Dark Light

by Nicola Fulford

  Chapter 9

  “Hi.”

  Will stood on the doorstep in front of her, looking cool and casual as always in jeans and a black shirt.

  “Will,” Amber surprised herself by stepping forward and hugging him. It had been a week since she’d last seen Will, and she’d found she felt quite lonely in his absence.

  “Woah!” Will laughed, but something sounded off in his voice. Amber stepped back and looked at him. He looked wrong.

  “Will, what’s happened?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” answered Will quickly. Too quickly, Amber thought.

  “Something’s happened,” she stated. She also folded her arms to show that she was going to continue questioning Will unwaveringly until she got an answer.

  “It’s nothing,” Will said again more slowly.

  "Tell me.”

  Will sighed. “I didn’t come over here to be questioned, so if your just going to act like this I’ll go home.”

  He turned to leave, but Amber grabbed his shoulder.

  “Wait,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m your friend, and I don’t like to see you looking upset-“

  “I’m not upset.”

  “Ok then,” Amber racked her head for something to say. “What did you come over for?”

  “I hadn’t seen you around, and I wanted to make sure you were alright.”

  “Yes, I’m fine thank you, so you can leave now,” Amber said shortly whilst turning to shut the door.

  “Wait,” Will held out his hand to stop her slamming the door in his face. “I’m sorry. I’m not entirely sure what I’m sorry for, but I’m sorry for whatever I did to annoy you.”

  “So you should be,” Amber said, but stepped aside to allow Will through the door. “So are you sure you’re alright?” she asked again.

  “Yes,” Will said, but without that same tone of impatience that had been in his voice the last time. “I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee though.”

  “Cup of coffee coming right up,” Amber said.

  “So, how are things with this Matthew Pryer?” asked Will while Amber poured milk into two mugs.

  “Matt? Yeah, we’re good.”

  “Matt?” Will picked up on the more informal name.

  “It’s nothing,” said Amber.

  “Really?”

  “You know,” Amber said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”

  “Would you blame me?” asked Will.

  “Yes,” Amber answered. “But I think I’d forgive you.”

  Will took the milk bottle out of Amber’s hand and set it on the counter. He bent down over her and pushed a few strands of hair out of her eyes. And then he kissed her.

  Amber was happier than she had been in years as she stood there in the kitchen, wrapped in Will’s arms. He had been her best friend, and now he was something more. She could almost feel their minds merging together, and she thought she felt some sort of undertone in Will’s thoughts, like whatever it was that had been disturbing him was there nudging at Amber’s mind now. But then it was gone, and Will was still kissing her.

  When Will pulled away, the coffee was ready and Amber was dizzy. Her legs were shaking and she was glad to have a warm cup of coffee to sober her up.

  “So…” Will said after a minute. He looked unsure of what Amber’s reaction was going to be.

  “So…” she said.

  “Matt, eh?”

  Amber had to laugh. She felt elated and shocked and, for no apparent reason, afraid.

  “So did you ask him?” Eva asked. She had phoned first thing on Thursday morning to let Amber know that Dylan had said yes and to find out where she wanted to meet them.

  “I haven’t seen him,” Amber lied. She had of course seen Will, twice since Eva had told her about her plan, but Amber had been hoping that she would be able to fake an illness or something to get out of this double date thing Eva had organized. She was beginning to think she preferred Hannah. Hannah would never have forced her into this.

  “Well you’d better find him because if you let me down on this-“

  “Relax,” Amber cut Eva off before her voice could get any higher in her ear.

  “If you can’t ask this Will guy out, then bring Matt instead. Or Darren-“

  “Not Darren!”

  “I don’t care who, just bring someone.”

  “I’ll try, okay?”

  “Try harder.” Eva hung up the phone.

  Yeah, Amber definitely preferred Hannah.

  She put the phone back on the wall and went back to the film she had been watching. Amber had barely sat down when there was a knock on the door. Mumbling to herself about how annoying it was when you couldn’t have more than five minutes to yourself, she headed into the hall to see who it was.

  “Hi,” Matt smiled when Amber opened the door. “I just thought I’d give you the all clear. The necklace seems to be doing the trick.”

  “So I’m good to go out?” she asked. Matt had placed her under house arrest the last time he’d seen her, saying that it was the easiest way to test the shield.

