Dark Light

by Nicola Fulford

  Chapter 8

  On the first day of he holidays, Will called round to Amber’s house to take her out for what he called a date. This mostly involved a trip to the café down the road, but Amber didn’t mind where they went. She was happy to spend time with someone who was still clueless to the many mysteries of the world. They talked about pointless things, like movies and food and television. Amber told Will about how Darren had been missing on the last day of school, which Will thought highly entertaining.

  “So let me get this right,” he said, “You didn’t tell anyone about what Darren did at the dance the other night? Why?”

  “Because I didn’t want to get you into trouble,” answered Amber.

  “Oh please,” he scoffed. “What are they going to do, throw me in the stocks for helping a defenceless girl in trouble.”

  “Defenceless?”

  “I’m afraid so,” said Will with a very solemn, sarcastic expression.

  “I am not defenceless.”

  “So you’re telling me that you had that situation entirely under control before I came along?” he asked.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Oh really?” A

  “Yes,” Amber said resolutely whilst lying through her teeth.

  “What was your escape plan?” Will asked as a wide, overconfident grin spread across his face.

  “I would…kick mud in his eyes and scream.”

  “Scream?” Will was really smiling now, but not in a taunting way. Amber crossed her arms and stared at Will silently. The waitress came over with the bill, which Will got his wallet out to pay.

  “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” asked Amber. “You paid last time.”

  “Oh, didn’t I tell you? My friends bet me I couldn’t go out with a beautiful girl I see this weekend. I thought the least I could do for your part was buy you a drink.”

  Amber had to laugh at Will’s attempt at a pick up line.

  She was still smiling a few minutes later while Will walked her back up the street to her house.

  “So, this was fun,” he said.

  “Yeah, it was,” said Amber. “Thanks again for the drink, and for saving me the other night.”

  “It was really nothing.”

  They had reached Amber’s doorstep by now, and Amber stood with her back to the door, watching Will, who was looking cool and relaxed as always.

  “So…” she said.

  “I’ll call you later?” Will asked with real uncertainty.

  “Yes, or I’ll call you,” said Amber.

  “Ok then,” he said.

  “Well…bye.”

  Will leant in and kissed Amber lightly on the cheek. She blushed and turned into the house to hide her face. Will walked back down the path and out of sight.

  The rest of the holiday passed slowly for Amber, each day dragging on and on until it was finally late enough that she could escape into the world of dreams. But even in her dreams Amber was haunted by the image of the deadly angel, like she had been on that first night before she found out everything.  Maybe she only dreamt of it so often because she couldn’t stop her mind wandering in that direction every waking moment, maybe if she could learn to control her thoughts she would be able to find refuge for a few hours each day.

  The dreams had become more realistic, more defined, since Amber had found out about Matt. She knew the angel was a He now, from the way it set its face, and the way it carried itself whilst floating just a few inches off the ground. Amber hadn’t noticed that before, just like she hadn’t noticed how truly perfect the lonely angel was: his face lit with unearthly beauty, his eyes glinting like cold diamonds whilst they watched over the terrible scene before them.

  That’s when it would turn from a dream into a nightmare. Amber would unstoppably follow the angel’s line of vision and see Matthew trembling, broken, and alone. She’d try to run forwards but find herself, as you sometimes are in a dream, unable to move, glued to the spot whilst watching Matt lying hurt on the ground. He screams. And then Amber wakes up, gasping and afraid like she had been the very first time she’d had the dream. But Amber had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she thought about this dream. She had a nagging feeling that it was a warning; that danger was coming.

  It might have helped if she’d heard from Matt in the past few days, but it was like he’d vanished off the face of the earth, leaving no trace of where he might have gone. No one had seen him, or heard from him. Amber had thought about calling him, but she realised she didn’t have his number; she tried e-mailing but he didn’t reply. It made her anxious not knowing if he was okay. It was illogical really, given how little she knew Matt, but Amber felt strange when she was away from him. Like a part of her was missing. She would have to ask him if that was part of the whole ‘Daemon’ thing.

