Hollow Earth

by John Barrowman

  ‘I don’t know. I can’t exactly destroy the sketch, since I used your imagination as my drawing pad.’ said Matt. ‘He feels different from our normal animations, doesn’t he? Like maybe he’ll last … for ever.’

  The moon was full, and the water was filled with hundreds of tiny, twinkling jellyfish, like thousands of candles floating across its surface. Before they had landed, the twins had seen the Abbey’s speedboat beached near the tower, so they knew that Zach was here, even though none of Em’s telepaths had been answered. Hopscotching across the rocks, the twins left the peryton preening its wings and darted inside the caves.

  The darkness engulfed them immediately, forcing them to stop and adjust their bearings. The beacon light from the tower bathed the mouth of the cave in an eerie glow, but the deeper they went, the heavier the darkness.

  Behind them, tucked high on a ledge, a pair of beady yellow eyes was watching. If the twins had been concentrating, they might have been able to hear it smacking its lips, gnashing its sharp little teeth.

  Matt jumped over the rocks to the ledge near the cave’s entrance. His hand bumped against something heavy.

  ‘Zach’s backpack is here,’ he called over to Em. His fingers touched something else. ‘And his helmet.’

  A wave of fear washed over him. And then, as an arc of light from the tower swept through the cave, his worst fears were confirmed.

  Two figures floated below him at the edge of the tidal pool.

  ‘Em, over there!’ he yelled, directing her with the light on Zach’s helmet.

  Zach was sitting up against a flat rock, unconscious, his chin resting on his chest, blood dripping from a gash on his forehead. Vaughn was perched in front of Zach, as if he was sitting in his lap. Zach’s arms were wrapped around Vaughn’s upper body. The good news was that Zach had been able to keep Vaughn’s head above the rising tide, preventing him from drowning.

  The bad news was that Zach and Vaughn’s arms and necks were covered in fresh bite marks.

  SIXTY-SIX

  Her heart pounding, Em knelt next to Zach, gently lifting his chin. Zach groaned and smiled weakly, then dropped his head forward on to Vaughn’s shoulder.

  ‘We need to get them out of the water,’ said Matt, wading into the tidal pool.

  With a great deal of effort, the twins pulled Vaughn up on to the rocks above the tide line. Vaughn stirred and grabbed Matt’s wrist.

  ‘You need to get out of here,’ he slurred.

  ‘We will. We’ll get help,’ Matt promised. But Vaughn had lost consciousness again.

  Zach, along with the gash in his head, had clearly twisted or broken his ankle. Em started to cry as they moved him. This was all their fault. Tears streamed down her face as she helped Matt lay him on the rocks next to Vaughn.

  Just as they thought they were safe, it struck.

  They couldn’t see what hit them until it was right upon them. A black shape, springing from the darkness, landed on Matt’s shoulders. Its teeth snapped in Matt’s ears, its foul breath chilled his skin.

  Em screamed, lunging at the dwarf-like creature, punching and tearing at it, trying desperately to break its grip on her brother. Dropping to his knees, Matt tried to shake off the grotesque creature by pummelling it against the cave wall. And all the while, the changeling’s teeth nipped and gnawed at the skin on Matt’s neck.

  Em’s punches were useless. The creature had somehow attached itself to Matt’s back. She scrambled back over the rocks to Zach’s backpack, barely able to see what she was doing, her only light coming from the glow of the changeling’s yellow eyes and the pulse of light from the tower’s beacon. The changeling’s distorted face grinned at her every time the beacon’s light caught it.

  Matt was weakening. Scuttling over Matt’s shoulder, the changeling clinched itself around his chest and began to squeeze the life out of him.

  Hunting for pen and paper inside the backpack, her fear and frustration making her search all the more difficult, Em could feel a drumming beginning in her head. Every time she thought she’d grasped a pen, it fell from her fingers. If she was going to be of any use to Matt or Zach, she needed to keep control of her fears.

  Where had she put that stupid pad of paper?

  And then, suddenly, Em remembered the chunk of charcoal stuck in the back pocket of her jeans. Digging it out, she quickly drew a picture across the cave wall in front of her.

