It was a dark place. A dangerous place.
It only took a shift in perspective to see it.
But right now, it felt even darker and more dangerous than ever.
“You sure about this?” Noah asked.
Iqrah stood by his side. Looked ahead. Her eyes were wide. Truth be told, she looked uncertain, too. Like she was also facing up to the reality that they were actually here. That they’d actually made it here, after all this time.
She glanced around at Noah. Nodded.
“You don’t have to pretend you’re okay. I know this is a big deal to you.”
She opened her mouth like she was about to dismiss Noah again.
And then she just closed it.
Her eyes lowered.
“I’ve just... I’ve waited for this moment. Waited for so long. I’ve imagined it, so many times. It’s kept me going. And now it’s here, and I... I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t know if I’m ready to see whether they’re even still here at all. Or...”
She stopped. Noah knew what she was going to say. Or dead.
He put a hand on her shoulder.
Patted her back, just a little. Marvelled at how much he’d changed. Allowing himself to be close. Allowing himself to connect. How far he’d come.
“I found my parents a few years in,” Noah said. “It... it was always a mystery to me. Where they were. How they were doing. Whether they were even still alive out there. It tortured my thoughts. Kept me awake at night. Part of me wanted to know the truth. The other just wanted to believe they were okay out there. Never wanted to know.
“But I remember when I found them... there was this grief. This wave of utter, unshakable grief. But then there was something else.”
“What?”
“A kind of... peace. Of acceptance. Because at least I know. At least my mind wouldn’t torture me. Not anymore. So I’d say it’s always better knowing. You can never be ready to know the answers to something like this. Not truly. But it’s always better knowing.”
Iqrah stared at him, wordless for a while.
“What?”
“You sounded then like you’re actually starting to, like, be okay with this?”
“With what?”
“Being here. In Blackpool. Looking for my family.”
Noah’s stomach turned. “I don’t want to be here because I know it’s not the safest place to be. But I know how important this is to you. How much you need this. And I wouldn’t ever stand in your way of that. Just as long as it doesn’t get us killed, okay?”
Iqrah looked up at him. Nodded. “Okay.”
She turned around.
Looked ahead at Blackpool.
Noah beside her.
“You ready?” he asked.
She reached out.
Took his hand.
Squeezed it, just a little. “Ready.”
Noah swallowed a lump in his throat.
He took a deep breath.
And then he took his first step beyond that “Welcome to Blackpool” sign and into the unknown.
Chapter Five
The second Noah stepped onto the Blackpool promenade his whole childhood came charging back in.
The skies were grey and cloudy. Specks of cool rain sprinkled down from above. All the old sights were still there, only the town was less populated now, somehow even more ghostly than it used to be.
Wind swept across the promenade. The Ferris Wheel on the pier stood stationary, empty, dead. The little stalls that used to serve Blackpool Rock and sell souvenirs were all closed and boarded up, some of the small roadside shacks tumbled down to the ground long ago.
The old hotels that lined the promenade looked as dead as ever. The arcades were closed up. Over in the distance, no screams of kids flying around on the roller coasters echoed through, as used to be so commonplace.
No donkeys walked the beach. Only the water crashing against the shore now. That’s all there was.
And there was certainly nobody else here.
Nobody walking the promenade.
No signs of life by the old, derelict trams.
Nothing.
Noah stood there, Iqrah by his side. Bruno stood between them. All of them were still, all of them looking on at the scene ahead. No Society at least—well, as far as they could tell. Which struck Noah as weird. Surely they’d expect Iqrah to go looking at the place she’d been kidnapped from in the first place? Maybe they’d already been here. Maybe they’d waited, mistimed their ambush.
Or maybe their ambush was still coming after all.
Noah looked at Iqrah. He didn’t want to say anything. He wanted her to realise the truth of matters in her own time. Wanted her to come to terms with things in her own way. Didn’t want to put thoughts in her head or words in her mouth. He just wanted her to realise that this place was empty. This place was derelict. This place was dead.
And then she had to decide where to go from there. Interpret things in her own way.
“The trams,” Iqrah said.
Noah frowned. “What?”
Iqrah lifted a finger, pointed, wide-eyed. A pale, ghostly expression to her face. “The trams. We used to stay over there. We moved around a lot. But that’s where we were when they came for me. When they took me.”
Noah looked over at those empty, abandoned trams. Something about them gave him the creeps. In this ghostly seaside town, where not even the seagulls seemed to swoop down anymore, there was something about those trams that freaked him out more than anything.
He tasted bitterness in his mouth. Felt tension in his throat.
There was something about those trams he didn’t want to see.
And yet he couldn’t explain what it was.
Just a feeling.
Just a sense.
A sense that something wasn’t right there.
That there was something unsavoury there.
Something they really didn’t want to find.
“I can go,” Noah said.
“What?”
“If you want me to check the trams... I can do that for you.”
Iqrah reached over. Squeezed his hand, just slightly. “Thank you. But... but I have to do this. You know I do. You know how it is.”
Noah wanted to protect this girl. And that included protecting her from the horrors of life as much as it meant
