Dead Flesh (25 page)

“By who?”

“The Elders,” I
said as I looked into the fire. “They told me that I would be
cursed. Something tells me that this whole thing – the world being
pushed
– is like a big puzzle that needs
putting back together again. Once we have all the pieces we’ll
understand why we were brought back.”

“And you think
that McCain, the Clarke twins, and whatever is on that camera are
all pieces of this puzzle that the Elders have created for us?” he
asked me.

“We’re pieces
of that puzzle too,” I whispered. “We fit in somewhere.”

Before Potter
had a chance to say anything else, Isidor came down the stairs and
stepped into the living room. He wore his long, black coat with
jeans and boots. His collar was turned up, his eyes were hidden by
a pair of sunglasses, and in his hand he held his crossbow.

“Jesus, Isidor,
you scared the shit out of me,” Potter sniped. “For a moment, I
thought you were the Terminator!”

“Very funny,”
Isidor said. “How do I look, Kiera?”

“Erm, like the
Terminator,” I smiled at him. “What are you dressed like that
for?”

“I’m on standby
to go and get that camera as soon as we get the message from
Kayla,” he said. “I want to look inconspicuous, but if I do get
spotted, then no one will recognise me again.”

“I don’t
believe what I’m hearing,” Potter groaned. Then, looking at me, he
barked, “I thought you said we had to take a back seat, not draw
attention to ourselves! So you don’t think the locals are going to
notice one of the
Men In Black
strutting
his stuff through town?”

I looked at
Isidor and I did feel for him. It seemed that he always tried to do
the right thing, but somehow got it wrong. Not wanting to hurt his
feelings, I said to him, “Perhaps you should lose the shades.”

“Do you think
so?” he said, taking them off and putting them in his pocket. “I
just thought...”

“Well, do us
all a big favour and don’t think,” Potter cut in. “Because when you
start thinking, we tend to end up in the shit.”

“Okay, keep
your wings on,” Isidor said.

“And if you
make one more jibe about me being an angel, I’m gonna start
swinging,” Potter snapped.

“Okay, let’s
not get into a fight about it,” I said, standing up getting ready
to jump between them. “Isidor, you were right about not wanting to
be noticed, but just keep your crossbow tucked away and you’ll look
fine.”

“I know where
I’d like to stick that fucking crossbow,” Potter muttered, glaring
at Isidor.

Ignoring his
remark, I looked at Isidor and said, “As soon as we hear from
Kayla, get going and collect the camera. The sooner we see what’s
on it, the sooner we can get Kayla out of the school and solve this
case.”

Kayla

The body was lying on its side with one of its arms
bent beneath it. The other was splayed out to one side and the hand
that dangled from the end of it was fingerless. The body was
dressed in a long, brown coat and faded blue jeans. On its feet
were dirty, brown boots. Although I couldn’t see its face, I could
tell by the shape and size of the body that it was a young male.
His face was covered by a large-brimmed hat, which looked as if it
had been made out of stiff, black leather.

“Do you think
he’s dead?” Sam asked, not taking his eyes off the body in the
middle of the camp.

Although I knew
that he was, as I couldn’t hear a heartbeat, I shrugged my
shoulders and said, “Dunno.”

“I’ve got to
know,” Sam said. “He might still be alive.” And he inched towards
the figure on his hands and knees.

“No…wait!” I
said, but Sam had picked up a stick and was prodding the figure’s
leg with it.

“Hey, are you
alive?” Sam said, and then leaning forward, he pushed up the brim
of the hat to reveal its face. “What the hell…?” Sam gasped,
sounding as if he had just been kicked in the stomach.

I moved forward
an inch and then recoiled. The face had no eyes, not even sockets
for them to fit into. He had no nose, mouth, or ears. It was blank
like a canvas made of skin which had darkened and looked
bruised.

“Let’s go!” I
yelled, already turning and heading back through the bushes. The
face reminded me of the featureless statue I’d seen in the
forbidden wing at the manor.

“I think you’re
right,” Sam groaned, coming after me.

