Circle of Arms (The Shades of Northwood 2)

  Katie had only the vaguest idea of what she was doing. It was a plan based on ifs and maybes. More of a prayer than a plan really. She had no clue what holding on to the steel thread that represented Dina’s still far too thin connection to the human world would do to her. Only that she had to do it. Maybe it was a mistake. It shouldn’t take this long to get through. And then just as she thought it, Katie broke through the final layer of Dina’s consciousness.

  Dina, where are you? She was just a voice in the crushing darkness. Try as she might, Katie couldn’t visualise a body for herself or anything for Dina. But she knew the other girl was around. There were black on black streams drifting around.

  I’m all around you.

  Are you safe now? I got you back here but She followed me. Why does She want you so badly?

  It’s just the way it was meant to be. None of that matters now. You pulled me back from the edge and She didn’t like it. That’s why I’ve been staying here… locked inside myself. If I’m not fully alive, I’m safer.

  Why did She want you when you were almost dead then?

  Because I couldn’t fight back.

  If I can get her out of this dimension, put her back where she belongs, things will go back to normal, won’t they? You can come back?

  There’s still so much wrong with the world. With you. And I don’t want to come back into that chaos. I just can’t. You understand.

  There’s nothing wrong with me. Lack of sleep, a caffeine crash and a pang of homesickness – for crawling under her duvet and not coming out until Christmas. That was all.

  If everything was right with you, Katie, I’d come home in a heartbeat. But it’s not. There’s darkness in you. It scares me that you don’t even see it.

  And her vision exploded into a Technicolor assault of reds and silvers and flashes of black. There was hate and blood and he smell of burning. A fleeting image of the man she had killed just last week; the sickening grief she should have felt for her poor dead brothers; the deal made with the Jaye-wearer; a beautiful cowboy who could never kiss her; the friends she could make but was too busy trying to save; the bleak future that lay ahead. None of it looked good. But it was the guilt – the piercing and very abrupt stab of guilt – that made Katie want to cry. She thought tears might be rolling down her cheeks but returning to her physical body seemed of little importance.

  Before you can save me, you have to save yourself.

  “How? How do I do that, Dina?” she heard herself asking.

  Mr Bayliss was sitting on the other side of the bed, holding his daughters hand with one of his own and touching Katie’s arm with the other. He was stroking it and looking at her the way any concerned father would. It made the tears come all over again. It reminded her of the concern her own parents had shown her these past few months. But, no, there was something…. It made her think of the looks her new friends had been throwing her way. And suddenly Katie realised that they cared for her just as much as she did for them. Not the worry of a housemate or somebody who was being paid to care. Genuine love and fear for her. “I never meant to make anyone feel like that.”

  “Sometimes it helps to talk,” said Mr Bayliss. “I do it a lot. Knowing she can’t answer back, can’t come up with more problems. Makes it easier.”

  “You’re wrong,” Katie blurted out. “Dina knows everything that’s been going on and she’s just dying to-“

  She knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words were out but she couldn’t take them back. There was always the chance that the man would gloss over it as an expulsion of emotion. He got up and stormed out of the room.

  Smart move.

  “Why did I say any of that?”

  It’s okay. He’ll get over it. Always does. He’s like you, you know. Pretends he’s fine, smiles when he needs to cry, cries when he thinks no-one can see. Katie felt her shrug. She’s coming. Coming here. Coming for you.

  “Wonderful.” No idea what Dina was talking about but the intense way the words boomed between them made her take the warning seriously. Now, if she just knew what the warning was about, who was coming, why it sounded like such a bad thing. “Specifically?”

  That thing in your bag. It will help. Be ready for when She comes and, please, don’t be merciful. That thing is in my best friend’s body and I want her out. Whatever it takes.

  “There’s only so much I can do.”

  You drive her out of Jaye and we’ll do the rest. Unless there is another body for her to invade, She has no choice but to return to the End Place. The Shades there will punish her justly and I’ll be free.

  Katie let go of Dina and stood up, pushing the chair back so hard it fell backwards and clattered on the floor. All the times over the last week when she thought she had a way to end this, thought she had a way to make everything right, and now there was another ray of hope, Katie was wary of it. It was nearly time for college. Friday mornings were free of lessons except for a few minutes of screwing around in form room. Provided all students stayed on campus, they were free to do as they wished with their free periods. Katie had planned to do some training and get ahead on her study. She was mulling over her possibilities on the way out of the hospital when a whirling dervish of fury opened the swing doors into her face and knocked Katie flat on her backside.

  “Smooth.”

  Her thoughts exactly. The fall had been hard enough that a bruise would almost certainly form near the small of her back by the time she went to bed. Pain rocketed through her back. Focussed only on that and the little black spots dancing in her eyes, Katie blindly grabbed for the hand shoved in front of her. She used the hand to get into a crouch and then used the strength in her own legs to fully stand up. Even though Katie was only 16, she felt way too old for this.

  “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” a familiar voice asked.

  It was a voice Katie both loved and hated. “Jaye.”

  “Once more with feeling, babe. You know you love me.”

  “I do.” Katie stood her ground, arms folded and her rucksack swinging from the crook of one. “But I haven’t got time for you right now. That’s why I really don’t want to hurt you.” She let her face harden and flexed one hand into a fist.

  “As if you could hurt me.” The thing wearing Jaye started laughing.

