Chapter Sixteen

Krzzz! Krzzz! Krzzz!

Arthur groggily opened his eyes. His phone was vibrating harshly on his bedside cabinet. He grabbed it and tapped the screen irritably to read the incoming text message. It was from Ash: ‘Im outside. Where U?’ He looked at the time on the corner of the display. It blinked to 08.47. Usually he left his house at half-past eight. He was late!

He threw the covers back and barely had time to register the cold before throwing off his pyjamas and pulling on his school clothes. Luckily the brown uniform had been draped over his radiator so it warmed him up. He legged it into the bathroom and studied himself in the mirror. His eyes were pink, with yellowish chunks of gunge at the corners, as if he hadn’t slept. A clump of hair stood to attention at the crown of his head. He threw some water on his face, then on his hair, patting it down while brushing his teeth. As he gargled, he recalled the dream he’d had: the gods capturing the great Fenris Wolf. There was no doubt now that the first dream of the wolf had been real. Ash would have to believe him whether she liked it or not.

He raced downstairs, grabbing his school bag on the way, and swung open the front door. Ash was waiting there, leaning against the railing and tapping her foot impatiently.

‘Sorry!’ he apologised. ‘I slept in.’ He went to shut the door behind him.

‘Wait!’ Ash stopped him, putting her foot in the door jamb. She pulled something out of her coat pocket and offered it to him. It was another webcam, the same size and shape as Ash’s only with a label stuck across the top with his name. ‘I made you one, too,’ she went on. ‘Just put it in your window so we can see if Loki or any of his raiders come around.’

He grabbed the camera, bounded back upstairs, left it on his windowsill and sprinted down again. He was out of breath as he locked the door.

‘Listen, Ash,’ he said through pants as they ran towards the bus stop. ‘I’ve something to tell you …’

As soon as the bus pulled up outside Belmont School, Ash got off and marched towards their classroom before Arthur could catch up. After he’d described his dream in detail to her and emphasised again his theory about her dog, the atmosphere in the upper deck of the bus had turned icy.

‘So Loki’s second child is definitely a wolf,’ she’d said. ‘I believe that much. What I don’t believe is that you still think that my little puppy is that very wolf!’

‘But–’

‘Look, we know Loki has a gang of raiders. We know that whatever he wants was in the museum. And where was Ice through all of that? At home.’

‘Ash don’t be so–’

Without another word, Ash had changed seats. Arthur stared at the back of her head for the rest of the journey to school. If she won’t listen, he thought, I’ll have to act. I’ll do something. But what?

The morning bell had already rung when they’d reached the school and Arthur walked across the car-park by himself, watching his friend trudge ahead of him.

‘Hi, Arthur!’ a voice called from behind him. Without even turning around, he knew it was Ellie.

‘Hi, Ellie,’ he said, still facing forward. ‘You’re late.’

‘So are you,’ she said as she caught up with him. Ex was trailing alongside her, kicking pebbles out of his path as usual. Ellie noticed Ash storm through the main entrance of the school ahead of them. ‘Did you and Ash have a falling out?’ she asked.

‘You could say that.’

‘What about?’

‘Long story.’ He liked Ellie but he really wasn’t up for her constant stream of queries this morning, so he picked up the pace to a jog. ‘Come on. Or Miss Keegan will give us detention.’

‘Oh, look who’s turned up!’ said the teacher as the three of them piled in the door sheepishly, only moments after Ash had arrived in. ‘Did everyone sleep in this morning?’

‘Sorry, Miss,’ Arthur said, taking his seat next to Ash. He could feel her stiffening beside him as he sat down.

‘Apology accepted, Arthur,’ Miss Keegan went on. ‘I was just reminding the class that our annual parent–teacher meeting will take place this evening from six. Just be sure to remind your parents it’s on in case they’ve forgotten.’

‘Miss!’ Ellie said, raising her arm. ‘Our parents are on a dig in Greece.’

‘Yes, I’m aware of that, Ellie. You can invite your guardian.’

‘But that’s my grandfather, Miss. He’s nearly blind and he can’t drive any more.’

‘Just let him know anyway, Ellie,’ Miss Keegan said, exasperated.

