The boat kept going. I watched as Mother got smaller and smaller, until she was so far away that I couldn’t see her any more, until the water had covered her completely.
Frank shut the motor off and threw the anchor into a tentacle beside us. It landed with a splut.
‘You all right?’ he muttered.
I nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m OK.’
Frank smiled. For a moment everything was quiet. But only for a moment.
‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?! Running away like that without saying anything, with NO clue where you were, I mean, honest to god, I had to just sit there and think the WORST, IF YOU HAD ANY IDEA WHAT I’VE GONE THROUGH …’
Frank finally took a breath.
‘I mean, if I hadn’t remembered what you’d said about going to that meeting in Wanderly …’
I gasped. ‘You were at the meeting too?’
‘Course I was!’ said Frank. ‘I got there as fast as I could! But I couldn’t find you anywhere – I searched all round the town, but nothing. And after the theatre got blown up … well, that was just terrible. I thought you were dead, sprat. I thought I was going to have to go back to the camp and tell your mum that I was too late …’
My chest ached the moment he said it. Mum must have been so worried. After all, she’d done everything she did to try and keep me safe. I couldn’t believe I’d just run away without telling her.
‘Is she … OK?’ I said nervously.
‘No!’ said Frank. ‘She’s been going out of her mind, Caitlin! We all were! I mean, if I hadn’t bumped into your friend in Wanderly, running around with a cow and talking about you being kidnapped …’
He nodded to Fi, sat on the gutbox beside me.
‘She’s something, that one,’ Frank muttered. I couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or not. ‘Bought this boat herself, you know – out her own pocket.’
I swung round. ‘Fi! You didn’t!’
Fi blushed.
‘But … where’d you get the money from?’ I said.
‘Where do you think?’ said Frank. ‘She had a cow, Caitlin! They’re just about the most valuable thing in the world right now. You should have seen what people were offering her for it – someone tried to sell her Westminster Abbey.’
‘So that’s why you stole it,’ I muttered.
‘She spent it all on this boat,’ said Frank. ‘Every penny. I would have helped pay for it too, but someone at the meeting stole my wallet.’
Fi blushed even more.
‘Er … let’s get going, shall we?’ she said. ‘The sooner we get away from here, the better.’
Frank turned to the wheel. But before he could start the engine I grabbed his hand.
‘No,’ I said. ‘We’re not going. Not without Perijee.’
Fi and Frank shared a worried look.
‘Caitlin,’ said Fi. ‘Look, I know you want to help him … but come on, don’t be stupid …’
‘I’m not stupid,’ I said. ‘I’ve travelled the whole country to get here. I’ve been kidnapped and lied to and nearly sacrificed and I could have given up any time, but I didn’t. I’m not leaving here without him.’
Frank stepped forwards.
‘Sprat,’ he said gently. ‘The army could get here any second. If you’re on top of that thing when they do …’
‘Perijee’s my friend,’ I said. ‘My brother. If I was stuck up there and the army was coming, would you go without me?’
Frank and Fi shook their heads.
‘Of course not,’ I said. I put my hands on my hips. ‘And neither am I.’
Fi jumped off the gutbox.
‘Fine! We’ll climb on top of the Monster and hope being super nice to him fixes everything. But the second it doesn’t work …’
She trailed off. She read my face quickly – she was good at it now.
‘Oh god,’ she said. ‘You want to go by yourself, don’t you?’
I nodded. ‘I’m the only one who can fix this, Fi.’
She considered arguing with me some more, but gave up. That’s what I loved most about Fi – she always knew when I meant it.
‘Honestly, Caitlin,’ she grumbled. ‘I’ve never had a friend like you before.’
She turned around and pulled Frank’s hands off the wheel.
‘Well, you heard her! She’s going to get Perijee!’ She took out the keys and sat down on them. ‘We’re not going anywhere till she’s done.’
Frank gave Fi the sort of look you’d give a small, savage cat that occasionally let you feed it.
‘All right, sprat,’ he muttered. ‘We’ll take you to the Monster’s side and wait until you’re done.’ He wagged a finger at me. ‘But the second you see those planes …’
I didn’t even let him finish. I ran over and gave them both the biggest hug you’ve ever seen.
‘Frank – Fi,’ I said. ‘I don’t care what everyone else says about you. You are both the absolute best.’
We hugged. For a moment everything was perfect.
Then Frank pulled away. He looked like he’d finally worked something out.
‘Hang on a minute – “Fi”? You told me your name was Queenie!’
I stood on a tentacle at the Monster’s side. There were hundreds more draping down his body and into the water beside me. They moved tirelessly, searching and searching.
A giant symbol lay ahead, carved a metre deep into the Monster’s body. It ran all the way up to his back, so high I couldn’t even see where it ended. I recognised it from when Perijee was small: two vertical lines, criss-crossed like teeth, tucked in the space beneath his shoulder.
I still had no idea what it meant. But that didn’t matter right now.
I grabbed one of the horizontal lines. It squidged softly in my hand. I heaved myself up and stood on it. It bent like warm rubber under my feet – but it held.
Just like a ladder.
