“Very funny,” Lucas wheezed, still coughing. “I just had a tickle in my throat.”
“Maybe we should go inside,” Evelyn suggested with evident disappointment, “before we all catch a chill and fall sick.”
With an unenthusiastic assent, we all traipsed inside and shut the balcony doors behind us. It was amazing how suddenly quiet everything seemed, after the pounding rain, thunder, and wind were locked out. In a way, it was comforting, but it also gave me the silly urge to run back outside and play in the elements like a wild thing, unrestrained and uncontained.
“What shall we do now?” I asked glumly, feeling the familiar boredom set in once again. Life before the trials had been tedious, but at least it had been structured and well supported. Now, we simply wandered around like ghosts, slowly starving and waiting for the next attack to come and maim us even more. I was beginning to question whether pulling that blasted lever had been worth it.
“Common room?” Lucas suggested flatly, flicking a wistful glance at the storm outside with the same expression I had. His voice sounded very hoarse, and I hoped he was okay.
“Good grief, what a suggestion!” Fred gasped sarcastically. “Why haven’t we ever thought of going there before? Oh, wait a second. We have done that before! Nearly every…blasted…day.”
I snickered, but fell silent at the sad looks Evelyn and Lucas sported.
“What other choice do we have?” Lucas sighed, turning and walking away. “If you ever come up with an alternative, please do let me know.”
“Maybe we should have listened to Tressa and Avery,” Fred muttered darkly to me. “At least they did something.”
“What did you say?” Lucas hissed, freezing mid-step. Evelyn winced and began twisting her hair as she always did when anxious. “Are you actually supporting the biggest betrayal of our lives? Or am I just hearing things?”
“No, you heard me,” Fred said stonily, standing his ground. He didn’t seem particularly defensive or contradictory, though; merely stating his opinion.
“Have you forgotten where that ended?” I snapped, peeved by his angle.
“How could I possibly forget? And believe me, I will be the first to kill Avery if we ever see him again. Well, maybe just permanently maim him, killing seems a little harsh for my tastes,” Fred mused, drawing a sharp breath of irritation from Lucas and me. “All I’m saying is maybe we should try to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late, since clearly we’re making no current progress.”
Lucas seemed about to retort, but he only coughed again and said, “Good job Penny made us do that silly pact thing, because I’d really like to hit you now.”
“Boys, please,” Evelyn sniffed, and I could tell from her expression that she was bored already with the conversation.
“She was in it, too!” they both accused, pointing at me in annoyance.
“Makes no difference,” she shrugged, tugging at their shirtsleeves persuasively. “Let’s just go to the common room anyway, and figure things out from there. My feet are aching from these ridiculously small shoes – it’s been months since my last replacement – and I’m almost falling asleep.”
Grudgingly, we followed her up the staircase, arguments forgotten for the moment. My shoes were small now too, so I could see what she meant, but I simply refused to let it worry me anymore.
In the common room, Evelyn and Fred went to sit on the window seat together. Lucas began to pore over his huge stack of stolen books while I flopped down on the sofa in front of the empty fire grate to puzzle over the unanswered questions.
I started with my parents. They had been murdered, and I had been kidnapped by ‘sinister forces’ and ended up here. Where exactly was here? And why with five other unrelated children? Why was ‘here’ so isolated from everywhere else? What was so special about me that I had been taken in the first place? Who exactly were my parents, and why did they run?
Getting nowhere with that, I switched subjects to the Boundary and the trials. How long were they going to last? Where was Avery? Was Tressa okay? How did we beat them? What was that static?
Wait…static?
My eyes flew open in shock. Evelyn screamed.
We were all standing in a row about a foot away from the Boundary itself, so close that my hair stood on end and I could hear the crackly sound making my eardrums pop. If I so much as edged a toe forward, or wobbled and fell, I would have touched the dreaded wall and fallen through as surely as Tressa had.
