“Of course I do. I don’t want to talk about that.” Amber shuddered. “We have to find my dad and Emma...”
“They’re not here,” he said quietly.
“I know they’re not here! That’s why...” Amber stopped and stared at him. “Wait. You mean they’re not anywhere here, don’t you? But they have to be!”
“This isn’t the same place. That’s why they’re not here.” Joe sounded weary. Amber wondered suddenly if his rescuing them from that thing that had tried to come through the ceiling had somehow tired or even wounded him. She cast a quick and fearful glance back towards the farmhouse.
“You have to take us back,” she found herself saying. “I don’t care how you do it, you’ve got to get us back...”
“I can’t,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t even know how I got us here exactly. I’ve no idea how to get us back.”
“I don’t believe this. It’s just a bad dream.” Amber pulled her phone out of her pocket, her hands shaking so badly that she almost dropped it. She brought up her list of contacts and called her dad. Please answer, she thought over and over as she put the phone to her ear.
But she couldn’t even hear any ringing. She couldn’t hear any sound at all. The phone didn’t even tell her it wasn’t possible to connect her call or that the other person’s phone might be switched off.
“No!” she muttered, and she tried again, but the same thing happened. Amber saw Joe standing and watching her, and she snapped at him, “Call your aunt! Call her now!”
“There’s no point,” he said quietly, but he did so anyway.
Joe couldn’t get any connection either.
Amber sank to the ground, and put her head in her hands. She closed her eyes. She felt too numb to cry or even say anything. She wished that she could just open her eyes, look up and everything would be back to normal and that this whole nightmare was just that- a long, long nightmare that she would wake up from into the world she knew, to be with the people she knew.
Neither of them wanted to stay anywhere near the farmhouse. Even though it looked different now, somehow it still appeared menacing, the windows just a little too dark. Every time she glanced at the symbol on the door, Amber thought that it had changed slightly, although she couldn’t say how exactly.
Amber and Joe made their way down the track, not knowing where else to go, but soon they realised that it no longer took them back towards the road. Instead, after twisting and turning a number of times, it simply opened out into a field of long grass. At the same time the sun finally broke through the cloud and it became instantly much warmer.
As the two of them began walking through the field, Amber spotted a scarecrow some distance away, its straw head slumped forward. It looked like a proper old-fashioned scarecrow, she thought distractedly as she pushed her way through the tall dry grass. It wore a filthy brown jacket with only of its giant buttons done up, and baggy, ripped trousers which were also brown.
She suddenly remembered something her father had said months ago. She couldn’t remember his exact words, but she remembered him joking that everyone had worn awful brown clothes when he was growing up. For some reason that had placed a vivid image in her head- one of a whole world of shabby people in brown clothes, all of whom smelled terrible.
Amber remarked to herself that this particular scarecrow must be useless, because as she stared at it a large crow landed on one of its shoulders, and started pecking at the head, which Amber guessed was a swede or pumpkin or something like that- she couldn’t tell from this distance. For a moment she imagined that the hungry bird was pecking to get at the scarecrow’s brains. Don’t be such an idiot, she told herself sharply. We’re already in the biggest mess of our lives. I don’t need to start imagining things like that.
The crow paused long enough to utter a loud caw as if it agreed with her. Amber shuddered and walked on, Joe following closely behind.
She could hear what she thought at first might be crickets chirruping around her, but the more she listened to the noise the less it sounded as if it was being made by creatures. It sounded almost like an electric humming, although there were no pylons or electricity poles nearby that could be making the noise.
“Can you hear it?” she asked Joe, stopping to turn around.
“Just keep going,” he said quietly. He looked ill, and beads of sweat prickled his forehead.
A rusted gate with barbed wire wrapped around its top bar stood open at the other end of the field. Beyond it a grassy track led away down a gentle slope into a valley where they could see a small village of grey-stoned cottages. A narrow river wound through the valley, and an old stone bridge curved over it as it cut through the village.
Amber and Joe stood and gazed down at the scene for a while. “Do you think it’s safe to go down there?” Amber asked eventually.
Joe didn’t reply. His eyes looked glazed over as he continued to stare down at the silent village. Amber wondered what he was thinking, and it occurred to her after a moment that he might not be seeing exactly the same things that she could see. She wondered if he might even be able to see or even hear the people in the village.
That’s if there are any people there, she thought. The village somehow looked as if it had stood there silently for a long time, maybe even many years.
“We have to find a way to get back,” she said eventually, “and that means we have to find some people who can help us. Maybe there are people down in that village who can figure out what’s happened.”
Joe looked reluctant, but eventually he nodded in agreement, and the two of them set off down the grassy slope towards the village.
As they drew closer to the place, Amber noticed something peculiar about it. “There are no cars anywhere here,” she pointed out.
“So maybe there aren’t any people,” Joe replied.
“Where do you think they’ve gone?”
Joe shrugged uncomfortably. “Maybe they just disappeared. I don’t know.”
