Deadly Games (7 page)

“I don't know,” muttered Sid. “I can't even swim.” The old man staggered slightly, as if the situation was too much for him, and the Tilley lamp slipped out of his shaking hand. It fell into the water, fleetingly giving enough light for Jenny to see David's head vanishing beneath the surface of the pool.

He bobbed up again a few seconds later, his face blank with terror and his eyes glazing. Then, to Jenny's horror, her brother threw up his arms and disappeared abruptly under the surface again, almost as if someone were pulling him down.

Jenny bellowed his name over and over again. What was in the pool? Some monstrous underground thing? A shoal of piranha fish? An octopus? Beside her she heard Sid whimpering with fear.

In seconds David reappeared, but this time his eyes were closed and he looked barely conscious.

“David!” yelled Jenny. “Swim to the side and hang on. We'll get down to you somehow.”

There was a scampering sound and something grey fell into the water with a light splash, the ripples spreading outwards and knocking the
floating Tilley lamp against the bank. It lay there, trapped in some debris, its light doused.

“That was Gumbo, that was,” muttered Sid. “She's gone in after him.”

“What can the rat do?” A flash of anger cut right through Jenny's despair. Why had she ever allowed Sid to drag them into his hopelessly dangerous adventure? Then she noticed a pale light gradually spreading over the surface of the pool. It couldn't be coming from the Tilley lamp. So where else was it –

“Gumbo will help him,” said Sid defensively, but Jenny wasn't listening to him, although she could see the rat's head as it swam towards David.

“You've got to get to the side,” she yelled. “And open your eyes.”

David didn't reply and his eyes remained firmly closed. He was still feebly treading water but Jenny knew that he couldn't last much longer.

“I'm going in,” she yelled at Sid. “I'm going in after him.”

“No! That'll just make it harder,” Sid remonstrated.

“For David?” She gazed at him, not understanding what the old man was talking about.

“For Gumbo,” he snapped. “She's not a miracle worker, you know.”

“Don't be so stupid,” said Jenny angrily. “What can that idiotic rat do?”

“You'd be surprised,” Sid repeated. “And she's
not
an idiot.”

But Jenny was at breaking point. Balancing on the side of the pool, she jumped. The intense cold hit her, sending steel needles into every part of her body and filling her brain with cotton wool.

She was beside David now, trying to pull her twin into a life-saving position and completely failing because he was as rigid as if he had been frozen solid in ice. The deadly cold penetrated Jenny too, making her limbs as painfully rigid as David's.

Meanwhile the mysterious light continued to spread around the pool like phosphorus, seeming to come from under the surface and rising like a fine mist. Gradually it lit up the walls and ceiling of the tunnel above them, and as the light became even brighter, the water turned warmer and Jenny could feel David thawing out. Soon the pool was like a warm bath.

The images flickered, dissolved, flickered again and then became distinct. They showed the garden of a large, white house – a summer garden surrounded by a mellow brick wall, hung with wisteria and roses.

Mrs Garland was sitting at a table which was spread for tea. There was bread and butter and two different kinds of jam, scones and cakes, biscuits and jam tarts and a large pitcher of lemonade.
Some children were at the table eating, but Leslie, May and Alan were crouched behind rose bushes, arranging piles of food with conspiratorial smiles. With a low call, Leslie kicked off the attack and the three of them pelted Mrs Garland with food until her linen dress was stained with jam and chocolate.

As they threw, the three of them chanted, “Down with Garland! Down with Garland!”

More food was thrown and the chant altered:

“We'll rule the home

Till we're alone.”

Mrs Garland staggered to her feet, swaying slightly, and shouted, “You wretched children! You're completely out of control. I shall report you to the trustees.”

But all the three could do was to resume their jeering chant:

“We'll rule the home

Till we're alone.”

As Mrs Garland tried to brush the food off her clothes and out of her eyes, and the other children around the table began to laugh and shout, the images faded. As they did so, the pool began to cool until it was intensely cold again.

