*
Chapter 15
‘And here’s the eye of newt and what have you to go with it,’ Lee said with undisguised satisfaction, pulling out of the hole a worn leather pouch full of small glass and ceramic bottles.
‘There’s at least another bag in there too,’ Greg said, crouching lower so he could peer deeper into the crevice.
He reached into the darkness, his fingers scrabbling around for purchase on the pouch’s grimy leather.
‘Yurrgggghhhh!’ Greg moaned in disgust. ‘There’s something odd in there– arrghhh!’
As he pulled the bag through the gloomy gap towards him, it briefly seemed to glitter darkly, its surface moving as if were alive.
‘Urrghh, God! What is it?’
Max grimaced, revolted by the writhing black mass. Greg urgently pulled his hand away, leaving it lying in the dark gap.
Lee stared at the bag, trying to make out what was making it glitter like a rolling, oil-covered sea.
‘It’s covered in something that looks like it’s moving–’
‘Beetles! Cockroaches!’
As Janet cried out her warning, everyone suddenly realised she was right.
A mass of insects were streaming out of the hole, turning the floor a glistening black as they rushed across it in their hundreds and thousands.
*
Chapter 16
‘Yaargghhh!’
‘Run, run; get out of here!’
Everyone instinctively jumped back.
Lee and Greg, who were still crouching by the hole, had to almost throw themselves aside to stop themselves being covered by the onrushing horde.
‘God, how many of them are there?’ Max shrieked, glancing back in terror as she dashed out of the door.
Janet was close behind her. But Greg and Lee, who had both ended up farther from the door, had to crunch their way across the spreading black mass.
Lee slammed the door shut behind them. But not only had a large mass of the spreading insects come through into the hall with them, but others were also continuing to stream through the larger gaps beneath the door.
Quickly, Lee pulled his shirt up over his head. Kneeling down amongst the flowing river of insects, he swiftly stuffed the shirt into the gaps between the door’s base and the floor, ignoring the black waves rises up his legs and arms.
Having stemmed the worst of the oncoming flow, Lee sprang back to his feet, brushing off the insects scrambling over his body with brisk swipes of his hands and violent shakes of his legs.
For good measure, he made sure he was stamping on as many of the insects as he could.
Watching his frantic antics from the doorway of the living room where she, Max and Greg had fled to, Janet laughed.
‘Why aren’t you helping him?’ Max castigated Greg.
‘Insects! I can’t stand insects!’
Greg shuddered, as if he rather than Lee was the one having to rid himself of a covering of rapidly moving beetles.
‘Pathetic!’ Max sneered in disgust.
Janet dashed back towards Lee, helping him stamp on and crush the remaining insects. With a vibrant laugh, she helped him brush off those still crawling over him.
‘Turn around, turn around,’ she said urgently. ‘They’re scrabbling up your back, into your hair.’
‘Urggh, they tickle! Get them off, get them off,’ Lee chuckled.
Janet rapidly swept her hands across his bared back, scattering the crawling insects, sending them flying back to the floor.
‘They’re gone, they’re gone from here,’ she said triumphantly. ‘What are they like on your front? Turn around again, quick!’
‘Almost all gone here too!’
Lee spun around, his hands a frantic whirl as he tried to cast aside the insects still scampering across his chest and arms.
‘There’s a few heading up your neck!’
Janet quickly yet gently swept the insects away from Lee’s neck, giggling at the craziness of it all.
‘Where did they all come from?’
‘We must have disturbed a nest,’ Lee answered, laughing along with her.
He looked down to dash away the last of the insects on his left arm.
Janet looked up to pull away an insect crawling in his hair.
Her eyes swept across his.
Her eyes swept back
Lee’s eyes swept back.
Their eyes met.
*
There’s still kindness there, Janet realised.
A softness.
Humour too. The fun for life that she remembered Lee having in spades.
But now there was also hurt.
And humiliation.
How could she read so much in someone’s eyes?
She didn’t know.
Maybe because they were Lee’s eyes.
Eyes she had looked into many times before, seeking the signs of love. Seeking a love on the same level that she felt for him.
If Max looked into these eyes like she was doing now, what would she see?
Love, surely.
Because yes, it was obvious that Lee loved Max.
Loved Max in a way that he had never loved her.
In the case of Max and Lee, it was Lee who was the lovelorn, Max the one who didn’t really care.
But no; that wasn’t completely true, was it?
Max did care.
She liked the way Lee continually chased after her.
Liked the way he would always be there for her.
A fall-back for her whenever her own love-life had gone wrong.
That was why she kept him dangling. Always giving him hope that someday, maybe, all his dreams would come true.
It was a boost to her confidence, wasn’t it, having someone like Lee always hanging on?
And as a form of self-protection, Lee had developed a hard skin. A hardness he took out on others.
Like her, like Janet.
But that hardness – it isn’t permanent.
She can see it melting even now. Softening once again.
Like he’s recovering from his bewitchment.
‘Oi, get a room you two!’
Max’s cry had broken the spell.
Their eyes flicked away from each other.
Lee grinned stupidly.
So Janet grinned too.
And giggled.
