by M S C Barnes
“Yes he does,” Aiden leapt up. “We need to get him outside,” he said to Darius.
“What about the bagels?” Zach asked.
“Never mind bagels Zach.” Aiden nodded his head towards the door. “Helen will have soup waiting for us anyway.”
“No. You sit. Darius take care of you. You boys not go out there now. Darius call your mumma. Give me number,” he said to Zach, barring Seb’s way. Seb, feeling too ill to argue, sat back down.
Alice spoke Aiden’s words into Seb’s mind. “What are we going to do? We can’t stay here; we can’t call your mum or Zach’s, and if we don’t get back to my room soon, Helen will find us gone and probably report us missing.”
Sophie returned with the bowl and, handing it to Darius, crossed her arms.
“If he pukes, I’m going. You shouldn’t have brought them in Darius.” She looked nervously towards the door.
“Why not?” Darius asked. “This boy, he help me. Now I return favour.”
As he said that, the bakery door opened and two police officers entered, directed in by the young couple from before.
“Oh, no,” Aiden said, sounding forlorn, as the officers approached the table.
“Couple of salt beef bagels please Sophe,” one officer said.
Sophie, looking apprehensive, returned to the serving counter.
“Okay, so who have we here?” the second officer asked, staring at Seb. “Are you okay? You look like you’re gonna puke.”
Darius stepped forward. “He —”
“He ate too much,” Zach interrupted and put a hand on Darius’ arm, winking. Darius looked baffled but said nothing.
“Well he doesn’t look good,” the first officer said. “What’ve you been putting in these bagels Sophe?” she called over her shoulder.
“He’s fine,” Zach said, walking round and helping Seb to his feet. “Just needs some fresh air. We’ll take him outside, ‘til he feels better.” Zach began manoeuvring Seb to the door.
Seb was in no fit state to walk, his knees felt wobbly and he was light-headed, and he leant heavily on Zach.
“He can barely walk,” the police officer said, intercepting them before they could get to the door. “How old are you? Are you drunk? Have you taken something?” The officer leaned in close, breathing Polo Mint breath on Seb who nearly retched. Swallowing he shook his head.
Alice slipped an arm under his elbow and helped support him, enabling Zach to let go and giving the impression that Seb was standing on his own two feet.
“Drunk? He’s not old enough to drink,” Zach laughed. “He’s only thirteen.”
“Thirteen? And out alone, at this time of night? What are your names?” The female officer grasped her radio and hovered her thumb over the side button, ready to press it.
“He’s not alone, he’s with us,” Zach said, nudging Seb further towards the door.
“And you’re not old enough to be out without an adult at this time of night either,” the taller, male officer said, blocking their path. “What are your names?”
“I’m fourteen! And who said we’re not with an adult? We’re with my dad.” Zach waved a hand towards Darius, implying this was his father. The officer wasn’t fooled.
“Darius hasn’t got kids, have you Darius?” the officer said, putting his hands on his hips.
“No, not him,” Zach snorted. “My dad’s just down the road getting a Subway. We’ll wait outside for him.” Gripping Seb firmly under the arm again, he moved him sideways, round the police officer who watched them closely.
“Here ya go Del,” Sophie called to him. “One salt beef. I put extra beef in it for you. What drink do you want?”
Distracted, the officer turned away and Zach scooted Seb out of the door, Aiden on their heels. Darius hadn’t moved and hadn’t said a word. Zach gave him a quick wave and mouthed ‘thank you’ to him and Darius gave a small, confused smile.
“Quick, Seb, the door,” Aiden prompted as soon as they were outside.
“Best use the one in the alleyway,” Zach said and they helped Seb along the street and ducked into the alley.
Seb asked for flamers then waved, weakly, at the fence. The door appeared and Zach, with Alice’s help, dragged him through. They were just crossing the threshold when there was a shout from the street. Seb glanced across to see the male police officer, bagel in hand, dash past the alley, followed by his female colleague.
“I knew they weren’t with anyone. Where’d they go?” The sound of his words died as Seb passed through the door and back into the study in Helen’s house. The door fizzled away.
