Tuesday was spent sitting in their back garden in the cooling summer air, fast turning into autumn, and trying to concentrate in one of the few books she had brought with her. It was not difficult to get drawn into the story – a plague of zombies with a warlock controlling them, a young witch trying to kill them all – but Katie couldn’t stop her mind drifting back to the previous night. Eventually, when she had read three chapters and found she remembered not a word of it, she got up and went inside, changed into some exercise clothes and went down to the track. Maybe a decent work-out would sort her head out.
“Hey Roy.” Katie leaned through the window and gave him a little wave as she passed.
The old man was ducked down behind a table, his thinning, silver hair sticking up above it, Worzel Gummidge style. He heaved himself up when she spoke. “Why, morning, Miss Katie!” He frowned at the clock on the wall, its face almost invisible behind the dirty glass. It was still morning, but only just. “Must get that thing cleaned. I am sorry I couldn’t get you no work but rules is rules.”
She’d been hearing that a lot lately, it seemed. “Something’ll come up,” she shrugged and reached for the pen and clipboard to sign herself in. “Is it busy down there today.”
“Not too bad. A few stew-dents training for that race on Saturday.”
That was it for Katie. She scribbled a signature and hurried off to the track, eager to check out the competition. Before she entered the stadium proper, she took a second to breathe. She hadn’t even realised she had been holding her breath. She had known the quality of runners back at school and in their local clubs. Not too brilliant but the odd person who could keep pace sometimes. But these were college runners. And at a specialist sports academy at that. Of course they were going to be good. Undoubtedly better than her. When she passed through the arched entrance to the arena though, all she saw was a half dozen young people huddled in a group with another couple sitting down and watching. Katie stood and watched, open-mouthed at what they did next. The handful of students broke apart and lined up on the start line. Some-one yelled out and everyone burst away in a show of unnatural speed. They were better than good, better than better than her. They were brilliant. After the first bend, the leader jogged off the track and left the others to keep running. He was obviously the pace maker, getting them all into a healthy rhythm and pace. But after going down the straight, they all jogged to a halt. Suddenly it all made sense. The older man who had acted like the pacemaker was the coach and they were all practising sprint starts. At least, she hoped that was all it was. It was the kind of coaching she had come to Northwood for. The students were spookily fast, and none of them seemed out of breath from where she was standing, the kind of speed you only saw in professional competition. Of course! At least some of these had been in professional competitions.
Feeling a bit depressed now, Katie turned away ad jogged over to the opposite side of the track and sat on the pitted grass. From here, where she could only see vague shapes moving around, she could do some stretches and think things through. For starters, what was going on with her and Jack? He seemed to like her, she could tell that much, and she felt warm inside whenever she was near him. She felt safe around him, and that was good, but she felt a bit frightened too, and that was bad. Not frightened of him – God, a world of no - but scared of something. Things Katie didn’t know could hurt her. The last few months had pretty much drilled it into her – don’t trust the shadows. And then there was Dina. The shy girl who barely spoken without Jaye there to hold her hand, had drugged her and let her nearly be attacked again. Dina didn’t know it had happened before but it made no difference. Why did she do it? tugged at her brain like it had last night but the answer didn’t seem all that important either. It was done. Nothing terrible had happened. It was over. And yet… who would have thought Dina could be that vindictive.
Lainy walked up to Katie just as she was turning her thoughts to Leo – had a human side but was an insensitive, anti-social git mostly. “Been a few years since I could do that.”
Katie was bent like a hairpin, grasping her feet with her clawed hands, legs locked straight. It wasn’t enough just to be good at running; she had to keep as flexible as possible. Generally speaking, athletes were decent gymnasts too. Not great enough to compete but passable. “I’m surprised I can still do it myself to be honest.”
“Uh-huh,” she said doubtfully. “I thought you’d be here. We should talk about last night.” She went quiet. Katie waited, almost able to see the cogs turning in the other girls’ head as she ran through things to say. “A lot of things happened yesterday. I’m sorry it was all on your night.”
“I never said I was easy to live with. You’ve never had a lodger as problematic as me. “ Yay! A claim to fame.
“Katie, don’t ever think you’re a problem. You could never be that,” Lainy scolded her with a frown. There hadn’t been a dull moment in the house since Katie arrived it was true. “The things that went on… they were nothing to do with you. Everything’s just…” she covered her face with her hand for a second then pushed her short curls back. “Everyone gets stressed this time of year and that tension sometimes turns into aggression. Jaye,” she paused again, trying to find the right words. Nothing seemed quite right. “She wasn’t herself yesterday.”
“No kidding. Ever since I met her, she’s been nothing but smiles and jokes and then she just broke yesterday. I guess there’s only so much happy you can be.” And, boy, didn’t Katie know that.
“When she went out with Dina on Sunday, things were said and Dina said, you know, she’d had enough and was thinking of leaving. It really got to Jaye because she started feeling kind of like a failure and she started thinking about some of the crap she’s been through –“
“Like that guy who dumped her last year?”
Lainy frowned. “She told you about that?”
Katie decided to push it a bit further. “Can you tell me what I really saw yesterday?”
“I’m not real clear on what went on,” she said. Katie thought she was lying to her even though Lainy sounded sincere, leaving just enough of a pause between question and answer. They had surely discussed it last night. “I know Leo started spouting his stuff about eternal damnation at some point and it just pushed her over the edge.”
This was getting them nowhere. Lainy wasn’t giving up any of the answers to subtle questioning. Katie decided to try a different tack and, this time, get her suspicions confirmed before she asked anything. “Millford,” she began. It was almost funny how Katie could practically see her friend step back and pull heavy metal shutters down. A delicate subject then. “Jaye said we’re not allowed to go down there. True or false?”
“It’s a dangerous place, honey. Bad things happen there. Weird things. It’s just not worth the risk.”
“Are we banned from going though?”
“There’s nothing physically stopping you.” By the horribly familiar shadow that flickered in Lainy’s eyes, Katie got the feeling there was much more to be said after that sentence. More that nearly fell out of her mouth. “We just wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
“And Jack?”
“I think he’d rather die than see you hurt.” Lainy glanced at the bandage on her arm and then out at the group of students running or jumping along the lanes. She had a dark and distant look about her. “Although I think it might be a bit late for that.”
Katie gave up. “I’ve got training to do.” She ran off, lunging, stretching and jumping along. As she started half running and half jogging and swinging her arms, Katie risked a look back and saw Lainy staring after her. Let her stare. The week had been way too busy. There were too many questions that needed answers. No more riddles and give answers that just sounded like they meant something and were actually really vague. She wanted to run, to get ready for the race on Saturday. It seemed to get
more important with every other thing that had happened. Rounding the second bend, Katie managed to stop herself crashing into Lainy as she dashed towards the exit faster than looked plausible with just a bump and a stepped on toe.
“Woah! If ever I need a tackling dummy – what happened?” Katie breathed, seeing the panic turning her friend’s face into a mask of lines and shadows. “I wasn’t being mean. Running’s kinda my escape from everything is all.”
“Come on!” Lainy grabbed her hand tightly and towed her along. “Dina’s in hospital.”
“What?” she spluttered. Not that it was a huge surprise to Katie – a day going by without an emergency was always going to be a long shot.
CHAPTER ELEVEN