‘Yeah, she was present.’
Ruth looked frustrated, a point she always reached in their conversations about Alex’s sleep problems. She didn’t say anything because she didn’t need to repeat it, that if he’d allow her to study him they might find out who this person was, maybe even get to the bottom of it, bring the attacks to an end.
She’d made her case on countless occasions and, as far as Alex could tell, she’d never once considered the fact he might be lying, never contemplated the possibility that he knew all too well the identity of the person at the centre of these disturbances. He knew who she was, and he knew there was no cure Ruth could offer that would remove her.
By way of consolation now, he said, ‘There was something interesting last night, apart from the attack - some automatic behaviour.’
She looked intrigued, leaning forward in her chair as she said, ‘Sleepwalking?’ He nodded. ‘Did you get it on video?’ He nodded again, smiling as he got up because he’d already decided to let her see it, had even left the video lined up.
‘I used to sleepwalk as a child, not very often but enough. As far as I know, this is the first time since.’
She got up and came over, standing just behind him as he switched on the television and video and pressed play. He took a step back then so that they were standing next to each other, watching Alex in bed in the ghostly light of the infrared, not moving at first, the outline of his body only just visible.
He sat up as if pulled by strings, and watching himself for the third time that morning, Alex felt his spine chill. The first time had been the worst, fast-forwarding through the tape earlier. There was normally nothing to see and the sudden speeded-up movement had startled him and left him shaking. Even with familiarity it was still uncomfortable viewing.
The sleeping Alex on the screen looked like someone in a trance, but he also had the unmistakable look of someone being called, summoned to another part of the house by an unheard voice. He got out of the bed and walked out of camera shot, Alex hitting the fast forward button, an unchanging image of the empty bed flickering before them.
Ruth said, ‘How long?’
‘Seventeen minutes.’
‘Wow.’ She stood in silence watching. A sudden movement appeared on screen as Alex reappeared, comically fast as he got back into bed. He wound it back and replayed it at normal speed. He looked completely unruffled, still in a trance, no change in his appearance.
He took the video out now and put the other in, the one that focused on the door of the bedroom. Again, initially it showed just the empty door frame but then Alex emerged into the shot and walked through the door. He stopped it and rewound a little.
‘Look what happens just after I walk through the door.’ They watched again.
The sleeping Alex repeated his steps towards the door and stopped for a moment on the other side of it and looked over the balustrade to his right, down the stairs, as if making certain where he was being called from. He moved on then, out of shot across the landing before reappearing in the shadows as he disappeared down the stairs.
He hit fast forward, stopping short this time, thirty seconds of eerily empty infrared before he appeared again walking up the stairs, out of shot, then back towards the camera, not hesitating now as he made his way past and towards the bed. Alex stepped forward and turned it off, and sat on the edge of his desk as Ruth sat back in her chair.
‘It’s a long-shot but I take it you have no recollection?’
‘No, but I was on edge earlier in the evening, kept thinking I could hear noises downstairs. Maybe that was it.’
She nodded but shuddered a little as she thought about it, and said, ‘Very unscientific, I know, but doesn’t it give you the creeps watching it?’
‘No. And you’re right, that’s not very scientific.’ He was lying of course, or lying in part. It gave him the creeps, but he was determined to dispel that feeling with his knowledge of the science that lay behind what they’d seen in the video. It was automatic behaviour, sleepwalking, an unusual and interesting phenomenon but one that was no more mysterious than migraine or any number of other conditions.
Chastened, Ruth said, ‘Had you moved anything downstairs, as far as you could tell?’ He shook his head and they sat in silence for a while, Alex certain that both of them were wondering exactly what he’d been doing during those seventeen minutes.