Nowhere Boys (23 page)
Andy, Jake and Sam got up. They were filthy and exhausted, not to mention starving.
‘Phoebe,’ started Jake. ‘I was wondering –’
‘Yes, kitchen’s out there too. There’s some sprouted bread and miso spread in the fridge.
The boys exchanged glances. Jake shrugged. ‘Beggars can’t be choosers.’
Phoebe leant in. ‘So?’ she whispered to Felix. ‘What else did you find?’
‘Near where the conjurations were hanging was an altar.’ Felix hadn’t told the others this, but the wire that Sam and Jake had tripped on had pulled aside a bush, revealing a stone altar.
Phoebe’s eyes lit up. ‘Where she cast her spell?’
‘Probably.’
‘So, it was at the same place you got lost in your world?’
Felix nodded.
‘I knew there was a connection between you,’ said Phoebe triumphantly. ‘So, now we just need to work out what spell she cast.’
Felix had a pretty good idea what that might be. On the altar were carved the four elemental symbols. ‘Was there something, anything, that happened to Alice that she might have … you know … wanted to change?’
Phoebe’s face darkened. ‘Why do you ask that?’
‘I’m just trying to work out why she would want to cast such a powerful spell.’
Phoebe looked around. Jake and Sam had disappeared and Andy was setting up his bed.
She turned back to Felix, suddenly vulnerable. Felix had got so used to grumpy Phoebe that seeing her like this was unnerving.
‘Fifteen years ago my parents, our parents, died in a house fire. Alice and I were at a party and when we came home …’
Felix shifted his feet. Dealing with emotion was not his strong point. In his old world earphones and a closed bedroom door were his natural defence against it. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said awkwardly.
‘They said it was an electrical fault,’ continued Phoebe. ‘But Alice never believed it. Our dad was a loan manager at the local bank and when the drought hit, a lot of farms went under. People were angry with the banks.’
‘So, Alice thought it was deliberate.’
‘She was a teenager. You know – erratic, emotionally unstable,’ said Phoebe, sounding more like her old self.
‘Yeah,’ said Felix playing along. ‘That’s us.’
‘Anyway, she talked a lot about finding a way to change the past.’
‘To unmake it,’ murmured Felix. His instinct was right. He and Alice had a hell of a lot in common.
‘What did you say?’
‘Nothing,’ said Felix. ‘Can I look at her Book of Shadows?’
Phoebe got up and took the Book of Shadows out of the desk drawer. She handed it to Felix. ‘It’s not to leave this room, okay?’
‘Okay,’ said Felix, taking the heavy book.
Phoebe stood there for a beat. ‘And Felix?’
He looked up.
‘Thanks.’
Felix nodded. He could see how much Phoebe wanted her sister back. Ten years was a long time to not see your sister, and he, of all people, knew what it felt like to lose your only sibling.
Something landed in his lap.
He picked it up. It was the deodorant crystal. The others had come back.
‘Don’t hold back, bro,’ said Jake, grinning.
Phoebe stood up. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ She looked intently at Felix. ‘Good luck.’
Felix smiled uncertainly. He wasn’t sure that luck was what he needed, exactly.
While the others got under the blankets and slowly began to fall asleep, Felix took Alice’s Book of Shadows to Phoebe’s desk. He sat down and carefully began to turn the pages. There were chapters on wealth, fertility, love, and curses. Each section had a number of handwritten spells, mostly accompanied by ornate drawings of ingredients or complex patterns. Felix skimmed through them, he already knew what he was looking for. He turned a page and there it was:
AN UNMAKING SPELL
. The day he’d sneaked into Phoebe’s back room he’d copied the same spell down. He’d wanted to unmake Oscar’s accident and, in this world, Alice had used the same spell to unmake the fire her parents had died in.
He read the last two lines of the spell, which he’d changed for his purposes. They were different from his, but with the same intent.
Douse the flames so we may be
Douse the flames so we may be.
