Perfectly Reflected (27 page)

“So what exactly happened to Lucas at the end?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know. One minute he was standing over Rob and I couldn’t bear it.” My voice was catching again but I had to carry on. “I tried to get between them, to stop him being able to get to Rob, but it didn’t work. All of a sudden Lucas was covered in this sort of glitter. After that he disappeared and the glitter formed a small puddle, which ran into the drain.” I paused, watching it all again in my mind’s eye.

“That sounds odd,” said Callum, frowning. “I mean, that’s not what happened to Catherine. She exploded – the sparks went everywhere.”

“So what did I do to him?”

“I don’t know – maybe he’s gone or maybe you did nothing.”

“Maybe I’ve made him even more cross,” I wondered out loud. It didn’t add up though. From what I had seen I couldn’t imagine Lucas coming back.

“Well, we’ll know tonight, when or if he comes back to St Paul’s. I’ll be waiting for him.” Callum looked murderous.

I sighed. “It’s all such a mess. Rob was greedy, callous and spiteful, but he didn’t deserve this. No one does.”

Callum was looking really confused. “I know he was an opportunist lech, but that’s quite a harsh description. What else did he do to you?”

“Oh, you have no idea. He had my amulet, and he had the memory card, so he was going to expose you all to the papers.”

The confusion still hadn’t left Callum’s features. “Memory card? Am I missing something?”

“Ah, yes, well – I didn’t mention that, did I? No.” I rubbed my free hand over my temples, trying to dislodge the headache that was forming again. “The thing was, when I took the amulet off before, when Catherine made me think that you no longer loved me, I couldn’t bear the thought that every single record of you was about to go from my memory. So, as a sort of back-up, I made a video of me telling your story.” He raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing. “I recorded everything, finding the amulet, how we first met, what you told me about your world. Everything. I put a password on it and put it in the envelope with the amulet, which I gave to Grace.” I paused for a minute, remembering with awful clarity seeing the card on the ground in front of me as Catherine got to work, and shuddered again. “It fell out, and Rob must have picked it up while he was waiting for the ambulance. It wouldn’t have taken him long to break the password. Once he had all that info, all he needed was the amulet and he was on his way to being a rich celebrity.” I couldn’t keep the bitter twist out of my voice, despite what happened to Rob afterwards.

“So what was he going to do with it all? How does that make him rich?”

“He told a publicist he had proof of life after death. He wanted to bribe you all with information about yourselves so that you would reveal yourselves to people over here.”

Callum’s hand was clenched in a tight fist. “I wish I
had
got here in time. I’d have made him realise that he was messing with something that was none of his business, believe me.” He radiated fury.

“I know, I couldn’t believe it either.” I hesitated a moment before continuing. “He doesn’t deserve this though.”

“No, I guess not,” Callum said tightly, and I wasn’t at all sure he meant it.

We sat in silence for a while, wrapped as closely together as we could manage, waiting for news, but, as I expected, nothing happened. The nurses came and checked on me from time to time, but they had no information about any change in Rob’s condition. I was desperate to leave, to go somewhere where I could be alone with Callum, but I knew that I had to wait and see his parents.

Soon enough they arrived, and after a brief visit to his bedside, they were ushered into the little room with me. I really didn’t know what to say; I couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t told them any of his plans, and I absolutely didn’t know what they might find later on, when they were tidying things up. I swallowed hard at the thought. Later – that meant when Rob was dead, when he finally succumbed to the creeping fog. I could still remember the malevolence lurking in that fog, and I hoped for his sake that his end would be quick. None of us could help him.

Rob’s mother was surprisingly upbeat; the doctors clearly hadn’t got to the stage of declaring him brain dead just yet. She was worried, but her optimistic nature didn’t let her consider any option other than total recovery. I tried hard not to bring her down as she questioned me about what had happened. It seemed that Rob hadn’t told them what he was doing, but there was a trail of evidence that was difficult to explain away. The most difficult was what we were both doing in that square in Soho, and she kept coming back to that. I continued with my story of coincidence, that I had just bumped into him there and moments later he had keeled over, hoping that the repetition would make them believe it. It slowly seemed to be working with his mum, but his dad was less easily fooled.

