City of the Falling Sky (8 page)

Seckry squirmed. He imagined the pain of
being set on fire. He had to get out of here. His life depended on
it. He wriggled violently, trying to get up. As he did so, his
Friction avatar gift card slid out of his pocket.

“
What’s this?” Snibble said
mockingly, picking it up. His face formed a cruel smile. “Friction.
You fippin geek.” He held it between his thumb and finger, hovering
it close to Seckry’s face, then he sparked his lighter underneath
it and let the plastic slowly liquidise. Seckry felt the heat from
the small flame but all he could think about was his mum. All the
money she had spent on him, melting into nothing.

After the card was a small pile of scorched
and shrivelled plastic, Snibble sighed and leaned in closer to
Seckry’s face, the lighter still lit. The heat was like a solid
object, burning his skin like a molten rod.

“
Snibble!” Natania said
angrily. “Don’t you dare set him alight. You promised me you’d only
slap him around. I ain’t having any of that murder stuff on my
conscience.”

Then, as Seckry felt his skin begin to
blister, there was a bang, and the heat was ousted immediately.
There were heavy footsteps.

“
Who the fippin hell’s
that?” Snibble hissed, looking around frantically. The twins seemed
to disappear immediately. Natania scrambled to her feet, throwing
her roll up crazydust to the floor, and started running away.
Snibble let out a roar of rage and swung his dirty trainer full
force into Seckry’s nose.

Everything after that was a scrambled mess in
Seckry’s mind. He lost track of where he was, who he was with, what
time it was, what day it was. It was like his brain had been
knocked out his skull.

The only thing Seckry was aware of was that
he was being ripped from the ground by some powerful force, and he
was moving. Fast.

“
Where do you live?” The
voice was deep and calm, soothing to hear through the incessant
ringing in Seckry’s ears.

Seckry opened his eyes groggily and had to
stop himself from yelping because it stung so much to do so. His
eyelid would barely part for his left eye; it had clamped shut and
it felt like there was a giant ball under his skin.

He looked around as much as he could, trying
to take in his surroundings through his watery vision.

It was a car, and he was in the back seat,
lying down. The car was motionless and it smelled of fabric,
coffee, and a hint of aftershave.

He leaned up and groaned.

“
Relax, now,” the voice
said.

Sitting in the driver’s seat sipping a
thermal flask was a man Seckry had seen once before. It was the
teacher from Cutson’s class, the one who’d backed him up about that
missing dot on the diagram.

“
I changed your shirt. I’ve
wrapped the other one in some plastic for the moment, it was wet
with blood.”

Seckry hadn’t even noticed he was wearing
different clothes. He suddenly felt tiny, draped in this man’s
loose top.

“
Thanks,” Seckry said
croakily.

The teacher sipped some more from his
steaming flask and breathed out heavily.

“
It makes some kids go
insane, that stuff.”

Seckry remembered the foul smelling green goo
Snibble had been smoking.

“
What is it?” he
asked.

“
Cosius milatopaine. Or
crazydust, as it’s more commonly known. The most widely available
drug on the market.”

“
How did you find me?”
Seckry asked.

“
I was driving home from
Estergate, I had stayed late, investigating a few things. I saw
that there was something going on as I was driving past and I
pulled up to take a look. I knew there was trouble as soon as I
smelt the crazydust. The air was thick with it.”

“
To be honest,” Seckry said,
“I think Snibble is just as bad without that stuff. If he hadn’t
been smoking it he probably would’ve done exactly the same. He
wanted to beat me up. Get revenge for me saying something to him in
class.”

“
What’s your name?” The man
asked.

“
Seckraman Sevenstars.
Seckry for short.”

“
I’m Jonn. Jonn Vance. I’m
head of science at Estergate, and I teach a range of science
subjects to the older students. Are you a fan of science,
Seckry?”

Seckry screwed up his face, “Not really. I’m
more of an art person.”

“
Well . . . Maybe a few more
of Mrs Cutson’s lessons will spark a passion.”

Seckry saw the sarcasm on the man’s face,
even through his blurred vision.

“
What happened to Snibble?”
Seckry asked.

“
He ran away just after the
girl. They both went in opposite directions. They looked
petrified.”

“
Good,” Seckry said, feeling
a little triumph. “How long have I been out for?”

Vance looked at his watch.

“
I’d say about ten minutes.
Your eye is swollen and your hands and leg are bruised, but there’s
no serious damage.”

No serious damage? Seckry felt as though he’d
be bed ridden for weeks after this. He was in agony. He wondered
what serious damage would feel like.

Vance finished his drink and sighed.

“
I’d better be getting you
home. Will your parents be waiting for you?”

“
My mum will,” Seckry
said.

“
Then the sooner we get
back, the better. Where do you live?”

“
Kerik Square, do you know
it?” Seckry began struggling to get his belt on.

Vance put his hand up and shook his head.

“
Lie down, it’s okay. I’m
going to drive slow, and there’s no cars about at this time. I know
Kerik Square. It won’t take us long to get there.”

Seckry gladly lay back down, his head
spinning. He forced himself to focus so he wouldn’t vomit. He asked
Mr Vance why he’d stayed behind so late at school.

“
I was very curious about
something,” Vance said, steering the car gently so that Seckry
didn’t roll around. “The missing node on the white chip diagram is
very interesting indeed.”

“
Really?” Seckry
exclaimed.

“
Yes. And well done for
spotting that again. You’re the only one that did. It’s a very
minor detail. But possibly a very important one.”

“
Wasn’t it just a mistake?”
Seckry asked.

“
I considered it originally.
But this is Endrin. They rarely, if ever, make mistakes. Especially
ones as careless as this. No, the node was emitted from the diagram
for a reason. I’m not sure what that is yet, but I will find
out.”

