by James Erith
He studied his watch. Less than a minute to go, thank the Lord. The girl was right. It had been a dreadful performance. He couldn’t think why. Maybe it was this huge cloud that was sitting bang on top of his back.
Whatever it was, by God, he wanted this game finished with.
ARCHIE SHRUGGED AND STARTED WALKING. Moments later he was running. He couldn’t complain – more than anything, he had to find out what Kemp was up to – and fast. If he was right, there wouldn’t be much more time left. His stomach churned as a darkness seeped into his bones that something terrible was about to happen.
The clouds crashed and boomed. Spectators began to flee to the school buildings. Without looking back, Archie sprinted off the pitch towards the steep bank that led up towards the town.
TWENTY-FOUR
THE PROPHECY
There was more, Sue thought, much more, but she’d said it; she finally said what needed to be said. Thank goodness she’d had the presence of mind to scribble down her dreams the moment she’d woken up. Now she had to get out of there – and fast.
‘GO! Run! – run, all of you,’ she yelled at the spectators. ‘It’s going to break. The storm’s going to break.’ Thunder rolled out of the sky. She ran as fast as she could up the slope towards the buildings. She had to find a way out.
As she passed the top end of the ground she spied Gus leaning on the lamppost near to the kissing houses. She sprinted towards him. ‘Gus. What are you doing?’
‘Following Kemp – he’s been acting weird all afternoon. Are we winning?’
‘Listen Gus,’ she said as she caught her breath. ‘Rain … like you’ve never seen … you’ve got to get out of here and fast.’ Her hand touched some paper in her pocket and she pulled out Isabella’s note. ‘You’ve got to believe me.’
Gus rolled his eyes. Had she gone completely doolally?
She started to read it out loud:
‘My best friend, Sue, there’s a boat in the old shed. Key under a pot by door – oars on side. Canopy in cupboard … just in case. Love you. Be safe – Bells.’
Sue kissed it in relief; clever, brilliant Isabella.
Gus grabbed the note. ‘What’s up with you two?’
‘Look at the sky, Gus. When that ‘thing’ bursts it will rain harder than you can possibly imagine. In minutes the water will flash. I had a premonition – I’ll tell you about it—’
‘A premonition? Blimey. Cool. You sure?’
‘Absolutely. No one has a chance. Can you drive? Do you have access to a car?’
‘Of course I don’t!’
‘Nor me,’ she fired back. ‘Some of the kids have gone but I’m being picked up later, after the music.’
‘Same,’ Gus said, trying to keep pace with her.
‘Then we’re stuck, Gus,’ she said. ‘Screwed. There’s no way out.’
‘Stuck? What are you talking about? Why should we be stuck?’
‘Look, Gus,’ she said. ‘I promise you I’m not crazy, I’m deadly serious and I’m right. This cloud isn’t holding an ordinary storm, when it lets go it will be utterly catastrophic. Come on, keep up.’
Gus frowned. ‘You really are serious, aren’t you?’ he said, the smile slipping off his face.
‘Never more so.’ She stopped to catch her breath again. ‘Please, Gus,’ she began, ‘I need your help. Will you help me? Please?’
Gus scratched his nose. He liked Sue even if she was a bit of a nerd, not that it really bothered him; at least she was a pretty nerd. The person who bothered him was Kemp and, more than anything, he’d like to knock him down a peg or two. Gus carried on thinking; he had certainly never seen her quite so animated. ‘OK. I think I’m going to have to trust you on this one. Where do we start?’
‘Oh great! Thanks, Gus,’ Sue said, moving in and hugging him. If she was going to do this, better to do it with big, strong Gus Williams than by herself. ‘First off, provisions. Food; high-energy snack bars, chocolates, lemons, dried fruit, tinned food like tuna and baked beans, sweetcorn, a couple of lighters, bottled water,’ Sue rattled off, ‘blankets – if you can find any. Anything you can get hold of. Come on,’ she urged him to keep up. ‘You’re the Scout leader, aren’t you? So you know – stuff we can survive on.’
‘To the shop, then,’ Gus said, smiling his rather big, toothy smile and suddenly feeling rather important.