The stream gurgled pleasantly under my feet, half submerged under layers of fallen leaves. Inviting, cajoling, and oh so deadly. The tips of my fingers burned unpleasantly in memory.
“What just happened?” Fred asked shakily, not trusting himself to move backwards.
“I must have drifted to sleep for a minute,” Lucas mused, his eyes wide and white rimmed. “I was so tired…but only for a minute!”
He subsided into a fit of coughing, and stumbled backwards away from the borders into safety.
I was shaking so badly that I didn’t have enough confidence to move, and merely tilted my head from side to side to see what Evelyn on my left and Fred on my right were doing.
Evelyn took a steadying breath and took a tiny step back towards Lucas, before whimpering and fleeing completely until she was several yards away.
Fred followed, looking at me in question, and I prepared to move back as well.
Then I felt a sneeze tickle my nose.
Eyes watering, I tried to hold it in desperately. If I bent over to sneeze, my head would touch the Boundary. And that would be it.
“Penny?” Fred called uncertainly, but I didn’t turn to look at him. “A-are you coming? We have to leave!”
But I was too scared. I, Penny the Fearless-to-the-Point-of-Stupidity, was scared.
The Boundary swam in front of me as I tried to hold the sneeze in, and I began to see the blurry waves that created rips, form. They were different to those elsewhere, somehow thicker and overlapping so that I couldn’t find a clear space to rip, but I wasn’t really focusing on those layers. I should have done, of course.
“Achooo!” I sneezed, nose and eyes streaming. I peeked through one eye – alive!
The gladness did not last long. It was beyond unnerving how we had gotten here, because I was almost certain we hadn’t been transported like before. Somehow, while in our separate little daydreams, the trial had guided us to the Boundary, perhaps in hope that we would step forward when we came to.
“That was sort of scary,” Fred admitted, not blinking as though closing his eyes would lead to another lapse in awareness. “I’ll not sleep very well tonight. Perhaps we should lock our dormitory doors.”
“If you’d like. But I don’t see that it should be an issue, since these tests have never repeated before.” Lucas shrugged, beginning to pick his way back through the undergrowth towards the manor. “Unless next time, they send something to shove us in…”
“Wait for me!” Evelyn cried, giving a rare burst of speed to catch up with him and Fred. “Coming, Penny?”
“In a minute,” I said distantly, and she didn’t protest. As they left, I stared at the Boundary in deep thought. The dense trees beyond didn’t look any different to the ones on our side of the wall, besides the fact that they were cloaked in heavy mist. I wondered how far a person would have to travel to get to civilization in the real world.
The Boundary flickered, like a gentle ripple in a puddle to remind me of its existence. What would happen if I stepped through? What if it only shocked you if you merely touched it, and physically going through it let you pass? No one had ever tried it before…
I shook my head to clear out those thoughts. The darn thing had a compelling way of making me want to touch it, even though I knew what would happen.
My eyes scanned it with a mixture of hatred and reluctant respect. For I had to give the Boundary credit – it had terrified all of us and kept us prisoner for fifteen years, without faltering or showing weak
ness once.
I glanced up at the spindly trees. Perhaps that was why they grew thinner and less substantial here, so that we could not ever attempt to use them to get over the Boundary. If this were even possible.
A soft breeze blew, and I was suddenly cold. Making to turn back after the others, whose departing backs were still visible, I nearly missed the slip of crumpled paper blowing around with the dead leaves.
Coughing slightly, I stepped cautiously though the crunching brown soil, making sure to stay well away from the unassuming telltale stream, to retrieve the note.
It was, of course, from D. And, as expected, it shocked my hand slightly as I picked it up.
I think we both overreacted, but I’m not going to apologize. You are a fool to think you do not need me. I know more about the Boundary than you could ever imagine, including all the people in it. Not convinced? Well, I know who the baby in your dreams is. And it isn’t you.
