Of course, both Adam and I both know what Graham has really been constructing at home; his movie. Threatening to change the world by killing every girl he doesn’t like. Which is just about every girl.
He sees the look of doubt in our eyes, struggles to appease it with another stab at an explanation.
‘A hologram, right, isn’t an image, like people think it is. It’s really the memory of the interference in a light field–’
He sees the confusion on my face, even in Adam’s expression.
We can’t see where this can be leading to.
How can it be connected to the Wry Man? And yet, going by the determined narrowing of his eyes, it seems that Graham believes this is the nearest he can come up with to explain how the Wry Man came into being.
He waves our concerns away with an airily dismissive shaking of his hands.
‘It’s the memory of the light patterns you would actually see! So you no longer need the actual object to replicate that experience. Similarly, the transporter beam – another thing no one seems to realise – actually destroys the original person. It simply stores the memory of molecular interference, so it can be re-created someplace else.’
‘You sure you’re not making all this up as you go along?’ Adam grumbles impatiently. ‘Holograms need lasers; one controllable wavelength.’
Again, Graham uses a wave of his hand to dismiss any of our qualms.
‘But what if it’s a collective memory of something we all secretly fear? Perhaps we’ve conjured up this Rye Man into existence! As for your point about the lasers, I’ve been experimenting with a Viking Sun Stone–’
‘Now you’re bringing in the Vikings?’ Adam gasps, exasperated. ‘I’ve heard of it; they used it to navigate. To see the sun even in foggy conditions. How’s that connected?’
‘They could even see the sun when it was below the horizon! When you pass two sheets of calcite crystal over each other, it focuses light, enabling us to see even ultraviolet light! Now, if you combine these three technologies with simpler ones like computer graphics and three-d printing–’
‘They’re hardly all technologies!’
Jeez, Amina! Have you really got nothing better to do than listen to this?
Who’d have thought it? Gorgeous little Amina, hanging around with her best friend Graham Forest!
Pearl? Chloe?
You’re back!
*
Chapter 16
Where have you been?
Where have we been? Where have you been?
We’ve been here all along!
You couldn’t hear us!
We were screaming at you not to listen to him!
Not to listen to Adam?
He was saying we didn’t exist!
He didn’t think you did! But now he’s seen the Wry Man, he knows it wasn’t all just my imagination!
‘Amina?’
Adam’s got that concerned look again, like he’s figuring I’m talking to myself once more.
‘Sorry,’ I grin. ‘I was just trying to get my head around what Graham’s saying.’
I don’t want to tell him the girls are back. I don’t want him thinking I might just be a little crazy.
I don’t want him telling me they don’t exist.
‘Really?’ he says, replying to my own smile with a wryly doubtful grin. ‘You can make sense of all that?’
Cheek! Is he saying I’m stupid?
No, he’s saying no one could make sense of it but some geek who spends all his time in his room!
Amen to that!
No, I can’t tell Adam the girls are back.
I don’t want to run the risk that he’ll try persuading me the girls don’t exist once more.
Because they do exist.
They’re real!
*
Graham’s doing a good job of blaming everything on this here Wry Man,
Completely avoiding the undeniable fact that he paid the guy to bump us all off!
And let’s not forget the movie; the one needing an ending where he goes out in a blaze of glory!
Graham was still trying to explain how the Wry Man might have come into existence.
I interrupt him.
‘Why did you put your edited movie into your camera?’
‘So you did pinch it!’
He glowers at me like, suddenly, I’m the one at fault here: rather than him for setting the Wry Man to kill us all!
I answer his angry glare, his accusation, with a dismissive wave of a hand, like he was using earlier.
‘Just answer the question, Graham!’
First he looks stupefied by my forthrightness, then petulantly upset by it.
‘Well, because; I needed something extra to end my film, of course!’
‘So why not shoot it, then edit it in later? That’s what most people would do!’
‘I wasn’t sure I’d have time to do it; to edit it, I mean.’
‘You thought you’d end up dead, you mean?’
He nods resignedly. The he notices I’m glaring at him.
‘No no! It’s not what you think!’ he blurts out urgently. ‘It was the Rye Man I was going after. That was the ending my movie required. I’d brought him into existence; I had to get rid of him.’
‘How?’ For the first time in ages, I sense a rising glimmer of hope. ‘How were you planning on getting rid of him?’
‘Haven’t you been listening?’ he retorts with an irate grimace.
‘Sorry! What did you say?’
‘I said I have absolutely no idea how to get rid of him!’
*
Chapter 17
Why couldn’t you hear us before, when Adam was saying we didn’t exist?
Love maybe; it makes you forget your friends, doesn’t it?
I suppose that could be true.
I’m ashamed to admit it.
Adam’s only just left us, and already I feel like he’s been away from me for too long.
I’m trying to work out some excuse to be with him again.
Maybe it was this Wry Man; you know, blocking us out?
Sure; making sure you couldn’t hear us.
The more I hear about this Wry Man, the less I like him!
