Haunting of Lily Frost (19 page)

‘Does it feel colder to you up here?'

‘Yeah. I guess,' says Ruby. ‘Is that a ghost thing?'

‘Maybe. I'm not sure.'

I realise, as I touch the handle on my door, that I'm preparing myself for something shocking, but of course, as I open it, my room looks just like any other teenager's room. Unmade bed. Nothing put away. And maybe it's the daylight, or maybe it's having Ruby with me, but there's nothing ominous or creepy about it, except for the cold. I show her the letters on the floor. She traces her fingers across the carved boards, just like I did the first time.
But she obviously doesn't feel any charge or prickling – just wood.

‘The E does look like an F,' she says. ‘It's weird that you two have almost the same anagram. But then I guess neither of you really has that anagram. Your real name is Lilian and hers is Matilda, so these letters aren't really all the letters in either of your names.'

‘I hadn't thought of that.'

‘Still, what are the odds?'

‘You tell me. I haven't improved in maths just because I've moved to Gideon.'

She laughs. ‘So, how do we find a ghost?'

‘Why do we want to find a ghost? She's scary and angry and I don't particularly want that directed at me.'

‘But you love a bit of confrontation.'

I pull a shocked face. Me? ‘Fair point. But I don't particularly want to confront a ghost.'

‘Lil, you have no choice. Only you can find out what happened to her, because you're in her house and for some reason she's chosen you to target.'

‘But why would she choose me?'

‘I did. You're not that bad.'

‘You always make me feel just that much better,' I say.

Ruby stands up and starts pacing around the room like she's trying to concentrate. ‘Well, we know Tilly disappeared. We know she probably never went to her dad's, because she didn't even know where he was. We know she had some money, but not how much. And we know she and Danny had broken up,' she says, listing everything on her fingers like points in our favour.

‘I think you're right. We need to talk to Danny.'

‘No.
You
need to talk to Danny,' she says.

‘What are you going to do?'

‘I'm going to go and macramé an owl,' she says with a giant grin on her face.

Walking back up the long driveway to the Taylors' house, I imagine I'm being watched from the big darkened windows along the front of the house. This is such a bad idea.

Before I can reach the front door and begin the embarrassing task of removing my shoes, Danny appears. The sight of him makes me smile, despite the reason I've come to see him. He's wearing a blue t-shirt with sewn on red letters that say “HICK”. I wonder if he made it himself.

‘Nice,' I say, nodding at his top.

‘I was hoping for irony, but it's just possible that around here, it's taken as truth.'

Talking to boys has never been my strong point, but if
it weren't for all the Tilly stuff, I think I'd do okay with Danny.

‘So. Julia's out,' he says, fishing for the reason I've come.

‘Yeah. I saw her earlier.'

‘You're here to see me?'

‘Uh-huh.'

He nods and, tapping me on the arm, walks away from the house, and around the side, to the rest of their property, which I haven't yet seen. The paddocks stretch for miles with cows here and there, grazing together. I follow Danny along the fence, towards the barn, until he stops and sits down on a bale of hay.

‘Does your family actually own all of this?'

‘Apparently. Please don't be impressed,' he says.

‘I'm not. Cows aren't my thing.'

He grins at me, but doesn't look up.

‘Danny –'

‘Yeah –'

‘I need to ask you something.'

Now he looks up, sensing perhaps the fear in my voice. I know he's going to try to shut this conversation down, but Ruby's right: I do have to talk to him about it.

‘Yeah,' he says slowly, dragging it out.

‘It's about Tilly.'

‘I'm not talking about her,' he says with a force that surprises me.

‘Why do you think she ran away? Julia says she didn't and her mum doesn't think she even knows where her dad is and—'

He stands up and turns sharply, looking down on me with fury in his face. ‘What are you saying? That I lied? That I'm hiding something? What?'

‘I know you broke up with her.'

‘Good for you. We were always breaking up.'

‘But Julia said—'

‘
What
did Julia say? That I invented her running away because I felt guilty?'

‘Yes,' I whisper.

‘Did she mention the fight she had with Tilly?'

I shake my head.

‘No. Of course not. She likes hiding behind the whole best-friends routine,' he barks. He starts walking off and I jump up.

‘Danny, I think something happened at the river.' I expect him to turn around, sit down next to me and listen to my theories. Instead he kicks the ground, and shakes his head at me.

‘You know what, Lil? I don't care.' Then he walks off, dismissing me and leaving me alone with the hay and the cows. Why doesn't he care what happened to her? Because he knows what happened? Because he was there? Maybe it's because he had something to do with her disappearance.

There's laughter coming from the kitchen when I walk into the house. I slam the front door, hoping Ruby will hear me, get the message and come into the hallway to find me, but it doesn't happen. She's enjoying her conversation with Mum. I want to grab Ruby and go to the river to see if we can find any evidence of Tilly having drowned. I know it's crazy, but maybe there's something, or maybe she'll reappear and then at least I'll have a witness.

