“Get over the other side of the tracks!” yelled Ben, taking hold of Jude and shoving him forward over the rails. “Quickly, before the train comes past and blocks our escape. The police won’t be able to follow us while the train comes through.” Ben took one last glance at me and ran across the rails – Jude followed, stumbling as he went. Something fell from his pocket and I saw Raven pick it up and place it inside the jacket she wore.
I grabbed hold of Max just as he was about to follow Jude, “No, not with them. Follow me.”
“What are you doing?” shouted Max. “We need to get away from the police.”
“There’s no time to explain,” I pulled on his arm, snatching at Raven with my other hand.
“Come on, Kassidy!” yelled Jude. He had reached the other side of the tracks and was now watching – waiting for us to join him. Ben stood silently behind Jude. His blue eyes stared back at me.
Before any of us could reply, the train hurtled by, whipping up the leaves in a shower of reds and yellows, blocking our view of Ben and Jude. The carriages sped by in a blur of metal.
“This way,” I pointed up a steep incline dotted with bare, scrawny trees. “Run!”
There was no time for hesitation. We had to get away before the train had moved past and we had to escape from the police. I ran. I didn’t even bother to check if Max and Raven were following. If the police caught us, then that would be it. No chance of seeing Doctor Langstone, no way of removing VA20, and no more freedom in more ways than one.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
As I ran, dodging trees and dips in the ground, I found myself wishing I was a cheetah. I lengthened my stride as far as possible – pushed myself forward. I darted left to right, jumping over lumps of rock, avoiding anything that would be my downfall. The autumn wind rushed through my hair and stung my cheeks. I knew Max and Raven were close behind. I could hear their feet pounding over the ground, their breathing heavy. I focused on what lay ahead. I didn’t dare look around.
The hill we were running up seemed endless. If only there was a break in the trees – which looked more like crooked stickmen. The constant darting from left to right slowed me down – messed up my pace. Where were the police? Had they left their car and were now chasing us on foot, or were they traveling along a road – one that I didn’t know about or could see? Would they be waiting at the top of this hill for us to come stumbling out of the trees, ready to catch us? Was it Cropper and his men, or was it the local police force who now had an interest in us? So many questions but no time to act on the answers.
“Stop… stop,” gasped Max. “I can’t see them, I don’t think the police are following us.”
“I can’t see them either,” panted Raven. “I think we’ve lost them.”
I stopped running. Reaching out, I grabbed hold of a branch to steady myself. I heaved in a lungful of air and checked back the way we had run. There certainly were no signs of police chasing us. The hillside seemed void of all life. The wind whistled through the matchstick men trees causing them to shudder and make them look like they were speaking to each other. Above the wind, I could still hear the distant sound of sirens wailing. Maybe the police had gone after Jude and Ben? Good luck to them, I thought, they had gone after the wrong group. The police didn’t stand a chance facing those two. I shuddered as I thought of Jude. What would he be doing now? How was Ben going to handle him? The very thought of Jude had me on edge. If he really was Doshia then the police would be disposed of pretty quickly but that wouldn’t be good. It meant Doshia would soon be back on our heels. It wouldn’t take him long to catch up with us.
“We can’t stay here,” I said. “We’re not safe.” I turned to start back up the hill.
“Hold on,” said Max, flicking his hair from out of his eyes. “What’s going on? Why have we left the others?”
“Keep moving and I’ll explain,” I said, taking a large stride up the hill. “I think Jude is …”
“Eras!” cut in Raven, shoving her hands in her pockets. “I know he is because…”
“No, you’re wrong,” I snapped, annoyed that she had butted in. “I think he is Doshia.”
“What... Doshia..?” Raven looked confused. “Yes… maybe you’re right.” She took her hands back out from her pockets and scraped a greasy strand of hair behind her ear. “I always knew he couldn’t be trusted.”
“Are you sure?” questioned Max. “I mean… I thought he was one of us. He’s done nothing but help us get away… do you have any evidence to back that up? It’s not that I don’t trust you, Kassidy, but… Jude?”