“What I don’t understand,” he suddenly interjected after sitting in near silence for twenty minutes, “is why he was heading for that building in the first place. And your story,” he looked at me with piercing eyes, “is plainly nonsense.”

I didn’t know what to say, and sat there with my mouth open, panicking, while Rob’s mum looked in confusion between the two of us. “What do you mean?” she asked finally when I remained silent.

“I mean,” said her husband, with considerable feeling, “that Rob had no business with those publicity people, or at least as far as I know he didn’t. So he must have been going there with you.” He jabbed his finger angrily at me. “I don’t buy this coincidence rubbish. What are you up to, and why did you need to involve our Robert?”

My blood ran cold. I had no idea what I could tell him. I knew that if I started to lie I was just going to end up in more and more trouble. Rob was going to die, so there would be the police, investigations, endless questions. I couldn’t possibly sustain a lie through all that. I was going to have to tell him the truth, or at least something close to it. I could feel my eyes brimming over again.

“Tell him Rob didn’t want to tell anyone, including you, that it was his secret.” Callum’s voice was calm and soothing. “Then at least we buy some time.”

It was a sensible idea. I nodded imperceptibly, tears marking fresh tracks down my battered face.

“It was Rob’s idea, honestly. He wouldn’t give me the details, but he had an idea that he thought would make him a celebrity.” I lifted my eyes from the floor and looked directly at his dad. “He told me not to tell anyone,
anyone
at all, that he was even thinking
about it. You’re just going to have to ask him when he comes round.”

Mr Underwood looked furious, straining on the edge of his seat as if he were about to leap towards me.

“Leave the poor girl alone; she’s as upset as we are,” interrupted Rob’s mum, leaning over and patting me on the knee. “As she said, we’ll just ask Robert when we can.” She smiled brightly, almost as if she believed what she was saying.

I couldn’t quite return the smile.

The three of us sat there in near silence for the next hour. Callum left to go and do a quick bit of gathering, promising that he would be back in an instant if I called. I knew it was pointless my waiting, but it seemed callous to leave Rob’s mum. His dad continued scowling at me, sitting back in his plastic-covered chair, arms folded across his pot belly. I glanced at him surreptitiously from time to time; this was what Rob was going to look like when he got to middle age, I realised with a shock. Arrogant and angry and running to seed. Then I remembered that he was never going to make it that far and felt hugely guilty for the thought.

Finally I could take it no longer, and excused myself to go to the bathroom. I stood in the long corridor in the glare of the overhead fluorescents and tried to decide what to do. It was strangely silent but I started to walk up the corridor in the direction that the last nurse had come from. Turning a corner I was faced with a long line of windowed cubicles, most of which had curtains drawn on the inside, but some of which had open doors. Looking purposeful I walked up the line, taking a quick glance into each one that was open. As I went past one cubicle, a man in a white coat and a stethoscope came out hurriedly, looking at his pager as he walked. I nodded at him in greeting and he nodded back,
seemingly convinced that I had a reason to be there. I checked through the open door but Rob wasn’t in that one either.

As I walked down towards the final set of doors I could hear the monotonous beeping of a heart monitor, and I was suddenly gripped with fear. I put my head around the door and peered inside. Rob was lying on the high treatment trolley, which had its sides up to stop him falling off. He was hooked up to several machines but seemed to be breathing on his own. I stepped into the room and realised that there was a nurse writing something in a file that was resting on the cupboard at the side. She smiled as she recognised me.

“I’m sorry,” I blustered quickly. “I was trying to find the loo and I saw Rob. How is he doing?”

She smiled encouragingly. “I don’t think it’ll be too long now. There’s nothing physically wrong with him that we can find. I was just about to come and get you all actually; he might wake up quicker if you talk to him.”

“Oh, right, that’s good then, isn’t it?” I stood there, uncertain of what to do next. The nurse was obviously used to dealing with relatives, and came over to the door and took me by the arm. She led me gently to Rob’s bedside.

“You make a start, and I’ll go and get his parents, OK?” She nodded at me, and I nodded carefully back. “I won’t be a minute. There’s no need to panic.”

