Nowhere Boys (22 page)

Sam jumped to his feet. The pain in his leg shot up into his thigh but he barely noticed it. ‘Hold it out Andy,’ he yelled.

Roland turned towards the talisman. He dropped a stunned Felix to the ground and started towards Andy, like a moth to a flame.

Sam ran to Felix and pulled him to his feet. He was deathly pale and was struggling to breathe. ‘You have to say the spell.’

Felix coughed. Sam turned to see Andy holding out the fiercely glowing talisman towards Roland. He shook Felix hard. ‘Come on. Say it!’

Felix gasped for breath, and started to chant.
‘Divinity of the elements, I summon thee.’

Roland moved closer to Andy.

Felix coughed and wheezed. ‘
Earth, water, air, fire.’

‘Come on, Felix,’ Sam yelled desperately.

‘Within this stone I invoke ye place.
Your greatest strength, your kindest grace.’

Felix was getting his breath back. His voice was slowly gaining in strength.

Andy bravely brandished the talisman. Roland was only a few steps away.

‘And while this stone remains at hand
Thou shall be safe throughout this land.’

The talisman suddenly flashed brightly and Roland stopped short.

Sam watched, amazed, as the red light slowly faded from his eyes. His hands dropped to his sides and he shook his head like a swimmer trying to get water out of his ear. His shoulders slumped into their normal position. He looked curiously at Andy who was staring at him, holding out the talisman, with an expression of utter terror.

‘What’s the matter, matey? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

Sam let go of his grip on Felix, who fell to his knees.

Roland picked up his nulla-nulla. ‘Okay, what are we doing? Am I taking you boys back to town or what?’

Sam was speechless. Roland had no idea what had just happened.

Roland looked at Felix, who was deathly pale. ‘What happened to him?’

‘
You
happened to him.’ said Sam. ‘You went totally psycho and tried to kill us.’

Roland burst into a loud belly laugh. ‘Oh, that’s a good one. Sure there are dangerous things out here, but I’m not one of them.’ He pulled a twig out of his hair and looked at it curiously.

No-one knew how to respond.

‘All right,’ said Roland. ‘Think I’ll leave you boys to it, and go feed the Henriettas. Drop by the camp if you want a lift into Bremin.’ He trudged off through the bushes whistling cheerily.

The boys looked at each other. Man, they had been
this close
to total cactus.

Andy hadn’t moved. He was still standing holding the talisman out. His arm slowly fell to his side and he looked sheepishly at Felix. ‘Okay, magic totally exists.’

Felix smiled. ‘Finally.’

‘Did it have to take us nearly getting killed for you to work that out?’ said Jake, helping Felix to his feet.

‘We have to get out of here,’ said Felix. ‘If the demon can possess people it’s getting seriously strong.’

Sam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Wait a minute. We came here to work out how to get home.’

‘Sam,’ said Felix. ‘I tried, okay? It didn’t work. We need to find another way.’

Sam shook his head. He wasn’t going to let them give up. They were here. They had the talisman to protect them. They
had
to keep trying. ‘No way. We have to retrace our steps.’

‘We did that, dude,’ said Jake, looking around. ‘And it nearly killed us.’

‘We haven’t finished,’ said Sam. He looked around for firewood. ‘We have to make a fire like last time.’ He picked up some damp twigs. ‘Come on! We have to retrace our steps, which means we have to stay all night. Then tomorrow we’ll know if it worked.’

No-one moved.

‘It’s probably not too late to get the bus back,’ said Andy, handing Felix the talisman.

What a traitor. Sam turned on him. ‘
You
were the one who said this would work. That we would find the wormhole if we repeated everything exactly as it was last time.’

Andy looked thoughtful. ‘Yeah, but that was before I believed in magic. I have to say that’s a total game-changer.’

Sam wanted to scream in frustration. What was wrong with them? Was he the only one who actually wanted to go home? He grabbed some more firewood and headed towards the stone ledge.

Felix called after him. ‘Sam, come on. We need to go back. Talk to Phoebe.’

