Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood) (19 page)

“It’s not that
I don’t want to. I just can’t.” Okay, where the hell did he think
this was leading? It was kiss, not a dare to jump off a cliff. “I
just don’t want you to forget me.”

Katie nodded
like it made perfect sense.

CHAPTER
TEN

Tuesday was
spent sitting in their back garden in the cooling summer air, fast
turning into autumn, and trying to concentrate in one of the few
books she had brought with her. It was not difficult to get drawn
into the story – a plague of zombies with a warlock controlling
them, a young witch trying to kill them all – but Katie couldn’t
stop her mind drifting back to the previous night. Eventually, when
she had read three chapters and found she remembered not a word of
it, she got up and went inside, changed into some exercise clothes
and went down to the track. Maybe a decent work-out would sort her
head out.

“Hey Roy.”
Katie leaned through the window and gave him a little wave as she
passed.

The old man was
ducked down behind a table, his thinning, silver hair sticking up
above it, Worzel Gummidge style. He heaved himself up when she
spoke. “Why, morning, Miss Katie!” He frowned at the clock on the
wall, its face almost invisible behind the dirty glass. It was
still morning, but only just. “Must get that thing cleaned. I am
sorry I couldn’t get you no work but rules is rules.”

She’d been
hearing that a lot lately, it seemed. “Something’ll come up,” she
shrugged and reached for the pen and clipboard to sign herself in.
“Is it busy down there today.”

“Not too bad. A
few stew-dents training for that race on Saturday.”

That was it for
Katie. She scribbled a signature and hurried off to the track,
eager to check out the competition. Before she entered the stadium
proper, she took a second to breathe. She hadn’t even realised she
had been holding her breath. She had known the quality of runners
back at school and in their local clubs. Not too brilliant but the
odd person who could keep pace sometimes. But these were college
runners. And at a specialist sports academy at that. Of course they
were going to be good. Undoubtedly better than her. When she passed
through the arched entrance to the arena though, all she saw was a
half dozen young people huddled in a group with another couple
sitting down and watching. Katie stood and watched, open-mouthed at
what they did next. The handful of students broke apart and lined
up on the start line. Some-one yelled out and everyone burst away
in a show of unnatural speed. They were better than good, better
than better than her. They were brilliant. After the first bend,
the leader jogged off the track and left the others to keep
running. He was obviously the pace maker, getting them all into a
healthy rhythm and pace. But after going down the straight, they
all jogged to a halt. Suddenly it all made sense. The older man who
had acted like the pacemaker was the coach and they were all
practising sprint starts. At least, she hoped that was all it was.
It was the kind of coaching she had come to Northwood for. The
students were spookily fast, and none of them seemed out of breath
from where she was standing, the kind of speed you only saw in
professional competition. Of course! At least some of these
had
been in professional competitions.

Feeling a bit
depressed now, Katie turned away ad jogged over to the opposite
side of the track and sat on the pitted grass. From here, where she
could only see vague shapes moving around, she could do some
stretches and think things through. For starters, what was going on
with her and Jack? He seemed to like her, she could tell that much,
and she felt warm inside whenever she was near him. She felt safe
around him, and that was good, but she felt a bit frightened too,
and that was bad. Not frightened of him – God, a world of no - but
scared of
something
. Things Katie didn’t know could hurt
her. The last few months had pretty much drilled it into her –
don’t trust the shadows. And then there was Dina. The shy girl who
barely spoken without Jaye there to hold her hand, had drugged her
and let her nearly be attacked again. Dina didn’t know it had
happened before but it made no difference.
Why did she do
it?
tugged at her brain like it had last night but the answer
didn’t seem all that important either. It was done. Nothing
terrible had happened. It was over. And yet… who would have thought
Dina could be that vindictive.

Lainy walked up
to Katie just as she was turning her thoughts to Leo – had a human
side but was an insensitive, anti-social git mostly. “Been a few
years since I could do that.”