But when I walk into the kitchen, it doesn't seem like they even heard me come in, because Ruby's holding up some sort of macramé creation and making it talk like a puppet, as Mum laughs so much that tears roll down her face. I watch from the doorway, horrified. My mother doesn't laugh. Not like that. And Ruby doesn't usually choose her company over mine, either.

‘Ruby? Finished your owl?'

‘Ah, Lil, you're back. It's not really an owl – more of a tiger I think,' Mum says, trying to stop laughing.

Ruby turns the hideous macramé thing on me and starts talking like a ventriloquist. ‘How did you go, my friend?' it asks in a strange, high-pitched voice.

‘Fine.'

‘Only fine, my friend?' it asks again with the same annoying voice. Mum's still laughing, although the look on my face seems to be working.

‘Are you girls hungry? I am,' she says, getting up from the table and packing her twine away. Ruby sees what she's doing and grabs the other end with the macramé thing.

‘You haven't finished. Sit down,' she says to Mum in her normal voice. ‘Lil and I ate our body weight in chips anyway, so finish your macramé first.'

‘No. I'll make some sandwiches,' says Mum.

‘That's okay, I'm going to take Ruby to the river.'

‘Oh, right,' says Mum.

‘Can't I just help your mum finish her masterpiece?'

I look at Ruby, her face peeping out from behind the owl/tiger. What's she doing? Can't she see I need her to come with me? I walk out of the kitchen, down the hall, open the front door and slam it shut behind me. I might be crying, but I'm trying not to, as I head through town.

I don't know what's happening to me. It's like everyone else knows more than I do. Ruby seems happy and settled and in love and not missing me anywhere near as much as I'm missing her. And Mum's happy to sit and laugh with Ruby, but she'd never do that with me. Or maybe she would, but she doesn't. But then maybe that's my fault. Maybe I'm the problem. And maybe that's how Tilly felt after Danny dumped her, and Julia fought with her and she tried to run off, and ended up in the river.

Dashing around the corner of the milk bar, I crash into a woman. Or she crashes into me. There are lots of apologies and when we pull apart, she looks at me and grins.

‘Matilda? Is that you?'

‘No, it's not.'

And she grins at me, like I'm making a joke. ‘Are you sure? I'm Lorna Davis. I used to babysit you – well maybe not you – but you look so much like—'

‘I'm really
not
her. I'm sorry.' And I push past her so hard I'm sure she must fall over because I can hear her mumbling behind me as I rush off. I'm breathing wildly, like someone's chasing me, like Tilly's chasing me. And then somebody grabs me from behind. I whip around, trying to pull myself free, but before I can scream, I realise it's Ruby.

‘I've been chasing after you, but you kept running away.'

‘Yeah, from
you!
'

‘Why? What is wrong with you?'

‘Nothing. Just leave me alone.'

‘Where are you going?' she says, and I really want to tell her, but instead I keep walking and hope she'll stop me, or at least come with me, because I don't want to do this on my own.

But after a few minutes I look back and I can't see her anywhere. I check my phone, to see if she's messaged me, but there's nothing. As I turn to keep going, I see a poster of Tilly's face. It's sort of hidden under a bunch of other local posters, but I can see her eyes. It's the missing persons poster I saw that first week. I wonder why her mum picked a photo of her where she isn't smiling. I walk past it, and wonder if she knows where I'm going.

The light has changed. There is no sun left. The sky is now so grey and so dark, I know a storm is coming. And that suddenly seems appropriate. I've managed to upset Danny, offend Ruby, hurt Mum, and now I'm going hunting.

12

the drowning

Rain starts to fall and I wish I had a jacket on. My arms are cold, my skin has goosebumps, like it gets sometimes when Tilly's near, but I'm pretty sure it's just because of the weather. As I reach the track, I hear footsteps behind me. It's probably Tilly. I don't want to turn round. I don't want to see her again. If she's there I'll just ignore her and maybe she'll go away. I'm walking fast, as quickly as I can without actually running. And I don't really want to run on this ground, because the rain has started to puddle and make it hard to move fast.

As I reach the bridge, my heart starts to race. I slide down the bank, and hit the wooden decking. My feet skid along the wet planks, and I grab at the railing to try to right myself. Behind me, someone yells, and I look up the hill and see Ruby, sliding crazily down to join me.

‘Lil! What are you doing here?'

‘Looking for Tilly.'

The rain's really heavy now and my hair is soaked. My clothes, too. I hug Ruby tight, like if I don't let go of her, then we'll just stay here while it all happens around us.

‘Come back to the house,' she says.

‘I can't.'

‘Yes you can.'

‘She's here. Can't you sense her?'

