Chapter 17 Riley
She’s pulling carrots in the meadow. She likes carrots; they always feel like a surprise.
They grow wild at Nowhere, come out of the ground thin and bright like shoelaces.
She shakes the dirt off one and eats it.
Fresh, sweet, crisp. ‘Blood in the land,’ Riley murmurs.
She slips one into her pocket as a peace offering to Oliver.
He’s still upset. He fixes her with dark-green judging eyes. But he’ll come around.
She sees a figure at the top of the cliff. Her heart fills with light; Cal is back from the mountain. Riley still loves to be here when he returns. He’s always sad but it makes him hold her so tightly and makes her feel so needed.
She runs to greet him.
Something is wrong, Riley can see that as she gets closer. Normally Cal has a sure, clever step like a cautious deer but today he’s unsure, stumbling a little. When he’s near enough she sees that he is crying.
She breaks into a run. He does too and they seize one another hard as they meet at the foot of the slope. ‘What is it?’ Riley asks, heart pulsing with worry. She strokes his forehead like that could help. ‘Are you ok? Are you hurt?’
Cal shakes his head, mouth wrung out. ‘I found him,’ he says. ‘Danny.’
A hum begins in Riley’s ears. ‘That’s great,’ she says. ‘Where was he? Is he coming back now?’
Cal shakes his head.
Riley takes his hand. She holds it as hard as she can. Grief is a solid thing, she knows. It will fill your body right up.
Cal takes her face in his hands and looks at her, searching. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ he whispers. ‘Help me understand. Tell me what happened.’
‘What happened when?’ Riley meets his eyes, bewildered. Sun in the head.
‘Don’t, Riley.’
‘Cal, I don’t know what you’re—’
He shoves her away, hard. ‘I have to talk to Noon.’ He runs from her through the meadow, down towards Home Barn.
Riley follows. She walks, doesn’t run. She needs to think.
The humming in her ears builds to a roar.
She weighs up all the options quickly. Can she get to Oliver?
Maybe she can take supplies, and Oliver, and be gone by the time …
Then she remembers that Oliver is helping Dawn repair the hinges on the doors to Home Barn today. She curses inwardly.
Maybe this is nothing, she thinks. Cal’s upset. There’s no reason to connect his brother’s death to Riley. How can there be? She breathes, bright, drawing all the sun she can into her head.
‘He was four miles down the magnolia trail,’ Cal says. He stands upright as a spear at the front of the barn. Riley slips in at the back. She can see Oliver is seated on a stool right at the front, looking up at Cal. Oliver worships Cal a little.
There’s a tremble in Cal’s frame which makes Riley’s heart sore. Noon shakes too, her whole hand in her mouth. Riley knows that this can’t be true, but that’s what it looks like. Her white fist is shoved hard in, almost down her throat.
‘He was by the tree like a ship,’ Cal says.
‘He was off the trail, down the hill in the deep brush. Or what used to be him. Animals had been but his jacket and boots still held some bones. His skull was there. I thought maybe snakebite, or he ate the wrong kind of mushroom. But there was all this stuff thrown around.’ Cal swallows; she can hear the dry click of his throat.
‘A cooking pot, clothes. Not his stuff. Someone else had been there. There were two holes …’ He covers his mouth. ‘Bullet holes in his skull.’
He takes a deep breath and reaches into his pocket. ‘Then I found this at the edge of the clearing.’ He opens his hand.
So that’s where the other one got to, thinks Riley, blank. The stupid Nana dog looks up from the worn-out grubby cotton.
‘It’s my Nana sock!’ Oliver is so happy. ‘Can I have it, Cal?’
‘In a minute,’ Noon says. She says gently to Cal, ‘Let me deal with this.’
Noon helps Oliver up. He stands, looking at her with trust.
‘We’re so happy that you and Riley came to live with us,’ Noon says.
Oliver nods. ‘Me too.’
‘We’re a family now. And that means we tell each other the truth. You want to stay here with us, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ says Oliver. His eyes are wide.
Noon kneels and puts a hand on his shoulder. ‘Oliver, how did your leg really get hurt?’
‘Riley shot me,’ he whispers.
Noon says gently, ‘How did that happen?’
‘She was shooting at the demon,’ Oliver says. ‘She shot him in the eyes.’
Riley stares hard at Oliver. Heat and cold race up and down her frame. A roaring builds in her ears.
Oliver turns and looks straight at Riley. ‘She says it was a demon,’ Oliver says, high and thin. ‘But it was a boy. I saw. He had a hand like that.’ Oliver points.
‘Like this?’ Cal raises his maimed hand, shaking.
Oliver nods. ‘Riley said not to tell. She said to lie. But I didn’t want to.’
