Nowhere Boys (29 page)
‘How are we supposed to find them?’ asked Sam.
Jake hesitated. Good question. They could be anywhere.
‘We need a car,’ said Sam. ‘Then we can look fast.’
The boys looked at each other. There was only one place to go. Phoebe’s.
They raced up the steps towards Arcane Lane. Phoebe was out the front, collapsed against the shop window. Mia and Ellen were crouched next to her.
‘Mia,’ said Sam. ‘What’re you doing here?’
‘We were walking past on our way to school and we found her like this.’
Phoebe put one hand on the wall and one on Ellen’s shoulder as she gradually pulled herself to her feet.
Andy dashed around her and into the shop.
‘Where’s Felix?’ Phoebe asked in a faint voice.
‘What happened to you?’ asked Jake.
Phoebe was deathly pale and she was struggling to hold herself upright. ‘The demon was after Felix. I tried to hold it back but it overpowered me.’
Mia’s eyes widened. ‘The demon?’
‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ muttered Phoebe. ‘This from the girl who was possessed.’
‘What’s she talking about?’ Mia asked Sam.
Sam looked uncomfortable. ‘Er, it’s a long story.’
‘Let’s go,’ said Phoebe. ‘We have to find Felix before Bates does.’
‘Did you say Bates?’ asked Ellen.
‘Yes. The demon has possessed Bates,’ explained Phoebe, as if that was the most natural thing in the world.
‘Um, I don’t know what’s going on,’ said Mia slowly. ‘But we saw Mr Bates running just now, and Felix and Ellen’s neighbour were running ahead of him.
‘He was chasing them, you fool. Demons don’t go jogging,’ snapped Phoebe.
‘You don’t have to be rude,’ said Sam, looking at Mia’s hurt face.
‘It’s okay,’ said Jake. ‘My dad’s after Bates. A call came through to the station.’
Phoebe let go of the wall. The colour was coming back to her face. ‘The police don’t stand a chance. The demon is becoming more and more powerful. We need to find them so Felix can reactivate the talisman.’
Andy burst out of the shop, Felix’s phone in his hand.
Ellen held up her hand. ‘Can we just back up a second? Our science teacher is a demon and he’s chasing Felix and my freaky next-door neighbour. Sorry, but WTF?’
‘Tell us what’s going on,’ said Mia.
‘Er, there’s not a lot of time,’ said Sam.
Andy pulled Sam aside. ‘We might not get another chance to tell them.’
Sam nodded. ‘Okay, I guess it’s time to ’fess up.’ They turned back to the girls. ‘So, it all started with this excursion into the forest …’
‘Jake,’ said a voice.
Jake turned to see his mum standing at the top of the stairs, smiling at him. He moved away from the others. ‘Hey.’
‘Gary told me you were staying here with your aunty.’
‘Yeah. Well, for the time being.’ He looked down, and noticed something glistening in his mum’s hands. The glass dolphin was twisting and turning between her fingers.
‘When I was in the hospital, someone put this next to my bed.’
Jake looked at her.
‘It was you, wasn’t it?
Jake nodded.
‘How did you know I love dolphins?’
‘Lucky guess.’
‘You know an awful lot about me,’ she said softly. She looked at him carefully. ‘Who are you, Jake?’
Jake opened his mouth to lie. But then it hit him: what did it matter? Either the demon was going to kill them all, or they were going home. Whatever happened, he didn’t need to pretend anymore.
‘This sounds crazy, but …’ he took a deep breath. ‘Imagine a world where you and Gary had that baby.’
‘How did you know about that?’ she gasped.
Jake struggled to find the right words. ‘It’s just … if that baby had been a boy, imagine what he’d be like now.’
Her breath caught in her throat. ‘He’d be a fifteen-year-old boy. Just like you.’
Jake held her gaze and nodded slowly.
Emotion flooded his mum’s face. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Come on, you lot,’ Phoebe yelled across the car park. ‘We’ve got a demon to find.’
Jake gestured towards the kombi. ‘I’ve got to …’
His mum brushed a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘Of course. You go and do what you need to do. I just wanted to say thank you.’ She smiled sadly as she reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘See you, Jakey.’
