The Blackwood Curse: A Night Shades Novel, page 20
I wish I felt happier about that but, somehow, what he said didn’t feel that comforting. The idea that I wasn’t the only one occupying this space hadn’t occurred to me until then. It was a brilliant plan though. ‘Is Wax awake?’ I asked, the desire to see him suddenly gripping me.
Ollie disappeared out of shot for a moment, then shook his head. ‘We’ll have to wait. He’s still out.’
* * *
Wax had been out for two days straight. It was so long that Ollie had to check he was still breathing a few times. I was now easily tagging along in Tallulah’s watch.
In reality, I was in a bare black room, but I was seldom there, so I kind of forgot about it. If I really dug deep and thought about it, I had to acknowledge that I was in a coma in a hospital bed and not there at all, which kind of blew my mind. So I pushed it aside and lived in the moment with a slight pang at the irony.
In the end, Ollie put me on FaceTime and got me to call out Wax’s name. ‘He hears voices all the time,’ I reminded Ollie. I would have thought he’d learned to tune them out by now.
‘It’s you, though. Keep trying,’ Ollie said. ‘I’m starting to get worried.’
That was enough. ‘Wax … wake up,’ I said, over and over, with Ollie pushing his phone right up into his brother’s face.
Nothing seemed to be working and I was getting really worried.
Ollie bent down to his brother’s ear. ‘Wakey-wakey. Your girlfriend’s here and she wants to snog you,’ he sang.
He looked at me with a wicked grin. ‘Never underestimate the ability of a little brother to drive their older sibling to violence.’ He laughed again as an idea came to him. ‘I’m going to download a film from that really unsafe, virus-ridden pirate site onto your computer … I’m doing it … right now,’ he said in the same sing-songy voice.
I had to giggle. I’m sure there was a real element of danger to that if Wax had been awake.
There was a small flicker in his long black lashes.
‘Wax!’ I said, hitching a breath at the same time. His eyes rolled under his eyelids and he moaned and rolled onto his back. Then he opened his eyes and looked up to the ceiling. It took him a moment to get his bearings and remember what had happened before he was knocked out. ‘Wax?’ I said, more softly.
Then, as if he suddenly realised he was being watched, he turned his head sharply to the gallery of onlookers standing next to his bed. ‘What are you all doing in my room?’ he said, gruffly.
Ollie’s answer was to hold out his phone. I knew the exact moment when its significance hit Wax, because his face looked pained and he sat up. His hand went to his head as if he’d done it too quickly. Then he searched my face as if he was looking for injuries and then straight into my eyes, unable to speak.
‘You’ve been out for days,’ Ollie said, breaking the awkward silence.
‘What happened?’ Wax demanded, in a cracked voice, bobbing his head towards me in the phone. ‘Where is she?’ He must have had a major headache because he was squinting and putting his hand up to shield his eyes from the head-splitting light.
‘I’m not sure what they did to her, but she was only visible in the mirrors of the house, so I rigged a catapult system, through the White Noise site, to put her in there. I figured it was safer.’
Wax closed his eyes for a moment. It was so long that I worried that he was unwell. Then he narrowed them at Ollie so I wasn’t sure if he was angry or not, but he eventually nodded. ‘Clever,’ he said, simply, and clicked his fingers for him to hand me to him on his phone. ‘We need to get her onto my closed IP network. She’ll be safer there.’
‘Ollie was careful, Wax. She’s not just yours, you know,’ Tallulah said, moodily.
Wax threw her a dirty look and Ollie reached for her hand with a look that said: be quiet. ‘Any hacker or sociopath, dead or alive, could have followed her here,’ Wax reminded her.
It was enough to make me swallow hard. I couldn’t see poor Tallulah’s face to reassure her as he’d gotten up off the bed and taken me with him. ‘Don’t be hard on them, Wax,’ I said, speaking up for the first time. My voice sounded tinny, like I was on a transistor radio with slightly bad reception.
The next time I could see anything, Wax had changed his clothes. He propped me up, facing him on his desk, while his fingers worked their magic on his keyboard. Even with dark circles under bloodshot eyes, he was startlingly handsome.