  And when she wasn’t thinking about Matt, Amber was thinking about Will, and what he was doing or where he was. Recently, Amber had been getting the feeling he was keeping something from her. She daren’t ask what it was though; she didn’t think she could take any more secrets. Overall, her head was buzzing with overloaded trains of thoughts chasing each other around a very crowded track.

   “Any plans for today?” her mum asked, like she had every morning since school had broken up for the holidays.

   “Nope,” Amber replied through a mouthful of burnt toast.

   “You should be doing something, Amber. You have holidays for a reason.”

  “Yes, and that reason is to rest,” Amber replied simply.

  The truth was that she didn’t want to do anything other than sit around watching reruns of old movies in her pyjamas. If she went out, Amber knew she would be constantly scanning her surroundings for a sign of Matt or Will, and when she found no trace of either of them, she would feel even worse.

   “Well, I should get going,” said her mum, finishing the last of her breakfast and standing up. “Some of us have to work.”

  Amber hated it when her mum said things like that. Another one was ‘kids don’t work hard enough these days’ or ‘in my day…’ Amber knew her mum wouldn’t last a day in her shoes, especially if she’d had all the impossibilities Amber had come across in the last few days weighing down on her shoulders.

  Amber slouched into the living room, collapsing onto the old sinking sofa and flicking on the TV. She turned the title music to the morning news up as loud as it would go and, like she had for the past six days, used the sound to block out any thoughts that were running through her mind. It didn’t often work. The newsreader was barely past reading the headlines when there was a knock on the door.

   “You should really remember your keys by now Mum,” Amber said, opening the newly polished oak door.

  “Hi Amber.”

   “Oh, hi Eva.” Amber was surprised to see Eva’s tall blonde figure standing in her doorway. “What’s up?”

   “Nothing, I just thought I call in to see you. I haven’t heard from you for a while.” This was true; Amber hadn’t left the house since the holidays had begun a week ago other than to see Will. “I’ve never seen your house before.”

   “Do you want to come in?” she offered awkwardly, stepping aside to allow room for Eva to walk past her.

   “Huh? Oh, sure.” Eva seemed oddly vague, like her mind was elsewhere.

   “Are you alright?” Amber asked as she guided Eva through the hall and into the living room.

   “Yeah,” Eva sighed. Amber wasn’t even sure if she’d heard what she’d said.

   “Are you sure? You look…preoccupied?” Amber raised her tone at the end like a question.

   “I’m fine,” she insisted.

     A void of uncomfortable silence spread between them.

   “Do you think Dylan likes me?” Eva burst out abruptly, and Amber could tell from the way she suddenly sat up straight and looked at her expectantly that this was what Eva had been wanting to say. She’d heard of Dylan-mostly from Eva going on about
him-he was in their year and shared Eva’s Art class on Mondays.

   “Um…I…don’t really know.” She could tell by Eva’s reaction that this wasn’t the answer she had been looking for. “I mean,” Amber rectified quickly, “I’m sure he does, but I haven’t seen him around much.”

   “But you have seen him. Do you like him?”

   “I suppose so,” Amber said. Of course, she wasn’t going to pass any real opinion on some boy she barely knew, but if she did it would be that she much preferred Will.

   “His hair is so nice and blonde, but not too blonde, you know?” Amber really didn’t know. “And he does this thing when he talks to you like…”

   She let Eva’s voice drain into the background like she had with the newsreader.

  Amber felt sorry for the girl, even though she had never liked her much in the past. She had come to Amber to talk about Dylan instead of any of her other friends, and when she’d let her guard down, Eva had looked so upset. Of course Amber knew how she felt. She knew what it was like to be dying to share a secret and not being able to.

   “What do you think Amber?” Amber jolted at the sound of her name.

   “Huh?” she asked sheepishly, feeling a little guilty for not paying attention, but Eva seemed unfazed.

   “I’ll ask Dylan out if you ask Matthew.”

   Amber raised an eyebrow sarcastically at this suggestion. Eva didn’t know about Will, she realised.

  “I don’t really see Matt that way,” she began.

  “You always hang around with him-“

  “Yes but-“

  “He talks to you more than he talks to anyone else-“

  “Yes but-“

  “So what’s the problem?” Eva asked.

  “I like someone else.”

