Blue Dome (The Blue Dome Series) (24 page)

Calix crinkled her mouth
uncertainly, as if she was working out how to make a disappointing gift look
better in a pretty ribbon.

“He was fine when I last
saw him,” she said hopefully.

“Do you know where he is
now?” I said, consciously ignoring the fact that I’d just broken my promise not
to bombard her with any more questions.

“You mean
right
now? Not exactly,” said Calix. “I can tell you what I do know though.”

I listened intently as
she told me about the squat, her friend
Troy
, how the police had turned up and evicted everyone, and how she and
Bede had ended up in the doll factory. I had to fight the urge not to scream at
her to say the words faster so I could fill myself as quickly as possible with
all the information I’d been missing. Then suddenly she stopped.

“And?” I said.

Calix looked at me with a
mix of sheepishness and embarrassment, like someone who’s convinced they’ve seen
a UFO but knows that no one’s going to believe them.

“What? I said
impatiently.

“I don’t know how to say
it,” she said.

“Say what?” I said
impatiently.

“Like you were saying
before, some pretty weird stuff’s been happening around here lately.” Calix paused,
as if deciding whether or not to tell me the truth or not. She decided to risk
it. “There was this guy who just turned up. And he wasn’t normal. For a start,
he was dressed almost completely in black…”

“Except for a white shirt
and a tiny emerald cross at his throat?” I said, finishing her sentence. Calix
looked shocked.

“You know him?” she said.

“In a way. More than I’d
like to,” I said. “His name’s Demarge.”

“Well, whatever his name
is, I’m pretty sure he’s got your brother,” said Calix.

“Did you see where they
went?”

Calix shook her head. “It
all happened so fast. There was basically a blur of black and then they were
gone.”

She fell silent, avoiding
my gaze. It took me a couple of seconds to realise she was crying.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“It’s
Troy
. I’ve got no idea where he is, but I
think he’s in trouble.”

“How come?” I said.

“After I left the factory
I managed to get hold of him on my mobile. We agreed to meet up on
Gregory Street
, in the
Old
Town
, do you know it?”

I nodded.
Gregory Street
had a pretty bad reputation
for gangs and drugs.

“So anyway, I parked the
work truck a couple of streets away and started walking to the corner of Biggs
and
Sash Street
. I was almost
there when this guy came up to me and said ‘Are you Calix?’ I remember his face
really clearly because there was something about him that wasn’t quite right. I
can’t explain exactly what it was, but I just had this feeling. The dude was
definitely in ‘camp creepy’. He had these small squinty eyes and he was
sweating a lot, despite it being freezing. So I said to him ‘who’s asking?’ and
he told me he was a friend of
Troy
’s.
Troy
had told me
on the phone that he’d met some guy who was helping him out, so I figured that
this might be the one. I didn’t know for sure though, and I was still trying to
be careful. He could have been an undercover cop for all I knew. So I asked him
where
Troy
was and the guy told
me to follow him.”

“Did he tell you who he
was?” I said.

“Not really, except for
saying his name was
Stanley
.”

“So what did you do?” I
asked.

“Tried to buy some time
by saying I’d wait for
Troy
on
the corner. Then
Stanley
started getting really heavy with me about following him. He was saying all
this stuff like: “You’re wasting
Troy
’s time, he really needs to see you, blah, blah.” The thing is
though, I know
Troy
. He’s not
needy like that. The whole thing was starting to get way too weird so I figured
I’d be better off legging it and waiting for
Troy
to get in touch. He hasn’t called though, so I’ve got no idea where
he is. The one thing I do know is that he’s totally reliable. If he says he’s
going to call, he does – if he says he’s going to be somewhere, he is. There’s
got to be something else going on.”

Calix was right, the
whole thing did sound really weird. I was still mulling it over when I suddenly
noticed something moving in the bushes nearby. The sound was pretty faint, just
a small rustling, but it was louder than if the wind had just been blowing the
leaves about.

“What was that?” I said.

“Dunno, I didn’t hear anything.”

I shrugged it off and we
sat in silence for a couple of seconds. Then it happened again, the same noise,
only louder this time.

“Okay, I heard it that
time,” said Calix. We were both now staring anxiously at the bushes.

“I hope we’re not about
to be mugged,” I whispered.

“Nah,” said Calix,
although she didn’t sound entirely convinced herself.

“I reckon we should get
going,” I said, standing up to run.

But before Calix had time
to move, something bounded out of the bushes and I screamed in surprise. Calix
looked at me, then started laughing.

“It’s a
fox
,
Clare! Not an axe murderer. Man, you’re nervy.”

“Yeah, well…” I said,
embarrassed at being such an idiot.

“He can probably smell
the meat from the kebab. Here fella.” Calix pulled a piece of meat out of the
rolled up bread and tossed it towards the fox. It looked at us curiously for a
moment, then chomped down the food in a single bite.

“It’s a shame some people
think foxes are pests. I really like them, they’ve got such delicate faces and bright
eyes,” I said.

“Yeah, I like most things
that have to live by their wits like that,” said Calix.

We were so engrossed in
talking about the fox, we didn’t notice that there was now another rustling
sound coming from the undergrowth. Nor did we notice how the grass had been
flattened into wavy ‘s’-shaped patterns. It wasn’t until Calix suddenly grabbed
my arm that I realised anything was wrong.

“Snake!” she mouthed, her
eyes wide with horror.

