Unto You

Chapter 1

will puts the boot in

The thundering base of an out-of-date dance track failed to counterbalance the din of machines in motion, of pistons hissing and cogs grinding. The Ferris wheel laboured to a stop like a mammoth beast coming to rest, having suffered under its weight and bulk.

Stop rocking the car will yer. Burney thumped Miles’s shoulder. Let’s just sit here for a bit and enjoy it.

Miles stared into her eyes, then leered at her tits. He’d never done it on the big wheel before. He leaned into her, sliding his hand under her blouse.

Bloody hell. She pushed him away. That’s not what I meant.

From the summit of the wheel’s rotation, he peered over the railing at the people milling below. A group of teenage hotties passed, laughing. The distance between him and them offered nothing but a teasing glimpse of cleavage. He wished he was sitting several cars down.

For a moment, she took her eyes off the full moon and looked at Miles staring at those below. A year back he would have at least had the decency to try to hide his lust for other women. But now! Burney turned, biting her lip, looking out over the fairground, between the Helter Skelter and a ride that looked like a massive, mechanical spider, trying to dislodge the little humans, clinging to its appendages. She saw the arcade where Will had gone. She turned to Miles. You know… you shouldn’t speak to Will like that.

Miles grinned. Yeah… well he is a chicken shit.

Just because he’s scared of heights.

Miles was still staring over the side. A fat couple passed below. He coughed up a chunk of phlegm and spat it out. It disappeared. He had no idea if it reached its target, but he hoped it did. He’s fucking scared of everything. Heights, the water.

Not his fault he can’t swim.

His fault he never fuckin’ learned. Why you defending him? He turned to her, reaching into her eyes, thinking that somewhere in there he had latched upon her wayward desire to be with him. Mr, reliable… Mr Safe. You wet for him or something?

She twisted her face. No… Jesus, doing him would be like shagging my own brother.

Who said anything about doing anyone?

She could see his brewing anger in the narrowing of his eyes as he turned to her full on. He had never laid a finger on her and God help him if he ever did. But there were times – this being one of them – when he had looked at her in the same way he had looked at the poor bastard he was about to pulverise.

The big wheel turned again… then stopped, and for the next few minutes continued in that alternating fashion as riders disembarked.

Miles nodded to the controller – Cheers mate – before leading Burney through the crowd of families and adolescents darting from one ride to the next, seeking their next thrill. He saw two blonds and thought about giving them a thrill of his own.

Smells nice – let’s get one. Burney paused by a hotdog stand but was nudged from that intention as Miles pulled her hand towards him.

Nah. He shouted to be heard over the beat of the nearby Waltzer. I was thinking of getting something on the way home.

They entered the arcade, filled with gambling machines and shoot-em-ups, surrounded by middle-aged men, eyes locked nostalgically to their screens.

Look at this place, Miles spat. Fucking archaic. He shoved a finger between a one-armed-bandit and something that looked like a fortune-telling kiosk. There he is. He lifted his finger to Burney and made a shushing sound before edging toward Will and the game he was playing. Miles reached behind the machine and fumbled with a bunch of wires before pulling a plug.

What the hell? A popping sound preceded the snap of a flash as the screen turned off. Will stared at it for what seemed like forever before it occurred to him why his game had ended just two thousand points from his highest score. That wasn’t fair, Miles. I was doing real well.

Unlikely, I reckon. Miles laughed as he lunged, shoving Will into a headlock. More like I saved you the embarrassment of making a right cock of yourself.

Leave him alone. Burney grabbed Miles’s hand and waited until she had his attention before continuing. Looks like you’re attracting attention. She turned toward a man dashing towards them. We should go.

Miles tracked her gaze to the kid. He tries it on and I’ll fucking floor ‘im.

Let’s just get out of here. She grabbed his hand, half dragging him from the arcade with Will following.

Why’d you do that? Miles yanked his hand from hers, ignoring grunted retorts of several women who were stuffing their faces with candy floss. I could have had him you know?

We don’t want coppers here, Will said.

Miles grimaced, shoving his face in front of Will’s. The day I want your opinion spunk monkey is err… this time never.

He’s got a point, Burney said. The last thing we want is to attract the coppers, to get picked up on something like this. God knows what questions they’ll ask.

And what, Miles snapped, you reckon I’m gonna tell them about the other stuff? You reckon I’m stupid or something?

I’m not saying that. She stopped and turned to Will. Where are you going?

Got my five credits in there. He was already several feet from them, shouting above the overlapping music.

Don’t be a dumb arse, dumb arse. Miles reached forward, grabbing his arm. The credits won’t be there when that knob turns it back on.

Burney leaned forward, placing a hand on Will’s shoulder. Let’s do something else, okay. She flashed her smile that always knocked him into acquiescence.

Sure, Will grinned, then frowned. But what about my credits?

Miles grabbed him, pulling him closer. "Ah… poor old Willy Wanker."

I told you I don’t like that. Will attempted to pull away, but felt like a worm under the claw of some great beast. He laid off the chocolate for the last few months. But his once-upon-a-time craving for it had earned him that nickname that he had never quite managed to shake.