  “Who?” asked Eva.

  “He’s from my village, his name is Will.”

   “It’s settled then. I’ll call you later to organize a meeting place.” She got to her feet, looking significantly happier than she had when she arrived. “See you later.”

  Eva let herself out, leaving Amber sitting alone in the living room once again, puzzling over how she was going to ask Will to commit to this slow torture and accompany her.

  Amber turned the television back on so that the house wouldn’t be so eerily quiet. She had that unsettling feeling you sometimes get in the pit of your stomach that she was being watched, though of course that was impossible. She flicked through the channels quickly and nervously, trying to banish the sense that she was not alone. Amber blamed Matt for this newfound sense of paranoia; she’d been perfectly comfortable alone in the house before he told her all of his freaky secrets and rules.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Amber saw a dark figure moving quickly: running. Amber spun her head around in an instant but there was nothing there apart her coat hanging over an old chair. She laughed at herself for feeling so tense, but it did not dispel the feeling that someone was in the room with her, standing in a dark corner just out of sight. The room felt very cold and close even for winter, and the light seemed to have turned a strange faded grey. The hairs stood up on the back of Amber’s neck, adrenaline pumping through her veins, telling her she was in danger. But there was nothing here. There couldn’t be.

   The temperature dropped another few degrees and Amber shivered.

  She felt something moving right above her head, like a drifting shadow or non-existent breeze.

   “Amber.”

  She froze as she heard the whisper, as quiet as a breath and yet too clear to have been a trick of her imagination. Run, Amber’s head screamed at her, Get out of here. She wanted to obey, to get as far away from this place as possible, but her whole body was frozen-apart from her teeth, which were chattering with the sudden cold temperature and fear.

    “Amber,” the voice called again, louder this time. It had taken on a commanding timbre-commanding her to stay. Half of her felt she would be happy never to move again if it meant she could stay with this mystifyingly beautiful voice, but the other half was still shrieking at her to run, like it was afraid of what might happen if she didn’t.

   Amber could feel the adrenaline pulsing through her veins, enhancing every one of her senses, so that she could hear every movement in the room, feel every miniscule waft of air.

    “Amber.” This time the voice was closer, and Amber felt the icy breath on the back of her neck sending shocks of terror down her spine. Her eyes widened in dread as she realized she was still frozen. The internal battle between her two halves raged on as Amber felt the level of danger rise in the room and the temperature drop further still.

  Amber heard the front door open in the same moment that she felt a firm hand grasping her around the shoulders, pulling her to her feet and bringing her to her senses. Amber knew instinctually that she was no longer in danger, but the hairs were still standing up on the back of her neck, a remnant of the breath that had crossed there not a second previously.

  The adrenaline was still coursing in her veins, so she was almost able to distinguish her surroundings as Matt ran at an inhuman speed with her in his arms. Amber’s extra weight load didn’t seem to bother him any more than if he’d been carrying a feather pillow, and she finally realized the full capability of his impossible powers. Matt’s breathing stayed paced and level as he moved across fields and through small forests. She was very aware that they had made a half-an-hour journey out of the city in just a few minutes without a car.

  They got further and further into the countryside, passing tiny villages and hamlets until eventually there were just open fields. Finally Matt stopped under an outcropping of trees and set Amber down on a large rock that was conveniently placed right in the centre of the mini-forest. She slumped down to the ground and listened to her pulse racing after the sudden movement and general shock.

  “Are you alright?” Matt asked quietly after a while. He’d been silent from the moment he started running, pacing the ground just slightly quicker than a normal human would once he’d put Amber down.

   “I think so.” Apart from some seriously windswept hair that would take hours to fix, there was no real damage done. “How did it find me?”

  “He can track you through your mind. Your thoughts really aren’t as private as you might think they are.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Think of your mind as a computer,” he said quickly. “If you know how, you can hack in and get any information you want.”

  “And now he can just get to me wherever I am? I’ll never be safe?” Amber asked hysterically.

  “As long as I’m around, he’ll never get near you,” said Matt determinedly through gritted teeth.