  Katie wasn’t a fighter and she couldn’t even hope to pass for one. Only that was what she was banking on. Whilst Jaye was busy laughing in her face, Katie slid her other hand in her bag, gripped something shaped like her electric shaver, switched the safety off, whipped it out and fired fifty thousand volts into her. Jaye let out a strangled cry and fell to the ground. She wasn’t moving, and it didn’t even look like She was breathing. That much wild electricity could kill a girl that size, right?

  Very carefully, Katie tiptoed over and felt for a pulse. There was one – strong, steady and much slower than Katie’s own. Anything below triple figures would be good. But Jaye was out for the count and, without really thinking it through, she checked the nearest room was empty and dragged her in, standing a DEEP CLEANING yellow sign outside. There was a small chance that a staff member would still walk in but that was a bridge she’d cross if it came to it. She had to leave for the academy now before she was officially late, but she didn’t feel at all happy about this. If She woke up and started kicking off before Kate made it back… it didn’t bear thinking about.

  “Abrahams.”

  “Here.”

  “Ankowsky.”

  “Here, sir.”

  “Cartwright.”

  “Here.”

  She stayed put as Mr Conroy finished ticking names off and reading out notices about overdue library books and the upcoming harvest festival drive. It was boringly normal. Everything she had wanted for the year, but nothing she wanted right now. What did she want? At that very moment, all Katie could think about was… Jack. And maybe it sho
uldn’t have been. Maybe it should have been her friends and how she had to choose between killing them and saving them. Or her family who deserved to know what this town was really about. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was the fact she felt stretched in too many directions. And all of those concerns faded into almost nothing when she thought of Jack; how well they worked together, and how many secrets they already shared. He filled her mind and nothing mattered but when they would see each other again, kiss each other again, curl into each other and let the world fall away.

  “Okay, classes start in a few. I know most of you are free till lunch so stay on campus, make sure your work’s up to date and don’t cause havoc.” Mr Conroy motioned for the students to all clear the room. Katie took her own sweet time doing it, not ready to return to the medical centre – which was a student centre and so technically on campus. It wasn’t because she didn’t have a plan – even though she didn’t – but he knew she was going to have to cause her friend unspeakable pain. And there was no guarantee the Tazer would even make any difference.

  All of those concerns went straight out of the window when a tiny hand reached up and squeezed her shoulder as Katie stood at her locker, sliding books and folders into places. No mistaking that grip.

  “Welcome back to me.”

  Katie zipped up her baseball jacket and slowly turned around. “I knew I should have locked that door.”

  “Yeah, probably should have. I mean… it’s a hospital. Not huge, not busy, but at least half a dozen people inside. Injured, ill, vulnerable. Could have been fun.”

  “But you went straight past the easy prey and came straight to the challenge. Why?”

  “Because I think you have a plan. And I think you need to hear some truths.”

  “Go for it. I’m listening.”

  “But alone I see. No hero. No hope. No chance.”

  “Oh, while I think of it, did you enjoy your first experience of electricity? Bet it stung, didn’t it?”

  She rubbed her abdomen as if it was still sore – maybe it was; those stun guns must leave flash burns or something – and moaned. It sounded like Jaye and Katie had to fight the urge to give the girl a hug and tell her how sorry she was. Because this wasn’t Jaye. “It was interesting. And unpleasant. Don’t do it again.”

  “And you have the right to tell me what to do?”

  “Aren’t you trying to control life and death right now? The answer is yes, Katie. You want everything your way. Your friends alive. Me dead. But you’re not the only one who wants the choices to go their way. I just want the order to go back the way it should be.”

  “And that means killing my friends. I won’t let you.”

  “No, I didn’t think you would but hey – had to give it a shot.” She jerked Katie away from her locker and slammed the door in both of their faces. It was so forceful that the dozen or so other students in the common room all shut up for a few stunned seconds, looked their way, and then went right back to their conversations when Jaye glared around them all. “What, you’ve never seen a bitch fight before?” She turned to the back of a magazine somebody had left on a chair, trying to look casual. “You and Jack… you won’t last. You love him, want him, think you can’t live without him. Same old story. He messes with your head. You don’t know all his secrets and, believe me, he’s got plenty. You can’t even kiss the bloke! And you want some-one you can trust, don’t you?” She tapped a finger to the side of her head. “Jaye, she tells me things. Oh, she doesn’t mean to. It just kinda leaks out.”

  Anger burnt the edges of Katie’s nerves and she could feel something starting to change. What the hell right did She have to even talk about that relationship? “Are we just going to chat? Because I have homework.” Katie moved to go past her and towards the door. She knew it was a bad move before she did it. When bad moves were the only ones available, what did you do?

  “I’m not done with you!” And, with unnatural (ha!) strength, She planted a hand on her chest and pushed gently. Katie flew across the room and slammed into another bank of lockers. It was like being hit by a dump truck. The world exploded into violent colour, sound, smell. When the disorienting dimensions stopped moving around and Katie could stand to open her eyes again, the imaginary truck grew spikes on its’ bumper and drove them into her thigh. The thing that looked like Jaye had used her moments of semi-consciousness to raid her and take the Tazer away from Katie. “Tickles, doesn’t it?”

  All in the same instant, while Katie was watching her leg spasm as though it belonged to another body entirely, she became distantly aware of the complete hush that had fallen over the room. Faceless, identityless bodies, had stopped mid activity and were staring at the two girls. Fascinated. Horrified. Obviously they hadn’t ever seen a bitch fight before. None of them moved to try to break it up. Nobody even tried to speak. After a moment of silent impasse, She pirouetted with her arms out and slammed one elbow into the fire alarm, sending shards of thin glass raining to the ground and the high-pitched bells ringing around the entire academy. It distracted all the other students and they all ran for the door, the injured girl helpless and forgotten. Instinct begged Katie to get up and join the panicked exodus: get outside to safety.

