by Jon Jacks
Beth didn’t want to believe him.
She struggled to break free, to charge through the churning wall of flame protecting them.
But burning timbers were falling everywhere around them. The ball of flame was her only protection. It either deflected or swiftly incinerated anything falling directly their way.
No one could have survived this.
She whirled angrily on Foley, tears in her eyes, like it was all his fault.
‘To kill me? But…but why set the house on fire? Why kill mum?’
Foley grinned.
‘Because we were lucky! They must’ve thought your mum was still you!’
‘Still me?’
From the rear of the house, there came a tremendous crashing of splintering wood and glass.
Through the haze of the roaring flames, through the gaps that used to be gaily papered walls full of paintings, Beth glimpsed a colossal fireman. Using a double-handed axe, he was smashing his way in through the rear door.
‘There are more of them! Coming in through the back!’
*
Strangely, Foley didn’t have to shout to be heard above the incredible levels of noise.
He seemed unconcerned, too, by the heavily muscled fireman making his way towards them.
The fireman smashing everything in his path with his huge axe.
With a casual hand movement, Foley seemed to redirect the flames towards the approaching fireman.
Beth screamed, expecting the poor fireman to be engulfed by the swiftly advancing flames. But, as if abruptly caught in a vortex of swirling wind, the flames abruptly stopped rushing forward.
They danced, flickered, then soared up through what was left of the building.
For the first time, Beth detected a touch of nervousness in Foley. Other firemen were now breaking in through the windows at both the front and back of the house.
‘There aren’t just humans here!’
Clutching her waist tighter than ever, Foley effortlessly lifted Beth off her feet.
‘We have to get out of here! They might have more developed powers than ours!’
Beth tensed as she felt him preparing to carry her off through the flames once more.
Not just humans? Powers more developed than ours? What was he on about?
Amongst the chaos, something gleamed, sparkled.
It was as if all the brightness of the flames had been condensed into one small spot.
Despite it being a fake, the huge ruby of the replica Excalibur glowed like a setting sun. Standing upright amid the burning wreck of the house, the sword was embedded in what had been the living room’s floor.
Glancing up, Beth saw that it must have tumbled down through the broken floors once most of the loft had burnt away.
‘No, wait!’
She struggled in Foley’s arms to stop him rushing off.
‘The sword! I must get the sword!’
Foley momentarily looked at her as if she were crazed, then smiled.
‘Sure, if it’s important.’
Truth was, Beth couldn’t understand how it could be important at all. She just knew that she had to take it with her.
They swept through the lashing flames towards the sword.
The tangled remains of a pearl-studded gown lay around it.
Beth gripped the handle. It was hot, but she didn’t mind.
She wrenched on it, only to be surprised how easily it slipped out of the wooden floorboards it had become embedded in.
As part of the movement, the sword rose into the air, the blade flashing and gleaming as if it were made of fire.
It was the oddest thing; Beth felt exhilarated, invincible.
‘Right, let’s go,’ Foley insisted, breaking what had felt like a powerful spell.
Beth was expecting Foley to somehow break out of the front door in the same way they had entered the house, perhaps rushing past the surprised firemen.
Instead, he spun them both around and charged towards the wall adjoining the neighbouring house.
As if they were a blazing meteor, they burst through the wall in an explosion of shattered bricks and plaster.
They tore through the house next door, a house that still looked more or less as her mum’s house had looked when Beth had left it that morning; cosy furniture, bright curtains, pretty pictures.
Next came another wall, then another surprisingly normal looking home.
Foley’s ball of flame effortlessly tore through them all.
At last, they exploded though the very last wall of the row of houses. They found themselves standing on a curiously calm and quiet street.
The fireball’s roaring flames swirled, ebbed, rushed into each other; then seemed to slip away into Foley’s fingertips.
‘We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves do we?’
With a gently applied pressure on her arm, Foley forced Beth into a run.
‘Not just yet, anyway, eh?’ he added with a mischievous grin.
Just as Beth had tried to avoid Foley by taking the lanes running between the houses, they headed down the nearest alleyway.
Beth wistfully glanced back towards the burning house.
From behind the corner of a house, a boy was watching them.
He ducked back behind the wall.
But it was too late; Beth had recognised him.
Galilee Green.
And she had also seen that his face was etched with anguish and fear.
*
Chapter 27
As soon as they were sure they weren’t being followed, Foley slid to a halt.
Lifting Beth up high by the waist, he twirled her in the air like she was some long-lost sister.
Beth would have dropped the sword in surprise if her hand hadn’t instinctively tightened around the handle.
Even by Foley’s usual crass standards, it was incredibly insensitive. How could he wave her around so jubilantly when he knew she had just lost her mum in the most horrible way imaginable?
‘Incredible!’ he cried excitedly. ‘You did it! The riddle! The calendar! It was all so amazing!’
If anyone was talking in riddles, it was Foley.
