Hungry Moon (42 page)

^{The door gave onto a flight of bare stone steps leading up to a trapdoor, which must open onto the roof. Andrew lurched onto the bottom step and heaved the door shut tight behind him; then he huddled shivering on the cold stone and prayed that the hand couldn't find him. But whitish light crept around the edges of the door, and there came a huge fumbling at the metal bar. Screaming at last, trapped in the dark with his own muffled.echoes, Andrew scrambled up toward the roof.}

^{SIXTY SIX}

^{Diana hardly knew why she went back to the car. The sight of Moonwell seemed to render meaningless any course of action she might take. The hotel shone over the deserted shadowy streets like an icy beacon on which everything must converge, even the roads. The moon was directly overhead now, and there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to go except down. When eventually she went back to the road, it was mostly so that she wouldn't be standing on the grotesquely overgrown moor and to put some distance between herself and Nathaniel Needham's doubly blinded corpse.}

^{Nick caught her arm as they reached the car. His hand felt stiff, exaggeratedly controlled. 'Shall I drive?' he said.}

^{'Where to, Nick?'}

^{He opened his mouth, closed it again, turned awkwardly to Eustace. 'Maybe we should all take a vote.'}

^{'If you like,' Diana said, 'but it won't change anything. Whichever way we drive, we'll end up back here.' Perhaps it had to be like this: surely there had been some point to her vision other than to taunt her with the knowledge; surely there was something she could do. 'I don't want us to end up stranded on the moor, out of gas,' she said, thinking how absurd it seemed to appeal to reason now.}

^{'That makes sense,' Eustace said.}

^{Nick peered at him as if he couldn't tell whether Eustace was joking. He glanced about wildly at the transformed moor, at their footprints blackening the parody of vegetation that looked as though it had never seen the sun, at the brightness of the sky beyond the ridge, brighter even than the unnatural blazing of the moon. He seemed to resign himself, or brace himself. 'I don't know about you, Eustace, but I don't know what the devil is going on,' he said inadequately, and when Eustace shrugged and did his best to smile, 'Since you seem to have more idea than we have we've got to leave it to you, Diana. We'll stay with you wherever you decide to go, won't we, Eustace? Maybe that way we'll end up understanding all this fucking craziness.'}

^{There seemed to be nothing more to say. Diana took his face in her hands and kissed him, a lingering kiss in case it might be their last, then she touched Eustace's shoulder to stop him averting his face and kissed him too, making him blush. They climbed into the car then, and she drove over the ridge.}

^{The sign for the speed limit glared at her from the foot of the slope, thrusting the swollen head of its shadow at her. The numbers in the metal circle seemed meaningless as symbols in an unknown language. Terraces the colour of blackened tombs rose from their shadows to meet her. The unearthly moors rose over her, the banks of the road closed in. As she drove into Moonwell, die moon lowered itself toward the streets like a spider toward its prey.}

^{As soon as she was in the town, at the end of the High Street, she parked the car. The slam of her door resounded through the streets, and she gestured Nick and Eustace to close theirs carefully. She hadn't realized how silent Moonwell was. They ought to have walked down from the moor.}

^{She wished she hadn't parked quite so close to the church. A shape was blundering about inside, beyond the stained glass, the bunched heads. It must have struggled out from beneath the pews. As soon as the men were out of the car, she made herself head for the square, the pitiless deathly glare of the hotel.}

^{The streets were no more reassuring than the church. Moonlight had blinded the windows of houses and shops, and many of the terraces looked like stage sets with nothing beyond the facades. The moonlight drained everything of substance, left Diana and the men no refuge from itself. Where Diana was able to see into rooms, they looked white with dust, abandoned for years, dead as the silence that filled the town. It crept ominously behind her and the men, mocking the footfalls they couldn't quite hush. Could they be alone in Moonwell now, alone with the thing from the moon? What could it have done with the townsfolk and Mann's followers? What about the children? That thougrft drove her forward, Nick and Eustace hurrying to keep up. They had just come in sight of the hotel and the deserted glaring square when townsfolk ambushed them from both sides of the road.}