  “You should be okay, but I’ll be staying close by. Just in case.”

  “Alright,” Amber nodded.

  “Something you want to ask me?” he smirked.

  “Were you listening to my conversation?” she said, not feeling embarrassed, but certainly annoyed with Matt for invading her privacy.

  “I thought it might have been something important in tracking down The Voice.” He widened his sky blue eyes innocently.

  “Yeah, because the voice can materialize anywhere at anytime looking like anyone, to kill you-but it’s when he phones you you’re really in trouble.” Amber raised her eyebrows.

  “Go on then,” Matt said.

  “Go on what?”

  “Ask me.” He straightened up and tried to keep himself from grinning.

  “Even if I did know what on earth you’re on about, what makes you think I would invite you?”

  “Ouch. Below the belt.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Sorry enough that we’ll go?” Matt had made a remarkable recovery from Amber’s ‘below the belt’ hit.

  “Not going to happen.” Amber turned and walked back into the house, leaving the door open behind her for Matt to follow.

  “If you won’t then I will,” he continued.

  Amber ignored him.

  “Alright then.” He used his super-speed to zoom in front of Amber and block her passage. “Amber Wells, will you accompany me to dinner with Eva?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  Although it would be fun to watch Eva’s jaw drop when Amber showed up with Matt by her side, Amber had been looking forward to introducing Will to her friends, and if she could she would still like to go with him. Amber wouldn’t make any promises to Matt, and then she wouldn’t be able to break them.

  “So where are you planning on going today?” Matt asked, following Amber into the kitchen. All the cupboards were painted blue with cream handles and the floor was a pale Beachwood.

  “I was just going to go shopping,” Amber tried not to scowl at the prospect. She had thought she liked shopping, but York was always so busy and there were so many shops to choose from that she just couldn’t find it an enjoyable experience.

  “I was under the impression that all girls like shopping” Matt said, picking up on Amber’s line of thought.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I guess it’s always so crowded and loud-it gives me a headache.” Having grown up in a town where the only shop was a post office a half-an-hour drive away, Amber had never been used to the bustling fast-lane city lifestyle. She wouldn’t go in today if it weren’t for the fact that her trainers had so many holes you could barely tell she was wearing more than socks.

  “What if I came with you?” Matt offered.

  It was Amber’s turn to laugh now.

  “What?” Matt asked, looking at her in a bewildered s
ense.

  “Sorry.” Amber straightened her face. “It’s just…you’re a guy.”

  “Feeling observant today, are we?”

  “I mean, guys play football and mow lawns, they don’t go shopping.”

  “Alright, if you don’t want me.” Matt sighed and took a bite of toast.

  “Of course I want you to come. I just didn’t think it would be your kind of thing.”

  “Amber,” he looked up. “When are you going to learn? It doesn’t matter what I want. I’m on this earth to help you with what you want.”

  “No,” Amber shook her head stubbornly. “You’re here to make sure I don’t get killed or hurt myself through my own stupidity.”

  “Yeah well, this falls under a sub-category.”

  Amber had given up on trying to even make sense of the strange things Matt came out with. She decided they probably made sense in his head, compared with all the other mad stuff in there.

  “Let’s go then,” Amber said, finishing off the last of her toast and grabbing her coat off the hook by the door. She turned the key in the lock and then started walking down the cracked and newly snow-covered path towards the road with Matt behind her-this was the arranged formation by now as it was the easiest place for him to grab Amber if she fell, which was not very likely in Amber’s views, but it made Matt nervous if he didn’t. She was concentrating so hard on keeping her balance on the newly laid ice that she didn’t notice the shiny black taxi waiting by the front gate until she walked straight into it, banging her head on the side of the door and fogging up the window with her cold breath.

  “How did you-“ Amber began, before smiling and adding, “I don’t even want to know.”

  She climbed happily into the warm backseat and clicked the seatbelt into the holder.

  “Sorry about your head,” Matt said as he got in behind her. “Should have seen that one coming.”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’m used to it by now.”

  Matt laughed.

  “I still say I wasn’t this clumsy back in Polegate.” She could honestly swear that she walked into things a maximum of once a week back then; she had a theory that someone had put a hex on her-if Matt could be a supernatural Daemon thing, she could be a hex victim.

