Dark Ride

by Caroline Green

  I thought about the passports in the safe and how the girl, Lili, seemed so scared of the bloke who worked with Lex. Was that what was going on in the marina and the knitwear factory?Slavery? Did Eva find out, and was that why they hounded her and Luka into the sea?

  ‘Don’t mind me, I’m just getting some clean trousers for Dylan. He’s had a bit of a wee accident.’

  I yelped. I hadn’t even heard Will until he came into the room. I hastily closed down the screen. ‘It’s okay. I’m done,’ I said, heart hammering.

  ‘Are you sure? You can have as long as you like,’ said Will.

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘I think I’ve seen enough.’

  It felt like pieces of a puzzle were coming together. The factory and the marina were both owned by Lex McAllistair. Hadn’t they said on the news that the marina was massively over budget and late being built? Maybe this was how they were getting it done, by using slave labour just like he did in his factory. The places on that piece of paper must be the ports where the people were brought in.

  I started trembling all over. I knew I should go to the police but I didn’t have a scrap of real evidence. Who was going to believe a fourteen-year-old girl when you were up against someone powerful like McAllistair? I thought about telling Mum everything and then imagined how hysterical she’d be when she heard about me being followed from the marina. Plus, I couldn’t really tell her about Luka.

  And what would happen to me and Mum if we did try and expose what was going on? Would they try and get rid of us the way they got rid of Eva and Luka? I pictured Luka then, cold and alone in the fairground, and had to hug myself to stop the tremors zigzagging through me. I wanted to run straight to him, to hold him and tell him what I’d found out. But how would he react if I did? Hadn’t he told me quite plainly he didn’t want me?

  CHAPTER 25

  Lili

  First thing the next morning, Mum dragged me into town to pick up the last bits and pieces for school. As we walked through Slumpton, I seemed to have a heightened sense of the people around me. I found myself noticing them in a new way and picking up different accents or other languages. I tried to imagine what it would be like to come here when you didn’t speak English and were forced to work through fear and bullying. I’d never exactly felt lucky, especially having to move to this dump with my family falling to pieces around me, but maybe I had more than I realised.

  We had to queue for ages in the post office. I was staring out the window, wrestling with thoughts about seeing Luka, when a small figure scurrying by made me do a double-take.

  It was that girl, Lili – the one from the factory.

  I dashed outside, without even telling Mum where I was going and saw the girl heading down an alley opposite the bank.

  ‘Lili!’ I hadn’t meant to shout quite so loud and the effect was like an electric shock. She turned, stumbling against the wall and stared at me with wide, dark eyes, pulling the collar of her cheap, thin coat closer around her neck.

  I felt like a giant next to her, she was so small and delicate. With her dark hair and high cheekbones, she looked a bit like Eva and I wondered if she was Croatian too.

  ‘You know my name?’ she whispered, her eyes fearful. ‘What you want?’

  ‘It’s OKAY,’ I said. ‘I just want to talk.’ She was breathing heavily, blinking, like a cornered animal. ‘You knew Eva, didn’t you?’

  The effect was instant. Her eyes filled up with tears and she nodded, wordlessly.

  ‘How did you know her?’ I said gently.

  ‘We have cleaning job,’ she said.

  I remembered Luka saying his mum worked in lots of different places. Lili must have confided in Eva when they worked together.

  ‘She try to help me but now she dead,’ she said bluntly, lifting her chin defiantly. ‘I dead too if I speak to you.’

  ‘If you come to the police with me, they’ll help you, Lili,’ I said and she shook her head violently.

  ‘Policeman already know. No one help. Leave me alone.’

  Before I could say another word, she turned on her heel and ran down the alley.

  I walked back to the post office in a daze. Lili said something about the police already knowing what was going on. Who were you supposed to go to if even the police here were rotten?

  Then I thought about Mum’s new boyfriend Will being a journalist. Maybe I could tell him and he could write a big story about it. But there was still no proof, especially if people like Lili were too scared to talk. It was all hopeless and I’d never felt so powerless in my life.

