Revenge (2 page)

Out of the bigger archer's mouth shot a
powerful
jet of water, directly connecting with the bug! Caught in the spray, the bug turned and tumbled down into the water below. In a split second, the smaller archer had flipped its tail and snapped the stolen prey into its jaws. The bigger archer was strong, but the smaller one was fast.

And the bug was gone. Just like that.

‘Boges, come in, come in,' said Mrs Ormond, waving me inside and towards the kitchen. The smell of lasagne and garlic bread filled the air and my stomach grumbled.

‘Thanks Mrs O—smells delicious, as always.'

‘Cal's not here, you know,' came a voice from behind me.

‘Gab!'

‘Boges!' she said, running over to me and
grabbing
me around the waist.

‘He's not?' I asked, peeling Gabbi off me and pulling up a stool. ‘Where is he?'

‘We thought he was with you,' Mrs Ormond replied. She put her tea towel down and peered at me, forcing a tiny crease across her brow. ‘He said you were all coming over for a midnight movie last night.'

‘Yeah,' I nodded. ‘Right.'

‘And I figured all of you—'

We were interrupted by the front door
creaking
open.

‘Cal?' Mrs Ormond called out, her face
growing
increasingly concerned.

Ever since Cal had been back home, and Mrs Ormond had been weaned off the toxins Rafe had been secretly feeding her, she'd been keeping pretty close tabs on Cal's whereabouts. Cal could barely pee without her knowing about it.

‘It's just me,' said Winter, slowly walking in and easing her bag off her shoulder. ‘Sorry,' she added, sensing everyone's disappointment. She shrugged as she looked at me and then at the others. ‘I came here looking for Cal, too.'

Mrs Ormond quickly walked off towards the theatre room and returned with Cal's phone in her hand. ‘I thought I heard it ringing earlier today,' she said, looking at it in confusion. ‘I don't know how to work this thing!'

Gabbi slid off her stool and grabbed the phone from her mum. ‘Where is he?' Gabbi asked,
staring at me and Winter, willing us to give her an answer. ‘There are missed calls here from both of you. Where has he gone? He never leaves his phone behind. Mum?' she asked, looking for reassurance.

‘I don't know,' Mrs Ormond replied. Her face wrinkled more deeply with worry. ‘This isn't like Cal. I assumed he was with one of you.' She paused to look at Winter and then at me. ‘But I shouldn't have assumed anything,' she continued, berating herself. Her hands were trembling. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Winter
nervously
watching them too.

Mrs Ormond reached for a glass of water by the sink but her quivering fingers knocked it straight to the floor. The glass shattered loudly, sending jagged pieces shooting across the tiles.

She watched the explosion at her feet. Once the last shard had settled, she looked at us with red, watery eyes.

‘It's OK,' said Winter, grabbing the broom and dustpan from beside the fridge. ‘I've got it. Gab, watch your bare feet. Boges?'

I took my cue from Winter and gave Gabbi a piggyback, carrying her out of the kitchen and plonking her down on the living room couch.

‘Cal's probably just at Ryan's,' I called out. ‘Nothing to worry about.'

‘Actually, I think he did say something about watching movies at Ryan's,' said Winter.

‘Oh? But I thought you—' I started to say until I noticed Winter's desperate eye signals. ‘Oh yeah, that's right,' I added, hoping my recovery didn't sound too lame. ‘He did say something about that.'

I hoped our lies would settle the uneasy
feeling
that was hanging in the air at the Ormond household.

For now, at least.

Gab got up from the couch and turned off the nearby TV. ‘But why would he go to Ryan's when he can watch movies here?' She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and gestured towards the new theatre room.

‘Maybe to get away from a pesky little sister?' I teased playfully.

Winter carefully tipped the glassy contents of the dustpan into a rubbish bag. ‘How about I just duck out, ring Ryan and ask him?' she said, grabbing her shoulder bag and wandering towards the sliding door to the backyard. She didn't wait for any of us to answer.

‘Come on, Gab, help me with this garlic bread, please,' said Mrs Ormond. Gab stepped into her slippers and the pair turned their attention back to dinner.

I flicked the TV on again then walked to the sliding door that looked over the backyard. I made a gap in the vertical drapes and scanned the shadowy view. The moon was high in the sky. Winter was in the far corner of the backyard, on the phone, head down, kicking at the barbecue with her boot.

She must have sensed me watching and turned around.

I opened my eyes wide, as if to ask,
So, does Ryan know anything?

She looked back with dark, worried eyes, then scrunched up her face and shook her head.

Where
was
Cal?

I backed away from the door and glanced around the living room. The cluster of picture frames on the wall had grown a lot this year. The commando angel Cal's dad had drawn hung in a dark timber frame, next to a new photo of Ryan. There was also a cool shot of Repro in his underground river canoe, standing up with a long oar, like a gondolier.

