Blackfin Sky (13 page)

‘What the hell was that?’

‘Sorry.’ He didn’t look at all sorry. ‘She’s hiding something, and it doesn’t sit right with me.’

Sky’s heart sank a little. How many weird things was
she
hiding? A million or so? She couldn’t stomach the idea that Sean would look at her the same way he’d looked at Miss Schwarz.

‘She lied to my aunt after … I mean, when Aunt Holly questioned her about what happened to you. I got to the pier maybe five minutes after you did that night, and I saw Miss Schwarz walking away. Of course, I didn’t realise right away that anything was wrong, but when I told Aunt Holly later that I’d seen her leaving the scene, she questioned Miss Schwarz about it. She said she’d never been there, made up some bullshit about working late in the science block. Old Moley saw her car parked in the car park here at the time, so Aunt Holly figured I must have made a mistake. But I
know
I saw her. And she’s been acting weird ever since, like she’s in shock or some—’

‘You came after me.’

Sean had followed right after Sky had fled after the awkward non-kiss, and had known exactly where to look for her. And he’d tried to save her. To Sky, that was more important than whether her last period science teacher had been nearby when she fell from the pier.

Sean shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his trainers. ‘Of course I came after you. It was my stupid fault you were upset.’

Sky reached out and put a hand on his arm, hoping he would look at her like he’d looked at her two nights ago in the woods. When she’d thought he was about to kiss her.

‘Do you actually need to go to the nurse’s office?’

His question caught Sky off guard. ‘Uh, no. Do you?’

‘No.’ Sean laughed. ‘And since there are only thirty minutes until the bell, I say we ditch.’

‘Sean Vega! You, the nephew of the only police officer in Blackfin, suggesting we bunk off?’

He leaned in. ‘If you really want to know, it’s not my first time.’

Then he gave her a cheeky grin and led her out through the side door. They both started running, across the car park and straight out onto the pavement of Shore Road.

‘Maybe we should…’

But Sean was already one step ahead, turning so they were heading away from the weathered shopfronts lining Shore Road. They passed the sweet shop, whose door would only open when knocked upon to the rhythm of
Happy Birthday to You
, and the second-hand bookshop, where every purchase came with a free spider in the bag. They ran on past Old Lady Brady sitting on her bench and up towards the Point – the hill which cut off into an unnaturally sheer cliff face, as though Blackfin had been snapped off from another land mass by giant hands. The foot of the cliff was impossible to see either at night or during the day, shrouded as it was in a permanent fog.

They were both red-faced and breathing hard by the time they reached the guardrail at the Point. It was roughly two hundred feet from the peak to the base, and the rail was a patchwork of old and new sections where a car must have driven through it, or the salt air had taken its toll. This was one railing Sky would never dream of leaning against, especially not with the cold breeze gusting around them.

This spot was also where a lot of kids came to hook up, away from Shore Road and prying eyes. Not that Sky was thinking about that, of course. Not at all.

Sky stood a few feet from the edge and stooped to pick up a pebble. She tossed it out over the edge, watching it fall with a grace that made it look like it wasn’t moving at all before the fog swallowed it.

‘I still can’t get used to all the weird things that go on around here.’

Sky looked up at Sean and found him staring over the edge of the cliff with a bemused expression.

‘You’ve only lived here a couple of years. Give it another ten, and you’ll be as freaky as the rest of us.’

Sean’s face creased in a grin, then seemed to cloud over. ‘Was I being paranoid, or was Miss Schwarz acting really weirdly back there?’

Sky nodded. ‘A little intense, yeah.’

‘I’m sorry if I made things worse for you. I know you hate it when people are talking about you.’

Sky laughed. ‘I don’t like it, but I’m also kind of used to it. It’s been worse lately, though. Even among the freaks, the zombie girl is weird.’

‘You look a little tired, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling you
zombie girl,
’ Sean smiled, his hair blowing in his eyes as he moved to stand right next to her. ‘Did my sister keep you up all night gossiping or something?’

Sky fought her instinct to hide the steaming mess of weirdness her life had become. After all, Sean had dragged her cold, dead body out of the sea. He’d snuck into the woods with her late at night to track down an old gypsy lady, and he’d held onto her at the circus when she’d started to fade right in front of him. And in spite of it all, he was still here, still her friend.

In that moment Sky felt guilty for wanting more from Sean.

Sky picked up another stone and hurled it out to sea. It sailed in an arc before the water ended its journey.

‘So, last night, I think I might have time-travelled or something…’

Sean had asked all kinds of questions before the darkening sky had forced them back into town. Had Sky checked for footprints outside the house that might have shown she’d been sleepwalking? She hadn’t, but neither had her father complained about cats messing up his vegetable garden that morning, so it was safe to assume she hadn’t sleep-jumped from her balcony.

Had her father ever mentioned performing in a circus when he was younger? Certainly not. As far as Sky knew, her father had always been a mechanic – in France before he moved across the Channel to Blackfin after inheriting the Blood House from a distant relative.

Did she know how old her parents had been when they met? Sky didn’t know that either; her mother always talked as though she had never lived anywhere but Blackfin, so she’d assumed they had met when her father moved there. Had Sky recognised either of the voices she had heard whispering about murder above where she had materialised under the grandstand? No, although they
had
been whispering, and the band had been very loud, so she couldn’t say for certain.

Did Sky have any idea who the ringmaster was? And why he had been staring at her? Other than the fact she had been wearing pyjamas, Sky had no clue.