  It was impossible.

  For one thing, a ball of fury and determination stood between her and the door. She was waving a Tazer. And wearing the face of a girl she loved like a sister.

  Getting up the courage to even attempt to hurt her was going to be hard.

  “Get up. Get the fuck up!” She shouted. She was locking the door behind her, eyes partly closed. The sound of bellowing fire bells faded to a less eye-watering level. They were only ringing now outside the common room but Katie could se, if not hear, the alarm as little bubbles of sound at the edges of the room. Right leg still shaking, Katie braced herself against the lockers and pushed herself to her feet. From the other side of the room, the two were at eye level with each other. “You try to mess up the plan. You think you’re more important than the rules. I’m here to tell you you’re not.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “So, you know.” The older girl flicked the stun gun between her finger and thumb, then put it on the nearest coffee table. She started to close the distance between them. Katie ignored the muscles in her leg, shocked taut and screaming, and started moving in a circle, maintaining a bit of distance. “I could have taken anybody by now. The doctor from the hospital, the girl who cleans the labs. But you knew I wouldn’t. You wanted to fight me. Try to save your little friend.”

  “Well, some say I’m crazy.”

  “I can see why.” Quicker than the eye could see, Katie felt something touch her cheek and suddenly she was flying. And then she wasn’t. She felt the back of her ankle graze the top of a chair but the speed she was hurtling through the air was too great for it to slow her down. She crashed into the concrete wall, cracking the plasterwork and possibly a few bones. The room swam. The chair she had nicked was just a still, white block of inanimate foam and steel. Just like the others. But, as she watched, this one grew a throbbing black pulse. It’s the darkness. Use it. And then darkness pulled her under.

  Fighting the pull… she had to do it. No matter how good it felt, no matter how blissful this ignorance was, she had to snap out of the haze. But deeper, it was sucking her deeper. It was such a relief to stop doing things. Whatever She was doing to her was irrelevant; it was happening to another Katie, a Katie whose pain she would feel much later. She felt the Tazer brush her skin once more, it hurt less but it was enough to jolt Katie back into action. This should hurt and it was her pain. She should feel it. She wanted to feel it. She wanted to experience everything and live because she had earnt it – because she had gone to war for it.

  And still the black hole dragged her deeper towards the edge.

  Katie opened her unconscious mouth and screamed. She knew
no-one would hear it but it made her feel better. It took a while – seconds? Hours? Time meant little now, meant nothing when she began to glimpse the thousands of purple-black Shades on the cliff of the End Place – but finally somebody heard. It was a surprise but Katie didn’t care. She wanted it to be over now. No more.

  As one, the hoards of dark masses of energy turned to her and opened their twisted mouths, singing a terrible/beautiful song. Body moving of its own accord, she stretched out an arm. Dark tendrils wrapped themselves around her wrist and propelled her backwards. Through the thick black space, past the dark cracks of absolute nothing that seemed suddenly so sharp and dangerous. The resistance pushing down on Katie was like having that truck parked on top of her while an earthquake was raging beneath her. Mack 3 at least. And then she was back in her body, looking around at the damage she had caused to the common room. A couple of nice Katie-shaped dents in the banks of lockers and a few crushed bones maybe. She was trembling from the electricity so heartlessly pumped into her body and she didn’t think there was a single square inch of her that wasn’t bruised. But – no blood. That was a bonus. She groaned in pain as she tried to move. Jaye was about five foot nothing, less than a hundred pounds and had never thrown a punch in her life. Except for that one time when She had tried to kill Katie… beside the point. She shouldn’t have this much power.

  “How?” she managed, looking around a second time. No wonder her spine felt shattered into a million pieces.

  “Inside me I have the power of Heaven. And Hell. And pretty much everything in between. And you can’t imagine how it feels.” She tested the Tazer on the palm of her hand. It sparked but nothing happened. Out of charge. Katie wondered how much of that power She had emptied into her. She hunkered down in front of her. Katie shrank back as far as she could go, trying not to meet her innocent blue eyes, but unable to resist staring into them. Jaye was in there somewhere, seeing what She was making her do. “And what do you have?”

  Katie sensed it before it happened. Only an instant before. Not long enough for her face to give away the next event. But long enough for her eyes to reveal that something was coming.

  It wouldn’t be a good something.

  The room filled with thousands – what seemed like thousands - of moving dark shapes. Threads of raw, wild, raging energy. She has us, a thousand voices said as one. For today, she has us.

  “I think I have an army.” An undead army, sure, but she couldn’t afford to be choosy. “Us. Against you. I kind of like those odds.”

  “What about your precious fair fight?”

  “We don’t all play by the rules, now, do we?”

  “That’s true. You promised not to take Dina.”

  “I promised you the chance to get to her. Not my fault you were too slow.”

  “You promised not to fight me when your time came.”

  “You promised not to come after me. And it’s not my time yet. I’d know if it was.” Katie had no idea if that was true but it gave her a few seconds to shoot a question at the Shades while She thought it over. Why are you here? I didn’t save you, why are you still helping me?

  Because you tried and that’s more than anyone else has done. Now make this quick. We can only stay as long as you hold on to the darkness.

  What am I supposed to do? We can’t fight her. I mean, you guys are incorporeal and she’s already beat me up once.

