Blackfin Sky (15 page)

She
also
wished they would get bored and go home so she could escape, but Randy’s next statement sank her hope like a lead weight.

‘I’ll go home for the shovel.’

Colby piped up eagerly. ‘Bring the whacker, too.’

Sky wondered miserably what exactly a
whacker
was, but the sound of Randy’s feet running toward the cemetery gate told her she would find out soon enough. Her throat started to close as though a hand had wrapped around it.

But with Randy gone, his brothers’ odd howling petered off, and Sky saw an opening. Although Randy wasn’t the eldest Swiveller, his relative intelligence had made him the leader of their weird little gang. Without him there to control his brothers, Sky might be able to talk her way out of … well, her own grave.

‘Felix, I hurt my wrist. I need to go and put some ice on it, if you’d give me a hand to get out?’ She tried to make her voice sound as cheerful as possible, like the whole situation had been nothing but a game. Looking up, she found his beady eyes staring back at her.

‘Randy’d better hurry with the whacker,’ he said finally, then spat into the hole, missing Sky by a few inches. Their faces disappeared again as they resumed kicking soil into the grave, and she was forced back into her foetal position in the corner. Her lungs burned as she tried to take shallow breaths, her panic fighting to make her gulp in the dust. But the throbbing in her wrist helped her to focus a little, and her chest stopped threatening to explode.

Yeah, because a sprained wrist is the worst of my worries right now. Why didn’t I just stay home this morning?

Lightning crackled somewhere in the distance, and Sky became light-headed. She closed her eyes, but that only made it worse. The sound of the dirt landing on her faded, until she almost felt like she was somewhere else. Say, in her bed…

‘Back away from the hole, boys!’

Sky had never been so pleased to hear Officer Vega’s voice, and it snapped her back to the present with a jolt.

Did I just start to fade out again?

Fresh panic attached itself to Sky’s heart at the thought that she’d been about to drift back out of her life, either to that other existence where she’d lived an oblivious three months, or to the circus where strange men chased her with lightning in their eyes.

Would that really be so much worse than where I am now?

Yet even with the Swivellers’ bizarre behaviour, Sky clung to the moment with a fierceness.
I won’t disappear. Not again.

There was a moment of silence from the graveside, then Jordy, Colby and Felix started muttering to each other. Sky didn’t move.

‘Back away,
now.
I caught Randy on his way back here with a shovel and a bat, and he’s waiting in the back of my truck right now.’
Ah. A whacker is a baseball bat,
Sky thought dryly. ‘You’re all going to come with me to Oakridge station. Don’t make me use this, boys.’

That caught Sky’s attention. Was Officer Vega holding her taser on them? Also, had she better let the police officer know she was down there in case she startled her into zapping someone?

‘Officer Vega,’ Sky yelled as best she could, her voice hoarse and choked with dirt. ‘I’m in the hole!’ She lifted her hand to wave, and noticed that her sprained wrist didn’t hurt at all any more.

Weird.

‘Is that Skylar?’ There was no denying the horrified note in Officer Vega’s voice.

‘
Sky
?’

She heard the police officer curse under her breath as Sean ran over to the edge of the open grave.

What is Sean doing here?

He leaned over, his eyes widening as he spotted her crouched in the corner, caked in dirt.

‘Oh my God, what did they do to you?’ He turned his head to glare briefly at the remaining Swiveller brothers before looking around for something to use to haul her out of the deep hole. The Swivellers said nothing, but one made a tentative kick at the mound again as though annoyed that their fun had been interrupted.

‘Hey!’ There was no arguing with Officer Vega’s tone, and the soil cascade stopped. ‘I said back the hell up, right now!’ This time, Sky could hear the shuffle of their feet as the Swivellers moved a few paces from the hole. ‘Sean, can you get her out of there?’

Sean reached down towards her. ‘Sky, grab my hands.’

She stood, but didn’t reach up to take them. ‘I don’t want to pull you down here too. Do you think maybe you could find a rope or a stepladder or—’

The next moment, Sean was in the hole with her, smears of dirt and grass stains covering his sweater. ‘Are you hurt anywhere?’ Before she could answer, he had already noticed the spot of blood on her lip. He squinted, looking for the injury.

‘I’m fine, Sean. Honestly.’
Tired, cold, and shaking like a leaf, but otherwise just dandy.

‘I’m going to kill those fu—’

‘Felix, right?’ Officer Vega interrupted. ‘Didn’t you get held back a year at school?’ Felix grunted in response. ‘Good. That means you’re eighteen.’

There was a sound like a firecracker. Felix made a noise like a cat being strangled and thudded to the ground, even more boneless than usual.

‘Now, do either of you two want to test how strict I am about not tasering under-eighteens?’ There was a pause, presumably while they shook their heads. ‘Good. Now get in the van.’

Footsteps, a car door opening and slamming, and then Officer Vega was back to peer into the hole. ‘Let’s get you two out of there. Sean, you boost her up and I’ll pull her out from this side.’

Officer Vega tutted in disgust as she saw the filthy state Sky was in, and shot a glare towards the boys in her parked van. ‘All right, whenever you’re ready.’

Sky went home with Sean in his jeep after insisting she didn’t need to go to the hospital in Oakridge. The last thing she wanted to do was spend hours waiting for doctors to come and prod and poke at her until they decided she was fine. Sky wasn’t sure exactly
how
she was fine, as a hot shower had removed the ground-in dirt and revealed no bruises at all.

