‘But you already knew I was fine.’ I began to pick up that the casual tone was fake, that Holly’s voice was higher than usual, and I noticed a nervous monotone. I looked more closely at her face, but her turquoise-studded mask hid whatever expression she had in her eyes. ‘You saw me playing snooker with the guys here. I told you I wanted to stay, so what’s the problem?’
You’re deep in denial, I thought. You’re not the Holly I know. You’re blanking me the way Grace did. This is too scary! ‘Grace and Jude are here. Aaron too,’ I told her, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘They all want to talk with you.’
‘Maybe later – after the dance,’ she said, turning to check with Channing.
Rewind to Grace and Ezra – the hunky guy with hypnotic powers. Remember this was exactly how Grace turned her back on Jude and swooned, fell, collapsed zombie-like into Ezra’s arms. Well, here we had an action replay with Holly and Channing.
‘We’re busy, we have things to do,’ she explained as they began to move away.
‘What things?’ Now that I’d finally found her and seen the way she was acting, I was desperate to keep hold of her. ‘Chill. Stay here with me.’
‘Sorry, Tania, we’re on duty. It’s time to fetch more logs for the braziers then we have to check on the drinks situation.’
‘You heard what I said – Aaron’s here.’
For the first time she hesitated but Channing stepped right in with, ‘Holly, Aaron can wait. I need you to come with me.’
She winced and seemed about to resist, or did I imagine that part?
‘For Antony’s celebration,’ he reminded her as he took her firmly by the arm.
‘Oh cool, the celebration!’ She was back to the manic monotone. ‘We can’t miss that part. Come on, Tania, come with us!’
I had no choice so I followed them across the snowy ground until we reached the area where the Ghost Dancers whirled and wailed. They danced to the beating drum with heads bowed and shoulders hunched, stamping their feet and setting up their high-pitched, desperate cries.
Amongst the guests standing at the far side I made out Orlando with Jude, Aaron and Grace and I was about to slip away and join them, tell them that I’d finally located Holly when the dancers broke their circle and gave way for Ziegler and Amos. Immediately everyone fell silent and the leader of the New Dawn community got ready to make his birthday speech.
‘This is the day of my birth,’ he began in his solemn, preachy voice. He held his arms wide and looked up at the moon and stars. ‘We are gathered here at New Dawn. We walk together. Our hearts are turned to each other in the sight of the Great Creator.’
He stood like a man crucified on a cross, arms spread eagled.
‘We are changed from our old ways, and the change comes willingly from within,’ he continued. ‘We begin anew.’
He speaks and only I hear the wind whistle through the trees, across the lake.
‘Behold!’ the white-haired warrior addresses his people. Embers from the dying fire cast flickering light over his sorrowing features. ‘I am old. My sun is set.’
Logs shift, red sparks rise and fade.
At our backs the winter wind blows. Ripples disturb the dark water.
‘Once I was a warrior,’ the old man sighs. ‘My people were around me like the grass on the prairie, like the leaves on the trees. Now men come on horseback and seize our land that the Great Creator gave us. Our people die in the snow. They pass over but their spirits live on in the mountains and beneath the rivers and lakes.’
Suddenly, as he speaks, the rough water parts and the creature rises. A great cry of fear goes up. Snake-headed, with a forked tongue, he towers over us and spreads his wings – black wings without feathers. His cold green eyes shine bright as the stars in the heavens.
The old man on the shore keeps his arms outstretched. He doesn’t cower as the creature rises from the lake, doesn’t resist as it sinks its fangs into his flesh.
Black water rises, the lake bursts its banks. A thousand double-headed, emerald serpents swarm from its icy depths. The black creature turns and plunges back into the lake with the old man hanging limp in his jaws.
I was in the grip of cold, cold fear, knowing I was at a party in the presence of my bitter and twisted dark angel, seeing visions, feeling time melt, stepping into an evil world without boundaries.
There was a time on Black Rock earlier this summer … a different party. I took a sharp intake of breath and glanced at Holly, who had taken off her mask and was staring enraptured at Amos, drinking in every word. Her eyes were wide and unblinking.