  “I find that hard to believe,” he said.

  She stuck her tongue out at him.

  The car pulled off without the need for either of them to give a destination, speeding through the empty streets and pulling up in the city centre in no time.

  “Madam.” Matt did a little fake bow as he opened the door for Amber. “Where to first?”

  “First? I’m only planning on going to one shop, and then we can go straight home.” Amber made very vivid and violent hand gestures.

  “Don’t you want to look around?”

  “That would just mean I was exposed to the crowd for longer. I swear, it’s like being part of a mob shopping here,” Amber sighed and headed off in the direction of the nearest shoe shop, a newly built building with blue windows and a matching door. The bell rang as she entered into the vast interior that contained rows of shoes, all lined up neatly on their own shelves. She picked up the first pair that her hands came into contact with-trainers with orange and green stripes-and headed to the till.

  “They’re men’s shoes,” Matt whispered in her ear.

  “Oh.” Amber put the stripy pair down and allowed Matt to lead her to the women’s section.

  She took more care with the next pair she picked up, making sure that they were the right size and gender before going back to the till without bothering to try them on.

  “Eighteen ninety-nine,” the tall, blonde shop assistant said.

  Amber reached into the well-used handbag she’d gotten three Christmases ago and fumbled around for her purse. It wasn’t there. She opened the bag wider and peered in-she couldn’t see it.

  Someone coughed loudly behind her, and Amber turned to find Matt holding out her purse with a ‘what did you expect?’ look on his face.

  “You’re welcome,” he mouthed very conspicuously.

  She took the purse and faced the shop assistant again, feeling slightly embarrassed at her own stupidity, and handed her the money.

  “I honestly don’t know how you survived this long without me,” Matt said when they were clear of the shop.

  “I didn’t think buying shoes was a life threatening task,” Amber snapped. She was always irritable when she felt embarrassed.

  “Anywhere else?”

  “No. I only needed shoes.”

  Matthew whistled loudly, loud enough to make Amber jump, and a taxi pulled around the corner and up the street towards where they stood.

  Amber jumped in quickly; glad to get out of her bustling surroundings. Matt hopped agilely in after her and shut the door at the same moment as the car took off at top speed.

  Amber was happier when they pulled up beside her house; even after the visit from The Voice, it felt like a kind of sanctuary, a shelter from the rest of the terrifying world. The brakes screeched and they came to a sudden halt that lined the car door up perfectly with the garden gate.

  “Thank you,” she called to the unknown driver as she got out of the car.

  “Amber,” Matt said, once he too was stood out on the pavement. “I’m going to have to go and do another check just to be sure the house is safe.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “You probably won’t see me for the rest of the day. I’ll stay out and make sure he doesn’t show up.”

  “You still think that that voice thing is going to come back?”

  “I’m almost sure of it. Now get inside, it’s cold and you’re making me anxious.”

  “Alright, I’ll see you later,” said Amber.

  “Bye,” Matt said.

   Amber blinked and he was gone.

  “Good morning,” Amber’s mum called when she walked into the kitchen. “Where did you disappear off to so early?”

  “Shopping.” Amber held up the bag with the shoes in it.

  “Did you have fun?”

  “It was shopping, so not here, no.”

  “I know you may not like how busy it is here,” her mum sighed. “But you’ve got to prefer it to being back in Polegate?”

  “Yeah, I do. I have friends here-actually I was going to go out tonight, if it’s okay with you,” she said.

  “What time will you be back?”

  “Um, around ten-ish.”

  “Who are you going with?”

  “Just some people from school.” Amber didn’t want to lie, and Eva did go to her school. It was just Will who didn’t.

  “Do you need me to give you a lift into town?”

  “No, I’ll take the bus thanks. I think I’ll go and get ready.”

  “Amber, it’s only five.”

  “Oh, right.”

  She hovered awkwardly in the kitchen for a moment before walked out into the hall and, instead of going upstairs like she’d planned, went to the phone and dialled Will’s number. The phone beeped a few times-

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Will, it’s Amber.”

  “Oh, hey Amber. What’s up?”

