The 13th Horseman (9 page)

H
E CASTS HIS
wretched gaze across the sands that stretch into infinity on all sides of him. The whirlpools of his eyes tilt down, down, before finally coming to rest on a rectangular indent on the desert floor. Somewhere, far off to his left, a purely vocal arrangement of Queen’s
Another One Bites the Dust
drifts across the plains.

He turns, once more, and slips through the barrier between that dimension and the next.

Again.

W
HEN THE BELL
rang for morning break, they both knew what they had to do.

Drake had practised the route in his head all morning so he wouldn’t waste time finding his way. Even so, Mel made it to Dr Black’s room before he did. She was standing by the door, keeping guard, when Drake finally came clattering along the corridor.

“He’s out on patrol,” Mel told him. “He does it every break and lunchtime, just strides around scowling at everyone. We’ve got fifteen minutes.”

“That should be enough,” Drake said. He grasped the door handle, then paused, feeling his heart pick up the pace. The last time he had opened this door he had almost been killed. But Mel was already nudging him, and his hand was already turning the handle.

The door creaked open, revealing a room devoid of any mechanical monsters. Drake let out a shaky breath as Mel brushed past him into the classroom.

“So, what are we looking for, exactly?” she asked, as she slid open a drawer on the teacher’s desk.

Drake didn’t quite know what to say to that. There had been no need to explain anything to Mel when he asked her to help him sneak into Dr Black’s room. She had agreed without asking any questions, and had seemed genuinely excited by the idea. Now, though, even she was starting to look a little apprehensive.

“I don’t know,” Drake admitted. “But three dead bodies, maybe.”

Mel stopped. She slid the drawer closed. “Doubt they’ll be in there, then.”

“That’s the door they went in,” Drake said. Mel followed his gaze.

“That’s just a cupboard,” she said. “Why would he put them in a cupboard?”

“Not for anything good,” Drake guessed.

Mel crept past him until she reached the cupboard door. She looked round the edges, where the door met the frame, as if checking for booby traps. Finally, she placed her hand on the handle.

“Ready?” she asked.

Drake swallowed. He felt more nervous at that moment than he had in the cave back in Limbo. “Ready.”

“Here goes,” Mel said. She held her breath as she pushed down the handle. The door didn’t open. “Well, that’s disappointing,” she sighed, letting the breath out. She crouched down and studied the keyhole directly below the handle, then put one eye to it. There was only darkness on the other side. “What do we do now?”

Drake joined her at the door. He pressed his ear to the wood, and rapped on it three times. “Hello?” he said.

“Hello,” came a reply, but it hadn’t come from inside the cupboard. “Can I help you,
children
?” asked Dr Black. He spat the last word out, as if it left a sour taste in his mouth.

“Hi, Dr Black,” said Mel, smiling innocently. Her lips were moving before Drake’s brain had even realised the need for an excuse. “Drake and I were having an argument about the Second World War. I say D-Day came before V-Day, but he says V-Day came first. I know, he’s an idiot, right? Anyway, we thought, who better to help settle—”

“Silence,” Dr Black said.

“To help settle the argument than Dr Black, the most informed history teacher in the whole—”

Dr Black’s voice made the windows rattle in their frames. “I said
be quiet
!”

Mel stopped talking. The teacher glared at her for several seconds, the air whistling in and out of his hooked nose as he breathed. When he was certain she wasn’t about to start babbling again, he turned his gaze on the boy beside her.

“What are you doing in my room?” he asked. His voice was low and controlled, but menacing enough that anyone hearing it would be in no doubt that it could become very loud again, very quickly.

“We were just looking around,” Drake said. From the corner of his eye, he saw Mel wince. But he wasn’t trying to make excuses. He wanted the truth. Drake drew himself up to his full height. “We were looking for the kids who went missing. I saw them go into your cupboard.”

Dr Black’s expression did not change. “Did you, indeed?”

“And you were there,” Drake continued. “I saw you,” he said, although he realised that this wasn’t strictly true.

“And so you suspect I had something to do with their disappearance,” Dr Black said. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “And who else have you spoken to about this?”

“No one,” Drake said. A nagging doubt told him this was the wrong thing to say. The feeling was confirmed when a relieved smile spread across Dr Black’s face.

“Lucky for me, then. I dread to think what such wild accusations could do to my reputation, were they to spread to the populace at large.”

He looked from Drake to Mel and back again, as if deciding what to do with them. At last, he turned and strode across to the window. “With me, Mr Finn.”

Drake hesitated. The classroom door was open. They could make a break for it while the teacher’s back was turned. But then what? They’d know nothing more than they knew already, and then they’d always be running from Dr Black.

He walked over to the window, with Mel following along behind him.

“What do you see out there, Mr Finn?” Dr Black asked.

Drake looked through the grubby glass. The classroom was one storey up, giving it a reasonably good view of the rectangle of concrete that made up the bulk of the school grounds.

“Kids,” Drake said, looking down at the heads of the children roaming below. “Just kids.”

“Look closer.” Dr Black tapped a bony finger against the glass. It sounded like he was hitting it with a stone. “Down there.”

Drake looked in the direction the teacher had indicated.

“Ah,” said Mel. “That’s cleared that up, then.”

Three familiar figures leaned against a wall. They were much shorter than the kids around them, but the others were giving them a wide berth, all the same.

“They turned up this morning,” Dr Black explained. “They had decided to run away, it seems, but quickly changed their minds. Nevertheless, as you can see, Mr Finn, they are very much
not
in my cupboard.”

