Witnessing the effectiveness of Jude’s method, Ashley hurried forward and planted her branch into the slope. Jude was already ten feet up. She didn’t intend to get left behind, so she moved as fast as she could. While it hadn’t rained in a few days, the mud was wet in places where the thick tree canopy had obviously blocked the sun from making it onto the slope. Once she realised that, she made rapid progress.
Kiss my arse, Devil’s Ditch.
She looked up and realised Jude was about to reach the top of the slope. Happy to know that at least one of them was safe, she held onto her branch and took a breather. She waited until Jude made it up onto the flat ground above and then gave a muted cheer.
Then he disappeared from sight.
Ashley waited.
Then she worried.
“Jude? Jude, what are you doing up there?”
For a moment, she feared he’d run off without her, which would have been unlike him. One down, two down; they always had each other’s back. To prove her point, Jude reappeared, peering down at her and waving. “I was just checking for Ricky and Lily. I was worried they might still be up here. There’s no sign of them, though.”
“Good, because I’m in no mood for their shit.”
Jude clapped his hands together, then wagged a finger in a beckoning gesture. Ashley suddenly realised she was hanging from a branch ten feet in the air, so she got moving again. She planted the branch in some wet mud a little higher up and clambered upwards. Twice more, and she was at the top of the slope.
God, I can’t wait to get out of this ditch.
Jude stretched out an arm. “Grab my hand. I’ll pull you up.”
Ashley nodded. She held onto the branch with her right hand, reached out with her left.
Crack!
The branch snapped in the middle, and suddenly she was standing on the steep incline with no support. Gravity seized her, begging her to fall backwards. She yelled out, knowing that whatever happened next was going to hurt. Her eyes met Jude’s. His mouth was as wide open as hers.
Their hands met.
Jude grabbed her, barely in time to stop her falling. He yanked her up over the crest and onto the flat ground. Ashley collapsed onto her knees, panting, while he patted her back. “I got you,” he said. “You’re fine.”
“That would have sucked so bad.” She looked up to thank him but noticed his hand was bloody. There was blood all over her wrist, too, but it wasn’t hers. “Shit! Jude, your hand! You used it to grab me.”
Jude examined his bleeding palm. “Huh… It was instinct. It doesn’t hurt that bad anymore. Come on, let’s go.”
Ashley got to her feet and the two of them took off. They headed through more snarled undergrowth and nigh impenetrable bushes, but at least this time they knew the way ahead was going to get easier. Soon enough, they reached the lighter part of the woods.
They decelerated and walked for a couple more minutes, catching their breath and avoiding the pratfalls that running entailed. It felt good to be back in the world they knew, not far from the footpath. Ten minutes and they would be home. Then they could call the police and let somebody else deal with this – a grown-up. For the first time in a long time, Ashley was glad to be a kid.
She put a hand on Jude’s back and sighed. “This is so messed up.” She laughed at the absurdity of it. The ordeal had only happened fifteen minutes ago, but it already felt like a dream. No way could there be a forgotten old farmhouse that nobody knew about. No way could there be a naked woman chained to the floor.
No way.
Chains right through her goddamn hands and ankles.
For fuck’s sake. Did that actually just happen?
Jude chuckled, too, although it was high-pitched with anxiety. “This is going to blow up,” he said. “As soon as the police find that woman, things will explode.”
Ashley hadn’t thought about it, but she realised he was right. There would be a massive investigation, as well as a manhunt for the sicko responsible. Ashley and Jude would probably end up in the papers, or even on TV. Maybe they would get called heroes, but Ashley could already imagine the crap she would get at school for this. Everyone would want to know all about the naked lady in the woods. The thought of so much attention threatened to bring on a headache.
The footpath appeared through the trees, a light grey shape against the darker hues of the wood. They sighed in unison, then walked in silence for another minute until they broke free of the trees. They stepped down into the shallow ditch that now seemed little more than a divot and then onto the pavement. The feel of concrete beneath Ashley’s muddy trainers was reassuring. She enjoyed the sound of her footsteps on solid ground.
