Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
L ewis’s face twisted. His teeth were clenched and he shook his head violently, but his arms were opening in a robotic manner.
Matteo swiftly grabbed Hamish and spun around to walk out of the room. He handed Hamish to Fiona, and she felt the relief of holding him, of his body in her arms. It was like having a piece of herself returned. Within seconds she was outside the fug of the house, and her face was wet with tears. Hamish’s little body was shaking, and he held pudgy hands up to her face, squeezing her cheeks on either side as if frightened her face would disappear if he didn’t hold on to it.
‘It’s okay, my love, it’s all right. Everything’s all right.’
Esme was just hurrying up the path. She stopped when she saw them. ‘What happened? Is he all right?’
‘Matteo’s inside.’
‘He’s gone to Lewis?’
‘He had Hamish,’ Fiona said, every part of her wanting to run, to take her baby as far away from the house as possible.
Esme’s lips went into a straight line. Fiona didn’t think she had ever seen the mild-mannered Esme look so angry before. ‘Go to mine. I’ll check him over. If you want?’
Fiona was already moving away, her body hunched as if to shield Hamish from attack, her muscles obeying the primeval part of her brain that was telling her to move her child far from the threat.
Esme couldn’t believe Seren had taken Hamish and wasn’t able to think about what Lewis had wanted with the baby. Matteo was still inside, so she pushed her way into the house. There were people in the garden, but more still in the hallway of the house, and more were turning around and heading back inside, moving as if sleepwalking. The smell hit her first. Sweat. Human waste. And a scent she knew as infection. Matteo was just leaving the living room. He shook his head when he saw Esme and gestured for her to leave with him.
‘These people,’ Esme said, unable to process the horror of the silently staring mass. One woman was cradling her arm and crying. It was clearly broken but when Esme tried to speak to her, to offer help, the woman hissed at her.
Esme made to push through into the living room. Matteo blocked the way, shaking his head. She caught a glimpse through the gap between his body and the door frame. Lewis was sitting in Tobias’s favourite chair by the empty fireplace. The room was packed with bodies and the smell coming from the crush was like a physical blow.
The scrum around Lewis was moving feebly. Seren was lying across the top of a pile of bodies. She was stretched out, her checked shirt riding up and one hand managing to grasp the material of Lewis’s t-shirt. Her eyes were shut and she was panting as if she had just run a race.
‘Seren!’ Esme shouted to her, but she didn’t respond. She began pleading with her, calling and cajoling, but Seren’s fingers flexed on Lewis’s t-shirt, gripping tighter.
Her eyes opened and she shot a hate-filled glare at Esme. ‘You can’t have him!’
The scene was ripped from her sight as Matteo towed her out, through the congested hallway and into the garden. Some of the people standing outside were beginning to move. One man took a hesitant step back toward the house.
Matteo had his notebook out of his pocket and was writing something:
We must go
Hamish clung to Fiona and Esme didn’t want to pry him loose in order to check him over, so she did as good a job as she could while he sat on her lap. She gently touched his head, parting his hair to check for bumps or bruises, and did the same for each of his limbs. ‘Is it okay if I check his tummy?’
Fiona nodded and lifted his t-shirt so that Esme could visually inspect his skin and then gently feel his belly.
She had filled a sippy cup and Hamish had drained it. She knew he ought to be taking small sips and that if he was dehydrated, it should be a solution with electrolytes, but it was a start at least. Hamish’s eyelids were heavy.
‘He’s kept the water down,’ Esme said. ‘Do you think he would like some milk?’
She warmed a half cup of milk and Hamish drained it as if he were starving. For a moment, Esme thought of the ravenous thing inside Lewis and fear clutched her heart. He was just a toddler, though. With a tiny stomach, and who knew how long it had been since he had had anything to eat or drink. It would be more worrying if he wasn’t thirsty.
Fiona was staring at Hamish with a fixed intensity that Esme had never seen before. It was as if she physically couldn’t look away. She put a hand onto her friend’s shoulder. ‘He’s all right. He’s not hurt.’ Mentally, she crossed her fingers that she was right. ‘We can take him to the mainland to be checked out properly, though. Just to be sure.’
‘No.’ Fiona shook her head. ‘I trust you.’
‘I’m not a doctor. I’m not even a qualified nurse…’
‘I trust you,’ Fiona repeated. ‘You can see what is really there. Look at him.’
