by Unknown
When Mark woke up the sun was pushing a belt of light through a chink in the curtains and into the bedroom. The light ended up probing at Shax’s bed. Mark saw immediately that Shax was not there.
Mark was up in a flash. First place he checked for his friend was the bathroom, then the kitchen. Lastly the TV room. Shax wasn’t in any of them. Feeling dread claw its way up his insides, Mark raced back upstairs to their shared room and checked the laundry hamper. Shax’s green Bermuda’s and Cold Play T-shirt were gone. But they were there last night. Mark saw Shax dump them there when he’d climbed into his pyjamas. Slowly he turned and looked at the window. It was open and a draft pushed its way through. That’s why the curtains were partly open, Mark realised. Shax had sneaked out early by climbing out the window.
‘Oh, no,’ Mark groaned. He had an idea that he knew where Shax had sneaked off to.
He’d gone off looking for crop circles, but instead he’d find his death.
Mark grabbed up his own clothes – jeans and T-shirt this time - and quickly climbed out of his own pyjamas. He rammed his feet into his trainers. There was no time for brushing his teeth or washing his face and hands. He ran down the stairs. He could hear Mrs Proctor through in the private area she kept next to the kitchen. He slowed down to sneak by the door.
‘Where are you off to?’
Mark almost jumped out of his trainers. He spun around expecting Mrs Proctor to be standing behind him. But it was only Amy Gray.
Amy was a year older than Mark and Shax. He always thought that her name was odd, considering everything she wore was black. Her hair was black, too, the colour of a raven’s wing. She wore black eye shadow and black lipstick. She had a metal brace on her teeth and a stud in her top lip. Mark half expected sparks to jump from her mouth when she spoke.
“Eh, uh, eh...” Mark stammered.
He wasn’t lost for words because he’d been caught sneaking: he was always this way round Amy. She was another kid in respite care. She’d been here as long as had Mark. But in that time he hadn’t built the courage to speak to her. He thought – even if she was a Goth – that she was cute.
‘Where’s Wingnut?’ Amy asked. ‘You two are always together.’
Wingnut? Oh, yeah, I get it, Mark thought: Shax had sticky out ears.
‘I’m...uh...going to meet him now,’ Mark said.
‘So where is he?’ Amy folded her arms and Mark saw that she was wearing what looked like twenty black bracelets on each wrist.
‘Eh, uh, eh,’ was all Mark could come up with.
‘I heard him sneaking out an hour ago,’ Amy said. ‘You two are up to something.’
‘No we’re not,’ Mark tried.
‘Yeah, right,’ Amy said. ‘Well, unless you want me to shout for Ol’ Proc, I’m coming with you. It’s boring here.’
Mark’s eyes darted to the door behind which Mrs Proctor was working on breakfast. He didn’t have time for this. Shax was in great danger.
‘Okay. But you’ll have to change your boots. They’ll be no good where we’re going.’
Amy looked down at her huge boots with soles as thick as paving slabs.
‘What’s wrong with my boots?’
‘Can you run in them?’
‘I’ll go and get my trainers,’ Amy said. ‘Wait here for me.’
Mark waited. He didn’t have the time, but if he had to be honest, he didn’t want to leave the girl behind either. This had been the opportunity he’d been waiting for. It would be a pity if his demanding hormones would end up to be the death of his best friend.
When Amy returned, she’d changed into black jeans and black trainers. She had on a black jacket, too. Her hair had been pinned back behind one ear and Mark was pretty certain she’d reapplied her lippy. He blushed scarlet.
‘What’s up with you?’ she asked. There was a twinkle in her eyes.
‘Eh, uh, eh...let’s just get going.’
6
In her clunky boots, Amy always seemed to tower over Mark, but in trainers she was no taller than he was. It felt kind of comfortable walking beside her with their elbows bumping occasionally. Mark had the urge to sneak his hand into hers, but he didn’t know how she would react. Probably she’d smack his face. Instead, he twisted his two hands in the hem of his T-shirt.
‘So where exactly are we going?’ Amy asked as they made their way along the twisting road that led to Tanner’s Field.
