All That She Can See(61)

‘So you can’t get caught?’

‘Doesn’t seem that way, no.’

‘And you can’t go back?’

‘No way.’

‘Not even for a friend?’ Cherry pushed. She knew she asking a lot from him but she didn’t see that she had any other choice.

Peter held her gaze and then said, ‘Your turn to tell me everything. What’s going on?’

‘They took a friend of mine. Chase Masters.’

‘He’s like us?’

‘He is. He sees good feelings.’

‘Lucky bastard.’

‘Not really,’ Cherry said. ‘It made him pretty bitter about life – he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t have the happiness other people had. He was… a difficult man at times.’

‘He sounds lovely.’

‘He is,’ Cherry insisted. ‘He just thought he was alone. Didn’t we think the same at one point? But he’s a good man underneath it all – only now he’s gone. They’ve taken him.’

‘Why?’ Peter asked. ‘Why did they come for him?’

‘We sort of… started a fight. A turf war, you could call it.’

‘What the hell does that mean?’

Cherry sighed. She didn’t have time to go into all the details. ‘I’ve been baking cakes for years to help people but he started making drinks to cause trouble. People were starting to become reckless. We kept trying to outdo each other and the whole town got caught in the crossfire and everyone, well, everyone went a bit… mad.’

‘That sounds like enough to make the Guild intervene.’

‘Happy paid us a visit and gave us some Normality to fix things. But she said I had to stop using my gift to help people otherwise I’d be taken away. Either that or I had to become a Feeler.’

‘So why did they take this Chase instead?’

‘I don’t know!’ Cherry cried. ‘I thought they were coming after me but they took him. And now he’s probably going to have his brain fried or have his eyes gauged out of their sockets or end up…’ Cherry couldn’t bring herself to say the word. Dead.

‘So what are you going to do?’ Peter asked. Cherry stopped in front of him and looked at him, her eyes full of hope. ‘Not a chance in hell,’ he said, standing up and backing away. ‘No. Way.’

‘Peter, please.’

‘I’m not going back in there!’

‘They might kill him!’

‘If I go back, they’ll kill me! I don’t know who this guy is. I don’t owe him anything. And he sounds like a bit of a prick!’ Peter put his hands on his head and pulled at his hair, hard, for a few seconds. He spun around with his fingernails digging into his scalp. He looked utterly mad. Cherry took a step back and wondered exactly how much electrocution he’d experienced over the years. ‘This isn’t a game, Cherry! If I get caught, I won’t be coming out again. If you want to risk your life for him, then fine but… I can’t.’

Cherry took in the panic in his eyes, the desperation on his face, and her heart sank. She couldn’t ask him to go back there for her. It was too much. There had to be another way. ‘Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I get it – it was too much.’ Cherry dropped her tone, trying to soothe him. ‘But do you think you could maybe help me from the outside instead? You could tell me where it is, draw me a map and tell me anything I need to watch out for. And who I need to watch out for?’

‘Cherry…’ Peter warned.

‘Please. I can’t do this without you.’

‘You shouldn’t be doing this at all.’

‘I can’t leave him there.’

‘Like you left me, you mean?’ Peter spat.

Cherry was stunned. ‘Peter – I was seven. What could I have done?’

‘I don’t know. Something. Anything.’

‘I had no idea the Guild even existed. I thought you’d been taken away to… to an asylum or something! I was a child. No one would have believed me if I’d told them you weren’t crazy and I could see the monsters too. I would have ended up right there with you.’

Peter dropped his head, deflated, the fight gone from him as quickly as it had reared up. ‘I know. I’m sorry. There’s nothing you could’ve done.’

‘You don’t have to come with me, Peter. I understand. I completely understand. Just… please help me. You know what it’s like in there. Don’t let someone else suffer if they don’t have to. I can’t leave him in there but I need your help. Help me save Chase.’

Images flashed through Peter’s mind. Blue suits, bottles of pills, gloved hands holding his nose, bleeding eye sockets, jars full of eyeballs staring back at him, grey skin and finally, a lifeless, limp hand with a yellow rag tied around the ring finger dangling from under a crisp white sheet. Peter squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, hoping the memories would fall from his head and burn in the flames of the candle. He opened his eyes and saw Loneliness pulling at the boards nailed to the window, trying to reach out for Cherry. Peter sighed.

‘What kind of a name is “Chase” anyway?’