PART 4–UNWELCOME GUEST
Chapter Forty
If the collide with the bin had hurt, it had at least saved him from being swept into the worst of the raging water. I don’t think recycling-bins are usually classed as life-saving equipment, but this wasn’t a usual scenario. I watched, my stomach in knots, as Leon clawed his way out of the rushing water, using the roots of a nearby tree stump for leverage.
‘Leon!’I hollered, cupping my mouth with my hands.
I prayed he could hear me, then I heard him groan.
‘I–I’m okay,’he croaked, his voice thin against the din of the wind.
‘Are you injured?’
‘Uh...my legs...I can’t move my legs...’
He sounded like he was in pain. Awful pain.
‘I’ve busted my ankles. I can’t get up.’
I looked down. He was half-sitting, half-lying, resting on his elbows, but his legs were limp and his feet were askew, like they were facing the wrong way. I sickened. I didn’t know what to say.
‘It - it’s going to be okay,’I squeaked, struggling to conceal my distress.‘They might bebroken, so don’t try to move, but…don’t worry. As long as you’re on dry land -’
He was, but only just. The water’s edge was only a few inches away. And we both knew it was rising. A surge of protectiveness came over me. I had to do something. But what? What?
Leon stirred again.
‘I can see lights,’he called.
I strained to hear him. His voice sounded even weaker. I closed my eyes, crossed my fingers.
‘There’s something,’he said,‘up the hill, in the bushes, in the trees...lights...I can see car lights...’
My spirits sparked again.
‘You mean they’ve arrived?’I shouted. ‘The rescue team? Where? Where?’
‘No team. Just lights. In the trees.’
But I couldn’t see a car. I couldn’t see lights. I couldn’t hear an engine. Was he imagining it?
‘Crashed,’ he said vaguely. ‘Crashed in the trees. Miss Nevis. Her car -’
My whole body shivered.
‘Is she there?’I called.‘Is Miss Nevis there?’
So, hadshe survived the ordeal and come to help us? Leon didn’t reply.
‘Is Miss Nevis there?’I repeated. ‘Leon? Leon? Can you hear me?’
I carried on calling, for ten minutes or more, calling his name, crying and calling, crying and calling. But that was it. He stopped talking, stopped moving. All I could do was stare at his body, lifeless at the water’s edge. And for the first time since the flood had hit, I felt certain we were done. It was over. There was no more hope.
Chapter Forty One
The next few minutes were a haze. I couldn’t think straight. I could hardly see through mytears. My head felt twice its size and it hummed with emotion. The rope. The stupid zip wire. The ridiculous plan. I knew it wouldn’t work. Why had I let him do it?
And now? What did I do now?
I pulled myself away from the window, even though it broke me to leave Leon, and stumbled across the flooded room, to the cupboard where Curtis was lying. I needed someone. I couldn’t handle it on my own. I tugged Curtis’s arm, shook his body.
‘Wake up!’I screamed.
When he didn’t respondthe anger boiled up inside me. He’d let us down. If he hadn’t drunk the cider, hadn’t passed out, if he’d been a proper help to us…I shook him hard, almost violently, but he still didn’t stir.
‘Useless!’ I shouted. ‘What use are you?’
I stepped back, hugged myself. No good. I was on my own now. Did I crumble and give up? Did I cower? Or did I fight?
The sewage water was still coming through the walls, spouting from the broken pipes. The rain continued and the wind howled. But with every seed of strength I could muster, I pulled myself together. I drew my fists tight, tensed my stomach, raised my face to the open window and glared into my fear. Once again, I thought of everything I loved, everything that made me happy. And I decided to fight.
Two things. There were two things I needed to do. Find a way to contact the outside world. Find another way out. It didn’t matter in what order, but one of them had to prove fruitful. I grabbed the remaining candle stump and one of the wooden batons, then checked all the windows, the possible exists. If the worst came to the worst, I realised it was possible I could get up on the roof. But more importantly, I needed to make it clear to the outside world that I was still here, that wewere still here - I wasn’t giving up on Leon. Or Curtis. Even Byron.
