Callum suddenly felt still, almost peaceful.
He could see nothing but blackness, but as he took a deep breath in and out, he realised that the darkness was not surrounding him. He was inside a vision – and his eyes were closed. Was he asleep? Yes, for some reason, he felt small and safe, in bed asleep. He felt warm and comfortable, and nothing was wrong at all.
Then Callum heard it.
A voice. A whisper, low in his ear. There was no breath against his cheek, no indication that there was someone in the bedroom with him. And yet he could hear words, so close. They seemed to float into the room through the air, straight towards him, like . . . magic.
‘When, lo, as they reached the mountain’s side,
A wondrous portal opened wide . . .’
At the sound of the words, Callum’s eyes sprang open, almost against his will. He could see a child’s bedroom around him, but he hardly registered his surroundings. It was as though he was in a trance. The words echoed around his mind, again and again.
Callum could feel soft, plush carpet beneath his bare feet as he swung over the edge of the bed. He began to walk, zombie-like, towards the bedroom door, and then he felt himself moving through the darkened corridor of the house and straight to the front door, like a puppet controlled by some unseen force.
Callum realised he had to stand on tiptoes to reach the front door latch. But with eerie precision, he opened the locks and strode out into the street. Yellow light pooled in circles on the cold concrete beneath his bare feet, but Callum knew this wouldn’t stop him. He was being called, and he was coming . . .
Callum came to, shaking his head slightly but otherwise feeling less like he’d had an anvil dropped on his head than he usually did after a vision. Gran and Melissa, on the other hand, were looking far more the worse for wear. They both dropped his hands and sat back, panting. Melissa looked very pale, and her eyes remained unfocused for several moments.
‘Did it work?’ Gran said between breaths.
‘Yeah, sort of,’ Callum replied, ‘but are you guys OK?’
He looked at Melissa anxiously, who was still breathing heavily, but she nodded and gave him a shaky smile. Gran’s expression was grim as she looked over at Melissa’s trembling frame.
‘We won’t be doing that again in a hurry,’ she muttered.
‘Yeah, that was pretty hectic,’ Melissa agreed, colour only just returning to her face. ‘But what did you see? Anything useful?’
Callum was almost sorry to tell them after all the effort they’d clearly gone to, but he really didn’t know what to make of the vision he’d had. It certainly didn’t seem to give them any solid clues as to how to get to Black Annis or stop the coven.
‘Well, it was weird – it definitely wasn’t as intense as my normal visions, but there was something pretty strange happening. I felt like I was young, really young . . .’
‘Perhaps we triggered some sort of memory instead?’ Gran asked.
‘No,’ Callum said, ‘it was definitely a vision. It was as if I was seeing it from someone else’s perspective – a kid, and he was under some kind of trance. He was asleep in bed, then there was this weird whisper, and suddenly he got up and walked out of his house into the street, totally . . . zombified.’
Melissa frowned. ‘Definitely weird.’
‘Can you remember what was whispered?’ Gran said.
Callum racked his brain, trying to remember it exactly. ‘Yeah, it was, “When, lo, as they reached the mountain’s side; a wondrous portal opened wide . . .” That’s all I can remember. I don’t know what it means though.’
‘It doesn’t sound good, whatever it is,’ Melissa said. ‘Maybe the chime child books have some reference to it?’
Callum looked over at Gran. Her brow was furrowed.
‘What is it, Gran?’
‘I don’t know, there’s something so familiar about those words, but I just can’t quite place them,’ she said.
Melissa got up and began rifling through the chime child books, passing volumes to Callum and Gran to look through too. But it was no use – they couldn’t find the phrase anywhere.
‘We can keep looking tomorrow,’ Melissa said. ‘It sounds like it must have something to do with Annis or the coven – I mean, “a portal opened wide?”’
Callum nodded. He felt even more baffled and uneasy than he had before. What was happening to the boy in his vision? Where was he, and where was he going? More and more questions were piling up in Callum’s mind, and he had no idea how to deal with it all. He snapped one of the chime child books shut with a grunt.
‘It’s getting late,’ Gran said, looking over at Callum. ‘I think you ought to be getting home, Melissa. Perhaps you should ring your parents to come and collect you?’
‘I’ll be fine,’ Melissa began, but Gran’s stern look told her that she wouldn’t be allowed to walk home alone tonight, not after everything the older woman had heard that evening. As Melissa pulled out her mobile phone to call home, Callum sighed and turned to his grandmother.
‘Thanks for all this, Gran,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I know it’s been a bit of a strain, but we really did need all the help we could get. I just hope we can find out what’s going on before it’s too late.’
‘I do too, Callum,’ Gran replied. ‘I do too.’