The Midnight Carnival (21 page)

The gardener snorted a laugh, firing one branch-like arm and striking Rachel in the head. He crawled forward on woody limbs, but something large came ambling from the dark and landed on him with a thump.

‘Ugh,’ he grunted as Una, her jeans torn on both sides by thick trunk-like legs, pushed his face into the ground.

‘Now, you,’ she said, ‘tell us what’s in the barrow that’ll turn me back to normal, and maybe we’ll let you use it.’

‘The tin box,’ the gardener croaked. ‘Powder, in the face, like the spray.’

Grace rummaged in the barrow and pulled out a small, tin box. It was filled with white powder. She took a pinch in her palm, and blew it in Una’s face.

Una sneezed and hiccuped, rolling off the gardener’s back. Grace moved to sit on him, but she didn’t need to. His feet had pushed their roots firmly into the ground, and his face had nearly disappeared behind a wall of bark.

‘Ah, ow, ow, ow!’ cried Una. ‘It hurts!’

Una’s root toes and twig fingers where shortening and pulling back into her limbs. Her head lolled about as her skin smoothed out and faded in colour, leaving her cheeks their usual pleasant pink. She sank to her knees, her torn jeans spreading out like huge 1970s-style flares.

‘Seriously,’ she said, rubbing her head. ‘That was really sore.’

There was groaning from the gardener tree, which lay at a strange angle. Its roots were lodged in the soil, and the trunk lay across the ground with branches stretching awkwardly skywards.

‘If there’s any left after we’ve rescued these others,’ Una snapped at him as she grabbed the tin box from Grace, ‘we’ll think about
maybe
letting you go.’

Marching to the next tree, a sturdy oak, she took a pinch of the powder and blew.

The garden vanished.

‘Jenny, Jenny!’

Adie waved frantically, even though Jenny was clearly headed straight for Mrs Quinlan’s house. Under the street-lights of Wilton Place, Adie could see the change in Jenny’s shape since she had taken up weight-lifting. She was definitely bigger. She looked sturdy; she looked
strong
.

‘Where’s Delilah?’ Jenny wasn’t the least bit out of breath, though she had sprinted the length of the street.

‘She’s gone to find Bob.’

‘Have you heard anything from inside?’ Jenny said, immediately heading for the porch and putting her ear to the door.

‘Nothing. We saw them go inside and that was it. We banged on the door and shouted for ages, but we didn’t hear
them at all.’

Jenny moved around the porch like a seasoned investigator, running her nails down the door jamb, peering through the frosted glass that showed nothing, and examining the outer wall as if for a weak spot. At the window to the front room, she wiped the glass clean to look inside.

‘You can’t see anything,’ Adie said. ‘It’s misty, like the glass on the porch. It doesn’t let you see inside.’

Jenny stepped back and sighed. Taking a quick glance back at the street to make sure nobody was around, she rose into the air to face one of the first-floor windows.

‘Someone’s in there,’ she said.

Adie gasped, but as Jenny flew in to to grab the sill, the window moved to the right, like a tile in a sliding puzzle game. The front-room window moved up, the far window down, and on they moved. Jenny backed away, then shot forward again, missing a window by inches and hitting the wall.

‘Oh, Jenny,’ Adie cried. ‘Be careful. If you knock yourself out, you’ll fall.’

Jenny took a deep breath and tried again, this time missing a window by some distance and scraping her jaw and arm. She lowered to the ground, pressing one hand to her face.

‘Are you alright?’ said Adie.

‘Yeah, but I definitely saw movement in there.’

‘The windows keep changing speed when they move, that’s why you’re missing them. Let’s wait for Bob.’

‘They’re locked in there, Adie, and we don’t know what’s happening to them. They could be dying for all we know!’

Adie bit back tears. ‘But we can’t get in!’

Apparently not caring who saw her this time, Jenny went back onto the street and rose several metres into the air. She watched the sliding windows with a look of brutal determination, her eyes flicking from side to side as the house continued its game. After some time, she moved slowly forward in a zigzag motion. The house seemed to have a moment’s apprehension and the windows picked up speed.

‘Jenny?’ Adie called, as her friend snaked through the air above her.

Jenny tightened her turns, moved a little faster. Again, the house seemed to hiccup at her change of pace and the windows sped up once more. This meandering went on and on until Adie thought the anticipation would kill her. All at once, Jenny hurled herself towards the house, her hands out in front, her head low and focussed on one spot. It was wall. She was firing herself right at the wall.

‘No, Jenny!’ Adie shrieked, but it was too late.

Jenny soared through the air, the windows moved faster and faster and faster until…

SMASH
!

A window had slid into place just as Jenny hit. She speared through the glass like a bullet and disappeared inside the house. Adie hugged her chest and let out the breath she’d
been holding.

‘Thank goodness for that!’ she whispered to herself.

For what, though? She stared up at the windows that had slowed to a crawl, and realised that
four
of her friends, and Mrs Quinlan, were now trapped inside the dilapidated house. She looked helplessly around for support, but saw only the empty lawn. Frustrated beyond belief, she yelled at the top of her voice.

‘What bloody good did that do?!’

