Crooked Daylight

by Helen Slavin

  Anna couldn’t remember the pictures she’d seen that day, but there had been pictures. Not good. Stay.

  “So how do you see things now? Is it still pictures or just the feelings?” Her grandmother spoke lightly, as if taking a survey or asking the weather.

  “Both. Sometimes, like a dream, blurry.”

  Her grandmother did not blink, waited. Anna dared. Thought of the images that had come when she felt for the pulse of the man by the lake.

  “Sometimes… flashing, like a flicker book, or shuffling cards. But the Strength comes within the feelings.”

  Her grandmother reached across, squeezed her hand, planted a kiss on her forehead as she smoothed Anna’s hair.

  “Anna… you’ll understand. Who you are. What you must be. What you will do…” And she hugged her tightly.

  * * *

  Seren Lake had worn in her boots slightly and so only half tripped along the route the four women took to Badger’s Hollow. The area was at the town edge of Havoc Wood where a small green lane cut in from a footpath that ran along the river. Almost no one ever came along this route. A couple of the locals walked their dogs along the opposite bank of the river path but never considered turning into the wood. The trees here were snarled and intertwined into something that, from the safety of the river path, looked like a snare. Tighe Rourke’s car was parked up, blocking the public footpath, the new tyres having chewed up the thin track into ruts and divots.

  “Right. This is where it kicks off.” Charlie’s voice was hushed, and she was trying to look business-like by checking out the interior of the car, her hand shielding her eyes from the light as she tried to peer through the passenger side window.

  “We’re all sure of the details of the plan?” Anna scanned each face, each woman nodding.

  “Find him… lead him round to the jetty…” Emz’s voice trailed off, they were all looking at Seren.

  “I can do this. I can,” she reassured them. “When he comes after me… jump off the jetty… splash about a lot, sink down, swim under the water, come up under the jetty. Hide in the space beneath the boards.” She gave a wobbling smile. “… And wait for you to come and get me.” She took in a deep breath.

  The four women followed the path back down into the wood, negotiating their way through the bare and emptied branches. They were moving downhill now, no one talking, each woman locked into her own thoughts of their plan. The silence deepened as, through the trees, they caught sight of Tighe Rourke on the top curve of the shoreline. They exchanged nothing more than a nod and the Ways watched as Seren Lake moved out of the cover of the trees and onto the shore.

  The sisters were trailing them close, Emz was staying the nearest to her, no more than a few trees depth from the lakeshore. Anna was heading west and Charlie east so that all directions and routes were covered back to Cob Cottage, and at all times, bait and prey were firmly in their sightline.

  Seren was shaking at the lakeside. Twilight was just starting to blur the edges of the day but Seren observed Tighe at the southern shore of the lake. She walked a few paces, looking up to see Cob Cottage, the lights winking from the porch, knowing she was going the right way, that this was the right thing to do. It was clear, however, that Tighe had not yet seen her. She could see where he was halted, adjusting something, what was that he had looped across his shoulder and chest? She looked away instantly. Rope.

  She was shaking badly. What she wanted, more than anything in the world at that moment, was to walk into the water and not stop until it covered her head. The lake, to Seren Lake, was a place of safety.

  She reached out an unsteady hand and picked up a flat stone or two. She wanted to be seen but look as if she had not seen him and so, angling herself away from Tighe, she skimmed the first stone. It danced across the surface, once, twice, three times, four. She took a few steps. She did not have to look around to know that Tighe had spotted her and altered his own course, instead of heading east he was heading back towards her. Seren felt the cool stone in her hand. She skimmed that too, out onto the lake. It made a dotted line towards the middle, the path she should take, the stepping stones across the water. She tried to breathe properly but each intake of air rushed too quickly. She had to let go of her thoughts, of the past or the future and just walk, stone by stone, step by step, shore to shore.

  Anna watched Tighe Rourke change his course around the lake. As he began to close the gap between himself and Seren, Anna chose a different path for herself, letting her feet lead her so that now she was stalking him, unseen. She let herself hold back, Seren stepping ahead and Anna picking up beside Tighe, never let him out of her sight. She could feel the greasy mental trail of him, it was thicker, darker now. Beyond him she could sense the smooth cool light of Emz in the trees, the bright blue prickling electricity of Charlie to the East. Charlie would be at the edges of the wood behind Cob Cottage minutes before Tighe and Seren and Anna reached it.

