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The shadows in the bush thrown by what light was left in the darkened sky had nothing on the terror that punched into Nate’s gut at the sound of the car horn. It jolted him like a live wire. Even before it ended, he turned and ran for the driveway. There was only one reason Abigail would sound the horn like that: Danger.
The distance from the edge of the trees, around the side of the house, to the car felt like a marathon. The silence after the horn was deafening. Finally, Nate rounded the corner and the car came into sight. The passenger door was open. His daughter was gone.
“Abi! Abi!” Nate turned in circles, his gaze raking the darkness. His chest felt like he was being electrocuted. It was hard to breath. “Abi? Sara? Shit!” He fumbled his cell-phone out of his pocket. With Sara’s ex here and now Abi missing as well, there was no telling what had happened. He punched the numbers for the police. The phone crackled and disconnected.
He dialled again.
Lightning flashed across the sky.
The phone screen flickered and went black.
“No, no, no.” What was it about this place that drained the batteries of things? He rummaged in the car for a charger. Nothing. “Damn it.”
He thumped the steering wheel and barely felt the pain. How could they have just vanished? Abi, Sara, and even Moana. His body felt hollow, the way it had when he’d heard the news that Emma had been in an accident. It was the feeling of loss and helplessness. They were gone. Gone and there was nothing he could do.
He gritted his teeth. “Not this time.” He wasn’t ready to give up yet. The landline at his house would be working. He’d call the police from there and have the whole area swarming with searchers in minutes.
He turned the key in the ignition and the sound of the engine turning over almost drowned out her voice.
“Dad. Help!”
He shot out of the car and stared into the darkness. “Abi?”
The sound was coming from back toward the bush behind the house. A light bobbed among the trees like a torch. “Dad!”
Then Sara called as well. “Nate! Over here.”
His feet barely touched the ground as he hurried after them. “Are you okay? What’s going on?” He followed the light into the trees, always just a little too far behind to make out who was carrying it. “Wait up,” he called, but they kept moving forward, deeper and deeper into the bush, mysteriously silent.
Then, horrifyingly, the light blinked out. Spots appeared in front of his eyes as they adjusted to the darkness.
The spots resolved into lights in a clearing ahead. A few steps later, Nate stepped out of the trees into something impossible.
The clearing contained a pool of water that glowed like the moon and bubbled as if boiling. In the centre of the pool, a stunted kauri tree twisted and groaned, its branches reach out towards the women who surrounded it. They were old, Maori women, in a range of clothing styles from traditional woven flax fibre to seventies garb. They were singing in their own language, a melodic chant of some kind and stood, unflinching, as the tree thrashed against them, clearly fighting their song.
“What the...?” Nate stumbled forward, feeling a sudden pity for the tree. “What are you doing?”
Lightning burst upward from the pool, spiking into the night sky. The shock of illumination showed clearly what he had not seen before – the women were transparent! All but one.
The one solid woman turned to face him. It was Moana. His sister in law had tears rolling down her face as she sang. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said, breaking off from the song. “Sara is the key. She’s back at the house. Go to her.”
He frowned. “But I saw...” He hadn’t seen her. He’d only heard. It had been a trick. “What’s going on?”
“Go!” Moana said through gritted teeth. “Run!”
Around her the ghosts all threw back their heads and screamed.
Nate ran.