‘Course it is,’ Ameena nodded. ‘But unless you can magic us up a jetpack or something, I don’t see any other way up.’
She stood there, one foot on the ladder, waiting for me to respond. When I didn’t she began to climb.
‘Come on,’ she barked. ‘It doesn’t look far.’
Hesitantly, I took hold of one of the rungs. I tried to put my foot on to another, but the whole ladder swung away from me and I pulled back.
‘I’m nearly there, come on,’ Ameena called out. I craned my neck and peered through the settling dust. Sure enough, she was only eight or nine rungs away from the next floor.
I swung a leg out again, this time hooking it behind the ladder so my heel rested on the rung. The rope didn’t swing, and I managed to get my other foot up on to the next rung. I clung on, eyes fixed straight ahead, not daring to look down.
Somewhere above me was Caddie. Below me was a three-storey plummet to a messy death. I didn’t know which one was worse.
Slowly, keeping my eyes locked dead ahead at all times, I lifted my lower foot from the ladder and moved it to the next rung. The ropes wobbled, and I held on so tight my knuckles turned white.
‘Doesn’t this seem weird?’ I shouted, my voice shaking as badly as the ropes.
‘Escaping flesh-eating teddy bears by climbing a rope ladder up to a five-year-old psychopath who doesn’t really exist?’ Ameena said. ‘I don’t know, is that weird, you think?’
‘I mean…’ I wasn’t sure what I meant. Since escaping the shadows, though, I’d had a nagging suspicion that Caddie somehow knew everything I was going to do. Like all this was part of her plan, and I was playing right into her hands. ‘Forget it,’ I said. ‘You there yet?’
‘Just about. Just a few more—’ A panicked gasp cut her short. ‘NO!’ she screamed. ‘No, don’t! DON’T!’
I heard a childish giggle, and then in an instant I was falling. Dropping. Plunging towards the ground. The rungs of the ladder were still in my hands, but the ladder itself was plummeting with me.
I felt my heart speed up and my breath go short. She cut the ropes. She cut the ropes.
A buzz of electricity sliced across my scalp, but I was panicking too much to focus and it quickly slipped away. The ropes. She cut the damn ropes.
As I drew level with the first floor, the ladder suddenly went tight. The sharp stop made my feet slip from the rungs, sending my legs kicking frantically into thin air.
Something in my left shoulder went pop and exploded in pain. The arm went dead, and I could only watch as it slipped from the rung and dangled limply by my side, leaving me holding on with just one hand.
Above me I heard Ameena cry out in shock, and fight to hold on. Above her I heard that soft, high-pitched snigger again.
‘You OK?’ Ameena’s voice was an urgent squeak. The dust was thin in the air, and I could see her without any problems. She was eleven or twelve rungs above me, hands and feet all still holding on. I’d managed to work my feet back into position, but my hand was sweating and becoming worryingly slippery.
‘My shoulder,’ I winced. ‘I think I dislocated it.’
‘Can you climb?’
I tried to lift my arm, but the pain was too much. I shook my head, defeated. ‘No way.’
There was a pause, and then the ladder began to shake gently, as Ameena climbed back down.
Just before she reached me, she curled a leg round and switched to the opposite side of the ladder. I was amazed at how easily she could move around on the rungs. It was like she’d done this a thousand times before.
She clambered down a few more steps until our feet shared the same rung. With all the weight now near the bottom, the ladder began swinging back and forth like an enormous, slow-moving pendulum.
‘I need you to hold on to me,’ she instructed.
I hesitated, and felt my cheeks go red. Luckily the thick layer of grime on my face covered up my embarrassment. ‘Um…what?’
She put one arm round me and grabbed me by the back of the jumper, pulling me in against the ladder. ‘Like that,’ she said. ‘Tight.’
Her grip held me up as I cautiously let go of the ladder. When I was sure I wasn’t about to fall, I reached round behind her and caught hold of the back of her jacket. There wasn’t a lot of material to grab on to, but I found a strap and buckle and wrapped my fingers around that.
‘You got me?’ she asked. When I nodded she said, ‘Good.’
My arm took her weight as she let go of me. For one terrifying moment I thought I would fall, until I realised her weight was holding me up, just as I was holding her.