What else could she do?
*
Chapter 17
When Lee bent down towards the floor and pulled a small section of his crumpled shirt away from the space beneath the door, nothing squirmed through the gap.
‘Perhaps they’ve all gone,’ he said hopefully.
‘Gone? Gone where?’ Greg sounded doubtful.
Lee shrugged.
‘There are plenty of cracks in an old house like this. They could have crawled through them–’
‘They could be in the walls you mean!’
Greg backed away from the hallway’s wall, clearly terrified.
‘No, no,’ Lee said quickly, hoping to reassure him. ‘I mean, once we’d disturbed their nest, they probably all scattered off outside. You know, looking for somewhere safer to build a new nest.’
‘Or they could have all gone back to their nest,’ Max pointed out. ‘Meaning they’re all still waiting there for us underneath the floorboards!’
‘Only way we’re going to find out is to check,’ Janet said, inching open the door and peering through the gap.
‘Watch out in case they come in past your feet!’ Greg warned with a shiver.
‘Nothing; there’s nothing there,’ Janet said, confidently pushing the door open wider.
‘Yep, they’ve all gone,’ Lee agreed, closely following her back into the kitchen.
The only sign that the rapidly spreading infestation had really happened were the crushed bodies of the insects that Lee and Greg had stepped on earlier as they’d run towards the door. Otherwise, the floorboards were totally clear once more.
‘Like
Max says, they might have just gone back to their nest,’ Greg said, cautiously scrutinising the kitchen from the hallway.
‘Oh Greg!’ Max gave Greg a hard push on his back, sending him stumbling into the kitchen. ‘Just get in there, you big scaredy cat! Honestly.’
‘If we can find some long stick or something,’ Lee offered, ‘I’ll probe around inside the gap under the floorboards to see if they are still down there.’
‘Good idea,’ Max said breezily. ‘And while you’re down there, bring out the rest of those herbs and things will you? I’m going to have a crack at making some of these potions!’
*
Chapter 18
The workmen had left behind a broom that, once the handle had been unscrewed from the brush head, gave Lee a long enough reach to probe and dig around for any remaining insects in the nest below the floorboards.
It was also ideal for dislodging and dragging towards him four more leather pouches, each one containing yet more small bottles.
‘Here are your herbs and God-only-knows whatever else is in them.’ Lee distastefully placed the pouches on the table alongside Max.
‘Right, so I just need some vinegar!’ Max excitedly skimmed through the book of potions she’d opened up on the table. ‘We did bring some vinegar with us, didn’t we?’
‘Sure we brought some vinegar; but you’re not serious about making up some potions are you Max?’
As Greg finished speaking, he handed Lee one of the spare shirts he’d dug out of the bags he’d brought along with him for the weekend.
‘It gives me something to keep me occupied until Janet’s parents raise the alarm and send someone along to get us out of this dump,’ Max said, searching for the vinegar amongst their supplies of food.
After giving his bared chest a final rub down with his own heavily creased and dirty shirt, Lee slipped into the fresh shirt Greg had handed him. It was much too large for him, hanging loosely off his shoulders.
‘Lee! You look like a ten-year-old trying on his dad’s shirt!’ Max scoffed.
‘Yeah, great, thanks Max.’
Lee felt embarrassed, humiliated.
The sleeves hid his hands. He realised he must look really ridiculous.
‘Just tuck it in your trousers and roll up your sleeves and you’ll look fine.’
Janet tried to suppress her own giggles.
‘I’m not the one who’s scared of insects, right?’ Lee snapped defensively.
With a confident grin, Greg raised his hands in submission.
‘Hey, look, I admit it’s crazy, yeah? Childish even. But what about Indiana Jones? He was scared of them too, wasn’t he?’
‘Yeah, that would be the Indiana Jones who’s a fictional character, right?’ Max sounded unimpressed.
‘Wasn’t it snakes he was scared of?’ Janet said.
‘Snakes, insects; same thing, really,’ Greg said. ‘Squirming all over you!’
‘Personally, I’d rather face an angry wasp than an easy-going cobra any day, thanks!’
Even though Lee had rolled up his shirt sleeves and tucked the tails into his jeans, he was still dwarfed by its loosely hanging folds. He wondered if Greg had deliberately given him the largest shirt he had.
‘Yeah, I suppose Lee has got a point there, Greg.’
Max said it with little interest or conviction. She was focused on reading the opened book and picking out the ingredients she needed.
‘Thanks for staunchly defending my little quirk, Samantha,’ Greg replied with a chuckle.
‘Samantha?’
Janet pulled a puzzled frown.
‘You know; on Bewitched? The TV programme.’
‘Oh yeah, of course! With the twitching nose you mean?’
She twitched her nose.
‘Hey, you can really do it!’ Greg was impressed.
‘Well, I can twitch it, but there aren’t any spells unfortunately!’ Janet laughed.
‘Ah, that’s because Max is our resident witch! Hubble bubble, toil–’
‘And there’d be real trouble for you, Greg Smithson, if I could twitch my nose!’
Max tweaked her nose with her fingers as she glared theatrically at Greg.