Just fucking with you, Will. Tell you what. I’ll treat you to a ride. Miles scanned the area. What about that? He pointed to the Waltzer, smiling not so much from the thrill the ride would offer, but from the screams of those already on it, clutching at their safety bars as the cars spun maniacally on their plates. He saw Will shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. Nah… didn’t think so. I guess that’s more your cup of tea. He pointed to the adjacent T-cup ride from which came the laughing of children.

Burney laughed.

Will pointed between the Waltzer and the coconut shire to a sign that read ‘The Labyrinth. The Hall of Mirrors.’ What about that? Could be fun.

Yeah, Miles chided. If you’re an eight-year-old.

Come on, Will. Burney took his hand, leading him past Miles. I’ll go with you… sounds cool.

What the hell? Miles Decided to follow them in.

They queued behind a fat woman and a skinny man between whom stood a little girl looking to the entrance of the Labyrinth.

Miles turned to Will and sneered. Yeah, like I said… cool… for an eight-year-old.

They slipped their money to the operator under a slot in the sheet of Perspex as though feeding a slither of meat into the mouth of a sentinel beast, bribing their way through. Inside, there was only a handful of mirrors whose arrangement fell short of the maze-like complexity that the attraction’s name implied.

Some were worn and tatty, distorted lengths of polished metal that looked so old that Burney thought they could have been passed down through the generations, originating from the first ever showman who pioneered such an attraction.

Burney paused at one mirror and stared at her reflection, now rendered elongated and emaciated. For a moment she turned away. Diseased, and dying. She turned back. This is how I would look, she thought. And there was a moment, just a blink-of-an-eye moment, when the movement of her reflection seemed out of sync with her body. She turned to Miles, who was captivated by his own reflection.

Miles stared at his reflection—bulbous head and inflated arms. He was a caricature of himself, a manifested parody of the man he knew he had become. He laughed and his reflection did the same… laughed… at him. Fuck you, he muttered. He looked to Will who was happily moving from one mirror to the next, oblivious to this display of self-mocking.

They left through a swinging door and barely stepped off the platform when Miles spat, Well, that was shite.

Burney nodded, agreeing at least with the poorly-expressed sentiment that the attraction was more disturbing than it was entertaining.

That was Freaky as shit. Will shouted after Burney and Miles as they walked toward a burger van.

Miles scanned the menu, scribbled in chalk as the man behind the counter cooked and served, politely telling a customer to go to hell; the price was the price, and that was that.

Burney breathed in the smell of burning meat. Can you believe that – negotiating the price of a burger? She took a moment to realise that the shaking of Miles’ head was not in answer to her question.

Don’t fancy nothing from here. Miles turned to Burney. There’s that place on the high street. Their burgers are the dogs’.

They agreed to eat at the takeaway… mainly because Miles was the one doing the driving so wherever they ate depended upon his willingness or lack of it to drive there. Before they left, they took one last ride on the dodgems. They took a car each.

As Will slipped behind the wheel of his, he saw a woman and a girl standing on the platform, distracted by the kid’s disappointment that there were no spare cars and her insistence that there was time, there just had to be time to wait for the next ride.

He sighed, stood and motioned to the woman for them to take his ride. The daughter danced onto the rink and – under her mother’s glare – thanked Will. The woman nodded her gratitude as she manoeuvred herself into the vehicle.

Hey. Burney shouted across the rink and waited for Will to turn to her before continuing. Share mine. As he slipped into the car next to her she whispered. You’re a big softy – you know that?

For Miles, this was just an excuse to vent some of that road rage that was always kept abated by the fear of the mess he would make to his own car should he use it as a battering ram on the streets. And there was plenty to be pissed about out there… and now there was plenty to be pissed about in here too.

He’d seen Will making his move, leaving his car to head to Burney’s. He gripped the wheel, wishing the surge of frustration had the power to drive him forward, to run the fucker down before he cozied up to his girlfriend.

Crash… bang… wallop. The cars spun, shuddered and collided – and all the while Burney couldn’t help thinking Miles was intentionally pursuing them. Will and Burney smiled and laughed; Miles did not. He hated seeing them together.

God knew she told him enough times that there was nothing going on between them and that there never would be. But she knew that this was about much more than unfounded attraction; Burney and Will had known each other for longer than each had known Miles and that would always be the case regardless of how long she and Miles where together.

In different circumstances, if the tragedy of eight years ago had not happened, then Will would have been just another pasty-faced, lanky late-teen virgin that she would have crossed the street to avoid. The closest he would have come to someone as pert and slender as her would be in the grips of a wet dream. But the death of a friend, a sister, had forged a bond that

Miles was too insensitive to understand. She and Will had forged a friendship that would survive long after Miles broke her heart and moved on.

Upon leaving the ride, Burney and Miles walked ahead of Will. Miles threw a look over his shoulder. Will looked like a fucking mutt following an owner that didn’t want the flea-ridden hound around.

They walked away from the fair, heading into the shaded areas, the backdrop of the front-of-house entertainment and the glam-lit façade where parts of broken and redundant rides sat forgotten and neglected.

Miles pulled Burney between two caravans and slammed his lips into hers and then shoved his tongue into her mouth.

Burney reciprocated, curling her tongue around his. She looked over her lover’s shoulder, at Will who shifted back a few steps, giving them a moment together. She reached down, feeling his hardness and he in turn reached up, cupping the roundness of her tits. After a moment