Lairies – Steve Hollyman

Pass asks, obviously eager to get the ball rolling and impress his partner. ‘Yes,’ I say. Kelsey asks Pass to get some chairs. There’s a stack against the opposite wall, and Pass scurries over to fetch a couple, tail wagging as he brings them back. ‘Let’s start with what you remember,’ suggests Kelsey when they’re both sitting down. ‘Where do you want me to start?’

‘The day you were attacked.’ ‘I remember up until about eight in the evening. I’d arranged to go out with some mates, and one of them – Tony – he came over to my flat for a few beers first. The last thing I remember is getting into a taxi with him.’ ‘Tony’s full name is…?’ ‘Sorry. It’s Anthony Redding.’ Pass makes a note. ‘And where were you getting the taxi to?’ ‘To the town centre. High street, where all the bars are.’

I want to tell them that all this bollocks is irrelevant, and that all they should be interested in is catching the people who did this. It doesn’t matter what the fuck I was doing up until it happened. All that matters is that it did happen. Steph got raped, and I got the shit kicked out of me. The only thing that stops me from saying this to them is the fact that I want to be as helpful as possible for Steph’s sake.

They’ll no doubt be speaking to her again once they’ve heard my side, and I don’t want them to report back to her that I was an uncooperative prick. ‘Who else was there?’ asks Pass. ‘No one. Just me and Tony.’ ‘No, I mean who did you meet up with?’ ‘I don’t remember. I know that I met up with my girlfriend, Steph, but that’s only because Tony told me when he came to visit.

There are a couple of other guys we usually meet up with – I can give you their details if you like? – Jake Anderson and Darren O’Brien. Also, Tony’s mate Gaz. But I don’t know his surname. A couple of others.’ Pass keeps scribbling. Probably best not to mention Nick the dealer. ‘What I need to get to the bottom of,’ Kelsey says once his partner has finished writing, ‘is what went on once you were all together inside the club.

Did anything unusual happen between you and Steph that night?’ ‘Such as?’ ‘An argument.’ I don’t understand why he’s asking questions that he quite obviously knows the answer to already. I tell the truth, because there’s no point in withholding it: ‘Apparently we had an argument, yeah.’

‘Apparently?’ ‘Yeah, apparently. I don’t remember, but Tony told me.’

He’s lying on the floor, mouth open like he’s sleeping, but with wide unresponsive eyes fixed on someshit above him. Inside my head I’m not in this club with the lairies and the skanks, caught up in this brawl with someone I’ve never met. Inside my head I’m alone and in silence.

Fuck me, I’m thinking, all mute panic. I’ve fuckin killed the cunt. Then bedlam returns. Pumping beats. Throbbing bass. Guys and girls gobbing off, some of them unaware of what’s gone on. Where are Colbeck and Ade? Must’ve made a sharp exit like. And where are the bouncers? Have they even had time to react? Time slows down in situations like this but it’s probably only ten seconds since I delivered a final jaw-shattering kick to the face of this fucker. The sequence of events hasn’t yet registered in the minds of all the dolled-up ladies and stripe-shirted lads around me.

Shock still clouds their judgement. Most people hate to see a fight, and I’m the same. I wince at the sound a punch makes when it connects with a fragile face. It’s not like they portray it on TV. It’s more of a thud than a cracking sound: a dull interface, understated in its subtlety, quieter than you’d expect but more devastating, a slab of raw meat thrown against a cold hard surface.

So how, then, have I ended up here in a club full of the kinda people I hate, standing over the comatose form of a bloody-faced geezer whose head I’ve just mashed? Before I realise it, I’m in the corridor next to the bogs, then I’m forcing open the fire doors and I’m climbing onto the recycling bins and pulling myself over the wall with people shouting after me, and I’m away. This is both the beginning and the end.

It is June 13th, 2003. OceanofPDF.com ZERO SHAUN There was the blackness, and it blanketed me, and then there was nothing. Nothing for days, and then the wall clock tick-tocking. And here it comes, The Surfacing. This is how it felt to be born. Unwombed and taking the first breath, back when I was nameless, back when I was nothing more than a cursor flickering at the top of a blank page.

All clock hands snap back to the beginning: innocence, the first dilated pupil, then the steady corruption of experience. Voices in the distance, broadcast from miles away and floating towards me on the breeze, recognisable as language but impossible to understand. And all I have is this inside surface of my skull where my thoughts dance like charged electrons trying to escape.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 713b8bfa45aa8fee
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,075,188 bytes (1.979 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 314
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 505.44 minutes
• Total Words: 101,089
• Total Characters: 534,115
• Average Words per Page: 321.94
• Average Characters per Page: 1701.0

Most Frequent Words

like (565), fucking (503), it’s (453), get (420), ade (381), i’m (380), back (363), said (353), don’t (351), know (345), one (343), fuck (340), says (340), say (328), you’re (318), he’s (272), got (269), time (243), now (218), colbeck (201), going (200), can’t (193), way (188), something (185), still (183), shit (175), that’s (175), went (172), fuckin (171), think (170), she’s (168), there’s (168), someone (167), didn’t (163), see (162), want (156), even (153), face (151), head (150), i’ve (150), dunc (145), right (145), never (144), two (143), i’d (141), well (140), tell (138), really (133), much (130), people (128), bit (127), take (127), make (124), around (119), come (119), doesn’t (116), anything (115), good (114), goes (113), look (113), you’ve (112), first (109), though (109), away (108), night (108), feel (108), steph (108), sorel (106), need (105), always (103), cuz (101), told (100), i’ll (98), thought (98), getting (97), happened (96), put (94), they’re (93), trying (91), nothing (90), thing (90), saying (89), remember (87), ask (86), eyes (84), asked (83), com (82), things (82), myself (80), mean (80), drink (80), oceanofpdf (79), anyway (79), let (75), cunt (74), bar (74), shaun (73), what’s (73), phone (73), wasn’t (72).

PDF Download