She pulled me up towards my room. ‘Come on. I’m with you. Nothing’s going to happen that you don’t want.’ I didn’t even want to go in, but I followed Zoe and watched as she drew my curtains drawn and lit an incense stick.
“We need to get your dad back, for good,’ Zoe announced. ‘And I’ve got one or two people I want to take care of, just for me.’
This time Zoe had downloaded some meditation CD with strange, unearthly sounds on it and we stared and stared at the candle flame until my brain pounded and everything felt unreal. Even when I closed my eyes, I could see flickering and dancing, behind my eyelids, right inside in my head. Zoe started to chant, over and over again. And then she asked the spirits to banish anything bad from our lives. It was a warm morning, but I started to shiver. Painful little goose bumps rose all along my arms and the cold prickling down my neck and back felt as if tiny, sharp fingers were playing across my skin.
‘Zoe,’ I whispered.
“Shhh.’
I waited. But I could see them – black shapes moving in the dark recesses of the room. I felt tears pricking my eyes. ‘Zoe, please.’
‘What?’ she hissed.
‘I – I –’ I bit my lip. ‘I’m sorry. I’m really scared.’
Zoe looked at me, her eyes narrowed and a half-smile on her lips. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’
I shook my head. ‘This is frightening me to death. I didn’t think I believed in ghosts. Did you?’
Zoe looked around the room before she answered. ‘Of course I do. I can feel them, right now. We asked for them and they came.’ She smiled.
I took two or three deep breaths, to try to stop myself from crying in front of her. ‘I want to stop all this. Please.’
‘We can’t stop now. It’s too late. You can’t wake up the spirits of the dead and then tell them, whoops, you’re sorry, you didn’t mean it.’
I looked into Zoe’s eyes, but my vision blurred a little. She leaned forward and put her hands on my shoulders. ‘Hey. Don’t be upset. I promise they’re good spirits. I know it. Look at all the stuff that’s been happening.’
I wiped at my eyes.
‘You want your dad back home for good, don’t you?’
Before I got a chance to answer, there was a sudden piercing sound as someone pressed the doorbell hard. It went through our heads like a gunshot.
Zoe swore.
I stood up, blinking and a little dizzy.
‘Don’t answer it,’ Zoe pleaded, but I couldn’t do that.
‘Clear up, will you?’ I asked. ‘And open the window. We can guess who it is.’
I was right. ‘Hi,’ I said, barely able to meet Kerry’s eyes. ‘You OK?’
It was typical. I was the only one who didn’t drink a load of cider the night before, but somehow, I was the only one feeling nauseous. What was going on? Kerry lingered about on the doorstep and I knew I had to ask her inside. Zoe was going to go mad.
When I opened the bedroom door, all the ritual stuff had been tidied away. Zoe was getting very fast at that and the window was wide open, although the smell of the incense hung around. Sweet, though, not sulphurous. Zoe was sitting upright on my bed looking like Mary Poppins, all prim and innocent, flicking through a magazine.
‘Oh,’ she said to Kerry. ‘It’s you again.’
‘Zoe,’ I said. ‘Kerry really helped you – us – out last night, remember.’
‘Was that your shirt I had on?’ Zoe asked.
Kerry nodded, grinning daftly and waiting to be thanked. ‘I gave you one of my best ones.’
‘Damn,’ said Zoe. ‘I used it to clean up the flat this morning. Then I put it in the bin.’
I could’ve slapped her.
‘Tell me you’re joking,’ I said, when Kerry gave a nervous little laugh.
‘Nope, sorry.’ Zoe put her palm to her cheek and rolled her eyes. ‘So stupid of me.’
I felt myself going red and hot and full of shame, although I’d had no part in this. I picked up the T-shirt Kerry had given me. ‘Here,’ I said, in a mumble. ‘I washed it. Thanks, Kerry. I – I’m really sorry. You were great last night.’
Kerry took the top without a word. I didn’t want to look at her face, so I kept staring at the ground.
There was a horrible silence. Then Kerry said, with forced cheerfulness, ‘So, what shall we do today?’
