The Thirteenth (23 page)

She realised that the enemy was closing in. She didn’t care if it took her all night, she would now be able to translate the book, and find out about the people who were in it. Maybe, just maybe, there might also be a clue to why she was
the Chosen One
- whatever that meant.

She moved with more confidence now, loading the books with an urgency to get her job done, as she had promised Mr Gallymore. She certainly didn’t want to upset him; two of the clues to who she was had come directly from his shop so, in some strange way, she was linked to this place.

Once Val had finished, she was ready to start working out the puzzle. She would close at five, head for Shane’s shop and collect the book, which she had left for Shane to scan for Sam. Then she would leave the gadgets and head home for some serious translation work. No one else would be hurt, or even involved.

As Val started to get ready to lock up, the doorbell rang with its annoyingly sunny disposition, and in walked Wendy. Val sighed. This was the last person she wanted to see.

“Hi Val, sorry to call in so late, but I need another book.” Wendy gave a weak squeaky sound. “Is it OK?” She smiled at Val who was holding the door open with her foot.

“Yes sure. Come in.” Val managed to grimace a smile.

“Thanks. I know what I want, so I won’t be long.”

Val nodded as she went behind the counter to make sure she had all her belongings. As she bent to get her handbag she felt a sharp pain shoot up her arm. The pain was again reduced in ferocity, as if with each of the symbols disappearing, so the pain lessened.

No! Not now! And especially not with Wendy just two feet away. She already had her suspicions about Wendy’s peculiar literary tastes and her ability to turn up at the worst possible moments, and it was very strange that she didn’t seem to be the least disturbed by the state of Val’s face.

“Wendy, I don’t like to rush you, but I must really be going.” Val’s voice was strained.

“OK, I have it. Sorry for the delay.” Wendy came trotting up to the counter with an old looking leather bound book. Val grabbed it and went to check for the price on the inside cover. To Val’s dismay there was none. This meant that it was a book that Val had to look up. These prices were in a special book that Mr Gallymore called his ‘worthy books’. The ones that only true readers would buy. Val didn’t have time for this and she needed to get rid of Wendy now.

“Wendy this book has no price in it. Could you please come back for it tomorrow?” Val smiled, holding the book tightly, as the pain continued to shoot up and down her arm.

Wendy started to protest. “I need it tonight; it’s important.” She reached out to grab it from Val. Val was surprised that Wendy was being so stubborn. The book must be important.

“OK. Take it, but promise to pop in tomorrow and pay for it.” As she spoke, Val heard the distant whimpering of a small child.

“Thank you. I promise I will be here at nine a.m.” Wendy smiled, slowly prising the book from a now very distracted Val.

“Yes sure. Bye.” When Val turned to let Wendy out, she was in an almost dream like state. The noise was getting louder and she really didn’t have a clue where it was coming from.

“See you in the morning,” Wendy gushed, waving as she left.

Val was no longer listening. She shut the door behind Wendy, turned the key in the main lock, then headed back into the shop. The sounds of the little child’s whines were now beginning to annoy her. She made her way behind the counter and slipped on her jacket as she tried to pinpoint the direction of the noise.

“Come on, where are you?” Val mooched around trying to get closer to the sound. It was almost like a game of ‘Hot and Cold’ without any help. At the back of the shop, she heard another cry, and then she spotted it. There was a movement in the silver light switch on the wall near the closet. Even when she moved in closer, she could only just make out the silhouette of a child.

“You people really are scum, picking on kids now,” Val called out as if someone should be listening. Val looked around for a second to make sure she had closed the shop then placed her hand on the light socket. “Lights out,” she said. The shop was thrown into darkness except for a small flicker of blue static as Val slipped away.

Val was met by gloomy shadows, and a bitter odour. It was as if she had been sent into the local Italian restaurant’s wheelie bin. She pinched her arm to make sure she hadn’t knocked herself unconscious in the process of teleporting and this was just a dream. “Ow,” she whimpered. Nope, she was definitely awake.

Her thoughts were broken by a child’s cry from the other side of what she could only imagine was a wall. It was impossible to see her surroundings in this darkness. Val dropped onto her knees and crawled towards the noise, feeling the floorboards as she went. Reaching hesitantly out, she found that there was what seemed to be a wall in front of her. Pushing her hand slowly up it, she realised it was not a wall at all, but a door. Val had never known a room as dark as this and even wondered if maybe she had jumped through time as well as place because, when she left, it was daylight outside the shop, yet now it felt like the darkest of nights.

Shuffling closer to the door, she spotted a crack, small, yet large enough to peek through. As she pushed her eye to it, she could just make out a dingy, dirty looking room. On the other side and in the corner, was the silhouette of a child. She was wearing dungarees and looked about seven or eight years old. Then it went dark again. Val strained to see. Then it dawned on her that her view was being blocked by a human form on the other side of the door. Val held her breath as she reached into her pocket, glad that she hadn’t given back her sword just yet. She slowly pulled it out.