  “Nothing much. I was just going to ask you if you-” Amber froze momentarily. What would happen if she asked him out tonight? Would he reject her? Then Amber decided she’d rather be rejected than risk being murdered by Eva if she showed up alone. “If you wanted to go out with me and a couple of friends from school?”

  “Tonight?”

  “Yeah, at around eight o’clock at La Petit Délicieux”

  “Like a…date?”

  Amber was silent.

  “Amber, are you still there?” asked Will.

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  “Look, it sounds great, I’ll meet you there.”

  “Great, see you later.”

  “Bye.”

  Amber set the phone down and went into the living room and picked a movie at random off th
e shelf. She put the disk in the player and collapsed onto the sofa.

   

  “Amber, shouldn’t you be getting ready?” asked her mum half way through the third movie.

  “I’ve got plenty of time,” Amber muttered, no fully paying attention to what she was saying.

  “I thought you were leaving at half seven?”

  “Mm-hmm,” she nodded.

  “It’s quarter-past now.”

  “What?” Amber jumped up and ran up to her room, taking the stairs three at a time.

  She reached her bedroom out of breath from sprinting up the flight of stairs. She had no idea what she was going to wear, and the sparse state of her wardrobe didn’t help matters. Amber felt like tearing her hair out as she flicked through the few outfits she owned, each looking more undesirable than the other. In the end she settled on a leaf-green sleeveless satin dress and black shoes.

  “Bye Mum,” she called as she dashed out the door and slammed it behind her.

  Amber hurried down the path, nearly falling on the black pumps she’s stolen off her mum. Sure enough, when Amber got to the end of the path, a shiny black sedan was sitting waiting to take her to the restaurant. Matt obviously didn’t trust her to take the bus on her own. He was worse than her mother.

  “Where to?” the driver asked from the front seat. It was the first time Amber had heard him speak.

  “La Petit Délicieux,” Amber said. She took it as a sign that she was getting used to city life that this name didn’t seem too unusual to her; she would never have heard of such a name for a restaurant back in Polegate.

  Amber watched out of the window as they drove through the city at high speed, squeezing through the tiniest gaps between cars to get ahead of the traffic, all the Christmas lights and decorations blurring together until all that she could see were orbs of illumination dotted around like ink spots on a page.

  “Here you go mam,” the driver spoke again. Amber wasn’t used to being called ‘miss’ and ‘mam’ so it took her a moment to realise what the unfamiliar voice was saying.

  “Thank you.” She opened the door with a heavy klunk and got out onto the pavement, walking around to the driver’s window. “How much do I owe you?”

  “No fee. It’s all pre-paid by Mr Pryer.”

  Amber pulled a little face at Matt paying for her again and hurried out of the cold into the well-lit restaurant. She felt guilty for turning Matt down after all the trouble he was going to.

  “Amber,” Eva waved her over to the table where she was sitting with Dylan the moment Amber got through the door.

  “Hey,” she smiled, taking a seat beside her friend.

  “Where’s your date?”

  “Errm….he should be here soon, I think.”

  “Cool.” It felt a little anticlimactic when she turned back to Dylan to resume a conversation from before Amber had come in.

  Someone coughed behind Amber.

  She turned and there stood, his blonde hair shining in the lights of the restaurant, Will dressed in a dark shirt and jeans, looking like he owned the place.

  “Hi,” he smiled at Amber, then turned to Dylan and Eva, who for what was possibly the first time in her life, was speechless.

  “Your late,” said Amber.

  “I heard it was fashionable,” he murmured back lower than Eva could hear. “Have you ordered yet?”

  “No,” Eva put in, obviously keen to get talking to the tall, handsome stranger. No sooner had the words left her mouth than a waitress with long, flowing black hair quickstepped over to the table with a notepad. Will and Dylan both ordered burgers, and Amber ordered chicken satay. Eva ordered a salad and a glass of water.

  An hour later, the bill was paid, Eva was still looking hungry, and Dylan was exchanging mobile numbers with Will so they could meet up to play football some time later in the week. Apparently, Will loved football. Amber had never understood what it was with boys and football-what was the fun in kicking a ball around a field?

  “Because,” said Dylan when she posed this question, “It’s fun. It relieves stress.”

  “Ok, so maybe I can get why you play it. But what is the point in watching it on the television?”

  “It’s interesting. I guess it’s more of a guy thing,” said Will.

