Hollow Pike

by James Dawson

  ‘No,’ said Jack. ‘It could be anywhere. I’m not creeping around her bathroom again!’

  Lis brushed her dark curls over her shoulder. ‘No. I have a feeling that it’s in school. Laura was writing it here when I confronted her. That was the day she . . . we . . .’

  ‘But the police cleared her locker,’ Jack pointed out.

  The friends looked at one another, completely stumped. Across the aisle, a sniggering Cameron Green leaned over to Kitty. ‘Oi, Monroe. When you get bored of girls you can comer mi pollo!’

  ‘Thanks, Cam, I’d love to eat your chicken,’ Kitty said smoothly, ‘but I think you mean polla, tosser.’

  Even Harry and Nasima laughed as Cameron turned back to his mates shame-faced. Danny mouthed ‘sorry’ at Lis.

  Lis stole a glance at Delilah, who’d gone deathly white. Lis knew why. Poor thing – what a mistake to have snogged such a gorilla!

  The bell for morning break rang out and everyone started to gather up their books.

  ‘Don’t stampede!’ pleaded Mr Gray as the students lunged for the door. ‘Lis, can I see you for just one sec, please?’

  Lis nodded, swinging her bag onto her shoulder.

  ‘We’ll see you on the quad,’ Jack said, filing out with the girls.

  ‘Cool.’ Lis drifted to the desk at the front of the classroom and hovered at Mr Gray’s desk until the crowd had disappeared into the hallway. ‘Is there a problem?’

  Mr Gray frowned, a mixture of concern and annoyance. ‘I don’t know. Is there anything you want to tell me, Lis? Is there something going on?’

  There were about a million things going on, but none that she’d tell him. Sure, he was a great teacher, but she’d never been a touchy-feely, talk-to-teachers type. At her last school, they’d made things about ten times worse. ‘No, everything’s fine, thanks,’ she said cautiously.

  ‘In that case, could you explain your homework please?’

  Her homework? The piece on modern Mexico City? ‘I don’t understand. I handed it in yesterday.’

  ‘I know you did!’ Mr Gray opened her red homework exercise book and flicked to the last page, where her report was written. Only now, over the top of her neat italic handwriting were three angry words, scrawled in what could only be blood: NOT LONG NOW.

  The Solution

  The words were ugly red gashes, carved into the flesh of the page. Lis’s eyes teared up as she stumbled back from the desk.

  ‘Well?’ asked Mr Gray.

  ‘I didn’t do it!’ Lis cried. She could hardly believe what she was seeing. It was horrible, and yet she was unable to look away. The words were clearly a threat. NOT LONG NOW – her time was coming.

  ‘I’m not saying you did. Lis, is someone giving you a hard time? You know, you can tell me.’

  ‘Someone must have . . . Someone’s . . .’

  ‘Someone’s what?’ His earnest expression was unbearable. ‘Lis?’

  She couldn’t tell him the truth and she couldn’t think of any decent lies. She just wanted to be out of the classroom. ‘It’s nothing. Nothing,’ Lis croaked.

  ‘It doesn’t look like nothing. “Not long now”. What does that mean, anyway?’

  ‘Look, it was a stupid joke between Kitty and me. I’m sorry,’ she lied clumsily, her tongue in knots. She dearly needed fresh air to take the bitter taste of bile out of her mouth. ‘Can I go?’

  Mr Gray looked far from convinced. ‘This isn’t funny, Lis. I was worried about you.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated, staring at the carpet.

  ‘You’ll redo this piece of homework tonight. Is that understood?’

  ‘Sure.’ She practically ripped the exercise book out of his hands and then swept out of the classroom, not stopping to say goodbye.

  It was all so clear now. Lis sat on the front steps of the library, her knees drawn up to her chin. The light was somehow brighter here, and even the morning air seemed sweeter. It was quiet. She’d needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the school to collect her thoughts. It was time to face reality. This wasn’t a game and, if it was, she certainly wasn’t winning. Lis had had enough; the malicious red words were the final straw. Her mind was made up. She had to leave Hollow Pike.

  After minutes or hours passed (she wasn’t sure which), she heard footsteps crunching along the approach to the library.

  ‘There she is!’ Jack announced. ‘Lis, what’s up? We’ve been looking all over for you.’

  ‘Hey, what did Mr Gray want?’ Kitty asked, concerned.

