That wasn’t quite the truth. The truth was I’d been too scared even to try. What my dad had said had only confirmed what I’d suspected since Christmas. The power inside me felt dangerous. I was frightened by it. Every time I’d felt it flicker I’d pushed it back down as quickly as I could.
‘I see,’ he said, nodding his head. ‘Well, you heard her rules – don’t start using them now. If she says something bad will happen, you don’t want to be the one it happens to.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Now, time’s running out. Go find that boy.’
‘Right,’ I agreed, heading for the door through which Caddie had left. Just before I reached it, I turned back. ‘I didn’t even get your name,’ I said, before realising that neither the man nor Mrs Milton were anywhere in the canteen.
I crept out into the corridor, a little weirded out by the man’s sudden disappearance. He was the second person to pull a vanishing act on me today, not including Billy, who probably hadn’t had much in the way of choice.
According to the clock on the corridor wall it was already ten past two. That meant I had fifty minutes to find Billy. It also meant the school should be bustling with pupils on their way to their final classes of the day, but there wasn’t another soul in sight.
The canteen corridor opened out into a wide hall area, off which ran half a dozen doors. The caretaker’s office was here, as well as a storeroom, some classrooms and a final glass door that led to a set of wide stairs.
The door to the caretaker’s tiny windowless room was open, but there was no sign of life inside. I listened at each of the classroom doors in turn, but heard nothing from within any of those, either.
Cautiously I turned the brass handle on one of the doors. It inched open without a sound, and I poked my head inside the classroom.
Textbooks lay open on every desk. Bags and coats hung over the backs of chairs.
‘Hello?’ I ventured, pushing the door further open and stepping into the room. No one replied, but then there was nobody there to reply.
I’d never been in this class before, but I was vaguely aware of seeing it full of older kids with tufty goatee beards, who looked older than some of the teachers. A glance at a workbook on the closest desk confirmed this. The open page displayed an English essay that made almost no sense to me.
Two-thirds of the way down the page the essay came to an abrupt, sudden stop. Halfway through a sentence it just ended, mid-word.
The writer had left their pen sitting next to the book. A quick look round the room revealed a pen either on top of each desk, or on the floor directly beneath them. Wherever the class had gone, they’d gone there in a hurry.
Except none of the chairs had been disturbed. They were all pulled in close to the desks, but not tucked under them. Either the students had partially pushed their seats back under the desks after standing up, or…no. I dismissed the idea. It was impossible. They couldn’t have.
An entire class couldn’t just vanish into thin air.
Still, the thought haunted me, and I felt a sudden urge to get out of the room. Besides, time was ticking away. I had only forty-five minutes to find Billy, and a whole lot of school to cover.
The hall was still empty when I left the class. I realised that no matter where I’d been in the school in the past there had always been some kind of noise. Pupils talking. Teachers shouting. The caretaker whistling. Always some kind of background soundtrack. Always something to be heard. Always.
But not now.
Now there was only silence, heavy and ominous. The calm before the storm.
I didn’t look in any of the other classes around the hall. I was sure they’d be pretty much identical to the one I’d just been in. Besides, I didn’t think Caddie would hide Billy so close.
So where would she hide him? The school had dozens of rooms – probably sixty at the very least – not to mention all the little nooks and crannies that filled its many corners. He could be anywhere. I didn’t even know where to start.
At least, I didn’t until I saw the sign.
The glass-panelled door that led to the stairs squeaked sharply as I edged it open and stepped through. I was too busy staring to hear it bang shut again behind me.
Fifteen stairs led up from where I was standing. They stopped at a little rectangular landing, before fifteen more steps doubled back in the opposite direction and continued upwards to the first floor.
A huge image – easily one-and-a-bit times my size – had been smeared on the wall of the halfway turning point. A thick, red liquid had been used to paint the picture. It trickled and dribbled down the wall, forming dark crimson pools on the scuffed lino floor.
I didn’t want to believe it, but I knew the liquid was blood. Lots of blood, forming the shape of an arrow.
An arrow pointing up.
Chapter Eight
SHADOWS OF THE LOST
There was a stale, coppery tint to the air as I edged past the halfway landing and crept on up the stairs. The arrow towered over me, slowly dribbling down the wall, painting it with streaks of glistening red.
I tried to dodge past the puddles of blood, but there was no way to avoid them completely. I tried to concentrate on what lay ahead, but it was hard not to think about the squelching of my feet, or the sticky crimson footprints that followed me up to the first floor.
Another arrow – smaller, but just as disturbing – had been smeared on to the wall here too. This time, though, the arrow wasn’t pointing up. Instead it was pointing along one of the two corridors that ran off at right angles from the stairway. The art corridor. Of course. I should have guessed.
It’s probably a good idea if I explain how the school is laid out, otherwise things might get a bit confusing.
Basically, if you were to be peering down on the building from above, it’d look like the outline of a big square. All four sides are exactly five classrooms long, and each side is three floors high, not including the ground one.
At every corner there is a set of stairs, identical to the ones I’d just walked up. They’re designed to be wide enough to let traffic move up and down at the same time, but more often than not it’s a running battle to try to get to wherever you’re going, with everyone pushing in every direction at once.
