The Midnight Carnival (25 page)

Adie entered the kitchen and cried out. There were three figures slumped at the table.

‘Not dead,’ Murdrina said, still facing the window. ‘Not yet. But they do talk such tedious nonsense, perhaps it would be kinder…’

She turned and Adie put her hands out.

‘No, please, I beg you. Don’t hurt them.’

‘I missed you, my sweet.’ The black worm wriggled across the whites of her mother’s eyes. ‘Your conversation I think I could tolerate, especially when it concerns a mutual acquaintance of ours.’

‘That’s what I came to talk to you about. Bob wants to meet you. He says he’s ready now.’

‘Indeed?’ That wicked smile that was nothing like her mother’s. ‘That is good news. After our last rendezvous I was beginning to think I had made a mistake. That pitiful little hut wasn’t even charmed for protection, and the man himself? Fell far too easily.’ She sighed. ‘The tyranny of boredom.’

‘I think he was setting you up.’ Adie warned herself not to push it too far. ‘I think he’s much stronger than you think.’

‘One can but hope.’

‘So you’ll come with me?’

‘Are you leading me, my sweet?’

Adie snuck a glance at the motionless bodies around the table.

‘Yes.’

‘Then I’ll follow.’

They turned in through the gates at the back of the school and Adie’s pulse quickened. Her friends would be in place now, hiding in the shadows of the P block with Bob centre-stage, everything set for the attack. She would take Murdrina in through the emergency exit, the net would be thrown and the spells would begin. In minutes, Murdrina would be down the demon well and out of their lives forever.

‘You seem nervous, my sweet.’

She can probably feel my heart beat
, Adie thought.

‘I’m not nervous. He’s in there, through that green door. He’s waiting for you.’

‘Inside the building?’

‘Yes.’

‘And what surprise is in store for me there?’

‘He told me that’s where he’d be, that’s all I know.’

‘Oh, my sweet,’ said Murdrina. ‘You know much more than that.’

The woman stepped forward and raised her hands. The walls of the P block began to shake.

‘Dark corners hide dark secrets,’ she said, her hands moving
in rhythm with the block. ‘I prefer to battle amongst the elements.’

With a terrible and deafening crash, the walls of the P block exploded outwards. Adie dropped to the ground, debris hissing past her ears. Rubble landed as far away as the football pitch and, when the smoke cleared, there were her friends, exposed and reeling from the blast. Only Bob remained on his feet.

‘What is this?’ Murdrina’s expression was one of delighted surprise. ‘Cheerleaders? Or is this adorable little army the extent of your preparation?’

The woman’s laughter echoed through the settling dust. She kicked idly at a few loose pieces of brick.

‘And yet, I am disappointed. I cannot tell you how much.’

It was a flick of her fingers, nothing more, and lumps of concrete lifted off the ground. They hovered in the air for a moment and then smashed into Bob, sending him rolling back into the building. Where he had stood, Adie could see the scattering of green pebbles over the mouth of the demon well. She knew that when Delilah added a scattering of white pebbles, the well would open. There was little time left.

‘Grace,’ she hissed at the gaping hole in the school building. ‘Where are you?’

Grace could hear a clanging bell and, behind that, the crackle of white noise. She clambered to her knees, wiping at the grey powder that stained her skin and clothes. What had just happened?

They had all been in position, waiting for the emergency exit to open, when the whole world had blown up. She was thrown backwards as far as the double doors that led to the C block, her eyes were stinging and she could feel a trickle of blood down her temple. Something sailed past her – a body followed by bricks and rock. Then a sound reached her through the chaos. Adie’s voice, urgent.

‘I’m here,’ she croaked.

Slowly her mind cleared and the plan reformed. She was to help throw the net. Rachel, Jenny and she would throw the net of smoke, and Delilah would open the well. The body sailed past her again – in the opposite direction this time. Bob was fully conscious, and she could feel the wave of power that emanated from the jewelled fly in his grasp.

Let him distract her
, she thought.
Get back in the game.

She focussed on her wrists, cursing the thin strings of smoke that flowed from them on command.

‘Come on!’ she said aloud. ‘Concentrate!’

A billow of smoke made a bulge in one of the strings, but didn’t take. Angrily she shook off both strings and focussed again. There, a proper smoke rope was emerging now. She glanced around for the other two, but only Rachel was visible.
She looked as dazed as Grace felt, but she caught her eye and, soon, smoky ropes appeared along her arms.

‘Where’s Jenny?’ Rachel mouthed.

Grace felt panic rising. She couldn’t see Jenny anywhere – and two wasn’t enough to make a net.

