The Midnight Carnival (17 page)

‘Yeah,’ agreed Una. ‘Adults are always overreacting. Anyway, I think I’d freak out if Bob turned up at school
one day to give out to us. I mean, he’s the creature from the demon lagoon.’

‘It’s not his fault he was thrown down the demon well, Una.’

‘No, but he was down there for ages. That’s gotta do things to your brain.’

Grace couldn’t argue with that. Remembering Bob’s face when he emerged from the well gave her shivers down her spine. How could somebody be right in the head after spending decades in hell?

‘Delilah!’

Grace caught up with the small girl in the corridor after the bell rang to signal the end of lunchtime. Delilah looked as she did when she started at the school the year before. Her shoulders were hunched, her bag looked like it weighed a ton, and she glanced around warily as if the Beast could pounce on her at any moment.

‘Where’ve you been?’ said Grace, falling into step beside her. ‘Haven’t seen you at the carnival for a while.’

‘I’ve had some stuff to do. Have you seen Adie today?’

‘Yeah. She threw water in my face.’

‘She did what?’

‘Threw water in my face. Then originated a load of mice. Then she ran out of the room. I mean, I know that’s not like
her, but it wasn’t me or Una or Rach, so it had to be Adie.’ Grace shook her head. ‘There’s something big going on with her, but I don’t know what. I wish she’d talk to us. Do you know what’s going on?’

Delilah’s big, brown eyes were wide.

‘Was her mum there?’

‘No, no, no, this was in our lunchroom, just now. Why? Is something wrong with her mum?’

Delilah’s complexion seemed to pale for a moment.

‘No. I don’t know what’s wrong with Adie, but I’m sure she’ll be better soon.’

Grace could see Delilah knew more than she was telling but she didn’t dare push it any further.

‘Okay. Well, I’ll talk to her later, I guess. And listen, since you haven’t been around the carnival,’ Grace lowered her voice to a whisper, ‘we found out that something’s been stolen from Justine and the others. Something really important. And we’re going to help them out.’

Delilah stopped abruptly.

‘Help them out, how?’

‘Nothing big. It’s just mind-hopping and things like that. But we were thinking, you could help us research a spell for–’

‘No! No spells.’

‘It’s alright, Delilah, we’re being careful.’

‘It doesn’t matter. You don’t know what you’re doing.
You might do something terrible and not even know it. You might…’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You can’t do any spells outside of class. You just can’t. It’s too dangerous.’

Grace was so taken aback she laughed out loud.

‘What do you mean? You’re the queen of doing magic outside class. You’re always up for this stuff, Delilah. And we need you. You know more than any of us. And, as I said, we’re being really careful–’

‘No!’ Delilah leaned close and Grace could swear there was fear in her eyes. ‘If you start doing magic in the carnival, I’ll tell Vera.’

‘What?’

‘I mean it.’

Grace stared at the small girl. It was as if she was a stranger.

‘Promise me,’ Delilah said, leaning even closer. ‘Promise me you won’t do it.’

They stared at each other, one emphatic, the other nonplussed. Finally, Grace nodded her head.

‘Okay, I promise.’

‘Pinky swear.’

Delilah held out her little finger, as if this would cement Grace’s vow. Grace linked it with her own little finger, shaking the fingers up and down together. The small girl seemed relieved.

‘Good,’ she said, smiling for the first time.

Grace didn’t follow her to the main hall, instead she backtracked through the A block and up to the C block where Una and Rachel stood outside their classroom, waiting to go in. Grace was breathless by the time she got there.

‘Delilah said she’d squeal to Mrs Quinlan if we do any magic outside class.’

‘Are you serious?’ cried Rachel. ‘You can’t be serious.’

Still panting, Grace nodded. Una spread her hands in disbelief.

‘Has the whole world gone mad?’

It felt like it had. Grace was always the one to follow the rules and discourage any bad behaviour in the group. But since Mrs Quinlan expelled Jenny, and Ms Lemon let it happen, she didn’t feel so beholden to the adults’ rules anymore. In contrast, Delilah grew up with magic, and practising it for only a few hours each week never seemed natural to her – she was always up for doing more. But now Delilah was threatening to snitch on any extracurricular witchcraft, and Grace felt no guilt whatsoever in disobeying the rules. Things really were upside down.

‘We’re still gonna help Justine though, right?’ Rachel asked.

‘Yeah, we are,’ replied Grace.

‘Woohoo!’ said Una.

‘But we have to keep it quiet. From Delilah, from Adie…’

‘And from Jenny,’ said Rachel.

‘While she’s still close to Agata, yeah,’ said Grace.

