A Death Displaced (24 page)

‘Okay, we need to find him, and try come to an agreement where we can all leave unharmed.’

‘
Pffft!
’ Tommy huffed.

Nick glared at him.

There was a crunch sound. Like a twig snapping.

They all looked in the direction of the noise, their stances changing to alert. One side of Juliet’s body ached, burning hot from where the explosion had thrown her to the ground. She tilted her head, trying to see through the trees.

Aldrich stepped out from behind a trunk.

Darkness.

‘
Juliet! Juliet!
’ Tom rasped from underneath her, an awful fear in his eyes.

She rolled off of him. Her arms were tense, and her body itched with adrenaline. ‘What happened?’ Flicking her eyes about, she couldn’t see Nick or Tommy.

‘You attacked me.’

‘What?’ She stood up and put her hands out in front of her, seeing them as if they weren’t her own. Tom and her were still in the same area where they’d put Aldrich against the bare and crooked tree.

‘Don’t worry; I know it wasn’t you.’

I could have hurt him, maybe killed him … or he might have been forced to hurt me.
‘Where’re Nick and Tommy?’ she asked. ‘I need to get away from all of you before he takes control of me again.’

Tom rubbed leaves and dirt off himself as he rose. ‘They both ran after him. That way, I think.’ He pointed.

She looked in that direction, and then turned to face the opposite. ‘I’m going this way then.’

‘No, wait!’ Tom sounded concerned. ‘It’ll be fine. You’ve got control again now.’

‘But if he comes back, I won’t have. I don’t want to black out and then wake up to find one of you dead.’

Without waiting for a response, she ran. The pain from the explosion soon slowed her, and her wedge boots strained her ankles. But she kept moving. She ran and ran, even as the fabric of her shoes cut into her.

Darker. Steadily, the woods were turning sepia.

When she stopped, she scanned the area. Just trees, leaves, and mud. Everywhere she looked she was completely alone, or at least she hoped. Wanting to be less visible, she ducked and hid behind a bush. The damp smell of foliage was stronger this low down.

She took slow breaths.

Waited.

And waited.

Her mind drifted to the portal.
My soul … I can’t get it back. I’m going to see spirits until the day I die.
The self-pity drew attention to itself, and she shook her head.
Stupid, don’t be stupid. I said I’d make the best out of this situation that I can.

If I survive it …
Then she was back to the present moment.
What have I done?

It was like a slap in the face, realising how rash she’d acted. Now Tom was alone in the woods too. She’d ran away to protect him and the others from her. But as she crouched, hidden like a coward, she worried if she’d put them in more danger.  

What if this was his plan? To scatter us? And pick us off, one by one.

Rustling and scrapes came nearby.

Her senses piqued.

‘Who’s there?’ she demanded.

Odd, the way the mind could process so many thoughts at once, when under panic.
Who’s there? Am I lost? What if he has a weapon? What if everyone else is dead? How will I know if it’s safe to look for them? What if I die today? What if he finds me out here?

 All alone.

But the shiver in the air told her it wasn’t Aldrich who was close by. It was a spirit.

Juliet got up and walked towards the disturbance. Lost, she looked around and had no idea what direction would lead her where. The wind howled ahead, where the flickering figure was, where Juliet was approaching.

Roaring and rumbling and crashing. The sounds grew. The sea.

When Juliet made it to the cliff edge, Samantha Crystan was waiting for her. This time she had red punctures all over. Clothes torn and drenched in blood, she held a hand out towards Juliet, and then curled her index finger inwards: a ‘follow me’ gesture.

Trying not to see the gaping wounds, Juliet approached the spirit.

They stood together at the edge, and Samantha gazed out at the Celtic Sea.
What is she doing? I can’t just stand here while everyone else is in danger.

She didn’t know what it all meant, but Samantha must have had knowledge of what was happening. Earlier, she’d appeared to save her sons; surely she wouldn’t waste time now if they were in imminent danger. So Juliet put her eyes to the view, and felt the breeze on her face. A respite.

After a moment of unknowable length, Samantha turned away and glided into the woods. She twisted back and gave the ‘follow me’ gesture again.

She’ll help me. She’ll show me the way back.

As her feet ruffled across the autumn-covered ground, Juliet worried about Nick. The idea of him in danger struck something in her stomach.

