“He was in a WH Smiths,” she said with a gentle smile, brought about by her realisation that she need not have feared her reaction, or for Adam’s feelings, after all. “Sorry, I mean, a shop. They sell magazines and books. He was looking at some sweets when I finally found him.”
“So it was all just as simple as that?” responded Adam.
“Well, almost,” said Amanda, who hesitated before going on. “Just after I caught up with Brenden, someone working for the school tried to grab him. I mean that almost literally. Is that how things are done here?”
“What do you mean? They were working for the school?” asked Ms Halford.
“I’ve just been talking with the deputy and found out from him that this guy, that tried to physically drag Brenden out of the shop, was actually one of the people sent out from the school to find the missing boy.”
“Well, that’s the first I’ve heard anything about that,” responded the ghost.
“Matilda, you shouldn’t be so naïve. Do you really think that our great deputy would only have our young Amanda out there? And anyway, don’t you remember what I said about him sending his hacks? I bet the task of looking for lost students is probably the most satisfying thing they get to do, tasked as they are sometimes with the drudgery of shuffling people off down the Tunnels.”
“But Brenden could have been hurt,” asserted Amanda. “Or, what would’ve been just as bad, the people in the town could have tried to stop the man, causing him to lash out and injure them in the process. He could’ve even alerted the locals to this place.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” said Adam. “Though a lot of the people in that town know nothing about this school, you’d be surprised to find out how much influence this institution has over Caldborough. If there’d been any hint that word could have gotten out, a few calls to the authorities and the local paper, which also happens to be the property of the school, would have ensured that it would go no further than the mouths of a few locals.”
Amanda considered reasserting her point about the chance that someone could have been injured in the incident as well as saying something about the power of social media, and how just an ordinary person could upload a video that could capture the world’s attention, but suddenly she just felt exhausted once more and the fight went out of her. She looked up and found the eyes of Ms Halford, who instantly recognised the marks of tiredness that were becoming ever more present on Amanda’s face.
“Ah, Amanda dear,” said the ghost, kindly. “You’ve been waiting such a time for someone to get you. My guess is that it’s been quite forgotten about. How about I go and see if I can find someone to fix the situation. No, no, don’t get up. You just rest here for a while, you’ve done enough for us today, now it’s time for someone to do something for you.”
Completely oblivious to the exhaustion of Amanda, Adam became a little bemused by the words of the ghost - a state he decidedly did not like to be in – and consequently attempted to start a new conversation with the Amanda on the first topic that appeared in his mind. However, he did not get very far before Ms Halford interrupted him just as she was leaving the canteen.
“Oh, and Amanda,” said the ghost. “Thank you again for finding the boy. If what you say about that man is true, then you did Brenden and me an even greater favour than I’d first thought.”
“Huh,” exclaimed Adam, “sometimes that woman is a little strange, don’t you think?”
Amanda regarded the man before her and thought, after wondering if she detected a certain tenderness in his words, that though he could have been describing almost anyone in the school, it was probably true that Ms Halford’s kindness did mark her out as unusual.
“So,” continued Adam as he settled himself down in the seat next to Amanda, “you’ve been working for the school? Searching for something down in Radcliff?”
“I have.”
“Does it bother you at all that you’re feeding off the school’s supplies while carrying out a next to useless task?”
Amanda bristled a little at these words, mainly because she felt there to be truth in them. Nevertheless, she still felt she had to defend herself. In fact, she conceded to herself, perhaps the need to defend herself was all the stronger as she did believe at times that she was just receiving a handout from the school.
“Look, I didn’t ask the school for anything, it was the deputy who contacted me.”
“Of course, of course. That’s how it always starts. He gives you a job here, and another one there, and eventually you find you cannot get one anywhere else. Soon enough, you might just be eligible to become another one of his hacks.”
“Don’t compare me to that man who attacked Brenden. I’m not like him at all.”
“Well, I don’t want to dissuade you from carrying on, but I can tell you I’ve seen it all before. He always knows which ones to pick, those who go out into the big wide world, but just find it a little too difficult to get along on their own. One day, he’ll be asking you to just go that little bit further, to do the tasks that you told yourself you never would. It’ll all be for the good of the school and the community, he’ll say. And you’ll tell yourself that you need the blood
