The Hunting Ground (14 page)

And he ran. It didn’t matter where. A shriek of pure terror followed, accompanied by the sound of pounding feet. Both belonged to him. The rhymes of the ghost children’s names – Nell, Leo, Alice, Sam – ran like a litany through his head, emerging out of his mouth in one unstoppably grotesque shriek.

Only exhaustion slowed Elliott down. Even that didn’t do so for long. As soon as he could, he picked his feet up again and raced on, crashing ahead, the corridors blurring around him, the pictures on the walls all merging into one of the happy owner hunting a terrified
boy up a tree-lined slope. Finally Elliott literally
roared
with fear, and that roar – the sheer surprise of it – sent a new slice of terror sizzling through him. But the sound of it also seemed to clear his head, and he realised that he could hear something new.

A thump – and a voice.

Elliott’s senses, already tautened to an electrifying pitch, made him scream when he heard it. He would have screamed at anything in that moment, and he screamed again when light flickered in blue-white beams in the corridor ahead.

Something big was there. Definitely a man. For a moment Elliott was so scared that he didn’t recognise the sounds coming from the figure. But abruptly the shape widened and someone was there who knew him.

Dad stood inside the East Wing’s entrance.

Rushing forward, his long, powerful arms caught Elliott and pulled him to safety.

Elliott sank against the strength of Dad’s waiting shoulder.

‘I’m all right,’ he gasped, not caring what he looked or sounded like. ‘But Ben’s in there. Dad, he’s
still
in there!’

Elliott was shaking so much he could hardly get the words out. He stuttered an explanation of the way Eve had dragged Ben into the East Wing. Dad was even more disturbed when Elliott described the change in Ben’s own behaviour – the way he’d helped Eve set up the whole episode with the doll’s house.

Even in his own frantic state, Elliott could see how bewildered Dad was, how hard it was for him to come to terms with the true horror lurking inside the East Wing. But Dad was beginning to understand, to grasp it, and he’d have run straight in to find Ben if Elliott hadn’t stopped him by saying, ‘What’s that?’

Out of the corner of his eye he’d spotted five sheets
of paper. They were haphazardly flung across the East Wing’s entrance.

‘Those weren’t there before,’ he told Dad, recognising the age-curled edges at once. ‘It’s another part of the diary.’

‘You sure?’ Dad ran across, studied the writing, saw it was Theo’s. ‘So we’ve been left another
instalment
,’ he growled, shaking his head. ‘No,’ he decided, throwing the sheets down. ‘No. I’m not wasting time on the diary right now.’ He headed towards the East Wing entrance.

‘Wait,’ Elliott said.

‘Wait for what?’ Dad demanded, aching to get to Ben.

‘We need to know what’s in the East Wing.’

‘We already know enough, Elliott!’

‘No, we don’t.’

‘We can’t just stand here talking!’ Dad shouted. ‘We’ve got to get Ben out. This is wasting time—’

‘Time is all there is in there,’ Elliott whispered, and something about the way he said it made Dad hesitate. ‘Let’s read the diary before we go in,’ Elliott pleaded with him. ‘Even if we’re together inside the East Wing, I don’t think we’ll ever find Ben unless Cullayn wants us to. The key to what’s going on is in the diary, I’m sure of it. We need to understand that before we do anything else.’

Dad dragged his hands through his hair. Elliott saw
how much he was itching to reject any arguments and get inside the East Wing.

‘But isn’t the diary itself just one of Cullayn’s games?’ Dad groaned. ‘How do we know he isn’t feeding it to us in chunks as a diversion? Games within games. Playing with us. Scaring us.’

‘To get us to rush in after Ben?’ Elliott said.

‘Yes.’

‘Then it’s working, isn’t it?’ Elliott noted. ‘You’re about to go in. You haven’t got a clue what you’re up against, but you’re going to run in there anyway. I bet
that’s
what Cullayn wants. I bet he can’t wait.’

Dad wavered. ‘All right,’ he murmured at last, physically holding himself back. ‘I’m listening. You think this diary might be … what? Someone trying to help us? Using the diary as a warning?’