Katie was bent
like a hairpin, grasping her feet with her clawed hands, legs
locked straight. It wasn’t enough just to be good at running; she
had to keep as flexible as possible. Generally speaking, athletes
were decent gymnasts too. Not great enough to compete but passable.
“I’m surprised I can still do it myself to be honest.”

“Uh-huh,” she
said doubtfully. “I thought you’d be here. We should talk about
last night.” She went quiet. Katie waited, almost able to see the
cogs turning in the other girls’ head as she ran through things to
say. “A lot of things happened yesterday. I’m sorry it was all on
your night.”

“I never said I
was easy to live with. You’ve never had a lodger as problematic as
me. “ Yay! A claim to fame.

“Katie, don’t
ever think you’re a problem. You could never be that,” Lainy
scolded her with a frown. There hadn’t been a dull moment in the
house since Katie arrived it was true. “The things that went on…
they were nothing to do with you. Everything’s just…” she covered
her face with her hand for a second then pushed her short curls
back. “Everyone gets stressed this time of year and that tension
sometimes turns into aggression. Jaye,” she paused again, trying to
find the right words. Nothing seemed quite right. “She wasn’t
herself yesterday.”

“No kidding.
Ever since I met her, she’s been nothing but smiles and jokes and
then she just broke yesterday. I guess there’s only so much happy
you can be.” And, boy, didn’t Katie know that.

“When she went
out with Dina on Sunday, things were said and Dina said, you know,
she’d had enough and was thinking of leaving. It really got to Jaye
because she started feeling kind of like a failure and she started
thinking about some of the crap she’s been through –“

“Like that guy
who dumped her last year?”

Lainy frowned.
“She told you about that?”

Katie decided
to push it a bit further. “Can you tell me what I really saw
yesterday?”

“I’m not real
clear on what went on,” she said. Katie thought she was lying to
her even though Lainy sounded sincere, leaving just enough of a
pause between question and answer. They had surely discussed it
last night. “I know Leo started spouting his stuff about eternal
damnation at some point and it just pushed her over the edge.”

This was
getting them nowhere. Lainy wasn’t giving up any of the answers to
subtle questioning. Katie decided to try a different tack and, this
time, get her suspicions confirmed before she asked anything.
“Millford,” she began. It was almost funny how Katie could
practically see her friend step back and pull heavy metal shutters
down. A delicate subject then. “Jaye said we’re not allowed to go
down there. True or false?”

“It’s a
dangerous place, honey. Bad things happen there. Weird things. It’s
just not worth the risk.”

“Are we banned
from going though?”

“There’s
nothing physically stopping you.” By the horribly familiar shadow
that flickered in Lainy’s eyes, Katie got the feeling there was
much more to be said after that sentence. More that nearly fell out
of her mouth. “We just wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“And Jack?”

“I think he’d
rather die than see you hurt.” Lainy glanced at the bandage on her
arm and then out at the group of students running or jumping along
the lanes. She had a dark and distant look about her. “Although I
think it might be a bit late for that.”

Katie gave up.
“I’ve got training to do.” She ran off, lunging, stretching and
jumping along. As she started half running and half jogging and
swinging her arms, Katie risked a look back and saw Lainy staring
after her. Let her stare. The week had been way too busy. There
were too many questions that needed answers. No more riddles and
give answers that just sounded like they meant something and were
actually really vague. She wanted to run, to get ready for the race
on Saturday. It seemed to get more important with every other thing
that had happened. Rounding the second bend, Katie managed to stop
herself crashing into Lainy as she dashed towards the exit faster
than looked plausible with just a bump and a stepped on toe.

“Woah! If ever
I need a tackling dummy – what happened?” Katie breathed, seeing
the panic turning her friend’s face into a mask of lines and
shadows. “I wasn’t being mean. Running’s kinda my escape from
everything is all.”

“Come on!”
Lainy grabbed her hand tightly and towed her along. “Dina’s in
hospital.”