The playground was a short walk ahead. They were almost home, and despite still being freaked out and moderately terrified, Ashley felt her body loosening up. Her heart no longer hammered against her chest.
She turned to Jude. “You okay?”
He nodded. “I am now. Just glad we got out of those woods. It’s getting dark.”
“Yeah, we only just made it. What time is it?”
Jude pulled out his mobile phone and looked at it. “Eight fifteen. Should I call my mum?”
Ashley shook her head. “I don’t think we can do this over the phone. Let’s get home first. We’ll go to yours. My dad will only freak out. Let me enjoy a few more hours of him not knowing about this bullshit.”
Jude nodded and put his phone away. They carried on until they reached the playground, then both of them froze.
Ashley looked at Jude and mouthed a single word, “Shit!”
Ricky, Lily, and the twins were all sitting in a line on the playground’s painted metal bench. Their backs were turned from the footpath. From the way Ricky was hunched over, Ashley assumed he was rolling a joint. The smart thing would be to run the other way, but then how would they get home? They could make a call to get her dad to collect them, but she really didn’t want to deal with him yet. Also, Ricky might spot them and give chase anyway. Then they would end up even further from home.
Deciding she wanted Ricky and his gang behind her rather than between her and Jude’s house, Ashley put a finger to her lips. Jude nodded to show he understood, and the two of them crept forward. While Ricky and his crew focused on what they were doing, they might not turn around. If they did, however, Ashley wanted the chase to be in the direction of home, not away from it. She just needed to get on the other side of the playground before they were spotted.
Ashley could hear Jude’s hurried breathing and wondered how loud her own breaths were. Was she breathing loudly enough that Ricky would hear them? She didn’t think so, and slowly, she started to believe they might manage to creep past.
Then: “Hey!”
Ashley and Jude froze. Ricky got to his feet and turned to face the footpath. He had a smirk on his face, knowing he’d caught them.
“How was Devil’s Ditch?” he asked. “Did you suck each other off down there? You should have fucking stayed.”
Lily stood up too. Her eyes narrowed when she saw them standing there on the path. “Wanna see my knife again?”
Ashley shoved Jude in the back. “Run!”
They legged it. Ashley’s body was already aching, sick to death of climbing, running, and fleeing, and her breasts, as usual, caused a hindrance, but she made it past the playground. She dared to look back and was relieved to see Ricky sitting back down. He was laughing, and he obviously couldn’t be bothered to give chase. He and his mates probably didn’t want to abandon their weed. Even so, Ashley and Jude didn’t stop running for a hundred metres. By then, they were both out of breath.
Ashley had a stitch. She clutched her ribs and doubled over. “This has been like the worst day ever,” she said.
Jude helped her to stand straight and held onto her as they resumed walking at a steadier pace. “Tell me about it.”
Five minutes later, they made it to Jude’s house. His place was smaller than hers, a narrow slice of windows cramme
d between two other homes. It had no downstairs toilet and only two bedrooms, but he lived alone with his mum, so it didn’t really matter. His garden, however, was much larger than hers, so they hung out at his more than they did hers. Also, his mum, Helen, was really laid back.
They opened the front door and rushed into the hallway. Jude’s mum was standing in the kitchen, watching the small LCD hanging on the wall and pouring herself a glass of wine. She placed the glass on the counter when she saw them hurrying inside. With the raising of an eyebrow, she gave them a crooked smile. “What’s got into you two?”
The words came out all at once, Ashley and Jude both speaking at the same time. Jude showed his mum his cut palm, which sent her immediately into a panic. It was almost like she hadn’t heard them about the naked woman chained up in the woods, but once she realised Jude’s hand wouldn’t fall off, she calmed down and listened. Two minutes later, she was on the phone with the police.
Chapter Five
“It won’t be long now,” said the tall Asian man who had introduced himself as PC Riaz. The police officer was sitting in Jude’s kitchen, sipping from a coffee mug with a picture of ‘Del Boy’ Derek Trotter on the side. He’d arrived fifteen minutes ago and had immediately made a call for his colleagues to search the woods. While the officer’s willingness to believe their story should have filled Ashley with confidence, it only caused her anxiety. Several police officers were frantically rushing about now because of her, and it felt like trouble. She eyed the back door that led to the garden and thought about running. A stupid idea.