‘It could be.’

‘But why give us the diary in pieces? It doesn’t make sense.’

‘I don’t know why, Dad. But someone
is
doing it deliberately. You were surprised you hadn’t spotted the first part of the diary on that chair in the library, remember? It was obviously left for you. The other parts were left in places for me and Ben to find. Now this piece turns up. It can’t be a coincidence. Without help I don’t think we’re ever going to find Ben in there,’ Elliott said firmly. ‘I’ve been inside. So have you. I don’t
think Cullayn’s even trying yet. He’s just starting his hunt. There’s worse to come.’

‘And you think the diary will tell us what to expect?’

‘Maybe.’

‘But how can we rely on it?’ Dad howled, shaking the paper. ‘Oh, come on then, quick, quick …’ With a grunt of frustration, he ran back to Elliott. Propping himself against a wall, he arranged the diary sheets in order. ‘It’s OK,’ he said softly, seeing that Elliott was still exhausted. ‘Let’s just read it together.’

19th December. Janey was on the couch in the living room when I came downstairs today. Gazing at her more closely, I was shocked to see that she was having trouble sitting up. ‘It’s OK,’ she mumbled, shaking so hard she could barely get the words out. ‘I’m … I’m dealing with it. Trying to. Only … he’s got his hooks in me now, hasn’t he?’ She giggled, a scary sound. ‘
I went in
,’ she said.

She clutched at her dress, not noticing the flower petals falling at her feet.

‘That was brave of me, wasn’t it, Theo, don’t you think?’ she murmured, grinning crookedly. ‘I woke up and decided to go straight into the East Wing. No more waiting. Just stuck my chin out and went right up to say hi to Vincent Cullayn. And you know something? It all went according to my plan. I got
inside. He let me, of course, but I didn’t know that then. And the ghost children came with me as well. They followed me in. But not all the way.’

‘They left you with him?’ I said, appalled.

‘Oh yes.’ She smiled weakly. ‘He and I, alone. The hunter and the hunted.’

I couldn’t get another word out of Janey, but later I almost forgot about her because of what happened with Eve. I’d heard a noise coming from her bedroom in the afternoon, and found her casually booting Katerina across the floorboards and mumbling stuff. Thinking she must have a fever, Mum got her straight to bed and called for a doctor. She stayed with her until about midnight, then left a bedside lamp on so Eve wouldn’t be scared if she woke.

Hearing whispered rhymes from her room at about 1.00 a.m., I crept in. The first thing Eve did when she saw me was to switch the lamp off. There was a sort of rustling after that. Jumping for the lamp, I got it on in time to see Eve mussing her hair, getting dust out of it. When I saw her, she gave up trying to hide where she’d been and stared defiantly at me. ‘I’m going back in again as well,’ she told me. ‘Whenever I want to. Whenever I want to!’

Then she smiled. I’d never seen that kind of smile
from her before, and I knew it wasn’t Eve talking next.

‘She’s pretty, isn’t she?’ she purred. ‘Janey, I mean. You like her, don’t you, Theo? You
really
like her. What do you do? Find yourself smiling at night, thinking about her, wanting to be close to her?’

‘Who … who is talking to me?’ I asked, barely able to get the words out.

‘Goodnight, Theo,’ Eve said, and with a chuckle turned back into her pillow.

*

21st December. Although Janey refused to see me for two days, saying it was unsafe to get anywhere near her, I had to tell her about Eve. Arriving at her house, it was horrible to see the state Janey was in. She’d lost weight and her hair was unwashed.

Seeing my anxious expression, she smiled, but it wasn’t a real smile. She stood up calmly to face me, but somehow I knew it was the opposite of calm she was feeling. Then she laughed, knowing the pretence wasn’t working, and led me to her room. She tried to talk. Couldn’t. She looked so vulnerable in that moment, but refused to let me get any closer.

‘It’s Eve, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘That’s why you’re here.’