Felix carefully shut the book. Phoebe was right: he and Alice were connected. They’d both disappeared from their own worlds trying to unmake something. So what world was Alice in? He shuddered at the thought that they might be away from their world for ten years. How could he do that to the others? No, he had to get them home.
He thought about Phoebe’s promise that if he got Alice back, she would get them home. He wasn’t sure about that. Surely, if Alice wanted to come home, she could reverse her own spell. She knew the spell she’d used and where she’d cast it. Maybe Alice didn’t
want
to come back from wherever she’d gone. And if someone forced her back, she wasn’t going to be happy.
Felix shook his head. The real problem was that he wasn’t even convinced reversing a spell worked. They were all still here, so clearly repeating the same spell in the same place wasn’t enough to reverse it.
He thought back to the moment when he’d cast it. Maybe it hadn’t worked because Jake and Sam had fallen right at the moment when it was being cast? Or perhaps it was because he hadn’t wanted to say those final words. Maybe to make a spell work you had to actually
want
it to work.
Felix put the Book of Shadows away in the desk drawer. He looked over at the others. Sam and Jake had scored the couches and Sam was snoring, as usual. Andy was fast asleep on the floor. Maybe it was better for everyone if he didn’t let on to Phoebe that he’d found Alice’s spell. What he needed to focus on was getting
them
home.
Felix grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and lay down next to Andy. He thought it would be hard to get to sleep, but the room was warm and he was exhausted. In an instant, he was asleep.
He dreamt of a house. A lovely wooden house on the outskirts of a forest. He walked in the door of the house and found a party inside. Alice was sitting at the head of a dinner table. On either side of her were her mum, dad and Phoebe. Everyone was laughing. Celebrating. They lifted their glasses in a toast. Felix sat down at the table and Alice turned to him. She began applauding him. Alice’s mum was smiling at him with tears in her eyes. Felix didn’t know what he’d done but he was glad. Suddenly they all burst into song.
‘
Water, fire, earth and air
Elements that we all share.
’
Felix joined in and Alice leant over and kissed him on the cheek. Felix turned his head to see that it was no longer Alice and they were no longer sitting at a table. It was Ellen and they were in his back garden and she was smiling at him. ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said.
‘I’ve missed you too,’ said Felix.
Ellen bent her head towards his and just when their lips were about to touch, Felix had an odd feeling he was being watched.
He woke with a start, to see a figure leaning right over him. ‘Sam?’
Sam shrunk back from him, and shook his head as if to wake himself up.
‘Were you trying to kiss me?’ asked Felix.
‘In your dreams, dude,’ said Sam. His voice sounded thick and deep.
‘Well, what the hell were you doing?’
‘Chillax, would you? I was looking for the toilet.’
Sam stood up and made his way clumsily towards the corridor.
Felix rolled over. He wanted to get back inside his dream. It was probably the closest he was ever going to get to –
Suddenly he felt something warm against his chest. He reached his hand under his shirt and pulled out the talisman. It was glowing.
Sam rolled over on the couch. He pulled a blanket over his head to block out the sound of something banging. Probably Pete had forgotten his key again and was coming back late from a party. Too bad. Sam wasn’t getting up. The banging got louder. Sam screwed his eyes tight. He was so comfy there was no way he was …
Hang on. He was comfortable? And he had a pillow? No wonder he couldn’t get up. He’d been sleeping on the hard floor of a draughty shack for over a week. Right now he felt so cosy he never wanted to move.
Jake nudged him. ‘Sam, get up. It’s my dad.’
Sam suddenly remembered where he was. Crazy witch lady’s youth hostel. Dinner had been thick black sludge on cardboard. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
The banging had stopped and Sam could hear voices coming from the shop.
The four boys crept towards the beaded curtain and peered through. Jake’s dad was standing amid the unicorns and tarot cards, arguing with Phoebe.
‘Surely you know where your nephews are.’
Phoebe was making herself very busy, dusting a row of deranged-looking fairies.
‘Well, they’re probably running around, throwing things. Isn’t that what teenage boys do?’
‘Actually, teenage boys should be at school. I thought such a devoted guardian would know that.’