20

The Monster in the House

Grace, Rachel and Una stood in a clean, white room. At one end, there was a door. The tin box with the powder in it had disappeared from Una’s hand.

‘This isn’t funny anymore,’ she grunted.

They could hear Mrs Quinlan’s voice again and the scratching and mewing of many cats. There was no other way out of the room. Grace had no choice but to open the only door. There was Mrs Quinlan, in all her moth-eaten glory. Several cats clawed at her skirts and her grey hair hung in waves to her shoulders.

‘Mrs Quinlan!’ Una rushed forward and smacked straight into a large mirror.

Grace glanced behind them, but the woman wasn’t there. There was only her reflection in the glass.

‘Mrs Quinlan?’ Grace said. ‘Can you hear us?’

The woman didn’t respond, just stood there with her hands on her hips, letting the cats whimper at her feet. Grace edged past the mirror to the room beyond.

It was filled with mirrors. Big rectangles of glass, with no frames, that stood without any support – and Mrs Quinlan inhabited all of them. In one, she pounded her fists on the glass, screaming to be let out. In another, she held Mephistopheles fondly in her arms, stroking his head and smiling when he purred. In yet another, she sat at a small desk, scribbling notes from a pile of magic books. She stood at the cooker, stirring the foul contents of a pot that Grace could smell; she yelled at someone unseen, pointing a threatening finger; she clutched Delilah’s schoolbag like a lifeline, her forehead creased with worry.

Then the mirrors moved, closed in around Grace until she was stuck in a corridor of mirrors, a corridor of Mrs Quinlans.

‘Rachel?’ she called.

‘We’re back here,’ was the reply. ‘Keep walking, I think it’s a maze.’

‘Which way?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Can you get back in through the door?’

‘It’s gone.’

Grace walked to the end of the corridor and took a right. She walked to the end of the next and took a left, but on the following turn, she saw mirrors shifting into the place. She ran to the next one and again saw the mirrored walls shift as she turned the corner.

‘Oh fudge, they’re moving,’ she yelled out. ‘The walls are moving.’

‘I know, Una and I have got separated,’ Rachel shouted back. ‘How can we find each other if the maze keeps shifting?’

‘I think that’s the point. Una, are you alright?’ There was no reply. ‘Una?’

Again, silence. Grace ignored a Mrs Quinlan throwing her trusty glowing boomerang and catching it as it zipped back to her.

‘Una? Una, please answer me. Are you okay? Una?
Are you there?
’

‘Yep.’

‘Then why the hell didn’t you answer me?’

‘I was checking something.’

‘Checking what?’

‘Yeah, it’s moving now,’ Una replied. ‘See, I was cloaked for a while.’

‘Why did you cloak?’ asked Rachel.

‘’Cos one of the Mrs Quinlans threw a cat at me and I panicked.
But, when I was cloaked, I noticed the walls stopped moving. They couldn’t see me. They’re moving again now though, so they can hear me.’

‘So all we have to do,’ Grace began.

‘Is shut up and cloak,’ Una finished.

‘Right. I can do that. Everybody aim for the side we came in on, and we’ll try to meet up there.’

‘Is this you shutting up?’

‘Shush, Una.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Grace sighed and then cloaked. She’d never said it to the girls, but she found cloaking difficult. The initial spell was okay, but maintaining it for any length of time got increasingly hard. It didn’t physically hurt, like hovering for ages or flame-running, it was more that the thought of being invisible made her anxious. The longer she appeared to be nothing, the more afraid she was that she’d stay that way. She knew it wasn’t rational – she could drop the spell any time she liked – but that didn’t stop the feeling.

She looked down now and saw nothing, not her hands or legs or feet. The little knot of panic was already growing in her belly and a voice chimed in her head,
drop the cloak, drop the cloak
,
drop the cloak
. She pushed the anxiety away and saw that the mirrored maze was no longer shifting, that she could amble quietly through and find the best way to reach Rachel and Una. Lucky Una, thought Grace, she could stay cloaked
all day and not be bothered at all.

She was getting closer. It was still a maze but, with the corridors fixed, Grace could backtrack and try different routes. It was tempting to call out to the others and see how they were doing, but she kept quiet. Until she saw a wall shift to her left. It was down the far end of the corridor, but it definitely moved. She stopped dead. She’d been careful not to make noise, she was still cloaked, but the maze had shifted. Tiptoeing to the end of the corridor, she was startled when it moved again. But the wall was shifting right in front of her, and she was able to slip through. She couldn’t understand what the maze was up to until Jenny appeared. She was scowling and swearing under her breath.

‘Jenny!’ Grace couldn’t help it.

Jenny nearly leapt out of her boots, and slammed against a sneering Mrs Quinlan reflection.

‘Who’s there?’ she said.

‘Sorry,’ said Grace, uncloaking. ‘It’s me.’

‘Finally,’ Jenny gasped, grabbing Grace in a bear hug that knocked the wind out of her. ‘I’ve been looking for you for ages. I’m trying to work out this bloody maze, but it’s impossible. The walls keep moving.’

