Authors: Gillian Cross

The Nightmare Game (17 page)

BOOK: The Nightmare Game

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The pressure was so strong that Tom could hardly breathe.
Don't be such a bleeding heart,
he told himself crossly.
You can't take everyone's troubles on board. It doesn't MATTER.
But it did matter to the boy. It mattered ridiculously.

When they reached the archway, Robert stopped dead. “That's great,” he said firmly. “Thanks for bringing us to the right place. We'll look after ourselves now.”

It was absolutely clear that he and Tom weren't going to move until the boy took himself off. Things were complicated enough, without a stranger tagging along. But the boy was still hovering.

Tom gave him a friendly smile, trying to catch his eye. “Bye. Thanks for your help.”

The boy wouldn't look at him. He shrugged and shuffled his feet. “It's all right,” he muttered. He hesitated for a second longer and then drifted back toward the group he'd just left.

“At last!” Robert pulled a face. “I thought we were never going to shake him off. What a pain.”

“Yes,” Tom said faintly.

Robert looked quickly at him. “What's up with you?”

“Nothing. Headache.” That wasn't quite the right word for it, but Tom couldn't think of anything better. He pushed his bike under the archway and leaned it against the wall. “Let's go.”

The archway led into the alley behind the shops. Tom and Robert walked along the alley, looking at all the doors that opened onto it and checking the numbers. At the far end was a plain green door with a plastic letters screwed onto it.
17A & 17B.
Robert knocked on the door with his knuckles and they waited for several minutes. No one came.

“He's out,” Tom said, feeling relieved. And cheated.

“Maybe.” Robert frowned and tried the handle.

The door swung open when he pushed it, showing a flight of stairs rising in front of them. The treads were bare and the paint on the walls was peeling.

“I bet the real front door's upstairs,” Robert said. “Come on.” He dived inside.

Tom followed him up. Before he reached the turn in the stairs, he could hear Robert ringing the bell at the top, but when he came out on the landing nothing happened. Robert was already ringing again.

There were two doors leading off the little landing. 17A was the one on the left, a neat blue door, with a little curtained window beside it. There was no light showing from inside. They could hear the bell echoing in the empty rooms.

“He's not there.” Robert's voice was rough with disappointment. He rang the bell for a third time, even though they both knew it was pointless.

A doorknob rattled suddenly, and an old man's voice came sharply from behind them.

“What do you want?”

The door of the other apartment was open just wide enough to let him peer out at them. Tom saw his anxious eyes above the security chainâand for a second he glimpsed himself and Robert as they looked from there.
Boys on the landing. Teenagers. Louts.
The old man was afraid of themâand ashamed of himself for being afraid.

“We'reâerâwe're looking for Mr. Magee,” Tom said apologetically.

“
Mister
Magee?” The old man gave a sudden, wheezy laugh. “He's gone up in the world. I've never heard him called that before.”

“But he does live here?” Robert said quickly.

The old man nodded. “Oh, he lives here all right. But you won't find him now. You'd best come back in the morning.”

“Butâ” Robert began impatiently.

Tom kicked his ankle. Couldn't he
see
they were scaring the old man? “Thank you very much,” he said politely. “We'll do that. Come on, Robbo.”

Robert resisted for a second and then gave in. But he wasn't pleased. “Why did you do that?” he muttered as they went down the stairs. “We could have asked him some questions about Magee.”

“What for?” said Tom. “We can ask him ourselves tomorrow. No point in hassling the old man. There's enoughâ”

Enough pain in the world without making more.
The words were almost out before he realized how weird they would sound.

“Enough what?” Robert said sharply.

“Enough time to wait until tomorrow morning,” Tom improvised.

“There's
no
time to spare.” Robert's voice was even fiercer now. “We've got to find a way of saving Lorn and the others. Before it gets too cold.”

And it was colder every day. Tom knew that even better than Robert. Now, when he took Helga out before school, the wind was icy around his ankles, and the other dogs and their owners hurried past without stopping to chat. Winter was almost there.

“We'll come back tomorrow,” he said. “OK?”

Robert gave a grudging nod as they went outside. “Have to be, won't it?”

They cycled back quickly, without talking. Tom would have liked to go straight home, but Robert obviously assumed that they were going back to his house together. When they reached it, he cycled straight into the front garden, without pausing to say good-bye.

Tom turned in after him, to explain that he was going on. By the time he was close enough to speak, Robert had already opened the side gate. He was frowning at Emma's bike, which was just on the other side, propped against the wall.

“What's the matter?” Tom said. “Something wrong?”

“Not really. It's justâ” Robert shook his head.

“Just what?”

“Wellâwhy has Em left her bike there? It's in everyone's way.”

Tom shrugged. “Maybe she was in a hurry.”

“But she hasn't padlocked it either. That's really peculiar. She's always nagging at me about padlocking mine.”

“Well, now you've got a chance to nag her,” Tom said. “That'll make a change.”

“Not till she gets back from Shelley's,” Robert said. He wheeled both bikes toward the shed. “And we'll probably be at Magee's by then.”

“What time do you want to go?” Tom said. Thinking,
Ten? Half past ten?

“We ought to be there before nine,” Robert said briskly. “We don't want him going out before we get there. Leave your phone on and I'll call you at half past seven, to make sure you're awake.”

“Great,” Tom said sarcastically. It was no use arguing. There wouldn't be any peace until Robert had caught up with Magee. “I'd better go and take Helga out for a proper run now, then. She's not going to get much in the morning.”

“Please yourself.” Robert locked his bike to Emma's and shut the shed door. “I think I'll go in and ring Em, so she knows what's going on. She might decide to come with us tomorrow morningâinstead of slopping around Shelley's house in her pajamas all day.”