24

In the Rubble of the P Block

Adie could see the problem. Jenny lay just to the left of the P block at a funny angle. For one awful second she looked dead, but her arm swung over her head and she jolted awake. She would struggle getting to her feet though, Adie could see that. Grace and Rachel were armed with smoky rope and ready to go. They needed a third.

Adie hadn’t materialised rope before, but she had overheard Delilah teaching the others. Recalling the lesson as best she could, she was startled when smoke immediately puffed from her right wrist. She was on the right track. Three more attempts and the rope from her left arm looked reasonably solid.

There was a smaller, blasting noise and Adie glanced towards Bob and Murdrina. They were battling across the concrete, moving closer to the woods, and she could see a small wound on her mother’s face. She instinctively moved towards her, but reminded herself that her mother was not her mother while she was in Murdrina’s hold. The only way to save her was to go through with the plan.

She jerked her right arm and a tightly woven rope of smoke burst from her wrist.

‘Grace,’ she shouted. ‘I’m here. Let’s do this.’

Grace and Rachel sprinted through the rubble and readied to throw their rope. Bob and Murdrina were spinning now, bouncing painfully off the ground as they tried to twist out of each other’s grip.

‘Get ready,’ Grace said, ‘when I say.’

Adie flicked her ropes nervously.

‘Nearly,’ Grace said, ‘nearly… Bob! Let go!’

Bob released Murdrina mid-spin and she was catapulted towards them. Grace and Rachel swung their ropes like giant lassos, they clashed together and instantly bonded, closing around the woman in a loose weave. But Adie’s ropes fell short.

She gasped in horror as they missed the net and trailed along the ground. She threw them again, harder. There was a spark as the ends caught the weave, but still they didn’t latch on.

‘Adie,’ Rachel yelled, ‘swing them together, like they’re one rope.
Now
, or she’ll get through!’

Circling both arms over her head at the same time, feeling one shoulder nearly pull out of the joint, Adie fired the ropes with all the strength she had left. They caught, only just, halfway across the net and slithered around to complete the woven trap. But Murdrina’s arms wriggled through the squares, and already Adie could see the ropes fraying against her grasp.

Grace had seen it too. Pulling a vial of turquoise liquid from her back pocket, she uncorked it and threw it in Murdrina’s face. The sorceress screeched and writhed against the net. From another pocket, Grace pulled a dainty wooden shaker. She sprinkled rust-coloured powder around herself. Then she knelt and caught the Chi orb that Delilah had located among the rubble.

Adie watched the small girl scurry back to the remains of the P block and scatter white pebbles over the demon well. The figures of Miss Lemon, Drake and Agata emerged from the corners of the block, their hands filled with bags and porcelain cups.

This was it. This was the moment.

Grace’s heart was racing, and she was gasping for breath by the time she knelt. She was holding the Chi orb in both
hands and waiting for that swirl of colour that would mean Murdrina’s soul was trapped inside. Inside the smoky net, Adie’s mother was twisting and screaming, and Grace willed Delilah’s expulsion potion to work. It did. Adie’s mum fell silent, her body still as she drifted out of consciousness.

Any second now, and Murdrina’s soul would be sucked into the orb. Grace stared intently for any movement, any sign. There was nothing.

She looked to Adie and shook her head.

‘Where is she?’ Adie cried.

‘I don’t know.’

Then it hit, like a giant corkscrew burrowing into her back. Something wormed across Grace’s field of vision, and everything went black.

There was screaming coming from the demon well. Agata had one great hand around the back of Drake’s neck, holding him over a thin wisp of smoke that twirled from a smashed porcelain cup.

‘Exitus, exitus, exitus,’ she cried.

A pink glow faded from Drake’s eyes the moment he inhaled, but more black misty limbs reached from the red circle in the ground, grasping for bodies. One of the demons crawled free of the well, and snatched at Delilah’s ankles. Ms Lemon pulled a cloth bag apart, showering him with dust
that burned through his back in tiny fires. The creature disintegrated, leaving a scorched patch on the ground.

Glancing back at Grace, Adie noticed she was no longer holding the Chi orb. Her friend sat on her heels watching the turmoil taking place in the P block. When she turned to face Adie, a slither of black crossed her eyes.

‘No,’ Adie whispered.

‘Goodness, my sweet,’ Grace said, getting to her feet. ‘A demon well. I must confess I’ve never seen one open, in the flesh. They’re nasty creatures, don’t you think?’

Adie backed away, shaking her head.

‘Perhaps a demon possession or two might liven this battle up,’ Grace sneered.

She ran towards the well, reaching for the next demon that pulled itself free. Gleeful, the creature ploughed its misty hand into Grace’s arm. Her eyes turned a violent shade of red.

‘No!’ Adie screamed, running. ‘Delilah, Ms Lemon!’