‘Thanks,’ he said, turning his head, I guessed, to Olly, just out of view. There was a private moment of nothing, where they communicated with their eyes. Then Wax cut through it with; ‘Get out … all of you,’ and the room was silent.
I watched his face, serious, brows furrowed and concentrating on what he was doing. ‘They worked hard and did a good thing, Wax,’ I said.
His eyes flashed to me and he went back to his work without breaking stride in what his fingers were doing.
‘It was brilliant thinking,’ he said, simply.
I wanted to shake him that he showed so little of that to Ollie, who adored and looked up to him.
‘I just had to make you safe and be alone with you.’
My next words in Ollie’s defence died on my lips to be replaced by toe-curling heat. My stomach fluttered as it flowed right up through me. ‘Would it hurt you to tell him from time to time?’ I said as soon as I was able.
‘His head will swell and it’s big enough as it is.’ He smiled genuinely then. As if he knew he was being pig-headed. ‘Right! There!’ he said with a louder tap to the Enter button. ‘That should do it.’
For a moment, nothing happened. I sat and waited for Wax to say whatever it was I knew he wanted to say, but something went past me so fast it knocked me off my stool. I didn’t even get chance to see it, only that it was huge and black and the world dropped out from under me. I don’t remember ever screaming like that since I was dropped several stories at a theme park.
I landed in a heap and lay still while I assessed myself for injuries. After wiggling my fingers and toes, I slowly sat up.
‘Sorry. It’s a crude world-building program I’ve been working on,’ Wax explained.
I looked down at my hands. They looked real enough. Then I looked round and saw that the black cube had been replaced by a very angular version of Wax’s room. It was a strange, dizzying feeling because it wasn’t real and, at the same time, it wasn’t the Inside Out. It was more something an architect or a set builder would draw.
Suddenly, I was utterly bewildered and wanted to get out. I looked back at Wax and was at the same level as him.
‘You’re on my main screen now,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry it’s not better. You’re still in the spell, but this should keep you safe and at least off the Dark Website.’
I did have a clearer view of his room now I was bigger.
He got up to retrieve his own phone from the nightstand and switched it on. ‘And with this, you aren’t dependent on mirrors.’
I tried to smile and not dampen his enthusiasm. It was a brilliant idea of Ollie’s, but, right then, it all seemed just too much to bear. Tears came no matter how hard I fought them off. In the end I had to turn around so Wax could only see the back of my head.
‘Hey, please don’t cry. If you want to get out of the program all you have to do is hit the Escape key, OK?’
I turned back round, sniffed and looked down. He’d even built my own keyboard into the program. That only made me cry all over again.
‘There are other spirits I had to protect you from,’ Wax said. When I looked at him, he looked filled with anguish for me. I felt bad then. None of this was his fault, so I sniffed back the tears and nodded.
‘I’ll get you out, I promise,’ he said.
I nodded again, feeling like a small child placated with the promise of a treat.
‘Tell me what happened,’ he said.
I knew it was mainly to distract me, but I could see he was ashamed too. ‘You couldn’t have done anything, Wax. It happened so fast.’
He smiled, but wasn’t convinced. ‘I should have seen it coming.’
‘I met Lucinda and the original Jedediah,’ I said, switching his distraction tactic on him. ‘They know what’s going on here.’
His eyes widened in surprise and he sat back down in his chair. As I told him everything that had happened when I got trapped and followed Lucinda, I watched the range of emotions cross his face. He listened intensely to my every word, and I saw sadness, concern, amazement and admiration. I never knew something as simple could have such an effect on me. It made me warm inside and gave me the confidence to fight the world.
‘So they’ve been trying to warn and protect you all along,’ Wax said, shaking his head. ‘I just assumed they were malevolent spirits.’
‘Well, they’re definitely angry, but I’m not sure what good they can do. You’re the only one who can physically do anything.’
