Ryan Green - Sinclair: The World’s End Murders Through the Eyes of a Killer

It was close to ten oclock, but the night was still young. Christines heels were clattering on the cobblestones as she marched them down the Royal Mile to the last pub of the evening. The chill of an autumn night was being held off by the warmth of bodies in the city but even the gin in their stomachs couldnt keep the streets dry. Helen kept slipping on the cobbles, clinging to Christines arm and cackling every single time her ankle almost turned. Both girls were swaying to distant music, still following them along from the last bar. Up ahead were the old gates to the city, now long worn away to nothing but a scattering of brass cobbles across the street. There used to be a warning up on those gates that there was nothing beyond them. That this street was at the end of the world. Helens world didnt stretch much further than the end of the street at the moment either. She was wrapped in a cloud of warmth, laughter and an alcoholic haze. Her whole world wasnt much bigger than her and the echoes of Christines heels.

Beyond that bubble of warmth, the city lay sleeping. The old town was still a hubbub of drunken antics and music, but further out the streets lay dark, damp and silent. For an instant, Helens stomach turned over looking down that street into nothingness. It was always there, just out of sight. Even beneath their feet, beneath the cobbles that were ringing out the sounds of their passage, there were dark catacombs cut into the very stone beneath the city, capturing the strange echoes and calls from above and reverberating with forgotten secrets. For a moment, Helens steps faltered, the smile slipped from her facefor one awful moment she felt the darkness pressing in all around her and the cold slipped in past her defences to send a shiver up her back. Then she heard it. The door to the pub swung open and the song pulsed out, wiping that moment of realisation away in a flood of giggles. The song had been following them from pub to pub all along the mile. Christine started to sing along, Yes sir, I can boogie

Helen collapsed into another fit of giggles in her friends arms, trying to join in as they swayed towards the inviting glow of the pub and the billow of blue smoke that escaped each time the door was opened. They shimmied through the door together cracking up as they tried to sing: 'If you stay it cant be wrong

They had to wait in the doorway for a long moment as a group pressed out, heading to one of the dozen other pubs in spitting distance, or heading home from the way that some of the girls were melting in the mens arms. There was a pair of girls with the very same dresses on as Christine and Helen. Their hair was practically the same too. All four of them froze in place looking at their doppelgangers, then they burst out laughing and moved along. It was a small world with only a few shops where you could get a cheap dress to wear out on a Saturday nightthis was hardly the first time this had happened. They were lucky to have a night out when one of their friends wasnt wearing the same dress. It wasnt strange enough to even remember once they were through the door and enveloped in the cigarette smoke and music. There was an atmosphere in the Worlds End that you couldnt find anywhere else on the mile. The pub was older than radio, the staff knew every one of their regulars by name. It felt like home in a way that the other pubs didnt. At seventeen, Helen and Christine hadnt been going to pubs for very long but of all the ones that they had tried, this was probably their favourite. The crowd wasnt much different from the usual Saturday night, a hundred and fifty people crammed in until you barely had room to move for all the elbows. They were starting to trickle out now that it was getting closer to closing time, so the girls had to push against the flow of bodies to get to the bar and get a drink. The crowd was like a living, heaving ocean that could dash you against the rocks if you fought it or part around you gently if you knew how to swim through it. In the swirl of faces it took them a few minutes to find a familiar landmark, and even when they found their friends there wasnt enough room at their table, so they were forced to linger, brushing up against the crowds as they moved through. Helen made her way to one of the raw stone walls, a relic of the old city that had somehow survived the centuries. She leaned her head back against it and let the cool steady presence of the stone seep into her and calm the spinning in her head. The music wasnt as loud in here as in the other pubs. The Worlds End was where you came to wind down at the end of the night or to get something decent in your stomach at the beginning. It was a little island of peace in all the chaos of a Saturday night on the town. A drunk in a leather jacket dashed past her towards the bathroom making retching noises. Peace was a relative term.

She only had a moment to calm herself before her friends Toni and Jackie pushed through to get her attention, Christine following along at their heels looking hopeful. Toni leaned in close enough to be heard over the hundred conversations around them, Alright, hen?

Helen gave her a smile and a nod. She was already a little hoarse from all the smoke in the last three pubs and didnt want to yell over the racket in here without good cause. Toni came even closer, the tang of cider on her breath. Were going along to a party next, do you two want to come too? Should be some fit lads. Some dancing.

Helen chuckled. Sorry love, Im knackered, this is the end of the line for me.

Christine clucked. Might get your second wind yet.

Maybe next time, eh? Helen demurred.

Toni rolled her eyes and grabbed Jackie by the arm before she could become a stick in the mud too. Yeah, maybe. See you later.

The boy in the leather jacket came past again in Tonis wake, trying to smile at them and just looking nervously queasy. The girls collapsed into giggles before he was out of sight. Christine had to lean on the wall too, to keep from falling under the weight of her laughter. Between gasps, she choked out, What is wrong with men?

Helen put her face in her hands. I swear

From beyond the protection of her fingers, she heard a rumbling voice. Can I buy you drink?

Christine burst out laughing all over again, but Helen managed a coy smile before waggling her full glass at the poor guy. His shoulders were already slumped in defeat. She tried to soften the blow.

Maybe later, eh?

He was mumbling as he backed away, but that brought a little smile to his face and he gave her a cheeky wink before vanishing into the crowd. In about five minutes Helen would forget what his face looked like, and he would probably have found some girl who was thirstier. Christine hooked her arm through Helens elbow and dragged her off the wall. Come on hen, Im not standing around all night.