by Jenna Grey
Connor pulled her to him and placed a kiss on her forehead, with cold, trembling lips.
“You’ll know how to do it once you try, trust me.”
Lily wished she had as much confidence in herself as Connor seemed to have in her. Connor seemed to know so much more about everything than she did... which should have been a good thing. Why did she feel so niggled by it, then?
“If I do visit him, what could I tell him? He’ll want to know whether Liam and Sarah are safe. I only have Virginia’s word for it that the kids are okay, and we know what a treacherous bitch she was.”
Connor’s face was solemn.
“You’ve got my word as well. I told you, I saw them and they’re fine.”
Lily had to look away, just a little intimidated by his gaze.
“But I need to see them for myself. I can’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes.”
Connor went just a little too quiet.
“Lily...”
Lily snapped her head up and saw the blush hit his face, high on his cheek bones. If that wasn’t guilt and embarrassment she didn’t know what was.
“You’re hiding something from me!”
Connor let out a long sigh.
“I didn’t want you to see, because it will hurt you.”
“Why?”
Connor’s face went through every colour of the spectrum, and finally settled on bone white.
“Because... he’s… he’s being nice to them,” he blurted out.
Lily just blinked at him.
“And why would that hurt me?” she asked, genuinely puzzled.
“They’re growing to have.... growing to have affection for him,” Connor said, apologetic, not able to look into her eyes.
It took a moment for that one to sink in.
“You mean he’s already turning them against me?”
The thought was too terrible. Lily felt her knees weaken, and for a moment she thought she was going to pass out. It was probably lack of food, but all the same, Connor’s revelation was too awful to even think about. Connor closed his hand over hers, and when she glanced across at him she could see his eyes bright with barely held back tears.
“No, but they’re starting to like him. That’s why I don’t want you to see. I knew how much it would hurt you.”
Lily rested her head against Connor’s damp shoulder and gave a little whimper. She finally said:
“I still need to do it. It can’t be any worse than I’m imagining. Show me.”
Connor surrendered with a deep sigh.
“Well, I still think it’s a bad idea, but...you need something that belongs to them.”
Lily rummaged in her bag and pulled out the macaroni necklace the children had made her for her birthday, a gaudy gold thing that was one of her greatest treasures. Kieran had helped them paint it because it was ‘big boy’s paint.’
“Will this do?”
“That’s fine,” he said.
The gold paint was already coming off on Lily’s fingers, and the necklace had got a little soggy, the macaroni definitely past its best. That was unbearably sad. Beside it, nestled in her clothing was the snow globe that Kieran had bought her, a strange gift for him to have given her. He said that he’d seen it and thought of her, and when she’d first looked into its snowy depths a strange feeling had tingled through her body, as if she was somehow meant to have this odd little curio. He hadn’t even known why he’d bought it, just that it seemed right for Lily somehow. There was a great castle in the background, perched high on a glass mountain; she shook it and watched the snow flutter down on it.
“You can use that to dream walk to Kieran,” Connor said, taking it from her and staring into the swirling white tinsel. “That castle looks just like something you’d find in Otherworld.”
Lily had thought that herself. It made her feel even more homesick. It was a beautiful building, not quite like the fairy tale castles you see in children’s books, more like the wonderful Russian buildings, with the onion shaped towers, and little minarets, painted in bright colours and covered everywhere in gold decoration. Lily put it back in the bag and pushed it from her mind.
Connor closed his hand over hers, the macaroni necklace clutched tightly in her sweaty palm and she instantly felt the power pouring into her.
“Now close your eyes and think of them,” Connor said. “You have to believe that you can do this, or it won’t work.”
They sat for a few moments and nothing happened, just that strange little buzz running through their entwined fingers.
“It’s not working,” Lily said. “Maybe I need a little bit of pixie dust or something.”
Connor gave her a ‘what the hell are you going on about?’ look. He was surprisingly good at those. She gave him her ‘God you’re thick sometimes’ look in retaliation. She was surprisingly good at those.
“What?” he asked.
“Peter Pan? You know, Tinkerbell. I do believe in fairies?”
Connor just raised an eyebrow that said more than words ever could.
“Close your eyes and I’ll try and help.”
And then Lily saw... and wished she hadn’t.
Liam and Sarah were sitting together in a large, beautifully furnished nursery, one of those wonderful Victorian nurseries, filled with equally wonderful toys. There was a huge doll’s house, taller than Sarah, the door open. It was filled with sumptuous furniture, and the most delicate and minute accessories, tiny dinner plates and cutlery, chandeliers, that glowed brightly, with real light. There were dolls, beautiful porcelain dolls ranged along one side of the room. For Liam a rocking horse and toy soldiers, a fort, and wooden blocks. The two of them were sitting around a miniature table, with a fine bone china tea set laid out and they seemed more than content, giving their dolls tea, chattering and laughing. They were both dressed in smart clean clothes, a lovely party dress for Sarah, and a comfortable looking old-fashioned sailor outfit for Liam. There faces were shiny clean, their hair neat and brushed. They looked better than they ever had under her foster mother Claire’s care.