“Seb, why not back to Aiden’s room?” Zach asked. “Now we’ve got to creep up the stairs — and I’m not carrying you.” He crossed his arms.
Seb was unable to answer, his legs were like jelly and he had to concentrate on keeping himself upright.
From upstairs, Helen’s voice called out.
“Aiden? Where are you all?”
“That’s why not back to my room then,” Aiden said. “We’re too late.”
Very early on, Seb had asked Aelfric how they could avoid being seen stepping through doorways. Trying to find a secluded place to open a door where they were, was tricky enough, but the door the other side? Well, they often had no idea where that would emerge, or who would be at the location on the other side. Aelfric had explained that a door would only appear where it could not be observed or noticed by people. So, it would not always be the nearest door to the place where they needed to be, just one close by, that could not be witnessed by people at that location. Since Helen had gone into Aiden’s room, the door in the Christmas tree was not an option, and so Nature’s system had led them back to the study.
“Is there a downstairs toilet here Aiden?” Zach asked.
“What? Really now Zach?” Aiden said.
“No, not for me, for Seb,” Zach whispered. “Is there one?”
“I don’t think I’m going to be sick now,” Seb said. “I just need to sit down.” He pulled the chair out from Helen’s desk. Zach pushed it straight back in and grabbed him.
“No, come on.” He dragged him towards the door. “Which way Aiden?” Aiden pointed to the left and Zach pulled Seb with him, Alice helping to support him. Aiden trotted along behind them. As they reached the door of the small cloakroom, they heard footsteps on the landing. Zach yanked the door open, shoved Seb in and then positioned himself and Aiden in the doorway, holding the handle, as though they were just emerging.
“Oh, Helen, that was a close one.” Zach grinned.
“I wondered where you had all got to. What are you doing there?” Helen sounded surprised as she walked down the stairs.
“Well, Seb was feeling sick. I think he’s had a bad reaction to your soup. He took one spoonful and then said he was going to throw up. Aiden and me didn’t want him puking in the en suite, so we made him come down here, and boy were we right to do that. Eeiou!” He half closed the door.
Seb’s head was buzzing and he sat down on the closed toilet lid, breathing hard. That one vision from the last soul, of the hazy meeting, kept coming back into his mind, and he found the vision of the previous soul’s meeting too, kept resurfacing. The two images were very similar, though the details were concealed or obscured, and it made him feel ill just remembering them.
“Just relax Seb?” Alice said. “You should recover soon.”
“I hope so,” Seb sighed. “I feel so weak, and so sick.”
He watched a fairy perch on the over-sized nose of a gargoyle statuette below the sink. Outside the room Helen was questioning Zach and Aiden.
“Has he got any allergies? I mean, the soup was just tomato and basil, but if one spoonful made him sick, maybe he had an allergic reaction?”
“Na, he just hates anything healthy,” Zach tried to sound light-hearted.
“Well, let me check on him. If he’s not well, I should call his mum.”
“He’s fine. Fine really,” Zach said. “He’s always
been fussy about this food.”
Helen wasn’t going to be put off. She nudged Zach and Aiden out of the way and opened the cloakroom door.
“Seb, are you feeling any better?” She smiled at him. “People don’t often react like that to my soup. Do you have any allergies I need to know about?”
She crouched down beside him as he shook his head.
“No allergies,” he said. “I don’t know what it was, but I’m feeling much better now. If it’s okay, I’ll just go to bed.”
“That’s a cracking idea. I’m shattered. We can work on the project in the morning Helen,” Zach called in to her.
Helen, still crouching, put a hand over Seb’s hands which were folded on his lap. She spoke quietly, looking up into his eyes.
“In Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupressure is really effective at reducing or curing nausea and you have a point, called the inner gate, on your palm —” She pulled his left hand off his right and began to turn it over. He snatched it away, realising that, when his clothes had been changed, the fingerless gloves he normally wore, to hide his birthmark, had been removed. Now he lurched to a standing position, wobbling on unsteady legs. Alice gripped him under the armpit, holding him up.