“David,” Jenny gasped, “we've got to find a way out.” As she tried once more to manoeuvre
her brother into a life-saving position, she could see that he was barely conscious. “David!” she shouted. “You've got to listen to me. You've got to – ”

Jenny felt hands tugging at her ankles. Her cry of terror was cut off as she was dragged below the surface of the pool.

Although she had the presence of mind to keep her mouth closed, the freezing water pressed down on her and the surface above gradually grew dimmer.

The tugging stopped and a small figure with long flaxen hair swam up and drew level with her. It was May. Something bumped into her that was soft and squishy and she saw David and Leslie sinking below her, locked in each other's arms.

“We'll rule the home

Till we're alone.”

The words bubbled from May's mouth as she swam closer.

You're not Sid's innocents, thought Jenny suddenly, the revelation spreading through her. You're something else.

“We'll rule the home

Till we're alone.”

May locked her hands around Jenny's waist and began to drag her down to the very depths of the
pool. Jenny thought her lungs were going to burst. Then, to her amazement, she saw Gumbo swimming underwater, its whiskers flattened by the slipstream.

May's face was pressed against Jenny's now, cold and soft. She was giggling as if all this were a friendly game in a swimming pool.

You're drowning me
, pleaded Jenny in her mind.

We like this place, said the child's voice, chuckling inside her. It's only a bit of fun. Just fun, fun, fun, fun, fun … The word repeated itself as Jenny and May sank even lower, descending to a mass of slime at the bottom of the pool.

I can't breathe
, Jenny pleaded.
You must let me go. I can't breathe
.

Rats, said May's voice in her mind. I like rats. We play with rats.

Gumbo was swimming nearer. Will it really help us? wondered Jenny. She could feel blood pounding in her ears, and knew she couldn't hold out much longer. There was a great dark red wall forming in front of her eyes and she wanted to give up, to open her mouth and let in the cold steel of the water.

The rat swam between them and May suddenly let Jenny's waist go. Then she began to swim in circles, trying to catch Gumbo's tail.

The twins emerged spluttering, straining for the
glorious stale air of the tunnel. Sid's pale, unshaven face stared down at them, wide-eyed with fear.

“I thought you two was goners.”

“Gumbo can only hold them off for so long,” David gasped. Now he was no longer under the spell of the water, he swam decisively around the pool, searching for a foothold. Jenny joined him, conscious all the time of the possible return of May and Leslie. Had they persecuted Mrs Garland? What had she done to them? Despite her predicament, despite her frenzied shivering, the thoughts raged around Jenny's haunted mind.

“Here,” said David, suddenly triumphant, his breath coming in short gasps. “I've found a shelf.”

He dragged himself up, grabbing at the steep, hard-packed earth, managing to balance precariously up to his knees in the freezing water. David was shivering violently, his lips blue, as he gazed frantically upwards. “Maybe we could get another foothold,” he muttered as Jenny pulled herself up beside him. “This bank's got more of a slope to it.”

Jenny gazed up doubtfully. “Not much more.”

But the pale light was already waning and the twins both knew that they had only minutes before being plunged back into pitch darkness.

“Sid,” yelled David. “Where are you?”

“Over here,” came the tremulous reply.

“You OK?”

“I'm all right. What about you?”

“As well as could be expected after a fight with ghosts in a freezing pool,” David replied with angry sarcasm.

“You saw them?” Sid croaked, with a sentimentality that was infuriating.

“They're
awful
!” David snapped.

“Naughty kids, that's all – that's all they've ever been.” Sid was defensive.

David and Jenny knew that they didn't have time to argue with him, for the pallid light had almost gone. They would have to climb, taking the risk of the bank simply crumbling away and throwing them back into the deadly chill of the ghost-ridden water.

“You seen my Gumbo?” wheezed Sid.

“The rat can look after itself,” said Jenny callously, guiltily aware that it had just saved their lives.