They made their way as far as what Amber supposed was the high street. Shops stood on both sides of the road- she saw a baker, a butcher, a small grocery store, and other little independent shops. All of them were closed, and a few had metal shutters or guards drawn down over their fronts.
As they looked around, Amber’s stomach grumbled loudly- maybe it was the sight of so many food shops- and she suddenly realised how long it had been since she had last eaten properly. I didn’t even eat much of my dinner last night, she thought. And last night feels like it might have been years ago.
Sudden desperation welled up inside her. Somehow they were stuck here in this place where there might not even be any people, and they had no idea how to get back to the world they knew. She wondered if her dad and Joe’s aunt had any idea where she and Joe had vanished to. Of course they would be looking for them once they came back to the cottage, but how could they possibly find them? It wasn’t as if they’d left a trail. They had just stepped out of the world completely. How could anyone possibly find two people who had done that?
Then a dark thought occurred to her. What if the things that her dad and Emma had gone to confront had done something to them? Or what if Patrick had done something? She felt certain that he was not who or even what they thought he was. Yes, he was a member of the Order, but maybe he was working for the Lost. Perhaps he had managed to keep it a secret for a long time. Had he known that her dad and Emma were going to bring her and Joe to his farmhouse?
Amber sighed miserably and tried to tell herself to be calm, no matter how much she wanted to just scream.
“Are you hungry?” she asked Joe.
“A little,” he said. “But all the shops are shut. I don’t have any money anyway. Do you?”
“Maybe we should knock on someone’s door and ask for help,” Amber suggested, “if there’s anyone here.”
She picked a house whose small front garden looked well-tended. For some reason she thought that if the owners looked after their p
roperty then they were more likely to be nice people. We’ll see, she thought as she knocked on the door, and then rang the doorbell for good measure.
A few minutes passed and no one answered the door. Amber took a few steps back and looked at the downstairs and upstairs windows. She knew from experience that quite often people who didn’t want to answer their doors could be seen trying to catch a glimpse of the caller. But she couldn’t see anyone peering out.
“Maybe we should try another house,” Joe said, although he didn’t sound hopeful. He didn’t even sound as if he really wanted to try calling at one of the other houses.
“Maybe,” Amber agreed, but at the same time her hand stole towards the door handle. “What are you doing?” he exclaimed. “You can’t just walk in...”
The door handle turned downwards and she pushed. The door opened, and Amber realised in that moment that a part of her had expected it to.
The hallway beyond smelled stale and musty, as if the windows in the house hadn’t been opened in a while. A long, worn carpet stretched all the way down it. Amber stared down at the doormat and thought to herself: If no one had lived here for a while, wouldn’t there be a pile of post on the doormat? Or do they not have post here?
Maybe, she considered, I should stop thinking about this place as if it’s like the world we know. It might not be anything like it under the surface.
They stood and listened for a moment, but still they could hear nothing. “Hello? Is there anyone home?” Amber called out.
No reply came.
Slowly she stepped through the doorway. “We should keep the door open,” Joe whispered as he followed her in.
Amber walked on into the hallway. To her left a door stood half open, leading into the living room. As she pushed it a little wider open and peered in, it occurred to her that the room looked a little too perfect. Chairs and a sofa had been arranged nicely, a dinner table stood near one corner with more chairs around it, and ornaments had been placed here and there around the room. The room had been decorated mostly in pale green and light brown, giving it what should have been a warm feel but wasn’t.
Amber found herself looking at the dining table. There didn’t seem to be a single speck of dust on its surface. Someone has been here recently, Amber decided, even if it’s just to do the cleaning.
She walked further down the hallway, Joe following just behind. They reached the kitchen, and the first thing Amber saw on one of the worktops was a bowl of fruit. She counted oranges, apples and bananas- two of each- and her stomach growled again.
“Don’t you think it’s odd, that bowl of fruit just sitting there?” Joe whispered.
Amber stared at him. “What else would it do?”
“Don’t eat any of them,” Joe warned her as she walked over to the bowl and picked up a banana. It was still a little green, but that was how she liked them.
“We’ll starve if we don’t eat,” she said. “I don’t want to starve here, do you?”
“I don’t think it’s safe.”
“Well, we can take the risk or we can starve. Those are our choices, Joe.”
He gazed worriedly at her as she peeled the banana. After a moment’s hesitation, during which she imagined herself falling asleep as soon as she bit into the fruit, Amber took a bite, chewed and swallowed it. “There’s nothing wrong with it,” she told him. “It’s fine.”
And it was. In fact it tasted almost perfect, which was the one thing that did worry her a little.
Amber tried to reason the situation through. Someone clearly lived here, and whoever it was had probably just gone out for a little while. At some point they would surely come back. We’d better go, Amber thought, once we’ve had a look round to see if we can find any clues as to where we are. And maybe we should take some food. Just enough to keep us going. I don’t want to steal, but I’d rather steal than starve.
And if whoever owns this house finds us, we’ll have to explain ourselves somehow. Maybe we’ll just have to say we were lost and hungry.
She wondered briefly who might live here, and imagined a house-proud elderly lady. Then she remembered how empty the village had been, how quiet, and she found it more and more difficult to picture the owner at all.
