Unwrapped: A Fated Realms Novel - 1 Page 8

  Pierre kept up a breakneck speed through the forest. Taine’s face turned greener. I hoped nothing ran out in front of us or we would all go splat. Pierre seemed calm enough. Like he had done this many times before. Perhaps he had. I knew so little about him. When we hit normal roads again, I felt relief. My stomach unclenched. Carsickness didn't normally affect me, but anyone would have felt rough after that ride. We lapsed into silence. I missed my phone already, especially my music.

  Balling up my jacket, I made myself comfortable. I must have dozed off for at least half an hour as the sun glare had dimmed. I woke to the sound of slamming car doors. They all left me to it. A choir of crickets welcomed me with a series of short, rhythmic whistling sounds. I got out and stretched. When I glanced up, I fell in love with the house and wished I was a good enough artist to do it justice.

  The building stretched three stories high and had a wide blue slate roof. Three dormer windows and five chimneys poked up along the roofline. At the end of the house was an orangery with an arched doorway and windows. Inside was a flash of green, perhaps from plants. Indigo blue coated twin wooden doors and double-height window frames. The windows were five wide along the front of the house and four deep. The indigo contrasted with the dirty cream render and grey stone surrounds. Ivy trailed up the house at each corner. I collected my belongings from the boot of the Jeep before climbing wide stone steps flanked by stone urns filled with lavender.

  My footsteps echoed on the parquet floor of the grand hallway. Antiques jostled for attention next to junk shop finds, which included paintings and mirrors and sculptures. I followed their voices and continued upstairs. Blue and cream damask wallpaper lined the hall and stairwell. Silk? I had never seen such faded grandeur outside a museum. Many of the upstairs rooms lay empty and unfinished. Had someone given up on renovations part way through?

  Taine left Stella and sauntered over to me. ‘We can pick any of the rooms on this floor.’

  He chose one with striped walls painted in slate grey. I was amused. It reminded me of his flat. After poking my head in half a dozen rooms, I chose my favourite. Colourful pictures of intricate birds against a lemon background decorated my walls. Both rooms held a bed, a side table, lamp and a chair. Mine had an en-suite. We each had one metal rail and a couple of drawers for clothes. Sage green curtains hung at the window, pricked with holes. No alarm clock needed here. I shook out my bedding and made the bed. It added a touch of luxury to the sparsely furnished room.

  I wandered over to tall French doors and opened them. One more step and I would have fallen down a sheer drop. A courtyard and private garden surrounded the house and beyond those lay fields laid out with multiple assault courses. Excitement fluttered in my stomach. We could pitch ourselves against each other and see who won. Embraced by the charm of the house, I relaxed.

  I padded down the blue stair runner and explored. After several false starts, I found a colossal kitchen. Stella was busy unpacking our supplies onto a dark wooden table. Trestle benches stood on either side, resting on terracotta tiles. Long enough to fit triple our number. We would rattle around this house. I imagined it bustling with people. An uncomfortable image of Taine’s parents came to mind. Had they once sat around a table like this, convinced they were safe, surprised when the Venator broke through? I shook myself, needing to change my thoughts or I would never sleep.

  Footsteps approached. Taine and Pierre popped into view.

  ‘Help yourself to food and drink,’ said Stella.

  ‘Do you reckon we lost them then?’ I poured myself some orange juice, loaded a plate and sat to eat.

  Pierre sat opposite me. ‘We need to stay on our guard, but yes. I have motion sensors surrounding our borders. If they break the beam, we’ll be alerted.’

  Stella squeezed his hand.

  Taine slid in next to me on the bench. ‘What’s the plan?’

  ‘Tomorrow I’ll start you on the green assault course. It’s designed for newbies. As you improve, I’ll move you on to some of the others.’ Pierre took a sharp knife and quartered an apple. ‘Fight or flight. No freezing. Need to whip you into shape. Teach you to defend yourselves on auto-pilot.’

  ‘Like Martial Arts,’ said Taine, ‘repeat the form until you do it automatically.’

  ‘Sounds delightful.’ I rolled my eyes.

