The Retreat(92)

Julia crossed to the little tray of toiletries.

‘I thought my tampons had been going missing,’ she said in a low voice, picking one up. ‘This is the brand I use.’

She spotted something else: a cooler, the kind you’d take on a picnic. She lifted the lid. It contained a packet of ham, butter, slices of bread, a few apples.

‘All the food that’s gone missing,’ she said. ‘This is where it ended up. But who—?’

She hugged herself, trembling from the shock of discovering that someone had been living under her house, sneaking in and helping herself to things. Lurking in the walls. Listening. Watching.

Had she been there, listening, when Julia and I were in bed together?

I was about to tell her my theory about who it was when we heard a thump. It came from a point ahead of us.

‘We should go back up to the house, call the police,’ I whispered. I had already checked my phone and, unsurprisingly, found I had no reception down here.

‘No,’ Julia said. ‘I have to see. I have to.’

‘Okay.’ I took a deep breath.

We went through the door at the other end of the room and entered a short passage. At the far end was the metal door that had blocked our entry earlier. Behind us, an alcove. But something else grabbed our attention. Another door set into the stone wall.

Julia approached the door tentatively and turned the handle. It was locked.

To keep us out, or keep someone in?

Heart thumping, I crouched and put my eye to the keyhole. A light was on inside the room. I found myself looking at another mattress on the floor. There was something on the pillow. I blinked several times before I realised what I was looking at.

I stood up so fast that all the blood rushed to my head and I had to grab the handle to stay upright.

Julia was staring at me. ‘What is it?’

But all I could do was stare at her, unable to tell her what I’d seen.





Chapter 45

LILY – 2015

Lily felt herself being lifted and slung over someone’s shoulder, the person who had grabbed her from behind and gagged her with some kind of cloth, the person whose face she couldn’t see. Her arms were pinned by her sides and she tried to bite at the gag, but it was no good. She panicked, unable to breathe properly, before snorting air through her nose. They were heading along the road, away from the river and towards the woods.

Megan hurried along behind. Megan, who had been waiting in the bushes.

Lily knew her parents would have reached the spot where she’d been standing by now, that they’d be panicking, looking for her. They’d see Big Cat in the water and think she’d fallen in. Oh, why did she do that? She was such an idiot.

They reached the woods. She tried to punch the back of the person carrying her but she was too weak, the punches bouncing off, like fleas attacking an elephant. She wanted to scream but the gag prevented her from making any sort of noise except a strangled moan. They kept heading into the woods, along the path until they reached a clearing. There was a scary-looking hut. Lily struggled and felt something drop from her pocket. It was Little Cat. She made a desperate noise, hoping Megan would see that she’d dropped him and pick him up. But Megan stepped over the cat, eyes fixed on the path ahead, and they carried on across the clearing into the next wood.

They headed further along the path. Lily fought back tears, but clung to hope. Megan was here. It had to be some sort of game. A prank. Though she didn’t understand why Megan wasn’t smiling or laughing. Lily had never seen her friend look so deadly serious.

They stopped by a large tree with a silvery trunk, and the person carrying her dropped her roughly onto the damp ground. Lily stared up at him.

It was Jake.

Megan’s big brother was panting with the exertion of carrying her all that way. He looked to Megan, as if waiting for instructions. Lily reminded herself that even though Jake was a lot older and bigger than his sister, inside he was younger. Megan always bossed him around. Lily had no doubt that Megan was in charge here.

With her arms free at last, Lily grabbed the gag and pulled it away from her mouth.

‘Don’t scream,’ Megan said, ‘or we’ll hurt you.’

This must be what it feels like to be in shock, Lily thought. This was her best friend. But the way Megan was looking at her now, it was as if she hated her.

No, it wasn’t hate in her eyes. It was fear. Fear and determination.

‘What are you doing?’ Lily asked.

‘We’re saving ourselves.’

‘From the Widow,’ Jake said.

Lily gawped at him, then at Megan. ‘But the Widow isn’t real.’

Megan leaned forward, hands on her thighs. ‘It’s 2015 now. The year of the Widow. She’s going to come to town to take a child unless another child is sacrificed. And Grandad said she likes children whose parents aren’t together. Like ours. Like us.’

Lily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Megan, it’s not real! It’s a made-up story.’

‘No. She’s real. You saw her, remember? You told me she said my name. She’ll come for me, unless I do something about it.’

Lily felt like she’d swallowed a giant ice cube. ‘But I made that up.’

‘What?’

‘I lied! I was trying to scare you.’