  One of them laid their hand over the Tazer. Katie saw blue spark jump all around it. She could see it crackle with more and more life the longer it was being touched. She could hear it buzzing – begging to be unleashed. She was sure that She couldn’t see or hear it happening, couldn’t even see the Shades surrounding her. Although it was clear that She could hear them by the way her eyes flickered towards them, unfocussed but searching for the voices. Isn’t this what you came for?

  “No. I came to take back what’s mine. Sadly, this child never learned how to share.”

  “Share? Like you’re sharing Jaye – not trying to take her over?”

  “Mm. Exactly like that.”

  Katie had managed to keep on her feet and circling around until she was near the electric gun and She was near the far wall of lockers. “What do I have to do with all this? I tried to save them, anyone would, but I didn’t choose it. I owed it to them.”

  Yes. We brought you into this and we are sorry. But we thank you too.

  “But I’m in this now and I’m in it till it’s over.”

  “I’m done with this dance. You want lost souls, I want them, it’s gonna be a thing.” Without warning, She rushed at Katie. A wall of black mist sprang up around her. Arms of protection. Katie watched her old friend hit the wall and saw the impact like a hit on a forcefield – lilac and sky blue ripples. “You’re gonna play like that, huh?”

  You have wronged many people. We have waited for our turns to take the fall into the Other Place, where-ever that shall be. The girl has no place with us.

  “What girl? Me girl?”

  You have woken a fury more powerful than you can imagine. You think you are strong but you have committed crimes fit for nothing but nightmares.

  Katie took advantage of these few seconds of distraction, keeping half an ear on it, and snaked an arm out of the dark ring, grabbed the Tazer. Part of her didn’t want to use it because… well, it was still Jaye. Her body would still fry under the shocks. And she was tiny. It might even kill her. But she stamped the voice into a whisper and shot two prongs into her, wincing a bit as thousands of volts travelled through thin wires. But She stayed on her feet, even though She staggered back a few steps. A hand shape misted out of the black, slid across the wires and touched her on the shoulder. It seemed gentle. Mist could have no real weight behind it. It had enough of it though to force the girl down to the ground. Katie hadn’t let go of the Tazer – an insane amount of power was still going into her former friend and She was desperately trying to disguise the pain. It wasn’t working. There was a growing red patch spreading across Jaye’s front. It was blazing and roaring. There was a fire inside her. And it was as bright as Katie believed her face was. Her head was telling her that this prolonged attack was more than justified, and her heart was telling her that she was electrocuting her best friend.

  Don’t think like that. This is the only way.

  But Katie took her finger off and dropped the stun gun to the ground, unable to keep this up.

  “Giving up so soon?”

  The wall of Shades closed around Katie once more, then faded straight through her, returning to their ranks. Not that their presence wasn’t welcome but Katie needed to stand alone for a minute. “I don’t give up.”

  “Oh, but you’re so good at it. This year… what have you really done but give up and run away?”

  A flash of anger blinded Katie to rational thought and she ran the few steps to her opponent and kicked her in the face. Her booted toes caught the other girl just below the chin and her head rocked back. There was a little bit of blood and Katie was sure that she had busted some toes. It felt like kicking a rock more than breaking a jaw. But She screamed and fell back like any human – just as breakable. And then She looked up at her, cross-legged and childlike, and smiled. With smears of blood on her teeth, the teenager sitting on the floor was unmistakably a demon, not Jaye.

  “How far will you go, babe? Kill me and I’ll take her with me.”

  Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Katie stood over the girl and dropped to her knees, one knee on her chest and the other on the floor. Using her own weight to still the wriggling form beneath, she glanced behind her. Get into her head. Cover her in darkness and pull her out.

  To touch her… to own her… She will know how it feels to be controlled by sin.

  She already is. She just isn’t sorry yet.

  As one, a thousand dark shapes joined forces and formed a black shell over the two girl
s, slowly caving in and sinking into She. Katie sat back on her haunches and held the girls’ arms pinned above her head and placed a chair over her legs so She couldn’t thrash around and hurt herself. And thrash She did. Eyes tightly closed, she convulsed and kicked and made noises that spoke of a struggle for a human body.

  Katie felt like crying again. Maybe she was losing her friend. Maybe she was losing everything. This week… this week, she had fought to keep her normal life of study and sport and Shimma. And what good was any of that if she ha no friends left to share it with? “Stop.” She couldn’t watch her friend in any more pain. The minute she uttered the word and the air in the room shifted – they were actually listening to her – She wrestled back control and eyes as hard as blue marble and bloodshot snapped open and bored into Katie. The dump truck was reversing and Katie was trying to stop it by staring at it.

  You have no idea what you’re doing, those eyes said. There was hate in them, will and fury that She was being denied, but there was fear in them. A lot of fear. What that intense dread was about was anyone’s guess. What the Shades would do to her? Losing ownership of Jaye? That Katie had beaten her?

  I’m saving us all.

  Don’t do this Katie. You said yourself, you’re not a killer.

  No, I‘m not. But this isn’t killing. It’s justice. And it should have worried her that she believed that. Killing the sheriff just last week; she told herself it was self defence – it was kill or be killed, so he deserved it. But killing someone, even if they were evil, it was still murder. Whichever way you cut it, murder was never justifiable.

  Please, babe, it hurts so much. Katie softened her hold. Was that Jaye speaking? The eyes were still scared and confused. That should have given it away –

  And it did.

  Jaye was sure of herself and confident in every step she took. She had never looked uncertain in her life. Well, the last three weeks of it anyhow.