  “But he did! He found me today!” She was getting even more panicky. She thought that they should keep running, that the voice couldn’t be far behind them, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

   “I was following him. I thought I had him, but it was a false trail. I shouldn’t have let him get so close.” Matt whispered. “It was unforgivable.” The pain in his voice vanquished Amber feelings of hysteria, replacing them with sadness at Matt’s anguish.

   “Relax,” she said, getting to her feet and standing in front of him so he would stop pacing. “I’m fine.”

   “Do you realise how close you were to-“ The rest of his sentence was choked off. “You could have been killed. If I’d been a second later-“

  “But you weren’t and I wasn’t, so what’s to worry about. We’re safe now, that’s what’s important.” Amber tried to sound nonchalant and indifferent as she relived the moments of cold and terror from just minutes ago.

  “Yeah, you’re right. You’re safe, that’s the main thing.” Amber noticed Matt had changed We’re safe to You’re safe. He sighed and sat down on the rock nearest to him.

  “Shouldn’t we keep moving, I mean, what if he comes back?”

  “We’ll be okay for a while. I think it must drain him to be in his physi
cal form because he only ever stays that way for a few hours at a time.”

  Amber sighed, knowing that this would always be how it would be with Matt: never quite safe, always running from the monsters in the shadows.

   “So, where are we?” she looked around at the canopy of green overhead

  and the carpet of dirt under her trainers.

   “I have absolutely no idea,” Matt said blankly, staring around like she

  was. “I just ran as fast and as far as I could.”

   “It’s really beautiful here.” The tiny patch of trees provided ideal shelter from the all wind, snow and rain of winter and was perfectly secluded from the rest of the world. The only noises were the occasional rustling of animals in the bushes and up in the trees above them.

   “Maybe we should come here more often.”

   “Our own special spot.” Amber smiled at the idea of something they could share together as equals. The trees would also provide great shade in summer from the heat and there were lots more large rocks plotted around that would be handy to sit on. Matt walked, slowly for him, to where Amber sat, and crouched down in front of her.

  "Close your eyes," he murmured as softly as a breeze.

  She obeyed without thinking about it, as though it were a second nature to do as he said.

  "Do you hear it?"

  "What?" she asked, confused at the direction the conversation had taken.

  "Everything. Listen to everything," Matthew said simply, making Amber even more confused.

  "How am I supposed to-"

  "Branch your ears out. Find every sound."

  Amber still had no idea what Matt was asking of her, but she concentrated on all the sounds around her, taking in every breeze that filtered through the trees, every rustle of wings made by passing birds. She finally began to understand what Matt had been talking about. The sounds, those tiny insignificant sounds that would normally go unnoticed, collected together like layers of music playing in a complex and indecipherable melody.

  "Now do you-" Matt began.

  "Ssshh!" Amber held up her hand to silence him, still enjoying the beauty of the unwritten music. Matt smiled at her response. She stayed perfectly still, not making a single sound, not ever breathing. Amber had a feeling that it would be the only peace she would get for a long while. She sighed.

  "Done?" Matthew asked when she opened her eyes.

  "It's..." Amber searched for a word that could sum up the unreal perfection. "Amazing," was the best she could come up with.

  Matt’s smile widened in amusement at her surprised enjoyment.

  “Can I ask you something?” Amber asked abruptly.

  “Anything,” Matt promised.

  “Who were you? Before you were…changed, I mean.”

  “I was Matthew Lawson, general loner and nobody.” Amber felt like she knew the name from somewhere, a character in a book, maybe?

  “But, you must have had someone to miss you when you went. Parents or a brother or sister.”

  “My Mum and Dad died in a car crash when I was a baby. I had no other family so they sent me to an orphanage. No girlfriend-ever. No one to miss me.” Matt didn’t seem too upset about his life story, or maybe he was just good at acting; after all, he had the whole world-other than Amber-fooled into thinking he was just a plain old human.

  “I’m sorry about your parents…and I’m sorry about you,” Amber whispered, wishing she’d never asked the question in the first place.

  “Don’t be, it was a long time ago. I never even knew my parents, and isn’t it better that I became what I am than dying alone in a dark ally?”

  Amber wondered what horrors Matthew must have experienced in his life to be able to wave off the thought of death so easily.

