All That She Can See(73)

‘Surely he would know what it looks like,’ Chase reasoned. ‘Why didn’t he just tell you what to look out for?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t think he had seen it himself, otherwise he would have said…’ Cherry said, not doing a very good job of convincing herself, let alone Chase.

‘Peter isn’t exactly a fount of knowledge, is he?’

Cherry opened her mouth to defend Peter but was distracted by something at what she assumed was the end of the staircase. Several streams of white light danced about the floor, crossing over one another and flickering.

‘Can you see that? It’s beautiful.’

Loneliness stopped on a step a few from the bottom and put Chase down. Cherry climbed off its back and walked into what appeared to be a large, empty cave. She checked to make sure their strings weren’t in too much of a tangle.

‘Cherry…’

‘One sec,’ she said, fiddling with a string that had become twisted.

‘Cherry… Look!’

‘What is it?’

She looked up at Chase to see that the tiny rivers of light were dancing over his gown, weaving in and out and under and over.

‘Oh God, Chase!’

‘It’s OK, Cherry. It doesn’t hurt, but look.’

Chase touched her shoulders and she turned to look at where he was pointing. She gasped. Ten pairs of brightly lit eyes were glowing in the dark.





24





The Control Panel





‘Why have you come?’ said a voice. It was soft and sang like a wind chime and reverberated off the walls. Cherry stepped forwards. ‘Stay back!’ warned the voice. ‘We are not to be seen.’

Chase reached for Cherry’s hand and pulled her closer to him.

‘Who are you?’ the voice said.

‘We don’t work for the Guild. We were brought in. For experiments,’ Chase said, his hand sweating against Cherry’s.

‘As were we,’ the voices said.

‘Experiments?’ Cherry asked. ‘Are you all right?’

‘We are what we are. Nothing can change that now.’

‘So… you don’t work for the Guild?’ Chase said.

‘We are kept here against our will, caged up like animals. We do what we must to survive but no one in this room is loyal to the Guild.’

‘We’re trying to find the control panel. We want to shut off everyone’s lenses so we can get out of here,’ Cherry blurted out, relieved at the glimmer of hope that these people, whomever they were, might offer them some help.

The eyes grew brighter and a chorus of voices rang out as they all said, ‘You have found us.’

‘What do you mean?’ Cherry said, frowning.

‘You have found us,’ they repeated.

‘We’re looking for the control panel. For the lenses,’ Cherry tried again. She had to make them understand.

‘You have found us.’

‘My friend Peter…’

‘Peter?’ one of the voices said.

‘Yes…’ said Cherry. ‘Do you know him?’

One pair of lights blinked and when they opened again, instead of light pouring out, they projected an image of Peter’s face onto the floor. In it, he had a black eye, his hair was charred and sticking up and Cherry could see that he was wearing one of those hideous green gowns but despite all of that, he was smiling.

‘Peter,’ the voice said and the picture came alive. Peter was laughing and speaking in the video but there was no sound. ‘He was kind.’

‘He’s safe,’ said Cherry. ‘And when I get out of here I will make sure he stays that way but I need your help. I need to find the control panel.’

‘You have found us,’ they said again.

‘Cherry… I think… I think they are the control panel.’

‘You have found us,’ one of them said.

‘Come closer,’ said another. Cherry stepped forward and pulled Chase with her. ‘Just the girl.’ Cherry tried to let go but Chase tightened his grip.

‘It’s okay.’ Cherry raised his hand to her lips, planted a kiss on his knuckles and let go. As Cherry stepped forwards, all the eyes turned to her and illuminated her face.

‘My name’s Cherry.’

‘We know,’ they said.

‘How?’

‘We see everything,’ said the wind chime. ‘We are the Guild’s greatest experiment and the Guild’s greatest secret. I am Experiment 341 and we, in this room, were the first to be installed with the sight. Our eyes are linked to the others. We watch over our kind.’

‘You’re kept down here?’ Cherry asked.

‘We see everything. All the time. The darkness helps us to focus. We are alone here, free from distraction.’

‘Don’t you want to leave?’

‘No one leaves the Guild.’

‘They do! You can!’ Cherry took a step forwards but all of the eyes flickered so she stayed where she was. ‘Sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. But I can get us out.’

‘No one is allowed to leave.’

Cherry blew out her cheeks, frustrated. ‘You can see anything one of our kind has seen, right?’