  Except that for Charlie, something had gone awry. She watched from the eastern side of the wood to where, further round to the West, Seren was picking her way along the last curve of the lakeshore before the jetty. It was going according to plan and yet, to Charlie, it felt wrong. Every step she watched Seren take jarred with her. Charlie halted and took a deep breath. It needed an adjustment of thought, a tweak of her mind. There. Birch Bluff. Instinctively Charlie knew where she herself needed to be and her feet altered their course, found the way easily, she had, after all, known this wood all her life. She was surprised then when the root seemed to lift out of the ground from nowhere and clip her ankle. She sprawled downward, the air knocking out of her lungs, her hand reaching out to stop herself falling and the palm jarring upwards, scraping itself against bark. Her face was scuffed by a branch, a small twig of which grazed at her eyeball so that her eye was watering uncontrollably, a minuscule particle of bark rasping against the surface of her eye. She squatted for a moment, blinking and blinking, the breath catching tightly in her chest. All she could see was water, blurring, distorting, washing the air out of her. She shut her eyes, clamping them hard, feeling where the particle of bark bit at her eye. Her finger made it worse. All she could see was water. She looked down at her hand, at the graze left there. A picture of an edge of tumbled earth printed itself over her skin. She knew the place, where the tree had fallen last year. She looked up towards the lake. She could no longer see Seren, or Tighe. Her eye was stinging, blinded, all she could see was water. She wiped at her eye. Desperate. All you can see is water, Charlie, think about that.

  Which is when Charlie started to run.

  * * *

  Emz dodged between trees just beyond Seren, out of sight but keeping close watch. Emz was alarmed at the speed with which Tighe Rourke was catching up and, as he pursued Seren, he was grappling with a white snake, long and writhing up across his chest and over his shoulder. What was that? They were moving slightly uphill now, towards Birch Bluff where the rich black soil of the wood began to mingle with the sandier soil of the lakeside and here and there chunks had broken away and slid into the lake itself. What did Tighe Rourke have in his hand? A weapon? The white snake uncoiled from his shoulder, his arm flexing as he lifted it upwards. Rope.

  The end of the rope lashed through the air, the almost perfect parabola of it skimmed past Emz herself as she hid in the trees before it landed just short of Seren. Tighe’s arm flinched quickly back and the white snake of rope whirled through the air once more, its tail end whipping at Seren’s face as she turned in horror. Once again, he flinched and flexed, the rope a deadly tentacle catching at Seren. She clawed it away and ran forwards.

  “You’re mine.” Tighe’s voice was a low rumble as he snatched the rope back, the end burning across Seren’s face. She did not scream out. Emz was breaking cover now to intercept, could hear the eerie whop-whop-whop sound the rope made as it curled through the air. She felt the fire flare inside her as it had that day in Leap Woods, she became aware of the darkness stretching out of the trees
to reach him but as she did so the rope coiled around Seren once more, her ankle caught and, wrong-footed, Seren stumbled forward, there was a knocking sound as her skull made contact with the upright branch of the fallen tree and then a strange sigh breathed across the wind and Seren seemed to vanish.

  The rope came back empty. Tighe gave a wild grunt but Emz was running past him now, her shoulder connecting with his back, knocking him out of her path. There had not been a splash but Emz knew what had happened, knew where Seren was. The ground where Seren had been standing had crumbled, the friable earth still tumbling after her, the edge of the shore broken away and the fallen tree leaning lakeward like a bridge. Emz was not supposed to go into the water. Black-deep, blue-cold. She could see Charlie now, racing along the shoreline towards them from the East, her feet pounding and Anna coming from the South. A distance. There was no time. Emz stepped down along the trunk of the tree, her feet using the broken off branch stumps as rungs. She could glimpse Seren, a ghost beneath the lake water. She was not supposed to go into the water. Emz held her breath, leapt forward.

