Once

Twenty Seven

David answered on the second ring.

"Hello?" He heard Elle's panting breath, the frantic pounding of her running feet, and his tone became immediately intense and urgent. "Elle, what is it? What's wrong?"

"It's Russell," she gasped down the phone. She was careering madly down the path through the woods, scattering frightened birds into the air and sending startled squirrels darting up trees. "Oh god, David, it's Russell!"

"You mean - he's the next one?" he said.

"Yes! Yes he's next, David!"

"But which story?"

"Red Riding Hood."

There was a moment of deathly silence on the other end of the phone. Both of them were thinking the same thing. They both knew just how that story went.

"I saw him walking off into the woods," Elle said, "He had this old red hoodie on - I can't explain it, David -"

"You don't need to." She could hear him moving about frantically at the other end of the phone, doors opening and closing, footsteps padding heavily downstairs. "You're doing what Mr Luzlic told you to. You're seeing the signs, Elle." He paused a moment. "I'm coming to you, Elle. I'm coming now, do you hear me? Where am I going?"

"I'm heading to Russell's grandma's. That's where he's going. She lives on Elm Road - it's past the school. You won't get here in time -"

"I'm coming, Elle. I'll be there any minute. Just be careful."

He hung up the phone.

Elle stuffed her phone back into her pocket and kept running. She had no idea why she'd called David. He didn't know where he was going, and he'd never get there in time, anyway. But she had to tell someone. She had to say it out loud, to make it more real than this insane concept inside her head.

The problem was, now she'd said it out loud it felt more real than anything she'd ever felt before. She was running flat out but her whole body was suddenly freezing cold, prickling with dread. She doubled her efforts and plunged on wildly down the path.

A minute later she burst out of the woods, sunlight glaring in her eyes. She swerved to the right and raced up School Lane. Russell was nowhere in sight, and she felt another surge of panic. She'd hoped to catch up with him here, but evidently he'd been walking quicker than she'd anticipated.

But if he was already there, and if what she thought was going to happen was already happening...

She felt as if she was going to be sick.

A squeal of tires and brakes behind her suddenly caught her attention. She whipped her head back just as David came tearing out of the woods on his sleek black bike. He shot up the street and fell in line beside Elle as she continued to run.

"Elle!" he gasped. "Thank god I caught you! Where is it? Is it far?"

"Up ahead," Elle panted back, pointing. Her whole body screamed in pain and exhaustion after her manic flight through the woods, but she didn't slow down for a second. Her feet thundered on the tarmac and her breath came in short spasmodic jerks.

About two minutes past the school Elle took the curving street that veered left along the perimeter of the school field. Short residential streets branched off on each side here, like streams branching off from a river. Elle had come this way dozens of times, accompanying Russell on his visits to his grandma. She'd never been so panicked taking this route before.

"That one," she said. "Right at the end."

The main street ended by petering out into a long row of narrow terraced cottages. The woods began at the very end of this row, the first trees coming practically up to the last of the houses. Most people thought it looked quaint here, but Elle always felt like it was bleak and secluded. If she were Russell's grandma she wouldn't want to live out here, all on her own. It was much too quiet and remote. And she'd never felt it was more quiet than she did just then.