Circle of Arms (The Shades of Northwood 2)

by Wendy Maddocks

  Before you can save me, you have to save yourself.

  “How? How do I do that, Dina?” she heard herself asking.

  Mr Bayliss was sitting on the other side of the bed, holding his daughters hand with one of his own and touching Katie’s arm with the other. He was stroking it and looking at her the way any concerned father would. It made the tears come all over again. It reminded her of the concern her own parents had shown her these past few months. But, no, there was something…. It made her think of the looks her new friends had been throwing her way. And suddenly Katie realised that they cared for her just as much as she did for them. Not the worry of a housemate or somebody who was being paid to care. Genuine love and fear for her. “I never meant to make anyone feel like that.”

  “Sometimes it helps to talk,” said Mr Bayliss. “I do it a lot. Knowing she can’t answer back, can’t come up with more problems. Makes it easier.”

  “You’re wrong,” Katie blurted out. “Dina knows everything that’s been going on and she’s just dying to-“

  She knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words were out but she couldn’t take them back. There was always the chance that the man would gloss over it as an expulsion of emotion. He got up and stormed out of the room.

  Smart move.

  “Why did I say any of that?”

  It’s okay. He’ll get over it. Always does. He’s like you, you know. Pretends he’s fine, smiles when he needs to cry, cries when he thinks no-one can see. Katie felt her shrug. She’s coming. Coming here. Coming for you.

  “Wonderful.” No idea what Dina was talking about but the intense way the words boomed between them made her take the warning seriously. Now, if she just knew what the warning was about, who was coming, why it sounded like such a bad thing. “Specifically?”

  That thing in your bag. It will help. Be ready for when She comes and, please, don’t be merciful. That thing is in my best friend’s body and I want her out. Whatever it takes.

  “There’s only so much I can do.”

  You drive her out of Jaye and we’ll do the rest. Unless there is another body for her to invade, She has no choice but to return to the End Place. The Shades there will punish her justly and I’ll be free.

  Katie let go of Dina and stood up, pushing the chair back so hard it fell backwards and clattered on the floor. All the times over the last week when she thought she had a way to end this, thought she had a way to make everything right, and now there was another ray of hope, Katie was wary of it. It was nearly time for college. Friday mornings were free of lessons except for a few minutes of screwing around in form room. Provided all students stayed on campus, they were free to do as they wished with their free periods. Katie had planned to do some training and get ahead on her study. She was mulling over her possibilities on the way out of the hospital when a whirling dervish of fury opened the swing doors into her face and knocked Katie flat on her backside.

  “Smooth.”

  Her thoughts exactly. The fall had been hard enough that a bruise would almost certainly form near the small of her back by the time she went to bed. Pain rocketed through her back. Focussed only on that and the little black spots dancing in her eyes, Katie blindly grabbed for the hand shoved in front of her. She used the hand to get into a crouch and then used the strength in her own legs to fully stand up. Even though Katie was only 16, she felt way too old for this.

  “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” a familiar voice asked.

  It was a voice Katie both loved and hated. “Jaye.”

  “Once more with feeling, babe. You know you love me.”

  “I do.” Katie stood her ground, arms folded and her rucksack swinging from the crook of one. “But I haven’t got time for you right now. That’s why I really don’t want to hurt you.” She let her face harden and flexed one hand into a fist.

  “As if you could hurt me.” The thing wearing Jaye started laughing.

  Katie wasn’t a fighter and she couldn’t even hope to pass for one. Only that was what she was banking on. Whilst Jaye was busy laughing in her face, Katie slid her other hand in her bag, gripped something shaped like her electric shaver, switched the safety off, whipped it out and fired fifty thousand volts into her. Jaye let out a strangled cry and fell to the ground. She wasn’t moving, and it didn’t even look like She was breathing. That much wild electricity could kill a girl that size, right?

  Very carefully, Katie tiptoed over and felt for a pulse. There was one – strong, steady and much slower than Katie’s own. Anything below triple figures would be good. But Jaye was out for the count and, without really thinking it through, she checked the nearest room was empty and dragged her in, standing a DEEP CLEANING yellow sign outside. There was a small chance that a staff member would still walk in but that was a bridge she’d cross if it came to it. She had to leave for the academy now before she was officially late, but she didn’t feel at all happy about this. If She woke up and started kicking off before Kate made it back… it didn’t bear thinking about.

  “Abrahams.”

  “Here.”

  “Ankowsky.”

  “Here, sir.”

  “Cartwright.”

  “Here.”

  She stayed put as Mr Conroy finished ticking names off and reading out notices about overdue library books and the upcoming harvest festival drive. It was boringly normal. Everything she had wanted for the year, but nothing she wanted right now. What did she want? At that very moment, all Katie could think about was… Jack. And maybe it shouldn’t have been. Maybe it should have been her friends and how she had to choose between killing them and saving them. Or her family who deserved to know what this town was really about. Perhaps, just perhaps, it was the fact she felt stretched in too many directions. And all of those concerns faded into almost nothing when she thought of Jack; how well they worked together, and how many secrets they already shared. He filled her mind and nothing mattered but when they would see each other again, kiss each other again, curl into each other and let the world fall away.