  Roll on to your back. Now!

  Matt did as he was told, and just in time. A large jellyfish dropped from the rocks on to the changeling, completely enveloping it. The changeling loosened its grip in shock. Shoving both creature and jellyfish off his body, Matt scrambled up on to the ledge next to Em.

  The jellyfish had covered the changeling’s entire body in a shiny pink slime. The more the creature struggled, the more the jellyfish shape-shifted to keep the changeling’s flailing arms and legs wrapped in its thick membrane. When Em could see that the snapping, spitting, clawing changeling had been completely swallowed, she scooped water up from the tidal pool and dashed it against the cave wall, washing away her drawing. With an echoing pop, the jellyfish burst into slivers of pink and putrid green.

  Em had no time to dwell on her success. No sooner had the changeling been destroyed than the alarm on Zach’s watch went off. He was trying to get their attention.

  The twins clambered across the rocks to Zach and knelt next to him. Zach kept straining to look over Em’s shoulder at the mouth of the cave. Em heard his thoughts, weak but clear.

  The beacon is flashing.

  Doesn’t it always?

  It’s Morse code.

  Em frowned. Are you sure? It could just be a fault in the light.

  Yes, I’m sure. It’s a code. I know codes.

  What does it say?

  Hide in the caves. No time. Hide now.

  Em relayed the information to Matt as quickly as she could.

  ‘We don’t have enough time to get everyone to safety,’ Matt said in a low voice, looking at the badly injured Vaughn and Zach.

  Zach attempted to sign in the darkness. ‘Go! Climb up and hide in the cave. If Tanan and Mara are coming, it’ll be you two they want.’

  Em gazed at Zach. Your dad’s sending that message, isn’t he?

  Zach nodded. I hope so.

  ‘He’s right, Em. We should start climbing.’ Matt’s eyes were red-rimmed, and Em’s chest was hurting from the effort of containing her tears.

  We can’t leave you, Zach.

  You must.

  Matt stood up and grabbed Em, dragging her towards the stepped crevices leading up to their hideout.

  ‘Wait,’ she yelled, pulling away.

  Digging out the piece of charcoal from her pocket again, she quickly sketched the picture of a big black blanket on a hidden stretch of wall. Without needing to be told, Matt spread the blanket over Zach and Vaughn, camouflaging them in the cave’s darkness from whatever was heading their way.

  The beacon on the tower flashed out the same sequence, again and again.

  Hide.

  Hide.

  Hide …

  SIXTY-SEVEN

  When Simon had opened his eyes, it had taken him a few minutes to organize his thoughts through the excruciating pain in his head. Something was happening to Mara. Simon could sense her heightened emotions, but he was unable to distinguish between them – fury, frustration, excitement, vengeance, pain. What was going on?

  Sitting up, he realized he was barefoot, and, of all things, still wearing his pyjamas. His hands were bound behind his back, and he was in the rear seat of the Range Rover. Pressing his forehead against the cold glass, he peered outside. It was dark, and he was in the woods.

  How had he got here? He didn’t seem to be injured. He wasn’t physically hurt, but he was very thirsty.

  He remembered waking up quite early that morning – it may even have been the middle of the night. The voices in Mara’s room weren’t angry, but she hadn’t mentioned she was havin
g company. Simon recalled walking down the hall to Mara’s bedroom, then nothing.

  He tried to tease from his memory what had happened after he reached Mara’s room, but he couldn’t. Every time he thought he had an image, he’d turn it over in his mind, trying to coax it forward, but it kept scampering back into the darkness.

  The best he could come up with was that whoever had hurt Renard and taken Sandie had returned to the Abbey and drugged him. The couple that the twins had trapped in the quicksand?

  Simon reached his bound hands between the Range Rover’s front seats and opened the central compartment. Finding his Swiss Army knife, he flipped out the smallest blade and sliced through the plastic that bound his wrists. Then he climbed into the front and pressed the starter.

  Nothing. The battery was dead.