“OK, it’s fine, really.” I stood up straighter and smiled at her, putting my hand on the chrome bar at the side of the bed. The second she was out of the door I leaned over Rob. If there was nothing I could do to save him, the least I could do was to comfort him and tell him what to do, however much I disliked him. But I had to be quick.

“Rob, it’s Alex. I know you can hear me, and I know that you have no idea of who you are or who I am for that matter. I’m really, really sorry about what happened, that I couldn’t stop it. But it has happened, and I want to try and make it easier for you now. There’s no way back.”

I bit back the catch in my voice. How could I possibly tell him that he was dying? Wouldn’t it be kinder not to know, to just drift off into the apparently welcoming fog? But I couldn’t get him to go before his mum saw him; that would be too, too cruel.

“Rob, it’s not yet time, but when you feel ready, go to the fog; that will be the best, believe me. But your mum is just coming now, though. Wait for her, please.”

I reached over the railing and picked up his lifeless hand, remembering all too well what it felt like to be on the other side. It was all such a mess. I lifted his hand up towards my lips, holding it tightly in both my hands and kissed it briefly. “Bye, Rob, I have to go now. Remember, go to the fog. Take care.” I pressed it against my cheek before laying it gently back down again. I was done. I turned away, too spent to cry any more.

“Alex?” asked an unexpected voice. “What are you wittering on about? What fog? And where the hell am I?”

I spun round. Rob was sitting up, rubbing his wrist and looking at me with a puzzled expression.

Questions

I looked at him, stunned. Rob was shaking his head and rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken from a long sleep.

“What’s going on, Alex? Where am I?” He stopped briefly and peered at me closely. “What’s happened to your face?”

I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. This wasn’t possible; he should be dead, or nearly dead, not sitting up and talking. “Rob?” I finally found my voice. “Rob – you’re OK!” I couldn’t help myself, and grabbed his hands. “You’re not dead!”

“Huh, no, obviously,” he said in a slightly bemused voice. “Where am I?” he repeated, looking around the treatment room. “What are you doing here? And what was all that stuff about fog?”

My mind was racing. Whatever Lucas had done hadn’t killed him. “Look, Rob, you’re in hospital. The doctors will tell you everything, but you’ve been unconscious for a while. What do you remember?”

“I remember everything, I think,” he said with a frown. “I’m not sure why you’re here though, pleasant as it is.” He gave me a brief smile.

“So what exactly is the last thing you do remember?”

He lay back on his pillows for a moment and considered the ceiling. “It’s all pretty clear really. I was on my way to, oh, what was it?” He paused for a second and my heart almost stopped. Then the frown cleared from his face. “Yes! That was it. I was on my way
to the pub in Richmond. We’re going to see the new James Bond film tonight with the others.” He glanced quickly towards his wrist where his watch would be, but the nurses had taken it off. “Have we missed it? What’s the time?”

I realised that my fingernails were digging into my palms and that I had been holding my breath. I slowly exhaled. “I’m afraid it’s a bit later than that. We went to the cinema weeks ago.”

“We did? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely sure. It’s July now, term has ended.”

He suddenly sat bolt upright. “No! How did that happen? Why don’t I remember?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe the doctors will know, but you sort of collapsed, and you’ve been unconscious for the last four or five hours. That’s all I can tell you.”

“And it’s now July, right?”

I nodded in response, gripping the bars of his bed tightly. I couldn’t quite believe any of it. I had watched Lucas drain him and go, so why wasn’t he dead?

“Freaky.” Rob lay back down again. “Really freaky…” I could see him thinking and he turned to look at me, a question in his eyes. “So if we went to the cinema weeks ago, but you are with me here now, does that mean that we…?” He left the question hanging, but his smile was turning into more of a leer.

“No, Rob. We didn’t,” I said firmly.

“Are you sure? I distinctly remember that I was going to give it a go.” The leer was in full evidence now.

“Actually, we had one date and decided that it wasn’t going to work.”

“Really? That’s a shame.” His hand found mine. “You don’t
fancy giving it another chance then, do you? Just to help my recuperation, obviously.”

“It’s a tempting thought, Rob, but no. We decided that what we both wanted were two very different things.”