  There’s my girl. For trying to kill me, my friends, making them believe you were her, you will pay. Every spirit you sent over the edge before they were ready – they’re here. Every single one of them is asking me – begging me – to get revenge and kick your unholy arse back to hell. But I won’t do that. I have better plans for you. Babe.

  Katie vaguely saw a flicker of doubt on Jaye’s heart shaped face. And then it was too late. She stripped off her jacket, flexed one aching hand – please, God, do the same for my back – and slammed it flat over those eyes, knowing she was launching herself into whatever torture was happening to her psyche. Beneath her hands, one of Jaye’s shot down and wrapped around her wrist, nails carving deep crescents into the soft flesh and drawing thin moons of blood. Katie yelled out in pain but She kept pressing, squeezing. Her wrist felt weird when she managed to pull away and try to shake it back to life. No question it was broken. It was floppy and every movement felt like splinters of bone were fighting to pierce her skin. She sat back on her backside for a second, using her knees once more to keep Jaye from hurting herself. When she got her breath back, Katie leant forward and got back into her hand-over-eyes position. Whatever had been happening inside Jaye’s head was over now. Whatever fight Katie had stupidly been about to wade into, it was finished. But it was too late. Katie was already falling through the too-calm first layer of consciousness. She reached out, trailing imaginary fingers over the furry darkness, watching as she left ripples in her wake. It was so dark and quiet here. So much so that she could hear a heartbeat. Anything – anyone – could jump out at her and, in the confines of a skull, there was no room to defend herself. Not that she would stand a chance.

  And then that concern was made redundant.

  OUT!

  A herd of black shapes rushed past her and Katie found herself swept along with the flow.

  MOVE IT! YOU TOO! One of them grabbed her wrist, the broken one. She felt a scream bubbling up but swallowed it down, thinking that noise wasn’t the best idea right now, and settled for the tears of agony streaming down her face instead. A heat was creeping into her bones, making her feel lethargic. She began to slow. Don’t stop. Never stop. And hen it slapped her. Not just the sensation of light fingers passing through her cheek – a hard, open-handed, stinging smack. A warning Katie wasn’t likely to ignore. She picked herself up and tried desperately to keep pace with the Shades. She might be faster than many humans but she still had to run on legs; couldn’t even hope to keep up with the supernatural speed the Shades could use to just float forward. And she did well until she came to the calm edges. The hand holding her fell away. Almost everyone had made the jump back into the real world. Katie twisted and pressed her back to the wall – it was too creepy to think of it as a piece of skull. A ball of flame was burning through the space towards, blasting a sizzling heat into the air. Too hot. Her blood was bubbling underneath the surface and Katie knew it was over. This was She – angry and blind and death. She closed her eyes tight, reached out for the darkness that must be all around her if it was inside. She caught onto the trailing tendrils of one of the final Shades to leave, gleefully waved goodbye to the raging fire and then she was out.

  Pausing for breath when she dropped back into her body was luxury Katie doubted she could afford though. She had to get as far away from Jaye as she could, not knowing what would happen next but suspecting it wouldn’t be good. Logic told her to open the door and get outside where there was space. And people. No-one would dare attack in broad daylight and in public. Thinking this as she went, Katie scrambled over to the far wall and cowered between a table and a vending machine. She’d barely enough time to blink or even glance over at Jaye – for it was her now, just Jaye, tiny and vulnerable and oh so fragile – when there was a familiar heat arming along her arms and blowing her hair this way and that. Katie looked up and saw black shapes lining every wall. Why weren’t they helping her? Why were they just standing there when I could use a hand. Seriously, I can’t be everywhere – I’m not Wonder Woman. She was just a kid who didn’t want to be here anymore. As though they had read her thoughts, a dozen or more Shades moved forward and linked their misty arms, forming a protective circle around Jaye. Good. That was one less thing she had to worry about. Now it was just the one drifting towards her, looking threatening. The thing that had blasted its’ way out of Jaye wasn’t a jungle of dark threads and purple-black glints, wasn’t… wasn’t anything really. Just a loosely humanoid shape, a displacement of the suddenly thick air.

  And it was terrifying.

  It reached across the table, looking down at it and then realising it – no, She, might look sexless but it was still She – could now go right through it. She was inches from touching Katie, who was having a very badly timed memory of killing the Sheriff. I can’t feel a life draining away because of something I did. Can’t have blood – not even evil blood – on my hands again. Can’t watch people think ‘m an innocent when I know I’m a murderer. I just can’t. I won’t. And then She was touching her, some-one was screaming, there was an incredible heat and a fire alarm ringing, and it was over.

  The world was black, silent, far away. Katie was almost relieved to find that her mind and body had given up. She sank into a bottomless unconsciousness in the common room.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t where she woke up.

  It was daylight bright under her eyelids. The first thing Katie could think of was finding out who had just been slapping her. Mind still in the ‘identify and eliminate immediate threat’ phase. Only… taking action on that thought didn’t seem that important after all.

  “Hey. Bitch, wake up. Don’t make me have to hit you again.”

  Katie dragged her eyes open – they felt like they had lead weights attached to them – and found herself staring up into bright autumn sun. She shivered under the jacket somebody had draped over her and shot her hand up to shield her eyes. Her wrist exploded in so much pain that stars star
ted dancing in her vision and she couldn’t do anything to stop the agonised scream that erupted. That brought things back. She didn’t want to know some of those things but you couldn’t pick and choose your memories. “Jaye.”

  “Do I look like Jaye?”

  Katie sat up and put her arm through the jacket – the one she was not cradling to her chest like a china babydoll.