  Feeling justifiably dramatic, Lis handed over her exercise book, open at the offending page. They all looked at the bloody lettering and fell silent.

  ‘Jesus, Lis.’ Kitty slowly looked up from the grim message. ‘Who did this?’

  ‘Who do you think?’ She was almost trembling. Part fear, part anger, it was all spilling out now, boiling over.

  ‘It must have been the killer. Witches, not-witches, sodding pixies – I don’t care any more. I’m going home! Back to Wales . . . back to my mum.’

  A moment of silence followed. She hadn’t planned to blurt out her plan so suddenly, but it was the only way. If she couldn’t go to the police, which she knew she couldn’t, then she had to leave town. This had all started since she’d decided to come to Hollow Pike. Maybe it would finish when she left. Maybe in a parallel world where Hollow Pike contained her friends and Danny and no murderers, everything would have been different, but this wasn’t the time to play let’s pretend.

  ‘You can’t just leave, though!’ Jack’s voice was barely audible.

  An exasperated, defeated laugh escaped from Lis’s body. ‘Jack! Me coming here was some sort of catalyst for a shit explosion! From the second I got here, my life has become a living nightmare. Laura was only the beginning. I’m so tired of being scared.’

  Delilah leaned forward, looking businesslike. ‘Lis, we’re all having a hard time dealing with this. You’re not alone. We were all there that night.’

  ‘But none of you are getting death threats,’ Lis protested.

  Jack’s voice was starting to crack. ‘I know, but what about us? You met us here. That’s not a bad thing.’

  ‘Of course it isn’t!’ She fought an urge to sob. ‘But I think if I just go home, I’ll at least be safe. Things can go back to how they were before.’

  ‘What? Miserable and bullied?’ Kitty was relentless, testing Lis’s resolve.

  ‘I don’t see how it can be worse than this mess.’

  ‘What about Laura?’ Delilah asked.

  ‘What about her? Why is she still ruling our lives? She’s dead! I’ve changed my mind. The police can work out who killed her; I’m not loving playing Nancy Drew! You can carry on if you want, but I’m out. I don’t care any more. This isn’t worth dying for.’

  ‘But we’re so close, Lis. What if the last diary is somewhere in the school? We just have to come up with a plan to search the place,’ Delilah said.

  Kitty stood up. ‘This is crap. You’re scared. Simple as. Where are you going to run away to next time, Lis?’ With that, she stomped away.

  ‘Don’t worry about her. She’s upset. That’s her typical response, but we really don’t want you to go,’ Delilah said, patient as ever.

  Jack nodded in eager agreement.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ Lis felt her eyes filling with tears. She didn’t want to cry. ‘I’m going to talk to my mum tonight. She’s coming to Sarah’s for Christmas and I’ll go back with her then. I won’t say anything about what we did. I’ll keep it a secret.’

  ‘But we’ll miss you.’ Jack half smiled, half frowned. ‘It’s been better since you got here.’

  The friends embraced in a group hug. Lis knew she would miss them, more than any friends she’d ever had before, but she was determined not to back down.

  ‘What about Danny?’ Jack asked, wiping his damp nose on a sleeve.

  The name hit her like a punch to the face. But Lis had wasted enough of that poor
boy’s life. It was time to let him off the hook.

  Her mind gremlins wrestled amongst themselves as Lis made her way to the rugby pitch. She knew she couldn’t leave Hollow Pike and keep Danny, and just the thought of him was making her want to change her mind. She had to talk to him before she crumbled.

  She had to leave; reason dictated it was the only thing that would keep her alive, but something inside her, something beyond reason, wanted Danny. That single thought threatened to overpower every other idea in her head. Besides, it didn’t seem fair. She’d practically given up hope of ever falling for someone the way other girls seemed to every week, and when she finally did, she had no choice but to throw it all away. Be strong, Lis, she told herself. Just do it.

  Pulling the red trench coat tightly around her body, she tentatively stepped onto the edge of the rugby pitch, her ballet pumps sinking into the mud. Practice was taking place on the far side of the pitch. Was Danny even there? Then she saw him.

  A new, particularly ferocious mind gremlin pounced. This one reacting to the sight of Danny in his rugby kit: muscular, mud-splattered and with those impossible eyes that she found entirely irresistible.