‘Perhaps,’ she added, ‘as I’ve got the book of spells, the ingredients and the slippers, I don’t need to have to twitch my nose! Have you thought of that, eh, Mr Indiana-scared-of-insects-Jones?’
‘You’re not really taking all this seriously, Max?’ Greg raised his eyebrows quizzically. ‘The girl who didn’t believe in Lee’s tales of fairies–’
‘A butterfly, it was a butterfly,’ Lee sighed in exasperation.
‘Oh, sorry Lee; you know what I meant! Max was the great disbeliever, and now here she is mixing potions!’
‘Hey, no looking!’
Max elbowed Greg away as he tried to peek over her shoulder to see which potion she was making.
‘The book still doesn’t make any sense to me anyway,’ Greg admitted. ‘How can you read it?’
‘Because it’s in English, Greg. You know, that ancient, mystical language no one but a few billion speak anymore?’
Greg shook his head, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
‘Okay, so what potion is it? Not a love potion, I hope?’
‘You kidding me?’
Max scowled, but her attention was still fully on mixing the ingredients into the vinegar she’d poured into a glass.
‘You really think I need a love potion?’
‘Well, what other type of potion is there?’ Greg asked.
‘Hundreds of kinds, according to this book. Including this one.’
Max raised the glass containing the potion she’d made.
‘I’m not drinking that–’ Greg began to protest, eyeing the swirling powders and plant-like flakes floating around in the yellow liquid.
‘Of course you’re not! I am!’
And with that proud declaration, Max glugged back the potion in one easy motion.
*
Chapter 19
Lee had secretly cringed when he’d heard the mention of a love potion.
Wouldn’t that be just typical of Max? Adding a love potion to all the charms she already had at her disposal?
Not that she’d give it to him, he’d realised.
No; it would be for Greg.
She was having difficulty landing Greg.
It narked her, seeing her charms being resisted.
As for him, well, he was already well and truly hooked, wasn’t he?
She didn’t need to mix up any love potion for him.
All she had to do, in fact, to have him hanging on her every word, to have him burning with envy, to set his mind into overdrive, was to write out in her diary that she had an appointment at the dentists.
Yep; that was it.
That’s all she had to do.
He’d seen the entry in her diary when she’d opened it to check dates and timings for the photographer to take pictures of the house.
An innocent enough thing to see, you’d think.
But for Lee, it instantly conjured all sorts of possible scenarios.
Max smiling, laughing gaily, as she talked to the receptionist.
Max rewarding the dentist with one of her tinkling laughs when he said anything remotely funny.
Max reaching out, touching his shoulder delicately, suggestively. Her eyes fluttering invitingly.
He was a dentist, after all.
Professional.
Well paid.
Mature.
Sensible.
Everything he, Lee, wasn’t.
And Max would be able to charm the dentist just like she charmed Lee.
Just like she charmed every man she met.
Yes, even Greg would fall eventually.
He was just playing hard to get, wasn’t he?
Which made him all the more intriguing, all the more attractive, to Max.
Yeah, Lee realised that that was the way to charm
Max.
But it was too late for him now.
Max knew he was hers for the taking.
Hers for the playing around with and humiliating.
How the heck had he ever let himself get into this position?’
*
‘Max, are you crazy?’ Lee screeched anxiously when he saw her drink the potion she’d made. ‘You don’t know how old all those ingredients are!’
‘Oh, most of the stuff in it’s perfectly okay, I reckon,’ she replied calmly, licking her lips as if she’d just finished off a delicious drink.
‘Max!’ Greg laughed. ‘What’s it supposed to do? When will begin to see the effects?’
‘Ah ah, that would be telling, wouldn’t it?’ Max wagged a finger as if she were telling off a naughty boy. ‘You’ll have to tell me if you think it’s working.’
‘So what are we supposed to be looking out for?’ Lee asked.
‘Oh, you’ll know, I’m sure. You’ll see soon enough. And then I’ll know for sure it’s working, won’t I?’
‘You believe it?’ Janet sounded both incredulous and amused. ‘You really believe it will work?’
‘Well, let’s face it, Janet dear, there have been some rather odd things happening around here, haven’t there?’
‘All of which could be put down to our imagination playing tric–’
Greg was interrupted by a loud creak coming from somewhere out in the hall.
‘What was that?’
Max’s head whirled towards the door.
‘I’ll check.’
Lee dashed to the door, quickly swinging it open and peering out into the hall.
‘It’s the front door!’ he cried back excitedly. ‘It’s open!’
*
Chapter 20
Everyone rushed into the hall.
They gaped at the open door like it was the most amazing sight they’d ever seen.
‘It is open!’ Greg breathed with relief.
‘So come on! What are we waiting for?’
As Janet began to sprint along the hall, Greg broke into a run with her.
‘Wait!’ Lee screamed urgently.
Janet and Greg both stopped short of the door, wondering if they’d missed some danger that Lee had spotted just in time.
‘What? What is it?’ Greg demanded irritably, turning back to see that neither Lee nor Max had moved from their spot by the kitchen door.
‘It’s Max,’ Lee replied nervously. ‘She can’t move!’