated in front of the entrance door and at both sides. The back of the floor was panelled up high in matt black, and a DJ was clearly visible above the panelling, set behind a plastic sheet in a high-level booth.
Samantha and Amy began to circle the club, taking in further their surroundings. The side they walked around now had a bar all along the one wall, broken up by large columns situated about five metres apart. Rails separated the club floor from the sunken dance floor, and metal tables and chairs had been set up by the rails. As they reached the back of the club, they saw that the DJ booth was panelled all the way to the back wall of the club, so it was like a huge column sitting on the back of the club. There was no way around the back. All traffic had to make its way from side to side around the front. Samantha could just make out the shape of a door in the black panelling. She reckoned it was probably how the DJs got into the booth. She walked with Amy back round to the front of the club and stopped at the far end of the bar.
"Drink?" Amy yelled into her ear over the music., making a drinking action with her hand.
"Yeah!" Samantha yelled back, nodding.
Amy fished into her purse for a five pound note. She leant on the bar and attracted the attention of a female bartender. She leant far over and pointed at the bottles in the fridge, all with brightly coloured liquid inside them. The bartender pulled out two bottle of bright blue liquid, plied open the lids, and slammed them on to the bar. Amy handed over her fiver and the bartender slashed a swipe card through the till and fished out a two pound coin. Amy took the money and handed one of the blue bottles to Samantha.
"What is it?" Samantha yelled to Amy.
"Vodka," Amy yelled back, swigging the blue liquid back.
Samantha followed suit, and tasted a raspberry flavour in her mouth. It wasn't like a real raspberry flavour though. It was more like the bad flavouring that normally occurred in cheap soft drinks. She studied the label on the side of the bottle. Raspberry vodka, made in Sheffield.
"I didn't know they made vodka in Sheffield!" Samantha said.
"What?" Amy yelled.
"It's made in Sheffield!" Samantha said loudly, pointing at the label.
"Weird!" Amy agreed, making her way to the dance floor.
Samantha followed her, knocking back more of her drink, and saw that Lauren was down there, with a few of her friends from school. Samantha's cousins, Jayne and Marie, had also made it, as well as a bunch of friends from work and college. A lot of hugs and air kisses ensued, and bottles of drink were clinked together in congratulations at Samantha's impending nuptials. The group then broke off into smaller sections and they began to dance to the pounding dance music.
Samantha spun around and looked at the other people in the club. Most of them were dressed causally, with the girls in dressy jeans and sparkly tops, and the men in various coloured shirts and black trousers. Samantha's cousins had already found male dance partners and were laughing and joking with them. Lauren was dancing with her friends, all taking it in turns to spin under each others' arms. Samantha smiled at Amy and she grinned back, taking Samantha's arm and dancing around in a circle.
Samantha looked up at the ceiling and saw neon tubes on a gurney, moving in a circular motion around the dance floor. Six laser beams were projected from a small hole housed in front of the DJ booth and reflected off the tiny mirrored disco balls situated all over the ceiling of the club. Lights flashed everywhere and Samantha embraced her surroundings, dancing among all the coloured lights in the company of her friends and family.
"Do you want another drink?" Samantha shouted into Amy's ear.
"Sure," Amy yelled back. "The same again, yeah?"
Samantha made her way over to the bar and saw Lauren.
"Hi!" Samantha said, brushing her sister's back gently.
"Hey!" Lauren said loudly back, hugging her sister. "Do you want a drink?"
"No, my round!" Samantha insisted. "What can I get you?"
"My usual would be good!"
"Where's Mum?"
"She's at Aunt Joan's tonight. I think she's trying to break another barrier."
A male bartender came over. "Can I help you?" he asked loudly.
"Yeah," Samantha replied loudly. "One of those blue bottles, a G and T, and a Jack Daniels and coke."
The bartender pulled a blue bottle out of the fridge and opened the lid with one hand as he pulled a glass down and ejected gin and tonic water into it with the other hand. The bottle was put down and another glass was reached for and had Jack Daniels poured into it. The first glass was placed on the bar and that free hand then dispensed coke into the second glass. Samantha saw the dispenser was actually a pump of water gushing through the hole with a thin jet of coke arching into the water. Coke flavoured water, Samantha thought to herself. No wonder the prices haven't been hiked up in here.
She handed over her money and waited for her change, pushing the G and T towards Lauren. The bartender gave her her change and she deposited it into her bag and grabbed the drinks. She headed back towards the dance floor and saw Amy coming up the steps towards her.
"I'm gonna go grab a seat," Amy yelled at her, pointing towards club chairs on the other side of the club. Samantha gave Amy her bottle and they both walked over to the club chairs, sitting down with their backs to the wall so they could survey the club. The chairs were leather upholstery with large buttoned pins, the kind found in a smoking room of an old fashioned gentleman's working club. Samantha's grandfather took her to the club he was a member of one time, and she could remember sitting in a chair very similar to this one, watching groups of old men surrounded in cigar smoke, sipping glasses of whiskey, and hunched over playing cards.
"Dancing tires me out!" Amy said loudly, playing with her bottle and slowly picking off the label.