“I knew it,” hissed Raven. “I said – didn’t I… back before we got on that train wreck to hell… how could we trust him. I said when we’d escaped out of Cruor Pharma… it must have been him who had killed Fred Butler.” She stood with her hands on her hips. “But no one believed me.” She glared with an accusing expression.
Ignoring Raven, Max said, “Tell me why you think this.”
I ducked under a low hanging branch as I continued to climb the hill. “He has no black veins… he said he’d probably had a placebo,” I breathed heavily. The climb was beginning to leave me short of breath. “But Demons wouldn’t use placebos. Ben said everyone got VA20. So how does that explain no black veins on Jude? Think about it…”
“Oh, I’ve thought about it ever since clapping eyes on him,” said Raven, checking over her shoulder. “I knew there was something dark about him. It explains so much – when we were at Cruor Pharma, I was waiting to have my health check… you know… before they took us to the ward. I started panicking… I wanted to leave. I remember walking out of the waiting area and heading back to the reception. Jude followed me… gave me this nice speech about how he’d done drug trials before and there was nothing to worry about.” Raven looked down at the ground as she continued to climb the hill. “He said he’d look after me – reminded me of the money I would get.” She shook her head. Her dark, accusing eyes had glistened over. “I believed him – what an idiot I was. I actually trusted him. Now look at me! Look at us!” She wiped a tear away and hung her head low so her face was covered with her hair.
For a brief moment, I felt Raven’s pain. I shared it. We all did. It was bad enough to have been caught up in these so-called drug trials but to have been deceived by someone who had been a part of our group – pretended to have suffered like the rest of us – felt like the biggest stab in the back. How could he? How could he just befriend us all, take us on this so-called journey of escape, act like he was one of us? All these questions spun around in my head like a whirlpool – pointless questions as I already knew the answers. He was a Demon and that’s what Demons did.
“It all makes sense now,” I whispered. “He never wanted to believe in Demons and ghosts. Even when the obvious was staring him in the face. He kept saying it was all nonsense – that such things didn’t exist but… he was just trying to cover up the truth. Well, until it became too hard to hide what was going on.”
“But he helped us to get away from Alex – from the guy at the petrol station – he got us out the goddamn gates at Cruor Pharma – the very place where I would have thought he would want to keep us. I don’t get it,” Max said. “He drove us out of Holly Tree in his own car! Are you sure about this?”
“He did all those heroic acts because he wanted us for himself,” I spat, feeling angry at myself for being taken on such a ride. “That’s why he didn’t want Ben tagging along – all of a sudden he had competition – another barrier to get through. He never wanted to go to Doctor Langstone’s at first. Why? Because that was another Demon who would get in his way. Then all of a sudden, the mention of the Cleaners needing more bodies probably had him thinking that Doctor Langstone’s wasn’t a bad idea after all. The hope that your brother, Robert, being there was probably a big draw for him.” I turned away from Max and Raven. I didn’t want them to see the small puddles beginning to well up in my eyes. Was there anyone out there we could trust? What about B
en? He had covered up the truth to begin with but at least now I knew what he was about. He was either Ben or Quint. But could I really trust either of them?
“Shit,” frowned Max. “I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it.”
I spun around, blinking away my tears. “It’s true! It fits together like a jigsaw. He persuaded Raven and me to stay for the drug trial. He was the last one to see Fred Butler alive. It must have been him who turned off the iPod I was trying to charge at Hannah’s flat…” I stopped. Hannah. “Oh, god.” I brought my hand up to my face, closed my eyes. “Jude killed Hannah. Remember?” I grabbed hold of Max, pulling on his arm. “Max… he killed Hannah! Doshia has the ability to leave his host’s body and dwell in others, making them do what he wants them to do. Doshia was there – he spoke to me.” I felt sick. Jude had made my best friend jump and kill herself.
“It must have been him in the shower with you,” said Raven. “He attacked you.”
