He took Hugo himself. Carried him with the help of Liam up towards the old police car and sped from their lives. Mae held Hunter tightly.
She did not cry.
When the crowds began to drift away Hunter sat with Candice and Lexi, Hugo’s blood sticky on her palms as she closed her eyes and the sun warmed her face.
Mae sat on the flat rock and finished his tattoo.
This time he didn’t cry.
‘I know it was you,’ Mae said.
Felix kept his eyes on his wrist.
‘I saw you on the security tape. It’s your job, right. You collect the service sheets from the printers. You added your own. You know how the school audio system works. AV Club. I think I know why you did it. I just want … I mean, I wanted to say –’
He pressed his head to hers. ‘I wanted to give you your Forever back. But I knew only Abi could do that.’
She hugged him tightly.
They saw the Reverend standing at the water’s edge, Felix’s mother beside.
‘The last service. He won’t do it,’ Felix said. ‘The church falling, he took that as a sign. That and the fact that his son will burn. He thinks he failed.’
‘You know what you have to do,’ she said.
‘I do.’
‘You want a pep talk?’
‘I do.’
‘You helped give me my Forever. So maybe it’s time you gave them theirs.’
Felix stood. ‘Is that it?’
‘It’s been a long night.’
‘I’m no longer a virgin.’
‘How was it?’
‘Turns out Liam wasn’t joking when he said they were getting some Viagra.’
They looked over to Liam, who sat alone, as broken as Hunter.
The large cross had been rescued from outside the ruins of the church and carried by a dozen to the edge of the bay, almost touching the water.
Almost the whole town turned up for that last service on the break of the last day.
They expected the Reverend Baxter, instead they got his son.
In his white dinner suit, Felix stood on a piece of driftwood and took the microphone.
Mae sat, Stella on her lap, her hand in Sail’s.
She looked around and saw crowds gathered on the promenade, some stood ankle deep in the water.
She heard the fear in his voice as he began. ‘I used to wonder about faith. I tried to weigh up the pros and cons. Religion, and what it means. I saw people hiding behind it, using it as an excuse to commit cruelties in someone else’s name. To compare. To judge.
‘I never thought I’d be standing here like this. My father, he always wanted me to. I always said no. I didn’t want to be part of something I don’t believe in. But then I realised it wasn’t about God, your god or mine. It was about more than that. This past month I’ve seen the best of humankind, and the worst.’
Mae looked from Sail to Sally Sweeny, to Matilda and Betty.
‘Someone once told me that the closer you look, the less you see. So last Sunday I stood outside church and watched. I watched my father tell stories, I watched people draw comfort from his words. That’s all. Comfort. Hope. Faith, in people.
‘I don’t know what will happen this morning. I don’t know what happens after. To be honest, I don’t think anyone does. No matter what they promise, no matter which book they read from or which heaven they look up at. So instead of praying with you for what might be, I want you to look around now and realise what is. What you can hear and see and touch. Don’t say your last goodbye, say your first hello.
‘I’ve spent the past years trying to work out which version of myself people will see, people will like. It’s taken until now, the last hour of the last day, to work out that I am imperfectly, uniquely and gloriously me. And that my faith is in my friends. And that’s all I’ll ever need.
‘And for the briefest time, I, Felix Baxter, was lucky enough to live.’
Sail squeezed her hand as she kissed her sister’s head and breathed in the smell of her hair.
‘At least he didn’t swear,’ Stella whispered.
Felix cleared his throat and opened his arms. ‘We’re fucking amazing. Each and every one of us.’
49
They stayed in their place.
Together.
‘You have to finish,’ Stella said. ‘You have to tell me about Saviour 1. You promised.’
‘You know I once said that exact same thing to Dad.’
‘You never talk about Daddy.’
Mae held her sister close, Sail leaned in. Felix sat beside them, smiled across at his parents and closed his eyes.
‘Tell me about the Saviours,’ Mae said.
Her father held her hand as they walked barefoot along the sand.
She was nine and the world was hers.
Summer was infinite and though people talked about the rock in space it was nothing more than something to be gossiped about over TV dinners.
A dozen movies were spawned. Mae and her father would stay up late on a Saturday night and watch them. She would fall asleep long before the end.
‘There’s plans to save us. The people … from all over the world. They formed a task force. Do you know what that means?’
‘They come together to complete a task.’
He smiled like she was clever.
He was average height,
average build,
average at everything except for loving her.
He was brilliant at that.
‘The Saviour rocket will launch in a few days.’ They stopped and faced the water.
‘Will the baby come soon?’
He nodded. He wore an old watch and sometimes when he came in from work he’d slip it over her wrist and she’d take his briefcase and his overcoat and pretend she worked in an office.
‘And we’ll be living somewhere else?’
He dropped to kneel in the sand. He wore shorts and the water came in and reached his knees. ‘We’ll be living somewhere else. Does that scare you?’
