The Magpie Effect - The Magpie Chronicles Book 1 (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 13.2

When the lights flickered back on, more than a minute later, Carmen and Holly were clinging to each other. Mona was standing just beyond Carmen’s shoulder. She was wearing the clown mask that she’d foraged from The Ritz. Devilish, star-smudged eyes glared out from a face that was twisted in excruciating malice, flickering in the re-illuminated lamplight like hellfire. To the ordinary eye, the mask would have appeared to have been floating on thin air-

Holly raised a quivering finger and pointed over Carmen’s shoulder. “C-C-Carmen…”

“Holly, what?” Carmen frowned. Her cheeks were still chalky-pale from the blackout.  She followed Holly’s finger over her shoulder and that was when Mona lunged so that the clown mask loomed almost within kissing-distance from Carmen. 

Chaos ensued. 

The scream that tore itself free of Carmen’s throat sounded inhuman, as though she’d tapped into a higher dimension of fear that people weren’t capable of. She ducked and, barrelling Holly out of the way, scrambled back up the path from which we’d come, her terrified pleas enough to shatter the delicate cavern above our heads. 

I stared after her, dumbfounded. Holly was climbing back to her feet from when Carmen had shoved her to the ground, and she whimpered at something. I tore around and saw Mona waving the mask in her hands, her mouth quivering around a laugh that I couldn’t hear over the thunderous orchestra of the river.

Holly cowered away just as Mona let the mask flutter to the ground. With a triumphant wink in my direction, she turned and vanished into the shadows of the Cathedral Caves. 

I glanced back up the path. Carmen had disappeared from sight. My heart was beating in my chest, the blood pulsing in my ears. I was vaguely aware of Mr Carmody cutting across the cavern in our direction as I turned to grab Holly by the wrist and pull her to her feet.

“Holly, come on!” I hissed. “We have to go after her.”

Holly didn’t object, although I could feel the irrepressible shudder of her bones beneath my fingertips. I tugged her up the path, running as quickly as was possible without slipping on the soaked rocky platforms that had been carved into the cave floor, and as fast as my body would allow. 

The mouth of the cave came into view, the daylight washing over my cheeks like an approaching sunrise. The river crashed alongside us in a race towards the exit. We rushed through the mouth of the cave and burst into the daylight, so dazzling that it hurt my eyes, and I came to an abrupt standstill as I realized what I was seeing before me.

Carmen was standing just a metre or so from the edge of the river, a stark plummet the only thing distancing her from the churning waters below. She was pacing back and forth, her arms flailing violently as though she were trying to shudder away the memories of a spider. Her skin was so pale that it was almost translucent.

Mona, I saw, was standing only a couple of feet away from her. The clown mask was nowhere in sight, and she was wearing instead a look of vindictive intent. There was fire, scarlet and hungry, dancing in her eyes. It was only when she glanced at me that I realized what she intended to do.

“Mona, no,” I whispered, as Holly scrambled out of the cave after me. She gasped as her eyes landed on Carmen, and called out her name. I could hear the shouts of Mr Carmody, and the muffled slap of approaching feet as yet more people followed us out of the caves. 

This wasn’t part of the plan, I wanted to scream. I couldn’t help myself; my feet tugged me forwards of their own accord, so that before I knew what I was doing I was almost upon them, waving my arms as the gap between myself and Carmen and Mona closed.