Sam turned on him, furious. ‘Okay, fine. You go. I’m staying here.’

Felix sighed. ‘You can’t stay on your own out here. You just saw what happened. If we’re not together –’

A loud cracking sound suddenly came from the bushes to their right.

Jake turned sharply. ‘What was that?’

It sounded like a creature scrambling through the undergrowth towards them.

Sam moved back towards the others. ‘It’s the demon again. Quick, do the spell.’

‘
Divinity of the elements
…
’
began Felix.

Just as they realised the talisman wasn’t glowing, the branches of a wattle pushed a part and a furious Bates stood there.

‘What the
hell
do you think you’re doing?’

The boys looked at each other.

‘Demon slaying?’ offered Andy.

Bates ignored him. ‘I have exhausted students waiting on a bus, while you boys do what?’ He looked at Sam’s armful of twigs. ‘Set up camp?’

‘We got lost,’ said Felix.

‘Well maybe if you’d taken a map and stayed in your allocated groups that wouldn’t have happened.’ Bates could barely contain his anger. ‘Come on. Follow me.’

‘That’s fine. We’re happy to stay here,’ said Sam.

Bates turned on him sharply. ‘Like that’s going to happen.’

‘It has before,’ muttered Sam.

‘Follow me.
Now
,’ ordered Bates.

Felix, Andy and Jake set off after Bates; his mauve jumper leading the way through the bush.

Sam hesitated. Should he stay here? Give it a try? He thought about Roland’s devil eyes and superhuman strength. He’d have no hope against that on his own. He threw down his handful of wet twigs. Somehow being this close to getting home made
not
getting there so much worse.

The others were almost out of sight when he reluctantly set off after them.

He trudged miserably through wet bracken. He could see Andy walking ahead of him.

‘Sam.’

‘Yeah, what?’ said Sam crossly.

Andy turned. ‘I didn’t say anything.’

Sam watched as Andy kept walking. He disappeared around a bend.

‘Sam.’

The voice sounded close.

‘Yes?’ said Sam hesitantly.

‘They don’t understand what you’re going through … but I do.’

Sam looked around. The voice seemed to be coming from all around. The earth, the trees, the sky all seemed to be vibrating with its sound.

‘I can help you, Sam.’

Sam stood perfectly still.

‘If you’ll let me.’

Sam felt his breathing settle. The voice was reassuring.

He looked around. But there was no-one there. Just a gentle breeze drifting through the branches of the gum trees.

Sam shook his head. He was imagining things. He turned to catch up the others. The voice came again – a little more insistent.

‘Will you let me help you, Sam?’

felix:
the unmaking of …

‘So maybe the closest explanation to what happened to us is the intersection between science and magic. The interlinking point where the two systems collide.’

Felix had been trying to ignore Andy from the moment they’d got back on the bus. But even now, as they walked along the bush track, he wouldn’t let it go. Like a born-again believer, Andy wanted to quiz Felix on every aspect of magic. It was driving Felix completely nuts, to the point where he almost wished Andy still didn’t believe in magic. At least then Felix didn’t have to deal with constant questions about how magic worked and how close the cause-and-effect system was to science.

‘Yeah, maybe,’ said Felix, trying to give Andy the hint to shut up. He had other things bothering him, like why the reversing spell hadn’t worked. Maybe Sam was right. They hadn’t exactly retraced their steps.

Jake put his hand on his arm. ‘Felix, look.’

Felix had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t realised they’d reached the shack. Pulled up out the front was a police car.

‘It’s my dad,’ said Jake.

The boys dropped to the ground and watched as Jake’s dad paced around the perimeter. Another policeman exited the shack.

‘No sign of them, Sarge. But they’re definitely staying here.’

Jake’s dad looked out into the bush. His eyes passed by where the four boys were hiding in the grass. Felix held his breath.

‘Okay, then. Let’s search around this area. They won’t be far.’

‘We have to get out of here,
now
,’ Felix whispered urgently.

The boys raced back down the bush path. The sun was setting and the birds were chirping into the dusk before settling down for the night.

‘Where are we going?’ panted Andy.

