He began to walk backwards, gripping Shofranka’s arm. Shofranka began to cry.
‘When you’re ready to swap your sister for the witch, you know where to find us,’ Boldo yelled over his shoulder.
‘No!’ Tamas leapt from the carriage and bolted after him. Mirela followed, still hollering for help.
Samantha scrambled to her feet, shoving past the ride attendant. She had to stay close enough to Boldo to use the energy. That’s if it was going to work this time. But the crowd had other ideas. They would not get out of the way. Samantha pushed and wriggled through the wall of people, but the Rom among them had recognised the gypsy king’s bodyguard and were not willing to give up their viewing position of the action. And the tourists had their lasting holiday memories to capture – a man dressed like a cowboy with a gun, dragging a little girl, being chased by a gypsy! Half of them would have their video footage uploaded to YouTube before they hit the pillow tonight. And the Gaje? Well, they were not about to step aside for a dirty gypsy girl any time soon.
Samantha almost screamed in frustration. She couldn’t even hear Mirela, Tamas and Shofranka, let alone see them. She shoved at a woman with a back as wide as a bed, but got nothing more than a hate-filled stare for her trouble. This was never going to work. These people would never move.
Except suddenly they did. They began to scatter. She rushed forward, spotting Tamas and Mirela ahead. Somehow, Hanzi and Luca had found them, and they’d surrounded Boldo and Shofranka.
And then Sam registered that the energy around her had changed completely. She felt puzzlement, shock, fear, and now people were yelling and running. She managed to turn around, almost doubled over as the feelings threatened to overwhelm her.
Behind her stood Scarface, with his sword, his two friends with Uzis and the tattooed cat-woman chick. Kirra.
They moved towards her.
Fast.
Samantha couldn’t help it. She screamed. More than the weapons carried by the men in black, the look of focus in Kirra’s eyes left her feeling completely helpless. Those eyes told her there was no way she was going to get away this time. Sam swivelled her head, desperately scanning for somewhere to run. To try to hide in the Ghost Train would mean running back towards them. She’d be lucky to make her rubbery legs run the other way, let alone in their direction. And there was only a food tent to her right – no shelter in there. She could run back towards her friends, but that would put them in more danger.
Too late, Tamas had heard her cry.
She felt him coming before she saw him, sprinting across the gravel towards her.
‘No!’ she screamed. ‘They’ve got guns!’
But it wasn’t a bullet that shattered her heart into a million pieces.
Trapped in a slow-motion nightmare, she turned her head towards the sound of a bloodcurdling battle cry. Without breaking stride, Kirra raised her hand and threw something. A whir of metal flashed past Samantha, straight into Tamas’s throat.
His eyes widened, confused; they locked with hers as blood spouted in a red arc from his neck. And then Tamas fell, his big body crashing into the dirt.
She could feel nothing. And everything went silent, even peaceful.
She didn’t see the police cars screeching around the corner, lights flashing. She didn’t see the people running, nor hear Mirela on her knees, hysterical.
She could see only Tamas, stretched out, waiting for her. She was by his side in an instant. She flopped to the ground next to him, bundled his head into her lap. She smoothed his hair carefully, while his warm blood – his life – pulsed from him.
Shhh, she told him in her mind. His eyelids flickered.
She saw the metal object in his throat. A star.
Tamas had been killed by a star.
She plucked the piece of metal from his neck and blood gushed even faster from the jagged wound.
And her emotions returned, ripping through her body as though she’d swallowed a hurricane. Because it was right then that she felt him leaving her.
She fought the hysteria struggling to claim her. She lowered his head to the ground and stood. Oblivious to everyone and everything around her, Samantha White focused inward. She gathered the internal hurricane into a fluorescent globe. And then, with every cell of her being on fire, she hurled the energy from her body into his.
And the world went white.
Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, Australia
July 1, 12.20 p.m.
Luke squeezed his eyes tighter to block out the light and threw a pillow over his ears to mute the sound of wind and rain buffeting against the windows. He tried everything to remain in dreamland a little longer. But it was the cat that finally woke him.