"It's good fun though!" Samantha said back, watching Lauren dance with her friends. It was good to see Lauren thoroughly enjoying herself after having such a tough time. The situation with her mother had improved slightly. It had turned out that her mother wasn't pregnant after all, as Lauren had feared, but had actually hit menopause.
"She's hit menopause?" Samantha had queried.
"Yeah," Lauren said over the phone. "I sat down and talked with her, like you said I should, and she just blurted it out."
"Wow."
"Yeah, well she said that that was what she meant to tell us at Christmas and, you know, it does explain a lot of things."
"Yeah, it does actually!" Samantha had agreed. "I can't believe we didn't see it before, to be honest. I mean, all the signs were there! The weird mood swings…"
"The sudden desire to rediscover life…"
"The whole drinking thing…"
"Not to mention the stomach rubs and anguished looks!"
"Yeah, poor old Mum has had it rough, hitting menopause so shortly after Dad's death."
"Mum said that she went to the doctor and he said that it was probably brought on because of the death. These things can put a strain on the body and actually cause the onset of something like that."
"Well, it's better news than her being pregnant, I can tell you that!"
"Yeah. I'm just glad that now it's all in the open, we can talk about it better and just go through it all one step at a time."
"Lauren, I am so proud of you!"
"Really? Are you?"
"Yes, because you have managed to overcome a big breakthrough and demolish those barriers that had built up between you and Mum. Now you can talk to each other about the big things, the little things will be easier to deal with."
"Yeah, I guess. But I suppose I should thank you, Sam, for forcing me to talk to Mum."
"Oh, you just needed a push in the right direction, that's all!"
Samantha smiled at the recollection of the conversation they had had earlier that week. Everything had been going so wrong a few months ago and now, everything seemed to be going right. Of course, there was that little niggling in the back of her mind about Pete's revelation about going to America. She deliberately hadn't discussed it with anyone else in case nothing came out of it. She reckoned she was also afraid of changing her mind and actually being enthusiastic about the move, something which she had so vehemently been against when Pete first told her about it. They would simply have to discuss it in more detail at some point.
Samantha looked at her glass. It was empty. Amy was finishing off the contents of her bottle and slammed the empty bottle onto the table in front of them. She then grinned at Samantha and pulled her up from her chair and on to the dance floor again. The dance floor was a little more crowded now and Samantha couldn't see most of the people there to celebrate with her. The DJ put on Yeah! by Usher and suddenly, the bar was bereft of people as everyone dashed on to the dance floor to gyrate and move in time to the popular hit. Samantha felt her personal space increasingly invaded and felt smothered by the sudden onset of people around her. Amy had managed to stay next to her, but Samantha signalled to her that she was leaving and put her hands in front of her, trying to tunnel her way through the bodies that were in the pathway between her and the door.
She reached the steps up from the dance floor and breathed a sigh of relief as she managed to shoulder her way through the last row of people. Amy came close behind and pulled herself out of the crowd.
"Are you going now?" Amy asked loudly. "But it's not even ten thirty yet!"
"It's too crowded for me," Samantha replied. "And I'm kinda tired."
"Okay, I'll come with you then."
"No! Stay and enjoy yourself, yeah? I can easily get a bus back on my own."
"Okay, well be careful, yeah?"
"Sure. Say 'Goodbye' to Lauren for me?"
"No problem! I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Sure. Bye!"
Samantha hugged Amy and made her way through the double doors and back up the stairs. She reached the front desk and fumbled around in her purse for the raffle ticket she had been given. She found it and handed it over to the curly haired man, who was now watching a football match on a small ten inch television.
"Okay, number three four one," the man said, reading out the raffle ticket number and handing Samantha her denim jacket.
"Who's playing?" Samantha asked, jerking her head towards the television.
"Man United versus Juventus."
"Who's winning?"
"Man U," the man said, screwing up his nose. "I'm more of an Arsenal fan, myself."
"Right," Samantha smiled. "Hey, do you know a taxi service I could get?"
"I have a number for Terry's Taxis."
"Oh god, no!" Samantha said, backing up slightly and holding her hands up in surrender. "My friend and I were in one of those for about thirty seconds before deciding to get out before one of us were killed!"
"Barry, right?"
"How did you know?"
"He owns the company with his brother, Terry. People complain and he's never sacked!"
"Bummer."
"I could ask for one without Barry driving it?"
"Nah, don't bother," Samantha said, heading towards the door. "I can get a bus. Thanks anyway!"
"Sure, see ya!"
Samantha pushed the door open and made her way down the street, back the way she came with Amy. She reached Lincoln Road and looked for a bus stop. Not one in sight. She knew which general direction she had to go in so just headed that way, hoping that she'd see a familiar sight at some point and then be able to get her bearings correct.