  “I had to phone home. They’ll be here soon.”

  But she wasn’t listening to Leo anymore. Katie was staring up at the first floor common room with every single one of it’s’ windows blown out and sticking up in jagged triangles of shattered glass. He followed her gaze. “When I never saw you at the fire assembly point, I figured you’d found some trouble to get yourself into. Jaye screamed, did that, haven’t seen her since.”

  Katie flung her good hand out to the wall of the building, clawed her way up and headed for the door. “Call it a bad feeling.” He hadn’t even asked a question yet.

  In the common room, within the exploded windows were banks of lockers toppled sideways into one another like dominoes, dented where Katie had been thrown into them – the memory brought fresh waves of pain – and furniture, papers, discarded coats and bags littered the floor. Nothing was how it should be. The lockers should be smooth and upright. The windows shouldn’t have glass inside and out. The other mess in the room… yes, that was pretty much the same as always. She was surveying the damage, wondering how exactly she was still on her feet if she had caused even a fraction of it when Katie felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. It stared ringing a second later. It was somehow still functional and fully intact; they had definitely built that one to last. There were no numbers programmed into the phone yet and she hadn’t exactly had time to sync her SIM with the handset yet. “Hello?”

  “You need to get down here now.”

  “Jaye?”

  “Yeah. And I’m serious. Like, deadly serious. This thing isn’t over yet. I thought it was, I thought I finished it when those things went away but it just got worse.”

  “Worse? How can it get any worse than it just was? Are you okay? And tell me where you are. I’ll come find you, Jaye. You shouldn’t be out on your own.”

  There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end, as though Jaye had just witnessed something particularly horrible. “I’m at Shimma. I followed her here and, Katie, She’s got Jack.” The line went dead.

  A sinister dread turned the air frigid around Katie. Struck with a flash of inspiration, or maybe fright, she used her good arm to flip every chair, every table, ransack every bag, every coat, not giving a toss about privacy. Nothing but cigarettes and books. There was a nauseous moment as she realised her friend had taken it. “It’s gone.”

  “What is?” Leo asked from his position at one of the window shaped holes. He was waving at somebody below.

  “I had a Tazer. She took it.”

  “Okay, first, that phone was on loudspeaker, I heard every word. Second, you ain’t going nowhere without me – not this time – and third, she’s got a weapon to defend herself with. I call that a plus.”

  “Problem the first, my dear brainiac-“ but she didn’t get much further than that because Adam and Lainy came dashing in at that very moment. “I’m fine. We’re all fine.”

  “Sweetie, what happened?” Lainy reached out to touch her but Katie flinched away, fearing that she was going to set yet more lightning bolts of white hot pain shooting through her arm. If Katie kept it very still, there was just a muddy brown roar in her wrist.

  “Fire drill, stampede for the door, hand in door, busted wrist.” She slid her eyes to Leo for a confirming nod. The fire alarm and the stampede, at least, were the truth, and they nicely explained most of the chaos inside the room. Students weren’t exactly known for being tidy or patient creatures.

  Lainy held her hands up to show that she wasn’t going to touch, then elbowed Adam forward. He inched forward, picking over the junk on the floor, and put one arm around Katie in an awkward half hug, trying to avoid touching her injured wrist. Katie turned her face into his chest, glad he was there for support because she thought she might have fallen down otherwise. While she wasn’t looking, Lainy took the broken wrist in one hand and used the fingers of her other hand to feel around. Even though quiet tears were streaming down her face and Katie was biting her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, she didn’t try to pull away. God, she was so much gentler than the doctors who had seen her before. It still hurt and the lightest brush of fingers on flesh was about an inch beyond painful.

  I’m so sorry I have to do this. Why do I have to be the one who causes the pain? I hope I’m not being too rough.

  Katie tried a smile. It wasn’t a convincing one. But she knew that Lainy meant well and telling her that tender hands alone weren’t going to make her arm any better just sounded ungrateful. “It’s probably not as bad as it looks, right?” Things often looked worse when they hurt. Or when there was blood. Surprisingly, there was none of that around.

  “Honey, I think it’s broken. We need to get you to the med centre and plaster that.”

  Oh… fun.

  It only took a few minutes to get to the medical centre, despite her (admittedly weak) protests that she would get fixed up later. Leo had insisted on coming with them to the door, for some reason, and then had taken off back to Levenson Academy proper. Anyone would think that a boy seeing his injured friend to the hospital would at least want to see it through. But no. That would be far too logical. Lainy blew right through reception, found an empty row of seats just outside the waiting area and the trio sat down. There were the same out of date magazines on the low table, the same frayed fabric on some of the chairs – the OUT OF ORDER sign on the hot drinks machine was new. Also a blessing to anyone who had ever drunk from it. All business, Lainy walked straight back out and calling for Dr de Rossa, throwing over her shoulder, “Adam, feed the girl. We don’t want her passing out as well.”

  Katie supposed she was hungry. She watched Adam vanish out of the door and around the corner into the kitchen where the staff and visitors of long-term patients could make themselves a bite to eat. He was still ensconced in his sandwich construction when Dr de Rossa came and felt her wrist. He came to the same broken conclusion as Lainy, his shadow for the day apparently, but “I’d like to do some X-rays just to be sure where the break is.”

