The Dark Giants

by Cerberus Jones

  Sophie T rolled her eyes and turned away from the screen in contempt. She lolled on the arm of the sofa and made a gagging noise, which made Charlie laugh, and then jerked upright with such violence she knocked the pizza out of Amelia’s hands. As Harry Badenburger hit a high C, Sophie T went a whole octave better and screamed.

  ‘It’s bad,’ Charlie agreed. ‘But not that bad.’

  ‘It’s a ghost!’ Sophie T’s voice was so constricted by fear, little more than a gasp came out. ‘Look – a vampire!’

  She pointed and Amelia saw something glowing yellow outside the library’s French doors. Two somethings, seeming to hover about a metre from the ground. Almost like ghostly eyes, staring straight at them. Amelia’s heart sped up in recognition, but then she caught herself. No, it couldn’t be Grawk out there. But if not, then … what? Sophie T wasn’t stopping to wonder. Before Amelia could say anything, she was already out the library door and across the lobby. Amelia and Charlie rushed to follow.

  The lobby was quiet at this time of night, but Mum was standing over at the reception desk, busy with a couple of guests. Amelia did a double-take: no, that wasn’t a guest. It was Lady Naomi, and she was holding Foxy firmly by the elbow (though he was, of course, holo-disguised once more as the man in the corduroy suit.)

  ‘I’m trying to tell you, my research is time-sensitive!’ Foxy was whining. ‘If I’d waited for approval, I’d have missed the whole reason for the study.’

  ‘Mmm, very frustrating,’ Mum agreed. ‘But not my concern.’

  ‘How can you say that? How is it not your concern to see science and exploration push back the darkness of ignorance? How is it –?’

  Mum regarded him levelly. ‘You can save your breath, sir. My concern is to see that every one of the people in this hotel is safe.’

  ‘But science –’

  ‘Is extremely important. But people matter more. I’m keeping this.’ She took the bio-scanner off the desk in front of her, put it into the hotel’s safe, and locked it without further comment.

  Sophie T took that as her cue and dashed over to Mum and Lady Naomi without a single glance at the fuming man with them.

  ‘Mrs Walker! Mrs Walker! Excuse me, but –’

  Mum shot a glance at Amelia who tried to shrug (I couldn’t help it) and grimace (sorry!) and look serious (but there is a problem) all at the same time.

  Mum seemed confused, but nodded her head toward the man (OK, Amelia, but you can see I’m busy) before saying to Sophie T, ‘I’m so sorry, dear, but I have to finish my work here before I can talk with you.’ She lifted her eyebrows at Amelia. ‘Perhaps Scott or Mary could help you? Or James is somewhere.’

  Sophie T blushed in embarrassment and said calmly, ‘I’m sorry to interrupt you, Mrs Walker.’

  ‘That’s perfectly all right.’ Mum smiled at her warmly, but quickly turned back to Lady Naomi and Foxy.

  Sophie T turned away just as quickly, looking dangerously close to tears, and whispered, ‘That was so humiliating.’

  ‘No, it was fine,’ Amelia assured her. ‘Come on – Mum’s right. Let’s go and find Dad. He’s probably in the kitchen and we can at least get some cake for a midnight feast.’

  Sophie T shook her head. ‘No, don’t. I was just imagining things. I can’t even remember now what I thought I saw.’

  ‘You said it was a ghost,’ Charlie reminded her. ‘Or a vampire. You didn’t decide.’

  ‘Yes, thank you, Charles. Like I said: I was just using my imagination. Obviously it was just a possum in the bushes.’

  ‘Except there aren’t any bushes outsi–’

  ‘Yeah, thank you, Charlie!’ Amelia kicked him in the ankle. ‘Anyway, who’s tired?’

  ‘What?’ Charlie rubbed his ankle.

  Sophie T was quicker on the uptake. ‘I don’t know if I’m ready to sleep yet, but I can’t wait to see your room.’

  Sophie T instantly approved of Amelia’s fourposter bed and the deep bay window that jutted out like her own private observation deck, giving a view of nearly the whole headland.

  ‘This is like a fairy-tale room!’ she sighed. ‘You’re like Rapunzel or something.’

  ‘Except her mum isn’t an evil witch,’ Charlie pointed out.

  Sophie T ignored him and instead pointed to Amelia’s single bed, which Dad had brought out of the storeroom and put by the wall. ‘Is that where I’m sleeping?’

  ‘Oh,’ Amelia said. ‘No. I mean, unless you’d prefer to? But there’s so much room in the fourposter, I thought you could share it with me. Charlie was going to sleep in that one.’

  ‘Charlie’s sleeping in the same room as we are?’

  ‘Well … yeah. I mean, it’s a big room, and there are curtains around the bed, if you’re …’

  ‘No, it’s fine,’ said Sophie T. ‘I’ve just never shared a room with a boy before.’

  ‘What’s wrong with boys?’ Charlie asked.

  Sophie T looked at him sideways. ‘Where would I begin, Charles?’

  ‘How about with how awesome we are? Or how tough? Or how we’re never afraid of the dark?’

