Lockie started to walk back up the slope, slipped again, and broke his fall with his hand. He paused, his head hanging, and was about to move again when he heard raised voices above. He looked up. In the echoing screams, he saw one silhouette falling.
Réiltín and LB, white-faced, stood looking over the edge at where Kelly lay face down on a narrow spur below them.
‘She landed on a ledge,’ said Réiltín, turning to Amber and Rupert.
Amber was on her knees, her hands over her face, sobbing into them, as Rupert tried to comfort her.
‘Is she OK?’ said Amber, half turning towards the others. She started to get up, but Rupert rested his hand on her shoulder. ‘We don’t know yet. Stay here.’
‘She moved!’ said LB. ‘She moved. She raised her head.’
‘Kelly!’ they all shouted.
‘Kelly, we’re coming down,’ said Rupert. ‘Don’t worry. We’re coming down to get you – everything will be OK.’ He turned to the others, white-faced, pupils huge. ‘LB, Réiltín – you stay up here with Amber. I’ll go down.’
Amber looked up at him, her eyes pleading. ‘Save her, Rupe. Please save her.’
Lockie scrambled across the coarse grass and scree towards the narrow ledge where Kelly lay. Below it, the sheer rock face, shiny and black, dropped all the way down to the sea. He reached for a handhold in front of him.
‘Lockie!’ Rupert shouted from above him. ‘Lockie! I’m coming.’
‘Don’t!’ said Lockie, without turning back. ‘Not this way. I’ve got this. Follow the trail closest to you. You’ll see it.’ He started to slide, then righted himself, moving onto rougher ground to make a quicker, safer path to where Kelly lay.
Back at the top, Réiltín and LB sat, wide-eyed and mute, beside a sobbing Amber. After a few minutes, she sniffed and shook her head.
‘We need to go down to her too,’ she said. ‘We have to. We can’t just leave her. This is all my fault. And… what if… what if anything happens to… to any of them down there?’
Réiltín and LB helped her to stand and propped her up between them, and half stumbling, half sliding, the three of them began following Rupert down. Ahead of them, Rupert was already making his way with Lockie towards the ledge where Kelly lay.
‘Be careful, Lockie!’ shouted Réiltín. ‘Oh my God – she’s so near the edge! She’s—’ She bit her lip and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
Suddenly, a moan so horrifying came from the ledge below that for a moment the three girls stopped in their tracks. Kelly!
‘We’re coming, Kelly,’ said Lockie. ‘Don’t move. We’ll pull you back in.’
‘No! You can’t move her,’ said LB. ‘In case… her injuries.’ But Réiltín pointed to the rock face below the ledge, and LB turned to her, eyes wide.
Rupert crouched down to speak to Lockie. ‘And… how are we going to pull her in onto safer ground?’ They scanned the area in front of them, desperate to know what to do.
Kelly raised her head a fraction. ‘Help… I can’t. I’m… I…’
‘Hurry up!’ cried Amber, struggling against her tears.
‘Shut up!’ shouted Lockie. ‘Shut up. We’ve all got to think!’
‘There’s only one way you’re going to be able to do this,’ said Réiltín. ‘If you lie down on your front, Lockie – you first; then you crawl across to her… then Rupert—’
Rocks and stones started to slide down from under Lockie’s foot. His eyes widened in panic, and he dug his feet in harder. But it made it worse, and his foot took a sharp slide down. Rupert scrambled down, and grabbed on to Lockie’s arm. Their breathing stopped, simultaneously, momentarily, then struck up again, fast and shallow.
‘I can’t watch this,’ said Amber, turning away. ‘This is unbearable…’
Kelly moaned from the ledge. ‘Help… please… I’m going to fall—’
Lockie climbed higher.
‘I can’t,’ moaned Kelly. ‘I’m… I—’
‘You can!’ said LB. ‘Don’t speak, Kelly. Just… stay. Steady. They’ve got you. We’re not going to let you fall.’
Slowly, slowly, Lockie spidered his hand towards Kelly, even that small movement sending a shower of stones down the slope. He moved closer and made a grab for Kelly’s arm. As he caught it, he felt himself sliding, instinctively shot out his other hand, and yanked Rupert down with him. Rupert cried out as his hoodie snagged on a rock behind him.
‘My neck!’ he shouted. ‘My neck.’
‘Oh shit,’ said LB. ‘We need to get that hoodie off Rupert or he’s going to choke.’ She got down onto the ground and lay flat on her front, stretching out her hand as far as she could. Réiltín and Amber did the same. But they couldn’t reach him from there.