I climbed the giant symbol, until the boat was just a speck in the water below. It felt like hours until I finally heaved myself onto the Monster’s back, gasping for breath. The midday sun beat off his skin so brightly that it burned my eyes.
‘Hello!’ said a voice.
I looked up, squinting. There was a man standing in front of me.
‘Welcome aboard!’ he said. ‘Let me guess – End of the World Appreciation Club?’
My eyes finally focused on him. He was wearing yellow wellies and a blue bobble hat. The hat said ‘CAITLIN’ on it.
‘Well, good to see you’re wearing the correct robes,’ he said, nodding at my clothes. ‘Most of the others have to make their own before they’re allowed to see the Master – but you can join them straight away!’
He pointed behind him. Far in the distance, a massive procession was making its way across the Monster’s back towards the head – hundreds and hundreds of people, all wearing hats and wellies. I was so confused I didn’t know what question to ask first.
‘Wh-where are they going?’ I said.
The man smiled. ‘To the Temple, of course. To see the Master.’
He turned to the Monster’s head and bowed. I blinked against the sun. There in the distance, right where Perijee should have been, was a huge white building. I stared at it in disbelief.
‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ said the man. ‘The Master built it all himself. We brought him the materials, of course, but everything else was his idea. After all, he needs somewhere to store all those books he reads.’
It took me a while to work out exactly what I was looking at – I guess at first I couldn’t believe my eyes. But it looked like I’d been right all along. There was a house on top of the Monster’s head.
It was my house.
*
By the time I reached the front door there was already a huge crowd outside, kneeling and chanting in wellies and bobble hats. All their hats said ‘CAITLIN’ on the front.
The house looked exactly like our one on Middle Island, in every way. The bricks, the doors – all the same. The only difference was
that it was bright white. And the windows …
I reached out and touched one. It was just a picture, drawn on the wall.
‘Get back!’
A gang of men in hats and wellies were standing at the front door, trying to push everyone away.
‘The Master is angry!’ one of them announced. ‘He doesn’t want any more visitors – he wants everyone to leave!’
Everyone booed and started trying to barge forwards. It was all the men could do to hold them back. No one noticed me as I slipped between their legs and edged my way along the wall, silently stepping through the front door and closing it behind me.
The inside of the house was identical too. I looked into the study. The same broken lightbulb hung from the same dusty lampshade. An unfinished cup of tea sat on the desk. And behind it, scribbled on the wall …
My heart glowed.
‘Mum.’
It wasn’t really her, of course. It was just a drawing. But whoever drew her had remembered her perfectly. Her eyes. Her haircut. The jumper she wore round the house.
I reached out and touched it. Suddenly I would have given anything to be back home, just me and her, the way it was. I couldn’t believe I had ever wanted anything different.
‘Master, please …!’
The shouts came from the kitchen. I looked at the closed door. There in front of it was the same rug with the same burned corner; the same wooden chest with the same crayon stains on the side. Perijee had remembered everything.
‘Master, we beg you! Stop!’
There was the sound of glasses breaking and cupboards being torn off walls. I walked to the kitchen door and stood in the darkness in front of it. The walls around me were covered with symbols – just like the ones on Perijee’s body. They spread across the floor and onto the ceiling like an oil slick. There were so many that the door looked like it had been painted black.
Except for one patch.
I ran my fingers over the drawing. There I was – in yellow wellies and a bobble hat with ‘CAITLIN’ on the front. The me he remembered.
I pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The kitchen was different to the rest of the house. It was ten times bigger than it should have been, warped and magnified out of all proportion. You couldn’t tell from outside – everything looked normal there. But here, the walls stretched up so high you could barely make out the ceiling. Each black and white floor tile was the size of a stage, and every surface was covered in scribbled symbols and stacks of tumbling books.
And in the middle of it was Perijee.
He was still sunk waist-deep in the Monster’s head. But he was ten times bigger now. His body sprouted up from the floor like a tree, all the way to the ceiling. He had hundreds of arms too, and he was ripping the kitchen apart with every single one of them, tearing cupboards from the wall and shredding the books to sawdust.
‘There is no need to lose hope, Master!’ came a voice from the corner. ‘There is still time!’
A handful of terrified men and women in blue hats and yellow wellies were cowering beside the enormous stove like mice. One of them stepped forwards.
‘You … you are sure to solve the symbols somehow!’ the man said. ‘We have more followers than ever before – they will do anything you ask, Master! They love you!’
Perijee stopped. He started trembling. His whole body was turning red.
‘Perhaps – perhaps the Master would like some more books?’ the man suggested nervously. ‘Before the planes get here …?’
Perijee swung round. In a flash he grew twenty more arms and grabbed the man from the ground, lifting him high into the air.
‘Master – no!’ said the man. ‘What are you doing? Stop!’
But Perijee didn’t stop. He squeezed the man in front of him like a fruit, his grip getting tighter and tighter. His face had turned hard and mean, and his mouth was curling into a smile …
‘PERIJEE, NO!’ I cried.
Perijee swung round, dropping the man in surprise.
‘What are you doing?’ I said. ‘You’ll hurt him!’
Perijee was too shocked to move – he didn’t even answer me. At once, the people in the corner flew across the room.