  Getting the X-rays took a lot longer than she had expected even though she was taken straight in. None of the waiting around she had done with Dan, and it didn’t take half as long really as her little sisters’ fractured ankle. It just felt like longer when it was happening to you. When she was out of the room and told just to sit tight until the X-rays came back, Katie excused herself from the hawk-like nurse to go to the bathroom and made her way back to the treatment rooms. Room 4. Dina was awake, sitting up and giggling with her dad over some stupid television show they had found. There was a beeping monitor attached to her thumb and a drip of clear fluid n her arm, but none of the other machines. Apart from clean bandages in her wrists, there seemed to be nothing wrong with Dina. Katie probably needed the bed more than she did. Just as Katie was beginning to slink away, Dina caught her eye and mouthed let them fight.

  What? Were her lip reading skills that bad? Dr de Rossa came up behind her at that moment and touched her shoulder, motioning her back to the waiting area. He then brought Adam into their merry little group and they headed into Room £ where Lainy was waiting outside. Room 3 was the first room she had seen of the medical centre, not too long ago, when she had near as dammit gouged her uncles eye out. At least she knew there was nothing to be scared of in this clean, sterile, but somehow friendly room. He stuck something in her arm which she didn’t feel, showed her pictures of her bones which she didn’t see, said words that she didn’t hear and then got to work preparing plaster. Maybe it was the wicked strength painkillers she had been given.
Lainy held her wrist steady and wet plaster and cotton wool packing wrapped her from elbow to fingers. She ate the cheese, lettuce, mayo and crushed crisp sandwich Adam had made without really tasting it. It was probably good.

  “You’ll probably feel a little light headed for a while. I advise you to stay off your feet for an hour or so.” Dr de Rossa flicked the brakes on a wheelchair and Lainy held her arm out to help Katie into it. She just looked from her friend to the chair. “As you saw, your friend is awake now so I’ll put you together while you rest. I’m sure you two have lots to catch up on.”

  “I’m fine. I can walk next door.”

  “With morphine in your system? I might as well run a book on whether you’d get there,” Adam said. “I’m putting fifty on the floor.”

  “Hospital policy I’m afraid, Miss Cartwright.”

  “Yes, Alejandro,” Katie sighed, resigned. The drugs were making her want to giggle at that. Using the doctors’ first name seemed like the ultimate in bucking authority right then. She took the offered arm and lowered herself into the chair, feeling suddenly like a victim again. It was not a pleasant feeling and one she hoped would never return. Letting Lainy wheel her into Room 4 and then on to the bed next to Dina was humiliating. She felt defenceless, useless, dependant on others. And the worst bit? Katie felt absolutely fine. She didn’t need all this attention.

  “Elaine, I think we should have that word now.” Dr de Rossa swept out of the room. Lainy squeezed Adams hand, grinned nervously at him and turned to follow him.

  “We’ll see you at home Katie. Come on, let’s see what he’s got for me.”

  She raised one hand to wave. The sling tied around her neck was a little itchy next to her skin, folded over the top of her t-shirt and pulled to the side Katie found she could lie back and rest her head on the pillow. Much more comfortable. Mr Bayliss had left the hospital at some point during her plastering session, so all that disturbed the peace was the steady beep beep beep of a monitor and the inane chatter of some talk show on television. It was so soothing and unthought-provoking, and combined with the drugs making their way though her veins, that Katie was in real danger of falling to sleep when Dina started speaking.

  “There’s nothing more you can do, you know.”

  “Huh? Oh, hey, D. Feeling better?” Which struck Katie immediately as a stupid question but her brain was feeling a bit fuzzy.

  “Tons. But you’ve done enough now.”

  “Oh, that’s good. I’m kind of tired.”

  “I’m not sure what you actually did for me, but I know it’s you I have to thank.”

  “I’m not sure what I did either. Can’t think straight.”

  “They probably gave you something to help you sleep. I heard them talking. You look tired, Katie.”

  “I’ll be okay in a minute. I just need to rest.”

  “Me too. We’ll sleep while our friends go to war.”

  “War?” Katie settled her head back on the raised pillows. She had a vague idea that the word was a bad one. Her eyelids started to slide shut.

  Shortly before midday, Katie woke up and found herself staring up at bare light bulbs and a clinical, white ceiling. It was suspiciously clean and there were no cracks, so it definitely wasn’t her bedroom ceiling. There was a soft snoring coming from a few feet to her left. There was a thin girl lying asleep in the next bed. It was artificially warm in the room, and she couldn’t move her right arm, it being strapped to her chest. But nevertheless, she tried, and as a strange tingling invaded her wrist memory came seeping back. She had broken her wrist in a fire drill, the girl next to her was Dina and she was sharing her hospital room. That was all. But there was somewhere she had to be; something she had to do. Knowing exactly what that was seemed unimportant. Her itchy feet seemed to know where they were taking her and somehow Katie was certain that knowledge would make the journey to her brain in good time. She swung herself off the bed – it was higher than anticipated – and she clung to the edge of the mattress for a minute trying to get her balance. Then she eased her bandaged arm out of the sling to pull her jacket on and reslung it inside, after a panicked moment of wondering how to zip up one-handed. She brushed hands with Dina as she passed, letting her gaze linger on the girls’ own bandages.

  We match.

  Then Katie was out of the quiet, echoey hospital and jogging down the street. The sequence of turns and changes in ground style told her where she was going more than landmarks. It was her athlete’s brain taking over again. Shimma. That’s where she was heading. The plan for when she got there? Well, whatever might be waiting for her when she got to the club was unknown – it could be literally anything. So the plan… no, she didn’t have one of those. Unless seeing what was on offer and deciding whether to fight or flee counted. And what if it was all over by the time she got there? Something terrible would happen if that was true, Katie was sure of it.