Wax looked troubled after I said that, and I could have kicked myself. I didn’t mean that he was in any way weak. Far from it. Nevertheless, I could see his mind veering off in that direction. Then his hands went back to the keyboard as if an idea had occurred to him. ‘I’m going to put you back on my phone and go downstairs. I’m starving.’
‘Wait! Wax.’ I was instantly filled with panic. We needed to talk this through. Honestly, I was terrified of seeing Lila again.
‘I want to find out their plans now she’s out.’ He put an earpiece in his ear. ‘I can still hear you, OK? But no one else will.’
Before I could say anything else, the world went black as I was jostled around in a pocket as he went downstairs.
Chapter 21
The kitchen was another room with no mirrors or circuitry, so I was glad of Wax’s phone. Despite how terrified I was, I didn’t want to miss a second of his conversation with that woman.
I was frustrated that he put me down flat on the counter and all I got was a view of the tiny ceiling lights. ‘Hey!’ I called out. All I could hear was him riffling through cupboards and then pouring what sounded like cereal in a bowl. Then another door opening and the slurp of liquid poured. Milk. A glass clinked and some more liquid followed. I knew he must be famished after two days out, but this was ridiculous. ‘Can’t you just stand me up against something, at least?’ I said. ‘Testing, testing.’
I could literally hear the grin in his voice. ‘Try the cupboards.’
After I scowled at him for enjoying this, I looked around me for the first time. It was another representation of the room I was in. This time the kitchen. I began opening cupboards and saw he had designed boxes and tins of food into the program as well. It was marvellous detail. I reached for a box of Cinnamon Crunchies and retrieved an equally realistic glass bottle of milk from the fridge and sat at the counter. It actually tasted good. I guess I hadn’t eaten for two days either. ‘Come on, don’t be an ass,’ I said between mouthfuls.
My world rolled again like the bowels of a ship and Wax came into view. He’d propped me up to face him on the counter. ‘Finally,’ I grumbled.
He threw down a loaf of bread as a shield and simply grinned. My traitorous heart fluttered at the show of dimples instead of getting angry like it rightly should. I gave in, it was hopeless.
‘Bret!’ A male voice said from behind me. ‘You’re up.’
A tall man I didn’t recognise came around to Wax’s side of the counter and hugged him tightly, sighing loudly and smacking his back with a dull thud. ‘Dad? What are you doing here?’
His dad put him away from him and took him in. ‘I came as soon as your uncle called me to say you were ill. Let me look at you. My word … you’re a man,’ he said, shaking his head.
I wanted to shout out the truth, but I daren’t until I knew what kind of man Wax’s father was. He seemed nice enough and Wax seemed comfortable with him. Much more than with his uncle, anyway.
‘Nothing to do but grow around here.’
His father laughed. ‘And computer coding. I saw the impressive set-up you have. That’s quite a sought-after skill in the city.’
Wax shrugged. I shouted, ‘Fat chance of that with Uncle Ainsley drugging him at every turn!’ into his earpiece.
Wax didn’t react, but his mouth hardened in a way that sobered me, instantly. Something told me that he wasn’t playing here. He gestured for his father to sit at a stool on the edge of the counter. I could just about see him.
Wax got out a bowl and pushed the cereal towards his father. He smiled and Wax sat and continued eating with a flash of his eyes my way, warning me off.
I sat glumly, sufficiently scolded. It was easy to see who the guy was. He was tall and dark like Wax. Same eyes and similar frame. Except he had a little grey at his temples and wore his hair shorter than Wax. I put him in his forties. He was stylish though. His clothes were more GQ than Jules Verne, like his uncle. They seemed poles apart.
I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t the original Jed. He was the ghost at my aunt’s. His only crime that I could see other than sharing a name, was leaving Wax alone with his uncle. And that wasn’t really a crime. Instead, I had to content myself with watching their reunion.
‘How have you been?’ Wax asked, raising his eyes cautiously to his father.
I was mildly exasperated with his question, thinking, surely, it should be the other way around.
His father nodded. ‘Well … Physically. We travelled. I’m sorry we let you down, Bret. We just needed to get away … to forget, you know?’