“Right, neither they are,” Mel said. She caught Drake by the arm and began pulling him towards the door. “Sorry for the mix-up, glad you’re not a child-killer, Dr Black. Keep it up.”

“Wait.” Dr Black raised a hand. “Mr Finn, I would very much like to talk to you.” He glared at Mel. “In private.”

Mel hesitated. She was going to argue, Drake knew. That would do neither of them any good. “It’s fine,” he told her, forcing a smile. “I’ll catch up with you.”

Reluctantly, Mel made for the door. “I’ll see you in a bit,” she said, and then she was gone.

Drake turned back to the window, but Dr Black was no longer there. He was sitting at his desk, his fingers loosely clasped in front of him. He indicated with a nod of his head that Drake should sit at one of the desks in the front row.

“I called for you to come to my classroom yesterday,” the teacher began, once Drake was sitting down. “But you did not. Why?”

“I had a doctor’s appointment.”

The teacher’s eyebrows arched. “Nothing serious, I trust?”

“Just a check-up.”

“Ah. Very good. One can never be too careful when it comes to the subject of one’s health. After all, one only lives once.”

Drake remained silent.

“What would it be like, do you think?
Death.
What would death be like?”

“I don’t know,” Drake said. He hadn’t missed the way Dr Black had emphasised the word. “Don’t really plan finding out for a while.”

“Ah, but the best laid plans...” Dr Black said, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging. He began to drum his chicken-bone fingers slowly on the desktop. “The best laid plans.”

The teacher stopped drumming his fingers and stared so intently that Drake feared he was looking right inside his head.

“You’ve taken life, though, haven’t you?”

Drake was taken aback. “No,” he said.

“Oh? Then perhaps your notes are mistaken. Frogs, I think they said. Didn’t you burn a number of frogs to death? Wasn’t that why they expelled you?”

“That was an accident!”

“A fact I’m sure the frogs were very grateful for,” Dr Black continued. “As they were roasted alive.”

“Look, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” Drake asked, a little more aggressively than he had intended.

Dr Black rose slowly to his feet. “We are very alike, you and I,” he said, advancing towards Drake’s desk. “More alike, I think, than you realise.”

“Uh, hi, Dr Black?”

Drake and the teacher both turned to find Mr Franks at the door. He was leaning into the room, a hand on each side of the doorframe. Dr Black’s gums drew back into something like a snarl.

“Yes?” Dr Black said, his voice clipped. “What do you want?”

“I really need a word with Drake,” Mr Franks said. “Mind if I steal him away?”

“I do indeed mind, Mr Franks. Mr Finn and I were in the middle of a conversation.”

“Fine, sorry, of course. Please, carry on. I’ll just wait here until you’re done.”

Dr Black’s left eye twitched. He fixed Mr Franks with a fierce glare. When it was clear the younger teacher wasn’t going to shy away, though, Dr Black turned back to Drake.

“We shall continue this another time,” he glowered. “But if I catch you trespassing in my classroom again, Mr Finn, there will be grave consequences.
Grave
consequences. Is that understood?”

Drake gave a brief nod as his reply. He got to his feet, pushed the chair back in under the desk and walked, as calmly as he could, over to Mr Franks.

“Thanks, Dr Black,” Mr Franks said. He stepped aside to let Drake out. “It’s really important that I talk to him.”

Dr Black waved a dismissive hand. “I will catch up with him again soon,” he said, then he turned to the window and cast his hawk-like gaze over the school grounds below.

“I don’t believe I just did that,” Mr Franks muttered, as he led Drake along the corridor, away from Dr Black’s room.

“Um... did what? What did you want to see me for?”

“That’s just it.
Nothing
,” Mr Franks said. He glanced back along the corridor and wrung his hands together nervously. “I met your friend, Mel, and she told me Dr Black was giving you trouble for something you hadn’t done, and that it wasn’t fair, and... well, she convinced me to come and bail you out.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she talked me into it.”

“She can be pretty persuasive.”

Mr Franks shook his head again. His expression was still anxious, but there was a smile in there somewhere now too.

They pushed through a set of swing doors and carried on along another corridor. The further away from Dr Black’s room they got, the more Drake began to relax.

“So, what did he want to see you about?” Mr Franks asked.

“Oh, you know. This and that.”

“This and that,” Mr Franks said. “Right. And was
this
or
that
anything to do with you cutting school yesterday? You didn’t make it back to my class.”

“What? Oh, no, that. I, uh, I remembered I had a doctor’s appointment, that was all.”

Mr Franks stopped. “Look, Drake, I don’t say this often, and don’t take offence, but cut the crap, OK?”

Drake blinked. “Um... what?”

“You didn’t have a doctor’s appointment. You cut school.” He held up his hands diplomatically. “Look, you’re a good kid, I can see that, and I’m sure you wouldn’t duck out of school without a very good reason. You had a good reason, right?”

“Yeah,” Drake said. “I did.”

“Fine, right, I knew you would, but listen, Drake, don’t do it again, OK? We had three kids missing yesterday, and then the accident in the car park, and then you do a runner too. It could’ve turned into a very difficult situation for everyone. I’m not coming on all
strict teacher
or anything, I’m just saying. You need to think about the consequences of your actions.”

“Sorry,” Drake mumbled. And he meant it.

“Apology accepted,” the teacher said. “But, you know, if you have problems at home or whatever, or you want to talk about... anything at all, come see me, OK?” He gave Drake a firm pat on the shoulder. “We new kids have got to stick together.”