“Why are you always so needy? It IS for us, Priscilla! You’re acting just like her now, thinking of yourself instead of me! I know all of that – but first, what about my revenge, my triumph? You’re taking my moment away and turning it into yours.” Arnold was angry. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m an idiot in all of this, putting my trust in someone who’s just a nurse. In fact you’re really just… just a simple seamstress!”
Violet could see that his words bit deep. Powick’s face fell. She looked down for a moment, then composed herself before looking back up.
“I’m sorry, Arnold. I didn’t mean to take anything away from you. I was trying to save our plans. You will march the army in. Most of my creatures are still here, look around you! I’m sure Violet Brown won’t have enough time to warn anyone either. Things are still going as planned. No one can stop us now.”
“We’d better get moving then!” Arnold barked. “Before a child and a band of brainless dead creatures ruin everything!”
“Are you coming now? The plan was that you’d make your entrance on Monday morning when everything was set up.”
“Well, plans clearly change, Priscilla! I’m coming to oversee the operation before it’s destroyed altogether. I’ll return for the army once I’m happy and then march back in glorious triumph!”
“Yes, of course.” Powick looked flustered. “Hugo, bring the scientists now!”
“And my machine,” Arnold ordered.
The nurse pointed at three other zombies, the ones Tom had followed to the forest earlier. “Get the DeathDefier.”
“And be careful with it!” Arnold snapped as he paced behind the zombies into a room at the far side of the castle.
“We need to go,” Boy whispered as Powick and Hugo strode dangerously close by, unlocked the scientists’ cell and stormed inside.
“What will they do to them?” Violet quivered as someone screamed.
“We can’t worry about that. The gate is still open,” Boy said, his face pale. “We need to get home. Come on, we won’t be spotted now!”
He crept out from behind the trough, Violet just behind.
Everyone was preoccupied so nobody spotted the pair as they sprinted across the cobbles and out under the stone arch. They were neck and neck as they raced down the path to the door in the strange invisible fence and climbed through into the circular field beyond.
Violet shook her head as she turned back towards the castle. The whole building had vanished as if all the horrors she’d just witnessed were only a dream.
“The maze.” Boy pointed to the treeline ahead. “If we’re quick we might catch up to the zombies and be able to sneak past them.”
He ran into the forest and burst through the middle of the first line of trees. Violet followed, her face nicked by branches.
“Aren’t we staying on the path?” she asked, uncertain.
“It’s quicker if we go this way!” Boy insisted. “If we keep straight we should come out the other side, maybe even ahead of the zombies!”
He continued forward, ducking and diving under branches or around thick trunks, all the time keeping them on course. Violet followed, her face and hands scraped raw as she beat her way through the foliage.
They broke out of the maze onto the path just by the pile-up of tree trunks. The frayed net still hung open above them. Violet could just see the zombies in the distance as they moved towards Powick’s old cottage in the Outskirts.
The pair sprinted on, finally stopping a little way back from Tom and the group of zombies. Breathless, they dropped to their stomachs and edged forward in the grass, watching the scene.
Tom stood beside the well that would take them down into the tunnel to the graveyard, directing zombies onto the platform. The creatures were calm and quiet, a contrast to their earlier display at the castle. Each held a lit torch in its right hand, the flames warming the night sky above them as they waited their turn.
“We’ll never get ahead of them to warn everyone now,” Boy sighed.
Violet’s mind raced for solutions.
“Remember in the stables when you were able to order Hugo around because he thought you were Tom?” she said, suddenly excited. “Maybe that’d work here too. I could distract Tom and get him away from the well for a second. Then you could jump up on the platform and go into the tunnel with some of the zombies. I bet the zombies will just think you’re him and they’ll obey you. Then you could run ahead and warn everyone in Town…”
“That might just work,” Boy replied. “These zombies don’t seem any more intelligent than Hugo. I’ll hide behind the tree until you distract Tom. Then I’ll go for it!”
