Nowhere Boys (11 page)
A dark shadow suddenly passed across the sun and the bright day turned grey.
The boys looked up at the sky. From somewhere came the sound of a long, low howl. They looked at each other nervously.
What was that?
‘Probably just the panther come to get Andy,’ said Jake, trying to make light of it.
The slow, mournful howl came again. This time it sounded closer.
‘We should go inside,’ said Felix, putting down his chopsticks.
A breeze started moving in the trees around them as they got to their feet. The wind picked up, gathering force. It whipped around them in circles, lifting twigs and bark off the ground.
‘It’s the twister again!’ yelled Jake, as the wind circled and howled.
Andy tried to move. He put a leg out in front of him, but the wind was so strong now it forced his leg back. The others were fighting against the wind too, trying desperately to reach the shack.
There was another spine-chilling howl. Louder this time, like it was right next to them. Andy’s hair stood on end, and he turned to see a hooded figure standing motionless in the forest.
‘There!’ he yelled above the wind to the others. ‘There’s something there!’
The others turned to look, but the figure had gone.
Andy shut his eyes. He didn’t believe in ghosts. Ghosts couldn’t be proven. They weren’t scientific. They were just imagined.
He opened his eyes again and this time, the figure was closer. A black hood shielded its eyes, but Andy knew what it was. The hungry ghost. He opened his mouth and screamed.
For a second, the wind died down. The leaves and twigs fell to earth and the strange figure disappeared.
‘Get inside.
Quick!
’ yelled Felix.
They bolted for the door of the shack. As soon as they reached it, the wind picked up again. Stones and sticks flew at them.
Sam struggled with the latch. ‘It won’t open!’
Andy glanced over his shoulder, terrified.
Another howl. So loud now it seemed to shake the roof of the shack.
Felix and Jake threw themselves at the door, and the catch finally released. They raced inside and Sam slammed the door shut. The wind hammered at it, almost like it was determined to get in. Felix and Jake pulled some old planks of wood across to hold it shut, while Andy and Sam piled every heavy object in the shack up against it.
The roof of the shack creaked and wailed with the wind. The eerie howling got louder and louder.
Felix lit the gas lantern and the boys huddled together on their sleeping bags. Andy stared at the flickering light of the lantern. He tried to calm his thoughts. He didn’t believe in ghosts. He only believed in the rational. The provable. It was just a storm. That’s all it was.
The boys moved closer together, embarrassed by their fear.
‘Man, this is so messed up,’ said Sam, putting his head in his hands.
The whole shack started to shake as thunder boomed overhead.
Lightning flashed through the window, and in that second, Andy saw his utter terror reflected on the others’ faces.
‘There’s something out there,’ Felix murmured. ‘But I don’t think it’s strong enough to get in.’
‘Gee, thanks dude. That’s so comforting,’ said Jake.
They all bunched closer together, too scared to say any more.
After what seemed like hours, the howling died down, replaced by the more comforting sound of rain beating steadily down on the tin roof. One by one, the exhausted boys dropped off to sleep.
Andy lay in his sleeping bag, thinking about how much he’d wanted adventure. How he’d pleaded with his family to let him go on the excursion. He’d longed to be stuck in the wild with only his wits to protect him. What a fool.
If someone gave him the choice now between being an over-protected Singaporean kid with a belly full of food, or being stuck out here in the bush with ghosts wailing outside – well, he knew which one he’d choose.
Andy woke to the sound of birds chirping. He opened one eye. His head was lying on a soft pillow. For an instant he thought he was back in his own bed under his solar-system sheets, with his mum delivering him congee and steamed buns on a tray. But no, the pillow was actually Jake’s stomach. And it wasn’t actually that soft. Actually, it was a bit wet. Oh. That was his own dribble.
Andy sat up and looked around the shack. Sun was pouring in the window. Sam and Jake lay asleep on their camp mats, their faces drained. Felix was nowhere to be seen.
With a shiver, Andy remembered last night’s storm. He couldn’t believe he’d actually managed to fall asleep. Looking around now, it seemed like it had never happened.
Andy got to his feet and walked out into the sunshine.
Felix was standing outside, inspecting the ground, with his black book in his hand. Feathers, leaves and twigs littered the ground around the hideout. ‘This isn’t good.’
Andy tried to sound more confident than he felt. ‘It’s just from the storm, right? Things got knocked around.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Felix said gravely. ‘There’s a pattern, see? It’s like some sort of spirit has been here.’
Andy shuddered.
The hungry ghost.
He shook his head. Standing outside in the bright light of day, the idea of ghosts seemed ridiculous.
‘Well, how else do you explain the storm, the howling, the figure in the trees?’ asked Felix.
‘So you saw that too?’
‘Yeah, I saw it,’ said Felix. ‘I think something is after us.’
Andy looked around at the bark and feathers. They did seem to be arranged in a well-ordered way. He pushed his fear aside. There was bound to be a perfectly rational explanation.
‘Could it have been the panther?’ Andy tried.
Felix scoffed. ‘Oh, come on. No-one believes that.’
‘Well, it would explain stuff being moved around, and the howling.’
‘You’re living in a fantasy if you believe that.’ Felix noted something down in his black book and walked away.
Andy knew the panther story was nonsense. But nothing made sense about last night. The weird figure, the spooky storm. It was like some crazy dream.
Then something hit him. Maybe Felix was right. Maybe they
were
living in a fantasy.
He thought back to when they’d fallen down the cliff. That’s when everything had gone wrong. He remembered how he’d stood up and he wasn’t injured or even bruised. But he should have been, right?
