Petrify (3 page)

Josh shakes his head. “No way,” he says. “I'm not going back there, ever!”

“You are,” I say. “We have to. It's the only way to stop her.”

When we reach the dead trees near the quarry, Josh refuses to go any further. “Why don't you just leave the stuff here?” he asks, looking at the carrier bag I'm holding.

“You heard what Nan said,” I reply. “The gift has to be left at the entrance to the cave.”

Josh shakes his head and folds his arms. “I'm not going with you,” he says.

I see that I'm going to have to do this alone.

My legs feel heavy as I make myself walk into the clearing. The sun is hot, making me sweat. As I get close to the cave opening it seems like a giant mouth ready to swallow me whole.

Once I reach the entrance I place the bag just inside. My heart thumps as I spin around and race back to Josh. “Let's get out of here!”

As we race in and out of the trees, I hope that the gift will be enough.

Illustration 7: Ella putting a carrier bag of gifts in the quarry/cave mouth. Josh hangs back, afraid.

I didn't know what to leave and so in the end I chose a small silver bracelet, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of sherry.

I'm going to have some explaining to do when Mum notices they're missing.

* * *

June and half of July pass without event. The gifts seems to have done the trick.

My friends recover from the accidents, and no one suggests going into the woods again.

On the last day of school Josh invites me to go camping to celebrate the start of the summer holidays.

“Where?” I ask.

“In Crow Field,” he says.

Crow Field is on the south side of the woods, but far enough away from the quarry for me to feel okay about saying yes.

Nan's not happy. “Wear the necklace,” she insists.

I haven't thought about the wooden bead necklace for ages.

“The last child to disappear was over fifty years ago,” Nan says. “She'll be looking for another victim one of these days.”

A chill runs down my spine. It's the first time Nan has ever spoken about Ma Jessop as if she's still alive.

I remember the noise I'd heard in the caves and scrabbling over my roof.

Had that been old Ma Jessop?

“I thought she was burned at the stake,” I say.

“She was,” Nan replies. “But when the flames died down there was no sign of her. Not even teeth. Many people were sure she had escaped. The wooden beads on the necklace I gave you are made out of the stake Ma Jessop was tied to. She can't stand to be near them.”

She holds my hands tight in hers. “Promise you'll take the necklace tonight?”

“I promise.”

We pitch our tents on the side of the field furthest away from the woods. When it gets dark, we make a fire and toast marshmallows while Josh starts telling ghost stories.

A bat swoops overhead as Josh says it's my turn to tell a story. “Go on,” he insists.

I don't know any ghost stories, so I make one up about a vampire, a haunted castle and a lost traveller. I think it's pretty good but Josh laughs at my efforts. “Your stories suck!”

“Oh, yeah?” I've got a tale that I know will freak him out. Before stopping to question whether I'm being wise, I tell him the rest of Ma Jessop's story.

Even in the growing dark I can see Josh turn pale.

“She'd steal children and teenagers and take them deep into the quarry,” I say in a low voice.

“Then she'd chain their wrists and ankles to the wall so they couldn't move. Even when they'd given up hope of being rescued and all they wanted to do was die, she would keep them alive by force-feeding them. Her victims would watch themselves turn to stone and she would drink their blood, right until they took their last breath.”

Josh throws his stick onto the fire. He kicks off his boots and crawls into his tent without saying goodnight.

I feel bad for scaring him. I want to say sorry but there is no sound from Josh's tent. He's either asleep or pretending to be.

I climb into my sleeping bag in my own tent and listen to the distant bark of a fox. I reach under my pillow where I've left the necklace and slip it on. “Goodnight,” I call out, just in case Josh is awake.

There's no reply and I fall asleep to the sound of grass blowing in the wind.

* * *

I'm woken by the hoot of an owl. I sit up and unzip my tent door. In the moonlight I see that Josh's tent door is also open. I creep out and see at once that Josh's sleeping bag is empty.

Illustration 8: Ella, in pyjamas and wooden necklace, peering into Josh's empty tent and sleeping bag. The two tents are in a field near a river, near the edge of the woods. It's night, moonlight.

“Josh?” I call.

But there is no reply and I wonder if he's legged it. All of a sudden, I feel angry. I bet he's left me here, alone.

I try to work out what to do. I can either brave out the night on my own or I can pull on my coat and shoes and run for home.

I look down at where I'd left my shoes. Beside them are Josh's boots. I stare at the boots and I know Josh would not have walked home in bare feet.

So if he hasn't gone home, where is he?

I stare out over the field. Moonlight shines down on a trail of footprints in the wet grass.