‘Oh, Rupert!’ cried Amber. ‘Oh no – no!’
Rupert managed to steady himself, pressing his back against the rock he was caught on, raising his chin to keep the pressure off his neck.
‘If he slips one more time…’ said LB.
‘I think I might be able to reach him,’ said Réiltín.
‘And then what?’ said LB.
Amber turned to her. ‘Scissors. There’s scissors in my backpack!’
‘I’ll go,’ said LB.
‘At the bottom,’ said Amber. ‘There’s a hidden zip.’
LB paused. ‘But are they… will they be strong enough to cut through?’
Amber nodded. ‘Yes! Hurry!’
LB had already scrambled to her feet and was already running for it.
Kelly was looking at Lockie, her eyes filled with tears. ‘Please,’ she said.
‘It’s OK,’ said Lockie. ‘I’ll pull you this way… get you safely off that. And we can get help.’
Rupert braced his back against the rock, his arm straining against Lockie’s grip.
Lockie called back to him. ‘Nearly there. I’ll get one handhold…’
Réiltín appeared above Rupert, made her way down to the sharp rock that his hoodie was caught on. ‘Listen. I’m going to cut this,’ she said, ‘because I won’t be able to pull it up without choking you.’ She pulled Amber’s scissors from her pocket and started to cut through his hood.
‘Letting go,’ said Lockie. He released his grip on Rupert, and grabbed for a rock, pulling himself up a fraction. As he raised his foot to a new foothold, a slew of small stones slithered down. He swung away from Kelly. She let out another moan. Lockie spidered his fingers towards her…
‘Lockie! You’re going to go!’ cried Réiltín. ‘You’re going to fall. Don’t!’
Kelly cried out in panic.
‘I won’t,’ said Lockie. ‘I’ve got you, Kel. It’s OK.’
Just then, Réiltín cut through the last bit of Rupert’s hood, releasing the pressure around his neck. He rolled his head left and right. ‘Oh, thank God! Thank you, Ré, thank you.’
But Réiltín was already watching Lockie. He started to move his fingers towards Kelly again. Réiltín’s heart pounded. Lockie made a grab for Kelly’s hand, caught it, then scrambled for another foothold, higher up, found one, and released her hand again. Réiltín could see by the muscles on Lockie’s neck that he was readying himself to try again.
‘Lockie, it was Kelly!’ blurted Réiltín. ‘On the phone, earlier. Clare’s father… he thought I was Kelly – not you. It was Kelly who sent Clare the texts, sent her those pictures of you…’
The words came spilling out.
Lockie went very still. His hand, rigid, fingers spread, stopped in the space between himself and Kelly. He turned his head slowly. He looked at Kelly. They locked eyes, Kelly’s flooded with guilt and fear.
‘I’ve got you,’ he said. ‘I’ve still got you.’ His fingers kept moving. He slid again.
Réiltín turned back to Rupert, gesturing for him to follow her. She started moving down towards Lockie, and, as she did so, the front pouch of her hoodie bulged and a piece of white paper fell out, and was whipped up in the wind. It fluttered to and fro for a moment, then came to rest, caught in a tangle of branches.
Lockie, his face still turned to Kelly, was struggling to get his foot secured.
‘Lockie!’ said Réiltín. ‘You’re going to fall!’
Kelly’s eyes were wide with panic.
‘She won’t care,’ said Réiltín. ‘She won’t want to fall alone.’
Rupert edged closer to Réiltín.
‘Lockie!’ shouted Réiltín, slapping her hands on the ground.
Kelly slid, made a desperate grab for Lockie’s arm, and clamped on to it. Lockie was sweating, struggling for breath.
Rupert came within reach of him, and secured himself on a shelf of rock below, wedging himself against Lockie’s legs.
‘Kel,’ said Lockie, ‘we’re nearly there, OK?’
Réiltín watched, open-mouthed, shaking her head.
Lockie turned his face towards Réiltín.
‘Rupe, brace yourself,’ said Lockie. ‘Kel, I’m giving one big pull—’ Kelly started to slip, and Lockie started to slip and slide down with her. Réiltín scrambled down to his side.
‘She won’t want to fall alone,’ said Réiltín again, this time quieter.
Above them, a gust of wind blew the sheet of paper free from where it was snagged, and it floated down into the space between Kelly and Réiltín. Kelly didn’t see Réiltín raise the scissors and bring the blades down hard into the back of her hand, then rip them out again.
Kelly released her grip, and disappeared, horrifyingly silently, down the dark rock into the sea, a single sheet of white paper floating after her, scissors soon to follow.