At first he felt a soft push, a gentle smudge against the side of his nose. He moved to roll over, and a needlepoint of pain snapped his eyes open.
‘Hey!’ he yelled.
Still within paw distance, the sapphire eyes of a Siamese cat regarded him disdainfully. He sat up.
Oh, wow.
It had been too dark last night to see much beyond the windows of Georgia’s house. When he’d climbed between these lush sheets he’d been so exhausted that it hadn’t registered that he was about to fall asleep in a room with one of the most expensive views in Australia.
Carefully negotiating the cat, who was cleaning itself haughtily, watching every move he made, he dropped onto the lush carpet and moved over towards the windows.
Despite, or maybe because of, the rain, he had never seen a more beautiful sight. There was nothing between his bedroom and Elizabeth Bay but a rolling green lawn and a turquoise swimming pool. Perched right on the edge of the harbour, the pool seemed the epitome of excess, as though to prove to the world that the owners of this mansion could have absolutely anything they wanted – a whole ocean to swim in, and a swimming pool, just because.
Super-yachts, moored in the bay, rocked and rolled in the wind, while rain speared into the sea around them. And although last night he’d been aware that this home was on a well-populated street, he could see no other house nearby. The tropical gardens hid the mansion from view, as though this was the only house in the world.
He stretched and wondered where Zac had slept. Wherever it was, it was infinitely better than Dorm Four. This room alone could have held the beds of the whole of Section Six. He walked around, opening drawers, peeking into cupboards. One of the doors opened onto an opulent private bathroom, and when he noticed some super-huge towels he’d at first mistaken for blankets, he decided to take a shower.
Under the double-headed steaming shower jets, he wondered whether Georgia’s father really was in prison. He’s probably just on a business trip somewhere and she figured the gaol story matched better with her piercings and attitude. Either way, Daddy wouldn’t be terribly thrilled that little Georgia had brought home two escapees, one of them a psychopath to boot.
Luke wanted to not care about that label. He’d never cared about the psychiatric pigeonholes they’d tried to shove him in before. But he still felt weird about what he’d read in his file. Also, being ripped apart from his twin sister and thrown away by his mother pretty much sucked. But why did she have to call him Lucifer on top of that?
The devil. Who would name their baby after the devil? She must have really hated me, he thought. Or else she was insane. He wasn’t sure which would be worse.
He dried himself off and stepped back into his jeans. Having only one set of clothes was going to get old pretty soon. He’d have to do something about that first up. Although he wasn’t particularly worried – money was never too hard to come by.
He wondered whether his sister had grown up in homes similar to his own. Or had she been raised in a place like this? Did she get lucky and have one set of adoptive parents? Or had she been passed around from one whack-job to the next, just like him? Maybe she’d grown up just down the road from him in Campbelltown. They could have gone to school together and not even known it. Not that he ever really went to
school very often, but still…
Did she know he existed? Did she know and not care?
Suddenly, he really wanted to know the answer to the second question.
What if he was the way he was because there was a part of him missing? What if she was that missing part?
He knew, suddenly, that he had to find her.
***
Luke found Zac squatting in the hallway outside his bedroom. He’d been wondering whether Zac had actually even bothered to stay here last night. Now that they were out of Dwight, there were probably plenty of places Zac could go. He’d mentioned brothers. He must have had friends or family he could hide out with.
But Zac was there, waiting patiently at his bedroom door.
‘Don’t you ever sit like normal people?’ said Luke.
‘I’m comfortable like this,’ said Zac.
‘What is a vegan, anyway?’ said Luke.
‘What’s that got to do with how I sit?’
Luke shrugged. ‘I don’t know. You are weird, though. What are you doing in the hallway?’
‘I don’t like it here,’ said Zac.
‘Yeah, I can really understand why you feel that way, Zac,’ said Luke. ‘I mean, it really is rundown and dirty, and there’s hardly any space for us. I suppose it would have been much better to sleep under a bridge or out in the freezing rain last night.’