^{They came so fast that at first Diana didn't recognize their satisfied white faces. Her arms were pinned behind her when Mrs Scragg stalked in front of them. 'So that's why Godwin had us wait,' she sneered, 'so that we could deal with all the evildoers at one go.'}

^{'I shouldn't do anything you might be sorry for,' Nick warned her, gritting his teeth as the butcher jerked his arms higher behind him. 'I got to a phone, and my newspaper knows where we are. Reporters and photographers are on the way here right now.'}

^{'Don't waste your breath. We know you for the liar you are,' the butcher snarled in his ear. 'This time the police aren't here to stop me giving you what you deserve. Brought some dogs with you, did you, in case you met anyone who saw through you and could stand up to you? You'll wish you had your dogs before we've finished with you.'}

^{A cheer that had no joy in it went up from the hotel. Everyone had been hiding there, waiting for the ambush. They crowded out of the hotel and spread}

^{through the square as Mrs Scragg marched forward, as Diana and the men were forced to follow. They were nearly at the square when a woman cried out and staggered through the crowd toward them.}

^{June Bevan stumbled to a halt at the edge of the square and crouched forward awkwardly, her fingernails reaching toward them. 'Which of you killed my husband?' she said in a whisper like a thin shriek.}

^{'Mrs Bevan,' Eustace said, trying to be calm, 'I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but he killed himself.'}

^{June's eyes widened, and she flew at him. She looked crippled by hatred. 'Don't you blacken his name,' she screamed. 'He let God into his heart. He never killed himself.'}

^{Mrs Scragg intervened before June's nails could reach his face as his captor thrust him forward. 'I don't think Mr Gift would have killed your husband, whatever else he may have got up to. If you ask me, he's protecting one of these two. Godwin will get it out of them. We'll hear the culprit own up before they're much older.'}

^{'And when they do,' the butcher muttered to June, 'we'll give you a few minutes with them.'}

^{Mrs Scragg strode away from them into the square, as if she hadn't heard or didn't want to. As the crowd parted to let her through, Diana and the men were shoved forward after her, toward the hotel. The crowd wasn't cheering now, but the silence was as cruel as the cheering had been. Wherever Diana glanced she saw faces watching her, their eyes white with moonlight and the light from Mann's room. They looked pitiless as stone, eager to see her suffer. If she stumbled or made any involuntary movement, she didn't like to think what they might do. The worst of it was that she knew them all; some she'd had in her classroom, discussing their children. The way they were now, it would be suicidal for her to remind them.}

^{She glanced away, toward the hotel. The light from Mann's room was so dazzling that at first she thought the curtains were open. What might the thing beyond them look like now? What didn't it want the crowd to see? If only she could make it betray itself somehow - but she didn't know if they were even capable of seeing any longer; certainly none of them seemed to question the deathly light. She was staring at the window, trying nervously to make out what was moving beyond the curtains, when her captor jerked her to a standstill in front of the hotel, and she found herself face to face with Geraldine and Jeremy.}

^{They were held captive too. Though she could see no marks of violence on them, they looked reduced almost to nothing, no light except moonlight in their eyes. But both of them attempted to speak to Diana, until Mrs Scragg intervened. 'No talking,' she cried. 'Don't let them even look at each other. There's no telling how their kind send messages to each other.'}

^{They were dragged apart and forced to stand in a line facing the hotel. 'We'll have them kneeling to show a bit of respect,' Mrs Scragg blustered, and as the crowd rumbled in agreement, Diana and the others were hustled onto their knees. Mrs Scragg strode along the line of them as if she were in the schoolyard, and then she turned her face up to the hotel and called out shrilly. 'We've brought them to you, Godwin, all of them that were against you and keeping evil alive in Moonwell. Do you want to hear them confess?'}

^{She waited, breathing heavily, hands on hips. There was silence from the hotel. Perhaps the curtains at the shining window stirred a little, but that was all. Or was there, somewhere above the square, a faint screaming? Nobody but Diana seemed to hear it, and when she tried to raise herself to listen she was forced down on her knees, with a violence that warned her to keep silent. Mrs Scragg apparently heard nothing, even though she must be listening for a response. 'We'll pray for them,' she said grimly to the crowd, 'and sing a hymn, and then we'll hear them confess.'}

