‘You’re hurt!’ I said.
‘I’m all right,’ he said, kind of groggily. ‘Just got a bit of a headache, that’s all.’
He raised his hand to touch the cut on his head. It was hard to tell how bad it was, because the blood was mixing with the rain.
Mason and Cora edged closer, so that all five of us were in a sort of huddle. Fash was the only one with a torch – he told us later that he’d grabbed it from the floor of the cave before following the rest of us into the woods – and he kept lasering it out into the trees, first one way, then another. Cora looked even more jittery than Fash did. She was watching the woods, too, but she also seemed to have one eye on Mason. Even Mason kept glancing over his shoulder. He was still holding that bottle, I noticed, and when he saw me looking at it he tightened his grip.
‘What happened?’ I said to Luke. ‘Did you fall?’ I looked around for something he might have tripped on, but I already knew from the way the others were acting that that wasn’t what had happened at all.
‘Yeah, Mason,’ said Cora. ‘What happened?’ She half turned to face me. ‘He was standing right over Luke when I found them,’ she told me. ‘Just the two of them alone in the clearing.’
‘I told you,’ Mason said to her, his voice all angry and tight, ‘he was lying on the ground when I got here. And anyway, where the fuck have you been?’ he added, and I realised he was talking to me.
‘I was looking for you lot!’ I said. ‘For Luke. I got lost, and … and I heard you lot yelling.’
‘You got lost,’ said Mason, making it sound like it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. ‘Which doesn’t explain why you’re so out of breath.’
‘I’m out of breath because I was running,’ I said. ‘Because I was scared. OK? To be honest, I’m still scared! I don’t like any of this at all.’ I followed the beam from Fash’s torch, but all I could see was the rain, and the tree trunks at the edge of the clearing. Past them there was just this blackness, hiding the eyes I felt sure were looking in.
Luke had hauled himself to sitting. He touched his head again.
‘I didn’t fall,’ he said to me, and I realised he was answering the question I’d asked him before. ‘Someone … swung a branch at me. Or … or something, anyway. I ducked, just in time, but … but I’m pretty sure they were trying to take my head off.’
I felt my eyes widen.
‘I saw someone,’ said Fash. ‘Out there. When I was stumbling around trying to find you lot.’
‘Who?’ said Cora, but Mason interrupted before Fash could answer.
‘So you happened to lose your way as well, did you?’ Mason said to him.
‘We all lost our way,’ Cora snapped. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s pitch black out here, and Fash is the only one who’s got a torch.’
‘Which is exactly my point,’ said Mason. ‘Fash has got a torch. So how the fuck did he manage to get lost?’
‘I didn’t say I got lost! I said I was looking for you lot!’
By this point I’d had as much as I could take. ‘Stop it!’ I yelled at them. ‘Just stop it, will you? Stop arguing. It doesn’t help anything.’
Which seemed to do the trick. For the time being, at least.
‘Who did you see, Fash?’ said Luke, getting back to what actually mattered.
‘I don’t know. Just a shape, really. By the time I swung the torch they were gone.’
Cora was frowning. ‘I might have seen someone, too. It was hard to tell. And I thought …’
‘Thought what?’ said Luke.
‘Nothing, just … I thought I heard voices. That’s all. Like, a girl’s voice, maybe.’
The rest of them turned my way. ‘Don’t look at me,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t talking to anyone.’
‘No, it didn’t sound like Abi,’ said Cora. ‘It sounded like … I don’t know who it sounded like. I fell, and hurt my knee, and it was hard to hear through the rain.’
No one said anything for a moment. The rain wasn’t as loud in the clearing as it had been under the trees, but there was still a constant hiss.
‘So what are you saying, Cora?’ said Mason. ‘I thought your theory was that I hurt Luke. That’s what you seemed to think before.’
‘Well, what would you expect me to think?’ Cora said. ‘You’re the one standing there still holding that broken bottle. The same one you were threatening us with in the cave!’
‘Don’t start,’ I said. ‘Please don’t start arguing again. Can’t we just go? Whoever’s out there just attacked Luke! And we’re just standing here right out in the open. What if they come back?’
I looked again towards the trees. Fash, next to me, did the same.
‘There are five of us,’ said Mason, raising the bottle. ‘And only one of them, from the sound of it. Assuming there’s anyone out there at all.’
‘You don’t think there’s anyone out there?’ said Fash.
‘You’re kidding,’ said Cora to Mason. ‘Right? Fash saw someone. I did, too. And we all heard someone when we were in the cave. That’s why we’re standing here now. Remember?’
‘I heard something,’ Mason answered. ‘Not someone. Something. And all Fash saw was a shadow. As for you … you don’t even know what you saw.’
‘So one of us attacked Luke? Is that your theory?’
‘Let’s just say I’m keeping an open mind,’ Mason snarled, and my eyes went again to that broken bottle.
‘What about you, Luke?’ I said, before Cora could answer back. ‘Did you see whoever it was who attacked you?’
Luke hesitated, as though trying to remember. ‘I didn’t see a face,’ he said. ‘I had my back turned until I heard something
