Dark Winter (20 page)

Toril had been welcomed in by Beth. Both of them looked at me and their mouths gaped open wide.

“What the hell happened to you?” said Toril, in a raised voice.

I stumbled down the stairs towards the girls. My face was clammy with perspiration, and my hands fought to grasp the bannister. I was unable to shout down to them, and wasn’t sure if Beth and Toril could make any sense of what had happened to me.

As I got closer to them, they barely disguised their screams.

“Curie isn’t dead,” I whispered. I was barely able to get that across to them, before the hallway swam around me. Beth managed to catch me before I hit the floor.

“Damn it, Romilly, you are heavier than you look,” said Beth, doing her best to prop me up onto the stairs. “Whatever do you mean? For God’s sake Toril, shut the door.”

Toril, who had been trying to take in my rather bizarre appearance, finally got herself together.

“Damn is right, Romilly. You look terrible, and you’re always fainting. What happened?”

Toril gave me some chocolate. “This’ll bring the colour back into your face.”

I did feel better after the chocolate, which I wolfed down so fast that it didn’t touch the sides of my throat.

I tried to tell the girls what I saw in the vision, but Beth would not be convinced otherwise.

Grabbing my hands, she looked implicitly into my eyes. I know how much it meant to her now, that Curie had met a grisly end, but I could not sit there and dismiss what I saw, and what I felt.

“Milly, Curie is dead. We were both there. The doll – Dana? Remember?”

Oh yes. I do remember. Vividly. But I had to make her believe me. I just had to. Nan had told me my abilities would become more stronger after the Mirror had imprinted itself on me. Surely this was one example of this?

“I don’t know how to make you believe me,” I said despairingly. “But something more sinister happened after we ran out of there. We don’t know for sure that Curie is dead. We really don’t, Beth.”

“I believe that you believe it, Milly.” Beth gripped my hands tightly, trying to reassure me.

“Of course he’s dead,” added Toril. “Dana always gets whoever she’s after.”

Toril’s words really chilled me. She would never gloat about something like that. Then, I turned to Beth, but she’d picked up on it too, and was way ahead of me.

Turning to Toril, slowly, with an alarmed look on her face, she said “You told me on the phone you were coming over tomorrow, so why are you here now?”

Toril didn’t try and explain herself. She answered Beth’s question by grabbing her head with both hands and slamming it against the wall in the hallway.

Whoever it was in front of us, it was not Toril Withers.

                            *                            *                            *

A scream finally came out of me, and Beth, slid slowly down to the floor, with blood from her head staining the walls.

Toril looked at me, and her appearance changed. Gone was her beautiful raven coloured hair, the dark chocolate eyes, her puffed cheeks. In their place was black hair, with blood red streaks, and her cheeks had sunk so far that the skin just pulled back on her face.

I’ve seen your future, little one, and you…you need this Mirror.

I had to get upstairs, and get the Mirror, before the zombie girl claimed me. I had no time to worry where the real Toril was, much less about Beth, whose head had been smacked so violently against the wall, I feared the worst. Please don’t be dead, Beth.

The Mirror was my only hope. I was still a bit dizzy, and yet pulled myself up the stairs by my fingertips. The zombie girl’s clammy, cold, fish-scale like hands grabbed onto my ankles.

I couldn’t make progress, and with one strong pull I was dragged back by several steps.

I kicked out, flailing wildly, and connected with something solid. Suddenly, I was free, and I scrambled up the stairs, but looking back, my problems weren’t over.

The zombie girl seemed to have been hurt. Her head was bleeding heavily, but not red blood, it was coloured black, and her eye lurched lazily out of her left socket. Several of her teeth had been pushed into her tongue, and her mouth leaked blood like a geyser.

I was trying to take in the disgusting view in front of me, when she turned to Beth and reached a bony hand into her chest, as if she was trying to burst her heart.

I had to get the Mirror, and fast. I burst into the bedroom, fumbled around for my bag, and found the curves of the Mirror. I had no idea what I was going to do next, but Beth’s life, my own, and possibly Toril’s, could depend on my actions.

I turned the Mirror to face the zombie girl, who cried out when she saw it. She had seen this weapon, for that is what it was, before. The Mirror became really hot as I held on to it for dear life, and it glowed fiercely. This is what it must be like to grab an iron when it’s hot.

I screamed at her to let Beth go, and she did straight away, because she could not resist the force of the Mirror. She pulled her arm out, and her skin and hair disintegrated as she was sucked into the Mirror.

No matter. I held on, with all of my strength, which wasn’t saying much, until the demon was inside. It must have only taken a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to me.

There was no time to catch my breath. Beth was lying at the foot of the stairs, completely motionless.

I just hoped whatever it was that just attacked us, didn’t have any friends. Of course, I was very good at convincing myself ghosts didn’t exist.