The tip of her tongue poked out in concentration as she rested her left hand on my left shoulder. Her right hand took hold of my upper arm. She held it firmly, and I had to bite my own tongue to stop myself whimpering in pain.
She peered at me through the curtain of her straggly hair. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not.
‘Whatever you do,’ she said, ‘don’t let go.’
‘I won’t,’ I promised. ‘Why would I let go?’
The pain stole my words away. It tore through my shoulder and across my back. A howl burst from my lips and tears sprang to my eyes. The fire burned along my arm and the world whirled and spun until my head went light. I was going to be sick.
‘Don’t let go!’ The urgency in Ameena’s voice cut through the pain. I hadn’t noticed my grip slipping on her back, but I tightened it just in time to stop us falling in opposite directions.
I tried to speak, but the words came out as a blubbering mess of sobs. ‘What…what…did you do?’
‘Shoulder’s not dislocated any more,’ she said, so matter-of-factly I almost wanted to punch her. She took her hands away from me and caught hold of the ladder again. ‘How does it feel?’
‘How do you think it feels?’ I snapped. ‘Bloody sore.’
Her whole face grinned at me. ‘Yeah, but not as sore, I bet.’
I moved the arm around slowly, testing it out. The initial burst of pain had faded, and I was now left with just a dull, throbbing ache. ‘It still hurts,’ I grunted, not wanting to admit she was right.
‘So now can you climb?’
I looked up. I could see the top of the ladder, but it was a long way away.
‘Ladies first,’ I nodded.
‘OK,’ Ameena said, still smiling. ‘Off you go then.’
‘Hilarious,’ I sneered. Arm aching, I reached to the next rung and began to climb up the shaky rope ladder.
Having Ameena beneath me made climbing easier. Her weight stopped the ladder swinging, and despite my sore shoulder we were halfway to the top in no time.
At every step I expected the ladder to fall again, but even by the three-quarter point it hadn’t moved. Despite that, I couldn’t work up the nerve to look down at the floor, so dizzyingly far away.
‘You know what I don’t understand?’ Ameena didn’t even sound out of breath.
‘What?’
‘Why change the theme?’
I let the sentence roll around inside my head for a few moments, to see if it would start to make some kind of sense. It didn’t.
‘Change what theme?’
‘Well, think about it,’ she said. ‘We had evil shadow puppets, right?’
‘Don’t remind me.’ Both my arms were aching now, but I pushed on. Fourteen rungs to go.
‘OK. So then it was teddy bears and skipping ropes.’
‘And an explosion,’ I added.
‘Forget the explosion for now,’ she said.
‘It’s not an easy thing to forget.’ Thirteen rungs.
‘Shut up and listen. Shadow puppets. Teddy bears. Skipping ropes. It’s all kiddie stuff. It’s all for little kids.’
‘She is a little kid,’ I pointed out.
‘Exactly.’
I dragged myself up another rung. Twelve left. It was taking all my strength to hang on. I didn’t have the energy for this conversation.
‘Wh
at’s your point?’ I asked.
‘So why a ladder? Why not a trampoline or…like…a giant catapult or something?’
‘Because that would be stupid.’ Eleven.
‘OK, fine, but why blow up the stairs if it didn’t fit in with the other stuff?’
‘Not sure,’ I spat. ‘Maybe because she’s a psycho?’
‘No doubt,’ Ameena agreed. ‘But she’s a psycho with a theme. Toys and games. There’s no such game as Ladder.’
My hand found the next hold. Ten to go.
‘Not that I know of,’ I admitted. ‘But so what?’
‘I dunno,’ Ameena sighed. ‘Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s just…Oh my God!’
‘What?’ I cried, startled by her panicked tone. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a snake. A giant snake. Move, move, move!’
A sharp hiss rose up from somewhere below me. Snakes and ladders. Of course. I should have guessed.
Terror lent my limbs an unexpected burst of energy, and I virtually leapt the next few rungs.
‘It’s coming,’ Ameena wailed. ‘Faster, move faster.’
Four rungs left. Another hiss. Something brushed against the back of my leg, and I let out an involuntary cry of fright.
‘Move, Kyle, it’s right behind you!’