  “Okay, classes start in a few. I know most of you are free till lunch so stay on campus, make sure your work’s up to date and don’t cause havoc.” Mr Conroy motioned for the students to all clear the room. Katie took her own sweet time doing it, not ready to return to the medical centre – which was a student centre and so technically on campus. It wasn’t because she didn’t have a plan – even though she didn’t – but he knew she was going to have to cause her friend unspeakable pain. And there was no guarantee the Tazer would even make any difference.

  All of those concerns went straight out of the window when a tiny hand reached up and squeezed her shoulder as Katie stood at her locker, sliding books and folders into places. No mistaking that grip.

  “Welcome back to me.”

  Katie zipped up her baseball jacket and slowly turned around. “I knew I should have locked that door.”

  “Yeah, probably should have. I mean… it’s a hospital. Not huge, not busy, but at least half a dozen people inside. Injured, ill, vulnerable. Could have been fun.”

  “But you went straight past the easy prey and came straight to the challenge. Why?”

  “Because I think you have a plan. And I think you need to hear some truths.”

  “Go for it. I’m listening.”

  “But alone I see. No hero. No hope. No chance.”

  “Oh, while I think of it, did you enjoy your first experience of electricity? Bet it stung, didn’t it?”

  She rubbed her abdomen as if it was still sore – maybe it was; those stun guns must leave flash burns or something – and moaned. It sounded like Jaye and Katie had to fight the urge to give the girl a hug and tell her how sorry she was. Because this wasn’t Jaye. “It was interesting. And unpleasant. Don’t do it again.”

  “And you have the right to tell me what to do?”

  “Aren’t you trying to control life and death right now? The answer is yes, Katie. You want everything your way. Y
our friends alive. Me dead. But you’re not the only one who wants the choices to go their way. I just want the order to go back the way it should be.”

  “And that means killing my friends. I won’t let you.”

  “No, I didn’t think you would but hey – had to give it a shot.” She jerked Katie away from her locker and slammed the door in both of their faces. It was so forceful that the dozen or so other students in the common room all shut up for a few stunned seconds, looked their way, and then went right back to their conversations when Jaye glared around them all. “What, you’ve never seen a bitch fight before?” She turned to the back of a magazine somebody had left on a chair, trying to look casual. “You and Jack… you won’t last. You love him, want him, think you can’t live without him. Same old story. He messes with your head. You don’t know all his secrets and, believe me, he’s got plenty. You can’t even kiss the bloke! And you want some-one you can trust, don’t you?” She tapped a finger to the side of her head. “Jaye, she tells me things. Oh, she doesn’t mean to. It just kinda leaks out.”

  Anger burnt the edges of Katie’s nerves and she could feel something starting to change. What the hell right did She have to even talk about that relationship? “Are we just going to chat? Because I have homework.” Katie moved to go past her and towards the door. She knew it was a bad move before she did it. When bad moves were the only ones available, what did you do?

  “I’m not done with you!” And, with unnatural (ha!) strength, She planted a hand on her chest and pushed gently. Katie flew across the room and slammed into another bank of lockers. It was like being hit by a dump truck. The world exploded into violent colour, sound, smell. When the disorienting dimensions stopped moving around and Katie could stand to open her eyes again, the imaginary truck grew spikes on its’ bumper and drove them into her thigh. The thing that looked like Jaye had used her moments of semi-consciousness to raid her and take the Tazer away from Katie. “Tickles, doesn’t it?”

  All in the same instant, while Katie was watching her leg spasm as though it belonged to another body entirely, she became distantly aware of the complete hush that had fallen over the room. Faceless, identityless bodies, had stopped mid activity and were staring at the two girls. Fascinated. Horrified. Obviously they hadn’t ever seen a bitch fight before. None of them moved to try to break it up. Nobody even tried to speak. After a moment of silent impasse, She pirouetted with her arms out and slammed one elbow into the fire alarm, sending shards of thin glass raining to the ground and the high-pitched bells ringing around the entire academy. It distracted all the other students and they all ran for the door, the injured girl helpless and forgotten. Instinct begged Katie to get up and join the panicked exodus: get outside to safety.

  It was impossible.

  For one thing, a ball of fury and determination stood between her and the door. She was waving a Tazer. And wearing the face of a girl she loved like a sister.

  Getting up the courage to even attempt to hurt her was going to be hard.

  “Get up. Get the fuck up!” She shouted. She was locking the door behind her, eyes partly closed. The sound of bellowing fire bells faded to a less eye-watering level. They were only ringing now outside the common room but Katie could se, if not hear, the alarm as little bubbles of sound at the edges of the room. Right leg still shaking, Katie braced herself against the lockers and pushed herself to her feet. From the other side of the room, the two were at eye level with each other. “You try to mess up the plan. You think you’re more important than the rules. I’m here to tell you you’re not.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “So, you know.” The older girl flicked the stun gun between her finger and thumb, then put it on the nearest coffee table. She started to close the distance between them. Katie ignored the muscles in her leg, shocked taut and screaming, and started moving in a circle, maintaining a bit of distance. “I could have taken anybody by now. The doctor from the hospital, the girl who cleans the labs. But you knew I wouldn’t. You wanted to fight me. Try to save your little friend.”