Esme took a deep breath. She had done all the health checks she could think of. The child was exhausted, thirsty and hungry. He hadn’t needed the bathroom yet, but she would ask Fiona to let her know once he had. That would confirm that his digestive and urinary system were working. He didn’t have a fever. His eyes were clear and there were no signs of concussion. He had no marks on his body and no areas of pain. Now, she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing by counting. When she opened them again, she looked at Hamish. He had a sleek head, grey markings on his fluffy body and large brown eyes with no pupils.
‘He’s a beautiful seal pup,’ she said out loud. And then snapped her jaw shut.
Fiona finally looked away from Hamish, smiling into Esme’s face. ‘You can see that?’
Esme blinked. Hamish was a human-shaped toddler again. He was sucking furiously on the Sippy cup that was now empty. He would take in air and give himself a tummy ache. She removed the cup. ‘I’ll get you some more of that milk, wee man.’
In the kitchen, Winter was wedged underneath the small table, his head pressed against Hammer’s legs. Jet was on the windowsill, staring haughtily out at the world, as if challenging it to a fight. Luke was leaning against the counter near to the kettle.
‘We need to get Seren,’ Esme said. ‘You will have to physically force her. She won’t come easily.’
‘I can carry her,’ Luke said.
Hammer shook his head. ‘You can’t go near him.’
‘He’s right,’ Esme said. ‘And she’ll just go back to him the moment you put her down.’
In amongst the preserves and the bread making, the cake baking and endless laundry, Esme had been working on another project. A cocktail of prescription medication that would put someone into a deep sleep. Esme hadn’t completed her nursing training, but she had learned just enough about titrations and dosages to be dangerous. The issue, naturally, was going to be getting to Seren in order to dose her and then to physically get her out of the house. Esme couldn’t carry a woman on her own and she couldn’t trust Luke or even Hammer to withstand Lewis’s influence at such close quarters. She explained the issue, trying to keep her language as neutral as possible.
‘We can’t drug her,’ Luke said, still fixated on the first part of the problem.
‘We shouldn’t drug her,’ Esme corrected. ‘But we might have to. If she’s gone like the others, she’ll be obsessed with staying close to Lewis. The others, the visitors, you know what they’re like. They won’t leave his side. They don’t eat, they don’t sleep, they just worship him and now the wards have broken so they won’t ever leave.’
‘Is it really that bad?’
Esme closed her eyes briefly. ‘There was a distressed man in the dining room yesterday. He had a knife.’
‘What the hell? Are you all right? Why didn’t you tell me…’
‘You weren’t in your right mind. And I’m fine. He wasn’t threatening me.’ Esme didn’t want to think about the mania in the man’s eyes, the desperation that rolled from him and seemed to have a physical stench.
‘What did he do?’ Luke’s jaw was clenched.
‘He was intent on killing himself, but I talked him out of it. With Hammer’s help.’
Luke seemed to absorb this. ‘Good.’
‘He has been sleeping in the living room. With Winter.’
‘I told him,’ Hammer said.
‘There have been so many strangers, so many people in the bed-and-breakfast. Hammer agreed that I should have a security presence. He got the knife off the guy and we calmed him down. Convinced him that he didn’t need to end it all just because Lewis hadn’t looked at him.’
‘I should have been here. I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s all right. You haven’t been yourself.’
‘It’s not all right. I let you down.’
‘It’s not your fault,’ Esme said again.
Luke addressed Hammer. ‘Why have you been thinking clearly and not me?’
Esme had been wondering the same thing. Not everyone on the island was affected by Lewis to the same degree. Hammer seemed to have such a natural aversion to strangers and to Lewis that it counteracted the hypnotic effect, while Seren had been firmly ‘team Lewis’ for a while.
‘Lewis is your flesh and blood. Your twin. It’s possible that you are linked in some way. That might increase the effect of his charisma on you.’
Luke squared his shoulders. ‘Should we speak to Bee?’
‘You don’t know?’ Esme spoke before she realised how daft she sounded. Of course he didn’t know. Even more than the rest of the villagers, Luke had been in a bubble. Lewis’s influence corroding his ability to think, to act rationally. ‘She’s in a trance. Trying to find Tobias mind-to-mind.’
‘We’re on our own, then.’