   

  “What happens if he catches you?” Amber asked. It had been hours since they had arrived in the miniature forest. Matt had rolled a fallen tree into the centre of the outcropping and they both sat on it side by side. The question had been bothering her for some time, but she had been afraid to hear the answer and so had only just plucked up the courage to ask.

  “That’s not something for you to worry about,” Matthew muttered in response.

  “But don’t you see? I will worry about it, and it would be a lot easier if I knew what I should be worrying about.” Amber didn’t even understand what had come out of her own mouth, so she was surprised that Matt did. Maybe he was using that weird sixth sense thing of his to work out what she was thinking.

  “If he gets to me-which he won’t” Matt added, seeing the dread spreading across her face in anticipation of the answer. “He’ll… end me.”

  “End you?” Amber didn’t understand his choice of words. “You mean he’ll…” she hesitated as the words sunk in, “He’ll kill you?”

  “Amber, I’ve been dead for a long time already. He can’t kill me when I’m not alive.”

  “But you are alive.” So many things about Matt’s world confused Amber, but this was definitely not one of them. “If can see you, if can touch you,” she gently punched his shoulder to prove her point. “You’re alive!”

  “Not fully.” Matt’s voice was blank and emotionless. Amber tried to read his face but it was like a cold mask covered it; his eyes were dark and detached, his mouth set in a flat line.

   “What do you mean not fully?” Amber stood up, annoyed at Matt’s vagueness.

  “I should probably get you back home.”  He stood up as well.

  “Don’t change the subject.”

  “I’m not changing the-“ Amber didn’t stick around to listen to the rest. Turning quickly, she stormed off in the direction she thought was home. Of course, it only took Matthew a blink of an eye to catch up with her.

  “Wait,” he pleaded, speeding up behind her. She carried on walking. “What is with you?” He put a hand on Amber’s shoulder and spun her around to face him.

  “What’s with me?” she burst out angrily. “What’s with me? You tell me that you’re some superhuman thing, and I accept it. But then, you go off missing for over a week, without a word to me about where you’ve been-“

  “I told you, I was following The Voice.”

  “And now,” Amber carried on as though she had not heard him. “You tell me that you’re a dead man walking, that’s what’s with me.”

  “Look,” Matt sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would offend you.”

  “I’m not offended. I’m upset.”

  “I told you, you shouldn’t be.”

  “You think that makes a difference? I’m going to go home today, not knowing if I’ll ever see you again.  And then, before now I hadn’t heard from you for weeks. Do you have any idea what was going through my head? I mean-“

  Matt watched bemusedly as Amber ranted on and on, barely pausing to take a breath.

  “Are you finished?” he asked when she stopped to calm herself down momentarily.

  “Nowhere near.”

  “Well, you really should be heading home. Do you think you can bottle it for another day?”

  “I think I’ll manage,” Amber said sourly.

  Matthew half-laughed half-sighed as he loaded Amber onto his back like a rucksack.

  “Can we go a little slower this time please?” she asked. “The thought of travelling at the speed of light makes me feel slightly nauseous.”

  “Wimp.”

  “Hey!” She hit Matt on the back head.

  And then off they flew; travelling so fast she almost fell off in the sudden burst of movement. Amber couldn’t distinguish her surroundings from the green-blue blur that marked the ground and the sky. The only sure thing in the world for that time was her arms wrapped in a stranglehold around Matt’s neck. She could feel the blood pumping through his veins under her palm, but his pulse did not seem elevated by running so fast.

  Matt halted so abruptly that Amber’s head slammed into the back of his.

  “Ow,” she complained. “You need
to work on your stops.”

  Matt laughed in response.

  “It’s not funny.” She hit the back of his head lightly again as she detached herself from his back, nearly tripping over as she landed with a dull thud on the pavement outside her house. No one had noticed their sudden appearance.

  “Do you want to come in?” Amber offered, heading up the weed-ridden path to the front door.

  “Sure,” Matthew accepted, following behind her.

  Amber fumbled with her keys ineptly and ended up dropping them on the ground, but by the time she had reached down to get them Matt had already picked them up, unlocked the door, and was standing with his hands behind his back smugly.