‘Lower your voice when talking to the Master …!’
‘Entrance to the Temple is forbidden …!’
‘Out at once …!’
Perijee shot out an arm and in one sweep of his giant hand threw them all back.
The kitchen was silent now. Perijee stood still, his eyes fixed on me and his chest rising and falling. The colour of his skin slowly drained white.
Then – like a plant – his body bent over and his head came down to my level. He pointed outside with a shaking hand, to the drawing in the darkness.
‘… Caitlin?’ he said.
His voice was so quiet I could barely hear it. I smiled.
‘Yes, Perijee. It’s me. I came to get you.’
I reached out and touched his face. It was exactly as I remembered it. The candle softness of his skin; the bobble hat; his tiny, sad, dark eyes. The only thing missing was his smile.
‘Oh, Perijee,’ I said. ‘What happened to you?’
Perijee said nothing. I looked around the room, covered in symbols that made no sense, stacked high with heaps of useless books.
‘You … you’ve been trying to work out what the symbols mean,’ I said. ‘You thought they might tell you how to turn back – how to fix everything.’
Perijee nodded.
‘And you still don’t know?’ I said.
Perijee shook his head. He looked so sad. Suddenly his eyes turned a colour I’d never seen before. His cheeks and throat and chest turned grey, getting darker and darker. Before I knew what was happening he put his head in his hands and gave a cry that was so miserable and lost I thought I was going to cry myself just listening to it. I held him tight.
‘Don’t be sad, Perijee,’ I said. ‘I know how to fix everything! It’s all going to go back to the way it was! You and me – together again! We’ll get you away from here and go back to Middle Island and work out what to do …’
I looked around the room.
‘This house – the kitchen – it’s so perfect, Perijee. How did you do it?’
Perijee smiled. He held his arms out to the room.
‘Home,’ he said.
The kitchen door slammed open. A man was standing in the doorway in a hat and wellies, his face white with fear.
‘The planes!’ he cried. ‘They’re coming!’
I swung round to the window and my stomach dropped. Hundreds of planes were coming towards us, blackening the sky. Perijee stared at them in horror, his whole body turning purple. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him closer.
‘No – don’t be frightened, Perijee!’ I said. ‘We can still fix it!’
‘No we can’t!’ said the man in the corner, ripping off his hat. ‘I’m getting out of here!’
He turned and fled. The others followed him without a moment’s thought, throwing off their hats and wellies as they went. Suddenly it was just me and Perijee. I held his head and looked deep into his eyes.
‘Listen to me, Perijee,’ I said. ‘Remember the first time you changed? It was because you were frightened. You have to forget about everything that’s upsetting you, Perijee. You have to be happy.’
The planes were getting closer. Perijee tried to turn to the window but I pulled his head back.
‘No!’ I said. ‘Think about something nice. We both have to do it.’
I took his hands in mine and closed my eyes. I thought about Frank and Fi and how much I loved them. I thought about seeing Mum again. I thought about the days Perijee and me spent together on the island, just the two of us.
‘One two three,’ I said. ‘Remember that, Perijee? The first thing I ever taught you.’
Perijee looked at me. His smile came back.
‘One two three,’ he said.
I beamed. ‘That’s it, Perij
ee! And the other things – remember the day I took your photo on the beach?’
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the photo. It was even more stained and crumpled now, but there we were in the middle, our arms around each other. Perijee held it in front of him and glowed right up to the bobble on his hat.
‘Family,’ he said. ‘Friends.’
Something was happening. The floor beneath us was trembling. Plates and glasses were falling out the kitchen cupboards and smashing on the floor. I held his hands.
‘You’re doing it, Perijee!’ I said. ‘You’re shrinking! Keep going – think about the happiest thing you know.’
Perijee’s body burned so bright it nearly blinded me. He grew a hundred hands and a thousand fingers, and he wrapped them all around me.
‘Caitlin,’ he said.
And just like that, everything changed.
The whole room was falling apart around us. Smashed plates and cupboards were flying across the floor, piling against the walls. The Monster’s head was lifting up out of the water.
‘Perijee … what’s going on?’ I shouted. ‘Are you doing this?’
Perijee said nothing. His eyes were fixed out the window, the symbols on his body burning brighter than ever. The Monster’s head had lifted so high it was almost vertical, sticking out the water like a rocket. Through the window I could see hundreds of people toppling off his back and plummeting to the sea in a flurry of hats and wellies. If Perijee hadn’t been holding on to me I would have fallen too.
‘Why isn’t he shrinking?’ I cried. ‘Perijee, why—’
In one great explosion the Monster burst up from the water and all the breath was knocked out of me. The city shrank behind us and the planes disappeared in an instant. The walls of the kitchen trembled and shook and the windows creaked and splintered with the strain …
And then the wind pulled the roof from over our heads and the walls were prised apart and there was nothing around us but sky.
We were flying!
The Monster tore through the air like a firework. I clung on to Perijee for dear life, but we didn’t stop – we just got faster and faster. Suddenly clouds were streaming past us and the wind cut at my face like knives, and I realised with horror that my hands were slipping …
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