  Sophie T sucked in a breath, and then returned, ‘Or how stupid you are? Or how smelly and ugly and hairy?’

  Charlie hooted. ‘You don’t think that about Barry Hamburger. You think he’s gorgeous.’

  ‘Well, he is. Plus he’s totally talented –’

  Charlie hooted again.

  ‘– and he writes his own music.’

  ‘And,’ Charlie added, grinning triumphantly, ‘is a boy.’

  ‘He’s not a boy, Charles. You’re a boy. Harry Badenburger is a guy.’

  ‘What’s the difference?’

  ‘I’ll tell you …’

  ‘Guys,’ Amelia said quietly. Then, ‘Guys?’

  ‘Go on,’ Charlie said stubbornly. ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘Guys!’

  ‘There’s hardly any point.’ Sophie T crossed her arms. ‘Seeing as you’re too thick to understand.’

  ‘Guys!’ Amelia raised her voice and the two of them looked at her, guilty, and then at each other, accusing.

  ‘I’m very sorry, Amelia,’ Sophie T said, still glaring at Charlie. ‘I’ll just go brush my teeth and get changed in the bathroom. Where it’s private.’

  She got her overnight bag and strode past Charlie, her nose in the air.

  Amelia sighed.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Charlie when she was gone.

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  ‘I am! But also, I was only trying to do you a favour.’

  Amelia rolled her eyes at him.

  ‘It’s true! I’ll bet you anything Sophie T has completely forgotten about what happened downstairs.’

  ‘Hey!’ Amelia hurried to stand right beside him and whispered, ‘What do you think it was?’

  ‘For a moment, I thought it had to be Grawk.’

  ‘Me too!’

  ‘But then, how?’ Charlie asked. ‘Grawk on a lad
der? Wearing magnifying spectacles?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Amelia deflated.

  ‘Anyway,’ he went on. ‘Whatever it was, there’s no way we can find out with Sophie T around.’

  ‘I know.’ Amelia gazed sadly at her window.

  It took ages to fall asleep. First they had to all get ready to turn off the light, then they talked, then Sophie T told Charlie to tell Amelia about the time Ms Slaviero brought an orphaned fruit bat to school and it got spooked by the bell and flew onto Dean’s head and hung onto his face so tightly that no-one could peel it off again.

  Then finally there was nothing more to say, and Amelia stopped thinking about Sophie T and strange yellow glows and Grawk and Foxy and Lady Naomi and mysterious canisters, and instead just lay quietly, enjoying how cosy it was to be snuggled into bed …

  And then, right next to her ear, a little explosion of warm breath went, ‘Psssst!’

  Amelia bolted awake. ‘Who’s there?’

  ‘Shh!’

  ‘Charlie?’ Amelia sat up straighter. He was crouched on the floor beside her. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Listen!’

  Amelia frowned into the darkness and waited. After a moment, she heard a scraping noise on the roof. Not the scuffling, wrestling noises in the ceiling that rats made; this was heavier, but also quieter, more distant. And it was undoubtedly outside. Something was walking on the hotel, and every now and then a tile shifted under its feet.

  ‘I hear it,’ she said. ‘But what –’ She froze as an almost familiar growl rumbled above her. ‘Could it be Grawk?’

  ‘Something’s happened to him, if it is,’ said Charlie.

  ‘Well, I have to find out.’ Amelia wriggled out of bed, then listened to the steady breathing beside her. As far as she could tell, Sophie T was still asleep. ‘Come on,’ she whispered. ‘Find your shoes.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Charlie whispered back, but she could hear him feeling around on the floor. ‘You don’t know it was Grawk. Or maybe it was a grawk, but not your nice Grawk. What if another wild grawk came though? Or something else?’

  ‘Something else that sounds like Grawk?’

  ‘Or something that knows how to sound like what you most want to hear. To lure you out, like bait.’

  Overhead, there was a heavy clattering, a deep, malevolent growl, and then a shadow flickered past the starry sky outside Amelia’s window. Whatever the thing was, it had just leapt off the roof to the grass two storeys below. Amelia pushed past Charlie and ran to the window. There was enough moonlight to make out a streak of movement on the lawn below.

  ‘It’s Grawk,’ she whispered joyfully.

  ‘How can you –?’

  ‘It was. And he’s going to Tom’s. Let’s go!’

  ‘Amelia,’ Charlie hissed, but she was already slipping out of her bedroom door. He followed her across the gallery, down the marble stairs, and into the lobby. ‘Amelia, think about it. You don’t know for sure that was Grawk.’

  ‘I do. I know his growl.’

  ‘Right – his growl,’ said Charlie. ‘That wasn’t exactly a happy noise, was it?’

  Amelia let herself out the main doors of the hotel, and sat down on the top step to pull her shoes on.

  ‘Even if it is Grawk,’ Charlie went on, sitting beside her with his shoes, ‘and it probably was, OK? But even then – why do you think it’s a good idea to chase him in the dark? What if he wants us to leave him alone?’

  ‘Then why was he watching us in the library? Why was he on the roof above my bedroom?’