Jude was bent over the kitchen sink while his mum cleaned his wounded palm, which upon closer inspection was quite nasty. The gash was short but deep. Now that things were calmer, Jude was fussing about the pain. “It hurts, Mum.”
“I know, honey, just let me get it clean.” She wiped sweat from her forehead with the back of her arm and blew a strand of straight blonde hair out of her face. Her roots were showing, which was unusual. She also seemed tired, and Ashley wondered if she was a little bit drunk.
“Mum! Ouch!”
“I’m almost finished. Just— Oh, honey, your bracelet’s gone. I don’t remember the last time I saw you without it.”
Jude glanced at his naked wrist. “It must have come off when I fell.” He tutted. “Damn it.”
“It’s only a cheap rubber bracelet, sweetheart. Never mind.”
Ashley saw the sorrow on her friend’s face. It hadn’t just been a bracelet. It had been one of his many crutches. Even now, she could recognise his urge to pluck at the tight yellow band.
“So,” said PC Riaz, looking at Ashley, “tell me again what you two were doing in the woods?”
With Jude and his mum busy, Ashley was the only one who could answer the officer’s questions, so he focused on her. She cleared her throat and shifted in her chair. “We were bored. Sometimes we like to go exploring.”
The officer raised an eyebrow. “Exploring?”
“Yeah. There ain’t much else to do, is there? Anyway, we didn’t realise we’d gone as far as we did. We just kind of ended up there. Are we in trouble?”
Helen peered back from the sink. “Of course you’re not, love. You two are heroes. That woman owes her life to you.”
PC Riaz nodded. “It’s private property and you shouldn’t have been there, but I think we can excuse that. This woman is going to have a lot to thank you for. Can you tell me anything about her? I know you’ve tried already, but while we wait to hear from my colleagues, it might help if we keep talking.”
Ashley tapped her fingers against the table and avoided making eye contact. The memory of the woman in the farmhouse made her shudder. She’d been in such a terrible state, yet there had also been something oddly terrifying about her. She’d been wild and aggressive. Dangerous. “I think she was pretty,” said Ashley. “Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Like, really blue. She was, you know, naked – but she still had this locket around her neck, which was kind of weird. Oh, and there was blood, I think, but I’m not sure from where. It could have been her hands. The chains went right through them.”
“Oh my,” said Helen.
PC Riaz frowned. “The chains pierced her hands?”
Ashley nodded. “And her ankles. It was horrible.”
“I can imagine. You’ve certainly been through a lot today. What about the room the woman was in? Anything you can remember about it?”
“It was empty. The only thing I saw were these strange markings all over the floor.”
“Markings?” PC Riaz leant forward, placing his elbows on the table.
Ashley and Jude hadn’t yet mentioned the strange markings on the floor and walls of the farmhouse. Truthfully, it just hadn’t come up. When they’d first spoken with the officer, only the bigger picture had seemed to matter. Now the smaller things felt important. “There were these weird symbols on the floor,” she said. “The woman was sitting inside this big triangle. It was weird. Also, when Jude cut his hand, there was, like, a chunk of bone or something stuck in his palm. I pulled it out.”
Jude groaned and turned away from the sink. “Ash, you never told me that! There was a chunk of bone in my hand? Gross.”
PC Riaz looked at Jude. “Perhaps you should visit the hospital, young man. Don’t want to get tetanus.”
Helen grabbed him and gave him a squeeze. “He’ll be fine, officer. He has his old mum to look after him. I cleaned the wound. Just need to get a bandage on it.” With that, she started rooting around in the kitchen cupboards. She was acting frantic, moving quickly and clumsily.
PC Riaz returned his gaze to Ashley. “These symbols? Do you know what they were? Were there any words?”
Ashley shook her head. “No. Just lines and circles, stuff like that.”