‘I’ve got about eighteen pounds from the footie snacks and drinks. I’ll pay it back later.’ Sue did some calculations in her head. ‘Actually, that’s probably not enough. Have you got anything?’
Gus shoved his hands in his pockets and pulled out some change, ‘Just short of four pounds.’
Sue grimaced. ‘In that case, Gus, I hope you don’t mind but you’re going to have to steal – come on, there’s not a minute to lose. When we get in there, grab some bags and start filling them. Don’t hesitate or stop but do not be stupid about what you take. When it’s done I’ll drop the money on the counter and we run. Alright.’
‘Blimey, Sue. What if we get stopped?’
‘We won’t. Oh, and if necessary, use force. Do you understand?’
Gus nodded and handed over his money. His eyes were bulging with surprise. ‘Where are we going afterwards?’
‘The boatshed.’
‘Boatshed? What boatshed?’
‘The old shed by the river.’ She waved her hand in its rough direction. ‘We should have time to sort out some kind of cover and find some survival things ... then we’re going to have to hope for the best. I don’t know what we’ll find when we get there but at the moment it’s our only chance.’
Gus smiled. He loved a girl who meant business even if it was clear she had no idea about survival. And, he supposed, if there really was to be a disaster, this girl had the whole thing planned – that’s if she wasn’t completely crackers.
ARCHIE SCAMPERED up the steep bank, pulling himself up on the longer tufts with his hands and using his studs to give him grip. At the top of the bank he caught his breath and looked about. A huge roll of thunder shook the ground as he watched Isabella being marched off the football pitch by a couple of adults. People were streaming away, pointing skywards.
Wow. What a mental couple of minutes. He couldn’t believe his strength and the fact that he had actually hit someone and then thrown two guys two or three metres as easily as if they were pillows. He shook his head; Archie de Lowe, most laidback human on the planet, had hit someone. Archie smiled. And the odd thing was, it hadn’t felt so bad. Was it the strange glass of water left by the ghost?
He spied the alleyway and ran over, the studs of his boots clacking on the stone beneath him. He thought for a minute about taking them off but wondered whether there was any point.
This Cain, he thought, this ghost, couldn’t really exist, could it? He peered down the alleyway and saw two shapes.
A sudden burst of lightning brought the pair to light and he could make out Kemp’s red hair and another figure beside him bearing a long coat and a kind of trilby hat. Archie’s heart pounded. They were making their way towards him.
OK. OMG. Wrongo. So what if Cain did exist and Kemp had got there first. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Oh hell!
Archie shrank down, wondering what to do, and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He needed to think fast.
AS HE CROUCHED DOWN, urging his brain into action, Archie was struck by a thought. Cain was blind, wasn’t he? He’d gone on about the fact that he didn’t have any eyes – like the Ancient Woman, so if Cain was talking to Kemp, perhaps Cain couldn’t see him. Using the same logic, another thought struck him: what if Cain thought Kemp was him! But the ghost couldn’t get it that wrong, could he? I mean they were completely different.
Archie stood up from behind the wheelie bin so that only his head might be seen. Kemp was about ten paces away and Archie could definitely make out that the figure next to him was a ghost by the simple fact that he didn’t have any shoes on and his face was covered – rather
oddly, he thought – by a scarf. A crackle of lightning fizzed above them and, from the light it threw out, Archie was able to see – just for a flash – Kemp’s face. It was a picture of utter terror.
Archie gasped and his heart thumped like a drum.
Kemp had seen him – his eyes widened, and for a brief moment their eyes met.
Kemp and Cain moved nearer and nearer. All the while Archie could discern the ghost’s words like “power” and “magic” and “strength”. Archie was stunned; did Cain think Kemp was him?
By the look of things, he did – although Kemp looked deathly pale.
A dark thought dashed into his mind: wouldn’t Kemp be dying to get all of those things – power, strength and magic? Then Archie realised that the ghost was holding Kemp tightly around his left arm. Was Kemp moving them slowly out into the open or was it the other way round? Who was moving who?
Archie listened harder as they stopped just the other side of the wheelie bin.