  Mum gave me grief about dashing out and I just mumbled something about seeing someone I knew. I wasn’t really listening anyway.

  I was so distracted I didn’t notice Abbie until she was right next to us.

  ‘Oh hello, love!’ said Mum.

  ‘Hi, Mrs Adamson,’ she said politely. ‘Hi, Bel.’

  I smiled and Mum grimaced. ‘Please, call me Helen.’

  Abbie was looking at me curiously. ‘I’m just going to meet some friends from school in a café,’ she said. ‘Wanna come too, Bel?’

  I hesitated. I would have jumped at the chance a week ago. But my head was in such a weird place, I wasn’t sure I could chat like a normal person.

  ‘Fine by me,’ said Mum, turning to me. ‘You’ve been a bit out of sorts lately, it’ll do you good.’

  ‘Okay then, thanks,’ I said. ‘I will.’

  We said goodbye and Mum went off in the other direction. Abbie turned to look at me as we walked towards the café.

  ‘So I’m guessing that face you’ve got on is connected with the cute boy in the photograph.’

  I smiled, despite myself. ‘Sort of, yeah. Is it that obvious?’

  She nodded. ‘Yup, you’ve got it bad, I can tell.’

  ‘We kind of broke up,’ I said. I stopped walking and so did she. Out of nowhere, tears were blurring my vision.

  Abbie’s expression softened and she rooted in her coat pocket for a tissue. ‘It’s clean,’ she said, holding it towards me.

  I gratefully took it and blew my nose.

  ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’ she said.

  ‘He ... I...’ I stumbled over my words. I wanted to tell her. Badly. I wanted to tell her that I’d never felt this way about anyone before and that kissing Luka had been one of the very best moments in my life. Everything had been exactly right in the world and everything bad just melted away. I wanted to tell her that Luka wasn’t like any other boy I’d ever known before. Not because he was a ghost. Because he was Luka.

  But I couldn’t speak and I tried to breathe deeply to stop myself from dissolving into a huge puddle in front of her.

  ‘When does he go to Newcastle?’ said Abbie gently.

  For a minute I was confused. Then I remembered my earlier lie. ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I think it’s soon.’

  Something seemed to snap inside my brain like an elastic band. Why was I wasting time nursing my stupid pride when I could be with Luka again? I knew deep down that he hadn’t meant it when he told me to go. He was just frightened. Who wouldn’t be in his situation? Maybe he just felt humiliated. Or maybe he just wanted to protect me ...

  Abbie squeezed my arm and we both spoke at once.

  ‘Look, Abbie, I...’

  ‘Don’t you think you’d better ... ?’

  We both smiled, obviously having had the exact same thought. I felt a flush of happiness that, whatever happened, I really did have another friend in Slumpton.

  ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘I’ll ring your mum when I get home and say you’ve come back to mine for a bit. Take as long as you like.’

  I felt like hugging her. ‘Thanks, Abbie. You’re a total star.’

  ‘No problem,’ she said. I squeezed her arm and she did a wiggly finger wave thing. ‘Ciao, bella,’ she called over her shoulder. ‘Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ And she was gone.

  When I got near to the fairground, I realised there were lorries pa
rked outside and a couple of bulldozers. My heart started to thud. Were they bringing it down early? Was I already too late?

  I raced over to a builder sitting in one of the lorries. He was smoking a cigarette and listening to Radio One.

  ‘Excuse me!’

  He took a moment to look down and see me. ‘What can I do for you, darlin’?’ he said with a smile.

  ‘Has the work on the fairground started already?’ I said. ‘I thought it wasn’t happening until after New Year.’

  ‘Change of plan,’ he said. ‘I’m just waiting for them to give me the nod and then we’ll get started. I’m in no hurry. I’ll be sad to see the old place go.’

  ‘Hmm, yeah, thanks.’