My line of sight stopped on a photo of Tom, Cal's dad. For the last few months I'd hardly been able to look at it. A couple of times I'd glanced at it really quickly and fear had almost floored me as visions of Rafe, Tom's identical twin and
the mastermind behind his death, flashed into my mind. Again, I could see him staring up at us from beneath the massive Ormond Angel statue that had fallen on him at the Cragkill Keep ruins. Rafe was a murderer, willing to wipe out his own brother and nephew because of his rage and envy at not being the heir to the Ormond inheritance. Rafe had nearly killed us all—Cal, me
and
Winter—in Ireland. That intense, evil glint in his eye was impossible to forget.

I closed my own eyes for a second and forced myself to think of happier things.

I looked at the picture again. Tom's eyes were different. There was a fire in them, but his was a fire that said he'd do anything for his family.

Cal had completed Tom's mission for him, uncovered the DMO (Dangerous Mystery of the Ormonds), and had reunited the family by
finding
his brother, Ryan, and bringing his mum and Gabbi back together again in the family home. It must have been so strange for Ryan and Cal—getting used to being identical twins. But Ryan seemed pretty cool about it all. He was fitting into the family almost like he'd always been around.

Now we just had to figure out where Cal had gone.

I tried to shake off my nerves and headed
back into the kitchen. Mrs Ormond and Gab were cutting up garlic bread. ‘Need any help?' I asked, and both jumped slightly at the sound of my voice. ‘A taste tester, maybe?'

‘Sorry, Boges, did you say something?' Mrs Ormond said.

At that moment, the sliding door opened and Winter walked in with a broad smile on her face. She rubbed her silver love-heart locket between her fingers. ‘All good,' she announced. ‘He's over at Ryan's. He left his phone here last night by accident. Boges,' she said, turning to me with an awkward, I-hate-lying look in her eyes, ‘want to go over and join them?'

‘Sounds good to me. I'm sure Gab and Mrs O can arrange my dinner to go …'

Mrs Ormond smiled, shaking her head at me playfully as she pulled on red polka-dot oven mitts and lifted the steaming lasagne tray out of the oven. ‘Tell Cal to call me when you see him, will you? Make sure you take his phone, too.'

‘Cool, will do, Mrs Ormond,' said Winter. ‘Boges, you sort yourself and your stomach out, I'm just going to run up to Cal's room—I think I left my pink jumper up there the other day. Back in a sec.'

Since Winter had been going out with Cal,
she'd definitely been looking more girly. She was even wearing a dress the other day with all these lacy ruffles around the neck. But, in true Winter style, she'd teamed it with her black boots. I couldn't recall her ever wearing a pink jumper, though.

Gab cut me a huge slab of lasagne and lifted it into a container. Cheesy threads stretched across the kitchen bench. ‘Might as well take some extra for Cal and Ryan,' she said.

‘You will share with them, won't you, Boges?' added Mrs Ormond with a wink. ‘And can you let Janet know we'd love to see her and Ryan on the weekend sometime, if they're free?'

‘Sure thing, Mrs O,' I said. I hoped this was the last lie I would tell to her, and that Cal would show up soon, but something was telling me it wouldn't be that simple.

‘Got it,' said Winter, jumping down the last couple of stairs. ‘See you two again soon?' she said, giving Cal's mum and sister kisses on the cheek.

‘Yep,' said Gab. ‘You promised we'd have another Pictionary night, soon, right?'

‘You're on. C'mon, Boges.' Winter grabbed my arm and headed for the door. I followed her, swiftly scooping up the lasagne and Cal's phone on my way out.

Winter was practically running down the driveway.

‘Wait up!' I called, jogging to catch up. ‘What did Ryan really say?'

‘He has no idea where Cal is,' she said, stopping to face me. ‘No idea! He hasn't heard anything since yesterday. Just like us.'

I could feel my palms getting clammy, and quickly wiped them on the back of my jeans. ‘Well, he's probably just—'

‘Just what?' Winter snapped. ‘Just what, Boges? Taken time out? Time out from what? Yeah, the paparazzi have been a nightmare, but he spent a year on the run and all he wanted was to be back with his family. Cal would
not
want time out from this,' she said, circling in the cool, crisp air of Flood Street.

‘But—'

‘But, nothing.' Even though it was dark outside, I could see that Winter's eyes were bloodshot. ‘I'm sorry,' she said, shaking her head. ‘It's just … it's not good, Boges. Something's wrong. I'm sure of it.'

‘It hasn't even been one day. He could be at Repro's. He'll show up.' Even though I felt the same, something about Winter always made me want to argue with her.

She held a clenched fist in front of her.

‘I know what you're thinking,' she said. ‘You always think I'm paranoid, just like Cal does. But this is different. Since we've been back, there hasn't been a day when Cal and I haven't at least checked in with each other.'

She opened her palm and I squinted to see what she was holding. It looked like a small disc.

‘I found this in Cal's room …' she began, before we were interrupted by the sound of crunching leaves nearby. ‘What was that?'

We both spun around to try to locate the source of the sound.