Jude reached out to her. “Mum…”
She turned and wiped his tears away with her thumbs, then kissed his forehead. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. I’m here.”
Jude sat trembling at the breakfast table while his mum answered the door. He pictured PC Riaz marching in to arrest him, charging him with the murder of Lily Barnes.
What if Ashley told them it was me to save herself? She already screwed me over by lying about the locket. She was angry with me.
But she would never do that to me. She wouldn’t let me take the blame.
This is all because of Rose. Please let the police find her.
Butterflies took flight in Jude’s stomach as his mum opened the door. He listened to her greet the person who had knocked. “Oh, it’s you!” she said. “Come on in. Have you heard anything?”
Jude relaxed when Ashley stepped into the hallway. His mum closed the front door and ushered her into the kitchen, where she sat at the table and nodded a ‘hello’ to Jude. Her nose appeared swollen, and there was a small cut on the bridge. Her lips were red like she’d been sucking on an ice lolly. It was blood. “Whoa!” he said. “What happened?”
She was holding back tears, and her tone was angry when she answered the question. “My dad hit me. Smacked me right in the face while my mum stood there and watched. He hit her, too, but she just accepted it. I can’t be in that house anymore. I… I can’t.”
Jude’s mum had a hand over her mouth and gasped. “Jesus, Ashley, I’m so sorry. Let me get you cleaned up.” She hurried over to the oven and yanked the purple tea towel hanging from its long silver handle. After running it under the warm tap, she brought it over to Ashley.
Jude sat silently while his mum saw to his friend.
Once the blood was all cleaned up, Ashley relaxed. “Thanks, Helen. I’m sorry to come here. I just… I didn’t know where else to go.”
Jude’s mum put a hand on her back and rubbed. “Tempers are high at the moment, but you’re part of the family, Ashley. If you need a safe place to go, you’re always welcome here.”
A single tear escaped Ashley’s eye and tumbled down her cheek. She swatted it like a fly and snorted. “I don’t even know what’s real right now. I feel like this is a dream I can’t wake up from.”
Jude nodded. He was constantly having to sniff to keep back snot, and his eyes were itching with spent tears, but he managed half a smile. “Tell me about it. I keep thinking back to a few days ago when everything was normal. We were bored, remember?”
Ashley chuckled. “Yeah, give me bored any day.” Then she grew serious, her teary eyes hardening. “I wish we’d never gone into those woods, Jude. Damn Ricky and Lily for chasing us in there. This is all their fault. Ricky and Lily are to blame; they always are. Shit… what am I saying? Lily’s dead, and I’m angry at her. You’d think I’d let it go.”
Jude had no idea what to say. He watched his mum pull another bottle of wine from the fridge and unscrew the cap. She kept her back to him as she poured a fresh glass. One bottle was usually her limit.
“Mum, I know you said I couldn’t go to my room, but—”
She waved an arm back at him. “Yes, okay, I suppose we could all do with a break. If I hear anything, I’ll shout you.”
“Thanks.”
Jude was glad to get out of the kitchen, so he grabbed Ashley’s arm and pulled her up out of her chair. The two of them headed through the hall and up the stairs. When Jude opened the door to his room, he immediately felt calmer. This was his place. He was safe here.
Although I wasn’t safe last night, was I? I wasn’t safe when my bath turned to ice and my television showed me those children getting stabbed.
Somehow Rose got to me. Ashley, too. We’re not safe in our homes.
Is Rose going to come for us tonight?
Jude moved over to his desk and picked up a magic wand that he used as part of his magic shows. There was a secret cap on one end for pulling out handkerchiefs or small red balls. “I wish this was real,” he said, only half joking. “We could stick Rose back inside her triangle.”
Ashley nodded. “Yeah, I could use a little magic about now.”
Jude tossed the wand back onto the desk, knowing childish fantasies wouldn’t help him. They needed to approach this rationally, if that was even possible. There had to be something that could help them.
Ashley took a seat on the bed, but Jude remained standing as it occurred to him that they had something that didn’t belong to them. “Ash, do you still have Rose’s pendant?”
She frowned at him. “You mean the locket? Yeah, I have it in my pocket, I think.”
“Show it to me.”
Ashley leant sideways on the bed and slid a hand into her pocket. She pulled the locket out and held it in her palm. Instinctively, Jude reached out to take it, but he recoiled. The fact it belonged to Rose was enough to dissuade him from wanting anything to do with it. It was probably cursed.
A witch’s trinket.
This isn’t a game. There’s no such thing as real magic. Is there?
I took Rose’s picture. I’m sure of it.
The locket was exactly as he remembered it: a delicate chain with a thick chunk of metal at its centre. Gold in colour, but not actually gold. It was something else.
Ashley opened the locket and revealed the photographs inside. Jude was certain the two children were the same ones he’d seen on television. The mother, who had stabbed them to death, however, hadn’t looked like Rose.
“Rose isn’t the woman who I saw kill the children,” he said. “It was a woman with dark hair.”
Ashley sighed, and
