Réiltín settled Suze into Room 5 and closed the door gently behind her.
She felt bad for Suze, and bad for Johnny. But as she turned right to go down to Kelly’s room, she felt a sudden thrill. She felt like herself, which was weird, because this wasn’t herself – drinking, and hanging out with Lockie Loughnane. Being friends with Lockie Loughnane. Her heart flipped at the thought of walking around with Lockie in school, everyone seeing him laughing the way he always laughed at her jokes. And there was LB too. And she got on well with Rupert and Amber. If Rupert and Tadhg ended up together, then there was no way she wouldn’t end up hanging out with them. They were actually a really nice group of friends. Couldn’t they see Kelly?
In the back seat of Tadhg’s car, Amber’s heel was on the second oracle card that had slid, face down, under Rupert’s seat. She was trying to slide it towards her so she could pick it up. The car bounced and her heel lifted.
‘Here we are now,’ said Tadhg, gesturing to the sign for the GAA club, slowing the car, indicating right, then pulling into the ditch to park.
Amber unhooked her seat belt.
‘Are you coming in with us?’ said Tadhg.
‘Oh, no,’ said Amber. ‘I just wanted to stretch.’ She bent down and picked up the card, slid it onto her thigh, face down with her hand covering it.
‘Oh. No one’s going anywhere,’ said Tadhg, pointing to the entrance gate to the club, blocked by a van that was parked in front of it.
‘The End!’ said Rupert.
‘Let me go and check if there’s anyone in it,’ said Tadhg. He opened the car door and the light came on. Amber flipped the oracle card over, and glanced down. Her stomach tightened. ‘Oh my God,’ she said.
‘Oh your God what?’ said Rupert.
Amber hesitated. ‘Just, oh my God – we can’t get in.’
Tadhg jumped back into the car. ‘Nope. That’s one empty van.’
Amber leaned forward. ‘Maybe you could hop in over the gate? Just park further up?’
‘I could,’ said Tadhg. ‘But that would take way longer.’
Everyone looked at the blue glow of 22:05 on the clock.
‘We need to get back,’ said Rupert.
‘Is there anywhere else we could go?’ said Amber.
‘Nowhere’s open,’ said Tadhg.
‘Are we that desperate for alcohol?’ said Rupert. ‘Said Rupert in judgement.’
‘Don’t ask me! I’m just the getaway driver,’ said Tadhg.
‘And the get-there driver. And the thwarted thief.’
‘I’d like to make it very clear,’ said Tadhg, ‘that I intended to leave cash.’
‘None of that is the point,’ said Rupert. ‘We need to get back for the ritual. Everyone will be waiting. We have bad habits to get rid of. Out with the old!’
‘What ritual?’ said Tadhg.
He was about to turn around to Amber when she slid forward in her seat. ‘Guys, I’m not… feeling well.’
She scrambled from the car.
Kelly stood at the arched window in the attic room, watching the full moon over Carraig na nGealt. Her finger was holding open a notebook on a page titled How to do a full-moon ritual, with a bullet-pointed list underneath, all in Amber’s handwriting. Amber would have to be back for her stuff. Kelly could wait for her. She picked up the selenite sphere on the stand, rubbed it in her hands, and put it back down again. She examined each of the crystals around it.
On the bed beside her, Amber’s green rucksack was open. Kelly opened it wider, and rooted inside. Candles – check. Sage smudge stick – check. Amber’s treasure chest – check. Clicky lighter – check. Other random crystals, an incense burner, whatever, but – check. ‘Everything you could possibly need – except me!’ She made a sad face. Me being there is probably what you don’t need. She sat on the bed, her hand resting on the open bag, then she walked her fingers back over to the treasure chest, and took it out. She opened it, saw some pens, some blank pages, and some with handwriting on them.
‘Stop,’ she said, flipping it closed, pushing it back into the bag. She looked at the alarm clock and the flashing 22:30. Why hadn’t Amber come for her stuff? Maybe she was drunk with some hippie. Or maybe she was just running late. Kelly stood up, packed the bag, carefully wrapped up the selenite sphere, put that in on top, then zipped up the whole thing and left it on the bed.
She paused at the top of the stairs and looked around. No crystals, no candles, no incense, no decks. No Amberness. She made another sad face. She really loved Amberness.
Rupert had his back against the passenger door of the car, arms crossed, legs crossed. Tadhg was standing in front of him, thumbs hooked into his back pockets, looking up at the sky, around at the trees, back up at the sky.
‘The moon,’ said Tadhg.
‘I know,’ said Rupert.
‘It’s so bright,’ said Tadhg.
Rupert nodded, feeling the more at ease of the two of them, until the sharp, alarming shift in his chest as Tadhg finally lowered his gaze to him.
‘Too bright,’ Rupert blurted.
Tadhg laughed. ‘All the better to see you with.’
The Big Gay Wolf. Rupert’s heart pounded. He would be eaten alive. They locked eyes. There was a fractional lean-in. From the darkness behind them came the sound of Amber puking.
‘That cannot be our soundtrack,’ said Rupert.
Réiltín drew back into the corridor from Kelly and LB’s room and quietly closed the door. Prisoner present and accounted for. Her phone started to ring, and she jumped to answer it.
‘Tadhg? What’s going on? LB told me you went out to get drinks. Where are you?’
‘On the side of the road, on the way back from the club,’ said Tadhg. ‘Amber’s… not well.’ He lowered his voice. ‘I can’t risk her puking in the back of my car. So we’ll probably be a little while.’
‘Oh God,’ said Réiltín. ‘This night… What’s “a little while”? I’m supposed to be signing people in for the night. I know it’s the last night. And I wasn’t going to be super strict, but still…’
‘I don’t know – a quarter of an hour?’ said Tadhg.
‘Oh, OK. That’s not too bad.’
‘Hold on,’ said Tadhg, ‘Rupert’s shouting at me. About some ritual Amber was doing… Tell the others it’s off.’
‘What ritual?’ said Réiltín.
Rupert took the phone from Tadhg. ‘Hi Réiltín. Nothing major. We were just going do a full-moon ritual. Amber was doing it, and now she can’t, obviously. It was meant to be at ten thirty. Could you let the others know? Just in case they’re waiting?’
‘Waiting where?’ said Réiltín. ‘Where were you doing it?’
Rupert hesitated. ‘On… on the beach.’
‘Where on the beach? So I can find them.’ said Réiltín.
‘Um… the dunes?’ said Rupert. ‘At the end?’
‘OK,’ said Réiltín. ‘Can you put Tadhg back on?’
‘Hi,’ said Tadhg. ‘Just one more job for Rézer.’
‘And the irony is the one person I don’t have to worry about is Kelly Warner. She’s actually where she’s supposed to be. Incarcerated.’
Kelly, hovering behind a crack in the door to 3A, smiled. Yeah. LB’s army bag is fast asleep. When Réiltín was gone, Kelly sprinted back up the stairs and grabbed Amber’s backpack. The least she could do to make it up to her was to have everything ready to… rock! She smiled. ‘It has steps!’ LB had said. ‘You can walk across to it in five minutes! Get to the top in fifteen!’ Kelly shrugged. How hard can it be?