“Okay.” Violet nodded, suddenly nervous.
Without another word, Boy slipped away. She watched him as he kept low, creeping through the grass and hiding behind the large twisted tree beside the well.
Tom was busy ordering more zombies onto the platform as Violet inched forward on her elbows. She tried to concentrate, though her body was shaking. She was tired, cold and scared.
She kept an eye on Tom until she couldn’t go any closer or he’d surely notice her. Powick’s cottage was on her left. She rolled under the nurse’s yellow fence and snuck round so she was looking at the twin’s back, ducking down by the wild rose bushes.
Violet could see Boy poking his head out from behind the tree on the other side of the track.
How would she distract Tom? She searched the ground for a stone or something to throw, but couldn’t find anything. Then she noticed a green gardening glove resting in the grass a little way away. She scrambled across the lawn, grabbed it and crawled back to her cover.
The material was flimsy and she wasn’t sure it would fly any distance so she pulled up clumps of grass and stuffed the glove until it bulged.
Tom was going to be suspicious – a grass-filled glove can’t just fall from the sky – but she had no other ideas. Part of her also trusted what Macula had said – Tom was good, Violet felt it in her gut. He’d saved her again in the castle. That was three times and counting.
She got into position, steadied her arm just as more zombies were climbing on board the platform, took aim and fired.
The flying gardening glove caught Tom smack on the shoulder. Violet wasn’t normally a good throw but under pressure it seemed she was much better!
Tom turned and she ducked down behind the thorny rose bush. Holding her breath, she gripped the grass as footsteps headed towards her and stopped a little way away.
She could just see the bottom of his legs through the bush. Tom looked around, then, after what felt like an age, he turned and walked back to his position by the well. Violet released a long slow breath.
“Next,” Tom shouted at the remaining zombies, who were standing obediently in line.
There were no signs amongst Powick’s creatures that anything had disturbed them and Violet wondered if Boy had followed through with their plan.
She watched through the gap in the thorny bush as two creatures stepped forward and climbed onto the platform, followed by two more. Then Tom ordered one of the zombies to tap out the letters D, O, W, N, with its bare foot and they zipped into the tunnel.
She couldn’t see Boy behind the tree. She checked up and down the overgrown lane, but there was no sign of him there either. The plan must have worked – he had to have gotten onto the platform and into the tunnel.
Relieved but still uneasy, she slipped to relative safety around the side of the cottage and waited by the whitewashed wall for Tom and the last of the zombies to disappear into the ground.
Though she tried to stop it, her mind wandered to Boy and Town and what was happening right now. She laid her back against the wall and gazed skywards to steady her racing thoughts. One of her dad’s favourite things to do was spot stars. It was a crisp, clear night and as she looked to the heavens, the Plough gave her comfort. She hoped he was looking at it too and that somehow her dad and mam would be okay. That somehow Boy would get word to Tow
n and they could escape before anything really bad happened.
Eventually, Tom saw the last of the zombies onto the platform and climbed up after them, before disappearing down the well.
She waited impatiently for a while before pulling herself off the ground. Tom and those creatures had to be out of the tunnel by now. She ran to the well and looked into a pitch-black void. The platform remained below in the darkness with nobody to send it back up. She hadn’t thought about that.
How was she going to get home? She tried not to panic. There had to be a way to call the floor up. She remembered the first time she’d discovered this passage with Jack – how they’d had to figure out puzzles to get to the Outskirts. Maybe this was a puzzle too? She traced her fingers over protruding stones in the well wall but none of them budged; she searched the grass at its base for anything unusual but found nothing; she even hung over the side of the wall into the pitch-black shaft, looking for clues, but all to no avail.
She investigated the tree nearby for any strange knots or branches, then inspected the road sign that marked the Outskirts in strong black iron letters. There was a slight gap between the words OUT and SKIRTS. Curious, Violet pushed on the first three letters. They shifted easily across, closing the gap with a click. She heard a slight rumble and her heart skipped as she rushed back to see the floor of the well moving upwards.
