by Annie Dalton
Karmen was shocked. “That’s not what you said before, Jordan Hickman!”
Jax grinned. “Because he fancies you rotten, Karms!”
Omigosh, I thought. No wonder I recognised that face! Stressed Jordie was beautiful Kelsey’s younger brother.
Jax started telling the others about her brainwave for a totally original production. “I’m talking a serious twenty-first century vibe, but totally positive and uplifting - none of your guns rubbish,” she told Jordie fiercely, as if she’d never had a violent thought in her life.
Mr Allbright once told us that when the time is really ripe for something to happen, you don’t always have to do that much. Everything just unfolds like a wonderful story.
That’s exactly how it was with this new show. In less than sixty earth minutes, it flashed from being an angel’s daydream to a genuine possibility.
Part-way through Jax’s explanation, everyone started texting their mates just like she’d predicted. In no time would-be performers were rolling up. By 11am, actual auditions were underway.
Hendrix and Brice turned up in the middle of a cool hip-hop number by a local posse who performed under the name of The Vibe Tribe.
I hadn’t seen Brice since our fight, but I’d decided to accept his fairy note as a genuine apology and gave him a friendly smile.
“You do realise this hall is buzzing with positive vibes?” he said accusingly.
We hadn’t actually noticed, but the air was literally shimmering!
Brice watched the hip-hop kids with a perplexed expression. “I thought Grease was that retro thing with motorbikes?”
We explained about the musical being killed off.
He frowned. “You think they can pull this together in two weeks?”
“With a little cosmic backup,” Jools smiled.
“You guys are taking on a lot,” I said doubtfully. “You work twenty-four-seven as it is, plus you’ve got this leak, plus I’d still appreciate some help with my mates.”
Jools patted my hand. “And you’ve got it, hon. But I’m actually wondering if your mates need more lessons. Just supporting their show will do wonders for these girls.”
But Sky isn’t in this show, I wanted to say, when Brice said something that blew me away. “It won’t just do wonders for the girls.” He was trying to play it cool, but even he couldn’t keep a glint of hope out of his voice. “These vibes are off the scale, man, and this is just the auditions! Imagine an actual show with an audience of proud rellies and well-wishers. The PODS can’t stand stuff like that; it’s too real - and I should know!” Brice added, flashing me his pantomime baddie smile.
“Are you saying this little show could save the school?” asked Hendrix, amazed.
I felt a whoosh of excitement. “Omigosh, Jools! That’s what you meant about it being down to the kids!”
“That was just a hunch, you know,” she said softly.
By midday everyone was ready for a break. My mates shared Karmen’s lunch while they discussed various artists they’d seen.
After their snack, Jax and Karmen went to freshen up. I was suddenly curious to know what they’d talk about.
I mimed that I’d be back and followed my mates into the skanky cloakroom.
“Could you smell this, like, perfume?” I heard Karms say in an awed voice.
Jax shook her head. “More like flowers. What’s that pinky bush in your mum’s garden?”
“Omigosh, lilacs! You’re right! After she’d gone I could smell lilacs for hours!” Karmen’s words were almost tripping over themselves she was so excited. “Jax, this is so incredible! Was it like she was there with you, talking?”
“Totally! She said I was magic. She went on about that a LOT.”
Karmen gasped. “That’s exactly what she said to me!”
“She kept saying I wasn’t alone, and when I woke up my dead cactus had a flower, Karms! A freaking shocking-pink flower!”
“No way!” Karmen breathed.
Two girls came in and my friends continued their conversation in whispers. I heard Jax hiss, “Then we’ve got to make her talk to us. This is more important than some poxy boy. I mean if Mel came back—?”
“—then Sky totally has to know,” Karmen whispered.
I practically floated out of the cloakrooms.
Almost the first thing I’d noticed about Heaven was how the air smells almost exactly, but not quite, like lilacs. Without me knowing, the sweet and magical vibes of Heaven had followed me all the way to Earth!