The remainder of the day didn’t go as quickly as Arthur would have liked. In fact, occasionally it felt as if time had not only ground to a halt, but was flowing backwards. He was sure he spotted the minute hand on the clock over the blackboard tick backwards at one stage. Ash avoided him all day, sending glares his way during lunch as she sat with Ciara O’Connor. He ate lunch with Ellie, Ex and Rob Tynan, who wouldn’t shut up about motor-racing the whole time. Ordinarily this would have driven him crazy (no pun intended), but now he was pleased that Rob’s incessant yapping managed to drown out Ellie’s questions. Eventually the bell rang to announce the end of the day and the class scrambled out of the building as if their very lives depended on it.

He watched from afar as Ash and a few other pupils walked to the bus stop. He couldn’t bear to ride in the same bus as Ash after the uncomfortable journey that morning, but the next one would be over an hour. There was nothing else for it, he realised. He’d have to walk the forty minutes home by himself.

As he set off – passing the bus stop on the way and hoping that Ash wouldn’t notice him – he heard some small footsteps clatter along the street behind him. They were followed closely by a set of heavier, thumping footsteps.

‘Where are you going?’ Ellie asked, coming up alongside him.

‘Walking home.’

‘We’ll walk with you,’ she said, indicating Ex lumbering behind them.

‘Won’t it be out of your way?’

‘Doesn’t matter.’

He laughed to himself. Whatever else you could say about Ellie, he thought, she was certainly very persistent.

‘OK,’ he said, bowing to the inevitable. ‘I’d be happy to have the company.’

As they went on, Ellie started to swing her arms vigorously by her sides. Arthur looked at her for a minute before curiosity got the better of him.

‘Why are you doing that?’

‘To stay warm,’ she told him, keeping her arms swinging.

‘Well, why don’t you wear a warmer coat?’ She had the adult-sized trench coat on as usual and, though it was far too baggy for her, it didn’t look like it held in much heat.

‘Because this is my mom’s,’ she answered reasonably. ‘She leaves it for me any time they go away without us. So I don’t miss them as much. It still smells like her.’ She put a loose bunched-up sleeve to her nose and inhaled her mother’s scent.

‘Do they go away much?’

‘A couple of times a year. Usually they bring us. But not this time.’

‘So your granddad is taking care of you guys?’

‘Yup!’

‘Don’t you have to be home on time?’

‘Oh, he won’t mind. He’s old now and he mostly just sleeps in a chair by the fire.’ She stopped swinging her arms and put her hands in the over-sized pockets. ‘So what do your parents do?’

‘My dad works on the Metro. Well, worked on the Metro.’

‘Worked?’ This seemed to pique her interest.

‘He quit his job. Which means we’ll be moving back to Kerry in a couple of weeks.’

‘Wow,’ she uttered, staring down at the pavement. ‘That sucks.’ After a moment’s silence she brightened up again. ‘I’ve travelled all over the world with Mom and Dad. I’ve seen the sunrise in New Zealand, polar bears in the Arctic, the slums of Mumbai. But I’ve never been to Kerry. Is it nice?’

‘It’s all right, yeah.’ For the past couple of weeks, he had dreaded the thought of moving back there. But now that he had fallen out with his best friend, Kerry was looking better all the time.

‘We should visit you when you move back,’ Ellie said. ‘Me and Ex and Ash.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, noncommittally.

‘What happened in the museum, Arthur?’ she asked suddenly.

‘Uh …’ He faltered, thinking of Loki’s grinning face as it was on that day. ‘I can’t really remember. I blacked out.’

Ellie stopped in her tracks. Arthur looked back at her. They stood like that for a moment as Ex kept on kicking pebbles.

‘That’s not true. You showed the Gardaí something,’ she said, finally breaking the silence. ‘What did you see?’

‘Just forget about it, Ellie,’ he said. ‘I saw the raiders leaving, that’s all.’

‘I thought we were friends.’

‘We are.’

‘You said you trusted me.’