It had been raining since she and Amy had entered the club, and she scanned the pavement for puddles, not wanting to splash into one. As it was, the pavement was slippery enough from the blossom that had fallen from the trees. The cherry blossom was really very pretty, like a fluffy pink coating for the tree branches. Unfortunately, it only lasted a few weeks at the beginning of every Spring and fell off the tree branches rapidly during the later months to make way for the new leaf buds. The tiny pink blossom leaves now sat on the pavement and in the gutter, a squidgey mass of sodden blossom mixed with the rain water and dirt from the roads. Samantha trod on a particularly large mass of blossom and felt her foot give way slightly underneath her. She corrected her balance and started to look extra carefully at the pavement.
She walked for ages before looking up again to see where she was. She didn't recognise any of her surroundings. The street lights had become farther and farther apart and barely lit the street any more. She stopped and spun around. The shops had disappeared and she was now standing in a narrow street of houses, all with darkened windows, save a few top windows giving out a dimmed light. She glanced at her watch. It was ten forty five. Did buses run this late in the night?
She heard a train pass near by. She must be near the railway line. If she found the line, she would be able to walk along the footpath and then she would know where she was when she hit one of the train stations. She moved towards where she heard the train running by and came to a fence. She could see power lines running above the fence where the trains obviously ran along. A small blue signpost directed Samantha down a dark alleyway, which was a public footpath and cycle path towards the town. Samantha peered down the footpath. She couldn't see more than a few metres down there and there wasn't a light to be seen. Her feet throbbed as she stood still, wondering whether to risk walking down the dark path on her own.
She decided it wasn't worth it and turned back down the street, trying to find an alternative way of getting home. She passed side street after side street, each as dark and foreboding as the last. She had managed to get herself well and truly lost. Samantha began to feel the cold more as the wind blew sharply into her face. Her feet were beginning to go numb and her right foot felt slightly damp. She looked at the bottom but couldn't see anything. She must have a small hole in the sole of the shoe. Damn.
She continued to head towards the high street from where she had started, passing endless houses and seeing narrow dark alleyways that made their way round to the back of the houses. Upon reaching the high street again, Samantha breathed a small sigh of relief as she saw a 'Lincoln Road' sign on the corner house. She turned into the street and decided to go in the opposite direction from before.
Suddenly, she felt a strong pair of hands grip her arms from behind her. She felt a sharp object prod into her back and a hand clamped over her mouth.
"Scream and I'll knife ya," a husky voice whispered into her ear. "Hand over the bag."
Samantha loosened the grip on her handbag and let the strap slip down her arm. Then she suddenly kicked her attacker hard in the shins. He yelped and let go of her. She whipped round and faced her attacker. His face was covered with a balaclava and all she could see was a pair of narrow slit green eyes glaring back at her. She went to turn and run but she suddenly felt a sharp pain go right through her stomach. She looked down and saw a knife being extracted from her stomach. She clutched the wound and felt a warm substance run rapidly over her hands and seep through her fingers. The knife went in again, this time a lot lower, and as the knife was pulled out a second time, Samantha's knees buckled and she collapsed on to the pavement, her clothes soaking up the rain water and blossom leaves sticking all over her. She saw a pair of boots run away from her and she tried to call out for help but couldn't find her voice. Her vision went all blurry and she didn't know if it was because she was crying from the pain or if it was because she was dying. Her hands were still pressed against her stomach, desperately trying to combat the bleeding. She heard voices and the sound of footsteps approaching but couldn't make out all the words. She felt her eyes become extremely heavy but couldn't fight to keep them open any more. She shut them and then heard the voices more clearly.
"Fuckin' 'ell, Scott, call an ambulance, quick!"
"Shit, Mike, d'ya fink she's still alive?"
"Dunno, jus' call an ambulance mate!"
Samantha managed to prise her eyes open a little and saw a young man crouched over her, his ear near her nose and mouth.
"She's still brea'fin', but I dunno if she's gonna stay tha' way."
"Ambulance is gonna be here real soon, Mike."
"She's bleedin' loads from her stomach, mate."
Samantha felt her hands being gently removed from her stomach and then an enormous amount of pressure being applied on top of the wounds.
"Shit, mate, wot if she dies, like 'ere, wiv us just sittin' 'ere."
"Don't say fings like that mate! It gives me the creeps an' everyfin'."
"Er, 'ello? Can you 'ear us?"
Samantha tried to move but couldn't. Her limbs felt increasingly heavy and she couldn't do anything. She tried to wiggle her fingers but even that seemed like too much hard work.
"Okay, we've got it from here boys."
An older man was speaking and Samantha felt the pressure from her stomach lift.
"No, no, reapply the pressure, mate, like you were. What's your name?"
"Er, Mike."
Samantha felt the pressure go back on to her stomach and then a plastic mask go over her nose and mouth.
"An' I'm Scott. I called yer. We found 'er just lyin' there wiv blood an' everyfin'."
"Okay," the older man was saying. "Did either of you see anything suspicious or unusual?"
"Not really," Mike was saying. "There weren't anyone else. Jus' me, me bruv an' this girl."
"There was this man runnin', though, weren't there?" Scott said. "'E was runnin' down t'wards the train station in tha' direction."
Samantha felt herself being lifted and placed on a gurney. She must be inside the ambulance. She suddenly felt a wave of nausea and blacked out.
Back to Chapter XIII
Go to Chapter XV
© 2004 Clare Benton
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