Nikki closed her eyes for a moment and whispered, ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Why are you apologising?’
‘Frankie,’ Ryan said, but she ignored him. She repeated the question to Nikki, but she didn’t answer right away. When she did, tears had begun rolling down towards her ears.
‘I couldn’t go to jail,’ she said. She began to sob for herself and Frankie stood, appalled and angry. This woman was involved in them being here. Frankie didn’t know exactly what she’d done, or why Buddy had pushed her through the hatch. Maybe it didn’t matter. The ladder was gone. The hatch was shut.
And Ryan was still trying to get her attention.
‘Frankie.’ He was on his feet, looking up at the closed hatch.
‘What is it?’
‘Can’t you smell it?’
Frankie stood too, shaking her head. ‘I can’t smell any—’ And then she caught it.
Smoke.
‘They’re burning the cabin,’ Ryan said.
Frankie threw herself on to her knees beside Nikki. ‘Do you have a phone?’
‘It’s upstairs. It doesn’t work out here anyway.’
Ryan was pacing the floor, swearing over and over again.
‘And there’s no other way out of here?’
Nikki looked at her like she’d asked if she could do magic tricks.
Frankie got back on her feet. She looked around. The smell of smoke was getting stronger now. There was a tiny gap around the perimeter of the hatch, just enough to let smoke through. In the dim light, Frankie could see it swirling around the ceiling. The fire might not get into this room, not unless the floor collapsed – was that possible? – but Frankie knew from countless fire-safety videos at school that most house-fire victims died from smoke inhalation.
‘Carl!’ Frankie screamed. ‘Let us out!’
‘Carl’s dead,’ Nikki said from the floor. ‘It’s just Buddy and Darlene up there now.’
Buddy and Darlene. Frankie thought back to the messages they’d sent her. The threats. The dead rabbit. The buried-alive cat. This was what the twins had wanted all along, from the moment Ryan had insulted Penance.
Frankie picked up the flashlight and pointed it at the ceiling, illuminating the swirling smoke as it thickened and moved lower, thin tendrils reaching down towards them, making Frankie cough and giving them a little taste of what was to come. Soon the smoke would fill this whole space.
Nikki had closed her eyes and fallen silent, presumably passed out from the pain.
Frankie sat on the ground and lay flat, as far from the smoke as possible, though what good would that do? Buy her another second or two? She pushed herself up into a sitting position and beckoned to Ryan, putting her arms around him.
She waited to die.
Chapter 48
I overtook Wyatt and reached the tree line first, then realised I had no idea what I was looking for. I had scanned this area before, searching for a path with no luck. Was I supposed to just push my way between the trees? Follow the sound of the wind chimes and the smell of smoke? At least it was raining. That would surely slow the fire. But even as I thought that, I realised the rain had eased off to a drizzle.
I ran along the line of trees, searching for an opening. A path. There was no way through. I squeezed between two thick trunks but found my path blocked by another huge pine. I could try to thread my way through, but it was impossible to tell if I was going in the right direction or if I would get stuck. Trapped.
I retreated into the clearing. Wyatt had vanished. Where the hell was he? It seemed that he had done as I’d asked, led me to the clearing, then left me to it.
It was up to me.
Again, I scanned the tree line. There had to be an opening. I heard Greg’s final words in my head, rearranged and expanded to make sense. Follow the wind chimes. But I couldn’t find my way through to wherever they hung.
Maybe Greg had simply meant Follow the wind.
I stood back, a couple of feet from the pines, and closed my eyes. Felt the wind around me, blowing at my back, trying to believe in the power of this place, that it was alive, that it would direct me.
Nothing happened.
What was I doing? Relying on some ancient, supernatural force to show me the way to my daughter? Even if I believed in that stuff, why would the Hollows care about me or Frankie? Why would the spirits guide me? That was the kind of thing Carl believed in. The beliefs that had led us here.
My eyes snapped open.
I watched the wind stir the branches of the trees directly ahead of me, forcing them to sway back and forth.