‘Looking for Shax,’ Mark said.
‘Shax? Is that his real name?’
‘No. He’s got this name like Shakarandum or something, but I couldn’t pronounce it. He told me just to call him Shax.’
‘Beats Wingnut, I guess,’ Amy laughed.
‘I don’t think he’d like that,’ Mark pointed out.
Amy quirked the corner of her mouth and the stud caught the sunshine and flashed. ‘He looks like a Mini Cooper with the doors open,’ she said, ‘but that’s too long to keep calling him.’
‘That’s cruel,’ Mark said, but he couldn’t help smiling.
‘What do you think I look like?’ Amy asked.
‘Eh, uh, eh!’
‘Some of the kids call me a witch,’ Amy offered.
‘Are you?’
‘No...I’m a vampire.’
Mark came to a standstill and stood gawping at her. ‘Are you really?’
Amy laughed. ‘A vampire with a brace on my teeth? Don’t you think a brace would cramp my style a bit?’
Mark felt stupid. ‘I suppose so.’
Amy chuckled to herself.
They walked on, picking up speed as they approached the field.
It was set on a slope behind a dry stone wall. Mark clambered up onto the wall. He turned to offer Amy a hand and she scowled at him. She grabbed the top and pulled herself up so that she was straddling the wall next to him. They were facing each other and they were very close. Their eyes met for the briefest of moments. Mark quickly blinked and looked away. He thought he heard Amy chuckle again. To stop the flush creeping into his cheeks again, he concentrated on searching the field for Shax.
Amy pointed. ‘Either Old Man Tanner has a scarecrow with jug ears, or that’s your friend over there.’
Mark looked where she was pointing. In the centre of the field Shax was standing looking up at the sky. He had his arms spread at his sides with his palms lifted as if feeling for rain. The sky was as cloudless as it had been yesterday.
‘What’s he up to?’ Amy asked.
‘Looking for E.T.s,’ Mark said.
Amy laughed. ‘He believes that rubbish?’
Mark shrugged and hopped down in the field. After what he’d seen yesterday, anything was possible. Amy followed him and Mark led the way along the side of the field, looking for Shax’s path through the wheat. He also looked for Tanner and his dog.
Amy jogged to catch up with him.
‘Look at him,’ she said. ‘What’s he doing now?’
Shax looked like he was shuddering.
‘Shax!’ Mark yelled and set off running towards his friend.
‘Hey!’ Amy shouted, but then set off after him.
Behind Shax a grey cloud began to build. The cloud came from nowhere. It was like there was a hole in space and greyish-yellow smoke was boiling through it. It billowed, then began to spin like a tornado. Stalks of wheat were tugged loose all around Shax and began to dance in the air.
‘Shax!’ Mark hollered again.
The cloud continued to spin and within it there were sparks of light. The sparks were red, like the eyes of rats reflected in torchlight. Dust picked up now and the tornado whirled even faster. There was a great crack of lightning, but this lightning flashed upwards. It aimed a jagged finger at the sun.
Mark was running, but it was like he was moving in slow motion. Behind him he could hear Amy shouting, but her voice came out like a low bellow as if her voice was a recording played at super-slow speed.
Then there was another flash of lightning and for a split-second
Mark could have sworn that he saw another figure standing directly in front of Shax.
‘Noooooo...’ he yelled, his voice trailing way behind the thought.
The second figure looked like something made of sticks and rags, like a withered mummy. Mark wondered if it was Tanner’s scarecrow, until he saw it move. It looked towards him and its eyes were bright red coals seething with evil. That was frightening enough, but nothing like the huge pair of shears he held between his hands. As Mark struggled through the wheat he saw the thing lift the shears and place a sharp blade either side of Shax’s neck. Shax didn’t look like he minded.
‘Noooooooooo...’ Mark screamed again and his voice was echoed by Amy’s close by.
The withered thing began to slowly close the shears.
It was going to cut off Shax’s head.
Then it looked directly at Mark again. Its lips twisted into a smile. He’d never seen anything as cruel in his life.
In an instant the tornado disappeared.