Suddenly anything seemed possible. Karmen and Jax were determined to make it up with Sky, and we might actually save the school!! It looked like my mission was succeeding beyond my wildest dreams.
Trust Brice to burst my bubble.
“You’ve got that good fairy look again,” he said accusingly when I wafted back into the hall.
“Say what you like, angel boy,” I said airily. “But you can’t bring me down. Just look around the hall - is this, or is this not, fabulous?”
“Yes, Tinkerbell, it’s fabulous and you’re fabulous. Just imagine how even more fabulous you’ll be when you figure out what your real—” Brice broke off, looking oddly embarrassed.
Jools had joined us. She’d been called out to the children’s hospital. A newborn was having trouble adjusting to terrestrial vibes.
“Want to come, Mel?” she offered. “These auditions could go on for hours.”
I was suddenly torn. “I’d love to but if I’m not needed here I’d really like to spend some time with my family.” Mum and Des always took Jade to the park on Sunday afternoons.
To my secret dismay, Brice asked if he could tag along. Since that Tinkerbell crack, I wasn’t keen, but I couldn’t really think of a way to say no, then of course, being Brice, he immediately had to take over. “There’s loads of parks in London. I hope you know which one?”
“No, but it’s bound to be one of three,” I shrugged.
I was wrong. My family weren’t in any of the London parks within easy reach of my old home, and they weren’t at home.
It took Brice to figure out where they’d gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Brice wouldn’t say where he was taking me, but I felt the chilling vibes of the cemetery seeping into me, even before we beamed down.
My chest went tight as I watched them trudging stoically along the endless rows of stone crosses and marble angels, looking desperately vulnerable in this bleak open space.
They’d bought bunches of hothouse daffodils, tight little buds in sheaths of cellophane. I saw Des wipe his eyes. He put his arms around my mum and I wanted to put my arms around both of them.
This might sound weird, but I was terrified I’d accidentally catch sight of my own headstone.
“Whatever it says, you know that’s not you,” Brice told me with unusual gentleness.
“I don’t care, I’m still not looking,” I told him through stiff lips.
I was looking everywhere but my headstone, at the winter sky with its criss-crossing vapour trails, at Jade sulkily kicking stones…
“I could read your epitaph to you if you want?” Brice suggested. “It’s not so bad.”
I pulled a face. “Does it say I’m sleeping with the angels?”
“Along those lines,” he agreed. He flashed a mischievous grin. “Had much sleep lately?”
“I wish!” I spluttered.
I don’t know why but being able to crack bad-taste jokes was making me feel better. We watched Jade kicking up gravel as she stomped on and off gravestones, complaining loudly to herself.
“She’s cute,” commented Brice.
“I’m amazed you can tell!”
Jade’s woolly hat was pulled down so far you could just about see her little nose! Mum had dressed my little sister in so many layers of clothing, she looked like a tiny Arctic explorer.
“Jade, stop that, you’re scuffing those new boots,” Mum said crossly.
“I don’t like this stup
id ol’ cemetery,” my sister complained. “Why do we always have to come? Melanie’s not even here anyway!”
“Smart as well as cute,” Brice said in my ear.
A young cat was picking its way daintily between urns and headstones, clearly heading in our direction. Cats just adore angels. This particular cat looked like a miniature panther, with his glossy black fur and huge, tawny-gold eyes. He started weaving ecstatically between us, purring so loudly he sounded like a dial tone.
“Mum, Mum, there’s a kitty!”
Jade came charging up, scattering gravel.
The cat looked understandably panicky, but Brice crouched down and whispered something in the special language we use for animals, and he instantly relaxed, allowing my sister to pet him.
Jade started confiding secrets to her kitty friend. “My sister’s not under that stupid stone, you know,” she explained in a hoarse whisper. “She goes to a big school in the clouds and she fights all the baddies and monsters with her angel kung fu.”
“She’s got that almost right!” Brice said in my ear.
“My mum says angels don’t fight,” Jade told the cat, “but I’ve seed her doing it in my dreams.”