“I’ve got you,” he said, and, as if reacting to his voice, Helen turned her head and stared through the space he occupied, looking surprised.
“I’m really fine,” Seb said, feeling so light-headed that, in spite of Alice’s help, he instinctively placed his left hand on the wall to steady himself. The solid surface felt reassuring but as he looked back down at Helen, she was staring at the back of his hand, stunned.
Now she stood too.
“Okay boys,” she said firmly. “You’d best come into the kitchen.”
“Not bed then?” Zach asked as she walked past him.
“Not bed, no Zach. Give Seb a hand. Aiden, come on, you can help me prepare something that will settle Seb’s nausea.”
She led them down the hallway, past the study and into a fairly large kitchen. Against the right hand wall was an open-framed, stainless steel, shelving unit, that looked like it belonged in an industrial kitchen. It was packed with bottles, jars, vials, flasks and beakers — in fact, every manner, shape and colour of glass container.
Waving a hand for Zach to help Seb to the bench-style dining table at the far end of the kitchen, Helen walked to the shelves with Aiden and selected two bottles. She handed them to him and lifted a big book from the counter-top nearby. Opening the book, she pointed to a page and Aiden nodded.
“Easy on the lavender leaf and heavy on the ginger.” Helen smiled at him.
She placed a pan of water on the hob to boil while Aiden removed a stem of ginger from one of the glass bottles and, after cutting a few slices from the root, began pummelling it to a pulp with a pestle and mortar.
“You okay with this?” she asked him and, after glancing at the page in the open book, Aiden nodded again.
“Yes, I can do it.”
Leaving Aiden to work, Helen sat with Zach and Seb.
“I am aware of the special nature of some of your teachers,” she said to Seb straight away, then stared at him, waiting for his reaction. He just blinked, so she continued. “I am aware too of other things, which most, I suppose, are not. Several years ago I began opening Nat’s eyes to wonders many do not notice. But over more recent months, she has opened my eyes to many more.” Now Seb blushed and stuffed his hands under the table. He didn’t know what to say.
Zach tried to deflect Helen’s attention.
“Seb often finds Nat opens his eyes. Mostly when he falls asleep in class,” he sniggered.
Helen ignored him. “I am trying to tell you, Seb, that you can trust me — and that I can help you.”
Seb just stared back at her.
“Seb, Aelfric said there are certain humans — humans with older souls — who can assist you,” Alice said. Helen glanced in his direction, but obviously could not see him, since her eyes looked beyond him. “She can hear,” Alice said. “Maybe not my words, but, like Nat before, she can hear I am near.”
Helen smiled then looked back at Seb. “I am sure there is a lot you cannot and should not tell me, and I won’t push you. But I won’t see you ill and weak, when I can help.”
“Aw, he’s okay really Helen,” Zach chuckled. “You just have to get used to his fussy ways.”
“The nausea he is feeling, Zach, is not due to his fussiness, or to my soup. For a start, none of you ate any of that.” She frowned at Zach. “I can tell — feel — that there is something wrong.”
“Are you a Sensor too then?” Zach asked and then bit his lip as Alice and Aiden, in unison said: “Zach!”
Helen smiled. “Now why would you, a thirteen-year-old school boy, use a word like that?”
“Fourteen, I’m fourteen, and it’s cos I spend too much time with Aiden. He tells us all sorts of stuff.” Zach didn’t sound very confident or very convincing.
Seb didn’t care, he was too busy worrying about the fact that his palm had, once more, started aching.
“Alice,” he said, without voicing the words. “We have to leave.”
“Again?” Alice asked. Seb nodded and Helen looked curiously at him. “Are you fit enough?” Alice said aloud, watching for her reaction. When her eyes flicked in his direction, he continued silently into Seb’s mind. “She can definitely hear me — she can tell I am here.”
Helen called over to Aiden, “How’s that coming along Aiden?”
“It’s just ready,” he answered, pouring the contents of the saucepan into a small cup. “I made it just as the book says.”
