Dreams (Sarah Midnight Trilogy 1) (27 page)

“Sarah, please …”

“Harry, I’ve got to go. Do you understand? I’ve got to go.”

“We’re going to Craigmillar to find John Burton. End of.”

“I’m going to Roslin to find Angela.”

“Sarah. We have enough on our hands …”

“I can’t hold myself responsible for Angela’s death. I’ve got to see for myself.”

“Jesus, Sarah!”

“I’m going.”

“Fine. Fine.” He ran his hands through his hair, exasperated. “We need to find out where she stays. I’ll ask my friends. What’s her second name?”

“We don’t need your friends this time. I know where she is. Recently my dreams have been strange, but this one was textbook. It was a real place. Look.” Sarah handed Harry the black leather-bound book she was holding. It was her dream diary, the one that her parents had given her when she turned thirteen.

I’ve never seen anything more un-Sarah-like. It’s … sinister
, thought Harry, taking it from her.

“Angela told me they were in Roslin, somewhere called
Hillside
.” She pointed at the word on the page, written in bold black letters. “Also, I noticed something out the corner of my eye when I was up there. A farm, a whitewashed building. I think that’s where Angela lives now.”

Harry looked at her.
She has taken charge
.

“Right. Let’s go.” He wasn’t convinced. He had a bad feeling about it all. The Valaya had to be involved, one way or another.

“There’s something I need to do first,” Sarah called, disappearing up the stairs. Alone with Sarah’s dream diary, Harry started looking through it. Page after page of horrifying visions, Sarah’s childish handwriting distorted with fear and shaking hands.
She’s written most of this in the middle of the night, waking up in terror
.

He could just imagine her, feverishly writing down everything she could remember, alone in that big house. Most children worry about a monster under the bed – Sarah saw monsters every night, and they were real. Like a dark fairy tale she found herself thrown into, one where no prince would come and save her. Harry skimmed through the entries … 12 October 2008. A few days before her fourteenth birthday.

        
I know we were in the Botanic Gardens; I’ve been there before, with my school. There were two of them. They took us to the hole and covered us with soil, and we couldn’t breathe. The other girl died first, then I did …

It went on and on, four years of fear. An entry marked 14 August 2010. She’d been fifteen years old.

        
She was swimming in the pond, and I couldn’t see her properly, just her hair floating on the water. It was green. She took the man down with her and then she came out of the water. Her teeth were black. She tried to get me, but I was too far from the water, so she hid again among the reeds and waited for someone else. The man she drowned came back up, and his eyes were gone …

Harry swallowed. Not even
he
had seen such horrors, hunting on the other side of the world. He could only imagine what it must have been like for Sarah, so young, seeing all that. And then getting up to straighten anything she could get her hands on, to scrub and polish until she was exhausted. Did her parents not know? Was anyone there to help her? Did anyone
care
?

Sarah went down to the basement and stood in front of the oak table. Her mother’s diary was there. She had been through it all three times, looking for a protection spell. She couldn’t find anything but the basic one, the one she’d known since she was a child. She was so frustrated she could have screamed.
A protection spell that works, is it too much to ask? Morag most certainly taught my mum one, a proper one. She must have forgotten to include it. How do you forget something like that?
With a sigh, she started preparing a basic little pouch. She didn’t have that much faith in it working, but it was all she had. She crushed some pine needles in a mortar, some garlic and some salt. She put it all into a red leather pouch, and held it tight in her hands, her eyes closed. Then she had a thought. She took the pink quartz out of her own protection pouch, and slipped it into the one she’d made for Harry.
To keep you safe
.

“I’ll tie it around your neck. There, three knots. The way it should be.”

Harry felt her cool fingers on his skin, and closed his eyes for a split second. “Thank you.”

They got into the car and drove out of the city, towards Roslin. Sarah was looking out of the window in silence, taking in the beauty of the landscape. It was an ocean of grass and heather, open and swept by sea winds. They were leaving clear skies behind, and driving towards a gathering of grey clouds. Everything looked expectant, tense, waiting for the storm to hit.

“We shouldn’t be far. I think it’s past that hill … Let’s stop here.”

“Did we remember to bring a picnic?” joked Harry.

They parked in the middle of nowhere. They couldn’t see the village from there, or any buildings for that matter. They were less than an hour from Edinburgh, and still it looked wild, like a Hebridean island.

“This way.” Sarah led them.

They walked on for about twenty minutes, until they got to a big whitewashed building, with a brown roof and a big sign:
Hillside
.

Sarah pointed at the sign. “That’s what Angela said.”

“OK. So here we are. What do we do?” Harry asked.

It’s not me asking that question. It’s him. Harry is asking me what to do
. It was exciting, and a bit scary.

“Let’s have a look around first, then we’ll knock at the door.”

“I could go for an ice cream, could you?” asked Harry, pointing at a sign reading ‘
Homemade ice cream – organic eggs
’.

“It’s only open in the summer, Harry.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh well.”

They walked away from the farm. Sarah’s instinct led them up a tiny, rounded hill. She turned around. It was like a snap-shot from her dream.

“It happened here.” Her heart was racing. She could still see Angela’s terrified face, her screams as she was dragged underground … She took a deep breath. Harry was standing beside her, alert, ready to get his
sgian-dubh
.

“I’m here!” shouted Sarah unexpectedly, at the top of her voice. “I’m Sarah Midnight, come and get me! Come out!”

She’s getting stronger
, thought Harry.
About time, too
.

Sarah’s voice echoed through the moors. Nothing happened. And then, another voice, calling from the bottom of the hill.

“Sarah? Is that you?”