She had to save him.

Chapter 19

‘Aldrich?’ he yelled. He’d been running a while, struggling through the branches, the leaves, the mud, and the rot.

Tommy had split off and was nowhere to be seen. They’d chased Aldrich together at first, but then Tommy had stopped in his tracks. He’d groaned and moaned, and had started moving in a different direction.

‘He’s tryin’ to get in my head,’ he’d forced out through clenched teeth. Then unexpectedly, he’d taken off and away from Nick, and charged deeper into the woods. Nick had glimpsed something in his brother’s hand, but wasn’t sure what. Before Tommy had gone out of sight, Nick heard him shout, ‘I’ll
fuckin’
kill him when I find him!’

Then a laugh had spooked him, a strange, ululating noise. He’d followed it, sprinting until he ended up here. In a part of the woods that looked the same as the rest.

‘Aldrich?’ he shouted again.

‘What have you
done
? Yes. You!
What have you done?
’ Aldrich’s voice;
Where is it coming from?

Nick turned in circles, trying to force his ears to home in. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘You’ve
rotted,
yes,
rotted,
Moloch’s sacred forest.’

Peering from tree to tree, Nick threw up his arms suddenly. ‘Moloch. Isn’t.
Real!
’

It was like an argument in his head; he couldn’t locate Aldrich with his eyes, and the voice seemed to float from here to there. ‘You know
nothing
about my master.’

It’s getting darker
. Nick took in his surroundings, frightened that when all turned pitch black he’d have to rely on his memory to navigate the woods.

‘Aldrich,’ it came out fed up, ‘I don’t care about Moloch. I just want us to come to an agreement. I don’t want anybody to get hurt.’

‘Hmmm … an agreement,’ Aldrich said theatrically, as if to mock him. ‘Then I want one of your friends as a sacrifice. The blonde, one of the twins,
whoever!
’

‘Sacrifice?’ The word tasted like bile in his mouth. ‘I thought you only sacrificed children to your god.’

‘It’s for
me!
For what you’ve done to me.
I
want to kill someone.’ He laughed manically and it helped Nick move closer to the source. ‘Or maybe I fancy a slave.
Ha!
A slave. Yes.’

‘You’re not taking any of them,’ shouted Nick. Imagining the twisted ways Aldrich would use a slave made him cringe.  

‘Then I’ll take
you
.’ Aldrich lunged out from behind a tree. His hands scratched past Nick’s top, as Nick dodged and tripped on a branch. Whether he’d freed himself or one of the twins had, Aldrich’s wrists were no longer tied.

‘Woah,’ exclaimed Nick, ‘let’s talk.’

‘
No
.’ Aldrich turned, but his movements were slow. He looked both ridiculous and disturbing in his stained tweed jacket, clumsily throwing his fists in rage.

Blocking the blows with his forearms, Nick pleaded, ‘We can figure something out.’ The words came intermittently.

‘Your
death!
’ Aldrich lifted a fist high and thumped down. It thudded Nick’s shoulder. Losing his temper, Nick kicked the child-murderer in the stomach, throwing him backwards.
I didn’t think I could kick like that,
he marvelled, knowing how inflexible he was, and feeling
all
of his bruises flare.

After a laboured wheeze, Aldrich held out a hand and cried, ‘
Yes
. Okay.
Fine!
I’ll talk … we’ll talk.’ He put both arms up in surrender.

Breath swam out of Nick in absolute relief. ‘Good.’ He relaxed his stance. He figured Aldrich wasn’t used to physically attacking anyone. Fighting wouldn’t have been necessary, not when he could force the opponent to kill themself.

For the first time since he’d chased Aldrich into the woods, he got a good look at the murderer’s face. One half of it, and the forehead, had ballooned, swelling to an unnatural size and forcing one eye closed. His skin was purple, red, green, and yellow, and covered in blood and spit and mud and sweat.

Aldrich stepped closer, openly, in a non-aggressive manner.

‘So will you let us leave, unharmed?’ As the question left his lips, he seriously considered if there was any possible way they could come to an agreement.
How can I not report this man? What if I don’t and then more children go missing?

‘Of course.’ Aldrich smiled. By the time Nick saw the evil glint in his one open eye, it was too late.