  And then she was outside the heavy doors. She knocked on the glass, pulled on the handles even though one pull told her they were locked, and banged the door, shouting for somebody to come let her in. No-one came. Finally, frustrated, she gave the door one last yank and kicked it, sending her foot into shock and hopping backwards on the other and hoping she didn’t have a broken toe as well. “OW! Oh, for the love of – shit!” And then a spark of inspiration hit and it was so obvious, she should have tried it first. Katie slotted herself into the shadowed recess beside the main doors and felt for the round hole which served as a handle in the wooden door – the staff entrance she thought. The door opened and Katie snuck in. Closing it behind her would keep the cold out but it would also mean sealing her in here if anything went wrong. So she left it open just a crack. Then through the slanted door to her right which led to the main room. She opened that next, half expecting the chaos she had walked into the first time – music, bright lights – but there was only darkness and silence and cold. She took a few steps forward, jumping about a foot when the door slammed shut behind her. There were some switches on the wall and she found on with a LIGHTS sticker on it – red stars – and flipped it. The only light it threw out was those cute blue and green fairy lights. Not brilliant. And not exactly threatening if she needed to be fearsome.

  Come let’s fight by fairy light.

  It wasn’t even funny in her head.

  Katie was hunting all around for a weapon and was currently behind the bar – she had discarded the idea of strangling She with a yard of found electrical flex – when a hand rapped it’s knuckles on the wooden bar. Shimma was standing there, his peroxide hair glowing like an angel on acid.

  “Either you’re really dedicated or –“

  “It’s an emergency.”

  “Or that. What’s going on, girl?”

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Have my friends been here? Have you seen them?”

  “You look like you’re out for blood.” He was closer to the truth than she wanted to tell him. “Guessing it’s revenge on who-ever did that?” Shimma gestured to her wrist.

  “I’ll be fine for work. No worries about that. Have –“

  “I never worry. Well, sometimes I do but not ‘bout you. You’s not the quitting type.”

  “Much as I’d like to - I haven’t got time for a chat, Shimma.” Every second he kept speaking to her, he was keeping her from… something. Something that definitely wasn’t good, at any rate. “Have you seen anything of my friends? Heard any noises? I think they might be in trouble?”

  “Three of them?” Shimma nodded and offered his hand to Katie, tiptoeing through the unpacked boxes and crates. “They’ll be fine. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  Three? Jaye, Jack and… who? Could he see the ghostly She? Had She taken over another human body. And she still had to mention about the Tazer she had stolen from his desk and that (probably) Jaye had swiped it from her. God, she was so getting fired
today.”

  “Them?” He pointed to three people walking out of the gloom, side by side. Jaye, Jack and Leo. Jaye looked pretty much like Katie imagined she did - untidy, exhausted, fierce. Jack - Jack looked like always – gorgeous, heroic, a little bit sad. He was, Katie realised, trying to protect her – trying to keep his beautiful Lady Katie out of his pain, his history. She wasn’t that easy to protect. And then to the surprise member of the group. Leo was the last person Katie had expected to see in the middle of this. One glance at him told her that he was the last person who had expected to be here. On closer inspection she decided that Leo had enjoyed whatever he had been part of. There was a new fire in his eyes. He was a boy who had found something worth fighting for. Whether it was for right and wrong, or for his own life, it was worth it.

  Until now, the three of them had not been the best of friends. Jack had drained energy from Dina, earning Jaye’s hatred, Leo was basically an obnoxious shit whit made everyone turn against him; and Jaye had had the pleasure of being punched – very nearly – in the face by Leo for not believing in God. It was hard thinking of three people less likely to forge a cute little trio who trusted their lives to each other – perhaps Mr Bean, Xena Warrior Princess and Buzz Lightyear. But right now… Walking underneath hundreds of tiny blue and green lights which made the world look nothing less than spectacular. And they suddenly looked perfect.

  “She’s gone.” Leo was the first to break the silence. “We sent that bitch back!”

  “”Are you all okay? She didn’t hurt anyone, did she?” She was looking at Jaye when she said that. She was the one who had been hurt most of all. Having a huge, dark soul squashed into your brain must have been horrid – seeing what She was making her do and being powerless to stop it. It made her shudder just to think of it.

  “I know what She – what I did,” Jaye whispered hoarsely. “I was so horrible to you. I said some stuff, did some stuff, that I wouldn’t have done if I’d been myself. I am sorry for all of that but…”

  “Don’t be sorry. You’ve got nothing to apologise for. We all know none of it was your fault.”

  “I know it’s all true though.”

  But the words got lost in the confusion of voices as the menfolk started talking between themselves and Katie only half-heard Jaye.

  “…couldn’t really see her,” Jack was saying. “But I felt this chilly bit in the air, like a hole in the warmth. So I knew she was there.”

  “Bitch don’t like electricity.”

  “Oh, wait, where’d it go?”

  Leo held a bright yellow thing in one hand. Shimma reached for it and plucked it out of his hand. He didn’t seem to want to give it up but his grip opened when he realised, sharply, that Jack could still elbow him in the ribs and he would feel it.

  “Glad to be of service. I wasn’t completely sure it’d work.”

  As if just noticing her, Jack rushed over to Katie and took her good hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

  “No,” she answered before he asked anything. “I have a broken wrist, bruises from here to God-knows-where, I’ve been shot, I went to another world and watched people throwing themselves off a cliff, my days are an endless cycle of study, sleep, and saving lives-“ and then she ran out of steam. There was much more she could say. “No, I’m not alright.”

  Chapter fifteen