‘Have you seen the cats?’ said Zac.
‘I’ve seen a cat.’
Zac gave him a meaningful stare.
Luke laughed. Cats? Now he doesn’t like cats?
‘You’re freaking me out, Spiderman,’ he said, reaching down a hand and dragging Zac to his feet. ‘Where’s our host?’
Zac shrugged. ‘When are we leaving?’
‘Where do you want to go?’ Luke began walking down the hall, towards the kitchen.
‘Where do you want to go?’ said Zac.
‘I want to find my sister,’ said Luke.
‘Agreed,’ said Zac. ‘I think we need to do that, fast.’
Luke stopped walking. Suddenly, thoroughly, he’d had too much of the riddles. He turned and prodded Zac in the chest with his forefinger. Hard.
‘We’re not going anywhere, Nguyen,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m going to take off right now and have nothing to do with you, unless you tell me who you are and who you think I am. And why you’re so interested in helping me find my sister.’
‘Deal,’ said Zac, moving back a step. ‘I think I now have something I can tell you. I really didn’t know before why I was sent to help you, but if you are who I now believe you are, you’re gonna need all the help you can get.’
Zac turned and began walking.
‘But if you ever poke me in the chest like that again,’ he said, throwing the words back over his shoulder, ‘you’d better be prepared to live with only nine fingers.’
They found Georgia upstairs in a decked-out lounge room ranging across half of the middle level of the home. The entire back wall of the room was glass, looking out over the harbour. Georgia curled cat-like on a sprawling red leather lounge, her eyes on a massive flat-screen, killing aliens with the gaming control in her hands.
Another haughty Siamese cat sat on an armrest next to her, staring down its long nose at them. A black-and-white cat sat like a miniature panda beside her, cleaning its belly. It raised its lime-green eyes to judge them, and then resumed its duties with particular gusto.
‘Well, don’t you ladies sleep forever,’ Georgia said, without taking her eyes from the screen. ‘Help yourselves to whatever you want in the kitchen.’
Luke figured they may as well eat before they left, so he and Zac headed back downstairs. He cracked the door of the fridge and leaned in. A giant chocolate cake beckoned at face height. There were strawberries, a cling-wrapped bowl of fried chicken, a two-litre bottle of chocolate milk and half a leg of ham.
‘This place,’ Luke said. ‘I love this place.’
He pulled out the ham, a jug of orange juice and a block of Swiss cheese.
‘What can you eat?’ he said.
Zac peered over his shoulder into the fridge. ‘Just pass me the strawberries,’ he said. ‘And I’ll have some toast.’
‘How do you live like that?’ said Luke. ‘Not eating meat?’
‘Well, I don’t know how you live like you do,’ Zac said. ‘You see, when you realise that all animals are sentient, and they just want to live like we do, it seems rather, um, disgusting to murder them and eat their flesh.’
Luke grinned, slicing ham. ‘You don’t seem particularly fond of the cats, though,’ he said.
An orange cat sat on the granite benchtop watching them. His fat hindquarters spread out across the surface like a giant puddle of marmalade.
‘I’m not happy with these cats,’ agreed Zac.
‘Well, I like them,’ said Luke. ‘And I like their house a lot. You reckon you can figure out how to use the griller on that oven?’
Luke sliced more ham and some cheese while Zac grilled four slabs of bread. He decided that now was as good a time as any to find out more about himself.
‘Tell me what you know,’ he said.
‘I don’t think this is the right place to talk,’ said Zac.
Luke stabbed his knife into the wood. ‘Well, I’m not waiting any more, Zac. I thought we agreed.’
Zac met Luke’s eyes and then dropped his gaze to the floor. He raised his left foot and rested it against his right leg. He lowered it, and balanced on the other foot. Finally, he blew a huge sigh.
‘Well, firstly, I’m an elf. So there’s that,’ he said.
