The Fandom(25)

Alice joins in. ‘I’m holding out for a hero till the end of the night—’

‘Guys, seriously!’ I say.

Katie clutches her heart and throws her head back. ‘And he’s gotta be strong and he’s got a big dong . . .’

We start laughing, really loudly, like we’re back home, the three of us lined up on my sofa, watching shit telly and throwing popcorn and insults at Simon Cowell. But something about our laughter sounds so out of place in this strange, concrete world – like bird-song in a warzone – and gradually it tapers into silence.

‘I guess we keep on walking,’ Alice says.

I reply by moving my feet, the monotony of the tarmac bedding into the soles of my boots.

‘Alice?’ I ask.

She grunts.

‘When you wrote all your fanfic, did you give all the Imps backstories?’

‘What are you getting at?’

I struggle to order my thoughts. ‘It’s just, Ash’s got this rich history which is completely new to me, and most of the Imps we’ve seen aren’t from the film or the novel . . .’ I trail off.

‘That is weird,’ Katie says.

Alice nods. ‘I know what you mean. I don’t think fanfic has the answer though, I think maybe Nate’s right.’

‘Alternate universe?’ I say.

Alice laughs a breathy laugh. ‘This is mental.’

‘So what happens next?’ Katie asks.

Alice pulls at her ragged hair as if trying to make it grow. ‘Bet you wish you’d listened to Violet’s presentation now.’

‘I did,’ Katie says, looking at me, concern registering on her neat features. ‘Honest I did, Vi. It’s just everything here is so messed up it’s hard to remember it all. And you said something about the canon haunting us, so it might help hearing it again.’

‘Then try reading something other than Dickens,’ Alice says.

I step in. ‘So Saskia and Matthew took Rose to meet Thorn at Rebel Headquarters. Which is where we’re going now, to find Nate. Then Thorn took Rose to see Baba.’

‘The psychic zombie?’ Katie says.

I nod. ‘Baba read Rose’s mind, and told Thorn that Rose would be the one to save the Imps.’

‘Through self-sacrifice and love,’ Alice says, unable to resist butting in.

I push on. ‘So Thorn trusted Rose to take the lead in the biggest rebel mission to date – the Harper mission.’

‘And that’s where she met Willow?’ Katie says.

Alice nods and sighs. ‘Ah, Willow. To think, we’re breathing the same air, standing beneath the same sky.’

I get that same tremor of excitement, like we’re back at Comic-Con thinking about Russell Jones. With all the commotion, all the worry about Nate, I’d completely forgotten about Willow.

Eventually, the road opens up. Bombed-out buildings sit at either side, the shadows of their foundations remaining. Weeds push through the cracks in the tarmac and, for a brief moment, I feel relieved just seeing the green. And then I notice them. Thistles. Hundreds and hundreds of thistles. Forcing their way between the paving slabs, nestling between bricks, peering from mounds of rubble.

‘The symbol of the rebels,’ I say.

‘Cut us down and we come back stronger,’ Alice replies, a little dreamy, like we’re back at the cinema watching the film.

I nod. ‘We’re nearly there.’

Rose walked this very path with Saskia and Matthew on her way to meet Thorn for the first time. The thrill of her first successful mission was fading and the nerves were bedding in. I recall how she saw the thistles and said, Is he as spiky as his favourite weed? And Saskia smiled and replied, Even spikier.

Now, it just seems ridiculous that Rose felt nervous. She hadn’t destroyed the thistle-bomb mission, and she hadn’t lost her little brother, and she hadn’t been transported to a different universe. That piece of shrapnel is back and I start to feel sick again.

Alice must be thinking the same, cos she squeezes my hand. ‘He’s not that spiky. Remember, he loved Ruth, didn’t he?’

‘Who’s Ruth?’ Katie asks.

Alice turns to me. ‘You tell her, before I scream.’

‘She was a main part of Thorn’s backstory,’ I say. ‘She was the love of his life years ago, when he was our age, but she was hanged at the Gallows Dance before they could elope. Thorn never recovered.’

Katie gasps. ‘That’s tragic. Poor Thorn.’

‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘And watching the love of his life hang at the hands of the Gems did wonders for his anger issues. He’s a ruthless psycho.’

Alice cackles. ‘Ruth-less, get it?’

Katie manages a half-smile. ‘That would be funny if we were still talking about a book.’

But I can’t even force a half-smile. All I can think about is the fact my little brother may already be at headquarters with Thorn.

‘Yeah, sorry,’ Alice grumbles.

We continue to head south, keeping the ever-fading sun to our right. The bunches of thistles increase, the stench of rotting fish overpowers us, and, finally, my eyes fall upon the church. It stands amongst the devastation, ragged and tired, yet mostly intact. Proof of divine intervention, the book said.

‘Nate.’ I start to run towards the church.