Nettles and
thorns scratched at our faces and snagged our school uniforms as we
fought our way out of the bushes. Desperate to be away from the
body and the bush, Sam raced forward, shoulder-barging me out of
the way. I pushed back, and both of us collided, falling in a heap
outside the entrance to the camp. We lay on our backs, arms
flapping as we fought to untangle ourselves from each other. Once
separated, we stood panting and sucking in air.

“Kayla, there’s
a dead man in my camp!” Sam gasped.

“You’re not
kidding,” I wheezed, catching my breath.

“Do you think
he’s been murdered?” Sam asked me.

“How should I
know? And I don’t think we should hang around long enough to find
out!” I told him.

“Did you see
his face and hand?” Sam asked.

“What face? He
didn’t have one, did he?”

We stood in the
woods, which seemed to be darkening by the minute, and looked at
each other, both of us waiting for the other to say something. Sam
spoke first.

“What should we
do?”

“Get back to
school,” I said. “We’ve been away long enough. Someone might
realise that we’re missing.”

“Don’t you
think we should go and tell the police?”

“Police!” I
gasped. “Have you lost your mind?”

“What do you
mean?” he asked, looking confused. “We’ve just found a dead body,
Kayla.”

“We can’t go to
the police. If we get the police involved they could cause all
sorts of problems,” I warned.

“For who?”

“For us. Who
else do you think? If we go to the police they’ll want statements
and God knows what else!”

“So?”

“So that will
lead them back to Ravenwood and McCain and he’ll know that we’ve
been over the wall!” I explained.

“We can’t just
leave that body in there,” he said, hooking his thumb in the
direction of the bushes. “It wouldn’t be right.”

“He’s
dead
– in case you hadn’t noticed!” I
yelled. “It’s got nothing to do with us. Don’t get involved, Sam.
Please, for both our sakes.”

Sam looked at
me, and he seemed almost disappointed, as if he had expected more
from me somehow.

“If you don’t
want to get involved, go back to Ravenwood,” Sam said. “If this
gets back to McCain, then I’ll say that I came out here on my own.
I won’t mention you.”

I stood and
watched Sam start to walk away.

I couldn’t let him go on his own.

Birds sprung
out of the trees above me, their wings sounding like shotgun fire
as they beat together in the stillness of the wood.
How did I get myself into this
? I wondered. I just
wanted to leave the camera for Isidor and get back to the school.
With Sam heading away from me, I took the camera from my pocket and
hid it beneath a pile of dead leaves by the entrance to the camp.
Then, seizing the opportunity while I was alone, I quickly sent the
following message:

Kiera, camera hidden on south side of school near to stream
and huge pile of bushes. If Isidor can’t track my scent then he
should be able to smell the dead body! Will have to explain later.
Got to go! Kayla xx

Happy that I’d
hidden the camera, I headed after Sam, hoping that I could change
his mind about going to the police. I hadn’t taken more than a few
steps, when I heard a rustling noise come from the bushes behind
me. I spun round to see the faceless figure crawling out of the
bushes.

I jumped in
fear at the sight of him. He now had one eye, and it was fixed on
me. It was blue and cold, and bore right into my skull. His second
eye wasn’t quite formed yet, just a wet socket and it oozed pussy
tears onto his cheek.

“Sam!” I
shrieked. “Wait up! I’m coming with you.” Then turning, I ran as
hard and as fast as I could through the woods. I didn’t dare look
back, not even once. Sam turned around at the sound of my voice,
and seeing the figure coming after us, he started to run. Branches
and brambles tore at our faces and clothes as we darted blindly
away. We flew over fallen logs, crawled under broken branches, and
splashed through the stream. Then, Sam fell flat on his face. I
glanced back over my shoulder and he looked as if he had been shot
in the back. He lay face down amongst the pine needles and leaves,
his nose buried in the dirt.

“Sam!” I called
breathlessly. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t move.
I looked quickly around to see if the faceless figure was close. I
scanned the surrounding area but couldn’t see or hear anyone. I
gingerly made my way over to Sam and knelt down.

“Sam, wake up!”
I pleaded, shaking him.