You think so?
Tom had a feeling that Emma wanted to stay a long way away from Magee. And he could understand that. As he pedaled home, there was only one thought running through his head.

He'll be there tomorrow. . . .

WHEN ROBERT PHONED IN THE MORNING, HE WAS IN A VERY bad temper. “At least
you've
got your phone turned on,” he muttered when Tom answered it.

“Only because I knew you'd call early.” Tom was whispering, trying not to wake his mother. “What's bugging you?”

“I can't get Emma. Her phone's been off all this time.”

Tom laughed. “Must have been a great party.”

“But how can she cut out like that? And forget about what's going on?”

“Give her a break, Robbo. She's only having twenty-four hours off. It's been pretty intense for the last few days. Don't
you
wish you could switch off?”

“No I don't,” Robert said. “But you sound as if you do. Are you going to run out on me as well?”

Tom sighed. “Of course not.”

“Good. I'll see you around here in half an hour, then.” Robert hung up before Tom could protest.

Being there in half an hour meant getting up instantly. Tom tried to do it without disturbing his mother, but she appeared in the kitchen doorway while he was swigging down a quick glass of milk.

“This is a surprise,” she said sleepily. “You're not usually so eager to get to Tesco.”

Tom stared at her. “Tesco?”

“You
promised
,” his mother said reproachfully. “Because I need to get all the really heavy stuff today.”

Of course. He had. Dad had always taken her in the car, and she hated going on her own. She couldn't really manage all the bags on the bus.
Don't worry,
Tom had said the Saturday before.
I'll come with you next week.
He couldn't go back on that now. And the shopping wouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

He gave his mother a cheerful smile. “Don't panic. I remember. But can we go soon? I said I'd do something with Robert afterward.”

“No problem.” His mother grinned back. “I'll be ready in twenty minutes.”

She rattled back upstairs, and Tom took out his phone and dialed Robert's number, reluctantly. His head was already starting to ache and he wasn't looking forward to the conversation. Robert was going to be furious with him.

He was.

“What are you talking about?” he said. “Can't you go shopping this afternoon?”

“No,” Tom said. “Sorry.”

“Why not?”

Because I promised. Because Mom always goes shopping on Saturday mornings. Because.
“It'll only take a couple of hours,” Tom said soothingly. “I can be back before eleven.”

“
Eleven!
” Robert said. “That's much too late. Magee might be out again by then and I'm not risking that. If you won't come with me now, I'm going on my own.”

Tom knew that wasn't a good idea, but he wasn't going to let himself be blackmailed. And his headache was getting worse. Soon it wouldn't be safe for him to cycle anyway.

“I've got a terrible migraine,” he muttered, fudging a half-truth. “If I go shopping with Mom, I'll be able to get some painkillers. Then I can join you afterwardâif you still need me.”

“You've never had migraines before,” Robert said sharply. “Is it something to do with Magee?”

Don't start on that,
Tom thought. He could hear his mother coming down the stairs. “Adolescence often triggers the onset of migraines,” he said. In the best Great Scientist voice he could manage.

“Other people make do with acne,” Robert still sounded annoyed, but he was calming down now.

Tom decided to end the conversation while he was winning. “I'll phone you as soon as we've got the shopping home. If you need me then, I can be around at Magee's in fifteen minutes. OK?”

“Have to be, won't it?” Robert said grudgingly. “Just be as quick as you can.”

He hung up just as Tom's mother came into the kitchen.

BUT IT WAS ROBERT WHO MADE THE NEXT CALL, LONG BEFORE eleven. Tom and his mother were only halfway around the supermarket when Tom's phone rang, between the pasta and the bread.

Tom took it out of his pocket. “Hi, Robbo.”

“Can't he leave you alone for a second?” his mother muttered irritably.

Tom put a hand over the phone and grinned at her. “No one can do without me. I'm indispensable.”

He dodged the amiable cuff his mother aimed at him and ducked away down the aisle.

“Tosh?” Robert said in his ear. “Are you there?”

“What's up?” said Tom. “I thought I was going to phone
you
.”

“You don't understand,” Robert said. He was almost whispering. “I had to phone you. Because of Magee.”

Inside Tom's head everything suddenly went very still. “What about Magee?”

“He won't talk to me. He just says, âIt's the other one I want.' You've got to come, Tosh.”

Tom took a long breath. “He wants to talk to
me
?”

That made sense, of course. He was the one who'd been given the little white card. From the moment their eyes first connected, he'd known that he had business to settle with Magee.

“You've got to come
now
,” Robert was saying. “Straightaway.”

Tom could hear the urgency in his voice. But he could see his mother, too. She was watching him anxiously, waiting for him to finish his call. He couldn't just take off and leave her to carry the shopping home.

“Look, Robbo,” he said, “I won't be long. I've just got to help Momâ”

“I don't
believe
it!” Robert said furiously. “We've finally found Mageeâand all you can think about is
shopping?
”

Tom closed his eyes and took a long breath, trying to stay calm and reasonable. He was still trying to work out how to reply when he heard a completely unexpected sound from the other end of the phone.

Someone was laughing.

“Who's that?” he said sharply.

The voice that replied wasn't Robert's. It was another voice. He'd never heard it before, but he knew instantly who it was. Who it had to be.

“Hello, boy,” said Magee. “How are the bruises coming along?”

How did he know about those? Even Robert didn't really know.

“What do you mean?” Tom said, very fast and low. “What bruises?”

Magee laughed again. A wry, hoarse laugh. “They'll get worse before they get better. Believe me.”

“What do you mean?” Tom said again.

But it was too late. Magee had gone. It was Robert who answered the question.

BOOK: The Nightmare Game

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