Muscles burning, I caught hold of the broken edge of the third floor and flung myself up. I rolled clumsily, and jumped upright, eyes fixed on the spot where the floor fell away, ready to face whatever rose above it.
It was Ameena’s head that appeared. Tears cut through the grey dust on her cheeks. She was shaking as she pulled herself up.
Shaking with laughter.
‘Man, you fall for that every time,’ she gasped, lying on her back on the floor, barely able to get breath through her giggles. ‘You should see your face.’
‘You idiot! I nearly had a heart attack,’ I snapped, but that only made her worse.
It wasn’t until a few seconds later, when she stood up, that she stopped laughing. She stared past me, eyes wide, pretending to be shocked by something at my back.
‘Behind you. Turn round,’ she said. Her voice was a stark whisper. It was an Oscar-worthy performance, but I wasn’t buying it.
‘I’m not falling for that again,’ I said, crossing my arms across my chest.
She swallowed. ‘I’m not kidding this time. Promise.’
‘You’re not fooling me again,’ I sniffed. ‘But I’m going to turn round anyway, because we need to go. We’re almost out of time. That’s why I’m turning round, not because of your stupid trick.’ Feeling pleased with myself, I turned away from her.
Caddie stood blocking the entrance to the corridor. Her hands were on her hips and her bottom lip stuck out.
‘You’re late,’ she sulked, stamping her foot down. The flat heel of her shoe barely made a sound against the dusty floor.
The doll was still in her dress pocket. Still staring at me. For a moment I could have sworn a smile played at the corners of its painted mouth. ‘And people who are late,’ seethed Caddie, ‘make Raggy Maggie very cross indeed.’
Chapter Thirteen
THE RED ROOM
“Where’s Billy?’ I demanded. ‘What have you done with him?’
‘One hour, that’s what I said,’ Caddie scowled. ‘You took one hour and five more minutes. That’s not even close.’
‘Where is he?’ I repeated, more firmly this time. ‘And everyone else – what did you do with everyone else?’
‘Not telling. You didn’t win the game.’
I leapt for her, suddenly furious. My fingers tightened around the top of her arms. Her shoulders felt skinny and weak in my grip. ‘It’s not a game,’ I snarled. ‘None of this is a game. Now tell me where they are.’
Something cold and sharp exploded inside my head, as if an ice pick had been stabbed into my brain. My legs buckled and I crumpled to my knees. As my hands fell away from Caddie’s arms the pain quickly began to ease.
‘That’s for not playing nicely,’ she whispered.
‘B-Billy,’ I wheezed, ‘where…where is he?’
‘Tell him.’ Ameena couldn’t hide the contempt in her voice. ‘Now.’
Caddie gave a giggle and pirouetted away, twirling a strand of her hair around a pale finger. ‘Don’t remember,’ she said. ‘I put him somewhere, but…’
The sentence drifted off, as if she’d forgotten how it was supposed to end. Her delicate features pulled into a frown. Slowly, she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out the doll.
‘What’s that you say, Raggy Maggie?’ she asked. Ameena helped me up as Caddie held the doll’s porcelain head next to her own ear. ‘But I don’t want to tell him. He wasn’t nice to me. He didn’t win the game.’
Raggy Maggie’s head moved up and down sharply in Caddie’s hand. For a long time the girl just stood there, her expression becoming darker and darker, as she “listened” to what her dolly had to say.
‘It’s not fair,’ Caddie spat at last. She shoved Raggy Maggie back into her pocket and jabbed a finger in the direction of a pale orange door. ‘He’s in there, OK?’
I glanced from the door to Caddie and back again. The door led into a stationery cupboard, I knew. I’d been sent to collect pencils and things from there before. It was long and wide, with shelves lining every side. There were no windows inside it, and no other way in or out.
Another trap? Maybe. Probably. But there was only one way to know for sure.
I approached the door, listening for any sign of life inside. I heard nothing. Caddie’s eyes were on me when I looked back over my shoulder. They sparkled with something between mischief and malice.
‘Watch her,’ I told Ameena, and I turned to the door again.
The metal handle pushed down with a click. Cautiously, I inched the door open a crack. As I did, a warm wetness seeped from within and washed over my shoes.