  Later that night, I wandered over to my open French doors. The moon slid out from behind a cloud. Tiny stars twinkled against a dark velvet sky. I was awed, staring at them for a long time. Was this what had inspired Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’? I got into bed and as I fell asleep, I heard owls flutter and call out. This was some retreat.

  Chapter 11: Obstacles

  ‘Start on the green obstacle course,’ Pierre said, ‘that’s the easiest.’

  Yeah right.

  My stomach rumbled again as I crawled across hard, dry mud that bruised and scraped my knees. I should have worn something over them. I scrambled up thick cargo netting, straining my arms and clung to the top as the joints in my fingers whitened from loss of circulation. Wheezed as I struggled to pull myself up and over. My feet fought for the right foothold. No harness so if I fell… I’d better not fall, or it wouldn’t be pretty.

  Hanging on with the other hand, I flexed each finger, as I strained to keep myself in place. My arm stretched, threatening to pop out its socket. I pulled myself up the final few centimetres. Fought to get enough momentum to swing my legs over the top. Grasped the rope to lower myself down a three-metre drop.

  I landed in muddy water that reached my knees, soaking my trainers and making them squelch. Sopping wet trainers added weight to each step and threw me off balance but no point tipping them out as similar obstacles followed.

  Next came my nemesis. A ten-metre, grey, ribbed plastic tunnel. Since I was tiny, I had panicked in confined spaces. No one was sure what started it. I even avoided lifts. At moments like this, my anxiety levels were brutal. The grey walls closed in on me. My vision wavered. I felt stuck, buried alive.

  I fought for control, taking slow deliberate breaths and commando crawled my way through. The space was too narrow for any other options. My neck ached, bent at a weird angle, yet I was desperate to escape the tunnel. I used the plastic ribbing to pull myself the final few centimetres and felt instant relief as I emerged into the light.

  Then came the next five obstacles. A hundred metre dash over tyres. Monkey bars over water. A horizontal cargo net staked with metal pegs. A sloping wall to run up followed by a short zip wire down to a balance beam.

  We tackled the assault course repeatedly over a couple of hours. Without breakfast. Cruel. I had only been half a minute behind Taine the first time through. Now the gap widened. My body was going into meltdown as it rebelled at the lack of food. Legs chafed from the heat and the mud. Arms shook as I exhausted all my stores of energy.

  Ahead was the balance beam. Last time through, nettles stung me all over my bare legs. Patches of itchy, white blobs merged. Mud caked my trainers and I kept slipping. There was nothing to scrape them off on other than the beam. Still, it might slow Taine. I ripped chunks of wet mud off my trainers and slathered them on the wood behind me. Then I grabbed the rope and moved across as quickly as I dared. My feet hugged the beam and I only gained a few new stings.

  Pierre’s smirk showed he knew what I had done. ‘Wash off. Get breakfast. We’ll not be much longer.’

  I was washing up my bowl in the Belfast sink when Taine arrived dressed in shorts and t-shirt.

  ‘Nice trick with the mud.’ White welts from the nettles covered Taine’s legs.

  ‘Had to be done.’ I grinned, relishing my small victory.

  Pierre taught us orienteering first as a desktop exercise, then on foot. We plotted routes to different towns. Learned what all the symbols meant and how to use a compass. He would ride off with us in the car and leave us to find our own way back from two, three or even five miles away. Afterwards, he gave us a few hours off to chill.

  The da
ys fell into a similar pattern. We moved onto longer, more vicious obstacles. The zip wires became steeper, walls and cargo nets higher. Pierre part-filled the tunnels with water, mud or stones, which forced us to work together, instead of competing. Each afternoon, Stella continued to teach us Cloaken magic. Meditation became easier. In the evenings, Pierre taught us how to read the stars. Ten days passed without visible Venator activity or contact from the police.

  ‘Can we have our phones back please? On airplane mode.’ I asked Stella as I helped myself to cereal.

  ‘I’m bored out of my skull,’ said Taine. ‘I miss my music.’

  We’d hoped to get Stella to agree without Pierre knowing. No such luck. He overheard us. ‘Absolutely not. This is a forgotten place. We need to keep it like that. Not remind anyone it exists.’

  Riled, Pierre stalked off. The slam of the door echoed in the cavernous kitchen. It was the first time we had seen him irate. Taine and I bent our heads and busied ourselves clearing the table and washing up.

