Burned

18

It was the next morning.

The gate formed out of thin air, darkening and becoming opaque before taking the form of a vertical oval. It opened and I stepped through, coming down on to grass.

I was standing on a green hillside, bare branches of leafless trees reaching up into a grey sky. Bushes and creepers grew all around, and below, the hill fell away before rising up again into a long meadow. At the top of the meadow, a few hundred yards away, was a long rectangular mansion with two jutting wings. No roads led to its door, and there were no cars or vehicles parked outside.

‘This was where you lived,’ Anne said from behind me. Her voice was subdued. ‘Wasn’t it?’

I stared at the mansion, wondering whether what I was feeling was hate, fear or both. An icy wind blew over the hillside, but I didn’t shiver. Cold as it was, I’d still rather be exposed to the elements than in there.

Anne stepped up next to me, looking across at the building. Unlike me, there was no recognition in her eyes. ‘What do you see when you look at it?’

I answered quietly without turning. ‘All the evil in the world.’

We stood side by side in silence. The wind whipped around us, carrying the scent of bark and cold earth. ‘We could leave,’ Anne said. It was half a statement, half a question.

I let out a breath, feeling the wind blow it away. ‘No, we can’t.’

Anne didn’t reply, but she didn’t move away. I knew what she was thinking. Morden had spoken to Anne, and he’d given her the same choice he’d given me. She’d found me last night, curled up alone in the house in Wales. We’d stayed up into the early morning, trying to think of a way out. We hadn’t found one.

I’d spent my whole life running away from what was inside that mansion. Now I was going back.

‘I’m afraid of what’ll happen when we go down there,’ Anne said.

I looked across at the empty windows. ‘So am I.’

Anne was silent. We hadn’t talked about what had happened the night before last, and what I’d done. Sometime soon, we’d have to. But right now, none of that seemed to matter. ‘Are you ready?’ I asked.

Anne gazed across the valley. ‘I don’t know.’

We stood there a little longer, then I glanced sideways at Anne and took a step forward. Anne followed, catching me up. Side by side, we walked down the hill towards Richard’s mansion.