He heard Kemp’s quivering voice. ‘Tell me again about the Prophecy. I need to be absolutely certain before I make my final decision.’
Cain seemed unimpressed. ‘Did you not listen, Archie?’ he complained.
Archie gasped. Cain did think Kemp was him! So what was Kemp playing at? And why was he asking Cain to tell him about this Prophecy one more time – it seemed a pretty odd thing to do. Was it for his benefit?
‘I need to be perfectly sure,’ Kemp replied.
‘Very well.’ Cain turned his head to the sky as though sniffing it. ‘But a shorter version. We are running out of time.’
Archie stole another look at Kemp from around the corner of the wheelie bin. When he caught sight of Kemp’s face, tears were streaming down his cheeks. Archie recoiled. Why? Why was Kemp crying? Was he trying to tell him something?
He crouched down and listened to Cain’s deep, powerful voice. ‘There is a great shift that occurs every now and then in the way of life, Archie,’ the ghost began. ‘Humans, who are at the top of this chain, evolve slowly but every now and then there is a big change. A change in physical attributes, a change in relation to surroundings, the infinite and beyond. The processes of these changes are shown in the form of dreams. The dreams that start this process have been given to you and your siblings. These dreams are the Prophecy of Eden, for you are the Heirs of Eden, the anointed ones.’
Archie’s gut turned. JEEZ. Anointed ones! From their dreams. Why – why them? He remembered the strange creature above Daisy – he had been right all along – it had been giving her dreams. But it didn’t make it any easier to understand.
The ghost coughed and carried on. ‘It is complex – this is not the time to tell you the ways of the universe. All you need know is that the Heirs of Eden face fearsome challenges.’ He turned his face to the sky. ‘The first of which begins with a terrible storm aimed entirely at you. If any of you do not survive the storm, it will rage for forty days and forty nights and wash out the world, bit by bit.’ Cain sucked in another lungful of air. ‘When the waters recede there will be a different world with a new beginning.
‘I tell you now. You children stand little chance – there is no ark to save you, nor any place you can go that you will not find yourselves shot at by lightning or washed out by torrents of rain. The earth will slip down hillsides, the rivers swell and trees crash down. There is nowhere you can hide. I do not tell you this with any joy, but the storm was designed when men were strong and lived long and knew how to fight with nature through other means, like magic. You are about to enter a time you are not equipped to cope with. Do you understand?’
Kemp nodded and his eyes bulged. ‘Why?’ he asked.
‘Aha! Young man, the Prophecy is a measure – a test, if you like, to see if the people on this planet are ready to move into a new age, a new age of human enlightenment – the next step – if you like. The Prophecy was designed to test the strength, courage, intelligence and skill – to see if mankind is ready.’ Cain stopped for a moment and chuckled. ‘You and your sisters, the Heirs of Eden, must survive until sundown. On the absurdly small chance that you make it, the destructive force of the storm will cease...’ Cain tilted his head skywards. ‘There is no more time,’ he barked. ‘It will break in a few moments.’
Now Archie was trembling. Everything Cain said rang true; he’d seen it in his dreams, though of course it had meant nothing. And Isabella had been right all along!
Archie could hear Kemp’s voice, strangely muffled saying, ‘So … there’s little hope for me and my sisters.’
‘There is always hope, young man,’ the ghost replied. ‘But in comparison with the thickness of a rainbow, the chances that the three of you will survive are but an atom wide. You are a child. You have neither the strength nor the skills to combat what lies ahead. You know no magic and you do not understand nature. What chance do you have?’ He paused for effect. ‘None. That is why you must join me now, Archie. The world will be washed away, but I offer you the chance to escape through me. You have the opportunity, through me, to start again. All I need is the use of your body.’
‘And will this help save your mother?’ Kemp stammered.
The ghost seemed a little surprised. ‘Yes, as I told you. You have seen her and you know that she holds a great secret within her that others seek to destroy. By joining me, Archie, she will be saved. I guarantee it.’
Cain was laying on the charm. His persuasion intoxicating. ‘Here, the suffering will be great but together, Archie, we can build a new future. I am nearly useless without you and you are helpless without me.’