  “Well, some say I’m crazy.”

  “I can see why.” Quicker than the eye could see, Katie felt something touch her cheek and suddenly she was flying. And then she wasn’t. She felt the back of her ankle graze the top of a chair but the speed she was hurtling through the air was too great for it to slow her down. She crashed into the concrete wall, cracking the plasterwork and possibly a few bones. The room swam. The chair she had nicked was just a still, white block of inanimate foam and steel. Just like the others. But, as she watched, this one grew a throbbing black pulse. It’s the darkness. Use it. And then darkness pulled her under.

  Fighting the pull… she had to do it. No matter how good it felt, no matter how blissful this ignorance was, she had to snap out of the haze. But deeper, it was sucking her deeper. It was such a relief to stop doing things. Whatever She was doing to her was irrelevant; it was happening to another Katie, a Katie whose pain she would feel much later. She felt the Tazer brush her skin once more, it hurt less but it was enough to jolt Katie back into action. This should hurt and it was her pain. She should feel it. She wanted to feel it. She wanted to experience everything and live because she had earnt it – because she had gone to war for it.

  And still the black hole dragged her deeper towards the edge.

  Katie opened her unconscious mouth and screamed. She knew no-one would hear it but it made her feel better. It took a while – seconds? Hours? Time meant little now, meant nothing when she began to glimpse the thousands of purple-black Shades on the cliff of the End Place – but finally somebody heard. It was a surprise but Katie didn’t care. She wanted it to be over now. No more.

  As one, the hoards of dark masses of energy turned to her and opened their twisted mouths, singing a terrible/beautiful song. Body moving of its own accord, she stretched out an arm. Dark tendrils wrapped themselves around her wrist and propelled her backwards. Through the thick black space, past the dark cracks of absolute nothing that seemed suddenly so sharp and dangerous. The resistance pushing down on Katie was like having that truck parked on top of her while an earthquake was raging beneath her. Mack 3 at least. And then she was back in her body, looking around at the damage she had caused to the common room. A couple of nice Katie-shaped dents in the banks of lockers and a few crushed bones maybe. She was trembling from the electricity so heartlessly pumped into her body and she didn’t think there was a single square inch of her that wasn’t bruised. But – no blood. That was a bonus. She groaned in pain as she tried to move. Jaye was about five foot nothing, less than a hundred pounds and had never thrown a punch in her life. Except for that one time when She had tried to kill Katie… beside the point. She shouldn’t have this much power.

  “How?” she managed, looking around a second time. No wonder her spine felt shattered into a million pieces.

  “Inside me I have the power of Heaven. And Hell. And pretty much everything in between. And you can’t imagine how it feels.” She tested the Tazer on the palm of her hand. It sparked but nothing happened. Out of charge. Katie wondered how much of that power She had emptied into her. She hunkered down in front of her. Katie shrank back as far as she could go, trying not to meet her innocent blue eyes, but unable to resist staring into them. Jaye was in there somewhere, seeing what She was making her do. “And what do you have?”

  Katie sensed it before it happened. Only an instant before. Not long enough for her face to give away the next event. But long enough for her eyes to reveal that something was coming.

  It wouldn’t be a good something.

  The room filled with thousands – what seemed like thousands - of moving dark shapes. Threads of raw, wild, raging energy. She has us, a thousand voices said as one. For today, she has us.

  “I think I have an army.” An undead army, sure, but she couldn’t afford to be choosy. “Us. Against you. I kind of like those odds.”

  “What about your precious fair
fight?”

  “We don’t all play by the rules, now, do we?”

  “That’s true. You promised not to take Dina.”

  “I promised you the chance to get to her. Not my fault you were too slow.”

  “You promised not to fight me when your time came.”

  “You promised not to come after me. And it’s not my time yet. I’d know if it was.” Katie had no idea if that was true but it gave her a few seconds to shoot a question at the Shades while She thought it over. Why are you here? I didn’t save you, why are you still helping me?

  Because you tried and that’s more than anyone else has done. Now make this quick. We can only stay as long as you hold on to the darkness.

  What am I supposed to do? We can’t fight her. I mean, you guys are incorporeal and she’s already beat me up once.

  One of them laid their hand over the Tazer. Katie saw blue spark jump all around it. She could see it crackle with more and more life the longer it was being touched. She could hear it buzzing – begging to be unleashed. She was sure that She couldn’t see or hear it happening, couldn’t even see the Shades surrounding her. Although it was clear that She could hear them by the way her eyes flickered towards them, unfocussed but searching for the voices. Isn’t this what you came for?

  “No. I came to take back what’s mine. Sadly, this child never learned how to share.”

  “Share? Like you’re sharing Jaye – not trying to take her over?”

  “Mm. Exactly like that.”