Quickly she climbed on board and pressed the floor tiles. The platform zipped back down, the circle of night sky shrinking above her. Once in the tunnel, Violet ran for the graveyard, her footsteps echoing around the small space. She reached the steps, opened the tomb and sprinted outside, back into the clear night, and cut quickly through the headstones to the turnstile.
As she pushed out the gate, dots of light caught her eye on the horizon. The graveyard was on a hill and she could see right across the river into Town. A small group of flaming torches moved, like fireflies, up Wickham Terrace. It had to be Tom and the zombies headed for the Town Hall, where they would release George and Edward Archer and their Watchers.
She shuddered as she watched the group pass into the Market Yard and distant crashes and screams carried on the wind to whip round the graveyard.
Her legs were on fire as she cut across the grass and down the hill through the Ghost Estate, hoping against hope that Boy had managed to get word out.
“You’re too late!” someone shouted as she turned onto the road through the eye-plant field.
Violet stopped suddenly; the voice familiar. Slowly she turned round. A boy stepped out of the shadows near the estate pillars, a black raven on his shoulder.
Tom’s cold blue eyes were stark in the darkness. A large disfigured zombie hung back behind him and snarled like a threatening dog.
“But… Town, the zom—”
“Town is in trouble, just as I warned you! I expect the Watchers have been released already, and my uncles too. I’ll join them directly, but first I have to deal with you. You didn’t think I’d believe that glove simply fell from the skies, did you, Violet?” Tom sighed.
He looked so much like Boy. She struggled for something to say but the words wouldn’t come.
“I warned you to make haste, to flee while you could, but you didn’t take me seriously, did you?” Tom’s voice was measured and slow. He used words Violet had only ever heard fall from the lips of very posh adults.
“But I…” Her throat was desert dry.
Another huge crash and some screams shattered the night and she looked round towards Town.
“Why didn’t you pay heed to the note? The instructions were simple!” Tom seemed confused.
“I didn’t know if it was real!” she pleaded, desperate now to get to her family. “Boy said it was probably just a trick. How could I know you were trying to help me?”
“I wasn’t trying to help you!” he snapped, his face suddenly wild. “I was just…I was just…” Tom stumbled over his words, grasping for an explanation.
The zombie moved forward, hovering just behind the boy’s left shoulder. Its eyes were trained on Violet as one side of its lips rose threateningly to reveal black toothless gums.
“What do you want, Tom?” she asked. “I know you’re not like Powick or Arnold. I don’t think you want to hurt anyone. You gave Boy back to Jack when Powick was trying to escape after…after she killed Macula. You must have gotten in deep trouble for that. And I know you visit your mam’s grave. I’ve seen you there…”
Silence hung between them.
“I…I killed my mother,” he stuttered suddenly, staring straight at her.
“No…no you didn’t, Tom, Nurse Powick killed your mam. She pushed Macula. I was there, I saw it happen!” Violet stepped towards him, reaching out her hand.
“But I killed her too. I pretended to be Boy and helped Edward. If I hadn’t, then she wouldn’t have had to fight for Town. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened! I’m not good – I’m the evil twin, she told me so. You need to get away from me!”
“It’s not your fault, Tom, you were just following orders, like now. Macula knew that. She died trying to get back her family. She died trying to save you. When she was in the Ghost Estate she wrote to you all the time – I saw the letters – and after she got out of there, she told me she searched for you constantly.”
“That’s a lie!” Tom shouted, suddenly shaking with rage.
She inched back, afraid. The zombie seemed to sense the change and moved forward again, locking eyes on Violet.
“Macula never searched for me! She said I wasn’t good enough for her family. She didn’t want me around. She picked Boy as her son!” Tom spat the words at her.
“Did Nurse Powick or Arnold tell you that? They’re lying to you,” Violet replied. “Whatever they’re telling you is not true! They’re crazy, Tom, don’t listen to them. Please tell me what they’re making you do. What is all of this about?”