Nothing.

I rolled him
over and he flopped lifelessly onto his back. His eyes were closed
and I could see that he had a large gash across his forehead. I
shook him again.

“Sam! Please
wake up!” I begged.

Then, without
warning his eyes opened. He looked up at me and began to scream. I
snapped my head around and glanced over my shoulder. Standing about
two feet away was the faceless man. He stood there silently - not
moving. The wet eye socket winked at me and my stomach lurched as
if I were going to be sick. I looked back at Sam and dragged him to
his feet. I threw his arm around my shoulder and screamed at
him.

“Run! Run!”

I dragged Sam
back to the tree by the school wall. He dropped to the ground and
let out a mindless groan. I bent down and shook his shoulders with
all the strength I had left in me. His eyes rolled in their sockets
and I slapped his face.

“Sam! Wake
up!”

He groaned at
me again. I looked back over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of
the faceless man approaching the tree line.

Snaking my arm
through Sam’s, I dragged him back onto his feet.

“Get up!”
I ordered at the top of my voice. Once he
was standing, I gripped hold of his face and he blearily looked at
me.

“Do you want to fucking die?”
I screamed at him.

Looking back
again, the figure was now striding towards us. I shoved Sam towards
the wall and he began to moan at me.

“Please, Sam!”
I begged him. “I can’t do this on my own!”

Sam started to
sway slightly then straighten. He looked at me and I could see his
pupils begin to sharpen and focus. I turned him to face the fast
approaching figure and roared into his ear, “If you don’t get your
freaking arse over that wall in the next two seconds, we
are
gonna die!
Now move
it!”

At last,
realising his impending fate, Sam turned to face the wall and began
to scramble up it. I followed close behind. If I’d been on my own
like I’d planned, I would have just flown over the wall and been
well away from that freak. But I couldn’t do that now – I couldn’t
risk anyone in this world that had been
pushed
, finding out I was a half-breed. We hoisted
ourselves up onto the branch and shimmied across it. Sam reached
the other side of the wall first and without any hesitation, he
threw himself from the branch and to safety. I got myself into
position to jump, but the urge to look back one last time was too
strong to resist. I glanced over my shoulder to see the faceless
figure looking up at me, his one good eye staring into mine.

Then, he
whispered something from a gash in his cheek. His voice was faint,
but I heard what he said.

“Where’s
Alice?”

“Who’s Alice?”
I whispered back.

“Sister,” he
said.

Then, he
started to change. It was like his skin was turning grey. Cracks
began to appear on his face and hands as he slowly turned to stone.
Within seconds he stood motionless, like a statue that had been
standing beneath the giant tree for hundreds of years.

Swinging myself
from the branch, I landed with a thump in the grounds of
Ravenwood.

Back in my
room, I placed a wet towel across the cut on Sam’s forehead as he
lay on my bed.

“I thought that
man was dead!” Sam whispered, still not really believing what he’d
just seen.

“So did I,” I
whispered back, dabbing gently at the cut on his brow.

“What the hell
is going on?” he asked, as if I had all the answers.

“I don’t know,”
I replied, wiping away his blood. My throat began to turn dry, and
my stomach knotted. I glanced over at my bag tucked beneath my
wardrobe and pictured the bottles of Lot 13 hidden within it.

“I think you
know more than you are letting on,” Sam said, taking my hand from
his brow and holding it in his.

“Say what?” I
asked him.

“There is
something about you, Kayla,” he said, looking up at me. “I know
there is some crazy shit going on and I’m not just talking about
the wolves and the freaky faceless dude in the woods.”

“I don’t know
what you mean,” I said, trying to break his stare.

“I have dreams,
Kayla,” he said. “Dreams about the world – but it’s not like this –
it’s different somehow. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

I shook my
head.

“I’m going to
tell you something, Kayla,” he said, his voice dropping. “I’ve
never told this to anyone before ‘cos people would think I’m
mad.”

“So why are you
going to tell me?” I tried to smile.

“Because I
reckon you’ll believe me,” he smiled. “I get the feeling that you
know there is something wrong with this world, too.”