  Pike Lake was black-deep. Emz dropped beneath the surface, the darkness reaching out, vast, beyond her. She could see Seren Lake, unconscious, falling down towards the welcome of the weeds, slick and black, reaching for her. The cold was bitter, making Emz’s bones ache so that they felt as if they were ringing. Beside her a splash of silver where the water spat at the white snake of rope as it whipped and lashed time and again on the surface.

  Emz pushed herself down through the water, it was so heavy, like lead or stone, like no water she had ever been in. Seren was a only a footprint beneath her, Emz kicked her foot to shift her position, rolled until she was head down, sinking through the clag of liquid, heavy, so heavy, her hand reaching, stretching, her fingertips curling around Seren’s coat but the sleeve was falling away, Seren slipping out of the coat. Welcome guest, welcome, stay a while. Emz pushed harder, her body felt compressed, like paper, her fingers grappled, Seren’s shoulder was drifting out of reach but her fingers tangled in Seren’s hair. She held on, pulled gently now, no choice, so heavy, her other hand smoothed forward, her elbow folding around Seren’s neck. They had to go up. But so heavy I am stone. Emz felt the breath leaving her, the strain of her lungs clutching at the last gasps of air left to them.

  Just as she felt herself sinking deeper, the white snake of rope slithered down to meet them.

  Anna, half immersed in the water, clamped her hands around Emz’s shoulder and was dragging her back to land along the stones. Charlie held the rope like a tug of war. Where Emz gasped like a fish, Seren, they could see, was limp and lifeless, her boots dragging as Charlie let go of the rope, dropped down onto the muddied shoreline and pulled her out of the water. Above them Tighe Rourke was scrabbling down the fallen tree. There was a sound of creaking and with a moan the tree fractured, wood rending the length of the trunk so that Tighe was flung to the stones, landed heavily.

  “No… no… no… nononono.” His voice was a rasp in the air.

  “Anna.” Charlie said her sister’s name because she did not know what else to do. Emz was gasping in air now, retching up lake water but Seren was still. Anna reached for her, felt at her neck for a pulse. She couldn’t tell beneath the ice cold of Seren’s skin, behind the solid pounding of her own pulse, heated and afraid. Charlie heaved at Seren’s body, began shifting her into position, her lips over Seren’s, breathing into, breathing into, breathing into. Seren stayed lifeless.

  “No… no…” Tighe was on her then, his body pushing Charlie and Anna out of the way, crushing Seren to him. “Nonononononono.” He was folding her into his chest and as Charlie and Anna tried to reach for her he growled, pushed Anna away, kicked Charlie, his boot printing itself on her jaw.

  “Argh!” Emz exploded from the ground, her fist ramming up into his chin, grinding his teeth together like millstones. His grip slackened, he fell back, scrabbling on the stones and Emz shunted herself up, put her body between him and Seren, her arms lifting up, defensive, protective.

  “Anna.” Charlie said it again. The only thing that made her feel connected to the world. No, the only thing that connected Anna, Charlie could see where Anna’s mind had wandered to.

  “Anna.” Charlie knew there was no time. This was not the plan. Not the plan. “Anna,” she repeated, trying to call her sister back. Seren, still lifeless, still breathless. Charlie leaned in once more. Breathe, breath. Breathe, breath. Breathe. Breathe. Breath.

  “Call an ambulance,” Charlie barked the order before she breathed into Seren once more. Looking up she shouted into her sister’s stricken face. “CALL AN AMBULANCE.” Charlie’s voice echoed around the lake, steely and harsh. She turned on Tighe Rourke, her voice roaring from her.

  “NOW.”

  Tighe’s voice, a raw, animal sound as he offered information on the phone before his hands fumbled the phone tumbling onto the stones as Charlie breathed into Seren.

  “They’re coming,” he said. Charlie felt Seren’s jaw where her hand curved around it, the dome of her skull above, tried to think of electricity within, sparking and firing. “Is she dead?” Tighe’s voice was wavering. “Is she? Is she dead?”

  Charlie pushed his voice away and thought of Seren. Breathe. Breath. Breathe.