But he wasn’t there.
He might have been.
We didn’t see him; but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t watching us.
You’d know though, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you sense him, if he’d been there?
Probably, yes; but we don’t know that for sure.
Who knows what kind of powers this guy’s got? When he realised he’d been short changed, remember, he stopped you dying Amina!
That maybe means too that he was the one who transformed your mum’s fresh tuna into a weapon of mass destruction. Wanting it to look like natural deaths.
Two dead; hardly mass destruction.
If you’re one of the two, it might as well be mass, thank you.
But anyway, if it was him managing to block us out of your mind, well; if he can do that, maybe he can stop us sensing him too.
Why? Why would he do that?
Maybe – maybe he fears us!
We all chuckle at this.
Then I stop.
Wait! If that’s true, doesn’t that give him another reason to get rid of us?
Oh yeeaah.
*
Chapter 18
‘You sure you’re just thinking things through?’
Adam’s glancing up at me doubtfully, like he knows I’m talking with the girls again.
It’s not like I’m managing to hide it, is it? I must go off into this dreamy, distracted pose whenever we’re having our little chats.
In this case, I’m still supposed to be cleaning Adams wounds. Instead, I’ve just sort of frozen in mid action.
‘Where...where’s Graham?’ I ask, puzzled.
He’s nowhere to be seen. Just how long was I talking to the girls?
Adam looks about himself, as bewil
dered as I am.
‘He was here just a second ago! No one could run away that fast!’
‘Why, don’t worry! Here he is!’
The Wry Man is standing by the gates once more,
And this time, he’s holding a terrified, squirming Graham by the neck.
*
‘Let him go,’ I say despairingly. ‘I know it’s me you want.’
‘Oh, but I can have you as well anyway. You’re not in a position to impose deals. Besides, are you really so sure you want him?’
No!
Let him squirm!
Adam begins to stand up, using an arm to push and force me to take shelter behind him.
The Wry Man suddenly hurls Graham at Adam as if he’s weightless.
When Graham strikes Adam, though, it’s quite obvious he isn’t weightless. He bowls Adam aside, landing on him ungainly, painfully.
I rush to an injured Adam’s side once more. Graham’s also been injured by the heavy fall. But he doesn’t deserve my help.
I glance back nervously towards the school. Then look towards the street beyond the gates.
Where is everyone? Is there no one around to help us?
As you’d expect, the Wry Man laughs at the way I’m helplessly seeking for someone to help us.
‘Where are people when you need them?’
He briefly looks about himself as if he too is mystified by the lack of any sense of life or movement around us.
‘It’s like they’re all on...ohh, I don’t know. Frozen in time, maybe? Or perhaps even on a different plane of existence?’
He smiles scornfully at the way I’m tending Adam, yet ignoring Graham.
‘You see? You didn’t want him!
‘I didn’t want him killed!’
You know, it really wouldn’t have bothered me too much.
I wouldn’t have lost any sleep, I’ve got to admit.
‘I didn’t want him killed!’
He repeats what I’ve just said while frowning quizzically, as if it’s full of hidden meaning.
‘Hardly an endorsement for your care for him, is it?’ he adds.
‘If you mean would I have him as a friend, you’re wrong. Now I know what I caused him to suffer, yes; I would have him as a friend.’
Oh, Amina! Do you know your eyes give you away when you lie?
Shushhh! She’s just trying to appease the Wry Man, idiot!
‘As a friend!’
He repeats it with mock tenderness.
‘That’s so nice, don’t you think Graham?’
Graham is unsteadily rising to his feet.
As Adam took the brunt of the clash between them, he’s not as badly injured as Adam. Adam’s still breathless, a little dazed. I think he knocked his head on the hard concrete floor as they fell to the ground together.
‘The old classic put down! I like you as friend; but not in the way you want!’
‘Graham doesn’t want anything to do with me; especially in the way you’re making out.’
‘Oh doesn’t he? Perhaps you should ask him? You know; especially about the “making out” part?’
Graham looks embarrassed.
‘He wanted me killed, didn’t he?’ I point out to the Wry Man. ‘And my friends.’
‘Of course he did! Because you humiliated him! The one he loved so much. The delicately beautiful Amina! Humiliating him every day! Every minute! Can you imagine the torture he was suffering? No wonder he ended up hating you so much!’
Amina! So all this was your fault!
And we’re the ones who’re dead! How unfair is that?
I glance Graham’s way, waiting for him to deny all this. Instead, he hangs his head in shame.
‘Graham?’
He can’t answer, can’t look at me.
‘I didn’t know,’ I say. As if that helps.
‘And if you did know?’ The Wry Man cocks his head, as if curiously awaiting my answer. ‘Do you mean you might actually have considered...?’
He pauses expectantly.
Now I’m the one who hangs my head in shame.
‘We all know what the answer is, Amina.’
The Wry Man says it calmly, quietly. He doesn’t need to add even a hint of triumph.