  Mara’s emotions were getting stronger and more troubling, Simon’s vision beginning to blur from their intensity. If he didn’t get back to the Abbey soon in order to help her, he’d be too debilitated to move. And this time, he didn’t have the twins and Zach to help him get home.

  He was checking the compass on his phone to see which direction he had to walk, when he saw the long list of missed texts from Zach, ranging from early in the day to less than an hour ago. He only had to read the last frantic message from Zach to know that the children were under threat.

  Simon leaped from the car and sprinted west through the woods.

  Breathless, with the soles of his feet torn and bleeding, Simon finally stopped running as he reached the Abbey’s security wall. A deep stab of emotion from Mara forced him to his knees. When the pain had subsided, Simon followed the wall round to the rear of the grounds, before ducking into the stables for cover.

  Scanning the rear of the Abbey, he could see the kitchen, brightly lit but empty. The rest of the compound was in darkness, except for Mara’s studio. Her beautiful stained-glass window hung in tattered fragments from the window frame.

  According to Zach’s last message, the twins were being held captive by Mara and someone called Tanan – the man from the twins’ quicksand, he guessed. Simon found this almost impossible to digest. How could Mara have fooled him for so long? She must have been masking her true emotions for years. He read on. Zach had escaped through one of Matt’s animations and was heading over to Era Mina to get help from Vaughn. Vaughn! When had he returned to the island? Simon was heartsick about Mara and frightened of this Tanan, but when he reached the part about Vaughn, his panic subsided a little. Vaughn was a good man.

  Simon sprinted along the tree-line towards the boathouse. Climbing on to the dock, he spotted a hooded figure standing under the light of the tower on Era Mina. Tanan, he thought. It had to be.

  Simon could sense that the hooded figure was about to animate. The twins weren’t answering their phones and nor was Zach. He had to get a message to the children to warn them that something bad was coming … before it was too late.

  SIXTY-EIGHT

  The twins climbed fast, hoisting themselves over the ledge and into the cavernous space. Matt pulled the light cord. It took them a few seconds for their eyes to adjust, but when they did, they quickly noted that their hideout was just as they had left it a few hours before. Given that and the nature of Vaughn’s injuries, Vaughn must have been attacked when he had already climbed down from their hideout. Matt went over to the couch, knelt down and looked underneath.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Following a hunch.’

  The satchel was tucked behind the couch leg. Matt pulled it out.

  ‘How did you know it was under there?’ said Em in astonishment.

  ‘I figured it had to be Vaughn who took it from the woodpile the other night. He was the only person we hadn’t accounted for. Mara never had it after all,’ replied Matt. He stared at the brown leather bag. ‘And where else would he have put it? There’s not exactly any cupboard space up here.’

  ‘We should have looked inside days ago,’ said Em.

  But before they had a chance to break the lock, the lights went out, plunging the cave into complete darkness.

  ‘Someone must have cut—’

  Don’t speak. Might give us away. Put the satchel back underneath the couch and let’s find a place to hide.

  Right. Should we split up?

  Definitely.

  Matt felt around the trestle table for a sketchpad and pen, tucking them under his T-shirt. Then he used the couch to climb about six feet up the wall, sliding feet first into a tunnel they had discovered months ago but had never fully explored. Em cut through the darkness to an opposite corner and shinned up on to a ledge cut in the curve of the rock.

  They waited.

  Do you think the peryton is still out there?

  It would be pretty funny to see the faces of any fishermen nearby if it is.

  Em appreciated her brother’s attempts to take her mind off their situation. The last thing they needed right now was a room full of her fears.

  The darkness in the cave didn’t disturb Em as much as the damp. She could feel it frizzing her hair, seeping through the soles of her boots and creeping into the muscles in her back. She shifted slightly, repositioning herself on a ledge cut into the curve of the rock. It didn’t help.

  Em wasn’t sure she could remain in her position for much longer. Her knees were aching and her toes were numb from the cold and damp.

  Do you think he’ll come soon? I’m so cold.

  Soon, Em. I feel it.