The climb was terrifying, for the packed earth became unstable directly the twins took hold of it. Sections crumbled away immediately, but by digging their hands and feet in as deeply as they could, they found an inner crust that was considerably stronger. Slowly, David and Jenny managed to work their way up, although a continuous shower of earth splattered back into the pool as the darkness closed in.

Nevertheless, they finally reached the top,
panting and gasping. There was a narrow lip to the high banks. With considerable care they might just be able to inch their way along.

David swayed slightly, as he began to walk towards the crumpled figure of Sid, who stood with his arms ineffectually outstretched. The pool was a brooding presence below.

Jenny remembered that her brother had always been afraid of heights, but this was the only way back to the tunnel.

David came to a halt on the narrowest part of the surround. “I can see them,” he whispered.

“They're waiting for me.”

With horror, Jenny realised that it wasn't just her brother's fear of heights making him react this way, but the force of the ghost children. Maybe they were only playing, but their game was deadly. She stared down, trying to control the terror that was surging through her again, but could see nothing, nobody, only the dark, still water.

“There's no one there,” she said to David gently, trying to sound as comforting as their mother. “No one at all.”

But David remained motionless, his shoulders hunched, staring down at the pool.

“Go to Sid,” said Jenny urgently. “He's the one who's waiting for you.”

“That's right.” Sid's voice was calm, suddenly
much stronger. “Come straight to me, Dave, and don't look down.”

Slowly, David started to inch towards him, but the phosphorous glow began to shimmer from the pool again. Jenny knew with deadly certainty that May and Leslie's game with Gumbo was over.

The surface of the pool heaved with pale light and the ghost children rose up, their white faces glowing. Gumbo followed, swimming strongly for the bank and scrambling up the other side, shivering and exhausted.

May's and Leslie's faces were twisted in wilful pleasure as they gazed up at the twins, focusing their attention on David.

“Come and play,” said May.

“We can have a good game,” called Leslie.

“Down here,” they said together. Then they began to chant:

“Boys and girls, come out to play,

The moon does shine as bright as day.

Leave your supper and leave your sleep,

And join your playfellows in the –

Pool!”

May and Leslie shouted with laughter, their eyes shining.

“I'm coming,” David said slowly. “I'm coming to play.”

“No!” Jenny shouted. “Don't move!” She
gazed beseechingly at Sid. “Do something,” she said. “You've got to
do
something.”

“Come on, Dave,” said Sid, his voice shaking. “They're only playing. Now just you walk over to me.”

But David was still staring down into the luminous eyes below him. He looked coiled, ready to jump back into the pool, and Jenny, panic-stricken, continued to plead with him.

“David, you must go on! You must go on to Sid. Just a few steps and then you'll be safe.”

“That's right, Dave.” Sid's voice was now full of authority. “Don't take no notice of them two.”

Below them, the light continued to spread, becoming a sickly yellow colour. May and Leslie bubbled with laughter and chanted again:

“Boys and girls, come out to play.

The moon does shine as bright as day —

“Come on, David!” Their voices were as high and as thin and as cold as could be. “Come and play.”

“Shut up!” Suddenly Jenny lost her temper, and the rage boiled inside her. Then she remembered how she and David had focused their wills on Mrs Garland in the Roxy – an episode that already seemed light years away. This time, Jenny realised, she would have to focus on her own.

She gazed down into the pale eyes of May and
Leslie. “Go away,” she said fiercely. “Just go away.”

They laughed at her, their fingers pointing in mockery.

Go away
, Jenny repeated, concentrating her mind until her head blazed with pain.
Leave him alone. Leave us all alone
.

She could feel the misery and rejection that was inside May and Leslie. “Go!” she yelled.

The ghost children abruptly disappeared under the surface of the pool and the light began to fade.

“Take it slowly,” Jenny admonished as David began to move forward again. “Take it very slowly.”

“Come on, Dave,” said Sid. “You're nearly there. I'm ready for you.”