  “You think you’re so cool when you do stuff like that, don’t you.” It was a statement, not a question. Amber could tell by the self-satisfied expression on his face that he just loved showing off his skills. She couldn’t blame him; she was the only human ever to know about his special talents, it must suck to have to pretend to be bad at stuff.

  “I am cool,” he said.

  Amber stuck her tongue out childishly.

  “Do I get a tour?” Matt asked sarcastically as he walked into the hall ahead of her.

  “Living room-bathroom-stairs-kitchen,” Amber said quickly, pointing to each room from where she stood. “Can I get you anything?” she offered, heading for the kitchen. “Cup of tea? Sandwich. Oh hey, wait,” she stopped, a sudden thought occurring to her. “You do eat, right?”

  “Yes, I eat” Matt laughed. “I am essentially human, it’s the best form of disguise one could wish for.”

  “Disguise?”

  “Well, if I walked around with green skin and wings it would be kind of hard to blend in.” Matt gave Amber a look that made her feel like she was being very slow.

  “But you don’t have any of that do you? Like wings and stuff?”

  “No, Amber. I am exactly as you see me.”

  She sighed in relief, not prepared to see some creepy alien figure materialize in front of her.

  “Cup of tea then.” Amber set the kettle to boil. Matt was practically bouncing up and down on the spot. “What’s with the edginess?” she asked, puzzled.

  “Just please be very careful with the boiling water-Please,” he added.

  “Okay, sure. Whatever.” Amber rolled her eyes at Matt’s overly anxious persona. It was worse than having an overcautious parent.

  The kettle light flashed to show it was boiled and she reached out to grab the handle, only to find Matt’s hand restraining her’s.

  “Maybe I should just do it,” he said. Amber sighed and stepped back, annoyed at being treated like a five-year-old. “Sorry,” Matt apologized, setting down the now empty kettle. “It’s just not easy to watch someone like you handling boiling water.”

  “What do you mean someone like me?”

  Matt’s eyes widened as he realized he’d put his foot in it. “Well…um…you know, because you’re…um…”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re just a bit clumsy, that’s all,” he mumbled, staring down at his shoes as though he were trying to read a very interesting book.

  “I am not clumsy. Other people around me are clumsy, and that makes me clumsy, and one day I will prove it.”

  “Sure.”

  Amber walked with exaggerated caution to the fridge and extracted the milk from the top shelf slowly, muttering to herself about how annoying certain people could be-she knew Matt would hear her. It didn’t help prove him wrong when she tripped over his foot on the way back to the counter and had to be caught one-handed by Matt while he caught the milk carton in the other.

  “Am I allowed to carry such a hot beverage all by myself?” Amber asked acidly when Matt handed her a mug of tea.

  “Only because I know what a pain you’d be if I tried to take it for you,” Matt retorted.

  “Is that why you got assigned to me?” Amber used Matt’s favoured word for the job of protecting her.

  “You mean because you seem to lack centre of gravity?”

  “Something like that,” she muttered sourly.

  “It’s a possibility. Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “What’s your guess?”

  “That you’re a good person and the world’s repaying you for it,” Matt said without hesitation. It was almost too quick, like well-read lines delivered by a good actor.

  “Mother Teresa was a good person, and I don’t think she had anyone quite like you to look after her.”

  “True,” Matt allowed. Amber still felt like he knew something she didn’t.

  She slumped down on the sofa in the living room, pulling her knees up to her chest like she always did.

  “Is this your house or a DVD rental shop?” he asked sarcastically, inspecting the shelf of old films in the corner of the room and all the baskets of DVD’s that were set by the television.

  “Movie night every Friday since before I can remember,” Amber explained. She loved movies. They offered an easy escape from the world that fit whatever mood you were in, and it only took a couple of hours to watch them.

  “What’s your favourite?”

  “Hmmm…” She considered her answer for a minute. “I would have to say The Mummy.”

  “Seriously?” Matt raised an eyebrow.

  “What’s wrong with The Mummy?” Amber asked defensively.

