So yeah, the truth was, I hadn’t really been out in the woods much, not since we were younger, and I’d never liked it even then. It was just so creepy. If you caught the trees at the wrong angle they looked like people, and you could never be sure you were really alone. Sadie used to go into the woods by herself sometimes, just when she needed to clear her head, she said, but there’s no way I would have gone out there without someone else with me. Not if you paid me a gazillion pounds.
So I hated it anyway, is what I’m saying. Every single step. And that was before you consider why we were out there. Because the thing was, as we were walking along, I kept imagining I’d seen her. Sadie, I mean. Parts of her. A shirtsleeve that turned out to be a root. A flash of blonde hair that was really just a patch of dead grass. At one point I almost screamed out loud, because for a second I could have sworn I’d almost trodden on one of Sadie’s hands.
But it was just a leaf.
I don’t know if the others were thinking the same, but me, personally, all I wanted to do was go back. I couldn’t believe I’d gone along with Fash’s plan in the first place, that I thought being out there might actually make things better.
“Guys?” I said, after we’d been walking for what felt like hours, weaving back and forth the way we said we would. “Has anyone else got a signal?” I was holding my phone up in the air, as high as I could get it to go.
“Nope,” said Mason.
“Uh-uh,” said Fash.
Because that was the other thing about being out in the woods. The signal on my phone had given out when we’d crossed the river, and if everybody else’s phones were the same, that meant we had no way of contacting anyone. If it got to the point we needed help.
“Seriously,” I said. “You’d think we were in the middle of nowhere, not a couple of miles from the center of town.”
I noticed Cora making a face. “Like, hello?” she said. “The center of town is the middle of nowhere. And what do you expect when we’re surrounded by all these trees?”
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I was just trying to check if there was any news, that’s all. If the police had found anything in the river.”
“And they said they’d text you, did they?” said Cora. “And anyway, you’re supposed to be looking for Sadie, not trying to get a signal on your phone. This is a search party, remember?”
“But if they have found something, there’d be no reason for us to be out here, would there?” I told her. “Besides, I—”
I stopped moving. The others turned and stopped, too.
“What is it?” Fash asked me.
“What the hell was that?” I said.
“What the hell was what?” said Cora.
“That noise. I swear to God I just heard a noise.”
And then, as I stood there listening, I heard it again. I’d been trailing behind the rest of them and I went rushing to catch up, scraping my arm on a tree.
“Ow! Shit!”
“Calm down, Abi,” said Cora. “Jesus.”
I ignored her and focused on the others. Luke had come back from up ahead and I went and stood next to him, on account of the fact he was holding a massive stick.
“Seriously,” I told them. “I heard a noise.”
“A noise?” said Cora. “In the woods? Well, there’s a fucking surprise.”
“Fuck off, Cora!” I snapped back at her. Just because I’d had enough. You know? Of her constant bitching.
“Jesus,” said Luke. “What is it between you two at the moment?”
I looked at Cora, daring her to answer, but for once in her life she kept her mouth shut.
“You’re bleeding,” Fash said to me.
I pointed my elbow at him so I could see the underside of my arm. And there was, there was a massive scrape. Look. See? You can still see the scab. And even though I knew Mason had been joking when he’d mentioned bears, all I could think was that if it was a bear or something I’d heard, it would be able to smell my blood. Like sharks do. Is it sharks? Who can basically tell when something’s bleeding from half the ocean away. I saw that in one of Mason’s movies once, and I haven’t gone swimming in the sea ever since. It’s like, what if you’re on, you know?
“What was it you heard, Abi?” said Mason.
“I . . . I don’t know. Just . . . something. In the trees.” I checked behind me. “Are you sure there aren’t any bears out here? Not wild ones maybe, but . . . I don’t know. Couldn’t one have escaped or something?”
“Escaped from where?” said Cora. “A traveling circus?”
“Or a zoo, perhaps?” I said.
“The nearest zoo is in London,” said Cora. “What do you think, it took a train from Paddington Station? A suitcase full of marmalade sandwiches?”
I shot her evils.
“There aren’t any bears, Abi,” said Fash. “I’m pretty certain of that.”
“Fash is right,” said Cora. “There aren’t any bears.” She paused for a moment. “It’s the wolves you want to be watching out for.”
And then, when I turned to her, Mason put his head back and let out this enormous howl. And Cora started wetting herself, obviously, like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. And even Fash was smiling, and Luke was looking down toward his feet. Like it was all one big joke to them. Like I was, you know, just because I’d got scared. It was like the way they always laugh when I say something stupid. Which I can’t help sometimes. It’s not my fault. The words just start coming out and then, by the time I hear them, it’s
