What the hell is that smell?
The bins reeked but there was also some other awful stench around that she really didn’t want to think about. Focusing on her rescue, she kept an eye on the entrance to the alley. Isabelle had said she wouldn’t have to wait long.
But as the minutes ticked by she grew impatient. Even here in the dark she felt too exposed. Too easily discovered.
If I were looking for me, this would be one of the first places I’d look, she thought.
Frowning, she chewed her thumbnail absently, until a strange shuffling sound drew her attention. Glancing down, she saw a discarded sandwich box moving by itself. At first she couldn’t register what she was seeing then her mouth opened in startled astonishment as the box crept slowly towards her from the far side of the alley. Only when it moved into a pool of light did she see the thin, prehensile tail dragging the ground behind it.
Allie covered her mouth with her hands to stifle a scream.
She was crouching in a rats’ nest.
She looked around desperately but there was no place to go. As the sandwich box made its uneven way towards her, she could feel her heart flutter with fear and she struggled to stay still. She had to remain hidden.
But when the rat-box bumped against her left foot it was too much – she tore out of the alley as if she’d been scalded. When she stopped, she found herself back on the street with absolutely no idea of what to do now.
At that moment a sleek, black car skidded to a stop in front of her. Before Allie could react, a tall man leapt out of the driver’s side door and whirled to face her, all in one smooth move.
‘Allie! Quick! Get in the car.’
She stared at him in astonishment. Isabelle had told her she’d send people to help. She hadn’t said ‘I’ll send one guy in a posh car.’ He looked very much like the men who’d chased her earlier – he wore an expensive-looking suit and his dark hair was cropped short.
Allie raised her chin stubbornly.
No way am I getting in that car.
But as she turned to flee two figures appeared out of the darkness on Foxborough Road. They were running straight for her.
She was trapped.
Looking back at the man with the sleek car she saw that he was watching her worriedly. He’d left the car running and it purred like a tiger, spotting its prey. As she took a hesitant step away from him, he stretched out his right arm, his hand turned sideways. He spoke rapidly and without punctuation.
‘Allie my name is Raj Patel I’m Rachel’s dad Isabelle sent me to get you please get in the car as fast as you can.’
Allie froze. Rachel was one of her best friends. Isabelle was the headmistress at Cimmeria Academy.
If he was telling the truth, she was safe with him.
With only seconds to make up her mind, she searched for a sign to tell her what to do. Any indication that he was who he said he was.
His extended hand was steady; he had Rachel’s eyes.
‘You do not want those men to catch you, Allie,’ he said. ‘Please get in the car.’
Something in his voice told her he was telling the truth. As if he’d said the magic words that somehow made her function Allie sprang towards him, scrabbling at the car’s unfamiliar door handle and then leaping in. She was still reaching for her seat belt when the car took off.
By the time the catch clicked into place they were doing sixty miles an hour.
TWO
The thing was, the night had started out so well.
Allie had gone out with her old friends Mark and Harry for the first time in months. These were the guys she’d hung out with back when she was always getting into trouble – she and Mark had been arrested together just a few months ago.
Her parents loathed them both, so she’d expected a bit of pushback when she announced her plans for the evening. But they hadn’t appeared cross at all.
Her mother said only, ‘Be in by midnight, please.’ And that was that.
Ever since she’d come home from Cimmeria Academy that summer they’d treated her differently. With respect.
It felt weird to go out without a row.
Weirder still was going back to the park where they used to hang out together every night to find Mark and Harry still swinging on the exercise bars in the dark like overgrown children.
‘You lot need to get a job,’ she said, striding through the gate.
‘Allie!’ they’d roared, running across the dark playground to her.
She was so happy to see them she couldn’t stop smiling. And they’d seemed thrilled to see her again – pounding her on the back and shoving a can of lukewarm cider into her hand. But once they’d settled down, the two boys on the swings and Allie perched at the top of the slide, the conversation lagged. All they talked about was skiving school, sneaking on to the railway lines to tag, nicking stuff from Foot Locker. The same things they always talked about.
Only now it seemed …
Boring.
Just two months had passed since she’d last seen them, but Allie felt like she’d aged years; so much had happened during the summer term at Cimmeria. She’d helped to save the school from fire. She’d nearly died. She’d found another student’s dead body.
Remembering that, she shivered.
She felt sure they wouldn’t understand if she tried to explain what Cimmeria was like. When they asked her about school she replied in vague terms: it was ‘kind of crazy’, but ‘pretty cool’.
‘Are all the people there, like, total toffs?’ Harry asked, crushing a cider can in his hand and throwing it into the park. Allie studied the can as it glinted amid the soft green leaves of grass.