Kemp looked over at Archie whose terrified face had risen from the other side of the wheelie bin. ‘But I still don’t understand,’ Kemp whimpered.
Cain growled. ‘These things are beyond your understanding. Open your mind; you have seen it in your dreams.’
Suddenly, Kemp tried to make a run for it. He attempted to loosen the grip on his arm by charging at the wheelie bin. ‘GO!’ he screamed at Archie. ‘RUN!’ But the ghost held him tight and forced him to the floor. Kemp whimpered in pain.
The ghost moved into Archie’s path in front of the entrance to the alleyway and began to unfurl the scarf that covered his face. ‘I see,’ he began. ‘There is another one.’ He sniffed the air. ‘And one of you is Archie. You have tried to deceive me,’ the ghost said calmly.
‘So there is a choice. Archie, if you choose to come with me, the world will be saved. My mother will be saved. You will be saved. If you run, you die.’ He released Kemp who fell to the floor. ‘Which will it be?’
Kemp looked utterly petrified – his face red, his cheeks streaked with tears. He caught Archie’s eye, and stared at him – imploring him, begging him to understand. And then Kemp began to speak very slowly. ‘Kemp, you are my only friend,’ he said, ‘and not long ago, I swore – on my life – that I would never hurt you or your family. I failed.’ Kemp’s eyes opened wide, desperate for him to understand.
Archie frowned. What was Kemp talking about? Had Kemp worked out that the ghost was blind?
Kemp began again, ‘Run Kemp; save yourself. GO!’
‘Uh?’ Archie said, still confused.
‘Yes, Kemp – you moron – get out of here! Get to safety.’
Archie stared at Kemp.
And then Kemp said it again. ‘Look, Kemp, you great big oaf. Go now while there’s still a chance. Leave this to me, but promise me one thing.’
‘What?’
‘Look after that fishing rod.’
‘Fishing rod?’
Kemp couldn’t believe Archie. ‘Blimey Kemp, how stupid are you?’ he said. ‘Go! Now. Run you idiot – GO!’
Archie stared deep into Kemp’s tear-stained eyes and could see a spark of light. Deep down, both suspected they were doomed, but Archie was sure that Kemp was trying to tell him that while there was even a tiny slither of a chance Archie had to try and make it through to dusk.
Archie curled his fist into a ball and punched his
friend lightly on the shoulder. He winked and mouthed the words, “Thank you”.
‘So long, Archie,’ Archie said, ‘see you in the next world.’
And taking a deep breath, he turned and ran for his life.
TWENTY-FIVE
CAIN’S BODY
Daisy dragged herself up and flicked a fleck of mud off her shorts.
What a crazy match; her being kicked to bits, Sue screaming at Isabella, Isabella going mad again and screaming at everyone else, Archie missing a total sitter and then beating up the opposition like a prize-fighter – and getting sent off – deafening thunder crashing overhead, lightning fizzing – everything so loud.
Her head was ringing.
She noted the ref looking at his watch. And now, with the last kick of the game, she had a chance to win the match. Boy, pressure kicks don’t come much bigger than this, she thought. Better make it a good one. I’ll curl it over the wall – the floodlights are so poor it’s got every chance.
‘Come on, Upsall. Come on, Daisy de Lowe, you can do it,’ roared the small section of crowd still remaining before starting the repetitive chant of ‘D-D-L, D-D-L, D-D-L’.
Daisy bent down and rubbed her tired, bruised legs and drew her hands through her muddy blonde hair. She fixed her boots and as she did so she selected a slightly raised patch of turf on which she carefully placed the ball, which glowed like a full moon.
She stood back and studied her route to goal. Twenty, twenty-three yards? Perfect – just as she’d practised time and time again with Archie. She rubbed her eyes and concentrated hard on the ball. It was now or never. Everything she’d ever played for came down to this one shot.
She sucked in a large mouthful of air and blew it out, her eyes focusing on the ball so intently that she felt she could actually see the entire trajectory of the ball and the precise spot of where to kick it.
The whole atmosphere, the crowd and the rumbling sky for a moment seemed to disappear leaving a strange quiet.