She tries to pull me by the hand and take me off the bridge, but I let go, feeling her fingers slip through mine. The rain's wild; it's coming straight down, hitting me so hard it almost stings against my skin. Ruby comes for me again and I see the fear in her face. I try to smile at her, let her know that I'm really sure about what I'm doing, but it doesn't seem to help.

‘This is crazy!' she yells.

‘Tilly's here. I know she is. She wants me to find her. That's what she's been doing all this time. Luring me to this river.'

‘I don't care. She's apparently dead. And you're not. Yet.'

‘I'm not going to die.'

‘I'm sure she thought that too. Doesn't every fifteen-year-old?'

‘She was fourteen.'

‘I don't care. Not about her.'

There's a crack of thunder and we both look up, expecting to see the sky dropping on us, for being out here in this. The ghost gums look even more terrifying, as the light goes and they're shadowed in blackness. I have to find her. She's not going to let me go until I do. As much as it scares me, facing a ghost, Ruby was right. I have to find out what happened and this is the only place I can do that.

As I turn to look down the length of the bridge, I see Tilly, her long hair hanging straight and, weirdly, the ghost of a smile on her face. She's standing on the other side of the river, on the side no one ever goes to.

‘Look, Ruby! That's where she is – see?' And I point through the rain. Behind me, Ruby is scrambling to drag me off the bridge and onto the bank.

‘I'm just going to help her,' I say in a voice that doesn't sound like mine.

‘No, Lil!'

But I yank my arm free of Ruby's and start to run, scrambling along the bridge, as my feet struggle to stay up. In front of me Tilly has her hands out like she'll catch me. So I run, ten steps, fifteen, twenty, and then I see the gap in the bridge, and I know I can make it to the other side, and behind me I hear Ruby scream, as I leap, my feet flailing in the air, I fly across the river, my hands out for Tilly, and then suddenly, I'm falling.

And falling.

Hitting the water, I smash right through. It's freezing and it pulls up and catches hold of me, starts dragging me down. I'm tumbling over and over and I look, trying to find up, and all I can see is black, the water's so black. And my lungs start burning and it's that feeling again. The terror that found me when I was five, that's been waiting all this time to strike again.

The river rushes at me, tossing me around like I'm in a washing machine. I'm tumbling over and over, the water so deep and so cold that my breath has gone, left behind on the bridge. And then I hit something. Hard. Maybe it's the bottom. Maybe I'm all the way to the bottom. And I try to push down with my legs and spring up again, but my foot's stuck. I'm not sure what it's caught on, but I can't pull it free.

Somewhere I can hear a dog barking. Is that Danny's dog? Is it a ghost?

I try to look up through the water, to see the surface, but it's all just blackness above me. And maybe it's too late. Maybe there's no one there anyway. Is this what Tilly felt that night? Did she jump in? Upset that Danny had dumped her? Did she want it all to end – or just to make him notice her?

The coldness, the thickness of the dark, it's all just making me so tired. My eyes keep trying to close. I know what that means and it doesn't scare me. Not now.

But there's that bark again. I hope it's not a ghost. I hope it's someone coming to help. Someone other than Ruby, because she can't pull me out. The thought of Ruby makes me panic, start pulling wildly, trying to yank my foot free. But it's still caught. I reach down to see what's holding me, but I have to try to swim down and I almost can. I try to move my hand down my leg until it reaches my foot, and I feel something. It's not a tree. Or a rock. Or fishing line wrapped tight around my foot. It's something like fingers.

My eyes snap open. And I can suddenly see. It's so clear down here. I can see the hand clutching at my leg, the blue, rotten-looking fingers wrapped tight around my ankle. I try to prise them loose, but they dig in tighter and I know they won't let me go, not now, not ever.

‘Tilly?' I try to speak, but a stream of bubbles rushes from my mouth and up, as I feel the last of the air in my lungs leaving me.

And suddenly everything is floating away. All those fears. The town. My family. Ruby.

There's just the faintest sound of a dog barking. Somewhere.

Something splashes above me, grabs tight around my chest and suddenly I'm being pulled up. Dragged out and onto the bridge. There are arms and faces and tears.

I'm lying on wood. On the bridge.

‘Lil?'

I vomit water all over myself. Something licks my face and I wonder if it's Luther, come to check if I'm alive.

‘She's alive!'

‘Yeah, only just.'

‘She's breathing. She'll be okay.'

I can hear them talking. Just.

‘Lil?'

The faces crowd in, so close. I keep coughing and the river runs from me, pouring out, onto the bridge, leaving me, cold, sore and tired.

‘Lil, can you hear me? It's Ruby.'

‘She was down there,' I whisper.

‘Lil? It's Danny.'

‘She's down there. You have to find her. She's down there.'

I hear them talking again but I don't have the energy to say anything else. All I can think of is that hand, those blue fingers, wrapped so tight, determined to keep me with her for company, forever.