We were nearer to the end than I’d expected. Holly was ready to enter into her own ceremony and be led on to the dark side. Her soul would part from her body and we’d lose her for ever. We had to act.
‘We are changed, we are departed from the old ways,’ Amos intoned. ‘And we give thanks that our hearts are at peace.’
A murmur rose from the Ghost Dancers, who had formed a semicircle behind him and Ziegler. ‘Our hearts are at peace,’ they chanted.
I turned to Holly to make another appeal. It was only seconds since I last looked, but now a figure wrapped in a red blanket stood beside me. One side of her skull-like face was painted black, the other was white. Her dark, hollowed-out eyes glittered.
‘Holly?’ I gasped.
Beside the red-cloaked, skeletal woman there was a tall figure with a winged mask covering his face. He was naked except for a short wrap around his hips and turquoise beads around his neck.
These ghosts had appeared out of nowhere and Holly and Channing had vanished.
‘They were there and then they weren’t!’ I told Orlando as soon as Amos’s ritual was over and I could make my way across to my group. It felt as if every second was vital.
‘Come inside, tell us what happened,’ Jude said, leading the way back into the social centre with the other guests.
My heart raced. ‘Honest to God, you have to believe me. I was talking with Holly and she suddenly vanished!’
‘You don’t know where she went?’ Grace asked. We’d stopped just inside the entrance, under the row of stuffed animal heads on the wall.
‘Are you listening to me? She vanished! Channing was with her. When she was here, it wasn’t really her any more – she couldn’t even breathe without asking permission!’
Slam! My brain disconnected.
Next to a roaring fire, the bear-head opens its mouth and roars. I see the ribbed, vault-like roof of its mouth, the white glisten of its teeth. Bears are amongst us, lumbering on their hind legs, lurching, swiping their claws.
‘I’m here with you,’ Orlando reminded me quietly.
He said exactly the words I needed to hear. He was cool and calm. I thanked my lucky stars. Then slam and split again.
Outside in the trampled snow there are animal tracks and blood. The wolf man with matted hair and slavering jaws is sated. He drops on to all fours and slinks away.
‘OK, so we break up the group and look for her,’ Jude decided. ‘Grace and I will stay here and check the restrooms, kitchen, pool room – everywhere. Aaron, you check the lake shore where the guys were dancing. Orlando, Tania, you take the trail up to the cabins.’
‘So let’s go.’ Aaron was already halfway out of the crowded room, heading back to the lake. ‘We meet back here in fifteen minutes.’
‘And what do we do when we find her again?’ Orlando checked with Jude. ‘Do we force her – knock her out, drag her to the parking lot and drive away with her?’
‘Dude, be serious,’ Jude sighed. ‘As a first move, we talk to her and persuade her to listen to what Aaron has to say.’
‘Will that work?’ Orlando asked me.
‘Maybe. I agree with Jude – right now it’s still our best option.’ Anxious to get away from the taxidermy on the floor, I led Orlando out into the snow.
‘Check back in fifteen minutes,’ Grace reminded us as we headed towards the forest trail.
Orla
ndo and I ran up the slope towards the cabins where I’d last seen Jarrold, leaving behind the sounds of partying – the music, the laughter. The rough trail was dimly lit by more braziers, which shed pools of light on gnarled tree roots and loose rocks. More than once we stumbled and fell.
‘Take it easy.’ Orlando reached for me as I tripped. A thorn bush broke my fall but I got back on my feet and ran on without bothering to pick painful thorns out of my palm. ‘Where are we headed?’ he asked.
‘Channing shares a cabin with Jarrold,’ I explained. ‘They live at the end of this trail. Maybe Channing brought Holly here.’
We ran on without speaking but thinking plenty – me frantic to find my friend before she got swallowed up for good by Amos’s army of dark angels, Orlando probably reacting badly to the ‘J’ word. In any case, he slowed down and was a couple of paces behind me when I saw two figures standing on the trail ahead. Instinctively I ducked off the track and hid behind a tree.
‘What happened?’ Orlando joined me in my hiding place.