Jake smiled. ‘See you, Mum.’
Jake ran across the car park to the kombi. Phoebe was behind the wheel and Sam was in the front seat with the window down so he could talk to Mia. Jake slid the door open and jumped in the back seat.
Andy was still standing with Ellen. She clasped a ruby necklace around his neck. ‘To give to the other Ellen when you see her.’ She leant forward and kissed him on the lips.
Andy’s face flushed a deeper red than the necklace.
‘Most boys are such morons,’ said Ellen. ‘And when I finally fall for one, he turns out to be from another dimension. Typical!’
‘Come on, lover boy, this demon isn’t going to fight itself,’ yelled Phoebe.
Andy jumped into the back next to Jake.
Sam had reached out and was grasping Mia’s hand. ‘When I get home, I’m going to be the most awesome boyfriend to you.’
She wrinkled her brow. ‘Except it won’t be me. You and me have never even had a date.’
Phoebe started to reverse and Sam was forced to let go of Mia’s hand.
‘Goodbye, parallel-universe boyfriend,’ called Mia.
Jake looked out the window of Phoebe’s kombi as the streets of Bremin sped by. There was no sign of Felix or Oscar anywhere.
‘Where exactly are we going?’ asked Sam.
‘Demons are creatures of habit,’ said Phoebe grimly. ‘If it’s got Felix and Oscar, it will take them to the forest. The site where its power will be strongest.’
Jake looked over at Andy. He’d pulled Felix’s phone out of his pocket and was searching through his recordings.
This is it, thought Jake. We’re going to go home. Or die trying.
Felix lay perfectly still in the back of the SUV. His arms had been belted to his sides so he couldn’t move even if he wanted to. Through the scratchy hessian bag that had been put over his head, he could just make out Bates and Oscar in the front seats. Bates had put on a CD and he and Oscar were banging their heads in time to the doof-doof music. Great, thought Felix, demons with crap taste in music.
He felt the smooth glide of the bitumen road give way with a jolt to a dirt road. So, they were taking him to the forest. He should have guessed that. If they got him as far away as possible from the others, they could do what they wanted with him. And whatever that was, he was pretty sure it would be bloody, and possibly fatal.
He manoeuvred the hessian bag towards his mouth and started to chew on it. If he made a hole, maybe he could somehow open the back door with his teeth and roll out. Anything was better than death by demonic sacrifice.
He stopped with the hessian between his teeth, thinking he’d heard something in the distance. It sounded like a police siren. He listened carefully. The music was still blasting but, yes – it
was
a police siren, and it was getting louder. Maybe it was Jake’s dad coming with the others to rescue him? He started to chew on the bag again. If he made a hole he could at least see what was going on.
He felt the car speed up. Damn. Bates was going to try and outrun the police.
The siren got louder. It was coming fast.
Felix yanked hard at the hessian with his front teeth and heard it rip. Yes, he’d done it! He’d made a hole.
He moved the sack with his head, so his eye was placed right over the hole. He had a clear view of Bates now. He’d stopped banging his head to the music and was focused intently on the road. Felix caught a glimpse of the speedometer: 160 kilometres per hour. Man, the cops were never going to catch him.
In the distance, he could hear a voice yelling through a megaphone, calling for Bates to pull over.
In response the speedometer climbed to 170 kilometres per hour. Felix was thrown around in the back as the SUV bumped crazily along the dirt road.
He wriggled around until he could put his eye to the hole again. This time he could see Oscar. He was staring ahead with a spaced-out demonic grin on his face.
Felix listened. He couldn’t hear the siren or the megaphone anymore. He felt a wave of despair. No-one was going to rescue him. It was all over.
Bates suddenly slammed on the brakes, sending Felix up into the air for a moment, before he crashed back on the car floor with an thump. The car stopped.
Felix heard the sound of the megaphone again. This time it was close. Really close.
‘Step out of the vehicle with your hands in the air.’
Felix felt a surge of relief. It
was
Jake’s dad. He must have driven down the fire track and come up in front of them.