Luke left the knife where it was. He didn’t think he could trust himself with it right now.
‘Come on, Luke,’ continued Zac. ‘You know I’m not like you. You people are sooo slow. You’ve seen me run.’
‘So you can run fast.’
‘And fight.’
‘You’re a good fighter.’
‘And what I did with the mushrooms.’
Luke snorted. ‘So, you’re not a gardener or a cook. That doesn’t makes you an elf or a pixie or whatever. Oh my God, Zac, why would you even choose to be an elf if you were going to go all fairytale on me? Couldn’t you at least have been a vampire or something? They’re all the rage at the moment.’
‘You’re hilarious,’ said Zac. ‘Well, how did I open the gates at Dwight when we were about to crash the swamp rat right into them?’
‘You said the guards did it,’ said Luke, faltering. ‘To let the ambulance through.’
‘How did we leave the running track without Singh or anyone else seeing us? Why did the transit cops walk right past us on the train, and not see us at all?’ Zac pulled the bread out from under the grill.
‘Lucky?’ said Luke.
‘Magic,’ said Zac. ‘I have a little. Some elves have a lot. We can draw upon the forces of nature to change the way people see things. And we’re very fast.’
The orange cat stretched out along the benchtop, head on its paws, listening carefully.
‘There’s no such thing as elves,’ said Luke. ‘There are such things as psychiatrists, though. And we need to hook you up with one.’
Zac cocked his head to one side. ‘Black,’ he said.
Luke raised his head.
Zac leapt up onto the bench in one lithe bound, grabbed the knife from the chopping block, flung it across the room and then disappeared. Luke blinked and Zac stood on the opposite side of the large kitchen, holding the quivering knife.
The marmalade cat hissed, scrabbled fat feet on the granite, and took off.
Luke climbed onto a barstool. He needed to sit down.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘that changes things.’
The Funhouse
June 30, 8.29 p.m.
Samantha tried to sit up, decided that was probably not going to work, and lay back down. Her head hurt so much that it felt like her brain was a lump of metal and a magnet beneath the floor was doing its very best to suck it
out of her skull.
She opened her eyes.
‘You look like crap,’ said Birthday Jones.
‘What are you doing here?’ she said. ‘And, um, where is here?’
The ceiling above her was pitched to a point and painted in thick pink and lime stripes. The colours were a tad bright right now, and she closed her eyes again.
‘We just saved your arse,’ said Birthday Jones.
‘What was wrong with my arse?’ she asked, eyes still closed. ‘And who is we?’
She had a feeling that something bad had just happened to her, but exactly what, she was not sure. And right now she was thinking that maybe that was a good thing, because of her metal brain and the magnet and all.
‘Sam, this is Seraphina Woods,’ said Birthday.
Sam opened her eyes. A beautiful woman’s face appeared.
‘Call me Sera,’ said the woman, smiling down at her. ‘Hi.’
‘What’s going on?’ said Samantha.
She raised her head and managed to lean up on her elbow. Her stomach lurched with the movement. And suddenly everything flooded back – Boldo and Shofranka, the ninjas…
‘Tamas!’ she screamed, struggling to her feet.
The room spun, faded to white and she would have fallen had the woman not grabbed her.
‘Samantha, honey. You’re weak right now. Don’t panic,’ the woman said.
‘Where is Tamas?’ she managed, panting.
‘He’s out there,’ said Seraphina. ‘The paramedics are with him.’
‘Is he -’ Samantha couldn’t think it, let alone say it.
‘He’s going to be okay, thanks to you,’ said Seraphina.
‘I need to see him.’
‘You can’t go out there, Sam,’ said Birthday. ‘The Yakuza took off when we snatched you and the police arrived -’
‘But they’re still out there,’ said Seraphina. ‘And they’re Japanese mafia, Sam. They will take on the police if they believe they can capture you.’
What do the Japanese mafia want with me? thought Samantha, followed by, I have to sit down. Right at that moment her knees gave way.
Disharmony Page 19
