‘C’mon,’ I say after about ten minutes, and, keeping low to the ground, we scuttle over the gate and towards the entrance of the tunnel. It seems darker than last time.
‘Should we follow?’
‘Um,’ says Eric.
I can hear Lily’s voice, but not the words she’s saying. I feel we ought to follow, but then again … I don’t really want to. It’s different doing things with Jacob, because he’s too stupid to be afraid of anything. Eric’s wise, so when he’s not sure, I’m not sure.
Something metal clangs, and keys turn in a lock. Then there are more footsteps and I can hear that they’re returning along the corridor.
‘That’s it, walk towards the light,’ says Lily. ‘Keep going, you’ll be fine.’
I dive behind the skip. Eric follows.
‘A little further, and we’ll stop,’ says Lily. ‘I’m going to click my fingers. When I do so, you will wake. You will remember the disappearing cabinet, the stage, the lights. You will remember climbing inside it, and the door closing. Then you will recall a period of darkness.’ She pauses. ‘In your deep thoughts, you will remember that you have been to a strange land with snow and hurricanes, steaming geysers, and chairs on a beach. You will remember scratching the word “hope” on a rock and worrying about how to get home to your son. Is this understood?’
‘Yes,’ says a voice. ‘It is.’
‘Dad?’ says Eric, standing up. ‘Dad – is that you?’
Eric’s dad stands there blinking in the light. Lily is behind him, her eyes wide with shock as we run from behind the skip and stop in front of her.
‘What’s going on?’ demands Eric.
But Lily clicks her fingers and vanishes. I don’t mean she runs away: she vanishes. One minute she’s there, and the next she isn’t.
‘Eric,’ says Eric’s dad, rushing forward and clutching his son like a life raft.
‘Dad,’ squeaks Eric from inside the bear hug. ‘I’ve missed you. Dreadfully.’ A small spout of water shoots from his hair over his dad’s head and this time I can definitely see tears streaming down his face and under his collar.
‘Lily?’ I say, looking behind the skip. ‘Where did she go?’ But Eric and his dad are too thrilled about seeing each other to worry about disappearing girls. They stumble out past the smoking caravan and the security guard to stand at the top of the steps looking down into the castle green. They’re holding hands, as if they never want to lose each other again.
There’s simply no sign of Lily, so I pick up the snake and follow Eric. Through the white plastic, I can see it moving, slowly, and it’s still tiny. And still knotted.
‘Eric,’ I say, holding up the box. ‘What are we doing with this snake? The professor’s disappeared, so we can’t give it to him. I think Lily took him down the tunnel.’
Eric blinks. ‘Something’s happened, hasn’t it? Look at the shadows. Time’s slipped again.’
I look at the pool of shade by the castle. It’s in the wrong place for the time of day; it seems to have become an evening shadow though it’s only the middle of the afternoon. But then I look down at the fairground. It’s almost completely built, which is miraculous as we’ve only been up here for twenty minutes. Haven’t we? I don’t have a watch to check, but it feels like only twenty minutes.
‘What on earth is going on?’ I say.
I’m beginning to think there’s only one person who can answer this question, but she’s just vanished.
Lily Lee.