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“Double, double, toil and trouble,” I mutter under my breath, trying to freak him out.
“Lexie!” screams Mum, sounding much more panicked than the occasion warrants, given that I’m not actually a witch. There’s an ominous creaking sound which I can’t quite place.
Is it the bed sheet ripping in two? Because it’sreallyloud, if so…
The sheet goes limp in my hands as Jimmy lets go of his end of it. I’m suddenly aware of a lot of noise going on around me — voices yelling and shouting, feet pounding over grass, that creaking noise, which… whatisthat?
“Lexie, get out of the way!”
Without warning, Mum comes barreling into me, knocking me clean off my feet. We both go flying face-first into the muddy ground, me still trying to work out what the hell’s happening. Then, just as I’m about to struggle into a sitting position, I see it.
The forklift truck has crashed into some kind of large structure which is almost hidden in the trees, so I didn’t notice it before. It looks like a pylon of some kind. Whatever it is, though, it’s leaning forward at an unnatural angle, looming dangerously over the forest trail we’ve just walked down, and are still standing — well, lying — on.
Looming dangerously overus.
“Lexie,” I hear Mum sob from somewhere in the darkness; but before I can even form an answer, the pylon gives one last creak, then starts to fall.
Twenty-Two
“Is she okay? Please tell me she’s going to be okay?”
There’s a very bright light behind my eyes, and a warm hand on my forehead. It feels nice. I hope it’s Jett’s hand.
Please let it be Jett’s hand.
I inch my eyes open experimentally, and McTavish’s worried face comes into focus. He’s holding his phone up in front of me and using the torch on it to peer into my eyes.
Oh.
“It’s not her face, is it?” comes Mum’s voice again. “She had such a lovely face. I always said it could’ve been her fortune one day.”
Why is she speaking about me in the past tense? And where am I, anyway?
“What’s wrong with my face?”
I try to sit up, but my head hurts, and McTavish’s hand is comforting, even though it’s not Jett’s, so I lie back down again, and let him deal with Mum. I’ve been dealing with her for over 30 years now, after all. It’s time someone else took a turn.
“Her face is fine, Sam,” says McTavish, sounding very far away. “She’s going to be fine. I’ve just had a call from Dylan Fraser, though, and it looks like the power’s still out to the whole town. He says it would be best if we kept ye both here for now. Apparently, there’s been another accident on the hill road, and it’s blocked again.”
“Oh, well, if you’re sure,” says Mum, sounding pleased. “That would be wonderful, McTavish. Thank goodness you arrived when you did in that lovely car of yours.”
I open my eyes again.
I’m lying on top of the covers on a giant bed, inside what appears to be a log cabin. The walls are made from tree trunks stacked one on top of the other, and there’s a set of bi-fold doors opposite me, with the curtains drawn across them. It’s dark; the only light comes from a handful of flickering candles which are dotted around the room, giving it a “Victorian deathbed” feel, which is slightly at odds with the room service menu propped up on the bedside table.
Emerald View. I’m in one of the cabins in Emerald View.
Either that or I’ve died and gone to heaven. It’s definitely one of the two. I’d like to think Heaven will charge less than £3.50 for a can of Coke, though, so I’m going with Emerald View.
“Hiya, Lexie,” says McTavish, seeing my eyes open again. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, I think,” I tell him, reaching up and tentatively touching my face, just to make sure it really is still there. “A bit woozy, maybe. And I had a really weird dream. I thought I was fighting with Jimmy over a bedsheet.”
“Aye, that’s right enough,” says McTavish. “Stupid auld bugger. But dinnae worry about that. Ye’re safe now.”
“B… but what happened?” I ask, thinking about the falling pylon — or whatever it was — which is the last thing I remember. “And how did I get here?”
“The fork-lift crashed into a power line,” says Mum, eager to fill me in. She’s sitting in a chair by the side of the bed, and there are pine-needless in her hair, and a streak of mud on her cheek. “The driver was so busy watching you and Jimmy fighting that he didn’t see it.”