  As she watched the rugby game play out, Lis realised she’d come to the end of her plan. She had only thought it through up to the point of seeing Danny after his practice. She had no idea what she was actually going to say to him.

  A whistle blew sharply. Mr Coleman, PE teacher and ex-army man, stood, hands on hips, in the centre of the swamp. ‘Lads! What have I said about cheerleaders?’ he hollered.

  It took Lis a second to get it. He was referring to her.

  ‘Marriott’s, sir!’ yelled back one massive youth.

  Danny looked to the sky from his distant corner. Wonderful, she’d embarrassed him in front of his team.

  ‘Marriott! Get rid of her! Now!’

  His face scarlet, Danny jogged over to Lis. As he came nearer, she couldn’t help noticing the curve of his chest under his rugby jersey. She quickly drew her gaze up. When boys stared like that at her chest, she hated it.

  He reached her side and Lis briefly smelled his sweat on the air. It was intoxicating. Her cold lips parted, but to her utter horror, no words came out. Nothing.

  ‘Hi, Lis. What’s up? Were we meant to meet or something?’ He gently steered her towards the path, out of the view of his laughing team-mates.

  ‘I needed to see you . . .’ Lis began.

  Danny smiled, checked that there was no one looking and gave her a sneaky kiss. ‘Cool, but you’d better be quick or Mr Coleman might remove a piece of my anatomy that I’m very attached to!’

  Her lips turned to stone. ‘I . . . I . . . We need to talk,’ she managed to stutter.

  ‘Now?’

  ‘Yeah. God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I’m such an idiot.’

  ‘Lis, you’re worrying me. What’s going on?’

  ‘Danny, I don’t know how to say this . . .’

  His face fell into a carbon copy of the expression he’d worn the day he heard about Laura’s death. ‘Are you breaking up with me?’

  Was it too late to change her mind? The look on his face was painful. Lis felt like she was kicking a puppy. Don’t be a coward. ‘No. Yes. I have to,’ she replied.

  ‘What?’ His voice went up about ten octaves.

  Lis clutched his hand, but he snatched it back.

  ‘It’s not you, it’s—’ Lis began.

  ‘Don’t you dare finish that sentence!’ Danny snapped, but he sounded as if he might cry.

  Please don’t, Lis thought, I couldn’t stand it.

  ‘Lis, I thought we were a “thing”?’

  ‘No, Danny, we are a “thing”!’

  ‘So what’s up?’

  ‘I’m going home. Back to Wales, and my mum.’ Danny’s brilliant eyes bored into hers, but he said nothing. ‘Danny?’

  ‘Sorry, but I can’t do this,’ he said at last. ‘It’s messing with my head!’ He threw his hands up, turned and headed back up the path, leaving Lis desolate and alone.

  ‘Danny, please don’t go!’ she called after him.

  ‘What’s the point in staying?’

  ‘We need to talk about this!’

  He looked back, his face grim. ‘If you’ve already decided to go then there’s nothing to say, is there?’

  ‘Danny, I can’t stay in Hollow Pike!’ This time she could not hold the tears back. ‘I wish I could explain but I can’t. You were my last reason to stay.’

  ‘Is that meant to make me feel better?’ he asked. ‘Grow up!’

  ‘No! I meant—’

  ‘You know what?’ Danny interrupted angrily. ‘Maybe you should piss off back to Wales. Things were easier before you got here.’ He stalked back to the rugby pitch like a wounded wolf rejoining the pack.

  Lis cried in public and didn’t care who saw her.

  Making Up/Out

  Struggling to be the rock-solid big-sister, Sarah gave her a tearful glance. ‘But why, Lis? You’ve seemed so much happier here. When I saw you last Christmas you were so thin you looked ill!’

  Lis traced the grain of the wood in the kitchen table with her fingers, unable to look at Sarah directly. ‘I know, but it’s complicated.’

  ‘Then for God’s sake, tell me!’ Sarah begged.

  Lis dearly wished she could tell Sarah the whole story, but she was scared that whoever was coming after her would also come after the people she loved if they knew too much. Even the thought of someone prowling around the house while Logan slept made her flesh crawl.

  ‘There’s nothing to tell,’ Lis lied. ‘I just want to go home. I miss Mum.’ Only partly true, but certainly easier than the whole truth.

  ‘Is this about Laura? Or Danny? Whatever it is, you can tell me,’ Sarah pressed.