  ‘For all I know, he was looking for a chimney to come down, and we were going to be the three little pigs inside.’

  ‘No.’ Amelia wasn’t about to waste time arguing. ‘It was Grawk, and he was helping us. I don’t know if he was standing guard over us or trying to get our attention to show us something, but I’m going to find him.’

  ‘Amelia –’

  She’d taken long enough already. Shoes on, she ran into the dark and called back, ‘Stay here or come with, I don’t care, but I’m going.’

  Charlie ran after her. ‘Of course I’m coming.’

  They sped through the grass, down the steep slope toward the magnolia grove. Amelia took a deep breath as they entered the thicker darkness under the trees. They couldn’t run here, but had to pick their way through the leaf litter, feeling ahead for low-hanging branches. They were still under cover when, across the clearing ahead of them, they saw of a flash of white light coming from the other side of Tom’s cottage. Amelia and Charlie stopped and listened. Another flash. And then two more, and the sound of voices, a way off through the trees beyond Tom’s.

  Amelia saw a faint yellow glow in the bushes off to one side, a distance from where the voices seemed to be.

  ‘Grawk!’ she called softly – the yellow globes blinked twice and then vanished.

  Charlie shoved her. ‘Look!’ he pointed.

  While Amelia had been looking at the glow, that flashing light had come toward them. She heard footsteps treading through dry leaves, saw branches shiver as they were shoved aside and then an enormous creature stepped into the clearing, its attention focused on the gadget in its hands.

  It was easily the muscliest being Amelia had ever seen, and not just in real life: even including Charlie’s superhero comics. Grotesque ropey veins covered bulging arms, and vast shoulders rose to a smallish head, which was completely covered by a spiked metal helmet. The gadget lit up again, bathing the alien in an intense light. Amelia saw dull, slate-blue skin covered with intricate patterns that looked halfway between tattoos and scars. The creature grunted, shook the gadget and called back over its shoulder. Its voice was like a nightmare version of Dad grinding beans in his coffee machine.

  A second blue giant stepped into the clearing. This one was bigger still, with no spikes on its helmet but a wild beard springing out from underneath instead. And if that wasn’t horrible enough, it was dragging little Foxy in his centaur form behind it by one spindly arm.

  Charlie sucked in a breath and they both crouched lower behind the trees.

  Foxy yipped at them, his attempts to speak their grumbling language sounding thin and frightened, but – Amelia noticed – still cranky. He held his head high, and he yanked his arm out of Beard’s grip. Spike growled something and shoved the gadget at him. Foxy took it, inspected its working, and then the giant tapped it forcefully and growled again.

  It’s broken, Amelia guessed. And why wouldn’t it be, with that massive blue finger thumping it like a hammer blow?

  Foxy yipped sharply and pulled the gadget back out of Spike’s reach. He pressed something and light glowed up into his face. Amelia saw him frown as he adjusted its controls.

  Then there was another great burst of light, and Amelia realised it was blasting out in a thin sheet, scanning the bush from top to bottom in a ninety-degree spread. The edge of this light was only a metre or two from her hiding spot with Charlie, and the two kids held their breath.

  Foxy, still looking at the box, gave a yip of surprise and in a jumble of excited growls, pointed into the patch of bush. The two blue giants immedia
tely tapped their helmets so that visors dropped down over their eyes (night vision? Amelia wondered), and turned to follow Foxy’s finger. They were wearing backpacks with weapons strapped to the side, and more holstered on their thighs. These guys weren’t mucking around.

  Amelia squeezed Charlie’s arm. That yellow glow that she so deeply hoped and believed was Grawk had vanished into the very area Beard was now aiming his gun.

  Foxy yipped and growled again, and then all three aliens suddenly ran, the bio-scanner flaring out again as they smashed their way through the bush.

  ‘What the heck was that about?’ Charlie breathed as soon as the clearing was empty.

  The aliens were making so much noise that he and Amelia didn’t need to worry about being overheard, but both of them felt safer whispering. Amelia hoped wherever Grawk was, he was too fast and too clever to be in danger.

  ‘That scanner …’ said Amelia. ‘They have to be tracking something, right?’ She tried not to think about what could possibly be out here that would take that many weapons to bring down.

  ‘Or someone,’ said Charlie. He glanced back the way the giant creatures had come. ‘They were really close to the cottage. They probably just came out of the gateway.’

  ‘Which means –’

  They both darted toward the cottage. ‘Tom!’

  Sprinting across the clearing, Amelia saw that Tom’s door was ajar. A weak light spilled out over the front step, and it was so quiet inside that Amelia knew nothing good could have happened.

  She and Charlie hesitated for a moment, but with the aliens out there in the bush (not to mention whatever they were tracking), it surely couldn’t be more dangerous for them in here?

  Charlie swallowed hard and pushed the door open. Amelia followed him in. Tom’s place was a disaster. It was always messy, but usually the mess had some kind of order. This was the chaos of a house that had been ransacked. Boxes had been thrown across the room, their contents scattered. The charts James had carefully organised were strewn over the floor, and Tom’s lamp – the only source of light right now – had been knocked over.