Mark felt like he was being sucked forward, as if the slow motion place he’d been caught in had suddenly speeded up to catch up with reality. He stumbled and fell and Amy came tumbling over him and both of them ended up in a bundle of arms and legs on the floor.
Unwinding themselves they came to their hands and knees. Then, side-by-side they stood up.
Together they circled round, staring at where they stood.
They were at the epicentre of a crop circle that had appeared in the middle of Tanner’s field.
All that moved was the occasional stalk of wheat that fluttered down from the sky. There was no sound except for their breathing
Shax and the withered thing were gone.
7
What just happened?
Mark blinked.
He wasn’t sure who just asked that question. Amy or him?
‘What just happened?’
This time it was definitely Amy’s voice and he looked at her with his jaw hanging loose.
Well, it wasn’t aliens, he thought.
‘Well, it wasn’t aliens,’ Amy said.
Mark jerked.
Twice now he’d heard her words before she’d spoken them aloud. He didn’t think he was psychic. It was more likely that his theory on rips in time and space wasn’t as crazy as it first sounded. He looked around at the knitted wheat stalks below his feet. Thirty feet away a perfectly straight wall of standing stalks that the tornado had not touched surrounded him. If it wasn’t for the fact that Shax had gone missing – and at the very moment some devilish creature was threatening to cut off his head – Mark would be very excited. He’d just witnessed how crop circles were formed! He had just made history; solved a riddle of the ages. He’d be famous.
Amy thumped him.
‘Are you listening to me, Mark Darrow?’
‘What?’ he asked, rubbing his shoulder.
‘Is this some sort of trick?’ Amy looked as stunned as Mark felt.
‘A trick? Who do you think I am? David Copperfield? This was real, Amy.’
“Who’s David Copperfield?’
‘Like David Blaine but better,’ Mark said. ‘In my opinion.’
Amy looked like she didn’t know whom the magician David Blaine was either, but Mark didn’t feel like enlightening her. More importantly was figuring out where Shax had went to, and how they could get him back. And how to do that before the creature with the shears took his head.
‘If you want to help, come with me,’ Mark said. Without waiting he charged out of the crop circle and towards the woods. He was pretty sure that Amy would follow. She did.
Back at the pool, Mark stood looking down at the hollow that had held so much water yesterday. Tanner’s job on the dam had done its work and now the hollow below the waterfall was just a muddy hole with only the faintest of trickles running through it. Good, Mark thought. Shax’s body hadn’t been dumped there yet. It had to be full of water again for that to happen. Mark quickly jumped to where the dam had been and began throwing the rocks here and there to make sure that the pool still wouldn’t flood if there was a sudden down pour.
‘What are you doing, Mark?’
‘Saving Shax,’ he said.
Then he told her what he’d seen yesterday and how he hoped to stop the future.
Amy joined him. She was strong for a girl, he saw. She moved more rocks than he did. He was happy that she didn’t question him: when first he’d started talking, he was afraid that she’d laugh at him, then go back to the Sunshine Home and tell Mrs Proctor that she was living alongside a fruitcake. But Amy had accepted his words. How could she not when she’d been there when the withered thing had snatched Shax out of this existence?
A thought struck Mark.
When he realised there was still a way to save Shax, he hadn’t been thinking only of himself, he had been thinking in the plural. He was thinking they and them. Amy was now as much a part of this as he or Shax was.
‘Do you think that we’ve been brought together for a reason?’ he asked. He said it timidly.
‘Don’t get any ideas,’ Amy said. ‘I like you Mark, but it’s not as if it’s love at first sight or anything.’
‘Eh, uh, eh, I didn’t mean like that,’ Mark stammered. ‘I meant you, Shax and me. We’re from different parts of the country. We all ended up here together at the exact same time. You don’t suppose there’s something in that do you?’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Of course. It’s called the summer hols you freak.’
Mark smiled to himself. Somehow, Amy calling him a freak wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
‘I just feel like there’s a reason behind it all,’ Mark said.
‘That reason wouldn’t be causing me as much grief as possible, would it?’ asked a gruff voice.
