Harriet couldn’t move fast enough to block her view. Norma caught sight of the figures inside the cloudy bubble and realized that one of them was holding a baby. A look of tremendous anger passed over her face.
“They’re back!”
Harriet frowned in false confusion. “Oh, no! What could have happened? She must be too powerful for us.”
She could see the cogs ticking over in Norma’s mind. If Leah was still alive, then Norma must have eaten someone else. She licked her lips, as if recollecting the taste.
“Rufus?” she asked, fury growing. “They made me eat Rufus?”
Harriet’s expression clearly conveyed some kind of guilt, because Norma grabbed her by the neck, hoisting her up into the air. “That shield is yours, isn’t it?”
“Gran – no—” she spluttered.
It was too late. Norma had worked it all out. “You’re working with them? Harriet, how could you do this to me? To us?”
Harriet ignored the pain, and focused all her control on maintaining the shield between Norma and the others. The only thing she could give them was time.
“I’m – I’m sorry, Gran,” Harriet choked out. “But I can’t let you hurt them. They’re my friends.”
LEAH
Leah maintained the line of connection between Norma and the circle. The shield was still in place. If Harriet could keep that going, then they were safe.
“She’s really helping us,” Kasper gasped, looking over at Harriet in surprise. “I didn’t think she would!”
Leah pulled energy from the circle, focusing it on Norma. Pulses of energy kept coming from Felix, Rima and Kasper. There was so little of it, compared to Norma’s towering, glowing mass of strength.
Holding Harriet in the air by her throat, Norma shivered as if she was getting a slight chill. If it had been anyone else, they would have been on their knees by now.
“More energy,” Leah gasped. “I need more.”
There was another pulse of energy from the others, weaker this time. Rima was dimming as she gave Leah everything she had. It was too little, barely a drop in the ocean of what they’d need to overpower Norma.
“It’s not enough,” she managed to say, between breaths. “We need more!”
Claudia looped her tiny fingers around Felix’s thumb. A huge wave of energy passed through the circle, more than anything the others had been able to give. Rima gasped, but Leah wasn’t surprised. Claudia had always been the strongest of them all.
She focused the extra energy at Norma, who had sensed something was wrong now. She was frowning down at her arms like she had an itching sensation. Leah could see so much of her husband in Norma, though she’d changed, too. There was a whole other life there, lived without them. How furious must Fabian have been, if even eight decades weren’t enough to dull his anger at Claudia? Norma’s fury consumed her. Leah was more grateful than ever that they’d escaped Fabian when they did, before he could wear them down to nothing.
Harriet dropped a centimetre closer to the ground as Norma’s grip faltered. She’d gone pale from the pain, but her shield was still holding.
The flow of energy from Claudia ended and the connection went weak again. Norma still hadn’t collapsed, and they couldn’t sustain this for much longer. They’d lose their chance, if they had to stop now. They were all weak and dim from the effort.
“More energy!” she gasped again. “It’s not working!”
Rima looked around desperately. “We could get a ghost? Take their energy?”
“Don’t break the circle!” Leah said, in one breath. She was relying on them to sustain her own energy now. She’d given too much of herself up to the ritual. If they broke apart, Leah would collapse into atoms.
“What do we do? This is hopeless!” Felix wailed.
“The only one of us with a free hand is Claudia!” Rima muttered, frustrated. The baby had one hand wrapped around Felix’s thumb, the other waving in the air freely.
Leah could feel herself sinking into the blackness. She was about to pass out. She forced herself to hold on, hoping they’d think of something in time.
Just a little longer. She could do this, if it meant getting rid of Fabian.
I should take over for a moment here. As you can probably tell, I’ve always been good at quietly watching and waiting. Biding my time. I’ve had centuries to learn how.
I’ve been waiting for this specific moment for a long time. Whenever I looked at this moment, I was baffled. Something happens here – an odd little thing, so small that it took me many viewings to pin down exactly what it was. I helped them here – I will help them here – I am helping them here, right now. Right now.
I must bring them some more energy.
Enough to make them glow bright white with it. Enough for this to work. I can steal it from a moment in the past which has energy to spare, bringing it forward to the present day. Just like I did when I sent some energy back to Lisa, at the moment when she needed help the most. That never worked, but I can try again here.
Maybe this time it will make a difference.
But when? Where can I find enough energy? They need a whole life’s worth – five lives, ten lives, maybe more. More than I can steal from any ghost in the past or the future.
I go back to 1994. To the night that Rima and the others died. Kasper is sleeping in his bedroom. It’s clean and white, with blue curtains covering the window.
I’d almost forgotten what he looked like when he was a real, living human. He sings with life. His skin is so pink, blood pumping below the surface. He’s snoring like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
This is it. The moment that Rima, Felix, Kasper and all the other students in the building died. It wasn’t a gas leak, or an explosion, or a fire that killed them. It was something