I could see how hard it was for her to ask. Because depending on what I said she might have to do something, and you could see she wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready for anything. When I told her what Eve had said to me, Janey’s hands grasped the mattress.

‘Cullayn knew my weaknesses, Theo,’ she whispered at last, breathing in a quiet, desperate sort of way. ‘He knew me better than I know myself. I thought I could show the others what might be done.’

‘And the ghost children left you in there,’ I said. ‘They betrayed you.’

‘No, you don’t understand,’ she murmured. ‘It was
me
who had a failure of nerve. They didn’t follow me in because they knew I wasn’t ready. Sam, especially, tried to hold me back. I went in anyway. Couldn’t do anything when I saw Cullayn.’ She smiled faintly. ‘Too scared. Girl here lost her nerve. All gone wrong.’

I walked across to her. Janey held back a moment, then leaned into me.

‘You know,’ she murmured hopelessly into my shoulder, ‘I think Cullayn liked the idea of me trying to hunt him down. He hasn’t had fun like
that in ages. But, see, when I reached him and my first trick didn’t work I had no idea what to do next. I’d never seen him fight. I didn’t know what he could do. I wasn’t ready.
But he was
.

‘He came after me, Theo. He came after me, and he was like a storm, and I ran and I ran but I couldn’t get out. He’s strong. Stronger than you. Stronger than me. I should have listened to Sam. Five minutes Cullayn gave me. “Five minutes to midnight,” he said. That’s all it took to shake me to pieces. He told me I would die in there. But he was lying. He let me go. Do you know why?’ Her eyes blazed as she turned towards me. ‘Because he wants me alive. I’m more useful to him alive, see? Cullayn wants me out here in the world, helping him. An extension of his will. Oh, he’d love to have me at his bidding. He’d love that.’

Janey dragged her nails across her face. ‘I should have
sneaked
in there,’ she said. ‘I should have watched how he moved, seen how to fight by studying him, instead of announcing myself like a little toy to be played with.

‘Don’t you understand?’ she raged, fighting me off when I held her hands to stop her hurting herself. ‘He
got to me
, Theo. There’s a bathroom in the East Wing. Everything leads you to it. It has a round mirror. When you go in there, Cullayn’s
waiting. He’s in the glass. It’s what he likes to show you just before he begins the hunt for real. And I saw him. And now I can’t stop seeing him.’

She scrunched up her hair. ‘I was too open. I should’ve been shutting him out instead of letting him in. He’s in the East Wing, but …’ Janey balled her fists, shrieked ‘… he’s dug into me now as well. You can’t trust me any more. Don’t you see, Theo? He’s inside me.’ She jabbed her chest. ‘
In here!
‘

I stared into her hollow eyes.

‘He’s taken a chunk out of me,’ she choked. ‘I’ve given him something. I don’t even know what it is he’s taken from me, but he can do more than just whisper now. I’ve given him
real strength
. It’s someone like me he’s been waiting for all this time. And he’s using that strength. He wants everything, Theo. He wants to collect more children in there. He wants more and more power. Enough to leave Glebe House. To get out into the rest of the world. Absolute creative power to hunt wherever he pleases.’

Janey couldn’t stop shaking.

‘The ghost children warned me,’ she said miserably. ‘They told me not to get too close to him. They kept saying it. But no, that wasn’t good enough for me, was it? I had to have a looksee,
didn’t I? I wanted to get a good look at the legendary Cullayn for myself. And instead he looked at me. And that was that.’

‘What are you going to do?’ I asked, still holding her.

She glanced at her trembling hands. ‘Don’t know. Nothing. Don’t know. There’s a thing, one thing. If I’ve got the guts to try it. Probably not.’ She grinned brokenly. ‘It’s my fault what’s happening to Eve, you know. All the time I’ve been in Glebe House, Cullayn’s somehow been using my gift to strengthen himself. I didn’t know, Theo. I didn’t! I should never have come into the house. But he wanted me to, he encouraged me – of course he did. He was always waiting to use me.’

She suddenly slapped my hand away. ‘No! Why are you so close? Get away! I’m not safe. Stay away from me!’