  “Well,” Eva intruded, “I suppose I’d better be going.”

  “Night,” said Amber, Will, and Dylan in unison.

  “Dylan, don’t you want to walk me to the bus stop?” Eva asked.

  “Oh right, yeah,” Dylan said and followed her through the door with friendly wave back at Will. Dylan seemed nice enough, Amber thought. Eva didn’t look too pleased with him.

  “So,” said Will. “Are you ready to go home?”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” she said.

  “Are you taking the bus?”

  “I think there’s going to be a taxi to take me back.”

  “Fancy,” Will raised his eyebrows as they left the restaurant.

  But there was no shiny black taxi waiting to pick Amber up when she reached the pavement. Will walked with her to the bus stop, and they talked about stupid things like movies and games. Will even tried to explain the off side rule, but gave up when Amber just couldn’t register how it didn’t apply if you were on you own side if you were on your own side.

  The wind was gale force while they sat at the bus stop. Amber’s hair kept blowing into her eyes and her dress billowed out behind her, offering next to no protection from the cold. Will took of his heavy coat without a word and handed it to her. It was too big a fit, and her hands didn’t reach the ends of the sleeves, but it was warm and smelt of expensive aftershave.

  When the bus did arrive, Will looked rather cold and his hair was ruffled from the wind, yet it was a look he seemed to pull of flawlessly. They sat near the back of the bus; Amber wondered why Matt had only sent a taxi one-way. She hoped he wasn’t upset that she’d invited Will instead of him.

  “So what did you think of Eva?” she asked while the bus pulled off.

  “She seemed nice enough.”

  “What did you really think?”

  “She seemed nice. A little quiet though,” said Will.

  “She was acting really strangely. I don’t know what had gotten into her.”

  “Maybe she was just in awe at my presence,” Will smiled easily.

  “Yeah,” Amber said sardonically. “I don’t think that’s it.”

  There wasn’t time to say much more to Will before the bus reached Amber’s stop. She pecked him on the cheek and walked down the aisle to the door.

  The house felt like less of a sanctuary than it had when Amber had left, and she had the strange sensation that she was being watched as she walked up the garden path: hair standing up on the back of her neck, light shudders running down her back, which she told herself were caused by the cold. She glanced over her shoulder at regular intervals as though she was being paranoid. Which she knew she was.

  Amber could hear the television blaring in the living room when she got through the door and headed in there hoping that she wouldn’t feel quite so frightened if she had some company. The room was empty; her mum must have decided to go to bed early and forgotten to turn the television off.

  Amber switched the plug off at the socket and went upstairs to her room, deliberately looking at her feet all the way, afraid of what shapes her eyes might make in the dark of the night. The house was silent apart from Amber’s footsteps creaking on the stairs, so her mum must have been asleep. She tried to be as quiet as she could as she lay on top of the bed fully dressed and kicked her shoes off onto the floor.

  She couldn’t get to sleep. She tried turning over, but it wasn’t comfortable, she thumped down the pillow, but her jean button was digging in. She got out of bed, moving sluggishly because of her tiredness, and walked slowly across the hall to the bathroom. Amber twisted the tap on full and splashed cold water over her face in an attempt to clear her head. She examined hersel
f in the mirror over the sink and-there he was.

  Not Matt, not the person who she knew kept her safe, but the one Amber feared the most. She knew instantly whom the tall figure in the white cloak with the calculating smile was; he was so similar to her dreams it was impossible. Of course, he was more stunningly beautiful in reality-her subconscious would not have been able to conjure up an image as perfect as this one. And yet Amber felt not security in the familiarity, but even more terror.

  Her auburn hair whipped as Amber spun around away from the mirror lighting fast to face what should have been the tall pale figure. But all she saw was darkness. She turned back to the mirror feeling like the girl in the horror movie who gets chased down the street in her pyjamas by the monster. The girl who eventually gets killed off.

    The figure was still there, a reflection of nothingness staring though a void of impossibility. Amber scrunched her eyes shut He’s not real, he’s not real, she chanted mentally. She opened her eyes feeling that such a solution could never work, but there were no red eyes glaring out of the nothingness this time when Amber looked in the mirror. So why did she feel like this was only the beginning?