I nodded my head slowly as more pieces of the jigsaw fell into place. “He never wanted to go to Hannah’s… that message in the bottom of the shower tray told me to get out – to leave.”
“And it was Jude who asked about your mobile phone and whether you had Hannah’s address in a text message,” whispered Raven, her eyes roamed nervously about the hillside. “He wanted us out of there, and what better way to do it by putting scary thoughts in our head? He wanted us to believe that the Cleaners would turn up at Hannah’s so it would prompt us into leaving.”
“Jude killed Hannah,” I whispered again, as if I needed to soak it up some more – to believe it.
Max took hold of my hand and gently squeezed it, “If Jude is Doshia then… yes… he killed Hannah. I’m sorry, Kassidy.”
“Filthy Demon pig then ate her picnic,” spat Raven. “Took her money and splattered her over her car!”
“That’s enough, Raven,” glared Max. “Kassidy doesn’t need reminding.” He looked at me, his eyes full of concern. “Are you okay?”
I chewed on my lower lip. It seemed to help stem those tears from materializing into waterfalls. I pulled my hand away from Max. “I’m all right.” I wasn’t. Not really. But I didn’t have time to fall apart. We had probably already wasted precious moments standing on the hillside. “Okay, let’s get ourselves together. We’re aiming for Doctor Langstone’s.” I tightened the strap of the satchel around me. “The police are now close behind and we have to keep ahead of Jude. I don’t know how Ben is going to handle him – or what Quint will do if he decides to take over Ben, but either way, Doshia is stronger than Quint, so…” I checked down the hillside. The place seemed empty of all life. “So, I don’t think it will be too long before Jude is back on our heels.”
“Which way do we go? I have no idea how far away we are from Derbyshire. Do you?” asked Max.
I shrugged my shoulders. “The train got us a little nearer but all we can do is keep running along this hill and keep the train tracks in sight. If we follow them, then we can’t go wrong.”
“Let’s stop chatting and get running then,” said Raven, brushing past me and Max and breaking into a trot. “Those sirens sound closer to me. We can’t get arrested – we’ll never make it to Langstone’s and we’ll never find your brother.” She glanced over her shoulder at Max before heading along the side of the hill.
We followed close behind, making sure to keep the tracks within sight. Pushing through the matchstick men branches that seemed to want to snare us in their brittle arms, I couldn’t help but think we weren’t going to make it. There was so much to lose. The police would never believe our story. We couldn’t fall now. We had to keep going. We had to keep running.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
It felt like we had been running forever. Where did I get my energy from? Fear. The thought of being chased – hunted, kept my legs moving. I had to stop myself from turning around – from peering over my shoulder to see if we were being followed. I didn’t want to know.
Every now and then I could see the train track. It seemed to circle around the bottom of the hill. Would we have to break cover soon and run across open land? I pushed on, my feet pounded the crisp leaves scattered over the hillside. I could still hear the sirens. They hadn’t got any nearer but hadn’t faded, either. We weren’t making any headway. Would we ever outrun the police? Raven stopped abruptly.
“We need to head up and over this hill,” she gasped breathing in the cold air. “The track is running to the right. There’s no point in going round – we have to go over.” She pointed up through the trees, bending at the waist to catch her breath.
“Okay,” I puffed. “Don’t stop… keep going… we haven’t got time.”
“Don’t know how much longer I can keep running,” gasped Max, as we changed direction and took on the steep hill.
“You have to,” I said, clambering over a toppled tree trunk. “We can do this… when we get to the top it will be all downhill after.”
Max pushed himself on. It was clear to see that we were slowing, though. After all, we had been on the run since the early hours of the morning and prior to that – clambering up and down chimneys during the night.
As we cleared through a large cluster of trees, we suddenly found ourselves standing beside a road covered on both sides with more bony trees. I looked to my left. The road was clear. I turned to my right and gasped. A police car was parked alongside the twisting road, tucked slightly under the canopy of the withered trees. We stood still – silent for what seemed like forever until the driver’s door swung open and out stepped a policeman.