  He said something else but I’d started to walk away, biting on my fingernail and trying to think. The entrance was in clear view of his lorry and I couldn’t just stroll in there. I pretended to carry on walking past but as soon as I got to the edge of the fence I hid just behind it. I peeked back out. My hair is always the most noticeable thing about me so I pulled my hat on down low and gradually slunk back towards the entrance. No one seemed to be looking in my direction as I got there and I fumbled in my pocket for my line of tickets ...

  ... which weren’t there. I felt like screaming in frustration. I’d seen Luka vault the gates before but he had longer legs and stronger arms than me. I had to get in somehow.

  I took a deep breath and started to clamber inelegantly over the top but my coat got caught on one of the metal bars. I yanked it free and thought I heard something behind me but then I was in. I could just make out a small group of men standing at the far end, walking around and writing things down. I kept to the shadows and scurried towards the ghost train.

  I didn’t dare work the lights so I walked into the gloom.

  ‘Luka!’ I called in a loud whisper, starting to shake with adrenaline and fear.

  I heard a rustling from the back and there he was, standing in front of me looking pale and tired but just as gorgeous as I remembered.

  His face lit up with a huge smile. We rushed into each other’s arms. I needn’t have worried about what I was going to say to him because there was no speaking at all for ages.

  When we stopped kissing, he held me close and I heard him whisper, ‘Bel’ into my hair, as though checking I was really there.

  We broke apart all too soon and then stood a bit awkwardly, despite what had just happened. Unsaid words seemed to pile up in front of us.

  Luka broke the silence first. ‘I’m sorry about what I said before,’ he said. ‘I got myself into a state over Christmas. I didn’t really mean any of that stuff.’

  ‘I know,’ I said quietly. ‘I should have been more understanding.’

  ‘It’s so good to see you,’ he said. ‘I thought ... I thought you might not...’

  And then he just grabbed me and enveloped me in his arms and we were kissing all over again.

  Finally we stopped.

  ‘You know what’s happening out there, don’t you?’ I said and he nodded.

  ‘Yeah, figured I’d stay in here until they pulled it down around my head. They’re starting with the rollercoaster anyway. I’ve been watching.’ He hesitated before speaking again. ‘There’s something else too,’ he said, with a frown. ‘Take a look at this.’

  He held out his hands and I jumped back about ten miles.

  ‘What the hell is wrong with them, Luka?’ I squeaked.

  They were transparent. You could see the outline of his fingers, but they looked like the outside of a bubble, or oil on water. There was a sort of shimmery effect, with different colours, but when I put one finger out to touch them, they felt normal. ‘I appear to be fading, from the fingers up,’ he said.

  ‘I can see that! But why?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ When he finally looked at me properly, I could see the fear in his eyes. ‘I think I must be dying. Except I’m already dead.’

  I could do nothing but stare at him in horror.

  ‘At first I thought maybe it had something to do with the anniversary coming up.’ He was trying to speak normally but I could hear the quiver in his voice. ‘Then when they started taking some of the stuff away, I realised...’

  ‘... What?’

  ‘I think I’m only here as long as the fairground is here, Bel,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s all tied up somehow. I started getting weaker when they took the rides away. And then this ...’ he waggled his arms in disgust,’... happened.’

  All I wanted to do was hold him and make it not true. But if he was right, time was running out. I knew I had to tell him everything. And fast.

  ‘Look, Luka,’ I began, ‘I think I know what it was your mum discovered.’

  For the next few minutes I told him all about the marina, the passports, the factory and Lili.

  He groaned when I’d finished. ‘That’s exactly the kind of thing Eva would get furious about. She hated any kind of injustice.’ He looked at the ground for a moment, lost in his thoughts, and then cleared his throat.

  ‘I’ve got some stuff to tell you too,’ he said. ‘Things have been coming back to me ... about that night.’

  He swallowed and I could tell the memory was hard for him.

  ‘Go on,’ I said softly, ‘if you want to, that is.’