  “Don’t you think it’s just a bit unrealistic: unlucky adventurers open magic-“ he voice dripped sarcasm as he said the word-“book that just happens to bring a guy who was buried alive back to life. Because that would really happen in real life.”

  Amber stared at him with wide eyes.

  “What?” he asked.

  “Three words,” I said slowly and clearly. “Pot. Kettle. Black.”

  “Well it would be farfetched it you applied reasoning from the way a normal person views the world.”

  “Yes, but you’re not normal, and what’s wrong with fantasy?” Amber stubbornly tried to persuade Matt around to her point of view.

  “I’ve got enough of the supernatural in my own life without adding the fake kind, thank you very much.”

  “But don’t you see? That’s the beauty of fantasy: it lets you escape into a different world for a while, a world where your problems don’t exist.”

  “Are you honestly telling me that you want more horror in your life?”

  “Not horror…magic.” Amber held onto her point persistently.

  Matt just shook his head like he couldn’t understand her, even with his special gifts as an advantage.

  “Favourite book?” he moved on.

  “I don’t like books,” said Amber, shaking her head.

  “You don’t like books,” Matt repeated, because he clearly couldn’t understand it.

  “No. They take ages to read, and then you can get half way through and find out the storylines rubbish, that’s if your friend doesn’t give away the ending, and you have to make time to sit down and make an effort to read them.”

  “But they’re so much better than movies,” Matt said. “You can’t get lost in a film the way you can with a book.”

  “I can.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Next question,” Amber said.

  “What happened to your father?”

  Amber froze, leaving her face in the exact same way so as not to betray any alarm at the subject. She thought she’d gotten away from any damage the thought of her father could cause, but it followed her unshakably, like a bad dream.

  “Amber, are you okay?” Matt asked uncertainly, probably alarmed by the tension he could sense rolling off of her. Even she could feel it mounting in the room, making the air stuffy and hard to breathe.

  “I’m fine.” Amber shook her head, shook off the bad memories, and faced Matt, who had moved to her side on the sofa without her noticing. “You wanted to know about my father.”

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.�
�� Matt looked her straight in the eyes, examining her face for some sign of what was going through her head. He had become the brother she had never had in the past few weeks, she could trust Matt with her secret, seen as he had trusted he with his.

  “My Dad is in Brighton prison.” The words began to flow out without Amber fully acknowledging what she was saying, like opening gates and allowing the flood. “He was accused of murdering a boy, not much older than I was, a few years ago. The evidence was conclusive: fingerprints, a sample of hair, and he didn’t have an alibi, so he was found guilty. After that my mum and me couldn’t stay in Polegate, what with all the whispering and dirty looks, we might as well have committed the crime ourselves.”

  “Amber, I’m so sorry.” Matt wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder.

  “You know the weird part is that he never confessed. No matter what evidence they showed he still protested that he was innocent. He always was a filthy liar.” Amber gritted her teeth at the end of her story and Matthew tightened his arm around her shoulder.

  “Favourite CD?” he asked, making her feel better by changing the subject entirely inconspicuously.

  “Riot-Paramore,” she muttered.

  “Interesting.” Amber laughed as he rubbed his chin in mock deep-thought.

  “How old are you?” she asked suddenly as she remembered the many films she had seen where the hero was centuries old and didn’t look a day over twenty.

  “I’m sixteen.”

  “Real age?”

  Matt nodded.

  “So you aren’t some old guy in a teenager’s body?”

  “And that would be the problem with fantasy stories,” he said, shaking his head in mild disbelief. “I am a normal sixteen year old, not some strange vampire dude with a quiff.”

  “And you age like a normal person?”

  This time it was Matt who froze.

  “You do age right?” Amber asked again.

  “Not exactly.” Matt’s voice was stiff with tension, probably expecting Amber to overload one of these days with all the freaky supernatural stuff that surrounded her.

  “Not aging, that’s…wow,” she managed.

  Matt seemed glad that she hadn’t gone into meltdown mode.

  “I know, it’s a bit Superman.”

  “Anything else I should be looking out for next time I see a comic book?”

  “Well you know about the basic stuff like my strength, speed, and ability to turn invisible-”

  “Oh yeah,” Amber interrupted sarcastically, “All part of the basic package.”