‘We?’ Zoe was flicking through the magazine again, as if Kerry wasn’t there.
‘Want to go to the shops?’ I suggested, sure that it was hopeless. ‘I need a new bag for school. Mum left me some money.’
‘No cash again,’ said Zoe, without looking up. I knew she was going to be like this as long as Kerry was there.
‘Well, I might – I might – just go home then.’ Kerry had a catch in her voice. She wanted to be asked to stay and part of me wanted to make her feel better. But I could tell that Zoe would just freeze her out. Or torture her in some way.
‘I guess,’ I said.
I hated myself.
Kerry turned and I followed her down the stairs. ‘Hey.’ I caught her arm before she went out the door. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t know why Zoe is – I think she’s just – I can’t –’
Kerry shrugged.
I picked up the tenner Mum had left on the hall table and pushed it into Kerry’s hand. ‘Will this go towards a new top?’
She shoved it back at me, shaking her head, and I guessed she was going to cry again. I let her go. As I shut the door, I thought about her fearsome mum and knew that Kerry was going to get into huge trouble over the missing shirt.
‘She gone?’ Zoe came down the stairs. ‘Good. Now we can go into town.’
‘You said you didn’t have any money,’ I reminded her.
‘That was just to get rid of her.’
‘Did you have to be so –’ Horrible, I wanted to say. Cruel.
‘Cruel to be kind,’ Zoe said, as if she’d plucked the word out of my head. ‘I keep telling you, if we’re nice to her, she’ll haunt us for our whole lives. She was such an embarrassment last night. Having to look after her ruined the whole thing. She finally needs to get that we don’t want her around – especially now we have our own place.’
We caught the bus into town and went to one of my favourite cafes, but I felt like I had maggots squirming around my insides and I couldn’t even finish my burger. Zoe chatted all the time about all sorts of things – school, GCSEs, one of her latest arty projects. This was the Zoe I loved. A different Zoe to the one who could treat people so badly. I tried to push that Zoe out of my mind.
Just then, we heard loud sniggering and turned to see Maxine and some other girls from school, waiting to get a seat. ‘Not sure we should stay here,’ one of them was saying, loudly. ‘It’s the grimy goths, over in the corner. I thought there was a funny smell.’
Quite a few people turned to look at us. I stared at the remains of my coffee. Zoe muttered something under her breath.
‘What did you say?’ I asked them. Zoe had her eyes closed and was still muttering, too quietly for me to make out the words.
‘We’re saying there’s a stink. Coming from you two.’ The others held their noses and waved their hands.
Just then a woman strode over to them. ‘I’ll have to ask you to leave,’ she said.
The gang burst out into protests. Zoe and I turned to stare.
‘We haven’t done anything,’ Maxine said, while the others stood with their mouths open. ‘You can’t chuck us out.’
‘It’s quite obvious you’re trying to cause trouble,’ the woman said. ‘I can hear you making rude remarks about other customers. You can see there are no free seats, anyway. Please leave.’
‘I want to see the manager,’ said Maxine.
‘I am the manager,’ said the woman.
Zoe and I grinned a
t each other.
As the girls turned to leave, one of them spat on the floor, in our general direction. ‘That’s it,’ said the manager. ‘You’re all barred, permanently. Now get out.’
Then she came over to us. ‘I’m very sorry,’ she said. ‘I heard what those girls were saying and I didn’t like it at all. I’ve seen you in here a few times and you never cause trouble. I’ve seen them too and I swear they once left without paying. Choose a cake and another drink – on the house.’
We chose something from the menu and she went to get us a freebie. ‘I can’t believe that just happened,’ I said to Zoe.
She gave me a slow smile. ‘I willed something to happen to them,’ she said. ‘I just felt like I could do it. It was amazing, wasn’t it?’
Afterwards, we went mooching round the shops. Zoe suddenly suggested buying Kerry a new top. ‘I’ve only got a couple of quid, but if you lend me that money your mum gave you, I’ll pay it back,’ Zoe said, picking a T-shirt from the rack.
