He squeezed her hand, and felt Arkle doing the same to his.
‘Never take back your sacrifice.’
They let go.
The sun beat through the trees, their breathing settled and the box sat motionless at their feet.
The noise rose in Sep’s ear, and its pain stabbed into his mouth.
‘Did it work?’ said Arkle.
The squirrel’s jaw clicked behind him. They turned as leaves parted on the clearing’s edge and a tiny, melted doll burst from the gloom, her mouth open, a green glow in her bobbing eyes.
The box’s sound filled Sep’s deaf ear like a siren, and as he opened his mouth to scream the crows burst from the trees.
‘RUN!’ shouted Lamb, slipping on a pile of dead fur.
The doll bore down with impossible speed. It pushed Lamb to the ground, then began to climb over her body.
Arkle screamed and heaved the Geiger counter at the doll’s face, knocking it on to the ground before bringing the dial down on the plastic skull.
‘I knew it was a good idea to bring this!’ he said, helping Lamb to her feet.
‘Don’t get cocky,’ she muttered, pushing him on as Sadie staggered upright.
They ran breathlessly through the trees, the sound of tiny footsteps only feet away as the doll cut through the forest behind them.
Sep had never run for so long without stopping – the breath hurt in his chest, and his heart beat painfully.
He saw Arkle turn his head and duck – saw Lamb follow his eyes and scream. Hadley, wheezing uncontrollably, tripping on a wet stone, Mack shouting as he reached down to grab her.
And then the forest exploded.
37
Miracle
Mario leaned over Mr Snuggles. He prodded the little belly with his scalpel, then lifted the tail and let it fall.
It flicked away, as though indignant at being handled.
He’d stored the other animals, and calmed their owners. Then he’d locked the door and switched off the lights.
‘Is most unusual,’ he said into the Dictaphone, running his hand over the scaly, slender corpse. ‘Subject: Mr Snuggles, iguana dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Is clinically dead, but responding to stimulus.’
He swung the light over the table and passed his hand through the beam, watching as the shadow struck the nerves and twitched the legs.
‘Parietal eye is active, although –’ he checked the orange eyeballs, their pupils wide and still – ‘ocular dilation is static.’
Mario stood back, hands on his hips.
‘Is a miracle,’ he said. ‘A miracle. This is the Jesus of iguanas.’
He turned to Barkley, back on his trolley.
‘And this is dog-Jesus.’
Barkley was bug-eyed and warm, his breathless mouth running with thick, warm drool. Mario angled the light over the dog’s head.
‘Subject: Barkley. Although also clinically dead, he propelled himself from table and into cupboard, displaying motor function in excess even of Mr Snuggles –’
The iguana’s jaw moved, and the mouth closed like a pincer.
‘– and his eyes are –’
A pinprick of green light in Barkley’s eye swelled quickly to a bright glow that shone against Mario’s scalpel.
‘– they are –’ said Mario, staring.
Barkley’s head snapped up and, as the dog’s teeth sunk into his hand, Mario heard the slither of scale on steel, and screamed.
38
Forgiveness
Plumes of cordite rose from Roxburgh’s shotgun. Daniels lurked behind him, his face pasty and damp, one ear massive and purple. The little terrier growled deep in her chest, teeth bared.
Daniels? thought Sep.
He looked at the others, each of them frozen in terror, eyes fixed on the shotgun. He could see what they were all thinking, faced with this bleeding, tattooed wild man: that he’d tried to kill Maguire and now he was here, pointing a gun at their heads.
But Roxburgh hadn’t shot them. He’d shot the doll.
And, more than that, Sep realized – he hadn’t seemed surprised to see it.
‘So it’s you’s been doin’ this?’ said the old gamekeeper. The skin on his face was red and thick, his eyes deep behind a broken, orange-peel nose. He was holding another terrier close to his chest. Its neck was limp, and Sep saw its fur was soaked with blood.
He stared at the little doll. Blown apart, it looked like any other broken toy, the terrible light gone from its eyes.
‘Speak!’ said Roxburgh, stabbing the gun at them.
‘That’s not ours,’ blurted Lamb, her voice shaking.
Hadley sobbed, then took a quick burst of her inhaler.
‘I know that,’ said Roxburgh, ‘but –’
‘All right, Septic?’ said Daniels.
