Silent - The Dark

'Bring back some chocolate anyway. Yes, and some red. If you're having a drink, so am I.'
           
'Sure.' I give Mel a mock salute and leave, taking the lift down to the ground floor. When I step into the entrance hall, the same creepy silence from earlier greets me, interrupted only by the steady tap of drizzle on the glass dome in the ceiling. I'm standing in darkness. All the lights have gone out. I try one of the switches on the wall. Nothing happens. Odd. For a second or two, I think I hear footsteps on one of the balconies. Light rapid ones.

'Hello?' I call up in the darkness.
           
Silence.
           
I step outside and make my way across the car park. The evening has turned chilly with the scent of damp fields and manure lingering in the air. I cross the long grass plain. Stop.
           
Footsteps behind me.
           
I swing round.  'Hello?'
           
No one there. Just grass and railings and single storey buildings that no longer serve a purpose.
           
I continue.

Turn the corner.

Stop again.

Look round.

An empty lane.

I resume my walk.

Stop.

Glance back.

Just the cooling towers.

I didn't hear anything.

Did I?

I check a fourth time, to make sure. Lousy weather, that's all. Vince Macarthur's locked up. He can't hurt me ever again. Let go.

I glance round one more time. Fine. I'm being stupid. I check on the situation regularly.

Macarthur's in prison. After he attacked me with the crowbar, he flipped. Went berserk and crashed the van into a wall. As for me…well, it's fortunate. The dog walker found me lying unconscious and ran to the nearest house to phone for an ambulance. Six months later, I married Lana. And the rest is history.

I climb the hill into the village, past a pub set back from the steep winding road. The surrounding hills appear small in the fading daylight and tiny lights come from distant houses.

I take the first right to the off licence, and think more about Gordon. He and I had no contact after that terrible Bank Holiday Monday on Whaley Hill when we were kids. Now, he's based only a few miles away, doing well for himself. I'd like to meet up with him again, but I can't help thinking I should drop this while I still have the chance. He blanked me afterwards and cut me out of his life, but never told me why.  He just used to laugh at me and get his new mates to do the same.

What would you do, Craig?