There was silence for a few moments.

‘It feels like we’re getting divorced,’ said Una.

‘Six people can’t get married,’ said Grace. ‘And they can’t get divorced.’

‘Still, that’s what it feels like.’

They followed their class sombrely into the room, and Grace knew what Una meant.

16

Back in the Box

Adie had loved that treehouse. It had been built for her when she was tiny, too small to climb up by herself, and it remained the place she ran to when she wanted comfort. Now the twiggy creature had invaded it. It sat in the entrance, its long fingers curled around a branch, watching the kitchen window with those huge eyes. Adie ran a hand over the ribs that still ached from her fall back to Earth.

‘Mammy, what’s for dinner?’

Adie turned to see Padraic in the doorway and her mother, watching her from the kitchen table. She hadn’t realised the woman was there.

‘Mammy?’ Padraic said again.

‘Leave, little boy,’ the woman said, not taking her eyes from Adie. ‘You’re tedious.’

Padraic looked confused but didn’t move. Finally the woman turned to look at him, and Adie saw an angry flash of black in her eyes.

‘I said,
leave
.’

‘We’re getting pizza tonight, Podge,’ Adie said quickly. ‘You can take the money out of mum’s purse. Tell dad that mum said it was okay.’

‘Cool!’ Padraic danced into the hallway.

‘Very diplomatic, my sweet,’ said the woman. ‘You saved his neck. This time.’

Adie struggled to remain calm, but she couldn’t stop the shaking in her voice.

‘It’s in the treehouse again.’

‘I see it.’

‘The boys play in the back garden, and dad looks after the flower beds. They’ll see it eventually. It might start playing games with them, it might hurt one of them.’

Her mother smiled like the thought was a pleasant one.

‘It might.’

‘I know things about Bob. I know where he came from, how he learned the craft, why he’s in the woods. I’ll tell you stuff if you get rid of that thing in the treehouse.’

‘Bargaining, my sweet?’ Her mother laughed. ‘I could drag the information out of you, along with your blood and entrails.’

‘I’m stronger than you think, I could hold out–’ More
laughter broke over Adie’s declaration, but she refused to give in. ‘Torture me if you want, but wouldn’t it be easier this way? Just get rid of it and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.’

Black worms swam over the whites of her mother’s eyes. She looked amused.

‘You know, I may start to like you, my sweet.’ She rose and walked to the window. ‘And as it happens, it is about time my little boo went home.’

Adie knew Bob’s history, about his growing up in Blackwood Manor and the cursing of his home by a resentful witch. She knew he had served time as that witch’s familiar, and that he had remained in the woods after her death. She also knew that, in his efforts to save others, he had been trapped down the demon well for decades. She knew he was essentially a good man, but she had no idea how powerful he was, what drove him, who he cared about. Adie decided she would tell her mother nothing about the demon well – God only knows what that thing might do if it knew there was one in Dunbridge – but she was willing to surrender every other detail she knew about Bob’s life. She hoped none of it would be useful to her. She agreed to deliver the information as soon as the creature was out of the treehouse and away from her family.

So she was surprised when her mother took her by the arm, led her out of the house, across the town and towards Dunbridge Park. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw twiggy hair dancing through the trees that lined the streets. The creature was following them.

There was a familiar brash clashing of sound as they approached the park; the tumbling harpsichord notes, the
ching-ching
of coins pouring out of hands into purses, and out of purses into hands, the whoops and hollers as someone won a big prize at the coconut shy, and the enticing calls of the game operators. Adie didn’t ask why they had come to the carnival, she just followed her mother obediently to a pale blue tent in the far corner. They stood outside the tent, a table and bed behind the tarpaulin silhouetted by the light inside.

‘Into the box,’ the woman said, almost to herself.

Within seconds Adie saw the twig-haired creature creep into the tent. She then watched its silhouette as it climbed onto the tabletop, opened the small box that lay there, and stepped inside. Even as Adie watched, she couldn’t understand it. The creature’s entire body had somehow disappeared into that small box. The lid snapped shut.

‘There,’ her mother turned to face her. ‘Now, I believe you have information to give me.’

But before Adie could open her mouth, another figure entered the tent. Adie saw his silhouette take off his top hat
and rub at his forehead. He picked up something from the bed and seemed ready to leave when he suddenly paused. The figure moved to the table and knocked gently on the box. The lid swung open and Adie expected the creature to spring out of it. But it didn’t. Nothing happened. The man stared down at the box for a while, then quietly shut the lid and left the tent.

‘I’m waiting.’

Adie looked up into the wide eyes that weren’t her mum’s, and began telling Bob’s story.