I searched through the store cupboard, found an ancient tube of orange paint–the brightest colour available. I made a flag from an off-cut of white fabric, spread it across the table and wrote the letters S.O.S. as boldly as I could. I took the fabric to the stairwell, to the main entrance, which seemed like the most visible place. The stairs were now a waterfall. The overflow from the sinks was spilling down, mingling with the flood from below. I tightened the sodden laces of my pumps and waded through it.
The front door, broken from its hinges, was like the mouth of a cave, opening onto the wild. I stuffed my baton into the waistband of my jeans, held the candle between my teeth, and began to tie the fabric to one of the bent hinges. As I leant forward, I noticed blood - smears on the rims of the doorframe, handprints along the walls. I palled, stepped back. Was it Byron’s blood? He’d cut his eyebrow in the fight with Curtis. And his knee. Maybe the blood was from his knee?
I didn’t know whether to hope for him or fear him. The sight of the blood scared me. My mind raced with memories of the gruesome horror movies Marshall used to make me watch. He’d thought they were funny. I’d thought they were awful. But they were just films. They weren’t reality. Not like this.
I handled my nerves, did my best to ignore the bloody prints, and fastened my flag to the entrance. When I was done, I turned back up the steps. And then, then I noticed the door to the link corridor had been wedged open, blocked by the leg of an upturned table. I raised the candle and saw that the bloody handprints continued in a line, along the wall, from one side of the door to the other.
And in that moment, I realised Byron was still in the building.
Chapter Forty Two
I forced my way through the door and waded into the floating debris. The water was waist deep, ice cold. Every step made me more nervous than the one before. The link corridor seemed to go on forever, into darkness. It no longer looked like part of a school. The displays on the walls were ruined and everything below the waterline had started to drift. There was stuff floating everywhere - text books, furniture, pens, computer cables. I gripped my candle and baton and waded with care. I didn’t want to trip or stumble. I didn’t want to go under again.
The bloody handprints continue along the wall, gradually becoming fainter and further apart. Every now and then the candle would light on one. I felt like an archaeologist, searching the walls for traces of human existence–except these were no cave paintings. Eventually, the corridor opened onto The Pit. The Pit - my Pit - the place where I spent my lunch-breaks, where I hung out with friends, traded gossip with Gemma. It was unrecognisable. The smart glass doors had smashed, the sports trophy cabinet was on its back, and the lockers at the sides were semi-submerged. Floodwater filled the centre, a sinister swimming pool, black and bottomless.
Luckily, the upper floor - the library and the balcony classrooms - looked dry. The stairs leading up to them were clear. I figured if I could get across the water, to thosestairs, I’d be all right. And aside from being dry, I realised that up in the library, I might find useful things - tools, phones, food. Food! It had been hours since Byron's mysterious beer and crisps. With everything going on I’d hardly noticed how hungry I was, but I knew some fuel would do me good - a little bit of energy to keep me focused. And warmth! What I’d give for some dry, warm clothes!
I thought of Leon. Was he hungry? Was he cold? My heart jolted. The thought of him lying broken at the bottom of the r
idge was scarred in my mind. But fine, I told myself, he was fine. He was going to be fine. Get out of here. Get help. Save Leon.
If I made it to the library, I knew I might also find a way out. The ridge ran all along the back of the school. It was possible I could get to it from one of the library windows. The gap would be wider here and, this time, I didn’t have a homemade zip-wire (undoubtedly a good thing), but the determination overwhelmed me. I had to find a way. I had to do it for Leon. And Gemma. And Greg. And Curtis. I was the only one now. They were relying on me.
As I stepped into The Pit I felt terrified. Even though the link corridor had been dank, its narrowness had been reassuring. At least I’d known I was the only one in there, the only one in the water. The Pit, however, was vast, ideal for‘lurking’. I held my baton close. I’d lost track of the bloody handprints. I hadn’t seen where they’d gone, but I was glad. I didn’t want to think about what I’d discover at the end of them.