I heard Caddie giggle as a river of red rushed out from inside the cupboard. It pooled around my feet, settling into a thick and gloopy puddle.
Sour saliva formed at the back of my throat. I had to swallow it down to stop myself being sick.
The door gave a creak as I pushed it open the rest of the way. Dim daylight cut through the darkness of the windowless room and I felt my heart skip several beats.
For a moment I thought the room was bleeding. The shelves and the walls glistened under a covering of crimson. The blood dripped from the ceiling, from the light shade, from the pens and the pencils and the spiral-bound notebooks.
And it dripped from Billy.
He was sitting on a chair at the very back of the cupboard. Head down. Not moving. His hands were behind the chair’s back, tied the same way I had been.
Drip. Drip. Drip. The sound was on all sides of me as I stepped into the little room, like the plinks and plonks of a broken xylophone.
‘Billy,’ I said, my voice a shrill whisper. ‘Billy, are you OK?’
It was a stupid question. He was tied to a chair and drenched in blood. Of course he wasn’t OK.
I crept forward, until I was just a few paces away. Billy still wasn’t moving. His head hung at a worrying angle. Droplets of blood dangled from the end of his nose like tiny red icicles. I watched one of them wobble, then fall. It made a tiny splash where it landed in the puddle on the floor.
My hand was trembling as I held it out, palm down. I should shake him on the shoulder. I was going to shake him on the shoulder, but fear tightened my muscles and made it hard to move. What if he didn’t respond? What if he didn’t wake up?
What if she’d killed-
A startled cry escaped my throat as Billy’s head suddenly lifted, revealing a face that was a mass of black and blue bruises. One sharp gasp of breath filled his lungs, and his eyes flicked open. The pupils swam lazily, as if he wasn’t quite conscious.
‘You’re alive,’ I cried. ‘Thank God.’
His head rolled loosely on his shoulders. He tried to speak, but
the words came out as spittle on his swollen lips.
‘Of course he’s alive, silly.’
I spun to find Caddie standing just outside the stationery cupboard, still clutching her doll. I couldn’t see Ameena anywhere.
‘Where’s Ameena? What have you done with her?’
‘Your daddy told us you’d be fun to play with,’ Caddie giggled, ignoring the question. ‘And he was right. This has been lots of fun, hasn’t it?’
‘And killing Billy?’ I scowled. ‘Would that have been fun too?’
‘I would never hurt Billy,’ Caddie protested. ‘Billy’s my bestest friend in the whole wide world.’ She glanced down at Raggy Maggie. ‘Well…second bestest.’
I heard a low groan tumble from Billy’s mouth. ‘But you did hurt him,’ I said. ‘Look at him. He’s a mess.’
Caddie shook her head. ‘That wasn’t me. That was Raggy Maggie.’ She patted the doll’s head. ‘Raggy Maggie was very cross with Billy, but I told her it wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his fault he forgot about us.’
Her face twisted into a mask of rage. ‘It was her fault.’
I blinked. ‘Who? The doll?’
‘No. Not Raggy Maggie. Her!’ Caddie’s tiny hands were clenched into fists. ‘She had to come along and spoil everything. It’s her fault we had to go away to the dark place.’
‘Billy?’ I frowned. ‘What’s she talking about?’
Billy’s eyes were more focused now, but his whole body was trembling. He shook his head from side to side, sending droplets of blood spraying across the room. ‘I couldn’t help it,’ he spluttered. ‘She m-made me tell her. I’m sorry.’
‘What?’ The panic in Billy’s eyes set alarm bells ringing in my head. ‘What do you mean?’ I asked him. ‘Sorry for what?’
‘We would never have killed Billy,’ Caddie said. ‘We didn’t even hurt him that badly.’
‘But…the blood. Here on the walls. And the arrows…’
‘That’s not Billy’s blood.’
A strangled sob caught in the throat of the boy behind me. ‘I’m sorry,’ he wept. ‘She made me tell her. She made me.’
‘Whose blood is it?’ I asked. There was a tone to my voice I’d never heard before, as if someone else was speaking for me. My pulse had suddenly started racing. Every breath I took was becoming more difficult, as my chest went tight.
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