“What?” she
spluttered. Not that it was a huge surprise to Katie – a day going
by without an emergency was always going to be a long shot.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

“No-one’ll tell
me what’s going on.”

It had taken a
few minutes to get to the med centre with Lainy pedalling her bike
like a woman possessed and Kaie riding piggy back. She made a
mental note to try and stretch the budget to a bike of her own. The
tiny car park had a couple of cars in it, an ambulance and a row of
pushbikes chained to the railings. Wheeling the bike into a space
and locking it up would have taken a bit of time - mostly because
Lainy didn’t even own a bike lock – so she just jumped off and let
it clatter into one of the bushes, rushing through the doors and
not watching to see if Katie followed. She did. But only after a
deep breath and a cautious glance at the building before her. Katie
decided that she didn’t like hospitals one little bit.

The inside of
the hospital was quite busy. Not as busy as the big one in the city
had been but busier than she had so far seen it. All told, probably
just under a dozen people filled the small reception area; some
looking ill or injured and chatting to the people who must have
come in with them. A man got up and walked over to the drinks
machine and slotted coins in. They fell through the machines
innards and the crash as they landed seemed to cut through the
steady buzz of conversation. He pressed some buttons and hot water
hissed out of a spout. Katie found herself watching this operation
with great interest, vaguely puzzled as to why she could hear all
these quiet noises when everything around was so noisy.
You
can’t. Not really. But it’s better to pretend to hear that than
this.
This being the unforgettable, unforgiveable sound of
people in pain. A hand on her back propelled her over to a quieter
corner. Arms wrapped themselves tight around her, a warm body
pressed against her and the beads of a spirit bangle pressed into
her neck. Jaye. Instinctively, Katie hugged her friend back and
didn’t say a thing. Jack had done that the other night. Maybe not
because he knew she needed to be held like this. It had worked
regardless. She knew Jaye was craving the exact same thing – the
tight upper body muscles, the spine curved into a rigid S – even if
she couldn’t find the words.

“They won’t
tell me
anything
,” Jaye sobbed as she stepped away at last.
Her face was pulled tight and was whiter than it usually was.
“Because I’m not family.”

“They’ll tell
me.” Lainy was sure of that. Likely her former medical training
meant she could pull a few strings. “I promise you that.” She
marched through the swinging double doors, setting them swinging
and shouting, “De Rossa!” like she was calling on an old friend.
Maybe she was.

“Hey.” Katie
found some empty seats and sat down beside her friend. It was
incredibly hard to know what to say that didn’t sound like
something she herself had been hearing all summer. Telling her
everything would be fine sounded so fake and meaningless. The
trouble her family must have had trying to find the right things to
say suddenly hit home. Katie took the safe option and said nothing.
She just let Jaye curl up and lay her head in her lap like a child
with its’ mother. Only the steady trickle of people leaving the
medical centre gave any clue as to how long they sat there, Katie
stoking Jaye’s shoulders. The tension etched into her face faded
into the shadow of worry and Jaye sat up, looked around. Still no
sign of Lainy. Was that a good sign? Bad?

“I’m sorry. I’m
such a wuss.” The comment was meant as a joke but the laugh Jaye
tried turned into a choking sob. Dried tears and other gunk had
crusted at the corners of her eyes. There was a damp patch on
Katie’s tennis dress where Jaye had cried. “I should be looking
after you, not the other way round.”

“You’ve done
more than enough this week.” The couple on the seats behind them
got called through the double doors. “I reckon I’d have cracked
already if I hadn’t had a friend like you.”

“The first
weeks are always hard.”

“You have no
idea,” she said and stretched her own back out. Lainy had dragged
her off in the middle of her workout and she should do a warm down.
Well, as best as she could manage here. “I seem to just be rushing
through the events of my student years in a fortnight. Think that
means my actual education will be nice and boring?”

Jaye made a
face.

“Where are the
boys?” It felt wrong, disrespectful somehow, for one of the house
to be in hospital and not have the whole gang together.