He looked at Wax with devastated eyes and Wax mirrored them. I looked between them trying to catch up with what was going on and then I realised, like a massive thump on the head. Ollie. They’d lost Ollie and his parents stayed away in order to come to terms with their loss. I hadn’t thought of it because I saw him all the time. For his father, he’d left their life completely eighteen months ago.
‘We’ve been to India and Tibet,’ a strange female voice said from behind him. A beautiful, tall brunette put a hand on his father’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. She had a kind face, Ollie’s warm brown eyes and similar, high cheekbones to Wax. His mother.
‘It was marvellous. Such a spiritual place.’ She moved away and I heard her fill the kettle. I shrank back, afraid I’d be seen. A stool scraped and she sat between Wax and his father, nursing a steaming cup. She put up a hand and ran it through the unruly tendrils of Wax’s hair. ‘Could do with a cut,’ she said.
He smiled a little and moved his hair out of range of her hand. It saddened me because the easy atmosphere with his father had shifted. Wax had clammed up with his mother asking inane questions about what was going on in the village and the weather. I noticed his father was closed off too.
I found myself disliking her instantly.
She started to go on about their travels and all they’d seen and I found myself getting angrier by the minute. ‘If you don’t ask them, Wax, I swear I’ll dial up and call them myself,’ I said in his earpiece.
I saw the tiniest twitch to the corners of his mouth as he tried not to smile. He put down his spoon and pushed his bowl away from him. Then he picked up his glass of orange juice, as if he was going to take a sip. His mother was still droning on. I’d long tuned out.
‘Did you know?’ Wax said, cutting right across her.
‘Know what?’ his mother said, suddenly stopping the constant flow from her mouth. She looked at his father as if he might shed some light.
‘Stop lying, please.’ Wax’s voice sounded calm and level, but I could see the tension in his jaw and I started to worry that maybe his mother didn’t know him that well at all. ‘I am asking you a reasonable question.’ His hands clenched and I could see his knuckles go white. ‘Did you know what Ainsley has been doing here?’
They didn’t answer right away.
Wax slammed down his glass on the counter, making a tidal wave of juice.
His mother jumped in fright and his father immediately stood to put himself between them.
‘Well clearly you know something because you were both back here at the drop of a hat, when I haven’t seen you in six bloody months!’
‘Darling,’ his mother said, trying to come closer to soothe him, but his father wouldn’t allow it. It proved they knew what Wax could be like.
‘Stop the bullshit!’ Wax shouted, and, for a terrifying moment, I thought Wax would explode, but he held onto it and I hoped and prayed that he did it for me. They had no idea the effort it took him, but I did and I was so proud of him.
His mother said something to his father that I didn’t quite catch. He shook his head. ‘No, don’t call him.’
Oh my God. I seethed for Wax. She was actually suggesting they call his uncle. Sedation seemed their answer for everything. At least his father seemed against it. ‘He’s just angry,’ his father said.
‘Do. You. Know. What. Ainsley’s. Been. Doing?’ Wax repeated, stepping into his father menacingly. ‘Do you know about the spell in the basement? The dead people he’s been calling for me to see?’
His father shook his head bitterly. ‘It’s for Ollie. He thinks he’s helping.’
His mother started to cry and buried her face in her hands against his father’s back, but I was glad Wax didn’t relent. Instead, he shook his head angrily. ‘Ollie? Ollie’s here. It’s not because of bloody Ollie,’ he said, half laughing that his parents were that stupid.
His mother stopped crying and his father looked rattled for the first time. He put his arm around her and they faced him together, suddenly listening.
Wax nodded, dumbfounded, at them. ‘Yeah, every goddamn spirit for miles around can’t rest because he’s been calling them here. He doesn’t give two shits about your son. Either of them,’ he added. ‘So I’ll ask you for the last time, did you know?’ he ended raising his volume to a shout that made his father blink.
To his credit, his father tried to calm him down. He put up his hands defensively and shook his head. ‘Listen, I swear we had no idea it had got that bad. Well, I knew what he was trying to do, but I didn’t know the extent of it. And he was here and you were ill …’