  Lis shook her head sadly. It was all of those things and then some.

  ‘Something’s going on, Lis. I’m not daft.’

  Lis paused. Sarah had given her such glorious freedom since she’d arrived in Hollow Pike. Maybe her honeymoon period was over; it now seemed that her sister was going to wait for her to crack under interrogation.

  Just as the tension became unbearable, Max ambled into the kitchen. ‘Are there any Frosties left?’ he asked, peering into the high cupboard.

  ‘Bottom cupboard,’ Sarah stated, not taking her eyes off Lis.

  ‘All a bit serious in here,’ Max muttered, grabbing the cereal box. ‘What’s up?’

  Lis seized her chance. ‘Nothing. But I’m going to move back to Bangor. I miss Mum.’

  Her brother-in-law paused, genuine disappointment on his face. He put the Frosties down on the table and joined them. Sarah continued to view Lis sceptically.

  ‘Lis, that’s a bummer,’ Max told her. ‘We love having you here. You don’t think you’re imposing, do you?’

  ‘No, it’s not that. I just want to go home,’ Lis said again.

  He made a comical sad face. ‘Does that mean we’ll have to start paying for babysitters?’

  As always, Max softened Sarah. ‘Max!’ she snapped, but the steely expression had left her eyes and Lis sensed her easing off. ‘Think about it some more, Lis. The house won’t be the same without you.’

  If her time in Hollow Pike had been just this: her, Sarah and Max sitting around the kitchen table, with Baby Logan asleep in his cot, then Lis would never have to leave. But it wasn’t; someone was coming for her.

  The doorbell rang and Sasha tore through the house barking her standard visitor alert.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Max asked. He seemed to think Lis and her sister were oracles of the gateway or something.

  Sarah hauled Sasha out of the way by her collar and opened the porch entrance.

  From outside, Lis heard a familiar voice. ‘Hi, I’m Danny. Is Lis home?’

  Lis froze in her seat. Danny was at her house.

  ‘Ah, yes,’ Sarah said, smiling. ‘Come on in.’

  As with any guest, Sasha jumped up to lick
Danny, who didn’t seem in the least bothered by the red beast rearing up at him as he entered the kitchen.

  Lis, unsure of him after their earlier exchange, stood quietly by her chair at the table. All eyes looked to her, but she didn’t know any of the steps to this dance.

  ‘Hi, Lis,’ Danny said, and smiled awkwardly. ‘Can we talk?’

  ‘Yeah. Sure. Er . . . come up to my room.’ Head down, she led him through the lounge and onto the next level.

  ‘Wow, cool house!’ Danny remarked, making polite small-talk.

  ‘I know, right? Max built it all from scratch,’ Lis told him.

  ‘Cool.’

  Lis paused for a moment before opening her bedroom door. Had she left any knickers, bras or tampons anywhere in plain sight? She couldn’t be certain, but she was ninety-nine per cent sure she was safe to let Danny into her inner sanctum. She held her breath and swung the door open. ‘Come in.’

  Only a bedside lamp illuminated the room, throwing elongated shadows and shapes onto the floor. Deliberately, Lis sat at her desk, safe in her own personal space. Danny perched awkwardly on the chaise longue.

  ‘Well,’ Danny began, ‘I wanted to come and say sorry face to face. I was a total dick earlier.’

  Lis felt a flame miraculously reignite within her belly. ‘You don’t need to apologise. I shouldn’t have turned up at rugby practice like that.’

  ‘No, I do. I shouldn’t have said I wanted you to leave town. I don’t want you to go.’

  She did and didn’t need to hear that. ‘I wish I could stay,’ she admitted. ‘Maybe if things were different . . . but they’re not.’

  ‘But why? Why can’t you stay? Have I done something?’ Danny asked, looking mournful.

  Lis laughed, but the sorrow of it surprised even her. ‘No. God, no! It’s everything but you.’

  Danny smiled ruefully, kicking at the edge of the rug with his toe. ‘I knew something like this’d happen. It was bound to go wrong sooner or later. I’ve never been out with a girl I like as much as you. It was too good to be true!’

  ‘But it is true. I swear.’ Lis had never wanted anyone more. How could someone so beautiful have so little self-esteem? ‘I don’t want to sound too mental . . . but I’m, like, crazy about you, Danny! These haven’t been the best few weeks of my life, but you’ve made everything so much better.’