Seb, paying no attention, got up.
“I am sorry to be rude, but I need to go,” he said, standing unsteadily.
“I don’t think you can go anywhere,” Alice said, grabbing him and holding him up.
“I can’t let you leave, not when you look so poorly — or at this time of night,” Helen, standing too, spoke firmly.
Seb was anxious now. As always, psychologically he was in no hurry to go and deal with any trespassing soul, especially since the last two had left him so sick. But he had made a promise, in his mind, to Aelfric, and he didn’t want to let him or Dierne down. He stood, leaning on Alice, frowning at Helen. “I don’t want to make you angry, but I just need to go.”
Helen regarded him in silence for a few seconds and then nodded. “Okay. I have asked you to trust me but I suppose I will have to trust you. At least drink this before you go though.” She beckoned to Aiden who was standing a few feet from the table. He stepped forward and Helen took the small cup from him, and held it out to Seb. “This is a mixture of ginger and lavender. It will help with the nausea and give you energy.”
The steam from the cup wafted up to Seb and the strong smell of ginger hit his nostrils. He retched. Zach laughed.
“It will help Seb,” Helen insisted, moving the cup closer to him.
The ache in his palm had become a dull throb. Feeling pressured, Seb took the cup and lifted it to his lips. A wave of nausea washed over him and he pulled it away without taking a sip.
“Oh Seb,” Zach snorted a laugh. “Just drink the stuff.”
“I’m not letting you go anywhere until you have drunk it,” Helen said.
Taking a deep breath, Seb took a sip. The liquid was hot and burned the back of his throat as he swallowed. He winced. The taste wasn’t too unpleasant and he took another, more careful, sip. He managed to drink half the contents, but that was his limit, and he placed the cup back on the table. He stared at Helen, feeling he would shout if she tried to force him to have any more.
“I really do need to go now,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Please don’t make me drink any more.”
“That’ll, do I am sure,” she said with a satisfied smile. “Now, can you tell me where you are going? Can I give you a lift? You are so young, and I am sure I am being an incredibly irresponsible fifty-four year old, allowing you to leave my hou
se in the middle of the night.”
“No, he can’t; no you can’t and no you’re not,” Zach said, reaching over and pulling Seb round the table by the arm. Aiden just looked awkward. “We’re good Helen,” Zach said, giving her a big smile.
She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment then sighed. “Okay, but,” she turned to Aiden, “make sure you come back in one piece.”
“We will,” he answered, relieved. “You’re fantastic Helen.” He threw his arms around her and gave her a hug. She looked surprised, then thrilled.
“Right, let me get the door for you.” She squeezed Aiden’s hand and began walking towards the front door. The boys dithered.
“We need the study, or Aiden’s room,” Zach whispered.
Seb shook his head and, with Alice’s help, followed Helen to the front door. “Tell them Aiden can find us a door outside, once Helen isn’t watching,” he said silently to Alice.
Now Zach and Aiden nodded and within seconds the three of them, with Alice, were stepping into the bitterly cold night air, so cold it took Seb’s breath away.
Helen watched them all the way to the end of the small cul-de-sac in which she lived. Once they were satisfied she was no longer able to see them, Aiden took out his tin and located a door in the trunk of a large, leafless horse chestnut.
Feeling stronger and less nauseous, Seb reflected moonlight onto the trunk. A snowy owl, high up in the tree’s branches, hooted, spread its wings and flapped into the sky, startling him. He watched it swoop downwards then across the road, flying low to the ground, its white wings and body looking like a ghost in the dark.
Zach opened the door and they all walked through.
Hellfire Caves
It was the sobbing Seb noticed first. Surrounded by darkness, he heard it, just before they all shuffled away from the door and the scrunching of their footsteps drowned it out. And then it stopped.
Although the auras of his friends shone brightly, helping him locate them, they didn’t illuminate their surroundings. He thought of flamers. None appeared.
“Pretty lights would be helpful, Seb,” Zach said, pulling out his staff and moving further forward to stand in front of him.