Mark and Amy turned from their work to look at the rocks that formed the waterfall. Standing on top of them with his feet braced either side of the stream was Old Man Tanner. Rip, the dog, was sitting beside his left boot and it watched them both with eyes like molten chocolate.
When Mark and Amy failed to reply to his question, Tanner stomped down from the rocks. He lifted his shotgun and aimed it loosely at them. His gaze scraped over Amy then came to rest on Mark.
‘You again.’
It wasn’t a question so Mark didn’t bother to answer.
‘And up to hooliganism again,’ Tanner went on.
‘Hooliganism,’ Amy whispered out the corner of her mouth. ‘Is that even a real word?’
‘It was once,’ Tanner said. He was old but his hearing was still strong. ‘And it best describes the kind of thing the two of you have been up to.’
‘We were demolishing the dam,’ Mark pointed out. ‘Finishing what you started yesterday.’
‘Insolent devil, ain’t you?’ Tanner said. There was a grudging smile at the corner of his mouth, though. ‘What’s the fascination, boy? Why do you keep on coming back here? I thought I’d frightened you and your friend off for good.’
‘I’m trying to save my friend,’ Mark said.
Amy nudged him.
‘We’re trying to save our friend,’ he corrected.
‘The body you said was in the water. Didn’t you say it had no head?’ Tanner scowled at him.
‘It was true,’ Mark said loudly.
Tanner hung his head. Something came over him then and he lifted the gun and tucked it under his armpit. ‘Why couldn’t you just stay well and good away? The local kids know not to come here. They know what might happen.’
‘Our friend disappeared. He...’
‘Aye, lad,’ Tanner said. ‘I know. It’s been going on here for years. It’s why I try to keep you city kids off my land.’
‘You know about this? You know what really makes the crop circles?’
Rip whined deep in its throat and Tanner reached down to pat the dog between its ears.
“Well, it isn’t aliens, if that’s what you mean,’ Tanner said.
‘It was a like a scarecrow �
��‘
Before Mark could continue, Tanner held up the flat of a hand. ‘No. Not a scarecrow. But I think you’ve already guessed that.’
‘Evil,’ Amy said.
‘Ancient,’ Mark added.
‘Aye, he’s all that and more,’ Tanner agreed. ‘He’s older than time itself; and nothing so evil has ever walked this earth or any of the other dimensions.’
Mark and Amy blinked up at him in shock.
‘I take it that he snatched your friend?’ Tanner asked.
‘Yes,’ Mark said. ‘But we have a chance...’
Again Tanner cut him off. ‘It was your friend’s body you saw in the water yesterday, wasn’t it, boy? You had a glimpse of things to come. You came here to stop the pool flooding again, because you thought that would change the future. It can’t be done. You’re wasting your time.’
Mark shook his head. ‘I have to try.’
‘Good on you, lad. But you’re trying to attempt the impossible.’ Tanner’s eyes darkened and his voice grew a little softer. ‘I tried and I failed. Skathalos took my friend too.’
‘Skathalos?’
‘That’s just one of his names,’ Tanner said. ‘There are others he goes by: Reaper in the rows. The Corn Devil. Sower of Pestilence. Skathalos is about the easiest to get our tongues around.’
‘I’d prefer to call it scumbag,’ Amy said.
‘Aye,’ Tanner said. ‘He’s that, too. Just don’t let him hear you call him that.’
‘Not only will I call him that, I’ll scratch his eyes out.’ Amy fisted her hands on her hips. Mark thought she looked fantastic. Tanner only shook his head.
‘You kids have no idea what you’re going up against.’
‘You seem to know a lot,’ Mark said.
‘I do,’ Tanner agreed. ‘I do. But I didn’t know enough when he took my friend.’
‘You went after him?’
‘Aye, lad. I was no older than you at the time. But I didn’t have the knowledge I have now.’ Tanner scrubbed at his nose with the heel of his palm. When he looked at Mark again he had a great sadness in his eyes. ‘I failed to stop Skathalos, and he took my friend’s head as his prize. I was lucky to get out of there alive...’ Tanner studied his hand ‘...if you could call this living.’