“
A secret node,” Seckry
mused, surprised to be so interested in that kind of thing. “So
they were trying to hide it from us, thinking we wouldn’t notice
it?”

“
Exactly,” Vance confirmed.
“Now I would rest for a few days, your body will need to heal
itself. Don’t worry about phoning the school in the morning, I will
sort everything out. And I will deal with Mr Knotting
myself.”

“
Really?” Seckry said. “It
seems like everyone is scared to say or do anything to Snibble
because everyone’s afraid of his dad.”

“
Not everyone’s afraid of
his dad,” Vance said, and there was a slight twinkle in his
eye.

When they pulled into Kerik Square, Vance
lifted Seckry out of the back seat with ease and helped him to the
door of his flat.

“
You can give me the shirt
back when you’re healed up,” Vance said.

Seckry thanked him and let him drive away
before turning the key.

The lights of the flat had been switched off
aside from a single lamp on the kitchen unit that was bathing
everything in a warm, orange glow.

There was a note stuck to the fridge by a
magnet.

Hope you two had a great time tonight. I knew
it wouldn’t be long before someone fell for my little stud!

Goodnight sweetheart.

Mum X

Seckry’s stomach lurched. The physical pain
he could deal with, but seeing the disappointment in his mum’s face
when she realised that Natania hadn’t fancied him at all would be
too much to bear. He felt as though he had let her down.

His mum was asleep on the settee in the
living area, and the television was on low volume. She looked comfy
so Seckry switched off the plug and pulled a thin blanket over her
gently, forcing himself not to wince as his arms moved in pain.

After he’d made his way into bed, Seckry
found he was fighting back tears. He’d been tricked. On his
birthday, of all days. And he’d lost his Friction gift card that
his mum had paid so much for. She’d be devastated when she found
out.

He flipped open his phone and sent a short
text message to Tenk.

Not goin in 2moro. I’ll xplain later.
Seckry

He closed his eyes, knowing it would be a
nightmare to open them again in the morning with all the bits of
blood and slime congealing there.

He must have been tired because he didn’t
wake to the sound of Mrs Plum’s singing that night, even though she
was out there for hours, crooning her eerie lullaby.

When he woke in the morning he felt nothing
but relief. He had been dreaming that Snibble had followed the car
home and that he’d snuck into the flat with his lighter and had
been burning his mum’s skin. Seckry had tried to pull Snibble away
but he was too strong and he just kept shoving Seckry with one
hand.

Seckry tried to open his eyes as his heart
beat gradually slowed back down to normal pace. His right eye felt
even more swollen than last night. He could barely see through it
and it hurt even to blink.

He made an attempt to get out of bed but he
almost collapsed from the agony in his legs.

He could hear his mum in the kitchen clanking
dishes and cutlery. She was humming too.

“
Seckry?” she called. “How’s
my boy this morning? Did you go somewhere nice?”

Seckry hobbled to his bedroom door, held it
ajar and said, “Mum, don’t be alarmed. My face might look a bit
different.” Then he stepped out into the passage where his mum
could see him.

She froze, a cup in one hand and a dirty
dishcloth in the other.

“
Seckry?
” Her voice
was a whisper. Her eyes were locked on his face. “Oh, Seckry.” She
put down her cup and came towards him slowly, cautiously, as if
he’d break if she moved too suddenly. “What on earth . . .?” Her
voice was wounded more than anything else. There was no anger, no
outrage, just pain at seeing her son in such a state.

“
There was no date,” Seckry
explained groggily. “It was a trap. Some kid with a real chip on
his shoulder wanted to beat me up and they cornered me.”

His mum almost had tears in her eyes. She put
her arms around him gently, scared to touch him in case he was
bruised all over.

“
I’m gonna skip school today
if that’s alright.”

“
Of course, love, of
course.” His mum was shaking her head. “We should never have come
here. I knew the kids were like this. We had no trouble back in
Marne.”

“
It’s okay mum, we had to
move, I know that.”

At eight thirty his mum had to leave for
work. She was reluctant to go in, but Seckry assured her he’d be
fine on his own. Leena looked scared to say anything when she saw
Seckry, and she left for work looking shocked and confused.

When the flat was quiet, Seckry collapsed
back onto his bed. He lay there for a while with his eyes closed,
feeling utterly miserable. He kept thinking about Snibble beating
him up but after a while he realised it wasn’t Snibble that was
making him so upset. It was Natania.

Maybe he’d wanted a girlfriend just as much
as his mum had wanted him to have one.

He stayed in bed for a few hours and kept
drifting in and out of sleep. Each of his dreams were different,
but in all of them appeared a girl, the same girl, standing a short
way away, smiling at him with beautiful eyes. Each time he would
make his way over to her to ask who she was, but before she could
answer, he would wake up.

Eventually he felt too sweaty and fidgety to
be comfortable. He got up and winced at his shin, but he had to get
out of his room for a bit, the air was going stale in there.

Seckry decided he needed some fresh air. He
checked all the lights were off in the flat, checked his key was in
his pocket, and headed out into the square.

It was warm again this morning and the
buildings emanated heat, making the air look like liquid.

Before he’d even had time to ponder anything
over, something caught his eye; a pink, flashing animal logo above
the small arcade centre that Tenk was so fond of. Was it open now?
He wandered over and peeked through the window. There was a shabby
desk inside that was in desperate need of some varnish, but there
was no one behind it. It looked like the machines were running
though. He could see two teddy cranes, some rumbling driving seats,
and a standalone beat ‘em up coin op.

He pushed the door gently and it creaked
open.

“
Hello?” came a voice from
behind one of the walls. “Is that you, Tenk? Skipping school to
play Friction? Your mother will be down here again before long
giving me a good old piece of her mind.”

“
It’s not Tenk!” Seckry
called.