‘You shut it,’ said Roxburgh. ‘Now, for the last time, is it you’s what’s been at the clearin’?’
‘Pardon, sir?’ said Sep, the noise of the shotgun still ringing in his good ear.
Roxburgh angled his head, narrowing his eyes.
‘You that deaf boy?’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Sep.
‘Oh, I remember you lot,’ said Roxburgh, spitting at his feet. ‘You was the ones found it in ’82 – always on your bikes, an’ settin’ things on fire. Wasn’t there a stupid kid with big teeth?’
‘You tried to kill Mrs Maguire!’ said Arkle, his eyes wide. ‘You’re a killer! You’re a killer!’
‘There you are,’ said Roxburgh, pointing the gun at Arkle.
‘Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii–’ said Arkle.
‘I asked if it’s you been skulkin’ these past nights, but I reckon I’ve got my answer.’
‘That wasn’t – we’ve not been here before today, sir,’ said Sep.
The terrier’s growl rose in its throat and Roxburgh shook his head.
‘One of you has.’
‘I knew it,’ said Lamb, her voice shaking as her eyes flicked accusingly at the others. ‘I knew it!’
‘Sir, what was that?’ Sep pointed at the shards of wet plastic.
‘A doll. Been huntin’ it since sunrise, an’ I found it climbin’ out the stone this mornin’, dangerous little bastard. Took a chunk out my leg –’ he gestured to the bloodstained patch of torn fabric on his trousers – ‘an’ it’s your meddlin’ what’s brought it out.’
The five looked at each other.
‘Don’t play dumb wi’ me! You broke the rules!’ Roxburgh snapped. ‘You said the words, an’ you’ve gone back on ’em.’
‘Wait, you know about the rules?’ said Lamb, lowering her hands. ‘What the hell?’
‘What rules?’ said Daniels.
‘Shut it,’ said Roxburgh again. ‘You think you were the first ones to find it? Never come to the box alone. Never open it after dark. Never take back your sacrifice.’
‘They’re the same as ours,’ said Lamb. ‘They’re the same rules we made.’
‘Of course they are,’ said Roxburgh slowly.
‘You tried to kill Mrs Maguire,’ Arkle burst out, panic driving his mouth. ‘You’ve got prison tattoos and everything!’
Roxburgh spat again, sending a black blob into one of his giant bootprints.
‘That ain’t so, son – it was me saved ’er. This bloody doll was ’er sacrifice. Meant to choke ’er to death, but I got there in time.’
Sep’s head spun.
‘Maguire made a sacrifice?’ he said. ‘Mrs Maguire?’
‘Wasn’t her name then,’ said Roxburgh, shifting the terrier’s dead weight on to his other arm. ‘She was Aileen Gordon, brightest girl in the school. It was her idea to make the offerin’. So we did. Five of us,’ he added, looking around at them each in turn.
‘And it tried to choke her?’ said Sep, remembering Barnaby’s shadow on his window. ‘The doll tried to kill her?’
Roxburgh nodded.
‘Sadie,’ he said, tasting the name. ‘She came back when you messed it
all up again – and mine’s out there too, somewhere. We were the only ones left, me an’ Aileen, after Shelley moved away.’
Sep’s memory flickered.
‘Did she move to New York?’
Now Roxburgh looked surprised.
‘How’d you know a thing like that?’ he said quietly.
‘She died. Mr Tench told me Mrs Maguire’s friend in New York died suddenly. Yesterday.’
‘That’s right,’ murmured Roxburgh, almost to himself. He looked at them and smiled without humour, his teeth stained like an old teapot. ‘Means I’m next then, doesn’t it?’
‘So it does go in order?’ said Hadley.
Daniels looked from her to the gamekeeper, his brow furrowed in confusion.
‘Aren’t you clever?’ said the old man, packing more tobacco into his mouth. ‘Not clever enough, though – you don’t know what you’re dealin’ with. The box gives you the rules, an’ takes everythin’ you give it – much more than your sacrifice, though you don’t know it at the time. All the secret things. An’ so long as you keep your promises you’ll be safe … but it can’t stand the rules bein’ broken. It gets angry. Look, you all know me, an’ how I keep these woods. Well, I’ve been keepin’ an eye on that box. I buried it good and deep, an’ nobody’d found it until that damn storm spat it out an’ you little bastards started messin’ around. But this –’ he kicked the doll’s broken skull – ‘this never happened back in my time.’
