The Hollows(63)

‘Which one were you?’ I asked, although I was sure I already knew the answer.

‘Fox.’

It was so dark that I was finding it hard to follow the path. Nikki, however, was like a real fox, walking confidently, as if she had perfect night vision. As long as I stayed close behind her, I wouldn’t lose my way.

‘And Greg was Crow?’

She didn’t reply.

‘Who was the third person?’ I asked for the second time. ‘Was it Everett?’

I thought she was going to tell me but she said, ‘I’ll show you when we get to the bookstore. After you’ve checked on Frankie.’

‘Show me?’

But she didn’t reply.

‘You and Greg,’ I asked. ‘Were you an item?’

She laughed at that. To be honest, she sounded a little hysterical, or on the edge of it anyway. ‘An item? No. Not Greg.’

‘But you and . . . Goat?’

She didn’t reply.

‘What about Greg now?’ I asked. ‘What’s his family situation? I don’t remember noticing a wedding ring on his hand.’

‘That’s because his wife left when the twins were toddlers.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. She was nice. A little too meek for me, but sweet. She went to school with us too. Greg started dating her when they were both twenty-one. Six months later they were getting married.’

‘Because she was pregnant?’

‘Yep. Have I mentioned how old-fashioned it is around here? Then she was gone, shortly after Buddy and Darlene turned two. I heard she went to Chicago. Maybe Seattle. Nobody’s sure. She doesn’t have any contact with Greg or the kids as far as I know.’

I couldn’t understand that. I lived thousands of miles from my daughter, but the idea of not having her in my life was incomprehensible.

‘Why did she leave?’ I asked.

Nikki stopped walking for a moment. She looked like she was trying to decide whether to tell me.

‘She said they were evil.’

‘The twins?’

But she walked on without saying another word.

‘Is it much further?’ I asked, scrambling to keep up. I had no idea where we were. I couldn’t see any cabins.

‘No. We need to cut through here.’

She led me through a thicket of trees. The sounds from the resort fell away so I could no longer hear the band. I was starting to regret my decision to follow Nikki and wondered if I should go back the way I’d come, to follow the path I knew. But I wasn’t even sure where we were, and I’d come this far already.

We crossed a path that led east to west.

‘This feels familiar,’ I said. It was hard to tell in the darkness but I thought we were on the other side of the resort, near the clearing with the flat stone.

I could hear wind chimes, faint, somewhere in the distance, deep inside the trees.

Here in the woods, the trees didn’t feel like the benevolent, beautiful spirits that Nikki and Greg and Abigail had loved so much. They seemed hostile, as if they were stretching out their branches and trying to block us from where we were going. Their silhouettes were twisted, grotesque, like shadow puppets in a surrealist nightmare. And the distant wind chimes weren’t light or tinkly or melodious. They sounded discordant, jarring. Like the forest was laughing at us.

Nikki picked up the pace, striding forward determinedly. She had cast off her nervousness and seemed resigned to whatever fate awaited her.

And then, with little warning, we were out of the woods. I felt like I’d stumbled out of a maze, disoriented and confused, but I knew where I was. We were indeed near the flat stone, and the path led back towards the cabins.

Soon, we passed the Butlers’ cabin and reached mine.

I went to walk up the steps but Nikki put out an arm to stop me. Her mood had changed again. She was trembling and had gone pale. The ash smudge was still on her cheek. I stared at it for a second. Then, to my great surprise, she took a step towards me, took hold of both of my arms and kissed me.

We broke apart. ‘What—’ I started to say, but she put a finger to my lips.

‘I wanted to do it,’ she said. ‘While I still had the chance.’

I didn’t like where this was going. There was a voice in my head telling me to get out. But I had to ask. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You need to go inside, Tom.’

My entire body had gone cold.

‘What are you talking about?’

She wouldn’t meet my eye. She turned away. She was shaking. Was she crying?

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.





Chapter 35


They walked in a kind of diamond shape. Buddy at the front, then Frankie and Ryan side by side, with Darlene behind, gripping the forbidding-looking black handgun.

‘Follow me and don’t say a word,’ said Buddy.

‘We will kill you,’ said Darlene.

‘Bury you alive,’ said Buddy, clearly delighted by the idea.

‘They say it’s one of the worst ways to go,’ his sister said. She sounded like she was reading from the world’s dullest textbook, one she was being forced to read aloud in class. ‘Fighting for breath. Mouth packed with dirt. Panicking. Gasping. Knowing there’s no way out.’