“You’ll see.” Tom was calmer now, a slight smile played on the edges of his lips. “On our birthday, Boy will pay.”
“What’s happening on your birthday?” Violet quivered. “What is Arnold doing with his machine? Powick talked to him about a curse – what does it all mean? Is it the curse of the Divided Soul? Why are they taking over Town, what are they planning, Tom…? Please! You need to help us!”
Another loud bang rattled the night sky. Tom looked over her shoulder towards the sound.
“She says I’m special,” he whispered now.
“Special how, Tom? Is it something to do with the DeathDefier, Arnold’s machine?” Violet willed him to tell her.
He shook his head. “The machine doesn’t work – not fully. She says I possess the real power. But I can only claim it on my thirteenth birthday, when I cross from being a boy to a man. It is my fate, thanks to the curse. I was born for this moment. We’ve been working towards it since…since memory serves me. It’s my destiny to…”
He stopped suddenly, as if catching himself.
“What’s your destiny, Tom? What are they making you do?”
“Why do you want to know?” he snapped, growing angry. “It’s not as if you care! You wouldn’t be my friend before, why should you pretend to be now?”
The zombie twisted its head at an impossible angle and its growl grew louder.
“Before?” Violet asked, confused. “Do you mean a few months ago?”
She’d had a feeling when things began to go wrong in Town the last time that someone had been following her. She noticed a black raven everywhere she went but at the time didn’t know it was Tom’s.
“Every time I saw your bird, were you there? If you wanted me to be your friend, Tom, why didn’t you say? Why didn’t you stop all of this?”
“I couldn’t! I can’t.” His hands clenched in tight white fists.
“I care, Tom, I do. I know you’re not bad!” Violet pleaded urgently this time. “I…I promised Macula I would find you and bring you back to your family. I even wanted to do it as a birthday pre
sent for Boy before all of this happened. I believe in you, Tom, just like your mam did.”
“Don’t lie, that’s a sin!” His cold blue eyes grew wilder. “Priscilla says it’s impossible to care for someone like me. She said I’ve a black soul!”
“Don’t listen to her, Tom!” Violet urged. “I’ve seen you with your bird. You don’t have a black soul – someone like that would never care for an animal the way you do! Please, Tom, listen to me. Powick is the bad one.”
“Don’t say that! She’s the only person who cared when Mam didn’t want me.” Tom’s face hardened. The zombie crouched as though ready to pounce. “I’ve given you so many chances, Violet, but you just don’t listen! I’ve had enough. Grab her!” he roared.
Violet turned on the spot but, tripping on the edge of a deep pothole, she stumbled forward. Her hands scraped along the gravel, breaking her fall. The zombie grabbed her. She screamed, wriggled and squealed as she was hoisted into the air.
“You should have listened!” Tom snarled.
Then he stepped round the monster and marched towards Town.
The zombie flung Violet over its shoulder so her legs dangled down its back. She wriggled and twisted as they followed Tom through the eye-plant field, but she couldn’t free herself – the creature’s grip was too strong.
The sounds of chaos grew louder as they approached Town, mixed with the mechanical clicking of her captor’s steel frame and the noise of the rushing river nearby.
Tom was already entering Wickham Terrace when the zombie mounted the footbridge, the boards creaking under every step. They were nearing the middle of the bridge when footsteps raced towards them from behind.
Someone flung themselves onto the zombie’s metal spine. There was a loud pop, a sharp, short yelp and a clatter of metal. The zombie collapsed forward.
Violet screeched as she was dropped onto the footbridge, landing roughly on her shoulders. The monster buckled, pinning her to the boards. Boy gripped her wrist and pulled her out from under the heavy, motionless creature. Disorientated, she was scrambling up when the zombie grabbed her ankle. Boy kicked the creature’s bony hand until it let go, then dragged Violet across to the riverbank.
The Battle for Perfect Page 10