I clenched my jaw, took a deep breath and waded into the open black well. As I moved I heard noises; drips and creaks and squeaks, but it was impossible to tell where they were coming from. At the water’s deepest, it came up to my waist. It smelt of drains and bad eggs and I could feel things swirling and drifting. I started to think about rats - Byron had warned us about rats in the flood - their tails, their teeth, their scratchy claws...
Midway to the steps, my legs turned to jelly. It was the thought of the rats. Panic took over. I started to gasp. I had to get out of the water. I lurched forward, but my thigh caught against a submerged desk. I stumbled, threw my hands out to steady myself. As I did, I dropped the baton and the candle. They landed in the water. The candle’s flame sputtered out. The dark hit like a punch.
I cried and swore. The sound of my anguish echoed round the room. But I couldn’t just stand there. Something was happening. Maybe it was the air, or the water, or the rats, but all of a sudden, I felt certain I wasn’t alone. Was he watching? Was he laughing? Was he enjoying seeing me afraid?
When my feet finally kicked the ledge at the bottom of the stairs, I gasped with relief. I scrambled out of the water and flopped down on the dry steps. A lay still and allowed my eyes to adjust to the depth of the darkness. Everything was quiet again. The stillness amplified my panting breath. I thought of all the times I’d sat on these steps, gossiping and joking with my friends, in the bright daylight, with the smell of chewing gum and hairspray and floor polish. Those easy, mundane moments - it seemed like they were gone forever. The school had mutated.
A splosh. Wide circular ripples moved across the surface of the water. I froze.
‘Byron?’I whispered, my voice quaking. ‘Is that you?’
Then a bang, a metal clank. I looked to where the noise was coming from, guided through the darkness by the echo. The clank quickly grew louder, more intense, like a fist pounding on metal. Then I realised it was coming from one of the lockers. For a moment I was rigid, unable to move. Another trick of Byron’s? I didn’t know whether to flee or go towards it. Was it a trick? What if he was trapped inside? As my reasoning unravelled, so did my conscience. What if he was trapped and about to drown? What if Iwas the difference between him living and dying? No matter what he’d done, I couldn’t leave him to die. And, at least, if he wasany threat to me, I was in the stronger position–I wasn’t the one trapped in a locker.
I picked myself up, crept to the edge of the steps, to where the row of lockers began. Locker 276. It shook and rattled. I could almost see the punches denting the door. And then I saw the blood, the desperate finger marks on the sides and the surrounding doors.
I went forward, ragged with fear.
Chapter Forty Three
The padlock wasn’t shut. It was looped through the holes, but it wasn’t locked. I called Byron’s name, but he didn’t react. He stopped pounding the door though. Slowly, I eased the lock free. The door swung open. I shut my eyes. Opened them.
‘Gemma!?’
Instead of Byron, I found Gemma curled up inside the locker. There was no room for her to move and the water was up to her shoulders. She had gaffer tape around her mouth and around her wrists and ankles. She’d cut her head where she’d been butting the door. Her skin was pale, like she was desperately cold, and her eyes were wide and frightened. When she realised it was me, the tears leaked down her cheeks.
‘Gem! I’m so glad to see you! I’m so glad you’re all right! Well, you’re obviously not all right, but...we thought you’d gone! We had no idea you were still in the school. What’s happened? Who’s done this to you?’
With the gaffer tape she couldn’t speak. She thrust her whole body forward. I caught her in my arms, hugged her. She pushed forward and I could tell all she wanted to do was run from the place.
‘Wait,’I said.‘We need to get the tape off you.’
I crouched, plunged my hands into the water and released her binds. As soon as her legs were free, she collapsed. She flopped into my arms. She was too weak and traumatised to hold her own body up. I led her to the steps and sat her down, then pulled the gaffer tape off her mouth. The action left a sore red strip around her lips, but the way she gasped for air, I knew it was a relief for her.
‘Does anything hurt?’I said.
She shook her head, tried to speak.
‘Was it him? Was it Byron who did this to you?’