‘The very best a boy like Graham could hope for, from the very kindest girl, would be a “I like you too much as a friend”. But you, Amina; you didn’t possess even that little bit of kindness in you, did you?’
I’m squirming in embarrassment.
Suddenly, however, Adam is quivering even more violently. Like he’s suffering a late reaction to Graham falling on him. Like he’s going into shock.
‘Adam!’ I shriek in concern.
His face contorts in agony.
It’s the Wry Man! He’s doing this!
I look up towards the Wry Man. Naturally, he’s grinning as he watches Adam suffer.
‘Please!’ I plead. ‘Adam doesn’t have anything to do with this!’
‘Oh, doesn’t he?’ the Wry Man sneers maliciously. ‘You’re so innocent, my dear.’
Abruptly, Adam vanishes.
And in his place, it’s Graham I’m holding in my arms.
*
Chapter 19
Oh God no! We’re holding Graham!
I whirl around, trying to see what’s happened to Adam, where he is.
He’s standing where Graham had fallen to the ground. He no longer looks as badly injured as he’d been when he’d been lying in my arms.
Graham, however, is now writhing in agony. Just as Adam had been only seconds ago.
‘What are you doing?’ I scream at the Wry Man. ‘Why are you doing this?’
‘Me? I’m doing nothing,’ the Wry Man answers innocently. ‘Just revealing the truth, my girl.’
‘The truth?’
I’m confused. I’m trying to work out what this bizarre situation could possibly mean.
Adam looks as bewildered as I am. Once he’s recovered from the shock of finding himself standing in a completely different position, he kneels down beside me, placing his arms protectively around me.
‘He’s just trying to confuse you!’ he says.
‘Adam is Graham,’ the Wry Man says as if by way of explanation. He’s now languidly making his way towards us. ‘Graham is Adam. What could possibly be so confusing about that?’
‘That doesn’t make any sense!’
‘Are you sure? Or are you just hoping it doesn’t make sense? Let me help you a little more.’
The Wry Man’s no longer advancing towards us.
I’m holding him tenderly in my arms.
*
With a shocked yell, I leap back, away from the Wry Man.
Even though I’m no longer supporting him, the Wry Man doesn’t slump to the floor. He remains seated at this odd angle, as if someone invisible is supporting him.
He laughs at my surprise.
Graham has swapped places with Adam once more; he’s now the one with his arms wrapped around me.
And where the Wry Man had been, there now stands a perplexed Adam.
He starts running towards us – only to instantly change once more into Graham.
And the Wry Man is now the one with his arms around me.
*
Adam is back on the floor. Unlike the Wry Man, he slumps to the floor with no one there to support him.
What the hell’s going on here?
I shrug free of the Wry Man’s grasp, bend down to help Adam once more; only to find he’s Graham again. I’ve just pulled myself free of Adam’s arms.
The Wry Man is running towards us.
They all change again. And again. The changes faster and faster, becoming a bewildering blur.
And then, at last, I understand.
‘The three of you,’ I cry out, ‘are all the same person!’
*
Chapter 20
The rapid changes immediately stop.
Adam is on the floor by me once more.
/> Graham is standing just a few steps in front of me, having stopped running towards us.
Which means; the Wry Man is close behind me.
He places a hand on each of my shoulders, gripping me tightly, painfully.
‘Well done, well done,’ he hisses in my ear. ‘You figured it out!’
*
We’ve had enough of this!
Ignoring the agonising firmness of his grip, I shrug off the Wry Man’s hands.
He gasps in surprise, wondering where I’ve got the strength from to break free of such a firm hold. As a part of the same move, I spin around on the balls of my feet.
Bringing my hands together, I swing my arms as hard as I can into the side of the Wry Man’s face.
And I’m amazed just how hard I can strike him.
Maybe he’s a little unbalanced. Maybe he wasn’t expecting me to lash out at him.
Maybe having Chloe and Pearl inside me has given me a strength and determination I wouldn’t otherwise possess.
Whatever the reason, the Wry Man is sent careering off to one side. He stumbles, crumples a little on his legs.
Graham gawps in astonishment.
Kill Graham and we kill the Wry Man!
I think killing Graham might be going too far, something I doubt I’m capable of anyway.
At the moment, however, I can’t think of anything better to do than at least lunge out for him and capture him in a tight hold around his chest and waist I wouldn’t have believed I was capable of only a second ago.
‘I’m not trying to hurt you!’ he protests.
‘But I am!’
I’m holding the Wry Man, not Graham. But he’s amused, not apprehensive of my surprisingly firm grip.
We should have killed him!
They’re the same!
With a simple flexing of his incredibly thin arms, the Wry Man breaks my hold on him. Like I’m a weak little girl once more.
‘Amina, let’s run!’
Adam’s alongside me, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me into a sprint away from the Wry Man.
We can’t trust him either!
He could turn into the Wry Man any minute!
He tried to tell you we didn’t exist, remember!
Now it all makes sense!
I know what the girls are saying.