I felt slightly dizzy. Had I been sharing Jade’s dreams or had she been sharing mine?
Sometimes in nightmares you just have to think of something scary and it immediately appears.
Under her woolly hat, Jade’s brown eyes looked worried. “Oh, poor kitty, what’s happening to your tail?”
Wild-eyed with terror, the cat had fluffed itself out to almost twice its normal size. Ears flat to its skull, it fled, yowling, into the bushes.
I spun to see what had freaked it so badly and almost screamed with shock as I saw the bald shambling beast stumbling towards Jade.
It was a hellhound!
My first thought was that the engraver had got it wrong. Apart from its sick-white skin, which made it look like it was already dead, the hellhound was almost ordinary. It was even behaving like an average family mutt, snuffling along paths and rooting intensely in dark corners. Then, as we watched, the hound lifted its huge naked head, letting out a gargling howl that made every tiny hair stand up on my neck. For a bizarre instant I saw three hounds, all somehow occupying the exact same space.
I didn’t need to have a second thought. Brice and I didn’t say a word. We instantly put ourselves between my little sister and the huge hell beast, taking up defensive martial-arts crouches.
I’m not sure if Jade totally realised we were there, but she’d definitely clocked the hellhound. She seemed fascinated more than scared. “Oh, wow,” she breathed. “That’s a really ugly monster.”
“Don’t suppose Sam gave you any flares?” Brice muttered out of the side of his mouth.
“Actually he did!” I tore open my bag and pulled out two flares, tossing one to Brice.
He quickly bit off the end and was instantly brandishing a huge pillar of golden-white angel fire. I hastily lit mine the same way.
You’d think two torch-wielding angels would be enough to grab its attention, but the hellhound was busy snuffling obsessively round my tombstone.
Like the majority of hell creatures, this hound wasn’t a real animal; it was a PODS remix of a dog, basically, a collection of evil thoughts trapped inside a nightmare.
Waiting for a hell beast to notice your existence is v. stressful I have to say. “Why won’t it see us,” I said in frustration.
“Can’t,” Brice explained grimly. “Hellhounds are practically blind.” He yelled out, “Yo, Fido! Over here!”
“Are you crazy!” I shrieked.
“Trust me,” he insisted. “This is the best way!”
Don’t ever tell me the worst way then, I thought.
The almost-blind hell beast suddenly lowered its head, and suspiciously swivelled in our direction. Its eyes were huge, like lamps, and filled with pain. Who knows what the hellhound saw when it looked at us? Maybe just a gold-white blur of angel fire? But that seemed like enough.
The hellhound gave a growl so low and menacing that another three hounds seemed to be speaking through its throat. Slippery threads of drool were suddenly dripping off its muzzle.
One minute Brice was beside me, the next he was standing on a half-toppled tombstone, inches from the hell dog. With a single ruthless lunge he shoved the blazing torch into its face.
The hound cringed away, more in loathing than fear, baring hideous outsized canines, and snarling with fury.
“Gotta message for you, hell-pooch!” Brice said. “You ever come near that little girl and I’ll insert TWO of these exactly where the sun don’t shine.”
Incredibly it seemed like Brice had actually scared it off. The hellhound slowly backed away, making a frustrated, high-pitched whine that set my teeth buzzing. It backed so far that it was literally backing through a pristine new marble headstone.
Jade immediately ran to my mum. “Mum, mum! There was a monster but Mel and a big boy scared it away with their angel kung fu.”
I felt sick just knowing that something so evil could simply erupt into her innocent little world.
Brice sat down on a tombstone, looking shattered.
I watched my parents walk away slowly, arm in arm, like they were having to hold each other up. Jade was skipping beside them, chatting excitedly about monsters.
I can’t tell you how much I longed to cross back through that invisible barrier and go back to my human world of Sunday parks and Friday night cafes. Unfortunately I was trapped on the inhuman side, the same as Brice.
“Thanks,” I said with difficulty. “That was great what you just did.”
“Nah, just insurance,” he said. “It was never going to hurt Jade.”
