The Midnight Carnival (18 page)

‘Get Agata, too,’ the ringmaster said. ‘Keep them all in the cart until the thing is done.’

Some time later, when the song had stopped, the ringmaster strolled back and forth in front of a cart enclosed with metal bars. Inside sat the doctor, smoking a skinny cigar, while Drake growled and cursed, and Agata moaned with her head in her hands.

‘It’s gonna happen, isn’t it, Felix?’ said the bearded girl who watched from a safe distance.

‘It sure is, honey,’ the ringmaster replied. ‘It sure is.’

17

Down in the Sewers

Justine seemed troubled. She paced back and forth in her tent, taking heaving breaths with one hand on her belly.

‘Justine?’ Grace said, ducking under the tarpaulin door. ‘Are you okay?’

The ballerina nodded. She smiled shakily at Rachel and Una as they entered the tent.

‘I’m okay, honey, thanks. But… I think I know where the doctor and the others have hidden the doll.’

‘Where?’

Justine opened the jewellery case on her dressing table and took out a crumpled sheet of paper. Opening it up, she placed it on the bed where the girls could take a good look.

‘It’s a map,’ she said.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Una, ‘It’s the town. Look, there’s North
Street.’

‘And that,’ Justine said, tracing her finger from word to word, ‘is Drake’s handwriting.’

Grace felt a twist in her stomach. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Umm-hmm.’

Clunk. Another twist. ‘Where did you get this?’

Justine smiled as if she couldn’t believe it herself.

‘I searched the doctor’s trailer.’

‘What? On your own? What if he’d caught you?’

‘I had to do something. I was so scared, but he never came. I got in and out without anyone seeing. Honestly, sweetheart, I’m okay.’

Grace forced herself to read and re-read the scrawled handwriting.

‘We don’t know if this shows where the doll is, though. This could be a map to nothing.’

‘Why draw a map that leads to nothing?’ said Rachel. ‘And, anyway, there’s an X.’

Grace’s disappointment swelled inside her like a rotten balloon.

‘I was gonna go get it now,’ Justine said shyly, ‘but I’ve got a show. If I miss a performance, the doctor will know something’s up.’

‘We’ll go get it,’ Grace replied.

‘Are you sure?’

‘We know the town, and we can stay hidden.’ Grace lifted
her head but couldn’t bring herself to smile. ‘It’s better if we get it.’

‘I gotta confess, I was hoping you would say that. I can’t thank you guys enough.’

‘No thanks required,’ Una said, bouncing off the bed.

‘Oh there’ll be thanks,’ the ballerina said. ‘You bring that doll back here and you can stay on the ferris wheel as long as you like, play any of the stalls for free, watch the shows… This carnival will be your playground for as along as you want.’

‘That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it Rach? Grace?’

Rachel nodded enthusiastically, but Grace simply followed the others from the tent, scrunching the map into her jacket pocket.

Grace smoothed out the crinkled map as best she could, but the smudged writing made it difficult to follow.

‘It’s off Macken Street anyway,’ she said, ‘past the library towards the river. What’s that little alleyway called where they used to have the flea market years ago?’

‘Gallows Lane,’ Rachel replied, turning up her collar against the spitting rain.

‘Euch,’ Una said. ‘That place is grim.’

‘Then it fits, doesn’t it? The perfect spot for two fiendish baddies to hide their loot.’

‘One fiendish baddie,’ Grace corrected. ‘And Drake.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Rachel replied, not meeting her eye. ‘I forgot he was an innocent victim.’

Grace let the comment go as the three girls traipsed down North Street in the miserable weather. There was a small part of her that hoped they wouldn’t find the doll, and that Drake’s involvement was still some kind of misunderstanding.

I can be ruthless.

She shook her head as if she could knock Drake’s words out of it. She couldn’t.

They turned down Macken Street and slowed when they approached the turn-off for Gallows Lane.

‘Check the windows too,’ Grace said, ‘in case anyone’s looking out.’

They scoped out the street and, when the coast was clear, they each turned down the lane and cloaked.

‘Ow!’ Una gasped.

‘Sorry,’ said Rachel, ‘was that your foot?’

‘Watch where you’re going, will you?’

‘I can watch where I’m going all day, Una, but I can’t watch where
you’re
going. You’re invisible too, remember?’

‘Shh,’ hissed Grace. ‘Keep it down. They could be here.’

They had a prearranged signal, that Grace pick up and drop a pebble when she reached the spot. Which she did, opposite an empty space in the lane. There were rundown buildings all along the alleyway, except for this one spot.
It looked like the building had been demolished, probably because it had already begun to collapse, and now there were just piles of rubble.

Grace uncloaked and held the map up to the light.

‘I don’t get it,’ she said. ‘This is it. This is the spot.’

‘So we’re uncloaking then,’ Una said, reappearing.

‘Yeah, because this is where the map points to. Except there’s nothing here.’

Rachel appeared, staring up at where the building should have been.

‘Maybe they crouch down behind the rubble when they meet. Are you sure it’s here?’

‘Yes,’ Grace snapped, ‘X marks the spot.’

‘Maybe X just marks near the spot,’ Una said, snatching the map to scrutinise it.

‘Or maybe,’ Rachel said, looking down at Grace’s shoes, ‘X does mark the spot.’

Grace looked down and saw she was standing on the grate of a sewer drain.