‘It’s not like we’ve got many options,’ said Felix as they reached the bitumen road.

‘Oh no,’ groaned Sam. ‘Not Phoebe.’

Felix turned on him sharply. ‘You got a better plan?’

By the time they’d reached Arcane Lane the street lights were on and the birdsong had been replaced by the slow hum of traffic as commuters made their way home.

A
CLOSED
sign hung on the door. Ignoring it, Felix banged on the glass. No response.

‘She’s gone home, dude,’ said Sam.

‘She lives out the back,’ said Felix. ‘She’ll be here. She’s just screening.’ He banged again, louder.

‘You sure know a lot about her,’ said Sam.

Felix ignored him. A light had been switched on. Footsteps were coming towards the door.

There was the sound of three different bolts being drawn and then Phoebe’s cranky face appeared at the door. ‘Can’t you boys read?’ She pointed at the sign. ‘C–L–O–’

‘Can we come in?’ asked Felix.

‘Have you found out anything?’

Felix shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

Phoebe’s eyes narrowed. ‘What’s
maybe
mean? You either have or you haven’t.’

Felix heard a car pull into the car park. He looked anxiously over his shoulder. It wouldn’t be long before the police would start looking for them in town. Why they were after them he didn’t know and he most certainly didn’t want to find out. ‘We need your help.’

Phoebe held his gaze. ‘And I need yours. And where has that got me?’

‘Just let us in. Please.’

Phoebe sighed and opened the door just wide enough for the boys to slip through. She led them into her back room. ‘All right. What’s going on?’

‘We went on this school excursion,’ Andy blurted out.

‘It was the same one we went on in our world and we thought we could retrace our steps and find our way home,’ added Jake.

Phoebe looked at Felix darkly. ‘So, you thought you could ignore our deal and find your own way home.’

‘Don’t worry. It was an epic fail on all fronts,’ muttered Sam, who had slumped into Phoebe’s armchair.

‘Yeah, we got attacked by a demon in human form,’ said Andy eagerly. ‘But then I defeated it.’

‘With magic,’ added Felix.

‘Yeah, with magic,’ said Andy. ‘It was totally cool. I just held the talisman out like –’

‘So, the demon can now take on human form,’ Phoebe interrupted. ‘That’s not good.’

‘I know,’ said Felix.

‘That means it’s getting strong. And it will keep getting stronger until it destroys you.’

‘That’s if my dad doesn’t get us first,’ said Jake.

Phoebe looked at him. ‘Your dad’s after you?’

‘The police found our shack. We can’t go back there. That’s why we’re here,’ said Felix.

Phoebe took a moment to work out what Felix was saying. Her eyes widened. ‘No.’

‘We don’t have any other options,’ said Felix.

‘You can’t stay here. Four stinky boys in this tiny room? No-one would come out alive.’

‘Please, Phoebe.’ Felix looked around the room. It was warm and dry. The couches had plump cushions, and there was a soft-looking rug on the floor.

‘Absolutely no way.’

Felix reached into his bag and pulled out one of the strange hanging objects he’d found in the forest.

Phoebe looked stunned. ‘Where did you get that?’

‘It’s Alice’s, isn’t it?’

Phoebe nodded, and sat down next to Felix. ‘She made them for conjurations. But where did you –?’

‘In the Bremin Ranges,’ answered Felix.

‘But the police looked there. And so did I.’

‘It’s a hidden path.’

‘You had to fall off a cliff to get there. Literally,’ added Andy.

‘There was another sign of Alice as well,’ Felix said slowly.

Phoebe looked up, excited. ‘What?’

‘If I tell you, will you let us stay?’

Phoebe knew she’d been backed into a corner. She sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t do maternal and I don’t do breakfast.’

‘That’s fine by us,’ said Felix.

‘All right, then. So long as you use deodorant and there’s
no snooping
.’

‘We don’t have deo–’ began Andy.

Phoebe threw a crystal at him. ‘Try that. There’s a spare mattress and linen in that cupboard. Shower’s through there,’ she gestured to a door leading into a small corridor.