Each floor is painted a different colour. With the layout of every level being almost exactly the same, doing them all in different colours was probably the only way of making sure anyone could figure out where they were. Either that or no one could decide on a colour scheme.
The first floor – where I was now – was mostly pale blue. It housed the music corridor, two language corridors and the art corridor. It was this last one that the arrow dripping down the wall was pointing to. This was not good news.
The art corridor is unique in the school in that it is the only one that doesn’t fit the colour pattern. Three of the corridors on the first floor are the pale blue I mentioned, but the art corridor isn’t. The art corridor just had to be different.
At some point in the dim and distant past, someone had decided to decorate the art corridor with a series of random murals. Judging by the results, they’d given a load of paint, rollers and brushes to the least artistically able pupils they could find, and left them to go mental.
It looked truly awful. Every available surface had been covered, not just the walls. There were paintings on the floor, paintings on the doors – even the ceiling hadn’t survived unscathed, though what the picture up there was supposed to be was anyone’s guess.
Most significantly, given my current situation, some bright spark had decided to paint over the windows – right on to the glass itself. Not only did this look rubbish, it also more or less blocked out all the daylight that should have been coming in from outside. This meant the whole multicoloured mess was lit by just four low-powered fluorescent strips.
It was the darkest corridor in the whole school, and there was an arrow painted in blood pointing along it. It had to be a trap. Going that way would be insane. Ma
ybe even suicide. Unfortunately time was ticking away, and I didn’t have a whole lot of choice.
Steeling myself, I set off, eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. The overhead lights were doing their job, and I could see right to the far end of the corridor where the stairs led up to the second floor.
The temptation to run to the other end was almost overwhelming, but running carried its own risks. Running meant I might not see trouble coming until it was too late. I could just as easily be running into danger as running away from it.
So instead I walked slowly along the corridor, my eyes darting at shadows every step of the way. I wasn’t sure what kind of ‘friends’ Caddie had been talking about, but I was certain I didn’t want to bump into any of them.
As I passed the first few doors I realised they were closed. Normally the classrooms were only closed when a lesson was in progress. Even though the doors were shut now, there was nothing but silence behind them, and I found myself wondering once again where everyone was.
They could have all left when I was in the Darkest Corners, but I didn’t know why they would. A fire alarm, possibly? But then where were the fire engines? And one of the assembly points was right outside the canteen. No one had been lined up there. I’d have seen them.
Besides, I couldn’t shake the feeling everyone had left before then. Morag hadn’t been at her usual place in the reception area, and the whole school had seemed strangely still and silent when I’d escaped from Mrs Milton’s office with Billy.
Billy. Dislike him as I did, I still found myself worrying about him, which annoyed me a little. I’d had enough sense not to provoke Caddie too much, but I wasn’t so sure Billy would be able to do the same. By his very nature he was incredibly irritating. If he said the wrong thing to Caddie there was no saying what she would do to him.
I had to find him. I had to save him. As I continued down the corridor, though, I wondered whether he’d even appreciate it if I did. If we swapped places, I don’t expect for one minute he’d even attempt to rescue me.
Around a third of the way along, the hairs on my arm suddenly stood on end, and my skin puckered into tiny goosebumps. A shiver travelled the length of my spine. From nowhere a cold breeze tingled at the nape of my neck. Deep down in my stomach something primal tensed, warning me that I was being watched.
Still walking, I glanced back over my shoulder. For the tiniest fraction of a second I thought I saw something move across the floor. A shadow, maybe; there one moment, gone the next.
A trick of the light, that was all. Had to be. The corridor was empty in both directions. There was nobody here but me.
Nevertheless, I felt my pace quicken and my heartbeat race to keep up. I was halfway along the corridor now. It felt too narrow, claustrophobic; closing in. I couldn’t wait to be out of it.
Just a few seconds, I told myself, fighting to ignore the rising feeling of panic in my gut. I glanced back again, and this time saw something vaguely spider-like moving across the floor and up the wall. A shadow. Definitely a shadow.
But a shadow of what?
I broke into a fast jog, scanning the corridor behind me for any more signs of life. Nothing moved. Nothing scuttled. Nothing there.
I turned and faced ahead just in time to see a dark shape step out of the final classroom and directly into my path.
My arms flailed as I back-pedalled wildly, trying to stop before I crashed into the looming figure. I cursed myself for getting spooked into running. I was going to run right into them. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
‘There you are,’ said the girl blocking my way. ‘Been looking for you everywhere.’
‘Ameena?’ I wheezed, managing to bring my run to a stumbling end right in front of her. I was so relieved I almost cheered. ‘It’s you! I thought you were…something horrible.’
‘Oh. Thanks for that,’ she replied, raising her thin eyebrows. ‘Very nice of you to say so.’
‘No,’ I said, hurriedly explaining. ‘I saw…I mean, I thought I saw something behind me, and…’ Her puzzled, vaguely amused expression suddenly made me feel like an idiot and I let the sentence fall away. ‘What are you doing here, anyway?’