I didn’t need my life to be any more confusing than it already was, so I just snapped, “It was never going to hurt her? Oh, really? Wow, so suddenly you talk hell dog now?”
“No. I just happen to know who it’s actually following.” Brice stood up, looking exhausted suddenly and pointed across rows of identical modern headstones, to the wall that divided the cemetery from the three-lane highway outside. “See that kid? A while back, he won a hellhound for life.”
I was barely in time to see a youth in a hooded top vault over the wall. He plodded beside the traffic until he reached a subway entrance then disappeared from view.
My mission had taken yet another bizarre cosmic twist.
Chapter Fifteen
Returning to his tombstone, Brice sat down as if his legs had abruptly given way. I sat down beside him, feeling absolutely unreal.
“That thing is seriously after that boy?” I asked bewildered.
“It’s a hound, darling. Give a hound a whiffy trail to follow and off it goes. Only with hellhounds it’s not smells, it’s vibes.”
“That dog was sniffing for vibes?”
“If your soul is giving off a certain damaged kind of vibe, hell dogs can’t help themselves -they’ll follow you around till they’re half dead sometimes.”
Just occasionally, Brice lets something drop that made you wonder about all the other darker things which he has never told anyone, even Lola.
I remembered the beast slobbering obsessively along the paths, how frustrated it seemed when two fire-wielding angels interrupted its icky activities. I glanced at Brice who looked like he had gone off into his own gloomy thoughts.
“So are you planning to keep me in suspense forever, angel boy, or could you tell me who that hell pooch is really after?”
His face brightened. “Want to meet him? I mean, don’t feel you have to, but you can if you want.” He grabbed my wrist to check my watch. “Actually, if we wait a few minutes, I can almost guarantee where he’ll be.”
I gave a deep sigh. “So where do damaged souls go at ten past three on Sunday afternoons?”
Brice gave me a tired grin. “The Cosmic Cafe. If business is slow.”
When we eventually beamed on to the pavement outside the cafe, business was
about as slow as it could be. There were exactly two customers, sitting with their backs to each other - an old guy reading a paper and a boy in a hooded top, sitting with his back hunched to the window. Nikos came through the swing doors and carefully set down a plate of steaming sausages and mash in front of the boy.
“See how he’s looking after that kid?” I told Brice. “He treats everyone like that.”
“Even more amazing when you know Shay’s getting a free lunch,” Brice commented.
The boy whipped round as if he’d heard his name. I was startled to see a familiar face with slanting, suspicious brows. I started to say, “But that’s Jordie!” But all at once I couldn’t breathe. I knew this boy, not from this morning - it was like I knew him from forever.
He’d turned back to his meal. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t as shaken up as I was.
“I’m guessing Shay is Jordie’s twin?” I said and I heard my voice tremble slightly, though I have to say it didn’t sound anything like as trembly as I felt.
Brice was watching me closely. “Did you guys ever meet? You looked almost like you knew him?”
I shook my head. Kelsey’s brothers had never made it to school that often, plus they’d been in a different class. I just had a vague impression of two sets of black slanty eyebrows.
“I sort of knew their older brother,” I explained, then I started telling Brice how Kelsey and his younger brothers had camped in an abandoned car rather than be taken into care, but he said carelessly, “Yeah, I read about that in the case notes.”
I did an amazed double take. “The Agency assigned Shay to you! You might have told me you were on a mission, you big creep!”
I’d been privately wondering why Brice, of all people, had rocked up in Park Hall, but I could see that a screwed-up boy with a hellhound problem would be just up his street.
Brice shook his head, looking glum. “It’s more that Shay assigned himself, if you get my meaning?”
I finally caught on. “Omigosh - you got the call!”
‘The call’ is when a troubled human sends a personal request for you to be their guardian angel: a silent, totally desperate SOS from their soul to yours. It’s a v. mystical event, also a v. steep learning curve for the angel who is being called. Now I understood why my friend’s boyfriend had been acting so super-stressed.