Hello, Young Jonny

Beeb and I turned to the office as we heard the scream. Soon after, we watched the fire door on our floor spring open, and Amy burst out, sprinting down the fire escape as fast as she could. Behind her, from within the building, we saw the orange glow of flame.

We ran up to meet her just as she got to the bottom of the metal steps. We could see that she was bleeding from cuts on her cheek and chin. Her eyelids fluttered and her legs gave way. She collapsed forward, but Beeb reached her just in time to hold her upright.

“What happened?” Beeb asked.

Amy was panting, struggling to speak. I didn’t need to wait for an answer.

“I’m going up there,” I told Beeb. “Get Amy away from here and call the police.”

“What are you doing, man?!”

I ignored Beeb’s shouts and ran up the fire escape, into the office.

The heat hit me as soon as I reached the doorway. My desk was already engulfed in flame. I could see the fire was rapidly spreading.

A little way from my desk was a figure. Standing, but hunched forward over a keyboard, their back turned to me.

I heard the clicking first. The sound of typing at an incredibly fast pace, mixing with the crackling of the flames.

As my eyes adjusted, I could make out more details. A black top with exposed shoulders, and ruby red hair falling in bouncing curls around them. But the skin of these shoulders wasn’t pale, like Ruby’s. It was light brown. And I could now see that extending up them were dark, black hairs.

The hairs on my own arms stood up on end. Everything in me wanted to turn and run back out the way I’d come. Away from the fire. Away from… This. But I couldn’t. It was time for me to face Ruby.

“Ravi,” I said. Quietly at first, but then once again, louder, to be heard over the din of the rising flames. “Ravi.”

Ravi turned to me. His face was caked in make-up. Foundation had been heavily applied, giving his face an eerie, pale glow. In some patches it was starting to smudge. His lips were glossy and pink. Mascara sat in fat, black clumps in his eyelashes. But most disturbing were the eyes themselves. They were bright, ruby red. Shining as they stared at me, reflecting the dancing flames nearby.

“Hello, young Jonny! I’m sorry we had to meet like this, ehehe.” Ravi’s voice was not like his own. It was the result of a man in his late 30s trying to speak like a young girl. The effect was deeply wrong.

“What are you doing, Ravi?” My voice trembled as I spoke. I was aware of increasing amounts of smoke. My eyes were beginning to sting. “We need to get out of here.”

“You go ahead, Jonny. Ruby’s busy right now.” Ravi turned back to the computer and resumed his typing, even faster than before. “You see, that stupid bitch Amy started a fire. Ruby told you she was bad news! It’s going to reach the server room soon.”

Ravi’s tone changed, back to his normal voice. “You know, I asked to be moved here. When I heard that the creator of Small Hours was starting a new project. I made sure that I would get to work with you. And we’ve created so much together! I can’t let it all be lost.”

“It doesn’t matter, Ravi. The project’s getting cancelled. We need to go!”

“I glimpsed your soul through Small Hours. And over the last year, I’ve got to know you even better.” His voice seemed to switch between words, as though he himself could no longer tell who he was. Sometimes high pitched and playful, sometimes low and emotionless. “We’ve spoken every day. You’ve confided in me. You made me feel, for the first time in my life, like I wasn’t alone. I just want to love you, Jonny. To support you. Why won’t you let me? You love Ruby, don’t you?”

“No.” I spoke harshly, hoping I could snap Ravi out of it. “I never really loved Ruby. I relied on her. I needed her. I used her. That’s not love.”

Ravi’s hands went still on the keyboard. His voice stabilised. “I knew I couldn’t be with you, Jonathan. That you had no interest in me - I was just the quiet guy at work. But I knew that you liked Ruby. So I thought, if I could become her. Little by little… Maybe, one day, you would love me.”

For just a moment, Ravi was back to normal. I could see past the flames, his outfit, his make-up. I just saw my genius programmer, my friend, typing at his PC. A brilliant man. A lonely man.

I heard a deafening crack, and looked behind me to see one of the windowpanes split in two. The flames were rising quickly, licking against the ceiling. I was covered in sweat from the heat. Soon, our way out would be blocked.

“Come on Ravi, we need to get out.”

“No!” Ravi’s voice was erratic again. “Ruby needs to save all Jonny’s work.” He continued frantically typing at the keyboard.

I reached forward to grab him. As I did so, I noticed the PC he was working on start to spark.

Ravi turned to me. “I’m sorry about this, young Jonny. But Ruby will always love you.”

With both hands he pushed me hard in the chest, and I fell backwards out onto the fire escape. At the same time, a blast of flame erupted from the PC where Ravi had been standing. Choking, black smoke billowed out from the doorway.

The next thing I knew, Beeb was dragging me down the metal steps.

“He’s still in there, Beeb! Ravi’s still in there!”

“I know. It’s too late.”

Beeb pulled me to a safe distance away. Then we sat together on the tarmac of the car park. Amy, Beeb and I.

We watched in silence as the black smoke rose high into the air.