Maybe when they fell, they were all knocked unconscious, and this
whole thing
was a dream. That was it! Occam’s razor: the simplest solution was the most obvious.
‘We have to wake ourselves up!’ said Andy suddenly.
Felix turned and stared at him like he’d completely lost it.
‘We’re still in the forest,’ said Andy.
‘Well, clearly,’ said Felix.
‘No,’ said Andy. ‘We’re still in the forest where we
fell
. We’re
unconscious
! Dying of hunger and thirst while we dream this whole thing.’
Felix shook his head. ‘Yesterday you were chasing wormholes.’
‘I know, but this makes much more sense. It’s all a fantasy, a final attempt by our neural transmitters to cling on to life.’
Felix stared at him. ‘You know, the more you talk, the less I understand.’
‘Watch this,’ said Andy, determined to make him see.
He ran hard at a tree and hit straight into it with a whack, then fell to the ground. He staggered up, holding his head. ‘Not strong enough. I need something to really shock me awake.’
‘Last night wasn’t scary enough for you?’
But Andy wasn’t listening. He had to think of something that would be powerful enough to shock his body into waking up.
Suddenly, he knew what he had to do.
He checked his watch.
The school bus went down Glenview Road at about this time every morning. If he could get to the road in time, he could run out in front of the bus and the shock would wake him up. That’s how dreams worked, right? Just at the moment the worst possible thing could happen to you, your body automatically wakes up.
He sprinted along the track, through the undergrowth and burst out of the bush. Breathless, he scrambled up the grassy rise and crossed over a few quiet suburban streets until he came to Glenview Road. He heard an engine rumble and then saw the bus, coming towards him from about a hundred metres away. Andy took a deep breath and steeled himself.
This was it. He was going home.
Then he noticed a girl in a Bremin High uniform walking to school on the other side of the road. She was wearing headphones and was close to the edge of the road, not seeing the bus coming up behind her. Was it … Felix’s friend, Ellen? She looked completely different.
He tried not to get distracted. He knew this was his chance. If he could just stick to his plan, he’d get out of this nightmare.
The bus came closer and Ellen stepped onto the road. In that split-second, Andy could see the driver had turned around to yell at some kids. The bus had swerved, and was headed straight towards her.
Without thinking, Andy hurled himself at her, pushing her off the road where they collapsed into a ditch.
The bus flew past them in a blur and travelled on, oblivious.
Andy’s heart was pumping madly, and he realised that he was lying right on top of Ellen. Her headphones had been knocked off by the impact of their fall.
She looked up at him with wide eyes, her expression a mixture of shock and awe. ‘Oh my God,’ she gasped.
Andy was stunned. He felt her warm body pressed against his. Her shampoo-fresh scent filled his nose and her breath was on his neck.
He got off her as quickly as he could. ‘Sorry.’
‘What?’ She laughed in disbelief, and sat up. ‘You – you just saved my life!’
She was beautiful.
And Andy had no idea what to do.
Felix walked away from the shack, deep in thought. First there was the twister, and now this freak storm had left stuff scattered all over the place in mysterious patterns. He climbed up a small rise, then turned to look back.
He took in a sharp breath.
With a bit of distance, the patterns formed by the twigs, bark and leaves were clearly defined. Very specific spiral formations pointed towards the shack as if it were the bullseye. Felix shuddered. That wasn’t just a storm. Whatever had come last night was targeting them, and the flimsy shack had only just protected them.
On the corrugated tin roof was a swirling pattern, kind of like a giant drill had tried to bore its way through. Whatever – or whoever – this thing was, it was hell bent on getting at them.
Felix sat down on the rise and opened his Book of Shadows.
He began to draw. His hand moved quickly, almost as if he was not controlling it. Just like the urge he’d felt when he’d drawn the strange objects hanging in the trees, he wanted to record these patterns and find out what they were. If he knew what was after them, maybe he could find out what had happened.
He filled pages with drawings. Spirals upon spirals upon spirals.
He drew until his eyes hurt. He let his hand fall to his side. What was the point? He was just going around in circles – literally. How was he ever going to find out what happened to them? It was like trying to solve his dad’s diabolical sudoku without knowing the rules. No, wait. It was worse than that. It was like trying to solve a sudoku without even having a newspaper.
He sighed and was about to shut his book when something stopped him. He stared at the spiral pattern he’d drawn over and over. There was something familiar about it. Had he seen it before?
And then it clicked: these spirals were like the ones he’d seen in the Book of Shadows that he’d found when he’d sneaked into the back section of the magic shop, Arcane Lane. God, that seemed like a lifetime ago.
And that creepy hooded figure last night – the way it had stood among the trees staring at them. It reminded him of the woman he’d seen in the trees on the day they’d gone missing. He hadn’t thought about it since, but it had been so weird, seeing the woman from Arcane Lane in the forest. What was her name? Penelope? Poppy? Phoebe? Yes, that was it. Phoebe.
What had she been doing there? Was she following him? There had to be a connection.
He shoved his own Book of Shadows in his bag. Did Arcane Lane even exist in this reality? He had to go and see if it was still there. If it was, he could get another look at that Book of Shadows. It might tell him what the spirals meant. And maybe it would give him a clue as to who or what was after them. At the very least, he owed the others that.
Felix made his way at a jog through the forest towards town. On the path, he saw Andy walking towards him, looking bewildered. ‘You woken up yet?’
Andy’s face went a weird shade of pink. ‘Actually, I think wormholes are a more likely explanation.’
‘Yeah, well, good luck with that,’ Felix said. He didn’t have time to discuss quantum physics, not that he understood it anyway. And besides, he had his own plan.