‘What did happen?’ said Hadley, her voice no more than a breath.
‘Well … we did it wrong – broke one of the rules,’ said Roxburgh, his eyes far off as he settled into the confession. ‘They came back, tried to scare us, but they never tried to kill us. Then we did it a second time, properly.’ He refocused, glared round at them all. ‘I don’t know what you’ve done, but this is worse. Even the forest knows it. Nothin’s growin’ except the mushrooms.’
‘We don’t know what we’ve done. We don’t even know what rule we’ve broken. But we’ve tried to fix it,’ said Sep. ‘Just now, we tried to put the rules right – reverse whatever went wrong. We’re here together, in daylight, and we mean to –’
‘But you’ve not done it properly!’ Roxburgh snapped, his voice like a thunderclap in the silent forest. ‘Well,’ he said, noting how they stood apart – seeing the distance between them. ‘I’d say you’re not capable of anythin’ else, lookin’ at you. You can’t bring that kind of resentment here an’ expect it to work for you. I can’t do it for you. Even if I could, I’m old an’ tired an’ it’s already killed one of my damn dogs.’
‘The doll killed your dog?’ said Hadley.
Sep saw how pale she was, how unsteady on her feet.
‘Jus’ get out of here an’ don’t come back,’ said Roxburgh. ‘An’ take this lump with you.’
Daniels looked at him, snapping out of his trance.
‘I’m not going with them,’ he said, ‘they’re assholes.’
‘Watch your goddamn language,’ growled Roxburgh, snapping open his gun. ‘An’ you’ll do as you’re told. I was plannin’ on holin’ up when I found you skulkin’ around.’
‘I’d nearly caught it,’ said Daniels.
‘Caught what?’ said Sep.
‘The pellet-eyed crow.’
Sep looked at Daniels properly for the first time. His eyes were red and sore, and his Mohawk had flopped over his sunburnt scalp.
Daniels snapped his teeth, and grinned.
‘I told you,’ said Roxburgh, ‘they’s already dead – you can’t hunt ’em any more’n you can scoop up the moon.’
‘The crows are dead?’ said Sep.
‘You’ve seen ’em?’
‘Yes. They’ve been outside our houses – and they were at the box just now. Three of them.’
Roxburgh nodded, and took his time answering.
‘They’s not usual crows,’ he said eventually.
‘So what are they?’ shouted Arkle. ‘Aren’t you going to give us, like, guidance?’
The gamekeeper squinted at him, shook his head.
‘Those really are some teeth, son.’
‘Sir,’ said Sep, taking a half-pace, ‘how do we stop the sacrifice box from hurting us?’
Roxburgh pocketed his leather tobacco pouch, the tattooed swallow wings beating as his hands moved. He slotted in two new shells, holding Sep’s eye.
‘I told you, you’ve come to it all wrong,’ he said, closing the gun. ‘Too bitter, too resentful. I don’t know if you can do anythin’ now.’
‘But … you did,’ said Lamb, hand on her face. ‘You did something! You managed to stop it! So why can’t we?’
‘I told you – what you’ve done must be worse than what we did. Now get out of here, an’ don’t come back. Stay safe. Hide.’
‘You’re meant to be wise – and helpful,’ said Arkle, almost to himself.
Roxburgh lifted the gun back on to his shoulder.
‘Are you scared, little children?’
‘Yes,’ said Sep. ‘We are.’
He could feel the others holding their breath.
Roxburgh shook his head, and smiled.
‘No, you’re not. You don’t know fear – not real fear. But you might, before this is over.’
‘I’m not scared,’ said Daniels.
Roxburgh shot him a look.
‘You’d already pissed your trousers when I found you.’
‘That’s amazing,’ said Arkle quickly.
Daniels’ face darkened.
‘I fell – in the river.’
‘Ain’t no rivers of piss around here, son,’ Roxburgh snorted. ‘Get goin’ now. Fast as you can.’
‘But –’ said Lamb.
‘Go! These is my woods – you’ve already done ’em enough harm!’
