The Retreat(34)

It was the start of the school summer holidays, the best six weeks of the year, and Lily and Megan were on what the grown-ups referred to as a playdate. Dad had dropped Lily off earlier, telling her to be good. ‘Don’t go off on your own,’ he’d said.

‘I know, I know. And don’t talk to Strangers.’

‘Don’t worry, Mr Marsh,’ Megan had said. ‘We’re just going to play in the garden. I’ve got a pack of water balloons.’

But after soaking each other with the balloons and drying off in the hot sun, they’d come inside and now they were doing what Mum said Lily was always doing, like it was the worst thing in the world: staring at a screen. It was massively unfair because Mum and Dad were constantly looking at their phones, even when they were supposed to be talking to each other.

Megan put on a horror-movie voice and said, ‘Are you prepared to be scared ?’

Lily found herself looking at a big house surrounded by winter trees. The graphics were pretty basic but effective.

‘It looks like your house, doesn’t it?’ Megan said. ‘Out there in the woods.’

‘Don’t say that.’

Spooky music played and Lily realised she was holding her breath as their character entered the house.

‘What’s in there?’ she asked.

Megan’s voice was hushed. ‘Bloody Mary.’

‘Oh God. I’m freaking out.’

Megan laughed. ‘You’re such a baby.’

‘Shut up! No I’m not.’

On-screen, they crept through a series of empty corridors, into dark rooms filled with blocky furniture. Megan said, ‘If Mary catches you she takes you into her world.’

Lily swallowed. ‘What’s in her world?’

Megan smiled at her. ‘Freaky stuff. Time moves backwards. There are people with zips for mouths and black holes where their eyes should be. And you’ll never see your mum and dad again.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Lily said.

‘You really are a wimp.’

Megan concentrated on the game for a while, eyes stretched wide, and then suddenly a dark figure jumped out at them. Bloody Mary. Megan and Lily both screamed.

Footsteps came towards the room. Megan lunged for the Xbox, turning it off before the door opened.

‘What’s going on?’ Megan’s mum asked.

‘Nothing, Mum. Just Barney. He did the grossest fart ever.’

The dog rolled an eye towards them, as if he knew he was being blamed for something he hadn’t done.

Megan’s mum pulled him to his feet. ‘Come on, you horrible mutt. You can go in the garden for a bit. Leave these poor girls alone.’

Lily felt guilty after Megan’s mum and the dog had gone. Poor Barney.

Megan waited till she heard the back door open, then said, ‘Have you ever done the Bloody Mary thing? You know, said her name three times in the mirror.’

‘No way.’

‘Shall we do it now?’

Lily had gone cold all over.

‘Come on, scaredy-cat. It’ll be fun.’

‘Megan! No way.’

An annoyed look appeared on Megan’s face and Lily was worried she wouldn’t want to be her friend any more.

She was about to say okay, she’d do it, when Megan laughed and said, ‘Only kidding. Everyone knows Bloody Mary’s not real, anyway.’ She paused. ‘Unlike the Red Widow.’

The moment of relief Lily had felt was blasted away. ‘What do you mean?’

Megan’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘The Widow. She’s real. I heard my grandad talking about her.’

‘She can’t be real.’

‘She is. My grandad said she’s lived around here for hundreds of years. She can’t die. She’s . . . what’s the word?’

‘Immortal?’

‘Yeah. That’s it. And you know she feeds on children? It’s the children’s blood that makes the Widow live forever.’

Lily stared at her friend, expecting her to burst into laughter and yell, ‘Pranked!’ But Megan’s expression remained deadly serious, even a little scared. And that made Lily feel scared too, even if it was obvious the Widow didn’t really exist.

They were silent for a minute. Lily wanted to go out in the garden, into the sunshine, to play with the dog and forget all about the stupid Widow and Bloody Mary and scary video games. She wanted to go home and give Chesney a big squeeze and see her mum.

They climbed up to the treehouse and Barney ran around at the foot of the tree, barking. They chucked water balloons down and he chased them, getting splashed and jumping in the air, but always coming back for more. It was hilarious. Lily forgot all about the scary stuff Megan had been talking about indoors.

Megan’s mum came out into the garden.

‘Girls, it’s teatime. Go and wash your hands. And Megan, Grandad’s here.’

‘Great!’ Megan climbed out of the tree and Lily followed.

There was a little bathroom just inside the house. The girls went in to wash their hands, then Lily followed Megan to the kitchen, where lunch was laid out: sandwiches and crisps and slices of cucumber; beakers of orange squash. Lily hadn’t realised how hungry she was. Megan’s big brother, Jake, was there already, putting his fingers all over the crisps. Jake was fourteen but, according to Megan, was like a five-year-old on the inside. Not long after Lily met Megan, she’d witnessed her friend fight another girl who called Jake ‘retarded’. Seeing the way Megan stuck up for her brother made Lily wish she had a sibling, someone she could look after. But how was that ever going to happen if her parents didn’t like each other any more?