‘Sssh!’ Cautiously I took another look. ‘It’s Ziegler.’
‘And?’
‘Jarrold!’ My heart lurched and my mouth went dry. The two guys were about fifty metres away and talking urgently. Jarrold was speaking, gesturing back towards the lake. Ziegler listened, interrupted with quick questions and finally put up a hand to stop Jarrold’s flow of words. Then, as Jarrold disappeared on to his cabin porch, Ziegler turned and walked towards us.
Swift and easy he strode bare-chested down the track as Orlando and I cowered behind the tree. We were edging deeper into the shadows, trying not to make a sound, as wrong-footed and stupid as kids caught stealing candy.
‘Tania.’ Ziegler stopped a couple of paces from our tree. Without question he’d spotted us before we dived sideways into the bushes. ‘We’d prefer party guests stayed close to the social centre. There’s no access to the cabins – I’m sure you appreciate our reasons.’
With our tails between our legs, Orlando and I followed Ziegler down the track. Without mentioning his conversation with Jarrold, Ziegler made small talk with Orlando, talking him through some of the lesser-known guiding principles at New Dawn, such as no guests allowed inside the cabins after dark. As soon as we reached the social centre, he delivered us like naughty children to Aurelie.
‘I caught them on the cabin trail,’ he told her with a raised eyebrow before he strode off again.
‘Oh dear!’ Aurelie was amused. Her laugh was musical and beautiful, like everything else about her. ‘Ignore Richard. His interpretation of the rules can be a little …’ Shrugging and leaving her sentence unfinished, she took us inside, under the moose head with its great antlers and glassy stare.
How do they do that? I wondered. How do they predict your every move and take away your power to act? Before either of us had time to think it through, Aurelie had drawn Orlando on to the dance floor again.
I was by myself with no time to lose, had maybe five minutes before the pre-arranged meeting with the others. Whereas before my heartbeat had been spiky and rapid, I felt that now it had flat lined into heavy dread.
Jarrold betrayed me. This was the phrase that played in my head and made me nauseous. He tricked me with the poor-me, get-me-out-of-here-and-bring-the-walls-tumbling-down tactic, when all along he’d only wanted to discover the reason I was here.
To rescue Holly, I’d told him. And now he’d relayed this information straight back to Ziegler, who would tell Amos, and our plan would collapse. Yeah – Jarrold betrayed me.
‘Tania!’ Aaron dragged me out of my freefall. He appeared in the doorway in his white shirt and vest, breathless and excited, gesturing for me to follow him. ‘Holly – I’ve found her!’
‘Where?’
‘By the lake.’
‘Alone?’ I asked as we ran towards the shore.
‘No. Still with Channing. I don’t know what they were doing – maybe collecting driftwood for the fires. Come on, Tania – that’s why I came looking for you. You have to make some kind of scene, divert the guy’s attention while I talk to Holly.’
‘We need more people,’ I protested. ‘Let’s go back – get the others.’
‘No time. You have to do this for me.’
‘OK. Go ahead.’ The dread was still dragging me down. I had no clue how I would get Channing away from Holly, or what Aaron could say to change Holly’s zombified mind.
Aaron stopped in the shadows, a few metres short of the pebble beach. He gave me a few seconds to make out the two figures by the edge of the lake – one in a white robe tied at one shoulder and the other with a high, fan-shaped headdress. They stood together, hand in hand in the moonlight with their backs turned, gazing out over the calm water.
‘Go!’ Aaron urged.
No way! I told myself even as I took my first step on to the pebbles. This is not going to work.
‘The moon is waning,’ I heard Channing tell Holly. ‘And see the shooting star directly overhead? And another?’
‘It’s like they fall into the lake and fizzle and die,’ she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder in cosmic harmony.
Then Channing heard the crunch of my footsteps, alerted Holly and together they turned and waited.
‘Hey, Channing. Ziegler sent me to find you,’ I faltered over my words. Who was I kidding? Was this really the best I could do?
Channing didn’t reply. He just went on waiting.
‘He needs you.’
Holly glanced up at his hooded face without releasing his hand.