Grace waited at the ferris wheel, checking her watch. Rachel and Una were late. The girls were making one last attempt at eavesdropping on the doctor and Drake, and Grace was tempted to mind-hop the alligator before her friends arrived. But the idea of leaving her mindless body alone was a little too daunting. She sighed and checked her watch again.

The main show must be starting up in the big tent by now, but she noticed a figure in a wide-brimmed hat slipping through the red-and-white tarpaulin across the park.

The doctor.

Without thinking, she followed. He kept to the shadows, and so did she, leaving plenty of space between them. She didn’t want him catching her scent. He slunk between
trailers, appearing suddenly much further ahead, and kept moving until he reached a pale blue tent. It wasn’t one of the performance ones, so it had to be somebody’s home, she didn’t know whose. She watched him circle the tent to the back, then felt a hand on her shoulder.

‘What are you doing all the way over here?’

Drake was smiling, as if amused that she was lost. She had no idea if he’d seen who she was following.

‘I’m just waiting for Rach and Una.’

‘Funny place to meet.’

‘I got bored, I was just… having a look around.’

‘I’ll walk back to the stalls with you, if you want.’

‘Thanks.’

He glanced at her as they walked, smiling all the time, but she couldn’t bring herself to smile back.

‘Listen,’ he said at last, ‘I wanted to say something to you. It’s…’

He stared off into the carnival lights and the green skin of his cheeks flushed a little darker. She thought he must be blushing. He smiled again, shyly this time.

‘I like you, and I wish I could get to know you better but… we’re not gonna be here much longer.’

‘You’re leaving? When?’

‘Can’t say exactly, but it’s gonna be soon.’

She looked into his blue, blue eyes and tried not to find them lovely.

‘Everyone’s going? Justine too?’

The smile slowly vanished.

‘Yeah. Justine too.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Grace said. ‘I really like Justine.’

He dug at the ground with the toe of his shoe. She couldn’t tell if he was angry or disappointed or both.

‘Yeah, well,’ he said, ‘see you round.’

He turned and walked away, and she let him.

The ringmaster removed the straw doll from its wooden case, turned down the flame of each oil lamp and blew them out. He sat on a stool, pulling a bookcase forward to hide his presence from the tent entrance. The doll rested on his lap.

He was puzzled. Where had it gone when it went missing, and how had it got back? Sweat from his palms seeped into the woven strands of straw. The silence dragged on until a figure snuck quietly into the tent. The ringmaster held his breath.

The sneaking shadow wore a long dark coat and wide-brimmed hat. He grabbed the box on the table. Opening the lid, he gasped.

‘Looking for this?’

The ringmaster struck a match off the doll’s belly, and held the light aloft.

‘You knew I’d come for it,’ the doctor said.

‘I did. In fact, I thought you already had… But never mind that now. I’ve caught you red-handed. Everything is arranged, and I am going to set us free.’

The doctor took a menacing step forward, but dark shapes crawled out from beneath the bed, from under the table, from folds in the tent walls. They wore glumly coloured silk suits and painted faces, and they encircled the man before he could move another inch.

‘They won’t be enough.’ The doctor’s face was nearly obscured beneath the brim of his hat.

‘Then I’ll cue my secret weapon, shall I?’ said the ringmaster.

‘Me first!’

Sparks flew from the doctor’s hands and two Melancholy Clowns were sent flying over the table. Two more grappled him to the floor, but the sound of hissing from the doctor’s sleeves threatened more fireworks.

‘Sing, dammit, sing!’ the ringmaster cried, as he leapt to his feet.

From outside, a perfect harmonious melody drifted through the air. Two voices sang a song of devastating sorrow, high and sweet and haunting. The searing notes weakened Felix’s knees and he stumbled against the chair for support

‘Feel that, fool?’ sneered the ringmaster. ‘That’s your doom.’

The doctor’s strength faded, but he realised the clowns were not bothered by the sound. The ringmaster grinned at
him as he grabbed a walking stick from beside the bed and struggled to his feet.

‘My melancholy friends have never been much affected by the boys’ music.’ His breath wheezed with the effort of moving. ‘Indeed, they’ve never been much affected by anything at all.’

Outside, in the cool night air the twin boys sat on a bench, swinging their feet as they sang their sad song and watching the doctor being dragged from the tent by the Melancholy Clowns. Drake was waiting, nearly on his knees, the music like a weight on his shoulders.

‘I’m sorry, doctor,’ he whispered, ‘I didn’t know they were already in there.’

Two of the Melancholy Clowns silently pushed him to the ground, tying his hands behind his back with grey scarves.