“Ghosts?” said Fash, and I couldn’t help but glance across. Abi was about ten meters away, deeper in among the trees. Fash had turned toward her, meaning he couldn’t have seen me looking.
“Right,” Abi said. “Like, if ghosts exist, there has to be something else.”
“I guess . . .” said Fash. “Although I’m not sure I believe in ghosts exactly.”
“I do,” said Abi.
And in my head I’m like, There’s a fucking surprise.
“I’ve even seen one once. Of my gran. In her old house. My granddad lived there on his own for a bit, after she died, and until his stroke put him in a home, and me and my mum used to stay with him practically every other weekend. And it was one of those times I saw her.”
“You did?” said Fash. “What was she doing?”
“She was in the garden,” said Abi, “watering the plants, I think.”
I turned away to cover my snort. I couldn’t help it. It just slipped out. I mean, seriously. You’re dead. You can walk through walls. So what’s the first thing you decide to do when you come back? Turn the hose on the fucking hydrangeas.
“Yeah, well,” said Fash, who’d glanced my way. “Like I said, I’m not sure I believe in ghosts.”
I could tell he wanted to change the subject, but Abi sort of had him trapped.
“But what you were saying before,” she pressed. “About there being something. Do you reckon, like, with Sadie—”
But that was as far as she got.
Fash turned on her. And he snapped like he never snaps at anyone. Not even the dickheads who always give him such a hard time at school.
“I said I don’t fucking know! OK? Just give it a rest, will you?”
And he stormed off, leaving Abi standing where he’d left her. She saw me looking over, and she flushed. I couldn’t tell whether she was angry or ashamed or what. She turned away, dropping her head, and hurried on as though following after Fash.
We walked for hours, after that. No one talking much, everyone dripping wet. We took shelter under an elm tree at around lunchtime, and polished off Abi’s sunflower seeds, as well as most of the sweets, but it was so cold standing around that we all just wanted to keep moving.
By the time it started getting dark, everyone was dead on their feet. I didn’t know how far we’d come. Miles, it felt like; deeper into the forest than any of us had ever been before. And we hadn’t found anything, needless to say. As the light had begun to fade, the others seemed more worried about looking over their shoulders than at the ground around their feet. The girls, anyway. Fash, too. As though they were thinking about the night before—about whatever had happened at our camp. But again, I didn’t know whether they were genuinely worried or they were only doing it for effect.
“What’s that?” said Luke, from up ahead.
I looked where he was pointing, but all I could see were shadows along the bank. We’d stuck with the stream all day, and gradually the terrain had begun to change. The banks either side of the stream had got steeper, the water farther below our feet.
“Is that a cave?” Luke said, and he waited for the rest of us to catch up.
I turned on my torch. Sure enough, just in front of us, there was a cavity in the side of the bank. It was as though the roots from the trees above it had opened up a crevice in the rock. It was hard to tell how far back it went, because the torchlight was swallowed by the dark.
“Uh-uh. No way,” said Abi. “I’m not going in there.”
“Who said anything about going in there?” said Cora.
“Although it would get us out of the rain,” said Luke. “And we need a place to sleep, right? Unless anyone was planning on heading home tonight?”
Which was out of the question, obviously. We’d have struggled to make it back to the clearing we’d slept in before daybreak, let alone all the way to the river.
“At the very least, we have to take a look,” I said.
“Take a look?” said Abi. “Why?”
“What do you mean, why? Why do you fucking think?”
“Chill out, Mason,” said Cora. “Jesus.”
“Well, I’m going in,” I said, ignoring her. “Is anyone with me?”
I looked at Fash, who didn’t move. Luke shrugged and made to follow me.
“Guys,” said Abi, grabbing hold of Luke’s arm. “Seriously. I didn’t want to say anything before, but I’m pretty sure I heard someone following us. If we all go in that cave, they could . . . I don’t know. Trap us, or—”
“Christ almighty,” I said. “Here we go again. What did you hear exactly, Abi? When? And why didn’t you say anything earlier? It’s not like you to hold back if there’s moaning to be done.”
Cora shook her head, tutting at me, but she didn’t say anything. Fash just stared at the ground.
“OK, OK,” said Abi. “Maybe I didn’t hear anything exactly, but I definitely kept getting this feeling. Like someone was watching me, you know? There’s somebody out there, I know there is!” She looked around, over her shoulder, and I realized how much light had gone already.
“I wouldn’t worry, Abi,” I told her, winking. “It was probably just a ghost.”
And I turned my torch toward the cave, and led the way into the dark.
ABI
HE’S SUCH AN arsehole.
And it wasn’t just out there in the woods. I told you before, he could be like that even before Sadie went missing. With me, with Fash, with all of us. With Sadie, too. It’s like, when he got that way—all sarky and bitter and cruel—I had to wonder why she even stayed with him. Although, if you ask me, she only did because she was worried what he’d do if she tried to split up with him. Take that time on the beach, for example, when