They both turned around at the same time. A girl of Sarah’s age was walking up the little mound. Her red hair was blowing over her face.

“Sarah Midnight?”

“Angela! You’re alive!”

Angela looked at her, puzzled.“Alive? Yes, of course. Are
you
OK?”

“I’m good, yes, I’m good. Your family owns that farm, then?” Sarah pointed at the whitewashed building.

“Yes, we do. It’s ours. It’s still ours, yes.”

Still?

“What are you doing up here anyway?” Angela continued.

“We are … hill walking. Yes. This is my cousin, Harry. He’s just arrived from London.”

“Come in for a cup of coffee. My mum and my sister are home. Remember Lorna?”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Lorna was Angela’s sister, two years older than them. She was blind since birth. “And you’re all fine, yes?”

“Yes, of course we’re fine, why shouldn’t we be?” Angela laughed.

Sarah and Harry exchanged a look. Harry shrugged his shoulders. They walked together down the hill, towards Hillside.

“Come in.”

“Angela, I need to talk to you. There’s something important I need to tell you,” Sarah began, wondering how on earth she was going to explain the whole thing.

“Mum, she’s arrived!” Angela interrupted her.

She’s arrived?

Something registered in Sarah’s mind. Something not right. Angela’s mum walked out into the hall. “Hello, Sarah. Remember me? Can I get you anything? A cup of tea? Ice cream?” She seemed nervous.

“Sarah,” whispered Harry.

“I know,” Sarah replied.
Something is very, very wrong
.

“Come in, come into the living room.”

“Actually, we have to go.”

“So soon? You
can’t
.” Angela was just behind them, blocking the way.

“Sarah, is that you?” Lorna had appeared on top of the stairs. Her unseeing eyes were looking straight ahead. She was holding on to the banister.

“Lorna? Yes, it’s me, Sarah Midnight.”

“Sarah, you need to go … you need to run.”

“Lorna!” Angela scolded her. “Ignore her. Come and sit down.”

“Sarah, run! Listen to me, run!”

“Lorna!” Angela ran up the stairs and pushed her sister away. They disappeared from view. Sarah could hear their urgent voices, whispering.

“We really need to go now,” intervened Harry, taking Sarah by her arm.

“I’m so sorry, but you really can’t.” Angela’s mum was nearly pleading.“We were going to lose everything. With my husband gone, and Lorna like this, we needed the money desperately.”

“She’s here,” they heard Angela saying from upstairs, and caught a glimpse of her on the landing, talking on a mobile phone.

“Who was that, Angela?” asked Harry calmly.

“Someone called Katy. They said that sooner or later Sarah would turn up here. All we had to do was get her in the house.” Angela’s eyes were wide. “They paid all our debts … I’m so sorry …”

“They’re going to kill her! How could you!” shrieked Lorna, appearing behind her.

“Katy? Katy McHarg?” pressed Harry.

Sarah swallowed.

“Yes. Katy McHarg. Of course they’re not going to kill Sarah! They just need to get the stuff back, the stuff her parents stole! And then they’ll let you go,” she added, looking at Sarah pleadingly. She was desperately trying to hold on to the lies she’d been told, but it was beginning to dawn on her that there was more.

“My parents didn’t steal anything, Angela. Katy lied to you. Lorna is right. They want to kill me.”

Angela’s mum started shaking her head. “Oh my God, what have we done? It can’t be!”

“I
saw
the thing that came with Katy … the way I see things before they happen. That horrible
thing
, it’s up on the hill! I
knew
they were lying. I knew they were dangerous, I told you!” Lorna was distraught.

“I’ve heard enough.” Harry ran to the top of the stairs, and before she could slip away, he touched Angela between her eyes. She fell down the stairs, and lay in a heap at the bottom. Lorna screamed.

“What have you done to her?” shouted Angela’s mum, crouching beside her daughter.

“She’s just asleep. And so are you,” he said, running down the stairs and touching the woman between her eyes. Angela and her mum lay one on top of the other on the stone floor.

“And be thankful I have no time to teach you a lesson,” Harry added, and Sarah shivered. She knew he meant it.

“What’s going on? What are you doing?” Lorna had come down the stairs, slowly, her eyes wide with fear.

“It’s OK, Lorna. I sent them to sleep. They’ll wake up in a few hours. Now lock yourself in, do you hear me? Don’t let anyone in. Especially Katy McHarg. We need to go.”

“It’s on the hill, Sarah, don’t go there!” they heard Lorna shouting as they were running out, her desperate voice trailing away in the distance.

“Those cows!” whispered Sarah.

“I knew it was the Valaya!”

“I had to help Angela.”

“You have to toughen up, that’s what you need to do. No more stunts like this. No more helping people who come in dreams, do you understand?”

“Let’s go.” Sarah walked on, her cheeks scarlet.
I’d do it again
.

They barely had time to take a step towards the hill before the demon answered Katy’s call. A hand came out of the heather right in front of them, then another one. Then a head.

Sarah started shaking. She flexed her hands.

“Harry …”

“I’m here. I’m here.” Harry’s
sgian-dubh
was ready.

I’ll never get used to all this. How did my parents do it for so long? How did they not lose their minds?

Sarah saw that the demon had no irises; its eyes were completely white. It was blind, like Lorna. The demon lifted itself out, faltering, then it found its balance.

“Who are you?” asked Sarah.

“What are you
doing
?” Harry was shocked. She was
talking
to that creature!

The demon was shocked too. It wasn’t expecting to be spoken to.

“Katy … Soil,” it said with a rasping voice.
It can speak!
thought Harry.
It must be something between a Feral and a Sentient … some sort of missing link
.