Obviously, he was referring to her discovery of the riddle and the calendar. But why would he think it was so amazing?
‘Foley,’ she cried tearfully, ‘don’t you realise my mum has just died in that fire? And now…now I won’t even get to see her body!’
Struggling against him furiously, she pushed herself free and moved away from him.
He laughed.
Laughed!
‘Oh come on! We don’t need to worry about silly little things like that anymore!’
Silly little things? Mum’s death is a silly little thing?
Beth was dumbstruck.
Foley was trying to phone someone on his mobile phone.
He sniggered.
‘Now I’m being the silly one, aren’t I, eh? There’s no signal, is there, eh?’ He nonchalantly tossed the mobile aside. ‘Force of habit, yeah?’
He caught Beth giving him a bewildered stare,
As he stared back into her eyes, he frowned, like something had just dawned on him.
‘You don’t really know, do you?’
His stare was now intense, probing.
Beth sensed his gaze somehow penetrating way beyond her eyes. He seemed to be seeing something deep within her that even she wasn’t conscious of.
‘No. You’re not completely aware yet, are you?’ he said. ‘But then how…all those? That really is incredible!’
‘Not aware? Sure, Foley; I’m not at all aware what you’re jabbering on about!’
Foley stepped back, but
only so he could observe her even more intently.
‘Now that is interesting! Very interesting indeed!’
‘What was happening back there Foley? Why did those firemen kill my mum?’
Foley shrugged, like it was a trivial question and the answer didn’t really matter.
‘Because they made a big mistake. It’s you they were after.’ As he spoke, he reached towards the bag still hanging off Beth’s shoulder. ‘Could I have your bag a minute?’
Beth hadn’t realised she still had her shoulder bag. It hung limp and weightless against her side. The books and pens had been lost at some time during the last few minutes.
‘Me? But why would they want to kill me?’
Blankly, Beth slipped the bag off her shoulder and handed it to Foley.
He sniggered again as he began to skilfully tear at the bag with a knife he had produced from his trousers. He began to swiftly retie the straps and buckles, creating a whole new contraption.
Foley was a genius when it came to creating new uses for salvaged materials.
‘Well, that’s something you should know. But the fact you don’t shows you’ve still got a long way to go, eh?’
He placed a hand on her shoulder and, as he had done earlier, gave a little push to set her off walking once again.
‘Talking of which, as I can’t use my mobile, we’re going to have to walk to the Magic Bus.’
‘The Magic Bus? You brought it here?’
The Magic Bus meant friends she hadn’t seen for a while. Friends she thought she would never see again.
Friends who, unlike Foley, would understand she needed comforting.
‘Well, it actually brought me! Or did you think I flew here?’
Beth stared quizzically at Foley.
Yep, if he hadn’t been so flip about it, she might actually have considered that he had flown here.
‘Foley, were you really controlling the flames back there? That’s what it seemed like. Where did all these powers come from? Was it you who blew up the fire engine?’
She brought a hand up to her mouth in horror
‘Did you kill them – the firemen? And the neighbours? Did you kill any of them too?’
Indicating that he wanted her to draw closer, Foley slipped the contraption of straps he had created over both her shoulders.
‘The firemen were trying to kill you, remember? As for all the other questions, well; you’ll find the answers to all of them soon enough once you start really waking up.’
He gave a further indication that he needed the sword.
Taking it, he carefully slid it through a series of loops so that it hung uncomfortably down Beth’s back.
Waking up? What did he mean by that?
Yes, she really did have so many questions to ask.
But for the moment, thinking about it, she just wanted to walk, to trudge along doing nothing more than putting one foot in front of the other.
She had just lost her mum. Just a day after having, in a sense, found her for the first time.
Her mum, her poor mum.
She would never see her again
Oh don’t be such a crybaby! Of course you will!
*
Chapter 28
Okay okay, she got it!
There was a something, or a someone, deep inside her!
That voice, that voice! It really was coming from every single part of her! Not just from somewhere within her head.
Did that terrify her?
It sure did!
Which is why she didn’t want to believe that this is what Foley meant when he had said she wasn’t aware yet.
That she wasn’t aware of this spirit or whatever it was hiding away within her.
What had he also said?
That she wasn’t fully awake yet?
And he wasn’t scared, was he?
And he seemed to have all these extra, amazing powers too!
So…was she some sort of ultra-special person? Someone who just needed to realise her powers?
And that voice – was it just her conscience after all, trying to bring her attention to her hidden talents?
She wasn’t sure.
She couldn’t be sure.
But she wanted to believe that the voice inside her, whatever it was, was right when it said she would meet her mum once again.
She didn’t know, couldn’t see, how that would be possible.
But there were an awful lot of things that had happened over the last few days that she wouldn’t have said were possible either.
*
As she and Foley turned the corner, they were faced with the explosion of bright colours that was the Magic Bus.