No, not one trail of footprints.

Two.

I look at the prints more closely. I've seen the small ones before.

Outside my window.

My heart thumps as I pull on my shoes and grab a torch. My hands are shaking so much that I drop it twice before I manage to switch it on. I follow the two sets of prints which lead toward the woods.

Once I leave the wet grass behind me I can't see the footprints. But it doesn't matter. I know where they're going.

I have no plan in mind as I race in the dark to the quarry. I have no idea what I'll do if I catch up with them.

Ma Jessop is alive.

The words go round and round in my head as I run through the woods, using the torch to work out which way to go. Every sound makes me more and more afraid. I scare a bird out of a nearby bush and cry out with fright as it flaps away, brushing my face with its wing.

It's much harder finding my way in the dark. I stumble over half-hidden stones and wander off the track into thorny brambles.

Finally, I find the clearing and call out, “Josh! Are you there?”

I reach the quarry entrance but I can't make myself go into the pitch-black tunnels and caves.

“Josh!” I yell out one more time before pulling out my mobile phone. Then I do what I should have done when I first noticed Josh was gone.

I dial 999.

Weeks go by. The police search the woods and the quarry for Josh but can't find any sign of him. They question me over and over again. But it's clear that they don't believe my story.

I can hardly sleep at night. I keep thinking about what might be happening to Josh. No one believes me. Not even my friends, even though they join in local search parties and spend weeks hunting for Josh.

But in the end we have to give up. We have to admit he has disappeared without trace.

I blame myself. Nan tells me I shouldn't, but I was with him when he was taken. I look in the mirror and ask myself, “Why did she choose him instead of me?”

When I ask Nan the same question, she tells me it's the wooden beads on the necklace that saved me.

“I told you,” Nan says. “Ma Jessop can't stand being near the wood that came from the stake she was tied to. She can feel the flames all over again.”

The more I think about it the more I believe Nan. After all, the witch didn't come in through my open bedroom window when she had the chance.

I know there's only one way to prove my theory. I have to go to the quarry, and this time I have to go inside the caves.

I don't tell anyone where I'm going. My parents are so frightened by Josh's disappearance that they won't let me anywhere near the woods anymore.

As I make my way to the quarry I can't believe that Josh has been missing for the whole summer. I reach up for the necklace and my fingers tighten over the wooden beads. Suddenly I hear the rumble of thunder and it starts to rain. I am soaked to the skin in seconds and can't stop myself shivering.

I switch on my torch and step into the cave. I feel like I can hardly breathe as I shuffle forward. After just a few minutes I reach a dead end. There is nothing here and nowhere left to go.

As I turn to leave, the torch light picks out a narrow opening that I'm sure wasn't there a moment ago.

I don't want to go any further but I know I have to see where this tunnel goes.

I force myself to crawl through the tunnel and into another cave. I straighten up, and scream as I see two eyes glinting in the darkness. I jump back and bang my head against the wall. The torch falls to the ground and goes out.

Dropping onto my knees, I feel around in the dark until I finally grasp the torch. I shake it and sob in relief as the light flashes back on. Then I see the staring face of a teddy bear.

A stone teddy bear.

I force myself to look around the cave, and I find a huge collection of stone hankies, toys, bags and shoes.

Illustration 9: Ella, bedraggled and soaking wet in jeans and a hoodie, holding a torch and looking around a cave full of Ma Jessop's stone ‘trophies'. Cave should be quite small so Ella stooped. Please include the teddy bear, a bag and a shoe.

These things once belonged to Ma Jessop's victims. I feel sick and press my hand over my mouth.

Suddenly I become angry instead of scared. I take a deep breath and yell Josh's name out as loud as I can.

I listen hard but there's no reply.

Shaking with fear and rage, I realise that I can't do any more and I turn to go. It's then that I hear a reply so faint I wonder if I've imagined it.

“Ella!”

“Josh?” I yell again, but this time nothing comes back.

Did I really hear him?

I hold out the necklace and begin to shout. “You hate this, don't you, Ma Jessop? It reminds you of the time you burned. The time when you got to feel a little of the pain that you deal out to others. Well, listen up. If you don't let Josh go then I'll come back. I'll come back again and again until he comes home. I'm not scared of you any more, you witch! But I'll make you scared of me. Do you hear?”

The words boom around the cave, following me as I feel my way back down the tunnel and towards the light.

I step out of the cave and look back. “Come back, Josh,” I whisper. “Come home soon.”

Starting school without Josh is weird. As I walk down the street I remember how he used to annoy me by talking too much. Now the walk to school is boring.