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It’s these attacks, and the nightmares, that’s all. Making me tense.
Ha. That was a lie and she knew it. Sure, the situation in Tillingham was making everything worse – that was obviously why she was dreaming about scary, imaginary blond boys. But the power she had … Recently, in the last few weeks especially, her magic seemed to be developing a life of its own. It didn’t shock her any more.
It frightened her.
In bed, Merry pulled the duvet up close around her neck and shoulders, breathing deeply, trying to force herself to relax. The familiar outlines of her room gave contours to the shadows: the bedroom furniture, the laptop open on her desk, the pile of clothes and shoes on the floor. She could hear the usual night-time noises of the house: doors banging slightly in the draft, floorboards and ceiling beams creaking as they cooled and contracted, the wind sighing in the chimneys. But tonight it all felt – alien. Like the recognisable shapes and sounds around her were fakes, put there to conceal something utterly strange, something that was crouching in the darkness just waiting for her to fall asleep …
She shivered, and pulled the duvet tighter.
Yellow light lanced through the curtains. There was the chug of a diesel engine pulling up outside, followed by the sound of a car door slamming – a taxi. Her brother was finally home. Merry’s shoulders relaxed and she glanced at her alarm clock.
I can’t believe Leo. There’s a bloodthirsty maniac running around town, and he decides to stay out until two in the morning? I could be lying up here bleeding to death, for all he knows.
She slipped out of bed. It was time to make Leo pay.
Thirty seconds later she was downstairs in the dark, quietly sliding home the bolts on the front door. She pressed her ear to the cold wood. Leo was stumbling up the path, swearing as he tripped on one of the uneven paving stones. He reached the door and she heard him drop his keys, pick them up, drop them again. More swearing. Then the tapping sound of Leo trying to fit the key into the keyhole, turning the lock. The door shifted in the frame.
‘What the—?’ Leo turned the key again, pushing against the door, trying to force it open. Merry grinned and ran back up the stairs. She’d let him in eventually, but –
Knock, knock, knock.
Merry froze. That wasn’t coming from the front door. That was coming from up above her, from the attic. She reached for the light switch. Nothing happened. She flipped the switch: on, off, on, off – still no light. A fuse must have gone somewhere. Or –
Or the maniac is up in the attic, and he’s cut the power –
Knock, knock, knock.
She stared up at the ceiling. And there was that feeling again, the same feeling she’d had in her bedroom but worse, tendrils of fear snaking up between her shoulder blades and giving her goose pimples. And now the unknown presence was right behind her, reaching out to engulf her –
Merry scrambled down the stairs and dragged back the bolts. Her hands shaking, she opened the door just as Leo was trying to ram it with his shoulder. He stumbled forwards and lay on the floor, groaning.
‘Leo! Leo, get up. I think there’s someone in the attic.’ She pulled ineffectively at her brother’s elbow.
‘Merry, I – couldn’t get door open. I’m jus’ – jus’ gonna lie here for a minute. It’s all – dizzy.’
‘Oh my God, you’re totally wasted.’ Merry stopped trying to drag Leo upright and slapped his arm instead. ‘I can’t believe it. We’re probably about to be attacked and you’re lying there completely—’
‘I had a couple – a couple of pints, that’s all. Three, maximum. Maybe six.’ He squinted up at her. ‘What d’you mean, attacked?’
‘The electricity’s gone and there’s a noise coming from the attic. A banging noise. I think someone’s broken in. What if it’s the maniac who’s been in the news – the one who’s been knifing people?’
Leo pushed himself up into a sitting position, cradling his head in his hands.
‘Merry, don’t be daft. Town’s full of police: whoever it was, he’s long gone. No way is he gonna be in our attic. Just – go back to bed.’ He pressed his hand to his mouth, grimacing. ‘On second thoughts, make me some of that mint tea you drink. Then go back to bed.’ The lights in the hallway suddenly flickered into life. ‘See? It was just a power – thing. Cut.’
Merry looked back up the stairs, frowning.
‘I don’t know, Leo. When I was on the landing, it just felt really … scary.’ The words sounded pathetic, but she couldn’t think of another way to explain. ‘You’re meant to be the responsible one. You should check the doors and windows, that kind of thing.’ She paused, and tried to make her voice soft and coaxing. ‘Just a quick look? Please? Then I’ll make you some tea. You know I don’t like being alone in the house. I mean, it’s so isolated …’
‘Leave it out, Merry.’ Leo grabbed hold of the newel post at the end of the staircase and used it to heave himself upright. ‘I’ve got to get to bed; I’m working tomorrow.’ He checked his phone and groaned. ‘Today, even. You want me to do anything else, you’re going to have to get your wand and make me.’ He smirked at her. ‘Seriously, why don’t you go and cast a spell, or something?’
