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‘We want . . . we want . . .’
‘Jack!’ shouted Jaide, and she slapped him across the face.
‘You,’ said Jack’s mouth, and then his eyes flashed open and in his normal voice he said, ‘Hey! What’d you hit me for?’
‘Are you all right?’
Jaide looked worried and annoyed, both of which surprised Jack. He was the one who should be annoyed. His cheek was burning – it felt like she’d left her fingerprints there.
‘I was asleep! What are you playing at, waking me up like that?’
‘No time for that now,’ said Jaide. She was somewhat reassured by his perfectly ordinary irritation, and certain that if only they could get away, all the strange happenings would stop. ‘Get up and get dressed. We’re running away.’
‘We’re what?’
‘You heard me,’ she said, flinging back the covers. ‘Come on, before Grandma wakes up and stops us.’
‘Hang on,’ said Jack. ‘I mean, I know there’s weird stuff going on, but do we have to run away? Besides, we don’t have anywhere to go.’
Jaide thrust a note into his face. He blearily focused on the words his grandma had typed.
‘So?’
‘If she doesn’t want us to go to school, that’s the first place we should go. And Mr Carver will help us, I’m sure of it. He seemed nice, didn’t he?’
Jack was having trouble keeping up.
‘No, he didn’t. He seemed like an idiot! Besides, you want to run away to school? Shouldn’t we try to get the bus over to Mum’s work instead?’
‘We don’t even know if there is a bus,’ said Jaide. ‘Besides, I called Mum and couldn’t reach her. It’s up to us now.’ She gripped her brother by the shoulders and turned him so he faced his wardrobe. ‘Just get dressed. I’ve decided we have to go.’
‘Oh, well, if you’ve decided!’ said Jack sarcastically as he forced his sluggish limbs to obey him. ‘Hang on! In the night . . . there was a wind, and it got dark, just like . . . just like at home —’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Jaide.
Jack stared at the tidiness of their room. Nothing was broken and everything was in its place.
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes! Grandma X did it, and now Ari’s probably waking her up and reporting me, so get a move on!’
Jack’s forehead wrinkled. Unlike Jaide, he wasn’t completely sure Grandma X was behind all the bad stuff, or whether she was working with the rats or against them. But either way, she was a witch . . . so the sooner they got away from her, the better. He agreed with his sister on that point.
But when it came to actually going out the bedroom door, Jack hesitated.
‘We should leave Mum a note,’ he whispered.
‘Why? We’ll call her from the school. And what if Grandma X reads it? She’s the last person we want to know.’
‘All right,’ he said. ‘I guess.’
Impatience had made Jaide cross. ‘You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. Stay here alone if you like.’
Jack vigorously shook his head. Alone was something the twins rarely were, and Jack didn’t like the thought of it at all. Besides, he wouldn’t truly be alone: he would have Grandma X to answer to when she woke up.
‘All right, then,’ Jaide said with her hand on the doorknob. ‘Let’s go.’
JAIDE LED THE WAY DOWN the stairwell, shushing Jack as they reached the last wind of steps. She peered over the banister to see if Ari was around, but she couldn’t see him.
‘What?’ Jack whispered into her ear.
She shook her head. Maybe Ari was still waking up Grandma X, or she was giving him instructions. Moving quickly now, fearing that something or someone might catch them on the brink of freedom, she ran to the door and turned the big, old key. It clicked, but not too loudly, and the door was open.
They hurried out into the yard and froze at the sudden sound of voices. But it wasn’t Grandma X. It was some people in the yard next door. Even though it was still early, not much past six o’clock, there were workers there and one of them was complaining about a bulldozer that was running late.
The twins didn’t stop to listen further. They hurried along the fence line, bent almost double, and ran out the gate into Watchward Lane. Jaide didn’t dare look back. She felt the presence of the house like a physical weight, with its windows like piercing eyes tracking her every move- ment. She wanted to get as far as possible from that terrible gaze.
As the twins ran, they saw evidence of the previous night’s rodent assembly. The ground was scuffed by thousands of tiny feet and dotted with droppings. The air had a musty smell. Some of the trees had been gnawed at ankle height, and here and there were spots of dried, dark blood. Jaide shuddered, remembering the heaving mass of rats. She hoped they were all well away from Watchward Lane now . . .
As she thought of the rats, she noticed a tiny movement out of the corner of one eye. She whirled around, but there was nothing there.
‘What?’ asked Jack. He was spooked as well. A moth was fluttering around his head, determinedly batting at his face and eyes, and he feared that at any moment a whole swarm of them might descend upon them, like the midges and crickets. ‘What is it? What did you see?’
‘Nothing . . .’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Let’s keep going.’
They reached Parkhill Street and turned right, cutting quickly past Rodeo Dave’s bookshop. It was shut, of course, like all the other shops at this time of the morning; there were few cars on the road, and no pedestrians at all. Portland wasn’t like the city, where no one ever seemed to sleep. Their father had often told them how much he wished the city would just stop for a while and give everyone a moment to think.
Both twins at that same moment felt a pang of longing for their absent father. If he had been there, he would’ve known what to do. Grandma X was his mother, after all.
The smell of the fish co-op grew stronger as they approached Dock Road. Jack’s head was cold and he wished he’d thought to pack his cap. Jaide’s red hair kept being blown into her eyes by irritating gusts of chill wind. But at least they weren’t trapped in the house anymore.
Jaide had just started to think they had made it when all of a sudden Jack stopped and grabbed her arm. An orange shape jumped out of a hedge, landed in front of them with a yowl, and raised one white-mittened paw very like a policeman directing traffic.
‘You’re making a big mistake,’ Ari said.
Jack couldn’t help but reply. ‘Be quiet! You’re on her side.’
‘You speak like you’ve never met a cat before. There’s only one side – my own.’
Jaide looked at Jack in alarm. Ari was sitting in front of them yowling and meowing, and Jack was talking back?
‘Jack?’ Jaide was tugging his arm. ‘Jack, what are you doing?’
‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t look out for friends,’ continued Ari.
‘By spying on us, you mean?’ said Jack, shrugging off Jaide’s attempt to drag him past.
‘I’m just trying to help. You’re protected in the house. You should go back.’
‘At least no one’s going to shove us in an oversize oven out here.’