  ‘Yeah, I do,’ he said. ‘I want to tell you.’ He leaned back against the wall, hands in pockets, and looked at the ground. ‘I’d been at my mate Dom’s. I only nipped back to borrow some cash but Eva went mad when I came in, pulling me through the door and ranting at me being late. She said, “Go up to your room and pack your stuff, we’re going away”. I laughed and then realised she was dead serious. I started to say I wasn’t going anywhere and she went nuts at me.’

  He went quiet.

  ‘What happened next?’ I whispered.

  ‘I went upstairs and stuffed a couple of dirty T-shirts off my floor into a bag. I didn’t really believe we really going away.’

  He took a deep breath.

  ‘The weather had been really bad all that day and it was hammering down by the time we got into the car. We came here first, to the fairground, and I realised she had some sort of package on the back seat. She made me stay in the car while she went into the fairground and she came back without the package. She wouldn’t tell me what she’d done with it. We started driving away and we realised there were headlights behind us. She put her foot down and the car behind us speeded up too. It was trying to force us off the road.’

  ‘Was it a black 4x4?’ I said and he nodded. ‘With a number plate that read MCA 2?

  ‘Yeah, why?’

  I told him, my heart thumping at about a million beats a minute.

  ‘Right,’ Luka continued. ‘Sounds like them. So we came down to the crossroads at the bottom of the hill and then everything happened really fast. There was this massive thump and then I couldn’t work out why my seat was in a funny position. Then I realised it was because the car was flying through the air. All the lights went out and we hit something else. I remember banging on the glass, really scared, and seeing the water level rise outside the window. Next thing I knew, I was watching the ambulance people hovering over Mum and people were talking about getting our car out of the sea.’

  He paused and I took hold of his hand, which was trembling. He stared at the ground, as though watching the scene again in his mind’s eye. When he looked up, he gave a wobbly out-breath as though trying to control himself.

  ‘It sounds awful, Luka,’ I said in a shaky voice. I couldn’t bear to think what he’d been through. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  He squeezed my hand back, almost like he was comforting me.

  ‘I think she must have had some sort of evidence and she hid it here in the fairground,’ he said, ‘but I’ve looked everywhere, even —’

  In that moment, we heard voices outside and Luka stopped.

  ‘Quick, come this way,’ he whispered and pulled me by the hand past the cars and into the ghost train.
We stumbled against the wall and in disgust I batted away something feathery that touched my face, envisaging that huge cobweb I’d seen. But Luka seemed to know exactly where to go, despite the thick darkness surrounding us.

  We stopped and I realised we were where I’d heard the whispering before. I wasn’t scared of that any more. I was more scared about what the living were capable of.

  Luka started fumbling with his keys.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I hissed and he shushed me. I heard the key turn and the wall suddenly gave way. I realised there was a door there all along. He pulled me inside and then closed the door, fumbling for a light switch. The room was illuminated by a single dusty light-bulb that swung a little, sending slices of orange light across the gloom.

  It looked like a disused storeroom. There were loads of levers and piles of metal plus some bits of other rides, including a starey-eyed lion head attached to a small seat, which looked like it came from a carousel for small kids. There were also a few bits and pieces from the ghost train, like a mouldering King Kong costume and a pile of plastic skeleton parts.

  ‘I never knew this was here until yesterday,’ said Luka quietly. ‘I just discovered it. It’s completely hidden unless you know about it. But I’ve found some fag ends and they were Mum’s brand. She smoked these smelly French ones. So she obviously knew it was here too.’

  I started to say something and he guessed what was coming. ‘And yeah, I’ve looked everywhere and found nothing.’

  The floor was covered in large thick boards and as I went to move forward I stumbled.

  ‘Whoa,’ I said, righting myself. I stood still for a moment and then gave a gentle jump. I could feel that the floor was sort of springy. Mind racing, I got down on my knees, trying to prise away the edge of the board.