  “As far as I know, that’s all there is. Of course, it took time for those powers to manifest so it if possible that there is more to come. Only time will tell.”

  He slouched back on the sofa and picked up one of Amber’s books that had been lying on the coffee table.

  “I still haven’t seen you go invisible,” said Amber.

  “How would you know?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well if I was invisible, you wouldn’t have seen me.”

  “Oh ha ha,” she said sarcastically. “Oh, I have another question, will you ever get any more powers?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Matt thoughtfully. “Maybe. I’ll have to wait and see.”

  “How can you not be excited-or worried-about new powers?” Amber asked, surprised that the prospect of being even more like a superhero didn’t seem to faze Matt.

  “I don’t look forward to becoming even more inhuman, Amber.” He said it as casually as if he were commenting on the weather. “And besides, when you live like me you learn that patience really is a virtue.” Matt fanned through a book quickly. “Good beginning, disappointing ending,” he muttered to himself like he was making notes.

  “I’m sorry what?” Amber asked, confused as to why Matt was talking to himself.

  “This book,” he waved the cover-side at her, “It’s not so great. It would have been better if the lead character hadn’t been killed off.”

  “Did you just read that whole book?” Amber realised her mouth was open like a fish and hurried to close it.

  “Yeah,” he smiled smugly at showing off his special talents-or as Amber liked to call them, super powers. She felt an odd mixture of impression and shock at his ability to make everyday things seem so extraordinary-they were extraordinary.

  He picked up the remote and began flicking through the channels at a hundred miles-an-hour until he settled on an old black-and-white movie with a generic plotline. Amber stared at him with wide eyes.

  “What?” Matt asked, focusing his startlingly blue eyes on her. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Hmmm,” Amber pretended to think for a moment, “Maybe because you act like it’s normal to do things that are impossible to the other six billion people on this planet.”

  “It is normal-for me at least.”

  “Well lucky you, you have powers. Thanks a lot for ruining the end of the book for me by the way,” she muttered.

  “I thought you didn’t like books? And besides, I like that I can be myself around you. You’re the only person in the world who knows what I really am.”

  “Apart from The Voice, of course,” she said.

  “Yeah, and you know he just doesn’t seem like the TV-watching type to me.”

  They both laughed.

   The hours passed like seconds while they sat watching the film and before Amber knew it the end credits were running along the screen in waves.

  “I should get going,” Matt said, standing up and stretching.

  “Will it be safe tonight?” asked Amber, beginning to feel worried at the memory of earlier that day.

  “You should be okay. I’ll be looking out for you.” He had misunderstood; it was him she was worried about, and knowing that he was what stood between her and The Voice-and that Matt would die if it saved her-didn’t make Amber feel any better.

  “I’ll see you later,” she said, keeping a cool head.

  “Oh, and while I remember,” he pulled a small red velvet box out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. Opening it, Amber found a tiny gold locket in the shape of a heart hanging on a thin chain. It was beautiful: dazzling and yet discreet enough that she could wear it without anyone really noticing it.

  “What’s this for?” she asked, eyes transfixed on the locket.

  “It’s nothing special,” Matt waved off, “But it will protect you. It emits a low level shield that protects only you’re subconscious. It will stop that thing from finding you again.”

  “So as long as I wear this it can’t hurt me?” Amber felt a small ray of hope at the thought of being saved from the voice.

  “No,” Matt replied. The ray disappeared Of course it couldn’t be so simple, otherwise Matt would have given her a locket before now, and they would be able to live peaceful lives. “It only protects your mind. If it finds some other way of tracking you then it can still get to you. The shield isn’t physical. But it will stop any repeats of this morning-if only you’d had it then.”

  Amber wrapped the chain around her neck. The moment the catch was secured she felt a strange sensation, like a head rush after standing up to quickly that vanished after a few seconds.

  “I have to go.” Matt turned again to walk away.

  “Wait,” Amber said, grabbing hold of his arm. “Do you promise that I’ll hear from you again soon.”

  He smiled. “I promise.”

  Matt shut the front door behind him and Amber was just about to settle down to another movie when there was a knock on the door.