The boys looked at each other. Uh oh.
Phoebe cleared her throat. ‘Well, of course. That’s exactly where they are.’
‘No, they’re not. I already checked.’
Jake’s dad had picked up a love potion. ‘Does this stuff actually work?’
‘Come on. We’ve got to get out of here,’ Felix whispered.
‘Where are we going to go?’
‘School. If he’s already checked there, it’s the safest place.’
‘What do you want them for anyway?’ Phoebe was asking Jake’s dad, who was sniffing the love potion.
‘Trespassing.’
‘Crap,’ whispered Jake. ‘He’s going to get us for breaking into the shack.’
‘Come on,’ urged Felix. ‘Out the back.’
The boys slipped into the lane behind Phoebe’s shop and made their way through town towards Bremin High. Sam brought up the rear. He hadn’t really forgiven the others for not seeing it through in the forest. Maybe the real reason they hadn’t tried harder was because they didn’t actually
want
to go home. In this world, Felix’s brother could walk, Jake’s parents were way better off, and Andy – well, his reason came rushing up just as they’d reached the entrance to Bremin High.
‘Hey, Andy,’ said Ellen. ‘Do you want to study in the library at lunch?’
Andy blushed. ‘Sure. Sounds … ah … educational.’
Jake groaned.
‘Great, I’ll meet you there.’ Ellen headed off as the bell to signal the end of recess started ringing.
Andy looked after her, smitten. Yep, Andy had a crush – and that was enough to make everything else unimportant. Sam knew exactly what that felt like.
‘Felix, you know Ellen better than anyone,’ said Andy. ‘If I were to maybe ask her out, where d’you think she’d –’
‘You know what my advice to you is?’ Felix’s face was dark. ‘Give up. ’Cause underneath that terrible dress sense is a really cool girl.’
Andy looked confused as Felix stalked off towards the main building. ‘What did I say?’
Jake shook his head. ‘Dude, do you really not get it?’ He turned to Sam. ‘He might be a maths genius but he’s as thick as … Sam?’
Sam only vaguely heard what Jake was saying. On the other side of the quad, under the break-up tree, were Sammy and Mia.
‘Catch you guys later,’ Sam said as he made his way across the quad.
Finally, Sam thought, something good was happening.
He sat down on a bench where he could watch Mia and Sammy out of the corner of his eye. Mia seemed to be doing all the talking. Sammy put his head in his hands. Mia said some final words and walked away, leaving Sammy devastated.
Sam sprung to his feet. He knew Mia would see the light eventually. He jogged after her.
‘Hey, Mia. How’s it going?’
Mia turned. Her eyes were red-rimmed like she’d been crying. ‘Oh. You.’
‘I couldn’t help noticing –’
‘What?’ said Mia. ‘That we broke up? Well, congratulations. Are you happy now?’
This stopped Sam in his tracks. ‘No, of course not. I just wanted to say if you needed someone to talk to, you know, I’d be happy to –’
‘It didn’t take you long, did it?’ said Mia.
‘What?’
‘To pounce on me.’
Sam suddenly felt lost for words.
‘Do you really think that just because I broke up with Sammy, I want to be with you?’
‘No, I –’
‘Do you know what I really want?’
Sam thought about that. He wasn’t sure he did. ‘No.’
‘To be alone. Okay?’
‘Sure. No problem,’ Sam mumbled. He let Mia walk away. He could have kicked himself. Would he never learn?
Sam made his way up the stairs and into the science lab. The others had already taken their seats and Bates was giving a lecture about the importance of rules and attendance. Bates eyeballed Sam as he slipped into an empty seat.
‘Another example of a student willing to flout the rules.’
‘Sorry, sir,’ Sam muttered.
‘Are you also sorry you ignored the excursion protocol? Are you sorry you caused a brawl in the playground? Are you sorry you and your “cousins” are continually late and under-prepared for class?’
Sam’s eyes flickered towards Jake, Felix and Andy, who were keeping their heads down. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’