And finally: Was that where she had disappeared to for three months while everyone had thought Sky was dead? This, at least, she had an answer to. She was one hundred per cent certain she had
not
spent three months living in a circus. But she
had
been somewhere else, and the thought that she had no control over where she disappeared to, or when, terrified her.

Standing at the Point, talking to Sean with their fingers laced together, Sky was exactly where she wanted to be.

All these questions had taken far longer than the thirty minutes they should have been in school, and Sky had to rush to make sure she was home when her parents arrived.

Sky said a reluctant goodbye to Sean at the fork where her road branched off from Provencher Street, which would take him further up the hill to his aunt’s house. As Sky turned into her driveway, she saw that her mother’s car was already there.

Damn.

Sky breezed through the front door and into the kitchen as though nothing was out of the ordinary. ‘Hi, Mum. How was work?’

Lily looked up from where she had been staring into a glass of white wine, and Sky knew immediately that something was wrong. Her mother never drank anything other than coffee as a rule, which Sky had always blamed – at least partly – for her short temper.

‘Oh, hi, honey. Sorry, I think I spaced out for a minute there. I gave myself the afternoon off as the diner wasn’t that busy.’ Sky thought for a moment that she’d managed to avoid any further questions that would lead to her having to flat-out lie about her after-school detour with Sean, but then Lily’s eyes fixed on the gathering darkness outside the kitchen windows. ‘Where did you get to after school?’

‘I felt a bit off during last period, and the school nurse wasn’t there.’ For all Sky knew, this was the truth. ‘So I took a walk to clear my head.’

‘Ah, okay. I hope you’re feeling better now.’

Now she knew something was really bothering her mother. Sky would never have gotten away with such a light grilling on a normal day.

If normal days actually exist in Blackfin
.

But what did and did not exist had become less tangible to Sky, like ribbons of light caught in a breeze, drifting through her fingers as she tried to catch hold of them.

She caught one, tried to follow it.

‘Mum, was somebody murdered here? Years ago, I mean?’

Sky’s thoughts had wandered back to the overheard conversation under the stands, wondering whether the two she had heard conspiring had actually gone through with it. Because that would be a solid lead – something she could look into, research, to try to figure out where – or
when –
she’d travelled to the previous night. And that might explain how she had vanished on her birthday, only to continue living some other version of her life elsewhere.

Could that be it? A parallel version of my life that I somehow travelled to and came back?

That couldn’t possibly be it. It was preposterous.

More preposterous than just being dead for three months and returning as zombie girl?

She shuddered. As curious as she was to get to the truth of what had happened to her, the more she questioned it, the more her grip on everything seemed to unravel.

‘You mustn’t listen to idle gossip, Skylar. What happened in this house was not your grandfather’s fault,’ Lily said slowly, pulling Sky back to the question of the murder. She realised she’d been standing in the doorway to the kitchen for at least a minute, staring off into space as her mother had been with her wine when she walked in.

Wait – in this house?

The door frame groaned faintly above her head, and Sky stepped quickly into the kitchen.

‘I never met him, but your dad said he was a kind man, that he’d never do what he was accused of.’ Her mother winced as Sky slipped into the seat opposite, as though she hadn’t meant to say anything at all.

This was not what Sky had expected. Could one of the people having a whispered conversation at the circus have been her grandfather? Was that the connection that had drawn her there? Was it the Blood House that was somehow responsible for Sky … what? Seeing the past? Shifting dimensions?

‘This house was always called the Blood House, even before what happened. He
was
a butcher, after all.’

Sky had known the house had historically always belonged to the Blackfin butcher. What now served as their garage had once been the butcher’s shop, and the faint stink of raw meat still wafted up into Sky’s room on a hot day. Thankfully hot days were rare in Blackfin.

She swallowed thickly and almost choked on her tongue. ‘You told me Dad inherited this house from a distant relative.’

Lily looked up again at the reproach in her daughter’s voice. ‘They
were
distant by the time they died. Gui hadn’t seen his family in fifteen years.’ The melancholy which had settled over Lily lifted, and her mouth hardened into a stern line as she looked accusingly at her wine glass. ‘Skylar, promise me you won’t mention this to anyone else, especially not your dad. I don’t know who told you about it, but they’re just raking over old bones.’ Lily paused. ‘It would hurt your father a great deal to be reminded of what happened.’

‘You know I’d never do anything to upset Dad.’

Lily nodded, satisfied. ‘Good girl.’

But that wasn’t to say Sky would just leave it at that, either. If her grandfather had murdered someone, it was possible he’d been one of the whisperers at the circus. Blackfin was a tiny town, where everyone knew each other’s business like it was their own – or so Sky had thought until very recently. If someone had been murdered, it didn’t make sense that she’d never heard about it.

Still, Sky couldn’t see the connection between what had happened years ago at the circus in the woods, and how she had supposedly died at the pier on her birthday. But the history of this town, the circus, even the Blood
House … they all seemed to be fighting to have their stories heard, their secrets unravelled.

Someone was murdered in this house.

The thought made Sky shiver a little as she went upstairs to her room to ditch her book-bag. She had always loved this house, loved the feeling that it held generations of memories before hers, memories from her own distant family. Or not-so-distant, according to her mother. But now it seemed that those memories weren’t quite what Sky had believed.

She was almost at her bedroom door when something brushed against Sky’s head, and she looked up with a start.