  After lunch, Stella took the jeep to shop for supplies. We had a rare afternoon to ourselves. A humid, muggy day. Pierre showed us a round metal tank where we could cool off. It had steep vertical ladders up the side and was four metres deep and three metres across. A farmer had installed the water tank years ago to collect rain for crops.

  The water felt blissfully cool. Welcome relief from the heat. We played water games. Ducking one another. Throwing and retrieving rings before they sank too low. Taine’s heavier weight allowed him to dive deeper, but I caught my share. Simple, innocent fun. The humidity rose as a storm brewed. I was unable to settle, over-heated and sticky despite the swim and a shower following it.

  ‘I’m sick of this,’ snapped Taine, ‘I’m fed up of being told what to do. I wish you’d never asked me here.’

  ‘No-one forced you to come.’ I gave him a shove and he pushed right back. ‘What would you do in your crummy flat anyway? Play your little Xbox games and cry in a corner that no one’s home?’

  Soon we were wrestling. We moved past the table and trestle benches to where the terracotta-tiled floor was clearer. Well matched, both of us fought for dominance. Neither of us were willing to give in. We braced our legs, leaning into one another. I tried to hook my leg behind his. He held his ground, refusing to concede. Instead, he got me in a headlock. I bit down on his arm and clawed my way free.

  Slow hand clapping came from Pierre in the kitchen doorway. ‘That the best you can do?’

  We both tensed, straightened and dusted ourselves off. Anger radiated from us. We weren’t done with our fight.

  ‘You should both be ashamed. You are on the same side. What’s the deal?’

  Taine’s face was crimson, a nerve ticking at his jaw. He had scratch marks on his hands, arms and face where I had clawed him. Tooth-shaped indents were visible on his arms. Semi-circles of depressions. I ran my tongue over my teeth and felt the points of my incisors. He was dishevelled. His t-shirt torn near the neck. Livid marks were visible in the gap. At this rate, he would need a tetanus injection.

  Angry red fingerprints bruised the skin on my legs and arms. There were scrape marks where his watch had caught me. My hair was a mess. I ran my fingers through it, wincing when I came to tangles. Seeking to tame it, I pulled my fingers through my hair and tugged them free.

  ‘Neither of you have anything to say?’

  We shook our heads and examined the mortar between the floor tiles. I watched a large spider scuttle across to a corner.

  ‘Taine, tomorrow you’re on bathroom duty-’

  He balled his fists. ‘But-’

  ‘-Ellie-Grace, you’re on it the day after. Now get out my sight, both of you and behave.’

  We scurried upstairs. With a muttered, ‘Sorry,’ I entered my room and slammed the door. I threw myself backwards onto the bed. With the constant training, it was hard to be anything but on edge. How did combat soldiers adjust to normal life? I saw why some of them cracked, unable to switch off. Fighting was the new order of the day. However, I didn't want to fight all the time, especially not with Taine. Why had we fallen out? Why had I taunted him? Saying what I had about nobody being home. Harsh. If someone spoke to me like that… It was as bad as Taine calling me paranoid. Guilt flared in my stomach and became a dull ache.

  Worse he was right. We shouldn’t have come. What kind of life was this? Running away from the Venator and the Police. Hiding out. He wasn’t the only one needing a fix of normal life: Friends, family, TV, Xbox games and phone. When could we live a normal life? One year? Ten years? Never? Too hot, I drifted to sleep, plagued by jumbled dreams and nightmares.

  I awoke to a lightshow of alternating light and shadow. Jagged streaks of lightning danced across the horizon. Sloshing and dripping came from outside my wide-open French doors. Water cascaded from the roof, falling in sheets to the ground. I moved to the doorway hypnotised. Ribbons of light made it look like the universe was about to crack open at the seams.

  The squeak of the door opening from behind me, made me turn. Taine slipped in. He joined me then pointed to his watch. I tore my eyes away from the electrical storm. The luminous dial read 19:00. Time to eat. I shut the doors. We made our way to the kitchen. The hall lights flickered, answering the storm.

  ‘We already ate,’ said Stella. ‘You were asleep.’ She reheated my jacket potato and chilli before passing it to me.