“They were like magic symbols,” said Jude. “The type of thing you see in witchcraft.”
PC Riaz didn’t appear to find it absurd. He didn’t laugh and remained deadly serious. “And what do you know about witchcraft, son?”
“Nothing. Only from, you know, films and that. The symbols looked like hexes or spells. Arcane sort of stuff.”
Helen grabbed a bandage from a tin, and with a bemused tut, she grabbed Jude’s arm and pulled him over to her. “That’s enough of that, you. Sorry, officer, he has an overactive imagination. He wants to be a famous magician one day, don’t you, sweetheart? You should see all the tricks he has in his room, ha!”
Jude blushed.
“He’s really good,” said Ashley, seeing how embarrassed he was. He never did magic tricks for anybody except her. “And he’s right. It could have been occult symbols we saw. They were weird, whatever they were.”
PC Riaz took a sip of coffee and placed the mug down on a chipped wooden coaster. His radio was on the table and he stared at it for several moments. Ashley looked at it, too, wondering what would eventually come from the other end. Would the officers find the woman alive? Or would she be dead? She and Jude had left her alone out there, chained up in the woods. They had run away and left her. The sicko could have returned and murdered her, knowing the police were on their way.
One of us should have stayed.
I was too afraid. I was too afraid to stay.
I’m a coward.
“I’m sure we’ll hear something any minute now,” said PC Riaz, possibly sensing her unease. “Oh, I haven’t asked you, how did you get that cut on your face? Did you fall inside the farmhouse?”
Ashley froze, knowing the truth would do her no good. Involving Lily Barnes wouldn’t help the situation. “I, um, caught it on a branch while we were running away. I didn’t even notice, so can’t say exactly when.”
PC Riaz nodded.
“I’ll get a plaster for you, sweetheart,” said Helen. “Just as soon as I’m done with Jude.”
Ashley waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it, Helen. It’s fi—”
The radio on the table squawked. Everybody flinched. PC Riaz snatched it up and thumbed a button on the side.
“Okay, go.”
“We found the farmhouse,” said a voice on the other end, “but there’s nothing here. Nothing at all.”
PC Riaz frowned. His eyes fell upon Ashley as he replied into the radio. “Did you check every room?”
“Affirmative. The whole place is a ruin. There’s nothing here. Only thing we found were a few footsteps in the dust and a bracelet.
“A bracelet?”
“Yeah. A yellow rubber thing. It was lying right in the middle of the floor.”
“Any symbols on the floor?”
“Symbols? No, not that I’ve seen. The place is derelict. There’s nothing here.”
“Copy that. Spend ten more minutes on site, then return to base. I’ll catch up with you at the station, Steve.”
Ashley was already talking, fumbling for words, but not knowing what on earth to say. She had gone through several outcomes in her head, but none had ended this way. “Th-The sicko must have come back! He must have moved—”
PC Riaz put up a hand to silence her. “I don’t know what you two are playing at, but I had you pegged as good kids. Whether you got some kind of scare, or your imaginations got the better of you, this is unacceptable. I could arrest you right now for wasting police time.”
Jude moved away from his mum, an unsecured bandage flapping from his hand. “The woman was there! We’re not lying. I swear. Mum, I swear.”
Helen rubbed at his back and nodded. “I believe you, sweetheart.” She looked at PC Riaz. “Your men must have the wrong place. My son wouldn’t make this up.”
PC Riaz shook his head and sighed. He seemed as much confused as he did angry. “Unless there’s another abandoned farmhouse where your son lost his bracelet, I think we found the right place.” He looked between Ashley and Jude, scrutinising them. “Honestly, I don’t know what to make of this. I want to give you kids the benefit of the doubt because I can’t see why you would make up a story like this, but this doesn’t add up. Look, I’ll file your statements tonight and do some research about missing women matching your description, but I think the two of you need to have a good long talk and decide how you want to proceed. We found your bracelet, Jude, so there’s no doubt my colleagues found the right place. This doesn’t look good, does it?”
Witch: A Horror Novel (The Cursed Manuscripts) Page 4