Merry stared at him, eyes narrowed.
‘I really hate the way you are when you’ve been out with Simon and the rest of those idiots. You know we don’t use wands. And you know Mum hates us even mentioning the craft.’ She started examining her fingernails. ‘In fact, when she gets back I might just tell her what you said. And what time you got in. And that you’re—’ she sniffed and made a face. ‘Geez, you reek. Have you started smoking again?’
‘No.’
‘Yeah, right.’
Leo scowled at her.
‘Y’know, if you were the witch in a fairy story, you’d be the kind that eats the children. Meredith.’
Merry scowled back.
‘Don’t call me Meredith.’
‘Whatever, Maleficent. Maybe I’ll tell Mum exactly how many parties you’ve been to in the last couple of weeks, and how much time you’ve spent not studying.’ He yawned and started walking up the stairs, weaving slightly, only narrowly missing the cats as they streaked past him. ‘Damn cats! Honestly, Merry, I’m knackered. And you’re crazy.’ He tapped a finger on his temple. ‘I’m going to bed.’
Merry quickly locked the front door, then hurried up the stairs behind her brother.
‘But Leo – what about those people who’ve been attacked? Three couples in two nights, just stabbed and left to bleed to death on the street. What if—’
‘Just give it a rest, Merry.’ Leo yawned and rubbed his eyes. ‘Look, you have got to stop obsessing about that. It’ll probably turn out they’re connected in some way, like …’ He screwed up his face in concentration, ‘I dunno, they’re all criminal overlords. Doesn’t follow whoever attacked them is wandering around town looking for his next victim.’ He yawned again. ‘But if it makes you feel better I’ll leave my door open. If anyone dodgy shows up, scream. I’ll come and – and—’ He waved his hands around vaguely.
‘Rescue me?’ Merry guessed.
‘Yeah. That.’
‘Fabulous. That makes me feel so much better.’
Leo shrugged his shoulders, went into his bedroom and promptly collapsed on to his bed. He almost instantly started snoring – loudly. Merry stood and watched him for a moment. Leo was probably right. The banging noise she’d heard was most likely to do with the central heating. And as for that feeling she’d had, that horrible, sickening fear – it was probably just stress, or too many late nights. She sighed and went back into her own room. But she left the landing light switched on.
‘What the—’
Leo sat bolt upright, pushing the cats off the bed. They yowled and jumped straight back on to it, tails fluffed up like feather dusters.
‘What is wrong with you two?’ He checked his phone: just after five in the morning. Still dark outside. Collapsing back on to the pillows, he closed his eyes against the pain in his head. It was stupid, to have drunk so much. But being with Simon and Dan and the rest of his old friends, and having to keep pretending … He could understand how Merry felt. He was starting to hate himself, the way he was around them.
Knock, knock, knock.
The sound was coming from the attic. Just the plumbing, or some woodworm in the old timbers. Probably. He glanced at the cats. Both were bristling, their ears twitching back and forth. Leo sighed and got out of bed. This was all Merry’s fault, putting ideas in his head. The whole thing was ridiculous. Still, he was awake now. He lifted his cricket bat down from the top of the wardrobe and padded across the landing to his sister’s room. She was muttering faintly, frowning in her sleep, her hands clenched into fists.
‘Merry? Merry, wake up.’
He shook her shoulder and switched on the bedside lamp, causing her to screw up her eyes against the light.
‘Leo – oh, thank God.’ She covered her face with her hands for a moment. ‘I was having another—’
‘Shh.’ Leo put one finger on his lips.
‘Huh? Why are we whispering? And what’s with the bat?’
‘Listen.’
Knock, knock, knock.
The knocking was more frequent now.
‘That’s the noise I heard earlier,’ she murmured. ‘What is it?’
‘No idea. But it’s coming from …’ He pointed upwards. The noise stopped for a minute. Then it started again, slightly louder. ‘I’m sure it’s just a squirrel, or a rat, or something. A burglar wouldn’t be, you know, tap-dancing on the floor.’ He patted the cricket bat. ‘But I like to be prepared.’
‘Tap-dancing?’ Merry yawned and squinted up at him. ‘What the hell are you on about, Leo?’