  The flat-screen TV on the trestle table in front of them exploded in a ball of blinding blue light. Shards of plastic and glass rained down. The light burned brilliantly for about thirty seconds and then appeared to lose energy. Soon only showers of white sparks like fireworks were shooting out from the plugs, wires and extension cords attached to all the electronic equipment in the cave. As the sparks and the blue light dimmed, a monster’s fist burst out through the computer screen at the centre of the table.

  Em’s mental anguish almost made Matt collapse.

  It’s the demon from the painting!

  The demon’s fist uncurled slowly and stretched its fingers. The forearm was ripped, with muscles and tendons so defined it looked as if someone had sculpted it out of clay. It cracked its knuckles. One. At. A. Time.

  How can that … thing come through a computer?

  Seriously? That’s what’s worrying you? We have powers other people can’t begin to imagine. Zach’s injured because a cursed painting attacked him. And you want to know how it’s possible a monster is climbing out of our computer?

  Don’t snap at me, Matt. I’m scared, and you’re not helping!

  They watched, frozen in their hiding places, as the demon’s tapered talons groped and slashed across the desk with such fury that when the clawed hand swiped the computer keyboard, it went flying like a missile across the cave.

  Duck!

  Matt felt his scream to his sister explode in his brain, a flash of pain behind his eyes. The keyboard crashed against the rock wall inches above her head.

  The monster’s hand finally got a grip on the edge of the table. The muscles of its forearm vibrated against the desk as it hoisted a hulking shoulder five times the size of any man’s through the sparking, hissing blue light of the pulverized computer screen.

  Can we stop him before he gets out any further?

  Matt would have loved to do exactly what his twin was suggesting, to grab a shard of glass and hack and hack until that thing was sushi, but— He cut off his thoughts, remembering his sister could hear his doubts in her mind.

  We should run while we still can.

  A rush of foetid air assaulted them. The monster’s entire shoulder was through, and its hairless head was following. Its eyes strafed the darkness. Its nostrils flared. It sniffed, cocked its head towards Em’s position and sniffed again. A black reptilian tongue flicked across its cracked lips. Its ears were like bat wings folded against the side of its head, and the bones and cartilage of its spine were
visible as it wrenched and howled and tugged and groaned until it pulled its full grotesque being out of the computer.

  It crouched on its haunches on the edge of the table.

  ‘Greetings, mes chers.’

  It was Tanan’s voice.

  ‘Get out of there, Em!’ screamed Matt.

  SIXTY-NINE

  Em leaped from her ledge. When she hit the moss-covered slate, her legs slid out from under her, and she landed on her hip, yelping in pain. The demon whirled around to face her, rolling its head from side to side, rubbing its scaly hands together. The way out was blocked. But the monster’s scales radiated a distinctive animated sheen, giving Em better visibility than she’d had a few minutes ago.

  Matt looked as if he was backing down his own hidden tunnel. Lunging for what was left of the computer screen, Em threw it like a frisbee. The demon raised its claw, catching the screen before it whizzed by and crushing it against its scaly body. It took a step towards Em, then another. Em threw herself under the trestle tables, scuttling along the floor to the opposite side of the cave.

  She wasn’t fast enough.

  The monster took two long strides and waited for her at the other end of the cave. Em backed up against the sharp rocks of the wall. Frantically, she scanned the chamber, looking for a way to reach her brother – when she felt a tingling in her fingers. The sensation spread painfully across her palms. Within seconds, her entire hand was burning. Looking down, she watched in astonishment as a gleaming Viking longsword took shape in her hand, morphing itself securely into her grasp. Without hesitation, Em clamped her other hand over the sword’s hilt, hoisted the weapon above her shoulder and plunged the blade into the demon’s thigh. The demon shrieked.

  Matt tore up his sketch instantly. It wasn’t a good idea to leave the demon with a weapon. The blade ruptured down the centre of its shaft, then exploded into shards of golden light, blinding the monster for an instant.

  Taking full advantage of the blast, Em darted across the room and on to the couch, reaching up to the tunnel where her brother was waiting. Matt grabbed her wrists and tried to pull her up. The demon howled in rage, charging across the cave.