^{She led the crowd in praying that the sinners would see the errors of their ways and then, more ominously, that they would repent while there was still time. As the crowd began to sing 'Nearer My God to Thee,' Diana closed her eyes, to try to recapture her vision or at least to gain some sense of what she could do now. Delbert was presumably among the crowd and must have his suspicions, but what good was he? They were as unlikely to listen to him as they were to heed her. She tried to breathe slowly and deeply, to make herself less aware of the uncontrollable painful jerking of her cramped legs, but calm seemed to be out of reach. The dead light glared through her eyelids, the hymn shrilled a warning in her ears. No more time, it told her, make whatever peace you can before it's too late. Then suddenly it trailed off, leaving a few discordant voices exposed before they too petered out, and Diana realized that everyone in the square was gazing up at the hotel.}

^{She had to force herself to open her eyes, especially when a woman began to scream. Diana's vision had been terrible enough, and so much had happened since then that she didn't know if she could cope with whatever the evangelist might look like now. Then she heard what the woman was screaming, almost incoherently, and realized that it was June. Her eyes snapped open, and she saw where everyone was gazing: not at Mann's window, but at the roof. Straddling the peak, and clinging to it with both hands, was Andrew Bevan.}

^{The roof was dismayingly steep. In the moonlight the slates looked like ice. Andrew was perched above the gap between two dormer windows; if he let go, there would be nothing but the gutter to break his fall. He looked small and precariously clumsy and terrified out of his wits. Whatever you do, Diana willed everyone in the crowd as she tried vainly to struggle to her feet, don't do anything to make him lose his balance - and then}

^{June ran forward, screaming his name, dodging backward as she lost sight of him. 'God help us, not you too,' she screamed.}

^{As she passed beyond his field of vision, Andrew leaned out desperately, searching for her. His foot skidded, and the slate it slipped onto came loose, skittered down the roof, and bounced off the gutter. People screamed as he flailed his arms to try to keep himself upright on the peak, and then he grabbed the ridge again, dragged himself up. 'Mummy?' he wailed. 'The demon's after me, the demon from the cave.'}

^{Diana couldn't contain herself any longer. 'Andrew, it's Miss Kramer,' she called as loudly and clearly as she could. 'Hold on, don't let go. We'll get you down and then you can tell us all about it. Just think about holding on now. Look at your hands. Don't look down.'}

^{Above all, she thought, don't think about what drove you up there. She could hardly bear to imagine the confrontation between the boy and the thing in the hotel. She gasped, because her captor had forced her lower as June grimaced at her, her face distorted with hatred beyond words.}

^{June stumbled backward when she saw Diana was subdued, and pointed a wavering finger at Andrew. 'Just you stay there now you've got yourself up there,' she wailed. 'Don't you dare move. Someone's coming with a ladder to get you and bring you down to me, and then we'll see what you have to say for yourself, as if I haven't enough to bear already, God help me.' Her voice was dropping as she turned to peer wildly about the square. 'Who's getting the ladder? What's taking them so long? Sweet Jesus, what's he doing now?'}

^{She meant Andrew. The gasps and suppressed cries of the crowd had drawn her gaze back to the roof. Andrew was clambering over the steep ridge, staring down at the opening through which he must have scrambled onto the roof. The opening was out of sight on the far side, but the dreadf ulness of whatever was emerging was all too clear.}

^{The hands that were gripping Diana's arms slackened, and she heaved herself painfully to her feet. Before she could call out to him or even knew what she could say, Andrew shrank back from whatever he could see on the far side of the roof. He thrust out both hands to keep it off and tried to run along the slates. One step and he missed his footing, fell on the slates so heavily that they splintered, and then he came rolling down the steep roof.}

^{Diana thought the gutter could save him. 'Catch hold,' she cried, and hobbled forward to be beneath him in case he fell. Then she was aware of several things simultaneously: her legs were too stiff for her to be able to get there in time; the other captives were being held more roughly in case they tried to free themselves as she had; Andrew's grab had missed the gutter, and the small body was falling down the facade of the hotel. 'Catch him,' she cried, but the dozens of people who were nearer the hotel than she was seemed paralyzed. All they did as Andrew's body struck the pavement with a soft yet final thud was flinch.}