“Stop!” he yelled.
“Go… go!” I pushed Max forward.
“Head for the other side…” shouted Raven, already halfway across the road.
“Stop, Police!” the officer shouted again. I glanced over at him as I ran across the road. It wasn’t Inspector Cropper. It must be one of the local police officers. I carried on running, aware that another police car had just pulled around the bend in the road and was now heading towards us. The air was suddenly filled with the piercing wail of sirens and the trees lit up in flashes of blue. I reached the other side of the road and burst through the hanging branches that blocked my way. I could hear more vehicles, the wheels squealing as brakes were applied. My heart pounded. It seemed that the entire police force was on the hill.
“This way,” screeched Raven, snatching hold of my wrist and pulling me further into the woods.
I stumbled and tripped. My face was under attack from the branches springing back from where Raven pushed through in front of me. Max staggered alongside us. His hair snagged on twisted twigs. His face was a mask of fear and determination. My feet slipped on the wet mush of leaves as we descended down the hill. The trees were thicker on this side. It was dark and I couldn’t see the bottom of the hill. My heart sounded like it was inside my head – boom-boom-boom. There was movement behind us. Footsteps thudding. Voices shouted.
“Police – stop!”
I swayed through the trees – disorientated. Raven breast-stroked her way through at speed – the branches fought back. The further down we went, the thicker the trees got.
“Come on,” I yelled at Max, as he had fallen a little way behind. I stretched out my arm and he grabbed hold of me. I wasn’t going to leave him behind. We stayed together – even if that meant we got caught.
“If they get us…” gasped Max, “you need to hide that passport…”
I looked down at the satchel as I continued to lurch through the trees. I unfastened one buckle and slipped my hand into the satchel. My fingers snatched about until I had Sylvia Green’s passport clutched in my hand. I nearly toppled over as I tried to push the passport down inside my boot. Satisfied that it wouldn’t fall out, I continued to elbow my way through, trying to follow in Raven’s path.
“Stop, police!” Several voices filled the air. “Stop, or I’ll release the dogs!”
“Shit, they’ve got dogs.” I looked at Max. “We can’t out
run them!”
“We have to try, come on!” Max yelled, taking the lead and pulling me along behind him.
The sounds of barking and snarling seemed to overpower the wail of the sirens. The dogs’ howls were enough to have me barging my way through the trees and clambering over fallen branches like a bulldozer. I could see Raven just up ahead of us, she was ploughing her way across the undergrowth, her arms and head poking out like she was wading through a strong current of water. I kept Raven in sight, following in her path. Did she even know where she was heading? Did she know how to get off this hillside? I sure as hell didn’t. I was completely lost – overwhelmed by the shouts of the officers, the sirens, and the barking. The undergrowth and trees were like a maze of snatching hands – pulling and tearing.
Raven suddenly turned around and yelled, “This way! It’s clearer through here.”
She turned back and continued to run. Just as Max and I reached the clearing, a huge dog leapt out from the cover of the trees and toppled Raven to the ground. She fell flat on her face. The dog snarled and growled, pinning her to the leafy-covered floor of the wood. I could hear Raven scream. In my panic to avoid the dog, I darted to the left. Max went right. We scattered. Separated. Parted ways. But we didn’t get very far. As I ran as fast as I could, jaws suddenly clamped down on my sleeve. I fell forward, hitting the ground with a thud. The barking and growling was deafening. I tried to pull my arm away. The dog held on, shaking its head and pulling me across the clearing. My free hand tried to source out something I could hang onto. Something that would give me a bit of leverage to pull myself up onto my knees. But it was no use. The dog was too strong. Its jaws held me down in its vice-like hold. The more I struggled, the tighter its teeth held on.
“It’s got me, I can’t get it off!” Max shouted.
I couldn’t see him but he didn’t sound too far from where I lay.
Demon (Kassidy Bell Series Book 3) Page 9