‘It’s Jarrold,’ I stumbled on. ‘He went missing again. Ziegler needs you to find him.’
Channing nodded and eased his hand out of Holly’s. He moved slowly towards me, his face hidden by the hooded mask. ‘Did they search all the cabins?’
‘Ziegler did. He doesn’t want to raise a general alarm because it would wreck the party. He said could you check the boats moored in the inlet?’
‘The boats?’ Channing echoed, staring into my eyes, reading my twitchy body language. He noticed Holly try to follow him up the beach. ‘Hold it right there,’ he told her without turning. ‘Tania will stay here with you. I’ll be back in ten minutes.’
The plan worked! It might have been a feeble strategy, but Channing was falling for it and leaving, cutting over the top of the small headland into the next bay, using moonlight to find his way.
The second he was out of sight, Aaron emerged from the shadows. Holly saw him and at first she didn’t react. She looked uncertain, almost as if she didn’t recognise the guy who until earlier that week, had been the love of her life and actually she was trying to recall where she’d seen him before.
Reacting to her confusion, Aaron’s instinct was to try to take hold of her and embrace her, like a parent trying to protect a child. ‘Jeez, what did they do to you?’ he murmured, cradling her head against his chest.
She gave a small cry and pushed him away. ‘No!’
‘Holly, it’s me and Tania! It’s OK, we know what’s happening here – the mind tricks they play. But it’s not too late. We’ll get you out.’
‘What in the world are you talking about?’ She frowned and turned down the corners of her mouth. ‘This is New Dawn. There are no mind tricks. No one’s making me stay.’
‘No, Holly – listen!’ Aaron knew he had only minutes to get through to her. ‘You know how I feel about you – how much I love you. I don’t always say it out loud, but you know, we both know that’s the way it is – me and you, period.’
‘Once upon a time, maybe,’ she said quietly. She was refusing to give him eye contact, sighing, turning away. ‘Not any more.’
The night sky is full of dark angels. Their tormented souls are the distant stars that twinkle dimly then fall and fade. They are the shooting stars, glorious for a short time, but then spectacularly exploding, falling, falling. I reach out to catch one. My hand is empty.
Aaron wouldn’t give in easily. He loved her, poor gu
y.
‘You and me!’ he repeated. ‘Not you and Channing or you and anyone else. I’ll get you out of this place and you’ll soon see what’s been going on. You’ll be yourself again.’
‘Myself?’ Now she was angry, turning on him and lashing out with her tongue. ‘You say you love me, Aaron, but that’s so pathetic. You don’t even know the meaning of the word. All your emotions are shallow. I know, because mine were too before I met Channing. He taught me that yours is an everyday, conventional kind of love – let’s go to college then get married, have babies, be happy ever after. But I’m not an everyday girl and that’s not what I want any more. I want something deeper, richer, finer than you can ever give me!’
Wow, she scythed Aaron down, flattened him, turned and left him for dead. She began to follow Channing over the headland.
I left him on the beach and ran after her. ‘Stop. You’re not going anywhere!’
‘Tania, let go of me. You’re like the others. You had your chance and you blew it.’
‘What chance? What are you saying?’
‘With Jarrold.’ She was still in a rage. The wind had blown her hair loose and it was flying across her face. ‘He saw something special in you, the same way Channing chose me. You could have been standing beside me now – me and Channing, you and Jarrold – not fighting me and making stupid attempts to so-called rescue me!’
We stood there on the dark headland, surrounded by ice and snow. The lake stretched out towards the horizontal line of the distant dam. Stars twinkled and were spent.
Footsteps came running from both sides.
‘Holly, if you stay here you’re going to die!’
‘No. I’m going to live a life so special you wouldn’t believe. It’s going to be out of this world!’
Channing came scrambling over rocks, up the slope from the inlet where the boats were moored. Aaron had recovered from Holly’s onslaught and was running up the hill after us.
‘These are dark angels!’ I yelled at Holly. ‘Ziegler, Channing, Amos! They’re dragging you on to the dark side. Can’t you see what this is all about?’