"Covered in Blood" by Stephen Barnard

Covered in Blood

by Stephen Barnard

“And then I wake up outside, covered in blood.” Nathaniel sat back on the couch and threw up his hands, lifting the shoulders of his blazer as he did so.

Doctor Brooker, sitting opposite in a leather desk chair, made a couple of notes on his pad and peered at his new patient. “Just outside my office door, by Helen’s desk, or outside in the street?”

“In the alleyway, between the dumpster and the fire escape. My back to the brick wall, my ass on the concrete and blood everywhere. In the dream I do a quick check and none of its mine. I haul myself up and make for the street. That’s when I wake up.”

“Interesting.” Brooker flicked a few pages back and tapped at the writing with his pen. “In your referral notes from Doctor Levin, he says that this has happened to you before, a number of times, the first one in your teens…”

“That’s right. Twelve years ago. I was fifteen. I dreamt I was standing behind the Franklins’ barn on the outskirts of town, soaked in blood. Two nights later, it came true. I came to – out of some kind of daze – looking and feeling exactly as I did in the dream. I ran home, destroyed the soiled clothes and hid in my room for a couple of days. It’s happened three times since then; four if you count what I dreamt the other night about your alleyway.”

“Oh, it’s not my alleyway.”

“But it is your fire escape.” 

The two men stared at each other. Brooker was narrowing his eyes, as if trying to zoom in and peer straight through Nathaniel’s pupils into his brain. Nathaniel was gently nodding his head, as if in receipt of some fresh understanding.

Brooker broke the silence. “Let’s go back to the first time it happened. When you came out of hiding, was there any indication in the town about what might have happened, where the blood might have come from?”

“Oh yeah. Fraser Franklin was dead. He’d been cut up real bad.”

Brooker raised an eyebrow. “So, did you hand yourself in to the authorities? It seems obvious you were… at the scene.”

“I was gonna, but then the town was practically rejoicing about Fraser being dead. Seems he’d been mistreating his wife for years. Other women came forward and called him a monster. They’d kept quiet out of fear, but now he was dead they spoke of how he’d assaulted them, and – you know – done much worse.”

“I see.” Brooker scribbled something else on his pad.

“I’d had another dream too, before it happened, of Katie Reeves being attacked – quite horribly – by a shadowy figure. I put it down to hormones and buried it. But from what she said about Fraser, it sounds like I’d had some kind of vision of her trauma.”

“Like a second sight? Dr Levin noted down something similar from your sessions. However, I doubt he believes it.”

“I didn’t believe it either, at first, but then what else could it be? And then when it’s happened again over the years, I’ve just come to accept it.”

“Hmmm. I’m not sure that’s healthy, Nathaniel. There will be a more rational explanation: we just have to find it. But tell me more about that first instance. What about your parents?”

“Like the townsfolk, they were saying they hoped the killer got away scot-free. They’d done the world a favor getting rid of scum like Franklin. I didn’t think I could tell them though – didn’t want to burden them with the dilemma of what to do with me. So I kept quiet.”

“And every other time this has happened, it has resulted in a similar outcome? You dream you’re covered in blood, then something happens to make it real, and then you hear of a person being killed near to where you’ve woken up?”

“Not just a person, Doctor Brooker. A monster.”

“I see.” He sat back in his chair, twirling slightly so he could put his pad and pen on his desk. “So what do you think is going on here? Your dream of waking up behind this building, steeped in the color of your trade, so to speak?”

“Let me ask you a question,” Nathaniel returned. “Why do you think Doctor Levin transferred me to you?”

“We’ve known each other a long time; he has knowledge of my expertise in this field. If we can-”

“I think he has knowledge of something else too, Doctor Brooker. And based on the vision I had last night about you in your study, I believe I have too.”

There was a sheen of perspiration on Brooker’s forehead. “I don’t know what you’re insinuating.”

“I’m insinuating nothing. I’m telling you that I saw you at your laptop opening a folder called ‘Eros’. There were images of naked children. And videos. With adults accompanying them. Yourself included.”

Brooker shot up, sending his chair into his desk. He pointed an accusatory finger at Nathaniel, the hand jabbing it at the younger man. “You… You!”

Nathaniel stood also, and as he did, he retrieved a long knife from his inside blazer pocket. “No, Doctor Brooker. You.” 

**

Nathaniel came to in the alleyway. He pushed himself up the wall, tried to wipe his hands clear of blood, and gazed up at the fire-escape. There were drips of scarlet on the steps, the concrete, the dumpster. Territory marked, his crime apparent to all. He didn’t know how he would deal with it this time – it had never happened to him in the city. He walked towards the street, thinking he might just have to accept his fate.

As he got to the opening and the brighter, busier atmosphere, a car pulled over and the passenger seat flung open. Nathaniel dipped his head and peered in.

It was Doctor Levin. “Get in, Nathaniel. Let’s get you away from here and cleaned up.” He smiled. “You’ve done good.”