‘Why?’ I said. ‘I mean, I think it is a good idea. But you said you wanted to get rid of Kerry.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. Call it karma,’ said Zoe, peering at the size label. ‘What do you think she is – size 12? Or 14? If we get a size too small, she’ll be mortified and if I get one that’s too big, it’ll look like I’m making a comment about her size. I just feel a bit guilty, that’s all. I don’t want to be like that crowd from school.’
I squeezed her arm.
Guilt made us spend all our money on the top for Kerry and a bracelet in the same colour. The sort of shiny, pink-y thing she would wear. We knocked at her door with the new top in its bag. Her mum answered, shouted for Kerry and left us standing at the door. The way she looked at us made me shrink. It was like her mum-radar had picked up something rotten. Kerry sniffed when she saw us.
Zoe held out the top, which was wrapped in tissue paper. ‘Got you this,’ she said. ‘To say sorry. I was a cow.’
Kerry’s face lightened straight away and she tore at the tissue paper. She held it up against herself.
‘Thanks,’ she said and leaned forward as if she was going to give Zoe a hug. Zoe shrank back.
‘Really, thanks,’ Kerry said again. ‘You were pretty horrible though.’
Zoe shrugged. ‘One of those days. Can we forget it?’
Kerry nodded vigorously and as we turned to go, she followed us, closing her door behind her. ‘So,’ she said. ‘What shall we do tonight?’
Zoe closed her eyes.
After we’d shaken Kerry off again, by an elaborate process of pretending we were each going home and then meeting up again near The Cut, Zoe persuaded me to go and look at her cleaning efforts in the empty flat. She still had the key and said she was planning to keep it, unless Jodie directly asked for it back.
Zoe gave a long sigh. ‘We’re back to Square One with Kerry,’ she said. ‘What was I thinking? Maybe she would have stayed away this time and then we’d be finished with her. Like cutting off an infected limb.’
‘Don’t let’s go there again,’ I said, blinking at the strong smell of bleach when we opened the door. When Zoe said she’d cleaned the place, she wasn’t kidding. It smelled worse than a hospital. ‘I felt awful. It was like shooting Bambi.’
‘Yes, but,’ said Zoe, rhythmically kicking at the wall with her toe, ‘she gets on my nerves so much, Anna. I was sorry for her, for a few minutes, but now she thinks she’s one of us, part of a little gang. I only want it to be just us two again.’
‘So do I. But we’ve been through this again and again. She hasn’t got anyone else. I think we’re stuck.’
Zoe punched the wall then said, ‘Owww’ and examined her hand. I laughed at her and after a second or two she joined in.
‘What about that café, though?’ Zoe’s eyes were firelight. ‘Since we’re talking about karma.’
We went over and over what had happened. Zoe insisted it was all down to our magic working.
‘Or they brought it on themselves,’ I said. ‘Mouthing off like that.’
‘Yes, but, when does anyone ever stop them? When do they ever get caught out like that? That Maxine strides round school like she owns the place and even the teachers think she’s a saint. Magic, Anna. We’ve got the power.’
Zoe held out her hands. Her fingers were long and pale. Witch’s fingers. I half expected to see bolts of lightning coming out of them. ‘Tomorrow,’ she said. ‘We’ll try again. Thinking about what we really, really want and ask for it. Imagine it happening. Imagine it coming true.’
‘I guess. OK.’ Zoe took my hand and I squeezed it. ‘What will you ask for?’
Zoe shrugged. ‘I’ve got some ideas. But it’s almost a full moon. It’s a good time to ask for things. To have more luck.’
We got a chance to try some more magic when my mum went out to do her weekly battle with the supermarket. Zoe took extra care in setting everything up. There were candles in the four corners of the room, or at least as close to the corners as we could get them without setting fire to something.
Zoe chanted out some more verses that she’d written herself. About summoning up all the powers of the sun and the moon, earth, air, fire and water – then asking for something I really wanted. It felt a bit like a being a kid about to blow out your birthday candles. You know it’s a bit daft to make a wish, but you always do it anyway. So I asked.