“Liar,” I hissed, tearing the paper to shreds and throwing it to the ground. It was pathetic, that D felt he or she had to play these silly little mind games with me when I had clearly stated I wanted nothing more to do with them. Besides, wasn’t it them saying they’d happily watch me die from the sidelines? Taunting and teasing would do nothing. I had made up my mind, and no amount of blackmail could change that.
I ignored the chill that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in fright, chalking it up to nerves after the small trial. There was no truth in the letter. It didn’t make sense that the baby wasn’t me.
I saw a shape moving up ahead, so I picked up my pace to catch them. Though I tried to shake off the feeling, there was an anxiety around me that was not at all pleasant, and I longed for the comforting presence of my friends.
“Lucas!” I shouted, recognizing his height. He was quite far ahead, partially obscured by the barren trees, but he paused and waited at the sound of his name. I ran to catch up. “Sorry I took so long, I was just looking at—”
The words caught and froze in my mouth. Lucas turned around to face me, but it wasn’t Lucas. It wasn’t his monster either.
“Do continue, Penny. I am very much intrigued as to why you are hovering in the woods alone at such a time.” The Master spoke softly, as if genuinely interested. His black eyes betrayed Him, though.
He was wearing a rich, long travelling coat with a high collar, the color of old ashes. His hat was different, more rounded, perhaps the latest style in the other world. But the dangerous calm mask covering a barely contained fury remained the same, as did my consuming fear of Him.
“I was, um, just…” I gestured around wildly, looking for a plausible excuse. “Stretching my legs.”
“Were you now?” He nodded, tone still light, but cold as a frost. “Why not with your friends, though? I was watching them up ahead.”
Always watching, always waiting. I shuddered.
“You weren’t looking for these, by any chance?” He asked politely, producing a stack of…I squinted to see that he was holding…
The color drained from my face so fast, it was unbelievable. I swear that my very heart stopped beating.
“Letters,” I whispered, feeling very weak.
Every one, which I had ripped up and thrown over the balcony into the storm, was once again whole and in His pale hands.
“Very clever. Letters.” He nodded liltingly. That musical, almost inviting tone He used before a punishment. “Who are they from, Penny?”
“I don’t know,” I said truthfully, wondering if He had read all of them. Of course He’s read them, I reprimanded myself.
The Master nodded thoughtfully, a slight frown creasing His face.
“Are you going to punish me?” I asked, resigned. If He was, then there was nothing much I could do about it.
“I think not,” He declined airily, as if refusing a cup of tea. “There are more important things to attend to. These letters are indeed a very strange find, and I’m dying to know every detail.”
A faint boom of thunder echoed in the distance, but the rain withheld for the moment. The air was thick with the humidity that always comes before a storm, thick with a chilly moisture – and my fear.
“They just started appearing,” I explained in a rush, sweating at the prospect of what He could do. “And I replied, but I have no idea who D is – I promise! I was only trying to make sense of things.”
“Do not lie to me, please.” He sighed, taking off His hat with an elegant sweep of His arms. “If there’s one thing I just can stand, it’s when people lie.”
“I ripped them up,” I blurted hysterically.
“And I ripped them back together again,” He retorted simply. “Come now, Penny, you of all people should understand what those like us are capable of.” He leant in close and I shivered, wanting nothing more than to run away as fast as I could in the opposite direction. “If I were you, I’d have burned them. Ashes are harder to repair than fragments.”
I nodded numbly, unsure of why I had heard a hidden threat amongst those seemingly harmless words.
“Now, get out of here. And don’t ever speak of these letters again, understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I muttered timidly, ashamed of how pathetic I sounded.
As I ran, I dimly wondered why He had not punished me, for surely, if speaking out of turn warranted such an ordeal, then this treasonous act was even more suited to it.
It hit me as I jogged up in front of the doors with a wicked stitch in my side. Whatever the Master had read in those letters, it had brought up a strong emotion in Him that He had tried to hide from me. One that I had never seen before: fear.
Madon was scared of D.
