Priest stumbled through the bedroom door, barely aware of his surroundings and with only the vaguest notion that it was his flat he was tearing through. The bed looked warm and inviting, in stark contrast to the swamp-like basement where the hideous, dead creature had been dumped.

The smell of rot stuck to him. He couldn’t get it off.

He half fell onto the bed, sat up against the headboard and scrunched his knees up. He was breathing loudly but he hadn’t run anywhere. Had he? He sat still, unable to extinguish the worry that he was bleeding from somewhere but he didn’t know where from. The detachment from his body was the ultimate paranoia trip.

There was a commotion in the room next door and Priest froze, every muscle in his body tensed. Someone was in his flat. More than one person. They were here, right next door, getting closer. He couldn’t move, even when the door crashed open and took a chunk of skirting board with it, he couldn’t move.

Priest saw a man with dark, messy hair and a woman, young and pretty with long slender legs, fall through the open door and scramble onto the bed next to him. They hadn’t noticed him, so engrossed were they in each other, their mouths locked together, their arms entwined. Priest knew that he should leave, get off the bed at least, but he couldn’t. The man was familiar, the woman too, and yet their animalistic groping suggested they didn’t know each other, as the man clumsily straddled her, removing his shirt and starting to unbutton her top.

‘I only came round to get my photograph back,’ the woman gasped, pinching the skin across the man’s biceps.

‘It wasn’t your photograph, and I know what you really came for, Elinor,’ the man grunted, and his voice sounded like it belonged to Priest.

He felt his erection fighting to be released, a bead of sweat formed on his brow. He felt ashamed, getting off on watching the couple.

The man had unwrapped the woman and she sat up, her long, blonde hair ruffled and glinting in the light as he kissed her chest, felt around her back and removed her bra, ran his tongue over her nipples as she moaned softly.

‘Why didn’t you fuck me the other night?’ she whispered.

He didn’t answer, instead he tucked his fingers into the sides of her jeans and pulled them off, pants as well. Priest felt a surge of energy as he lost control and the man on his bed buried his head between her legs.

Chapter 27

Chapter 27