Amber had a quick look through the kitchen cupboards, and found some food. She discovered bread in the breadbin, cheese, meat and salad in the fridge, and a large assortment of tinned food stacked in one of the cupboards. She ate some of the bread and cheese- her hunger was still getting the better of her- and after a while, Joe had some as well.
“We should go now,” he said as soon as they were finished.
“Don’t you want to find out about whoever lives here?” Amber asked. For some reason, now she had eaten she felt braver and more determined. “It might give us some clues if we look round the house,” she added. “Clues that could help us get back.”
“I don’t see how,” he said glumly, but even so he followed her as she made her way quietly up the stairs from the hallway up to the landing.
One of the rooms on the first floor was a bedroom, which was exactly to be expected. When Amber pushed open the door to the other room they saw that it looked like it was use just for storing boxes of things that didn’t have a place anywhere else.
“We have to go,” Joe whispered urgently.
Amber nodded in agreement. As they made their way down the stairs, she morbidly imagined all sorts of things happening. Maybe their legs would get that turned-to-stone feeling that sometimes happened in dreams, and they wouldn’t even make it more than a few steps outside. Maybe the door would slam shut before they even got through, and they would turn to see the owner shaking their head and tut-tutting at them for even thinking they could escape.
Yet somehow they managed to not only walk through the doorway but down the road as well.
After a short while, Amber felt a strange, prickly sensation in her back, and she turned, oddly certain that someone or something was watching them. A ripple of fear cut through her as she saw an old woman dressed in a light blue cardigan and skirt, standing in the middle of the road about fifty yards away. Amber thought that she looked exactly how she would have expected the owner of the house to appear. Here she was, as if the picture of her in Amber’s mind had somehow come to life.
“Don’t you want to stay?” the old woman asked them. “I’m about to make dinner. I’ll bet you’re both still hungry.”
Amber took a step backwards. “No thank you.”
“But you’ve already had some of my food,” she said, smiling at them. “You may as well have a little more. Don’t you think it would be rude not to? You have been brought up to be polite and have good manners, haven’t you?”
Joe whispered something at her side.
“Did you say something?” The old woman stared at Joe. “I don’t think I heard you properly. My hearing isn’t what it used to be.”
“You can’t keep running,” Amber heard the old woman say then, and it was as if she was standing just a few yards away from them, so clear and loud was her voice. Amber’s legs almost gave way with shock.
The old woman shook her head, almost exactly as Amber had imagined. “Where will you run to? You don’t know anyone here. You may as well come back.”
Joe took a few slow steps back up the road. Amber could see only one side of his face, but she could tell that he had that dreadful empty look about him. She grabbed his arm. “Joe!” she hissed. “Don’t go back!”
“You heard what she said.” He sounded so tired and defeated that for a moment Amber almost gave up. Maybe they couldn’t keep running. Maybe they would remain utterly lost until they just gave in or gave themselves up.
But at the same time she felt certain that this would be the worst possible thing they could do.
“Joe knows what’s best for you both,” the old woman called out. “How about the two of you come back inside and I’ll cook us all a nice dinner?” She smacked her lips and nodded to herself as if she was
already imagining how wonderful that dinner would smell and taste. “It’ll be getting dark soon. You don’t want to be outside when it’s dark. Come back here and I’ll even forget that you wandered into my house uninvited.”
“How do you think she knows your name?” Amber asked Joe, who blinked as if he had only just realised.
“You’ll be hungry again soon,” the old woman continued. Amber thought her voice sounded sharper now, as if the fact that they hadn’t trudged obediently back up the street had made her angry. “You really don’t want to be cold and hungry in the dark. Bad creatures come out here when it gets dark.”
Bad creatures like you, Amber thought, wondering to herself how Joe couldn’t see that for himself.
A cold feeling grew inside her as she stared back up the road and the old woman appeared to grow taller and wider at the same time. Despite the distance between them, Amber could somehow see the look in her dark little eyes quite clearly- merciless and cruel. She’s not even human, Amber thought suddenly. I don’t know what she is.
“We have to get away from her,” she said, and she turned and ran, pulling Joe along.
As they hurtled along the street, heading up the valley alongside the river, they could still hear the woman’s voice in their heads, but now they could no longer recognise any of the words. It sounded like several people shrieking at them from the same mouth.
The two children ran and ran, their fear lending them energy that they would surely not have had otherwise. They left the village behind and half-ran, half-stumbled up the valley towards higher ground, and their shadows reached out in front of them in the late afternoon sunlight as if they were even more eager to run away.
Chapter 10
They stopped at the top of the rise, their legs trembling and their lungs screaming for air. Joe collapsed to the ground, coughing, and Amber sank to her knees, taking painful, shallow breaths as she tried to recover. She had never put so much effort into running in her entire life.
When Amber raised her head, she immediately saw a man standing no more than ten yards away, crouching down on the ground and looking at them both. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and he looked a little bit like her dad, with shoulder-length hair that was starting to go a little grey.
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