‘Did you come here to kill us all,’ Noon asks, ‘like you killed Danny?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Oliver says, worry creasing his brow.
‘No,’ Riley says. ‘It was an accident. He attacked us—’
‘He would have never,’ Cal’s voice shakes. ‘Ever.’
‘Oliver?’ Noon bends and strokes his cheek gently. ‘Did the boy attack you and Riley?’
Oliver turns his eyes up to Noon’s. ‘No,’ he whispers. ‘Sometimes Riley lies.’
Someone seizes Riley from behind, a hand closes about her neck.
She’s pressed against black wool. Everett’s breath is hard on her cheek.
She sees the gleam of metal. The machete kisses her throat.
All Riley can think is that she has been waiting for this all her life, to be murdered. It runs in the family after all.
Noon whispers, ‘You killed Danny and then you came here. We welcomed you. You slept here and ate our food and made yourself one of us.’ Noon stops.
‘What is that you’re holding?’ she says gently.
Riley realises that she’s clutching the locket at her throat.
The old silver gently grazes the edge of Everett’s machete.
Noon unclenches Riley’s fist from around the locket.
‘Don’t,’ Riley whispers.
Noon pulls hard, snapping the chain. ‘Who’s in here?’ she asks. ‘Who do you keep next to your heart?’
Dawn steps forward. ‘I know.’
‘Dawn,’ Riley whispers.
‘You killed my friend,’ Dawn shakes her head. ‘You killed and lied.’
‘I didn’t mean to,’ Riley says, eyes fixed on the locket in Noon’s hand. ‘Please.’
‘I liked you, Riley,’ Dawn says. ‘That’s worst of all.’ To Noon she says, ‘It’s her father and her mother in the locket, or so she thinks. It doesn’t open, but it’s her most precious thing.’
‘You kept this from me, Dawn,’ Noon says, kind. ‘We will talk about that.’
Noon puts the locket on a rock. She takes up a stone and raises it high above her head.
‘No.’ Riley’s voice sounds like someone else, she is outside her body.
‘It’s not nearly enough payment,’ Noon says, ‘for the life you took.’
‘Please,’ says that strange voice from Riley’s body.
Noon brings the stone down on the silver. Once, twice, three times. On the fourth blow there’s a sharp crack. The locket springs neatly open.
Noon holds up the picture so that Riley can see.
It’s not a photograph of her father, or not exactly. It’s both of them.
Riley’s mother and father stand under a cherry tree in bloom. Her mother looks young. She has terrible hair, a fluffy fringe. But she’s smiling, happy in a way Riley rarely saw her in life. She has her arms around a man. Just some goofy young man. Riley stares at him, the father she never knew.
Noon gazes at the picture. ‘Oh,’ she says, ‘Riley you lied about so much. I know who that is.’
Riley shakes.
Noon raises the rock above her head and pounds the locket into nothing. Riley’s parents’ faces vanish under her blows. Noon takes the mangled remains of the locket and stamps on them until they are flattened in the dust.
They carry Riley back to the stall. She writhes and struggles and twists her head, trying to bite.
It’s no good. Everett raises the machete and Riley screams. He brings the handle down on her head.
Everything bursts into light and stars, the world swims. She is faintly aware of being put down in her stall.
The doors slam shut. Darkness falls. Outside Riley hears Noon say, ‘Do you want to shut the bolt?’ She hears a small peeping sound of pleasure. That’s Whitey, Riley thinks. Then the bolt slides home.
Adam Leahy was killed by Leaf Winham three days before Riley was born.
There had been hope, deep down inside her, about Nowhere.
Riley acknowledges this to herself with a wash of bitterness.
She wondered whether by coming here she might understand something about her father – why he abandoned his family for this high lonely place.
A part of Riley had hoped that here at Nowhere the locket would open and she would know her father at last.
Light traces the outline of the door, thin pencils of daylight. Riley feels around the edges of the door, touching the light, but there’s only a raw patch of wood where the catch once was.
Time starts to bleed into itself. If you’re in the dark long enough you start to wonder if you exist. Her head throbs and she might vomit.
She breathes deeply and it passes. She has to be ready to charge at the door the next time it opens, to get away.
Otherwise they’re going to kill her. The world swims and she tries not to drift, pinching the thin skin of her wrist hard between her nails.
She starts awake at the sound of the door opening.
Riley drags herself onto all fours and crawls towards the light.
She’s unsteady and she retches. A hand reaches in and puts down a bowl.
The door crashes shut and she’s back in the dark.
Outside the bolt slides home. Riley feels for the bowl with delicate shaking fingertips.
She follows the scent – savoury, salty. Her hands find the bowl’s edge.
She dips her finger in and licks it – it’s a stew.
The strong odour of mushrooms fills the air.