Lily was still aware that Connor was beside her, knew exactly where she was. It wasn’t as if she’d actually been transported to where they were... it was like looking at them through a round window, set into the backdrop of the woody lane.
“They do look happy, don’t they?” she said.
Connor didn’t have to answer, she knew exactly what he was thinking.
The door opened and Lily blanched when she saw who had walked in.
The Black King.
He was in human form, tall, handsome, with a benign smile on his face. No-one could ever had guessed the evil that lurked within. If Lily hadn’t known who he was she could have easily taken him for a kind man, a good man... the children’s father, perhaps. That thought brought a lump to her throat that threatened to choke her. Liam and Sarah both looked up as he came in and their faces came alive with bright smiles. For a moment Lily thought they were going to rush into his arms, but they just sat waiting expectantly for him to come to them.
He walked up to the children and crouched down beside them, a smile on his face that would have sweetened vinegar.
“Are you having fun?” he asked.
Sarah and Liam nodded in unison, radiantly happy. Lily had to believe that he was using some kind of enchantment on them, she had to. But then, when she remembered how her foster mother Claire used to treat them, how she ignored or berated them alternately for the slightest mistake, perhaps she could understand why they were so ready to accept unconditional love from anyone. Lily had done her best and she knew that they loved her, but what if they grew to love him more?
“We’re having a party. Do you want some tea?” Sarah asked.
A nod, and Sarah poured out the imaginary tea for the monster beside her, the monster that had murdered an innocent boy, simply to hurt Lily, that had raped her, that had tried to kill her and Connor, the monster who was now hell bent on destroying the world and s
he felt such a terrible rage that she didn’t think that any world could contain it. The creature picked up the cup and pretended to drink, smiling over the rim at his two victims.
“Well, this is very nice,” he said, “but I know what would make it much nicer...”
He waved a hand towards the door, and in came a diminutive creature carrying a tray of fancy cakes: cream filled, sprinkle topped, scrumptious cakes, that looked so delicious that Lily began to dribble uncontrollably, despite her misery. Behind them another servant came in, carrying bright coloured drinks and sweets of every kind. The strange little beings that carried the food looked almost like children, but there was something about them that shrieked age. Lily could see them for what they were ‒ Djinn in one of their many forms. They could shape-shift at will, and these peculiar beings were as evil as their master. They laid out the tiny cakes and treats on the table, and they were exactly the right size for the tea set and for Liam and Sarah’s tiny hands. Sarah clapped her hands in delight, and threw her arms around her captor’s neck, smothering his face with kisses.
“Fank you!” she said, and the monster looked genuinely pleased at her display of affection.
“I just want you to be happy,” he said, stroking the hair from her face.
Sarah poured him a cup of fruit juice and he drank, beaming a brilliant smile at them.
“I’m very happy!” Sarah said. “I want to stay here forever.”
The air was suddenly broken by a terrible scream from somewhere outside the room. It was an horrific sound, the sound of someone in dreadful agony. The cup Sarah was holding flew from her hand and with lightning swift reflexes the Black King’s hand snatched it from the air as it tumbled. He set it back down on the table, as if nothing untoward had happened. There was another scream, but this time it was cut short, and Lily had no doubts that the screamer would never scream again.
“What was that?” Sarah asked.
“Just someone playing a game,” The Black King said, his voice as tranquil as a summer lake.
“I don’t think I want to play that game,” Sarah said, her eyes just a little wide and her lips pale. The Black King’s smile broadened.
“Oh don’t worry little one. You and Liam will never have to play that game.”
This seemed to satisfy Sarah and she went back to pouring her tea, offering another cup to her tormentor.
Lily opened her eyes, and found she could barely see through the mist of tears. She scrubbed them roughly away with the heels of her hands.
“I can’t watch any more,” she said, sobbing, and throwing herself into Connor’s arms.
He gently eased her back and looked down at her, puzzled.
“Lily, I don’t understand. You almost sound as if you want them to be unhappy. Would you rather they were locked in a dungeon somewhere, covered in rats, and starving?”
Lily tightened her face in a condemnatory frown.
“No, of course not! But I can’t bear that he’s using them like that. He’s tricking them with his toys and gifts and they’re going to start believing his lies. He’s not just turning them against me, he’s going to turn them into him!”
Connor took a hold of her by the tops of her arms and gave her a little shake.
“That’s not going to happen. We’ll get them back, and they’ll be fine!” He sounded just a little angry now, and Lily supposed he had a right to be. Lily gave him her best ‘sorry’ face, and she got a smile back.
“I know you’re right, of course you are, but I keep thinking of all the terrible things he’s done since he first came into our lives, such evil things. He murdered my friend Gary, and your friend, Tom.”
Connor’s face took on a moue of utter misery.
“I still keep having flashbacks. I really liked Tom, he was a good man, and I can never forgive the Black King for what he did.”
Connor wasn’t the only one having flashbacks of that terrible event. Whenever Lily closed her eyes she saw Tom, Connor’s carer, dripping blood from the terrible knife wound in his chest, as dead as he was ever going to be, rise up and try to kill Connor. It wasn’t until that moment that she realised just how much power the Black King had. If he could resurrect the dead as zombies, bend them to his will and destroy life so easily, then what hope did they have against him?