  “It’s not working… she’s not breathing… she’s dead. Isn’t she? Is she dead?” He was stepping forward, stepping back now, repulsed and afraid. “She’s dead… is she? Is she?” He was cringing away, the rope that had pulled Emz and Seren from the water was roiling and twisted around his legs, he stumbled, he staggered. “She’s dead. She’s dead. I know it. She’s dead.” Charlie held on to Seren. No. No. No. This was not the plan. She bent once more, a deeper breath, longer, reaching inside Seren, down, down, down, to the lungs. All I can see is water.

  A siren began to wail in the distance and Tighe Rourke looked up, wailing too. He was scrabbling up the bank now, his hands raw against the gritty earth. Charlie no longer cared. Breathe, breath. Breathe, breath.

  The siren chased at Tighe Rourke. He crawled up the banking, scrabbled to his feet and there was no stopping him, his feet pounding hard, heading for cover. The wood swallowed him up.

  Anna was stroking Seren’s hair, her face empty and blank. Charlie was struggling, her own breath was being stolen by panic, choked and short. Tears were pricking at her eyes. Breathe, breath, breathe, breath. She fumbled in her pocket for her own phone, but it wasn’t there. Breathe, breath, breathe, breath, breathe, breathe, breathe.

  Emz reached, her hand moving forward and, with a light touch to Charlie’s shoulder, Charlie slid away from Seren, the tears brimming over now. All I can see is water. Emz reached. One hand brushed at the bruised-looking spot on Seren’s head, the fingers moving delicately, tracing the edges of the livid colouring, her other hand curled gently around Seren’s stilled ribcage, her thumb resting by the soft curve of Seren’s left breast, the movement she made was barely perceptible, a delicate pushing, her eyes closing before her other hand reached down to join it, the fingers pointing like a blade, so that she looked, for a moment, as though she was praying as her hands met, pushed against Seren’s chest with one clean motion and Seren took in a breath. Another. Another. Breath. Breath. Breath.

  25

  Which Witch

  The Way sisters were sitting on the porch at Cob Cottage wrapped in blankets against the chill of the September night. Inside, visible through the round moon window and lit by the soft light of Cob Cottage, the recovering Seren Lake was sleeping. The Ways had not wanted her out of their sight and so she was cocooned into a duvet on the pull-out sofa in the main room. The door to the room however, was closed. Firmly.

  Anna, Charlie and Emz had been talking for some time. It was a jigsaw puzzle of pieces of information that each pulled from their head that they then placed in the conversation so that, gradually, they were creating a picture, straight edges, corners and all.

  “Gamekeeping. That’s what Grand
ma Hettie always called it isn’t it?” Charlie asked, unsure of her memory at the moment since it seemed to be throwing a lot of things around. “Yes,” Emz chimed in, “and she talked of doing a ‘patrol’. That word came into my head when I…” before Emz could complete the thought, Anna did.

  “… Suggested making a patrol of the lake. Yes. Something pinged in my head then too.”

  They sipped at their mugs of leek and potato soup, creamy and herby and comforting.

  “She used to say it was ‘our job’ didn’t she? I always thought she was sort of joking.” Charlie recalled the way Grandma Hettie’s mouth formed the words ‘it’s our job’. By the lake with the man who was washed up. Another incident where three men had come out of Havoc Wood and although Charlie had been scared of them Grandma Hettie had insisted she ask them if they had come far.

  “But why?” Charlie had whined, and Grandma Hettie had said, “It’s our job.”

  Charlie recalled their answer: “Far enough.” Later, they had cooked for them and the men had rested for a time.

  Anna was recalling still another, a woman with a long plait of red hair, the longest plait that Anna had ever seen. ‘Have you come far?’ Grandma Hettie had nudged Anna to ask the old question and as Anna recalled it, Emz chimed in in a distant daydream voice.

  “Far enough.”

  Her sisters turned to her.

  “What did you say?”

  “It’s what they all said, isn’t it? All her visitors, all the guests?” Emz said. The Ways exchanged a look.

  “I have felt so bad. So lost. Since.” She could not complete the thought but did not have to, her sisters nodded understanding. “… Now I feel…” She could not speak for tears, took in a deep breath and looked out across the lake, the water shiny black under the velvet night sky.