   She ran to the other side of the room and flicked on the light switch. It flashed on immediately, the new bulbs stinging Amber’s eyes in their brightness, but the room was empty. She knew she wasn’t going mad, she knew what she’d seen, and Amber knew that she would be in serious danger if she didn’t find Matthew soon. Providing that he was still alive if this figure hadn’t gotten to him first.

  She knew instinctually that she had to get out of the house, that she was exposing her mother to the danger too if she stayed. Amber didn’t know where she planned on going, so she just ran. She was much slower moving at a human pace than when Matt was there, but if he were there, she supposed she wouldn’t have been sprinting at full pelt into the dark night.

  She must have been subconsciously aware of the direction she was heading in, knowing with all the entirety of her being the only person who could save her in that moment, it seems only natural that she went for the place she associated more than anywhere with him.

   The moment Amber cleared the steep hill and looked down upon the small gathering of trees, barely visible in the moonlight, she felt all her worry and horror disappear like the sudden calm after a storm. She knew that Matt was down there just waiting to save her. And then her instant of peace vanished like bursting a bubble as Amber took in the long distance that she would have to cover before she was truly safe.

  Amber ran again.

  The snow was still sticking heavily to the ground, causing Amber to fall several times on the ice. She was so tired that she thought she was going to pass out, and yet Amber knew the night was long from over.

  Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, she closed in on the outcropping, mere meters from safety. She was running flat out.

  And then everything went dark.

   

  “Amber!” a voice called from a distance. Waves rolled in her head, making rushing noises and blocking out any sound other than the mist. “Amber!” the voice called again. It was a male voice, comforting, familiar. “Amber,” it called again, pulling her back to reality.

  Amber was suddenly aware of a thumping pain in the very centre of her forehead.

  “Ouch,” she murmured.

  “Amber,” the voice half-sighed half-laughed. Matthew.

  Amber suddenly felt an unexplained feeling of anxiety but couldn’t place its cause. “What happened?” she asked, still with her eyes shut and not entirely aware of what was going on around her.

  “You ran into a tree.” This time Matt definitely laughed.

  “Tree?” she muttered confusedly.

  “Something only you could manage at a time like this.” This time he definitely laughed.

  Amber abruptly remembered what she had been doing before she ended up on the cold wet floor with a pounding headache

  “Matt, The Voice, he’s here-“

  “Sshh,” he whispered. “You need to relax, I think you have a concussion. The voice is long gone.”

  “Oh.” Amber made to sit up but Matt pushed her back down to the ground.

  “I’m here to protect you, remember? That means stopping you from getting brain damage.”

  “Oh please.” Amber stood up. “I’m not going to get-“ she was overcome with dizziness and fell back down. Matt caught her before she could hit her head again on the ground. He took off his jacket and placed it between Amber and the snow.

  “I tried to warn you. On the upside, all this snow is like a giant icepack for your head.”

  “Yay,” Amber veined enthusiasm through her tiredness.

  “I’ll take you home.”

   She felt Matt lift her up and the air whooshing past as he carried her home at his supernatural pace. She felt her eyelids drooping before the miniature forest was out of view.

   

  Amber woke up lying on her familiar little bed with bright sunlight shining through the window. She groaned and pulled the pillow over her head to block it out, but that made the air stuffy and hard to breathe. Amber sighed and made to get up, rolling over, intending to reach the edge of the bed, but instead falling straight onto the floor. The thud made as she landed was muffled by the thick carpet.  

  Amber groaned again and crawled to her feet. The sudden movement made her head thump, and she felt a large lump protruding out of her forehead when she brought her hand tothe source of the pain. Amber couldn’t quite remember how she had injured herself, although the answer was on the tip of her tongue, like a forgotten dream, just out of reach. She slouched into the bathroom to inspect herself in the mirror. Each footfall on the carpet sounded like the pounding of a drum inside her head.

  The bump looked even bigger than it felt, like a tennis ball sticking out in the very centre of Amber’s forehead. As she stared at her reflection, flickers of how she had sustained the injury flickered in front of her eyes: running through a grassy area, some sort of field maybe, with a few trees nearby and then…blackness. It was irritating to be so close to an answer and yet to not know it. Amber returned to her room to get dressed, trying to walk as softly as possible so as not to aggravate the drumming in her head.

