Dark Woods
Page 16
Cal gripped the metal pylon with one hand and slowly held out the other. He knew now that the stars were just illusions, just like all the times he’d believed that someone in this world might actually care whether he lived or died.
‘All right,’ he said, and when the shears creaked open a little more, he closed his eyes because it was more than he could bear. ‘Just do it.’
But then, from somewhere far below, he heard a scream.
‘Get away from him, you crazy freak! Get away from him now!’
Cal opened his eyes and looked down to see Eden, standing with a rock gripped tightly in her hand.
‘You’re too late,’ sneered the man. ‘He belongs to me now.’
Eden pulled back her arm and threw the rock so hard that it almost reached them, falling away at the last moment to strike the metal frame with a clang.
‘All right,’ she called, ‘I’m coming up.’
As Eden started to climb, the man watched her for a while and then turned back to Cal and smiled.
‘By the time she gets here, my work will be finished. But I look forward to showing her how it is done.’
‘Please,’ said Cal as he understood what the man was saying. ‘It’s me you’ve come for. You don’t have to hurt her.’
‘I know that,’ said the man. ‘But the thing is, you see, I want to.’
Cal watched Eden reach the top of the ladder and pull herself onto the metal framework before continuing to climb, slowly, steadily, almost certainly knowing that she would probably be too late and that she would lose her own life too.
But she kept on climbing anyway.
And as Cal watched her he realised that although some stars might be an illusion, others were real. That even when the sky was so full of clouds that you couldn’t see them, there were still stars up there, waiting to be found.
And as the man opened the blades for the last time, Cal drew back his leg and kicked him with all the hatred and strength and love that was left in his body.
His foot struck the man’s arm directly beneath his elbow and Cal saw a momentary look of surprise on his face as his hand flipped backwards, the shears still gripped tightly in his fist. As the man struggled to regain his balance, Cal looked into his eyes and saw that he was afraid. Then, as he reached out with his other hand to steady himself, there was a crackle of electricity, a flash of light and a high-voltage spark traced a line through the air, jumping from the power cable to the tip of the shears and through the metal blades into the centre of the man’s body.
With an ear-piercing scream the man arched his back, jerking and twisting as a hundred thousand volts ripped through his veins like summer lightning. As his skin sizzled and burned he released his grip and tumbled backwards off the pylon, an eerie blue light dancing in the air all around him. Then, as Cal turned his face away, there was a blast of heat and the man exploded in a white-hot fireball which blew him into a million pieces.
*
When Cal finally found the strength to climb down again, Eden was waiting for him at the base of the pylon.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
They watched the last of the glowing embers fall from the sky, their orange fires fading and turning to ash. Then, as Eden put her arms around him, Cal looked away to the east and saw that the sky was lightening and that soon it would be morning.
As the sun edged its way above the mountains, he took Eden’s hand and together they crossed the ditch, walking back down the main street towards Bobby’s Bar and Grill, where soon the whole world would be turning up, wanting to know what had happened.
But for now, the world could wait.
Because Cal was busy thinking about how he would ask Bobby if he could set up one of the tables in the bar.
He would put out some plates and bowls, fry a little bacon maybe, fix up some strong coffee.
He remembered how Sarah had lain on his bed that night, holding his hand in the dark before all this madness began.
You should let her make breakfast for you once in a while, Michael had said.
And so he would.
But this time, just this first time, he was going to make it for her.
Because – well – it was a pretty bad job if you couldn’t make breakfast for your own mother once in a while.
As they walked across the car park towards the front door, Eden turned to him and smiled.
‘It’s over, Cal,’ she said. ‘You realise that, don’t you? It’s finally over.’
And Cal shook his head and smiled back at her.
‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s just beginning.’
About the Author
Steve Voake grew up in Midsomer Norton, near Bath. Before becoming a full-time writer, Steve was head teacher of a village school in Somerset. He is the critically acclaimed author of The Dreamwalker’s Child, The Web of Fire, The Starlight Conspiracy and Blood Hunters.
He lives with his family in Somerset.
By the Same Author
THE DREAMWALKER’S CHILD
THE WEB OF FIRE
THE STARLIGHT CONSPIRACY
BLOOD HUNTERS
FIGHTBACK
First published in the United Kingdom in 2011
by Faber and Faber Limited
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
All rights reserved
© Steve Voake, 2011
The right of Steve Voake to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988
A CIP record for this book
is available from the British Library
ISBN 978–0–571–27208–2
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