The Hollows(39)

Fox had been halfway through a sentence about the time they had all gone swimming right here, and the story – which brought back images of Fox in her bathing suit – would normally have captivated him, but now her voice had faded to a background hum.

Fox noticed. ‘What is it?’ she asked.

Goat looked at him too.

Crow could hardly speak. His throat felt too tight. He was, he realised, shaking.

‘She’s here,’ he said.

‘What?’ Fox and Goat said together.

He lifted a trembling hand and pointed towards the trees. Abigail hadn’t been lying. She hadn’t deserted them. Hadn’t left this place. It didn’t matter that her body had gone, that she had been buried in a cemetery miles from here.

Fox and Goat stared, confused. They couldn’t see her. That meant . . . that meant he had been blessed. He was special. Abigail’s chosen one. He also understood that with that blessing came great responsibility. Enormous responsibility.

‘Can’t you see her?’ he asked, as Abigail smiled back at him. ‘She’s right there.’





Chapter 20


There was a knock on the cabin door.

Frankie stood there, head down, wringing her hands. Her hair fell over her face, tangled and wild.

Beside her was Nikki. The woman from the bookstore.

‘I found your daughter wandering around the woods in the dark,’ she said.

Frankie took a step towards me, face still turned to the floor, and I gathered her in, putting my arm around her shoulders. It was a warm night, the air on the doorstep soft and balmy, but she felt like she’d just been taken out of the fridge.

‘Wandering in the woods?’ I repeated.

I had only recently got back from the neighbouring cabin, where I’d waited with David, Tamara and Vivian – who had proven herself to be both sympathetic and efficient – until an ambulance trundled through the resort and took Donna’s body away. That, along with the beta blockers mystery, had been so distracting that I hadn’t started worrying about Frankie again until I got back to the cabin.

Now, Frankie extricated herself and hurried inside. I followed, while Nikki hovered in the doorway. She was dressed all in black, dark hair falling into her eyes, and I couldn’t help but notice again how attractive she was. Perhaps not classically beautiful, but she had that look. A woman from an indie band. My type.

Still, Nikki wasn’t my focus right now. Frankie was. I had so many questions and was about to start firing them at her when I noticed she was shivering. I found her a blanket, wrapping it around her and settling her on the couch.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

She didn’t reply. She seemed like she was in shock.

I turned my head towards Nikki, who had drifted into the room, closing the door behind her. In her black clothes and with her pale face, she looked like a vampire who had invited herself in. ‘Where was she?’ I asked.

‘In the woods, close to town.’

I wondered what Nikki had been doing in the woods, and she must have anticipated the question because she said, ‘I was looking for Cujo. He got out of the store and ran off towards the trees. He’s not supposed to go out but those woods are like a buffet for cats.’ She sighed. ‘I’m sure he’ll come home.’

‘Was Ryan with Frankie?’ I asked. ‘A boy, about her age?’

‘No. She was on her own.’

I turned back to my daughter. ‘Frankie, where’s Ryan? Why wasn’t he with you?’

She looked up and the blankness of her stare scared me.

‘They weren’t human,’ she said in a whisper, half talking to herself.

I sat beside her on the couch. ‘Frankie, what are you talking about?’

She gave me that blank look again. Nikki was watching us intently.

‘I want to go home,’ Frankie said. ‘I don’t want to be here any more. Daddy, please.’ She hadn’t called me Daddy since she was six. ‘I really want to go home.’

She started to cry.

‘What happened, Frankie?’ I thought about the face I’d seen outside the window.

‘I can’t . . . Please, Dad. I just want to go to bed.’

‘Of course, in a minute. But you have to tell me – where’s Ryan?’ A dark thought entered my head. ‘Did he do something to you?’

‘No! Of course not.’

‘Then where is he?’

‘I don’t know.’

I waited.

The next part came out in a rush. ‘We got separated. I tried to find my way home through the woods but it got dark and my phone was dying and oh God I’ve lost my phone and then I was in the clearing and I was sure the man was coming to get me to take me to his secret cabin and then I saw them the creatures they weren’t human and I want to go to bed I want to go to bed.’

She stood up, the blanket still wrapped around her, and left the room. She closed her bedroom door behind her.

I sat there, stunned for a few moments.

‘Wait there,’ I said to Nikki. ‘Please.’ I didn’t want her to leave. Not yet.

I went outside and hurried across to the Butlers’ cabin. Knocked on the front door.

Connie answered almost immediately.

‘Has Ryan come home?’ I asked before she had a chance to speak.