Ryan’s mum had been furious, distraught, and had wasted no time in calling the police. The man who had attacked her boy was Neil Mitchell, and he had received eighteen months in HMP Wakefield and a nasty newspaper article written about him in the Manchester Evening News. Aaron had gone to his bedroom and had stayed there for the next nine years, surviving on Pot Noodles and video games. Ryan’s stupid antics had traumatised his younger brother, who was already reeling from the loss of an uninterested father.
I’ll never forgive myself for what he saw that day.
I just want him to grow up and be happy. That’s the only way I’ll know the damage I caused is healed.
“You okay, little brother?”
Aaron pulled his stick out of the stream and looked at Ryan. “I’m just worried about Sean. I know he’s caused a lot of trouble, but I want him to be okay.”
“Me too.”
“I don’t think he meant to hurt Tom.”
“Me neither.”
“No, Ryan, I mean he wasn’t in control. When he bit Tom, it was after he’d got that green stuff all over his hands. What if it was already messing with his brain?”
Ryan considered it. It was a comforting thought, that Sean might not be to blame for his actions, but it felt like wishful thinking. He shook his head. “I don’t think there was enough time between. He only had the oil on his hands for a couple of hours at most, and he first had a pop at Tom before we even went outside.”
“But if he breathed it in or something? We don’t know, do we? None of us has any clue what that stuff is up there.” He turned and pointed to the hill rising behind the cottage.
“We’ll know soon enough. It won’t be much longer before Tom comes back with help. Then Sean will get whatever help he needs and life will go back to normal.”
“Until you get married.”
Ryan shifted slightly on the bank so that he was facing his brother. “What d’you mean?”
Aaron shrugged and went back to poking the water with his stick. “You’re already hardly ever at home as it is. Once you’re married, you’ll be at Sophie’s all the time.”
“Well, yeah, that’s what being married is. That’s cool, though, right? You’re growing up, Aaron. You should get a girl of your own.”
Aaron didn’t seem to be listening. “It’s always been you and me, Ryan. Now it’ll just be me and mam. It’s gonna suck.”
Ryan sighed. This was a conversation long on the cards. “Aaron, you’re fifteen. You should have friends of your own and a couple of shags under your belt. It’s not healthy wanting to spend all your time with me, or alone in your room.”
“We’re brothers, we stick together.”
“Always, but that don’t mean we can’t have separate lives. When I’m gone, you need to step up and be a man. No more sitting around playing video games and wanking, okay? Toughen up, or this world will eat you alive, our kid.”
Aaron tossed his stick into the stream and got up. He walked away without a word, so Ryan called out to him. When he didn’t respond, he got up and went after him. “Aaron, stop! Talk to me. Where’re you going?”
“I’m climbing the hill to take another look at that corkscrew. You wanted me to be a man, right?”
“That don’t mean being stupid. You ain’t going anywhere near that thing. It’s dangerous.”
“We were near it last night and we’re fine. Sean’s the only one with the fungus on him because he’s the only one who touched it. I want to look at it in the light.”
“Why? How will it help anything?”
“Maybe it won’t, but either way, I’m going to climb the hill and take another look. If I don’t, I’ll just keep worrying about it.”
Ryan cursed beneath his breath. What was this, a dick measuring contest? Aaron wanted to prove how fucking brave and stupid he was?
Yeah, that’s exactly what this is. He’s scared, and he’s trying not to be. He’s showing me he’s stronger than I give him credit for.
“Okay, Aaron, if you’re going back up that hill, then so am I.”
“I can do it on my own. I don’t need your help.”
“I didn’t say that you did, but you ain’t going up there without me.”
Aaron rolled his eyes. “Fine, just don’t expect me to wait.”
Climbing the hill was easier than it had been in the dark, and it took all of three minutes to go from the bottom to the top. In the muted morning sunlight, the summit seemed higher than it had beneath last night’s moon.
And the corkscrew seemed much larger.
A part of Ryan had expected the strange artefact to be gone, so when he set his eyes on it, it took a moment for it to feel real. It was such an odd thing to be sitting on top of a grassy hill in the middle of nowhere. In the sunlight, the metallic surface was dark green, and the yellowish spots were amber. What none of them had noticed last night, however, was that the ground around the corkscrew was the same dark green colour as the oil on Sean’s hands. While it could almost be mistaken for grass, it was too dark, and several rocky patches were also green where they should have been grey. The strange oil had soaked the ground.
“It must be some kind of chemical,” said Aaron, stepping back so that his trainers were nowhere near the tainted soil. “It’s leaking out of the corkscrew. Look!”
Green oil oozed from a series of holes at the bottom of the corkscrew. It sent a shiver down Ryan’s spine as he zipped up his jacket and wrapped his arms around himself.
In matters such as these – matters of the strange –