I slowly turned to see a
shimmer of green moving rapidly towards my side of the swings. Without stopping
to think, I grabbed hold of the chains connecting the seat to the frame and
stood up in the bucket-shaped fabric. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel
my body shaking. Arius was now directly beneath me, swaying to and fro, his
tongue flickering in and out of his head like a mechanical toy. His black eyes
cut into me like pieces of flint. The snake seemed completely oblivious to the
fact that Calix was even there.

“I might have known he’d
send a scout,” I said.

“A scout?” said Calix.

“Demarge’s ‘assistants’.
They help him track people down,” I said. Calix gave a loud sigh.

“I’m beginning to think
that running into you and your brother was the biggest
mistake I ever
made,” she said.

“I know, I’m sorry,” I
said. “Run, go while you can, you don’t need to get mixed up in this.”

Calix gave a wry smile.
“Are you crazy?” As if I’m going to leave you standing there on a swing, while
some huge mother of a snake eyes you up for dinner.”

From the corner of my eye
I could see her slowly leaning down and picking up one of the iron bars that was
lying near the swings. She began inching her way towards Arius.

“What are you doing?” I
said.

“I’m not afraid of
snakes. The kid next door had one when I was growing up.”

“Yeah, but it probably
wasn’t a green mamba, let alone one that worked for Demarge,” I said. “Do you
know how poisonous they are? Very. And that’s before they’ve got some
psychopath making them even more dangerous. I saw this documentary once and… ”

“Yeah, I know they’re poisonous,” said
Calix, cutting me off impatiently. “But knowing that isn’t exactly going to help,
is it?”

“Well, no,” I said
slowly. “But Calix, it could kill you. Seriously, go while you can.” Calix
promptly ignored me.

“Get away from her!” she
shouted, waving the iron bar at the snake menacingly.

Arius tilted his head
slightly and hissed at her. Flecks of poisonous spray sprang from his mouth and
landed in shiny droplets on the grass.

“I said, get away from
her,” said Calix. “Go on, get!” She began edging towards the snake, keeping the
iron bar stretched out in front of her. Arius hissed again, baring his fangs
and spitting, his tail whipping the air savagely. We were now dealing with one
mega-angry snake.

“Why won’t it just leave
you alone?” said Calix. “It’s like it’s on a mission or something.”

I opened my mouth to
reply but before I could get the words out, the top half of Arius’s body
suddenly rose from the ground and lunged at her. Calix screamed and swung the
iron bar, the sound of fang against metal rippling across the stillness of the
park. The snake’s head sprung back into its coils as if it was attached to a
rubber band. Its eyes were now clamped on Calix.

“Hey, snake, up here!” I
said, clapping my hands to divert its attention. But no matter what I did,
Arius seemed determined on granting Calix a death wish.

“Run Calix! Get out of
here!” I screamed. She threw me a glance.

“I can’t. If I run now
it’ll definitely go for me.”

“Well try moving slowly
away then,” I said. Calix took a step backwards, paused, then took another.
Arius just stared at her.

“Okay, this might work,”
she said. We both uttered a small sigh of relief.

Calix lifted her heel and
began to edge slowly backwards again. But just as she was about to ground her foot,
our luck came to an abrupt end. Without warning, Arius suddenly sprang at her,
his jaws stretched open so widely that it looked as if his head might flip
itself inside out and swallow his body. In the dim light, droplets of poison
hung from his fangs like pale gourds.

“Look out!” I screamed.

Calix stumbled backwards,
flailing the iron bar wildly as she tried to regain her balance. There was a
sickening crack as the metal struck the side of the snake’s skull and the
reptile dropped limply to the ground like a discarded piece of rope. For a
moment neither of us moved. We barely breathed.

“Is he dead?” I said
after a few seconds.

 “Not sure.” Calix crept
forwards, stretched out the iron bar as far as she could, and gently prodded
the snake’s body. It was completely still. “I think I’ve killed it,” she said
quietly.

“Let’s get out of here,”
I said, jumping down from the swing. Calix gave the snake another prod.

“What are you doing?” I
said.

“Checking,” said Calix.

“There’s no time, Demarge
will be here any...”

A loud hiss suddenly derailed
my thoughts. I glanced nervously at Calix, the wide-eyed look of horror on her
face explaining everything. I turned, slowly, a jolt of fear surging through me
as the snake reared to its full height and began weaving from side to side.

“What now?” I whispered.

“Dunno,” said Calix, her
voice tinged with panic.

“Run?”

Calix shook her head. “It’s
too close. We won’t make it.”

A green flash suddenly
darted towards us.

“Look out!” I screamed.

Calix swung the iron bar
and there was a sickening crunching noise. My eyes ferreted about in the
darkness, trying to work out exactly what had happened. Finally I saw it. The
snake’s back was caved in like a valley, its head whipping savagely from side
to side, sprinkling the grass with poison. Still shocked, we stared at the green
scales shining brightly against the night-blackened grass.

“Poor thing,” I
whispered.

Calix glared at me. “Poor
thing?” she said. “It just about killed us! C’mon, let’s go.”

I snatched one last glance
look at the snake before running after her, the sound of metal against concrete
ringing in my ears as the iron bar clattered to the ground.

***

Demarge stepped out of
the darkness and into the dim light of the deserted park. The seats creaked and
clanked in the wind, like old ships tied to a jetty, as he walked towards them.
He paused by the iron bar that Calix had dropped and knelt down, gently running
his finger down the length of the metal. He raised his finger to his lips and
inhaled deeply.

“So, she has a friend
with her,” he murmured to himself.

He turned slowly to see the
body of the snake lying in the grass. With a sigh he turned his wrists so that
this his skin faced skywards, his pale, lapis-blue veins just visible beneath
the surface of his translucent skin.