I have the basement door open when I hear it. Reverberating around the stairwell.
A howl.
A long, strangled howl that could only come from Wolfboy.
The sound of him in pain.
I reverse back up the stairs without thinking, covering a flight before I hesitate. What if it’s a trap? What if I make it worse? I’ll be useless in a fight.
I turn around and keep going to the basement. Tears start falling and they don’t stop. The metal grate still lies on the floor at the entrance to the tunnel. How long has it been since Wolfboy and I were here? I stare at the square opening. It doesn’t look so appealing now that I’m on my own. I pick the grate up; I can balance it against the entrance to make it look as if it’s sealed. I position myself to crawl into the gap, and pull the grate until it lies along the edge. I slide onto my stomach and push myself in backwards. I hope that I’ll be able to hold on to the edge with one hand, and drag the grate with the other. But as soon as I slide past my ribs I fall all the way, losing my grip. My hands scrape against the tunnel wall. ‘Shit!’ I say, to no one in particular.
The tunnel is empty, but I don’t feel like waiting underneath the entrance, exposed. I nurse my hands and walk until I spot an alcove in the wall behind a bundle of pipes. I bend down for a closer look. The space is bigger than I expected. Someone has turned it into a cubbyhole, with blankets and cushions.
My ukulele jams against the pipes, so I slip it off and crawl into the cubby. I sit on a cushion and wipe my face with the corner of a blanket. I am completely and utterly out of my depth.
I wish I’d hurt my hands worse because it’s what I deserve. I should have gone back but now it’s probably too late. Wolfboy could be lying on the roof, bleeding or unconscious. Doctor Gregory and those men could load him into their car and drive away. This is exactly what I was afraid would happen. I’ve got nothing left; my wallet, phone and keys are in Wolfboy’s bag. What am I supposed to do? Walk home and pretend none of this happened? That I didn’t meet him, that he never existed?
I’ll wait for ten minutes, or what I guess ten minutes to be. I don’t want to go back out there. I don’t want this to be the way it ends.
My eyes aren’t closed long before I hear someone landing in the tunnel. I’m too tired to consider fighting so I just sit and wait. A face appears under the pipes.
Wolfboy looks as bad as I feel, but relieved to see me. ‘Hey,’ I say, as he squeezes into the cubby. I raise two fingers in the peace sign. ‘Magic Happens.’
Wolfboy crawls across the floor and falls into me, burying his face in my neck. I have to bite my lip so I won’t cry again. And then, embarrassingly, I do.
I cry for way too long in a very hiccupy and undignified fashion before pulling away to look at Wolfboy. His hair is mussed up and he has a scrape on one cheek. The fight has gone from his eyes.
‘I didn’t get the card’ is the first thing he says.
The card is the furthest thing from my mind. I can scarcely believe that he’s here, alive. I heard him howl like someone was stabbing him through the heart with the trowel.
‘I don’t care about that. You’re safe. Did you get your lighter?’
He nods.
‘That’s good.’ It’s reassuring that we didn’t do this for nothing, but the lighter seems less important now. ‘I’m so sorry. It was my fault we got trapped.’
‘Don’t be stupid. It’s no one’s fault.’
Wolfboy’s hand is grimy with dust and blood. ‘Are you hurt?’
He follows my gaze. ‘It’s not my blood.’ His hand trembles under mine, and I realise he’s as shaken up as I am. I touch his cheek. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’
‘I’m fine.’
I wipe my tears away again. I must look like shit. My glamour days are definitely over. ‘What happened?’
‘Doctor Gregory…’ Wolfboy struggles for words. ‘There’s something really wrong with that guy.’
‘He’s a total creep. How did you get away from them?’ ‘I didn’t know what to do, so I leaped up on the wall. Ran around the edge howling like a madman.’
‘You what?’ I try to picture the wind grabbing at Wolfboy, the enormous space above and below.
‘I ran around howling and they all watched me like I was a nature documentary.’
So that was the howling I heard. Some of the tightness in my chest dissipates.
‘And then?’
‘I made a break for the door. And then I took the stairs.’
‘They let you go without a fight?’
Even as I’m asking I realise I already know the answer. Wolfboy’s face flames with more than just the graze on his cheek. ‘No. I took care of them.’
‘Meaning?’ I look at his bloody hand again.
‘Meaning, I punched one of them in the head so hard I don’t think he’ll wake up until next year. And I head-butted the other one. Doctor Gregory watched me do it.’ Wolfboy’s hands wrap around his head as if he’s trying to hold the pieces of his skull together.
‘I think I heard his nose break.’
‘They were trying to hurt you,’ I tell him, rubbing his leg. ‘You had to.’
‘It was like I was outside my body, watching myself do it. It was easy. But now I feel sick.’
‘Because you’re a good person. That’s why. You didn’t have a choice.’
He’s still cloudy with doubt. Whenever there are fights at the Commons, the fighters always seem so proud afterwards, even if they’ve lost. It’s never occurred to me that they might go home and feel ashamed.
‘And you didn’t see the Elf?’ I ask.
When I came off the roof I was ready to do battle with my gardening fork, but the Elf was nowhere to be seen.
‘No. I was so worried he would be waiting for you in the stairwell. When I saw the grate had been moved I knew you’d made it. And once I was in the tunnel I saw your ukulele.’
Wow. That was real smart of me. Maybe I could have flown some kind of welcome flag and let off a flare while I was at it. ‘What do we do now?’ I ask.
Right now the only thing I want to do is curl up and sleep for a few hours, but we’re still under the evil empire, and not that well hidden. At least a few Kidds must know about these tunnels.
‘I think we should see where the tunnel takes us.’
‘Okaaay,’ I say.
‘I thought you were fine with being underground.’
‘You didn’t like it at first either. What if we’re wandering around for days without food and water?’
‘And in fifty years’ time they’ll find our skeletons, one of them with a bony hand extended in despair?’ Wolfboy does a pretty hot impersonation of a grasping skeleton.
‘Exactly. I could figure out the direction of the tunnels between the buildings in Orphanville, but once we go beyond that I have no idea.’
‘We’ll work it out. The tunnels will take us somewhere.’
I look into his eyes. I can only see their shine and not their colour in this light. I’m so glad he doesn’t blame me.
I don’t know why I cried so much. It’s not like me at all.
‘And are you okay?’ It’s his turn to ask.
‘I’m just relieved.’
Wolfboy looks a million times better than when I first met him. I know what lies underneath now. His patience. The way he’ll make a joke and then look like he wants to take it back. How he listens to me, really listens. How he’s survived the terrible things that have happened to him.
He stares back, and we really see each other. Wolfboy touches me on the tip of my nose with one finger, making me smile. I move closer, very slowly. His breath is hot and short against my cheek. I close my eyes at the last minute, and feel his lips against mine. Soft. I let my lips rest on his for a few seconds and then I pull away. He gently pulls me back in.