The Darkest Corners

‘We don’t know that’s true,’ Ameena protested. ‘Kyle, if you want to get him for what he did, you’re going to have to use your abilities. That’s just how it is.’

Billy looked Ameena up and down. ‘Why are you so determined he should go all Harry Potter all of a sudden? How come you’re acting so weird?’

Ameena bit her lip. ‘What can I say?’ she muttered. ‘It’s been a weird day.’

Weird day? That was an understatement if ever I’d heard one. It had been a weird month. The weirdest, worst month of my life. Possibly of anyone’s life ever. And even that wasn’t doing it justice.

‘I don’t know what to do,’ I admitted. ‘Everything’s broken. I’ve… I’ve ruined everything. ’

Ameena rolled her eyes. ‘And I thought I was being a drama queen! You haven’t ruined anything, kiddo. Your dad has. All you’ve done is try to stay alive and try to protect people.’

I looked her in the eye. ‘That’s not working out too well, is it?’

My lip wobbled and I looked away again. My mum: dead. My nan: dead. My mum’s cousin Marion: dead. So much for protecting people.

And then there was Joseph, the mystery man. He’d popped up all over the place with his cryptic clues, helping me when I didn’t even know it. I’d watched him die too, right before my eyes, and I still didn’t know who he was.

‘We sit tight,’ Billy said. ‘That’s the plan. We sit here and wait for help to arrive.’

‘Help isn’t going to arrive, Billy. Grow up,’ Ameena said.

‘How do you know?’

‘Because this isn’t a bedtime story. There’s no knight in shining armour climbing up this tower. There’s no fairy godmother about to come swooping in. There’s just us.’ She pointed to the boarded-up window. ‘And there’s just them. If we want to live we have to fight. That’s how it is.’

Ameena turned to me. ‘And you’re the best fighter we’ve got. Much as I hate to admit it.’

Billy shook his head. ‘You’re not buying this, are you? You saw what was happening down there. I don’t want more monsters coming through.’

‘What’s the matter, Billy? Scared?’

‘Of course I’m scared!’ Billy yelped. ‘I’m terrified. I’ve never been more scared in my whole life, and if he starts doing his, his thing, then it’s all just going to get worse.’

Ameena spun to face him. ‘You don’t get it, do you? This is it. This is the end. It can’t get any worse.’

‘Don’t say that,’ I groaned. ‘As soon as anyone says “It can’t get any worse,” it always gets worse.’

‘Not this time,’ Ameena said, turning back to face me. ‘Everyone in this village has been turned into a monster, and they’re going to spread like a virus all over the planet. Your mum is dead. Your dad is out there somewhere, waiting to unleash God knows what on the world, and we’re stuck in an attic with a screecher downstairs and Billy No-Dates for company.’

‘Maybe… maybe someone will come,’ I said weakly.

‘No one’s coming!’ Ameena said. ‘There’s no one to fix this but us. But you.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ Billy snapped. ‘Why do you keep egging him on? It’s like you want him to break down this big barrier thing.’ He looked to me. ‘She’s pushing you into it.’

‘Don’t be stupid, Billy,’ I said. ‘Of course she isn’t.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ Billy asked. ‘You said yourself you don’t know anything about her. How do you know she’s not working with your dad?’

Ameena drove her elbow into Billy’s face. He staggered back, his hands over his nose, a sharp yelp of pain bursting on his lips.

‘Whoa! What did you do that for?’ I asked. I was used to sudden bouts of violence from Ameena, but never like that.

‘You heard him.’ Ameena sounded defensive. ‘He was starting to rant. Ranting’s noisy, and the last thing we want right now is someone getting noisy.’ She smiled in that way that made her nose wrinkle up. ‘Am I right, kiddo? Course I am; I’m always right.’

I began to smile, then stopped. That word replayed in my head.

‘Kiddo,’ I said, my face fixed in a half-smile. ‘You called me “kiddo”.’

‘Yeah? So? I always call you “kiddo”, kiddo. It’s one of the things that makes me so adorable.’

A sickening stirring began in my gut. I glanced at Billy, who was still clutching his nose. He watched us in silence through eyes filled with tears.

‘He calls me “kiddo”,’ I mumbled, and I saw the smile fade from her face. ‘My dad calls me “kiddo”.’

She shrugged, but it looked forced and not at all natural. ‘Does he?’ she said. ‘What are the chances?’

I stared into her eyes, and in that moment I realised that I didn’t really know her at all.

Shadows moved behind her and the sound of in-rushing air filled the tower. The shadows became a man and the man became my dad. He wrapped his arms round Ameena and flashed me a wide grin.

‘Whoops,’ he sniggered, and then they were gone. I looked blankly at the spot where Ameena had stood. I was still looking at it when Billy spoke.

‘She’s gone.’

‘He took her,’ I said.

The floorboard creaked behind me.

‘No,’ Billy said. ‘They went together.’

‘No,’ I snapped, turning on him. ‘She wouldn’t. She’s… I…’ I curled my fingers into fists. ‘Wait here. I’ll be back.’

‘Back? What do you mean you’ll be back? Where are you going?’

But Billy’s voice was already becoming distant as I focused on one of the sparks and flitted myself through to the Darkest Corners.

The inside of the tower looked exactly the same, only now the hatch was open. The howls of the screechers had faded along with Billy’s voice, but now I could hear a steady creaking coming up through the hole in the floor.

I looked down in time to see Ameena jump the last few rungs and land lightly beside my dad. She raised her head and her eyes briefly met mine, then she was off and running with him through the door that led into the main part of the church.

My stomach flipped. I thought back to the figure in the brown hood I’d seen so many times with my dad. Ameena’s height. Ameena’s build. But it couldn’t have been her. I refused to accept it.

She had saved me. So many times, she had saved me. She couldn’t have been working with him this whole time. She couldn’t.

I called her name, hoping she would come running back to tell me it was all some stupid mistake. To tell me I was wrong, and that she’d never betray me. But she didn’t come back. No one came back.

The ladder was more rusted on the way down than it had been on the way up, but that was the Darkest Corners for you. It twisted things, corrupted them. Had it done the same to Ameena somehow? Made her as much a monster as the rest of them? No. No way.