‘Yes.’
‘We’ll be together. Me and you and your mum … and your sister.’
Mae looked over at him.
He was smiling.
‘It’s a girl?’
‘Your mum said I could be the one to tell you. You’ll have to look after her. She’ll look up to you.’
‘I’ll teach her the bad words.’
‘Of course. And maybe you could teach her to be kind, like you.’
‘I’ll protect her. That’s what I’ll do.’
‘Promise?’
‘I promise.’
Mae hugged him, so hard he lost his balance and they fell back.
She screamed as the water soaked them.
Mae looked across the beach to that same spot, and she wondered if in three billion years another little girl would make that same promise and keep it.
And then she looked to her friend, Felix Baxter, who had finally fallen into a deep sleep.
‘It’s time,’ Sail said.
‘Will we stay together?’ Stella said.
‘Yes.’
She pressed her hands to Stella’s ears.
The calm lasted till the first scream.
People turned and began to run.
Mae held her sister tightly.
Someone once asked her how you make your death count.
‘I love you,’ Sail spoke the words close to her ear.
‘I love you.’
The light was blinding.
It made their world brighter.
Acknowledgements
The brilliant Gordon L. Dillow, whose book Fire in the Sky helped shape this story.
Victoria, Charlie, George and Isabella. There’s no one I’d rather lock down with.
Cath Summerhayes. When life gets tough I turn to you, and you make things better. I love you.
Fliss Alexander, who started on this journey with me.
Maurice Lyon, for taking the reins, always being so kind and patient, and
helping me to tell this story.
Emma Quick, Molly Holt and the amazing team at Hot Key. You are so incredibly talented and I’m very lucky to be working with you.
Isobel Taylor, for creating the most beautiful proof I have ever seen.
Ruth Logan, it’s hard to put into words just how much I love you. I tend to say that a lot, but when it comes to you I really mean it.
Talya Baker. Thank you for making this book better in every single way, for catching my endless mistakes and for being so funny and lovely when I (relentlessly) mess things up.
Sasha Baker, for casting your expert eye over this story, and for teaching me how to pick a lock.
Rebecca Elphick and everyone at Easypress.
Sophie McDonnell and Muhammad Nafay. The cover you have created is so staggeringly special. The words inside do not do it justice.
Fran Burgoyne. It takes such skill to narrate an audiobook and I am in in awe of your talent. And Marina Stavropoulou, for championing the audiobook and finding Fran.
Katie McGowan and Cal Mollison, for inspiring so many exotic meals. Your passion and support is something I will always be grateful for. I love you both.
Luke Speed, for making it rain, and for inspiring my indoor-Aviator-look. I’m so Hollywood now.
The Lovely Jess Molloy, for ridiculous levels of loveliness.
Everyone at Curtis Brown, the finest agency in all the land.
Frankie Pellatt, my cat friend, moral compass and wizard of all things tech. Packets. Analytics. Interweb. Spet.
Isabelle, Lisa and Tom. At the time of writing this we haven’t drunk from the salmon jug in over a year. My heart aches for you (though my liver is healing).
Nick Matthew, for the love and laughter. And for never giving up. We’ve come a long way since breakfast.
Everyone at Bishop’s Stortford Library. My second, much nicer, family.
My family. This is awkward.
The wonderful booksellers who have championed me/my stories. Thank you for making me feel so at home when I visit.
The book blogging community. You are the best.
Liz Barnsley, the tonic to my gin.
Siobhan O’Neill. Always.
My amazing author friends, who are, as always, unremittingly kind and beautiful.
Chris Whitaker
Chris Whitaker is the award-winning author of adult thrillers Tall Oaks, All the Wicked Girls and We Begin at the End. All three books were published to widespread critical acclaim, with Tall Oaks going on to win the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger Award. An instant New York Times besteller, We Begin at the End was picked as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, won the CWA Gold Dagger Award, for the best crime novel of the year, and was shortlisted for the Steel Dagger Award for the best thriller.
When not writing, Chris works at his local library, where he gets to surround himself with books. A huge fan of teen fiction, The Forevers is his first novel for Young Adults.
Chris lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children.
Follow him on Twitter @WhittyAuthor
Thank you for choosing a Hot Key book.
If you want to know more about our authors and what we publish, you can find us online.
You can start at our website
www.hotkeybooks.com
And you can also find us on:
We hope to see you soon!
First published in Great Britain in 2021 by
HOT KEY BOOKS
4th Floor, Victoria House
Bloomsbury Square
London WC1B 4DA
Owned by Bonnier Books
Sveavägen 56, Stockholm, Sweden
www.hotkeybooks.com
Copyright © Chris Whitaker, 2021
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Chris Whitaker to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0960-8
This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher
Hot Key Books is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk
The Forevers Page 25