‘I do, Ellie. But, well, you just need to trust me on this one.’ He walked on, wondering if Ellie could understand everything he knew, if she’d be as trusting and as carefree with that knowledge. Knowing about Loki and all he had done had made Arthur so paranoid and suspicious that he couldn’t even trust an injured puppy. He resolved there and then to put the argument with Ash behind him, to give Ice another chance and to apologise to his best friend.

Ellie joined him by his side. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘No more questions.’

For the rest of the walk home they chatted about school and the other pupils and their favourite things. Anything but the museum. Before long, they reached the estate.

‘Could I use your bathroom?’ Ellie asked as he turned towards his house. ‘It’s just that it’s a longer walk to ours. I’ll be really quick.’

‘Of course you can.’ The three of them walked to his door. Arthur opened it and let Ellie in first.

‘Up the stairs,’ he instructed her. ‘First door on the left.’

She thanked him and loped up to the bathroom. Arthur was about to follow her inside when Ex spoke. It was the first time he’d opened his mouth the whole way home, so he took Arthur by surprise.

‘So this is where you live,’ he said. It was more a statement than a question, but Arthur still felt he should reply.

‘Sure is,’ he said, starting to go inside again.

‘And Ash lives here too?’ Ex asked before Arthur could get out of the cold. Arthur took a step back and pointed out the Barry house.

‘She lives just there,’ Arthur said, then moved to go in again.

‘Nice,’ admired Ex. He nodded at the green. ‘Do you have many kick-arounds there?’

Halfway through the door, Arthur sighed and turned back to Ex.

‘Sometimes,’ he answered. ‘But not as often as Max would like.’

‘Hmm,’ mused Ex.

‘All done!’ Ellie cried, springing down the steps and out the door. She stopped in front of Arthur and looked him straight in the eyes.

‘If there’s ever anything you want to talk about, you have my phone number,’ she said. ‘I’m very understanding.’

Then abruptly, with a brisk wave to him, she skipped merrily out of the estate. Ex trailed after her, silent once more. Arthur finally went into his own house and collapsed in front of the television, exhausted.

As soon as Ash got home, she went up to her room. Ice jumped up at her thighs when she got in the door so she carried the pup up with her.

She dropped her backpack, lay on her bed and lifted the pup onto it too. Ice walked in a tight little circle before finding a comfortable spot to lie down. Ash put her hand on the pup’s curled back, stroking the silky fur.

‘What a long day,’ she said to Ice, knowing she couldn’t understand the words. ‘And all because of you.’

She took her phone out of her pocket to check her emails and texts. None of either. Then she switched on the application that was linked to the webcams. She accessed her camera first. The image that filled the screen was the view out her bedroom window. She could see the whole estate here. It was nearly four o’clock and quite quiet. The old lady across the street was out walking her dog, trying to act casual as it pooed on the pavement. All was still on the green, although she knew that Eirik was hidden in the trees, guarding them. She noticed two figures standing outside Arthur’s house. One was Arthur, obviously, but there was someone else next to him. She squinted her eyes at the low-resolution image and was able to make out Ex. She wondered what he was doing there, then switched her view to Camera Two.

The second webcam was the one she’d given Arthur only that morning. She expected to see outside his window so she could get a closer look at Ex but, to her surprise, the phone display was filled with a shot looking into Arthur’s bedroom. Obviously he hadn’t placed the camera in the correct position in his rush to leave that morning. Sunlight didn’t fill the room at this time of the day so it was quite dark and ill-suited to a low-resolution camera. Nevertheless, she could make out the open door and hallway beyond, the piles of clothes heaped at the end of the unmade bed, the closed laptop on the desk. And Ellie. The girl was wandering around the bedroom, picking up books and pictures, examining them closely. Ash watched in shock as Ellie opened the laptop, found that it wasn’t on and shut the lid again. Then she got to her knees and crawled along the ground, out of shot. For a few moments nothing happened, then there was a series of bright flashes. As each flash flared, the vision in the webcam blurred. When they were done, Ellie stood back up and left the bedroom. Ash watched as she popped into the bathroom opposite Arthur’s room and flushed the toilet. Finally, she bounded down the stairs and out of sight.

Ash leaped off her bed and ran to the window. She waited until she saw Ellie and Ex walking away from the estate, then ran down the stairs and towards Arthur’s house.