  It was difficult trying to put on a jumper without hurting the lump on her head any further, each brush of the sleek material against the bruise hurt like a fresh wound. She eventually managed the task and then walked carefully downstairs, making sure that each foot was firmly on the step before continuing, and leaning a large proportion of her weight on the banister. The house was completely silent apart from the creaking protests of Amber’s weight on the staircase, which meant her mum must have already gone to work. She wondered if her mum had actually noticed the new addition to Amber’s face. The clock in the hall said it was half-past one, and Amber groaned for the third time this morning-or afternoon-at how much of the day she had already lost. She got herself a bowl of cereal from the kitchen and took it into the living room, setting it down on the coffee table beside the sofa. Amber flicked through the channels quickly but there was nothing on that interested her, so she grabbed a DVD off the shelf without paying attention to the title and crammed it into the player. It wasn’t a film that she particularly liked, an adventure movie, but Amber sat and ate breakfast whilst the opening credits flashed across the screen to an upbeat soundtrack.

  She gave up on the film before it had gotten half way through though, pulling herself up gently from the sofa and lifting the empty bowl from the cereal with her. The water falling from the tap as Amber rinsed the bowl out sounded like thunder in her head, quickly forcing her to give up on cleaning. Instead, she went back into the hall and picked up the phone, intending to call Matt and ask where he was. Amber had the phone halfway to her ear when she remembered that she had no number for him; she didn’t even know if Matt owned a phone.

  Amber was just about to call Will instead when a strange idea popped into
her head without her having any knowledge of where it had come from. She contemplated for a moment before curiosity got the better of her and she decided she might as well give it a try, seeing as she had no other grand plans for getting Matt there.

  “Matthew,” she whispered. Nothing. “Matthew?” Amber said a little louder. Still nothing. It felt ridiculous, standing all-alone in an empty house talking to herself, and she was glad that no one was around to hear her. Still, Amber couldn’t stop herself giving it just one more try. She concentrated with the entirety of her mind on Matt, and then she shouted his name as her one last attempt.

  “Matthew Pryer!”

  “You called,” the familiar voice said, sounding bemused.

  “It worked?” Amber’s voice came out higher than usual.

  “Apparently so. Where did you get an idea like that from?”

  “Why can’t I have come up with it by myself?” she asked, slightly affronted.

  “Book or film?”

  “Television,” she muttered.

  Matt smirked.

  “Next time, could you not shout quite so loud, it was like a fog horn going off in my head.”

  “Sorry, but maybe if you gave me your number I wouldn’t have to resort to copying from rubbish television shows.”

  “I don’t have a phone, so no number I’m afraid.”

  “You should really get one.”

  “If you need me, apparently you know how to call me,” Matt said, almost sounding slightly annoyed.

  “I wasn’t talking about that,” Amber shook her head. “This is the twenty-first century, how do you expect to blend in as a normal teenager when you don’t have a phone.”

  “You’re right, I’ll buy one tomorrow,” he sighed.

  “Great. Now do you want to give me some answers?” Amber asked, and ignored Matt’s edgy attitude.

  “About?”

  Amber pointed to her head.

  “You don’t remember?” Matt asked. His deep blue eyes looked worried as he examined the large lump that was now a temporary feature on Amber’s face. “Think trees and voices.”

  Everything suddenly clicked and she could recall everything that had happened on the previous night. She mustn’t have fallen asleep until well after midnight, that was why she was up so late, and the bump on her head had been from where she’d run into the tree because she had been running from her biggest fear. She gasped.

  “Matthew,” Amber said urgently. “We need to leave.”

  “Why?” he sounded puzzled.

  “He found me, the voice found me here! If he can find me here then he can find me anywhere! We need to leave!” Amber couldn’t understand why Matt didn’t look at all phased by the fact that nowhere was safe for either of them any more. “We have to go,” Amber repeated. It would hurt her to leave her mum and her friends and Will, but she knew it was the only was to keep them safe.

  “He’s not going to find you,” Matt said calmly.

  “You can’t know that.”

  “Amber, look at me.” Matt lifted Amber’s chin up so that she was looking into his face and said very slowly, “You are safe. He won’t get to you while I’m here.”