They edged past him, Daniels storming ahead, the others helping each other through the streams and over the rocks.
‘What do we do?’ Sep called back. ‘Please?’
‘Forgive each other,’ said Roxburgh, without turning round.
‘What?’
‘You heard me. I can see it when I look at you – all that resentment’s like storm clouds around your heads. Forgive each other, then you’ll have a chance.’
‘All right,’ said Sep uncertainly. ‘Thank you.’
Roxburgh listened as their footsteps faded into the trees, waited for the pickup to rumble into life and speed off. Then he shifted the dog’s dead weight on to his shoulder, stamped the last shards of Sadie’s body into the dirt, and headed home.
39
Escape
‘We almost got shot!’ screamed Arkle, grabbing Lamb’s hair over the headrest.
‘There was a mixtape on the ground, and the goddamn lid was off!’ she screamed, stamping on the accelerator. ‘Are you all going to keep pretending no one went back to the box? Someone has – let me go, you little freak!’
Mack reached over and prised Arkle’s fingers away. He locked on to the seat instead.
‘We didn’t almost get shot,’ said Sep. ‘He saved us!’
‘What did he say when you hung back?’ said Lamb, eyeing Sep in the mirror.
‘He said we … he said we had to forgive each other. That we resent each other too much to fix this.’
‘Eh?’ said Arkle. ‘That’s crazy, I don’t resent you guys.’
‘I do,’ growled Lamb, gripping the wheel tighter.
‘You shouldn’t have stayed there on your own,’ said Arkle, shaking Sep’s shoulders. ‘He had a gun, September! A gun!’
‘But he didn’t attack Mrs Maguire – her doll did! Isn’t that crazy? She and Roxburgh sacrificed stuff when they were kids – and now the box is trying to kill everyone who’s made a sacrifice!’
‘They had the same rules as us,’ said Hadley, shivering.
‘And someone’s broken them!’ shouted Lamb, hammering the wheel with her fist. ‘Who was it?’
The truck skidded on the gravel, righting itself too quickly
and knocking them against the side. Sunlight was strobing through the canopy with a flickering light that hurt Sep’s head.
‘Well, it wasn’t me,’ said Arkle. ‘First I knew about it was the damn wings in my ears.’
‘And it wasn’t me,’ said Daniels, his bulk and Mack’s almost filling the small cabin. ‘What are you dickheads even –’
‘Shut up, Daniels!’ shouted Lamb. ‘One of you has done this,’ she hissed, her teeth locked tight.
‘You know, Lamb, we’ve all got shit to deal with, OK?’ said Arkle. ‘I threw up bloody dragonflies, you know? And Hadley –’
‘Look at my face!’ Lamb screamed, tears in her eyes. ‘What do you think it’s doing to me? I gave it my mum’s mirror, and now I look like her. Do you think I can’t see it? I had the same dream as you, Sep, the same dream – only in mine the birds couldn’t fill my mum’s skin. She just stayed empty, then they flew away.’
‘You’re such –’ Daniels began.
‘Nobody gives a shit about you, Keith! You’re nothing – don’t you get it?’ shouted Lamb as Daniels sat rigid with shock. ‘Can’t you lot see what’s happening to us? Why did we choose those things when we were kids? Why those things?’
‘I just like to burn stuff,’ said Arkle. ‘Sometimes, when school doesn’t go well, I make little fires and watch them. I did the dragonflies just after I’d burned my report card, remember?’
‘It was my favourite watch,’ said Mack.
‘My diary had all my secrets inside.’
‘What about your teddy, Sep?’ Lamb interrupted. ‘Whose was he?’
‘Mine. But my mum had him for a while, in the hospital –’
‘And now she’s ill again, isn’t she?’
‘How do you know that?’ said Sep quietly. The others had frozen.
‘Don’t you see? It’s not just trying to kill us – it’s trying to destroy our lives!’
Sep thought of Lamb’s changing face, of Hadley’s bruise and Arkle’s failing memory; of his mum, lying glassy-eyed and pale on a hospital bed – and he remembered at once the desire he’d felt, even then, to leave the island.
He thought of what Roxburgh had said: everything you give it – all the secret things.
He felt sick.
‘Oh my God,’ he said. ‘Is that it? Is that what we sacrificed?’
The Sacrifice Box Page 17