Zoe just said something very vague about having more good luck. And then she said: ‘And rid us of that Kerry. Please.’ As we stared at the candle flames, which were absolutely still in the airless room, the wax was melting far too fast and spitting like a snake. I felt something brush past my shoulders and I jumped and gave a little shriek.
Zoe glared. ‘What’s the matter?’
I stared around the room. ‘Something touched me.’
‘Really?’ Zoe looked at me eagerly.
I couldn’t explain. ‘Zoe.’ I breathed in deeply because I knew she wouldn’t want to hear this. ‘You know I keep having these awful dreams. Do you think if we stopped doing these rituals, they might go away?’
Zoe considered. ‘No, I think the dreams are just your imagination running off with you. Look, when I summon up the dead, the main person I have in mind is my dad. I think if anyone’s spirit was going to help me, it would be his. So yes, I think there are presences in the room, but I don’t think there’s anything evil floating around, if that’s what you’re worrying about.’
My shoulders drooped. ‘I know. But the nightmares won’t stop. I don’t even like being here during the day on my own. Don’t laugh at me!’
‘I’m not. But I really think you’re just getting worked up about nothing.’ She knelt back on her heels. ‘This is why no one tries … magic, or whatever you want to call it. Things start to happen and they get so spooked they give up. But we’re doing it.’ She breathed out, her eyes glittering. ‘It feels like our powers get stronger every day. Let’s see what happens, eh?’
On the walk home, I got a call from Luke. He told me that he’d agreed to go with Kerry to stay with some cousins for a couple of weeks, almost until the end of the holidays.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘But Mum’s had enough of us hanging around the house all summer. She just suddenly snapped, I don’t know why. We thought Kerry might be a bit much for my aunt to handle on her own, so I said I’d go too.’
‘I’ll miss you,’ I said.
‘I’ll miss you too.’ We lingered on the phone for a few more minutes, not saying much.
When Luke hung up, I felt even more down. Zoe had her wish and we were rid of Kerry, but that meant I’d lost Luke too, for a while. Not that Zoe would care about that.
When I got home and put my key in the door, I could hear Mum and Dad laughing. Dad was back, then. I peered into the living room. They were fussing over a huge golden Labrador dog that turned a
nd gave a deep bark when he saw me.
‘What’s going on?’
‘This is Barney,’ said Dad. ‘I’m supposed to be looking after him for a friend.’
‘What – here?’ I gave Mum a questioning look. She wasn’t mad on dogs. And we definitely couldn’t afford one.
‘Just for a little while,’ Dad said.
Barney padded up to me, his tail wagging rhythmically. He nuzzled my leg and I felt his warm, moist breath on my fingers as I reached down to stroke him. ‘Hey, Barney,’ I said. I swear he smiled.
I caught Mum and Dad sharing a glance. ‘We thought – maybe you could keep him in your room at nights,’ Mum said.
‘He’s used to kipping on his owner’s bed,’ Dad said. ‘And it might make you feel a bit safer.’
I knelt down to get to know Barney a bit better. ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘He’s gorgeous. I’ll give it a try.’
We took Barney out for a walk. I had the dog on his lead, pulling me along and my other arm linked in Dad’s. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so safe. ‘This was a brilliant idea,’ I said, laughing as Barney tugged me forward and we had to half-run to keep up. ‘Doesn’t his owner mind?’
‘It’s not for long, so don’t fall in love with the daft mutt. But it might get you past these horrible nightmares you’re having.’
When I wanted to go to bed, I took my mug of hot chocolate and clicked my fingers for Barney to come with me up the stairs. He leaped up and followed. But after a few steps, he stopped and pricked up his ears, staring straight ahead.
‘Come on, boy,’ I urged him. ‘Bed time.’
I got him to follow me as far as the landing. Outside my bedroom door, his body went rigid and he began a low, steady growl.
I swallowed. ‘What is it, Barney?’ I pushed at the door and felt the familiar cold air waiting for me. The dog’s growl grew louder. His whole body was vibrating. I took a shivering step into the room. Barney turned and threw himself towards the stairs, letting out a howl that seemed to shake the whole house.
The Misper Page 14