  Amber took a deep breath.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Not really.” Her head was still pounding.

  “You should take an aspirin. I’ll go get you one.”

  “But-“ he was gone before Amber could finish her sentence.

  “Here you go,” Matt said, returning with a small pot of pills. He had been gone for less than a second.

  “Thanks.” She cracked open the lid and dropped one tablet onto the palm of her hand, giving the pot back to Matthew. The pill was dry in Amber’s mouth and hard to swallow. She made a little face.

  “Water?” Matt guessed.

  She nodded.

  Matt disappeared for another split second, returning with a large glass filled right to the brim with fresh water. Amber took the glass off him and glugged the water down thirstily, stopping only to take a breath when the glass was empty.

  “More?” Matt asked.

  “Yes please,” she said, her throat even dryer than it had been before she’d drunk the water.

  Amber didn’t even notice his disappearance this time he was so fast, returning with the glass refilled. She drank down the second glass quickly, and then another after that.

  “Why am I so thirsty?” Amber asked as she drained the fourth consecutive glass.

  “It’s probably a result of all the stress your body has been through in the last twenty-four hours,” said Matt in an off-handed manner.

  “Oh.” She supposed it made sense.

  “When was the last time you ate?” Matt asked.

  “About two hours ago.”

  “Are you hungry now?”

  “I suppose so.” Now that she thought about it, Amber was hungry, starving in fact.

  Matt grabbed her hand and pulled her into the kitchen like she was a rag doll.

  “Sit,” he said.

  “I am not a dog,” Amber retorted, but took a seat on the stool by the counter anyway.

  Within seconds Matt had a sizzling pan of chicken on one ring of the hob, one of potatoes on the other and a pot of beans in the microwave. He leaned opposite Amber on the counter whilst the delicious aroma of the food filled the room.

  “While I remember,” he said, paying apparently no attention to what was cooking behind him and extracting from his pocket a small box that was identical to the one that had held Amber’s locket only smaller. “Happy Christmas.”

  “It’s five days until Christmas,” she reminded him, picking up and examining the box nonetheless.

  “Well, if you don’t want it,” Matt reached out to take the box off her, but he pulled it out of his reach.

  “I didn’t say that. I just meant, does this mean I won’t see you.”

  “Not at all, I just thought that after last night it might cheer you up. Also, it’s a replacement for the locket.”

  Amber automatically reached up to touch the golden heart dangling around her neck.

  “What’s wrong with my locket?” she asked.

  “Nothing, it’s just that what’s in the box is more powerful. Go on, open it.”

  She snapped open the tiny red box to find a ring resting inside. It was made of three separate lengths of gold all wound together like a plait. At the centre of the ring there were two stones: one a sapphire, the exact shade of Matthew’s eyes, the other black. Both of the stones shone in the sunlight, both equally beautiful, though Amber preferred the sapphire.

  “What’s this black one?” she asked.

  “That is obsidian. An unrecognised gem, just like you.”

  “Book or film?” Amber quoted Matt from their earlier conversation.

  “Film,” he muttered.

  They both laughed.

  “Thank you, I love it.”

  “I just hope it does a better job than the last one did.”

  She flashed back to the previous night, the creature from her dreams, the monster in the mirror.

  “Food’s done,” Matt said, bringing her back to the present and a large plate of chicken.

  Amber set the box with the ring down and picked up a knife and fork, gulping down the hot food and burning her tongue in the process.

  “What?” she asked, as politely as possible through a mouthful of potatoes. She could see Matt wincing with every bite she took.

  “It’s not easy for me to watch you burning yourself-and with something that I gave you.”

  “Sorry,” Amber said, blowing on the forkful of beans she was about to eat to cool them down. “Better?”

  “Thanks.”

  “You know you can relax, you don’t have to get all worked up about a burnt tongue.”

  “I know, but when it hurts you, it hurts me twice as much.”

  “You never told me that before,” she frowned.

  “That’s the curse of the Daem
on. Kind of clever really, if I fail to save you then I end up in more pain then you are.”

  “That’s horrible.”

  “It’s not so bad,” he shrugged. “Lets me know I’m doing my job right.”

  Amber set the fork down.

  “You should eat that,” Matt said.

  “I’ll wait for it to stop burning.”

  They both laughed again.