‘Oh… oh, okay.’

‘Just so you know,’ said Rachel, ‘I’m not going down there. This top is new.’

‘And I’m not going down there,’ Una said, ‘because it’ll be smelly and also probably scary.’

‘What?’ Grace exclaimed. ‘You’re both going down there. I’m not going on my own.’

‘Do you know how much this cost?’ said Rachel, pulling on the front of her shirt.

‘I don’t care.’

‘The patches on these boots are suede. The stains will never come out.’

‘Then hover and keep your feet off the ground.’

‘I can’t do that and cloak at the same time. If I lose my concentration I’ll fall in.’

‘Then walk on the bloody ground. Seriously, Rach, we came here to get the doll and that’s what we’re going to do.’

‘But can I stay out here because I’m scared?’ said Una.

‘No!’

‘Alright, alright, don’t pop a blood vessel in your eye.’

Grace took a deep breath to calm herself, then knelt to pull up the grate. It was very heavy, but didn’t stick. It had been opened recently.

‘Cloak as soon as you’re inside,’ she said, lowering her feet into the drain.

‘That won’t keep my shirt clean.’

‘Rach!’

‘I’m getting in,’ Rachel huffed. ‘What more do you want?’

Grace lowered herself inside the drain and found metal footholds embedded in the concrete. About three metres down she stepped onto a stone ledge. The tunnel was big enough for her to stand up straight, but the ledge was worryingly narrow. Dark water flowed next to it; she tried to
imagine it was just a little stream, but the foul odour was unmistakeable. She cloaked, hoping that would somehow shield her from the smell.

‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting.’ Rachel was nearly to the ledge.

‘Be quiet,’ said Grace. ‘And cloak.’

‘You’ll owe me a new pair of boots after this.’

The tunnel was blocked to the right by a stone wall that reached nearly to the ceiling, the foul water flowing through a gap underneath. Grace ignored Rachel’s complaining and moved along the ledge to the left. There was very little light, the darkness punctuated only by daylight that came through drain grates further along the road above. A couple of times, Grace’s foot slipped in something and she nearly toppled into the icky stream, saved only by throwing herself against the stone wall that was slick with damp. She didn’t check the ledge to see what it was she had slipped on. Gulping, and breathing through her mouth, she crept further and further into the sewer, hearing the occasional grunt and scuffle of feet behind her.

Suddenly the tunnel veered right. Grace stopped short. It widened considerably at the corner, and the ledge on her side grew into a triangular concrete platform. She inched forward and peered into the murky light. Several stones had been knocked out of the wall at hip height, making a shallow shelf. Tucked into the shelf, was the doll.

Even from some distance she could see the frayed straw ends that served as hands and feet. It looked to have been hastily made, with bits of wire holding it together at the joints, and stray strands poking out from the face and belly. The doll was pretty, in a homemade kind of way.

‘Wow,’ Rachel breathed behind her, ‘is that it?’

Grace took a few more steps, then halted. Rachel banged into her from behind.

‘What are you doing?’ she said. ‘No-one’s around. Go and get it.’

‘Wait here.’

The others didn’t need to follow, and then they wouldn’t bump into each other again, but that wasn’t what made Grace say it. Getting closer to the doll, she didn’t find it so pretty anymore. There was something unpleasant about it. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it looked
mean
.

That makes no sense
, she thought, and forced herself to go on.

The feeling got worse the closer she got. It wasn’t just mean anymore. The doll was ugly. Those golden strands seemed like sandy worms up close, and even appeared to slither over each other, making slimy sounds.

She stepped onto the triangular platform and started to reach for the doll. She couldn’t do it. It was revolting. It was the most hideous thing she had ever seen. She didn’t want to take it.

‘What are you doing?’ Rachel’s strained whisper came from back down the tunnel. ‘Pick it up and let’s go.’

Grace stared at the doll, and its face grimaced back at her from the nest of worms that knotted and unknotted, wriggling and squirming.

‘I don’t… something’s wrong.’

‘Put the pedal to the metal, Grace,’ said Una, ‘we’re on a schedule here.’

‘Grace, pick it up for God’s sake,’ said Rachel.

‘Grace, have you gone hard of hearing? Just pick up the stupid thing. The baddies could show up any minute, and it
smells
down here!’

Silence.

‘Come on, Grace,’ said Una.

‘Grace, pick it up!’ said Rachel.

Grace grabbed the doll and felt her stomach heave. She couldn’t hold on to her cloaking spell and dropped it as she worked her way along the ledge.

‘Eh,’ said Una, ‘we’re supposed to be incognito.’

‘Move!’ Grace replied with an aggression that surprised herself.

‘Okay, okay, we’re moving. What’s got into you?’

Rachel and Una uncloaked and scuttled along the ledge, getting no reply from Grace. They crawled out of the drain and into the twilight descending on the town. For a moment Grace felt better, but one glance at the doll made her feel
sick again.

‘Let’s get to the carnival and get rid of this thing.’

Rachel and Una exchanged glances, but said nothing. With Grace setting the pace, they walked, then jogged, then ran towards Dunbridge Park.

The park was empty. There were flattened circles of grass, and muddy patches, and thick tyre tracks – but that was all that remained of the carnival.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Rachel, looking around. ‘Where are they?’

Una thumped her heel into one of the postholes left by a signpost.