“It wasn’t our fault, Connor, none of this is our fault.”
Connor’s face suddenly tightened in a grimace of rage, and Lily could feel the anger roiling from him in great dark waves of power.
“No, you’re right,” he said, through gritted teeth. “All of this is down to the Black King.”
Connor took her in his arms for a few moments and gave her a comforting hug. He felt far too cold, and was shivering far more than was healthy.
“We should keep moving. We need to find shelter for the night. If we stay out in the open we’ll die of exposure,” Lily said, when really, in her heart all she wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep.
“So, which way, do we go to Little Ostrey or Helmsford?” Connor asked.
“Helmsford would be safer I suppose, but there’s nothing there but a church, a pub and a few houses. We need food.”
“Little Ostrey it is then,” Connor said, slipping his hand into hers.
Chapter Four.
They followed the sign to Little Ostrey, walking for what felt like hours, even though it was probably no more than twenty minutes. Lily had lost the feeling in her legs, and was barely keeping them under her. The mist that surrounded them had thinned a little, but the air still hung damp and thick around them. As they entered the village Lily pointed to the gardens of the small cottages that lined the High Street. Every one of them was a decaying heap of rotted plant life. The grassy bank that ran the length of the street was usually a glorious display of colourful flowers at this time of year… if indeed this really was July. Lily was seriously beginning to doubt it. Now it was just a rotting heap of dead, black putrefaction. There was nothing living, not a weed or choked blade of grass, just decay and corruption.
“Look, the gardens are all dead, every one of them.” It was a pointless comment. Connor didn’t need to have the obvious pointed out to him. They had suddenly been plunged into a place that bore no resemblance to the picturesque village that she’d grown up in. Little Ostrey had been postcard pretty, its quaint winding High Street lined with handsome Tudor houses, flower baskets decorating their walls, and interesting oldy-worldy shops. The place they now found themselves in was a tomb.
“Is this real?” Lily asked, searching the houses, the alleyways, for some sign of life, but finding none, not even a dog or cat. The silence that hung over the place was absolute.
“This has to be the Black King’s work, but if they did this, I can’t understand how the Djinn have suddenly got so powerful.”
Lily looked around at the houses, and saw that most of the windows had their curtains drawn, and lay in darkness. With every step she took Lily grew more and more afraid.
“This place looks as if its deserted. Can’t you feel it? It feels like a ghost town,” she said, shivering, and not just from cold. “Even at its quietest it’s never like this, and why aren’t there any lights in any of the windows?”
Connor screwed up his face, his brow furrowed in concentration, circling around and sensing the air.
“There are people here, I can feel them, but their thoughts are so dark. Usually there is a mix of light and dark, happy sad, these… these thoughts are the thoughts of lost souls.”
Lily reached out and could feel them too, thousands of lost souls calling out in the darkness: hopeless prayers, and desperate pleas for help, cries of despair and terrible anguish, and many of them were coming from far, far away. Did this darkness cover the whole world?
“Connor, something terrible has happened, I can feel it too.”
For a moment the world almost slipped into darkness as Lily’s hunger and exhaustion finally got the better of her. She almost toppled, but Connor caugh
t her, and she rested against him for a few moments until the world returned.
“We have to get some food from somewhere and soon. We are going to start making really dangerous mistakes if we don’t get something in our stomachs. This would be hard enough to cope with at the best of times.”
Lily had never felt this hungry and weak in her life; she felt as if she hadn’t eaten for months. And Connor was right, her thinking was dangerously woolly, her thoughts circling in her head like startled birds; she couldn’t grab a hold of any of them. Terrible things were going on around them, and neither of them were in any condition to think rationally about what their next move should be.
They were both in shock, of course they were, how could they not be after being thrown into this nightmare? It wasn’t just that things had changed so much, but for it to have happened in a matter of hours was enough to send anyone over the edge of reason. Lily took Connor’s cold hand and pressed it to her lips.
“Whatever this is, we’ll deal with it. We just have to stay strong. Let’s try the local supermarket. There might be something left there we can salvage.”
“I wouldn’t bank on it,” Lily said. “I have a feeling that all we’re going to find there is more misery.”
The small Co-op supermarket was tucked away between the undertakers and the betting shop. Not exactly town planning at its best. Both were boarded up, the windows grimed with months, if not years of dirt, mould growing around the edges, and dead weeds blocking the door way.
The supermarket wasn’t much of a shop at the best of times, but you could buy the basics there, as well as newspapers, sweets and magazines. Right that minute Lily would have settled for a stale bun and a cup of cold tea. As they got closer, Lily could see that that too lay in darkness, in the same state as the shops on either side. She hadn’t really expected anything else.
She peered through the window and saw nothing but rows of empty shelves, old cardboard boxes lay discarded in the aisles, the windows were mud splattered.
“The place looks deserted, as if it hasn’t been open for ages. Could we have been asleep that long, perhaps in some enchanted sleep?” she asked, blanching at the thought.