“Oh, well, maybe later.” He looked so smug and sure of himself, and yet again I wondered what it was I had ever seen in him. “So I’ve been unconscious for four hours but forgotten what? Four weeks?”

“More like five or six, I guess.” I needed to check quickly, as voices were now approaching down the corridor. “So while you were unconscious, did you dream at all?”

“Nah. I was on the way to the pub, then suddenly I was waking up here, listening to you talk drivel. What was it you were saying again?”

I laughed as convincingly as I could manage. “It
was
just drivel. The nurse said to talk to you as it would help bring you back round. I think I was explaining about some school trip or other. I forget now.” As I said it Rob’s parents came through the door, his mum with a huge smile on her face, his dad still looking suspiciously at me.

“You still here?” he scowled. I backed away from the bed, seeing my opportunity to escape before the discussions about what had been going on started.

“I’m just leaving, Mr Underwood. Bye, Rob, glad to see you back in the land of the living.”

“Oh, OK, Alex. See you soon. Steady on, Mum, what do you think you’re doing?” The last part was muffled as Mrs Underwood wrapped him in a huge bear hug. I hurriedly made for the door.

Outside, the streets were packed with people. It was rush hour again. I had no idea where I was, having arrived in the back of
an ambulance, but I knew someone who could help. With a feeling of huge contentment I looked at the bracelet on my wrist, seeing the flecks of gold glinting in the afternoon sun. I pulled out my earphones as I started to walk. “Callum, everything is OK. Come and find me when you can. I’m walking down…” I paused as I came to a junction and read the sign. “Tottenham Court Road. Come and find me soon.”

Callum arrived within minutes, and quickly directed me to a quiet square where we could sit and talk unobtrusively. Despite being exhausted I was bouncing with excitement. I could barely sit still as I set myself up on a bench in a corner, the mirror propped up on the armrest, luxuriating in the fact that Callum was back. He was right behind me, obviously confused about my behaviour.

“Are you OK, Alex?” he asked gently. “Was the end … bad?”

“It wasn’t bad at all – Rob’s absolutely fine!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I mean that he woke up and had a conversation with me! He’s OK.”

“I thought you said that Lucas had drained him, that he had got enough and disappeared like Catherine?”

“Well, he certainly disappeared, but he definitely only got a few of Rob’s memories. He seems to have forgotten just the last month or so. Perhaps for Lucas that was enough,” I added wonderingly. Having watched him dissolve into that puddle of glittering sparks I was pretty sure he wasn’t coming back. But the most exciting question was where he had gone, and what was it that
I
had done that had changed things?

Callum was clearly about to start asking me more questions so I stopped him. I didn’t want to start discussing theories until I had a few more answers, and there was no point getting him
excited until I knew for sure if Lucas was going back to St Paul’s, until I understood. “Enough about Rob; I don’t care about him right now, I just want to enjoy being here with you.” He looked at me with such tenderness that I thought my heart would burst with love. He was back in my arms and for now, all was well.

“What I don’t understand,” Callum asked eventually, “is why I couldn’t get through to you in your dreams. I seem to manage it with all sorts of other people, but every opportunity with you failed.”

“I rarely remember my dreams, but I suppose I never had a reason to tell you that. I remembered the one about Richmond that first night, but after that, nothing. I kept waking up feeling like I was missing some vital clue though. Was that you?”

“I guess. I kept trying, just in case, because it made me feel closer to you.” The arm around me tightened, and I could feel the gossamer touch of it against my shoulder.

“When did you realise that Catherine had stolen the amulet?”

“It was really weird. I was coming towards your house with Olivia. She was still feeling miserable about mucking things up, but excited about seeing the dog again, when suddenly everything around me seemed to shift.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was as if someone had put a slightly different colour filter over my world, but with no way of seeing what it had been like before. Everything just changed. Olivia didn’t notice anything but I was worried, so I got her to run faster. I had a good fix on the amulet, it was near your house so I wasn’t too worried, then it suddenly started to move quickly and I knew you had got on
a train or in a car or something, and I lost track of you. Olivia and I stopped, wondering what to do next. I knew you had been planning to take the dog for a walk, but obviously your plans had changed and I had no way of working out what they were.