  It smelled delicious. The plate was so hot I almost dropped it. A set of cutlery showed a place for one. Was Taine still cross? I felt relief when he slid in next to me, bringing a couple of cans of lemonade. He passed me mine.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said to break the ice. Then we were talking again. After a while I said, ‘Sorry about before, I was mean.’

  ‘Same.’

  That was it, done. With some of my friends, there would have been hours of recriminations and sulking. Instead, we played a game of Gin Rummy as a group before making our way back upstairs. The lightning gave one last jagged flash and blinked out, the end of nature’s fireworks.

  Multiple puddles and small lakes reflected glimmers of light, the moon peeking through clouds. I hoped Pierre would allow the ground to dry before sending us out. Unlikely, as his mantra was, ‘Time and tide waits for no man.’ Another of his favourites was, ‘Sleep when you’re dead.’

  Shutting out the night sky, I pulled the curtains into place. I climbed into the soft bed, pulled the covers over and was asleep in seconds. I dreamed of an unknown boy with fair, spiky hair. We were in a forest...

  Chapter 12: Trapped

  ‘Get up Ellie.’ I heard through the fog of sleep. Large hands grasped my shoulders and shook me awake. Pierre. ‘It’s the Venator! Grab your backpack and your Étoile. We have to leave now.’

  Switching on my lamp, I was up and out of bed in seconds. Rushing around the room, I hopped on one leg as I drew my jeans on, almost falling over. I threw on a green t-shirt, navy hoodie and some socks. I grabbed a purple raincoat from the rail and my backpack from the floor and tossed them on the bed. Then I added the Étoile, compass, maps and a torch. I wished for my phone despite Pierre’s warnings.

  I shoved my things into the backpack. I ran downstairs into the echoing hallway. Taine was already there. I pulled on navy walking boots and laced them tight. Stella passed us water, bags of trail mix, apples and round tins of boiled sweets. I slid the bottles into the side pockets of my backpack and zipped the rest into the front pocket.

  The porch light cast shadows across Pierre’s face. ‘Get in the jeep now!’

  We hurried out and Stella locked the door behind us. Taine and I got in the back. Then we were off, bumping over rutted lanes and farm tracks made worse by last night’s storm. The clock on the dashboard read 00:13.

  ‘They set off my motion sensors five miles east,’ said Pierre. ‘We’ll have to separate, so they don’t know who to chase.’

  A cavernous pothole made the jeep’s back wheel lurch, banging our heads together. I yelped in pain.


  ‘We’re going to drop you about ten miles away. Then head them off. Find your own way back. When you do, it should all be over.’

  Ominous. I didn't want either of them facing the Venator. They might be captured, maimed or die.

  ‘Why not escape together?’ There was a catch in Taine’s voice.

  ‘You’re not ready to fight them. This way, you two escape.’

  I was horrified. They were knowingly heading into danger. Stella must be terrified. She had ducked and run thirteen years before, yet now appeared calm. Dumping us miles from anywhere was no joke. What prowled in the darkness? I shivered. Did France have predators? I felt for Taine’s hand, feeling alone. His warm fingers wrapped around my icy cold hand. No comment, no judgment.

  Twenty minutes later, the jeep shuddered to a halt. ‘See you tomorrow, if we all survive.’ Pierre drove off, the jeep’s wheels flinging mud at us as if in final insult.

  Taine and I stared after the jeep, lost. I had forgotten to tell Stella I loved her. I wiped the mud off my face with my raincoat sleeve. ‘I need a hug.’

  He squeezed me and let go. We tried to get our bearings from the stars as Pierre had taught us. Low cloud cover put paid to that. A barren landscape and the silhouette of occasional trees stretched out for miles. No recognisable landmarks. I rooted in my bag for my compass. I peered at its luminous dial for about a minute and worked out that we were south-west of Pierre’s place. Forgotten Place no more. My stomach twisted. Someone knew enough to tell the Venator but who?

  What would we find when we got back? Would Pierre and Stella be alive? What would happen if they were injured? Would the Venator leave them for dead or cart them off? How would we get them help without phones? Neither of us could drive. Would we get back too late to help or just in time to be caught too?