She quickly dried herself and got dressed, conscious that Sean was waiting downstairs despite her insistence that she was fine by herself in the house. When Sky had point-blank refused to call either of her parents, they had reached a compromise: Sean would stay with Sky until her parents finished work, then Sky would tell them exactly what had happened.

‘They’ll find out as soon as Aunt Holly gets back from Oakridge anyway,’ Sean had pointed out, and Sky had to face the fact, however grudgingly, that he was right.

Sky dressed in joggers and an old sweater of her father’s that reached right down to her knees and had to be worn with the sleeves rolled over several times. She had no energy to put into looking cute for the boy who had helped save her from being buried alive and was now sitting on her couch flipping through the music channels.

Sean looked up when he heard Sky coming downstairs. Now that she’d turned herself from a mud monster back into a clean, human girl, Sean’s dishevelment was more noticeable. He got up as she reached the bottom step, like he was her prom date waiting for her to make an entrance in a big frou-frou dress, not ratty joggers and a giant’s cast-off sweater.

‘Hey, sorry, I should have asked if you want to go and get cleaned up…’

‘That’s okay. I cleaned up the worst of it in the downstairs toilet.’ They both looked down at the green and brown smears covering the front of his sweater.

‘I can get you one of Dad’s shirts to wear?’

‘One of yours would probably fit me better.’

‘I have a nice fluffy pink one that might suit you,’ Sky teased, and Sean shook his head, laughing in disbelief.

‘How are you not curled up in a ball shaking right now?’

Sky fought the urge to admit that inside, she was still trembling like a newborn fawn. ‘You’re just not that scary, I suppose.’

It took a moment for him to crack a lopsided grin, but then he pulled his sweater off over his head in a swift movement and tossed it to where his mud-caked Converse were sitting by the front door. The movement had pulled the grey t-shirt Sean wore underneath up on one side, revealing a strip of skin above the waistband of his jeans before he smoothed it back down. Sky looked up before he could notice her staring at him.

‘I’ll be right back.’

By the time she had returned with one of her father’s smallest shirts, Sean was making tea in the kitchen. He put on the shirt and rolled the sleeves back like she had. Sean was tall enough that it didn’t quite reach his knees, but he still looked ridiculous, and the way he fought a grin told Sky he knew it.

‘Here,’ he said, handing her a mug of tea. They both blew the steam from their drinks before sipping in silence for a minute. ‘I’m happy to wait down here if you want to go and take a nap, you know. You don’t need to keep me company.’

You could keep me company while I take a nap,
she thought, but banished the idea before it could turn into an all-out blush.

‘How about we just go and watch TV instead?’

Sean nodded and followed her back into the family room, taking the seat next to her instead of the loveseat this time.

‘Here, stretch out.’

Sky’s heart skittered around her chest as he manoeuvred her to lie with her head on a cushion in his lap. ‘Comfortable?’ Sky nodded up at him, and Sean flipped the blanket down from the back of the couch to cover her. ‘Good.’

He put the TV on low, some kind of nature documentary that had crickets chirping faintly in the background. His hand ran down Sky’s arm in a smoothing motion, over and over, lulling her until she drifted off to sleep.

Sky’s parents had naturally freaked when they found out what the Swivellers had done. Sky listened from her bedroom as they talked to Officer Vega downstairs the next morning, wondering whether her mother needed her smelling salts yet.

‘As three of the four are juveniles and Skylar wasn’t physically hurt,’ Officer Vega said, ‘I doubt they’ll get more than a slap on the wrist, if I’m honest. But I have spoken with Mrs Hemlock, and she agrees that having the Swiveller boys back at Blackfin High while Skylar is still a student would be out of the question.’

‘You’re damn right it’s out of the question!’

Officer Vega paused after Lily’s outburst before continuing. ‘Mrs Hemlock is arranging for them to be transferred to Oakridge High, with immediate effect. I have also recommended they be referred for psychological assessment.’

‘The Swivellers live less than a quarter of a mile from our house,’ Gui’s deep voice sounded like he was barely keeping his temper in check. ‘Are you suggesting that our daughter be forced to relive that nightmare every time she—’

‘Dad, please stop. I’m fine, honestly.’ All eyes focused on Sky as she stepped into the family room, carrying her mother’s smelling salts – just in case. ‘Well, I will be. The Swivellers are weirdos, but there’s nothing we can do about having to run into them from time to time.’ Gui raised an eyebrow as though to say he very much disagreed with that statement, but Sky continued. ‘I’m not going to lie – I would be really happy to never have to look at any of them ever again. But this is a small town, and if we decided to run every weirdo out of Blackfin there’d be no one left.’ Sky exhaled through her nose. ‘There are some things you just have to learn to deal with when you live in a town like this. Hopefully, I’ve had my share now.’

And with that, Sky grabbed her somehow freshly laundered red coat from the hook by the front door. ‘I’m going for a walk, and then I thought I’d come and help out in the diner, if that’s all right, Mum?’

The three adults looked at her like they weren’t at all sure how to take her declaration. But Sky refused to allow the Swivellers to turn her into a quivering wreck. She’d survived worse, apparently.

Finally, her mother smiled.

‘I’ll see you there, my girl.’