“Olivia and I went back to St Paul’s, and I waited around, not really knowing what to do. I just had this awful feeling that something wasn’t quite right. You didn’t call, so I didn’t know where to go. Eventually I couldn’t stand it any more and went to your house, hoping that you’d be back before I had to return to London for the night. I didn’t want to be spying on you, but I went to your room to try and find out where you might have gone. And there you were, battered and beaten, with no amulet and an awful, dreadful aura. I… I…”

“I know,” I said quickly, as his eyes shut tightly for a moment. “I remember sitting there that night hoping that you were watching me but with no way of knowing. I’m glad that you
were
actually there.” I reached behind me to stroke his face, ignoring the puzzled look of a woman in a suit who was passing by. “When did you realise it was Catherine who had taken it?”

“There weren’t that many possible suspects really. It would have been a huge coincidence for someone else to have mugged you. I could hardly bear to leave you, not when you were in such a bad way, but I knew that I had to find her. I ran back towards Twickenham, trying to retune in to the amulet. Once I knew why it had changed, that someone else was wearing it, it was a bit easier. I found her in Richmond and gave her a very unpleasant shock.” His face was grim.

“What did you do?”

“I can be pretty loud too, especially when I sneak up on someone.” His stony features twitched into something that wasn’t
quite a grin. “She embarrassed herself pretty spectacularly in that pub, I can tell you.”

“Good, she deserved it.”

“She deserved rather more than that, but unfortunately she was able to resist me very well.” He paused for a moment, reliving the evening. “I had to go back to St Paul’s then, but first thing in the morning I came back out to you, hoping that you would still be asleep. I thought I had managed to get into your dream, but I couldn’t be sure, and it was so frustrating to see you there and not be able to communicate with you at all. Once I realised that you weren’t going to school I shot off to do my gathering, then came back to spend the rest of the day with you. I couldn’t believe the bruises you had. I could kill her!”

I remembered I had been looking at my injuries in the big hall mirror when Josh had spotted them too. “It was luck that she missed my head,” I said with feeling, “otherwise it would have been me in the hospital again.”

“Don’t even say that!” Callum shuddered at the idea. “At least you had Josh there, and Grace, keeping you safe.” He paused for a moment and smiled. “So you told Grace about me?”

I nodded. “I had to speak with someone; I was going mad trying to deal with everything alone. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Why would I mind? I was just hugely impressed that you got her to believe what you were saying when you had absolutely no proof.”

“It was such a relief.” It was my turn to smile. “She’s very keen to meet you, you know. She would have been here helping me but for some long-standing visit to her grandparents. Instead she’s been feeding me information when I needed it. Luckily for me she really doesn’t like Catherine.”

“I’m glad you had some help. I knew Catherine wasn’t a nice person, but I had never thought that she was downright evil, and with murderous tendencies too.”

“She and Rob actually made quite a good couple, I think. Wicked, the pair of them.” I shook my head, trying to dislodge the thought. “So were you following me all the time after that?”

“Yes, I stayed with you as you walked around Richmond. I knew she was following you, I could sense the amulet, but I couldn’t find a way to get your attention, and then, when she confronted you on the towpath, well…” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “When she told you I was incandescent with rage she wasn’t even close.”

“That was an awful moment, just awful,” I agreed, thinking back to that rainy day when I thought that all hope was lost. I couldn’t help reaching for the amulet to check that it was still safe on my wrist.

“I made her life hell after that, believe me.”

“What I don’t understand is why she had such a vendetta against me. I mean, she had all my memories, so thanks to me she got a real life back. What was it that ticked her off so badly?”

“I wish I knew. While she was wearing the amulet I kept a careful eye on her, but she never seemed cheerful about anything. Of course, it would have been easier to be sure if I had actually been able to see her aura. She does seem massively depressed.”

“She said something odd to me on the train; that everything was my fault, that I was the one who let Rob know everything and set all this in motion. But I don’t understand why that would make her hate me so. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Callum frowned. “Perhaps she meant that you shouldn’t have found the amulet?”

“No, it has to have something to do with the memory that Olivia took. Has Olivia been able to give you any clues about it yet?”

Callum shook his head silently.

“Can’t she even give you the flavour of it?”

“No, she’s too scarred by it, whatever it is.”