A one-time wreck of a coach from the nineteen-fifties, it was only just kept roadworthy with the judicious use of scavenged materials.
The paintwork looked as if it had been left in the hands of a graffiti gang with too much money to spend on spray cans. The rooftop luggage rack was decked out like an old living room. Foley and anyone else crazy enough to join him would sometimes sit on the rooftop’s old sofas and chairs as the coach rattled and belched its way down the motorway.
The swing door towards the front was open.
Beth could hear the strains of The Cure playing. She could also hear the excited yapping of a small, overly-energetic dog.
‘Foal!’
Beth started to run.
Almost immediately, the little sausage dog appeared at the door. Bounding down the bus steps, Foal sprinted towards Beth.
As Beth dropped to her knees, Foal leapt into her arms, licking her face so ferociously it made Beth giggle.
‘Foal, Foal! You’re all right. You’re back!’
She turned to look back at the nonchalantly approaching Foley.
‘But how…? I thought you’d come looking for me! I thought you’d blamed me for losing her!’
‘I did blame you!’ Foley gave her a self-satisfied grin. ‘But we found out where she had been taken. We took her back!’
‘Thanks to our superhero here, we didn’t have no problems neither.’
Hearing the familiar deep, slightly croaky voice, Beth looked up. The massive, rounded bulk that was Geraldine loomed over her.
‘You really wouldn’t believe how he did it neither,’ Geraldine added, observing Foley with a puzzled frown.
Beth couldn’t be sure, yet, somehow, Geraldine didn’t seem quite as, well, rounded as she had been just a few days ago.
Surely she couldn’t have had the baby already?
Beth, still cuddling the excitedly writhing Foal, rose to her feet.
‘I think I would,’ she said in reply to Geraldine. ‘Was it anything to do with fire?’
Geraldine nodded. ‘Been up to it again has he? Naughty boy!’
Beth smiled, for the moment hiding her curiosity about the lack of Geraldine’s bump.
Just as she was hiding and keeping in check her anguish over the loss of her mum.
She desperately wanted to let all her grief pour out. And Geraldine would be typically understanding and sympathetic.
But Beth knew that once she started talking about her mum, she would break down, letting the tears and the reminiscences and the self-recriminations flow.
And, for some reason, she didn’t want Foley to see her that way.
She didn’t want him to see her being weak.
Good girl – you’re learning.
*
Chapter 29
Foley was at the wheel
of the Magic Bus.
That meant everyone else had to cling precariously to their seats.
As usual, he was throwing the bus around as if it had never been built to go straight.
Fortunately, there were fewer cars on the road than normal. The surprisingly large number that were parked along the roadsides, however, created frustrating obstacles in their own right.
Every move Foley made elicited angry cries (but not, surprisingly, the usual blare of horns) from the cars he had only just marginally avoided steaming into.
If anything, he was being more daring and reckless than ever. He was almost miraculously fitting the Magic Bus through the narrowest of gaps.
‘Use your lights, your lights you stupid old git,’ he would scream every now and again.
He seemed completely oblivious to the fact he never used tiresome things like indicators himself.
‘What’s wrong with everyone today? No one’s using their lights!’
Beth clung on to Foal who, nose to the window, yapped excitedly at the many angrily waving people they passed.
Geraldine resolutely stared directly ahead, her vast, swaying bulk apparently absorbing most of the bus’s erratic scything.
The only other crusty aboard the bus was Solstice. His lean body bent and curved rhythmically with each jolt, like a reed in the wind.
His eyes were locked on the sword Beth had laid across one of the empty seats.
Solstice had eagerly reached for the sword when Beth had first boarded the bus.
Noticing how effortlessly Beth had slipped it out of its shoulder strap, he had been taken by surprise by its weight. He had glared at her, assuming it must be some trick designed to make him look foolish.
‘Sorry,’ Beth had said quickly, sensing his anger.
She had seen the way Solstice could quickly flare up over any perceived slight. ‘I don’t know why it does that. Or why I don’t find it heavy.’
‘Ah, another mystery, eh?’
Whenever he made a rare attempt at smiling, baring a mouth crammed with large, sharp teeth, Solstice’s wasted, pointed face looked more rat-like than ever.
‘Like the mystery of where Foley got all these weird powers, eh?’
His bulging, probing eyes were overflowing with distrust, like he believed she and Foley were keeping something from him. Something that he had far more right to than they did.
His intense stare had only wavered when he had been momentarily distracted by Foley sliding into the driving seat, his eyes popping all the more as his waxy skin tightened with fear.
Solstice was obviously more terrified of Foley than ever. Especially a Foley who insisted on driving the Magic Bus through crowded traffic.
Pulling Foal back from barking at a furious cyclist forced onto the pavement, Beth ignored Solstice’s envious gawping at the sword.
What had Beth been thinking earlier when she had heard the Magic Bus was in town? That it would be great to be amongst friends once again?