‘Came looking for you,’ she shrugged. ‘Glad I did,’ she said after a pause. ‘You look kind of freaked out.’ Her eyes fell on the black and blue splodge on my cheek. ‘And what happened to your face?’
‘Headmistress with a hockey stick, but I’m fine.’ I took a breath, preparing to tell her it all. Billy. Mrs Milton. Caddie. Every detail.
Before I could, the overhead lights dimmed to a dull glow, plunging the corridor into near darkness. ‘OK, now I’m freaked out,’ I admitted. ‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’
I moved to go past her, but she caught me by the arm. Her grip was strong – much stronger than I’d expected.
‘Why, what’s going on?’ she demanded. She peered through the gloom behind me. ‘What did you see back there?’
‘Just shadows.’ I tried to pull my arm away, but she had it held tight. Her eyes bored into me, searching for answers. ‘Look, I’ll explain everything,’ I promised, ‘but can we please get out of the dark first?’
Her grip relaxed and I took my arm back. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But stop getting so freaked out. What kind of superhero gets scared by his own shadow?’
I was halfway through telling her I was no superhero when the darkness took her. It unfurled from the wall at her back, like a giant bat opening its leathery wings. In an instant it had snapped shut. Swallowing her. Devouring her whole.
The black shape that had been Ameena writhed and thrashed furiously. I could only watch, numb with shock, too stunned to help her. All around us, warped, deformed shadows began to skulk across the walls, across the floor, across the ceiling and the doors and the poorly painted windows.
Vicious, brutal shapes, they were. Spiders. Wolves. Flapping bats. Demented, demonic shadow puppets, seeping from the woodwork until every surface of the corridor moved and ebbed. A tide of pure liquid black.
At either end of the corridor the darkness on the ceiling poured down to meet the darkness on the floor. It hung there at either end, two curtains of night, cutting off any chance of escape.
A muffled scream from Ameena snapped me out of my daze. I sprang forward, ripping and clawing at the shadows that smothered her. They were thick and gloopy and cold to the touch. They came away in long stringy threads as I fought to uncover her face.
Her eyes were revealed first. They were bulging and bloodshot, the pupils dilated in terror. I caught the edges of the black sludge and pulled down, fighting to free her nose and mouth. Fighting to keep her alive.
Thick strands of the stuff tore off with an elastic snap. I heard Ameena’s breath draw in sharply, but the blackness had already flooded back over her eyes. No matter how quickly I ripped it away, any gap I created closed back up almost at once.
‘Getitoff, getitoff.’ She barely managed to get the words out before her mouth was swallowed up once again.
The strands I’d already torn off had quickly wrapped themselves around my wrists. Even as I fought to free Ameena I could feel them slithering up the insides of my shirt sleeves, cold and clammy against my skin.
Twins bands of the goop squirmed up beneath my collar. For a moment they curled up in front of my face, coiling and wriggling like tentacles, and then they were tight around my throat, cutting off my air.
Frantically I dug my fingers into them, trying to force my nails underneath, to prise them off. No use. Too tight. Too tight.
A puddle of chill damp oozed over my shoes. A heaving mass of dark shapes rose from the floor. I watched on helplessly as the darkness began to creep and crawl up my legs.
I was still gasping for air as it passed my knees. Still spluttering as it oozed up over my stomach and chest. Still choking as the shadows wrapped their arms around me, cocooning me and dragging me down into an inky void of absolute black.
Chapter Nine
SWALLOWE
D WHOLE
Ihave almost drowned twice in my life. Once was when I was five. The other was two weeks ago. Christmas Day. I don’t recommend it. It’s a horrible sensation – that feeling of absolute hopelessness and inevitability as your lungs burn like fire and your head goes light and you brace yourself for the end.
This was worse.
The shadows squirmed across my skin and scurried through my hair. They forced through my clenched lips and rushed up my nostrils, flooding my insides with their icy cold touch. They slithered in through my ears and pushed below my eyelids, filling my head with a pulsating cloud of darkness.
They tightened around my body, forcing my arms to my sides. My legs too were pulled together, throwing my balance. I didn’t realise I was falling until my shoulder crunched solidly against the floor. The darkness that covered me felt thick and oily, but it didn’t do anything to cushion the blow.
As I lay there – trapped, helpless and rapidly running out of air – the electrical sensation tingled across my scalp. It was faint, but it was there. This time I didn’t push it away. If I could concentrate, if I could just focus for a few seconds, then maybe I could get out of this.
Then I remembered the third rule. Caddie had said I wasn’t allowed to use my abilities. Something bad would happen, she had warned. Then again, something bad was happening now. I couldn’t think of anything worse, in fact.
I hesitated. I could probably use my power to get us out of this, but was there another way? Another way that wouldn’t break Caddie’s rules? Maybe.
The black shroud around me made it impossible to know exactly where I had fallen, but I could take a guess. The windows had been at my left when I’d been standing up, and I’d landed on my right shoulder.
I bucked my body against the writhing shadows, trying desperately to shuffle myself down in the direction of my feet. The pressure was building around me. A tightness like the grip of an icy claw was squeezing at my lungs. If this didn’t work then I was dead.
Raggy Maggie Page 6