Forced to the ground, Nick fumbled to protect his throat. Aldrich pinned him down by the neck, squeezing, laughing erratically. ‘I’ve seen more than you could imagine.
Yes
. And I have killed hundreds,
thousands
of people!
Ha!
And so what I can’t control you? You are just one measly person in my long
long
life. Just
one
, like your mother; and like your mother, you’ll die too.’

Nick brought up his elbows and pushed his fingers between Aldrich’s hands and his neck, like he had when Juliet strangled him. He tried desperately to think of a way to weaken Aldrich.

A weak, snivelling man was what Nick had seen in the murderer earlier, when he’d been tied up and defenceless.

Nick needed to force that man out.

His body was pressed down under his attacker’s, and unable to move. As he struggled, he felt something firm pressing against him, something growing. Aldrich would enjoy killing him more than he’d realised.

It made him sick.

His fingers levered enough room for him to speak. ‘We found
the portal
…’ his voice pushed through. Harsh coughs accompanied it.

‘Moloch’s Sacrifice Well … His Sacrifice
Pit!
’ Aldrich corrected, with a level of reverence. But already Nick sensed his assailant’s doubt.

This will weaken him
. ‘It wasn’t Moloch’s.’ He laughed with derision. ‘It spoke to us and told us it was a gate to the Otherworld.’

‘The Otherworld?’ Aldrich’s lips mouthed, blood smeared over them. The uninjured side of his face fell slack in bewilderment.

‘You didn’t even know, did you?’

Aldrich pushed closer, the smell of sweat and blood turning Nick’s stomach. ‘You’re lying.’

‘I’m not. You were deceived. It told us that Moloch doesn’t exist, that you’re an idiot who’s been sacrificing to a false god. And the children are
alive!
Alive in the Otherworld.’

‘Shut up.’ His grip loosened, a little.

‘You’ve been killing people for
nothing
.’

‘N-no …’

As Nick lay trapped there, he remembered Alan’s thieving friends and how much of a coward he’d been when the man in the bomber jacket had tried to punch him in the store. His blood coursed. Then he thought of how they’d battered him in front of Juliet. How there was nothing he could do.

Okay, this is it.
‘Your long
long
life has all been a lie,’ he taunted. ‘And now the portal is destroyed.’

The functioning side of Aldrich’s face screwed up.

Continuing, Nick goaded, ‘And your god-that-was-never-really-Moloch has left you all alone.’

A glisten appeared in Aldrich’s open eye, his eye that was quickly reddening and filling with tears. He began to sob, his body trembling on top of Nick’s, and his grip weakened some more.

Nick hated to see anyone cry. Even now, he experienced guilt. But if he wanted to get out of this alive, he had to do
something
. Which is why he took a hand away from his neck, reached for a fallen branch, and smacked Aldrich in the side of the head.

The branch rebounded, thumping the side of his own skull. His eyes closed in pain for a moment, and he felt Aldrich fall off of him. Eyelids still down, he heard Aldrich sobbing and twigs crunching and leaves rustling. The sounds grew fainter and distant.

The pain was too much, the exhaustion equal. He lay there not moving, not thinking clearly, until more noises and Juliet’s voice startled him.

‘Nicolas? Are you all right?’

He stood up slowly, grateful to see her face. ‘You’re okay,’ he said. When she came near, he put his hands on her cheeks.

After the moment had passed, Juliet asked, ‘Where’s Aldrich?’

‘He ran off again. I didn’t see where.’ Noticing his relief in knowing Juliet was unharmed, he quickly added, ‘Where’s Tom?’

‘I left him back where I … attacked him.’ Her eyes pressed shut. ‘This is terrible.’

‘You think?’ The side of Nick’s skull zinged.

Juliet’s eyes opened and she gave him an unimpressed look. For a second, she seemed about to rebuke him, but she glanced away and towards something else. Nick turned and saw nothing there.

‘Your mother’s here,’ said Juliet.

Staring at the empty space in awe, Nick was amazed his mum was here with him, even though she was dead.
If she’s here, she must be trying to help. She must know a way for us to resolve this.

‘She wants us to follow her.’

Tom, Tommy
, he thought, realising Aldrich could be looking for them. ‘Okay, let’s go.’ He touched one of Juliet’s arms, concern running through him. ‘But if we see Aldrich, you hide. You run in the opposite direction as fast as you can.’