Part Three
20
“Oh, please, not again!” I whined as soon as my eyes opened the next morning. My voice sounded scratchy and my nose was bunged up. The sweat on my brow and my aching bones indicated a fever. That wasn’t why I was complaining though. Well, perhaps partially.
We were all standing at the Boundary again, inches away from it like before, so that the static pulse radiated through my body, feeling both alien and natural, as if it were supposed to be part of me.
At this hour in the morning, I was clothed only in my long white nightgown, hair a bushy mess, and bare feet flinching at the cold, wet ground. I was freezing, miserable, and tired. Not a good combination.
“Goodness!” Evelyn shrieked, officially having woken up enough to realize where she was and what she was wearing. Her black hair was still curled around strips of wet cloth to keep her limp ringlets visible, nightgown hanging like a sail off her skinny body. I had to catch onto her arm to stop her from flinging herself forward into the Boundary out of embarrassment. “Don’t look at me! Oh dear, how improper this is!”
Fred and Lucas turned bright red at our situation and hastily looked away, they themselves only wearing button-up shirts and loose trousers without shoes.
“This is really quite ridiculous,” Evelyn exclaimed, unintentionally causing more attention to fall on her. “Do these people have no concept of propriety? Hmm?”
“Who on earth are you talking to?” I laughed, almost amused by her flustered behavior.
“Whoever’s fault this is!” she snapped, stepping easily away from the Boundary and running into the safety of the woods, calling out, “Don’t follow me; give me a chance to get dressed!”
“Poor thing,” Fred said sympathetically, but too frozen to move after her. “She’s so concerned about this sort of thing. I wonder if this trial was aimed specifically at her?”
“No.” Lucas shook his head. “Evelyn’s actually the only one who’s moved away to safety. If anything, her obsessive modesty is actually her protection.”
“It isn’t obsessive!” Fred rolled his eyes. “Just…particular.”
I shivered, admittedly feeling rather exposed myself in such a thin dress so early in the morning.
After the storm yesterday, the sky was black, but somehow a tiny bit of sun manag
ed to get through and light everything up, so that the raindrops hanging off the trees glistened like a million diamonds. It was indeed beautiful, but only until they splashed down my back. Then they were just plain irritating.
“Shall we go back for some tasteless sludge?” I suggested dryly, referring to our guaranteed awful breakfast.
Just as we were about to turn and go, out of the corner of my eye a shadow moved over the Boundary.
“Hey, Penny,” came a familiar voice, gentle and inviting.
“Tressa?” I gasped, feeling slightly lightheaded.
Fred and Lucas clearly heard her too, stopping in their tracks and staring at her.
And there she was. Tall, straight, sharp. Tressa. Alive.
“What are you doing over there?” Fred spluttered, his eyes wide and mesmerized by the apparition.
“I fell, remember?” She laughed bitterly. “But I’m okay. It hurts a bit, falling through, but after that it isn’t so bad. The woods on this side are so much bigger. I’ve been exploring them for weeks! They probably go on forever, since I’ve never found a boundary apart from this one.”
“Can you cross back over?” I whispered, wanting so dearly to rush to her, make sure she was real. To hold on and never let her go again.
“I’m too scared,” Tressa said, a tad reproachful. She paced up and down in front of the Boundary, wearing the same gown with the lacy collar she had on last time we saw her – no blood, thank goodness.
“Don’t be, we’ll be here for you!” Fred encouraged, extending his hand as if to pull her through.
“Why did you not show yourself before?” Lucas added sharply before she could reply. There was a deep mistrust in his blue eyes, and he was staring at Tressa as if she was about to bite him.
“You never came back,” she explained wistfully, winding a white curl around her thin fingers. “Not until yesterday, at least. I waited for days, until I got bored and decided to look around a bit. I think you’d all like it over this side, there’s so much to see! No trials, no sickness, no worries. You could join me, and we’d all be together again! We’ll walk all the way to the edge of the forest together, you’ll see!”
Boundary Page 17