I looked for her response. She whispered something, but I couldn’t hear. I leant closer, then felt her stiffen, saw her eyes widen. They startled and stared behind me, beyond me, up the steps to the library. I turned and saw the light of a torch bouncing through the dark. For a second I thought of the rescue team, but my instincts knew not to believe it. Gemma started to shake and scream.
‘Stay away from us!’she cried. ‘Stay away!’
Chapter Forty Four
None of our threats had an impact. We were rabbits in the headlights. We couldn’t run, so we sat and hugged, dug our nails into each other’s arms and trembled. As the torch got closer, I could see the shadowy figure of a person behind it.
‘We know it’s you!’ I called, as assertively as I could. ‘We’re on to you, Byron! Don’t come near!’
My words were ignored. He continued advancing, shone the light in our eyes. The brightness was disorientating, momentarily blinding. We held each other tighter, waited for the worst. Then a horribly familiar voice broke the silence.
‘Finally,’it said. ‘You know, babe, you wouldn’t believewhat I’ve been through to get here -’
He came up close, eyes glistening, mouth leering. He waved the torch around my face, then held out his arms and invited me to embrace him. I recoiled.
‘What’s the matter, Katy?’he said.‘Aren't you pleased to see me?'
‘Marshall?’ I said, my mouth barely able to form the word. ‘What are you doing here?’
'Isn’t it obvious? I’ve come to help you, babe. I heard you were in trouble. It was all over the news. I’ve come to save you -’
I could feel Gemma trembling in my arms, trembling at the sight of him. She’d never been scared of him before. She'd never liked him, but she'd never been scared.
‘I’m here for you, Kate,’he replied. ‘Didn’t you get my texts? I sent loads. For some reason, you didn’t reply.’
‘Yes. I - I - got them. Thanks. I just…I didn’t have enough battery. Sorry.’
The way he was looking at me, I felt like his prey. He said he’d come to help, but I knew better.
‘How did you get here?’I said.
‘Good question. It wasn’t easy. But I did it for you, Kate. Just for you. You know, the whole town’s screwed. Everything’s under water. I had to‘borrow’ a motorboat from someone’s driveway, but it only got me as far as Bell Road. Idiot owner forgot to put petrol in - '
‘Oh.’
‘Lucky for you though, I found an abandoned car - key still in the ignition, engine running. I managed to shunt it across the playing field, but it went out of control just as I got near t
o the school –and that was the end of the car.’
He flicked his hair, gave a quick, empty smile.
‘Some clapped-out yellow Mini,’he continued,‘ploughed straight into the trees. Probably a right off. Still, it served its purpose.’
Miss Nevis’s Mini! The car lights Leon had seen in the trees! I thought he’d hallucinated them, but they must have been real. So what had happened to Miss Nevis? I didn’t dare think about it.
‘That was my art teacher’s car,’I said. ‘You swear you didn’t see anyone? No one nearby?’
Marshall shrugged.
‘To be fair, I didn’t really look. Maybe she swam away?’
‘And how did you get into the building?’I quizzed. ‘I mean, if you found away in, there must be a way out -’
‘Shh!’
Marshall silenced me.
‘I know a way out,’he whispered. ‘Leave it to me. But first of all, Kate, firstof all, you and I need to have a little chat -’
The way he said this, I knew it wasn’t a nice chat. I swallowed. He offered his hand, gestured for me to join him. Gemma pulled me away.
‘Don’t touch her!’she cried.
‘Who asked you?’said Marshall. ‘Stay out of this! You’ve already caused us enough trouble with all your scratching and whining! Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?’
The penny dropped. It was him. He was the one who’dtied Gemma up and shut her in the locker. And the other stuff, too? The spiked drink? The blown out candles? The smashed up phones? We blamed Byron, but he’d been adamant it wasn’t him. I should’ve known. Cruel pranks like those, they had Marshall Finch all over them.
‘Marshall, what are you up to?’ I said, unable to contain myself. ‘You say you’ve come to rescue me, but that’s not the whole story, is it? You’ve been playing games. You’ve been messing us around, trying to frighten us, trying to freak us out -’
Rain In My Heart Page 13