‘Sergeant Riles!’ Felix called out at the top of his voice. ‘It’s me. Felix. Help!’ He wriggled as hard as he could, kicking his legs in the air. ‘Help me!’
A fist reached back and thumped him hard in the chest. He felt his chest constrict, winded.
As he struggled for breath, he heard the whine of the window going down and Sergeant Riles asking Bates why he hadn’t stopped when ordered to.
‘We didn’t feel like it,’ chorused Bates and Oscar.
‘All right. Out of the car. Now,’ commanded Jake’s dad.
Felix struggled to sit up. ‘Help me!’ he called out weakly.
Oscar’s fist flew back and whacked him again, but Felix was ready for it and kicked him off.
‘HELP!’ he yelped as loud as he could.
‘What’s that?’ said Sergeant Riles.
‘Just a bag of flesh,’ Felix heard Bates say.
The back door was flung open and a pair of hands pulled Felix out of the car onto the road. The belt was unbuckled and Felix felt the sack being pulled over his head.
Jake’s dad stared down at him in astonishment. ‘What on earth?’ He turned to Bates. ‘I’ll have you on kidnapping charges, Brian.’
Bates’s head twitched towards Jake’s dad, and he smiled.
Sergeant Riles seemed transfixed for a moment.
From the ground, Felix watched in horror as the sergeant’s head jerked convulsively and then his whole body shuddered like it was receiving an electric shock. When Sergeant Riles turned back to Felix, his eyes gleamed a dull red.
Oh God, no. Felix jumped to his feet. He staggered away as Sergeant Riles advanced on him.
Bates and Oscar stepped out of the car, slamming their doors in unison.
All three moved towards him. Their movements were slow, but there was no doubt about their intention.
‘Destroy him,’ they rasped demonically.
Felix sprinted off the road, straight into the bush. Disorient them. He knew that much. He bashed through the scrub. He had no idea where he was going. The talisman was useless, so his only hope was to get as far away as possible.
Once he was a fair way from the road, he stopped for breath. He listened carefully. He couldn’t hear them coming. Okay, that was good.
He leant against a tree, waiting for his breathing to settle. A hand clamped onto his shoulder. Felix felt his blood turn cold. A deep voice was in his ear. ‘Can’t I get a moment’s peace in this forest?’
He turned. ‘Roland?’
Roland grinned at him. ‘There’ll be no animals left out here to hunt with all the noise you boys make.’
Felix turned to him urgently. ‘Listen, Roland. There’s a demon after me. Actually, three of them. And I need your help.’
Roland put his hand up. ‘Steady on. A demon?’
The words gushed out of Felix. ‘Look, I did a spell to make my brother walk again and I used my friends to do it, and we all ended up here where we don’t exist, and now the restoring demon wants me dead.’
‘Right.’ Roland considered this for a moment. ‘Well, fair enough. I’ve heard stranger stories than that at the Bremin pub.’ He put his face close to Felix’s. ‘How can I help?’
‘You need to find the others. Bring them here so we can defeat the restoring demon.’
Roland wrinkled his brow. ‘Sounds like the others might be just as upset with you as this demon is.’
Felix looked at him, taken aback. ‘What?’
‘Well, you used them for your own ends. What did they get out of it?’
Felix slumped back against the tree. Roland was right. Why would the others help him? They hated him. He’d ruined their lives. Maybe it was better if he just let the demon get him. Get it over with.
He moved away from the tree and put both his arms out wide. ‘Here I am,’ he yelled at the top of his voice. ‘Come and get me.’
Roland clamped his hand across Felix’s mouth. ‘Are you completely insane?’
Felix pushed him away. ‘I deserve to die, don’t I? You said it. Everything that’s happened is because of me. Oscar falling. This. Maybe if the demon gets me, everything will go back to normal.’
Roland shook his head. ‘Enough with the theatrics, kid. What you
owe
your friends is to get them home. Do you know how to do that?’
Felix looked at him. He did know that. At least, he thought he did. He nodded.
‘Good. Then I’ll go find them.’
‘No you won’t.’
Felix and Roland turned sharply.