But they do exist, and the Mirror works.

I just wish I knew what to do to help Beth.

But there wasn’t time. The chocolate that Toril gave me – at least, the thing pretending to be Toril, wasn’t chocolate at all. I was trying help Beth, but my body defied me.

I coughed violently, and coughing turned into retching. My insides were becoming my outsides, and as I recognised what I had eaten ended up on the floor, I retched even more.

I didn’t want to fall again, so I pushed my hands out to the walls on both sides of me.

I felt the strange feeling of being disgusted with myself, and yet purified of that evil inside my body. I flopped back on the steps, dug my elbows into my knees, and cupped my face in my hands, until I felt more steady.

I was in no state to help Beth, but I was wishing I could with all my might. Just then there was a knock on the door.

I sat there, unable to move. Then I could hear impatient voices, followed by a click in the door lock.

Beth’s grandparents had arrived home.

                                          *                            *                            *

I now had the motivation that had previously escaped me, looped both arms around Beth, and dragged her to the living room. Blood had splattered on the wall and floor. What a mess.

There would be no time to explain everything, much less come up with one that would be accepted by Beth’s grandparents. I propped Beth up in the chair, and waited for the inevitable onslaught. “They are Strict, Irish, Catholic, and Old, and sometimes, I hate their guts” Beth had once said of her grandparents, “but they are all I’ve got as family.”

I picked up the Mirror, held it to my chest, and whispered “Please, make them go away.”

How stupid I must have looked to my Nan. Still, I was desperate. Unless my wish worked, I was about to meet that family.

             
                            *                            *                            *

The voices continued to make their indiscernible sounds. Then, the lock clicked once more and I was sure they were coming in. But then I heard footsteps in the driveway that were moving away from the door. They were going! I had been given a reprieve.

Oh my God, thank you,
I said.

I had to get my priorities right, and fast. Beth, she was number one. Priority number two - clean up the mess. Third...there wasn’t a third. There didn’t have to be. But I was a productivity nut. I never knew how to relax, I always felt I had to have something to do.
Yay for Team ADHD
.

As this played out in my head, I realised how ridiculous it all sounded.

I laid Beth on the sofa, and wondered what I would do, how I would cope, if anything happened to her. I ran to the kitchen, and grabbed a load of kitchen towels, water, and a wet dish cloth to cool her head.

Once I had steadied the blood flow, which thankfully seemed more like a trickle than a stream, I placed a cushion behind her head. To anyone else, she would just look like she was sleeping.

I knew what I would have to do next, and it scared me, because I hadn’t taken part in the CPR class. I would have had to take my gloves off to do it, and that would have freaked out my fellow school children. So, I missed it, along with so many other things. But I could call an ambulance, and have to explain everything to them and Beth’s grandparents, or I could try and sort this out myself.

I knew every moment wasted brought Beth closer to death. I just couldn’t face the alternative, so I would just have to make whatever knowledge I had of CPR, to bring her out of it.

With Beth, I would not have to worry about that. I pressed down hard but also gently onto her chest, trying to get her heart going. I pinched her nose, then closed my mouth over hers, and breathed hard.

Her chest went up, settled down, and then…nothing.

Come on, Beth. Don’t die on me here.

I repeated my movements again, and still, nothing.

I started to panic, decided I had done all I could, and grabbed the phone to call for an ambulance.

Suddenly, and scaring the hell out of me, Beth exhaled really hard and sat bolt upright. She clamped her hands by her head, and turned to look at me.

“Is she gone?” said Beth.

“Yes,” I said breathlessly, pointing to the Mirror. “In there. Are you okay?”

“I think so. It’s like the worst headache ever.”

Beth looked at me clutching the phone.

“Are you going to call somebody, or hit me with that?”

“I was going to call an ambulance.” I could see Beth was trying to lighten things up

but I was still very shook up over everything. “Are you sure you’re okay, Beth?”

“Yeah. Like I said, monster headache. Probably looks worse than it is. My chest hurts a bit though.”

“Where she put her hand in.”

“Yeah. I’m okay, really.”

“Cup of tea?”

“Jesus, yeah, that’s a gift.”

While I made Beth a drink, I cleaned up the hallway. We sat in silence, drinking tea, but both thinking about the same person. We didn’t have to say his name out loud of course, but it was just so strange that we would both be attacked now. Curie had a way of making these evil entities find us. There was a very real possibility that the vision I had of him surviving Dana’s attack was real.

Just then, the phone rang. We both jumped, and nearly spilled tea all over the floor that I had just cleaned up. Beth answered, and this time, put the call on the speakers. It was Toril – at least I hoped it was the real Toril this time.

“Hey Beth. Have you heard? The police were at the school.”

Beth was frantically waving the cordless phone in her hand at me, and mouthed ‘Isn’t that great??’