‘Cloak,’ Grace said, grabbing Jenny’s hand, ‘and don’t speak. I’m on my way to Rachel and Una over there at the far end.’

The tall girl looked perplexed, but disappeared as commanded. Grace kept a firm grip on her hand as, together,
they moved silently through the maze.

They seemed to be walking for hours, but eventually they collided with Una. She was standing next to the first Mrs Quinlan – the one that stood with hands on hips like a superhero – and waiting impatiently for Rachel to arrive. After some time, they heard a small voice in the empty corridor.

‘Please tell me you guys are here.’

‘Rachel?’ said Grace.

‘You
are
there! Fudge, I’ve been standing here for ten minutes. I was afraid to talk in case some wall moved on you guys and got you lost. Is Una with you?’

‘And Jenny,’ Grace said, uncloaking. ‘Here, grab my hand, before we get separated again.’

They all held hands with relief, and Jenny gave a riveting report of her daredevil entrance through an upstairs window.

‘And Adie and Delilah?’ asked Grace.

‘Adie’s outside, Delilah went to get Bob. What’s the deal with all the fake Mrs Quinlans? Where’s the real one?’

‘We don’t know. We kept hearing her behind doors but…’

‘Do you think she’s dead?’ said Jenny.

‘You’d better not smile.’

‘I’m not smiling! For fudge sake! I mean, she’s a bitter twisted old hag with no soul and I hate her with the fire of a
thousand suns but, you know… doesn’t mean I want her
dead
.’

‘I hope she’s not.’

The floor trembled, breaking their conversation, and another door appeared in the wall.

‘Hey,’ said Jenny, turning, ‘a way out.’

Rachel stopped her.

‘Don’t bother,’ she said.

‘You see, you start playing the game,’ said Una, ‘and it doesn’t end. Plus, you get turned into trees and attacked by statues and stuff.’

‘Better to stay where we are for now,’ said Grace.

All four girls huddled together, but when they ignored the open door, the house seemed to lose its temper. There was a rumble, then another, then the first mirror crashed to the ground, smashing into smithereens. The row of mirrors behind them did the same, then the next, and the next. Soon there was shattered glass everywhere. The ceiling pushed up while the walls moved out, and the room became a great cavernous space, with boulders next to rock walls that were filled with jagged nooks and crannies.

The girls watched in astonishment as the mirror pieces melted and moved like liquid metal, gathering together into a great pool. A shape rose out of the centre, growing taller and taller. The head and shoulders reached almost the height of the cavern, and the figure solidified and towered over the friends.

It was a very strange figure indeed. Its limbs were long and thin, the arms a little too long for its body. The giant eyes were very round and set in an oval-shaped face. Hair stood straight out from its head like twigs or great, thick strands of straw and its mouth… its mouth held a tempestuous frown, like a toddler that’s had its favourite toy taken away, and in the darkness behind the lips were the points of huge, triangular teeth.

‘We should have taken that door,’ Una groaned.

The creature’s movement was a little on the slow side, perhaps because of its great size, and yet the first spear missed Grace by mere centimetres. The giant had pulled out a single strand of its twig-like hair and fired it. The hair was about half the width of a wrist, rigid, and razor-sharp at the root end. It embedded itself in the rock face and stayed there, wobbling slightly with the impact.

‘Run!’ Grace said. ‘Everybody run!’

‘But we should stay together!’ Una cried, running awkwardly backwards.

‘Just run!’

The second spear hit between Una’s feet. She skirted the creature’s great leg and ducked behind the nearest boulder.

The spears came thick and fast, splitting rock, revealing hiding places. Rachel took off into the air and was nearly skewered.

‘Keep to the rocks,’ Grace yelled. ‘Stay out of sight!’

As she squeezed into a crack in the wall, Grace saw the creature’s expression. Its frown had turned upside down, and when she was half buried in falling debris she heard it clap with delight. The whole cavern shook with the creature’s glee.

‘It’s a game.’ Jenny was hurriedly unburying Grace. ‘It’s playing with us, having fun. It won’t end.’

‘What are you doing?’ Grace said. ‘Go and hide, it can see you.’

The next spear grazed Jenny’s cheek, and blood trickled down her face.

‘Get out of here!’ Grace shouted.

‘No, we have to fight it.’

‘Has your brain gone to mush? It’s a spear-throwing
giant
.’

‘And beating it is the only way out of here. That, or we end up playing its games forever.’

Grace grabbed Jenny’s collar and rolled her clear of an incoming spear. Grabbing the back of her jumper this time, she pulled them both behind a boulder.

‘I’m assuming you’ve got a plan.’

Jenny nodded.

‘But we need the others.’

Evidently the creature had taken a fancy to Una. Grace and Jenny joined Rachel easily enough, but Una was getting
more than her fair share of spears. She ducked repeatedly behind a chunk of rock that had broken free of the wall, but couldn’t get a break between attacks to hide somewhere else.

‘Una, we need you!’ Grace shouted from her own sheltered spot. ‘Jenny’s got a plan to beat this thing.’

‘Don’t yell that you’ve got a plan to beat this thing
in front
of the thing,’ Una shouted back.

Grace looked up at the oval face and its expression of playful glee.