Delilah leapt on Grace’s back, holding her head back by the hair, while Ms Lemon smashed a porcelain cup in front of her.

‘This is much more fun than I expected.’

Adie spun around to find Bob standing over her, the black worm wriggling over his pearled eye.

‘Please, please don’t do this!’

‘Your friends are nothing special, after all,’ Bob said. ‘But
this? This is a game that could go on for hours.’

Bob shunted backward, and Murdrina was gone.

‘Where is she?’ he growled, himself once more.

‘She’s moving around,’ Adie wailed. ‘She could be anyone.’

‘Over here, my sweet!’

The doctor grinned at her, black flickering across his eyes. He grabbed Agata by the hair and plunged her head into the open well. The strongwoman threw him off and staggered backwards, a demon curled around her face, sinking into her skin.

‘Agata!’

Jenny got to her feet and ran to the woman, but Agata turned on her and swatted her like a fly. Grace, now free of her demon, joined Rachel, Una and Ms Lemon as they struggled to keep Agata’s powerful, demon-infested frame immobile. Delilah crushed a cup under her foot and threw herself on top of the pile of bodies pinning Agata to the ground. Still Agata resisted, and it took the addition of Drake before she could be held over the sublimating smoke long enough to inhale.

But too many demons were pouring through the open mouth of the well now. They fought and clawed at each other to get out, and that was the only thing that slowed the spill.

‘Shut the well, Delilah!’ Jenny cried.

‘No!’ Grace yelled, ‘this is our only chance!’

‘We’ve lost, Grace, now shut the well!’

Adie felt limp with fear and regret.

‘Shut the well, Grace,’ she whispered.

But no-one could hear her.

Grace rolled off Agata’s back, her arms trembling with exhaustion. It was madness. Jenny was screaming for them to close the well, Drake was yelling for help, another demon was grabbing hold of Ms Lemon. Across the concrete, Grace met the black-flickering eyes of Bob, now grinning a grin that was not his own.

We’ve lost,
Grace thought.
Lost
.

But Delilah still stood poised with a silk bag in her hands – the bag that had contained the green and white pebbles that were keeping the well open. She was waiting for a signal, Grace realised. She was ignoring Jenny’s calls for the well to be shut, and holding out for Grace’s instructions.

One more minute
, Grace begged silently.
Give me one more minute to think
.

But there was nothing to think about. The demons were swarming from the well – soon Grace’s coven, and everyone else, would be overwhelmed. A black tail flicked across Jenny’s eyes, across Una’s, across Drake’s. In each of the faces, Murdrina’s smile grew bigger and more wicked.

‘Isn’t this fun?’ someone hissed in her ear.

Grace shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks, as she looked at the small girl holding the silk bag…

‘Delilah…’

Suddenly Grace was wrenched back by her arm. She spun around to face the doctor.

‘Push me in,’ he said quietly.

His face, so close to her own, was startling.

‘What?’ Grace gasped.

‘When Murdrina jumps to me, push me in.’

‘I can’t, you don’t understand. You don’t know what’s down there.’

‘I understand well enough.’ The doctor pulled roughly on her arm again. ‘It ends today. No more, for us or anyone else.
Do it.
’

He dropped Grace’s arm and strode over to his place by the demon well once more. Grace stood directly behind him. One push was all it would take. She pleaded with herself to find some other solution. The noise, the screaming, everything seemed to focus her mind, but the clearer it became, the more she realised there was no other way.

Jenny threw Una across the block. She landed in a crumpled heap in the corner.

‘Stop,’ Grace begged Murdrina. ‘Please stop!’

But the cackling moved from Jenny to Ms Lemon, from Adie to Delilah, from Rachel to Agata. That awful screeching laugh so horrible that Grace couldn’t take it anymore.

‘Delilah,’ she said, ‘shut the well.’

The doctor turned to her, a black flick in the whites of his eyes.

‘Aw, don’t let’s end the fun just yet.’

‘No,’ Grace said, as Delilah raised the silk bag. ‘It ends now.’

She lurched forward and pushed with all her might.

The doctor’s black-flickering eyes flashed in terror as he hurtled into the well – grabbed by dozens of misty, black limbs – and vanished into the vicious red light. It was a split second, no longer, and the well snapped shut.

Every sound seemed to have been sucked into that closed portal; the crashing and screaming and snarling stopped abruptly, leaving only a shocked silence. Everyone fell still; only the wind sweeping through their unkempt hair and clothes caused any movement among them. A scorched circle in the carpet was the sole hint of the horror that lay inside the well. Caught by the breeze, the doctor’s wide-brimmed hat rolled slowly into the rubble of the P block.