Leo straightened up, running a hand through his hair.
‘Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve had less than three hours sleep and I’m tired, OK?’
‘Hungover, more like.’ She stared up at him for a minute. ‘Damn. I suppose you want me to come up there with you?’
‘Well, you’re the one who’s making me paranoid. What do you think?’
Three minutes later, Leo was switching on the light in the attic. Merry was standing, shivering, on the bottom rung of the metal pull-down ladder.
‘Well, I think we can rule out an intruder,’ Leo shouted down at her. ‘Unless he’s really, really tiny.’
‘Huh?’
He poked his head back though the hatch.
‘Come on up and I’ll show you.’
Merry muttered under her breath, but she climbed the rest of the ladder and came to stand next to him, hastily brushing a cobweb off her pyjamas. It was years since either of them had been up here. The attic – really a whole bunch of attics connected by odd steps up and down – was huge, and just as well. Mum was a chronic hoarder; she never threw anything away, on the basis that ‘it might come in handy someday.’ Or alternatively, ‘this is bound to be worth something eventually.’ After sixteen years the attic was crammed with cardboard boxes of various sizes, old pieces of furniture and artwork, unidentifiable things draped in sheets. It would be a tight squeeze for even the smallest burglar. Leo and Merry manoeuvred their way through the dust and detritus. The knocking was getting more frequent, more insistent.
‘What the hell is it?’ Merry asked.
‘I don’t know, but it’s coming from over there.’ He waved a hand towards the corner, where a dark oak chest had been wedged between a broken armchair and an old-fashioned sewing machine table.
The two of them went over to the chest and carefully lifted Merry’s old doll’s house and a stack of commemorative issues of the Radio Times off the top of it. Something inside was banging noisily against the wooden frame.
‘Right,’ said Leo. ‘You open it.’
‘How about you open it and I stand over there at a safe distance and watch you?’
Leo sighed.
‘No, you need to open it. Then, if anything jumps out, I’ll hit it with the bat.’ He waved the bat around a bit, to demonstrate.
Merry shuddered and stepped away from the chest.
‘But what’s going to jump out?’
‘Oh, for – something less annoying than you, hopefully. How on earth should I know? Just open it.’
‘Ugh, fine. After three, OK?’ Merry counted; she got to three, lifted the lid and leapt back quickly.
Nothing jumped out at them. Merry gave a little ‘oh’ of relief and surprise and went to peer inside. Leo came and craned over her shoulder. The chest was empty, apart from a pile of children’s picture books and a seven-sided wooden box, tucked away in the corner.
The box was twitching.
As they stared at it, the twitching got worse. The box started slamming against the side of the chest again.
‘What is it?’ Leo asked.
‘Er, it’s a jewellery box?’
‘Yes, so I can see. But why is it doing that?’
‘How on earth should I know?’ Merry scowled, then turned away and started fiddling with the dials on an old record player sitting nearby, shaking her hair forwards so Leo couldn’t see her face.
Leo rolled his eyes.
‘Come on, Merry. This has got to have something to do with your lot.’
‘My lot?’ Merry swung round. ‘You know I’ve never been allowed to practise. You know I’m completely untrained.’
‘Seriously?’ Leo pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Look, I also know you do stuff on the quiet. Or you used to, at any rate. You know I know. But I’m not going to tell on you to Mum. Just make it stop – jumping, will you? The noise is really starting to get on my nerves.’
‘I still don’t know what you expect me to do about it.’
‘Merry!’
‘OK, OK,’ Merry huffed. She reached down slowly, carefully, and picked up the jumping trinket box. It stilled immediately.
Merry looked up at Leo and smiled.
And then she fainted.
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Merry must have been unconscious for all of about thirty seconds. But it was a really intense thirty seconds.
Something had come out of the trinket box. Not a physical something; more a sudden swell of energy, running like electricity up her arms and into her chest. Then everything had gone dark.
And out of the darkness came images. A pair of large oak doors set into the middle of a stone wall that seemed to reach up to the sky and beyond. An endless, winding corridor dimly lit with candles. A chair – no, a throne of some sort – near to a wall lined with shelves, shelves crammed with hundreds of faintly glowing glass jars. And a boy chained to the throne, a blood-red crown upon his head. It was the boy from her nightmares. Merry could hear him struggling for breath, and she thought for a moment he was unconscious. But his eyes focused, and she saw his lips move:
‘Help me …’