Within seconds, the little girl began screaming. Val felt a sick churning at the bottom of her stomach as the figure moved forward in large cumbersome strides. Val waited until she could see a shimmer of light again and then she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. The man on the other side was huge. He was larger than the very first man she had been entangled with in the bookshop; he made Shane look like one of Snow White’s little helpers.

The girl was whimpering like a small dog, clearly terrified. Val had heard quite enough. She stood up, feeling her way up the door to the handle. With her other hand she flicked out her sword, hoping it would be a silent event.

‘Whoosh,’ it crackled. “Note for Sam, sword too noisy,” Val mumbled, grabbing the door handle. It was now or never. The thug’s ears seemed to prick up; he had heard Val’s sword and was heading back towards the door. Val pulled it open and, as he came towards her, she stepped out raising her sword into the salute position.

“I think you need to pick on someone your own size,” she said, almost choking on the words. The fear was freezing her vocal cords and she sounded like a cross between Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson. The thug stopped in his tracks and for the first time Val could clearly see the little girl in the corner of the room. She looked dirty and scared. Her hair was still plaited although it was messy. She had obviously been here a while. As she looked back up at the giant, he started to laugh. It was a deep and gruff laugh, like a typical maniacal movie villain’s snigger. This annoyed Val.

“OK, I warned you.” She lunged forward and the tip of her sword made contact with his exposed belly button. The thug was caught by surprise. He had a confused expression on his face as the white sparks began. Val held her sword against his body for several seconds, and she was starting to worry that he wasn’t going to fall down. Then she remembered Delta saying that size did make a difference. Just as her brain was scrabbling for a plan B, he slowly started to topple, vibrating, to the floor. A cloud of dust rose around him and he appeared to be unconscious. Val knew she wouldn’t have long so she flicked the sword to close and shoved it into her pocket.

Jumping over the now motionless body, she ran towards the little girl.

“Hello, I’m Val.” She smiled as she began untying the child’s hands. “What’s your name?”

“Lottie,” the girl rasped. She had obviously been crying for a while.

“That’s a lovely name. Best if you don’t talk. I’m going to get you out of here, OK? Take my hand.” Val stretched out her hand and Lottie’s small hand gently grabbed it. She could see the bloody marks on her wrist from the rope. “Let’s go.” Val pulled her up and they were almost out of the room when she felt a pull on her ankle. The thug was already starting to wake up and had a hold on Val’s leg.

“Run!” Val screamed at Lottie, as she stamped violently on the thug’s hand. “Get-off-me-you-animal.” Val spat each word in sync with her thudding boot. The thug howled in pain as Val jumped over him towards Lottie who had managed to get to the door. Val threw herself at the handle and the door sprang open.

Grabbing Lottie once again, she started to make her way along the darkened corridor that opened out in front of them. There was no wallpaper on the walls and, as Val felt her way, she noticed that they seemed to be weeping some sort of slime. Although the corridor wasn’t in complete darkness the whole house seemed to have no natural light. It was as if they had fallen into a black and white film. As they reached the top of the staircase, Val heard their aggressor hot on their tails.

Val turned. “Hold on,” she said as she lifted Lottie off the ground.

Luckily for Val, Lottie was very light and Val knew she could move quicker with her off the ground. Val made her way down the stairs cautiously, feeling every step with her toe. When they eventually reached what felt like the bottom, Val was met by more doors and more darkness. She was starting to feel panicked and very disorientated.

She couldn’t work out the layout of the house because there were no open windows to see if she was even on the bottom floor. She was also very aware of the fact that they were being followed, which was making her grab at every door handle in the hope of some escape route. As she did, Val felt splinters from the rotten wood thrusting into her hand. Adrenaline stopped the pain, for now.

As she made her way to the end of a corridor she heard loud banging. How had the giant managed to get in front of her? Or was the noise coming from behind? She stopped for a second to get her breath, and then the banging started again. It was growing in volume and frequency. Val didn’t know which way to look.

Grabbing her sword and lowering Lottie to the ground, Val placed her index finger to her lips signalling for Lottie to be quiet. Two large eyes looked back at her and she nodded her head. “Whoosh,” the sword was extended and Val was ready once again to go into battle. She had made her mind up; whatever it took, she would save this little girl. Then a bang like a gun went off and streams of dazzling daylight hit them both in the face. As a thick cloud of dust rose, Val braced to defend her charge.

“God, this place is filthy; you can’t expect me to go in there.”

Val would have recognised that voice any time and any place. “Delta!” Val screamed as the dust started to settle. Grabbing Lottie again under her arm, she ran towards the light. “Run!” she yelled as she pushed past the silhouettes in the doorway without even stopping to acknowledge them.

She ran over a junkyard of a garden, through a broken gate and came to a standstill next to Delta’s red mini. She gently lowered Lottie and then bent down gasping for breath.

As she started to recover, she stood up to find herself face to face with Delta and Jason who had done as they were told and run behind Val to the car.

“First things first, what are you doing here?” Val questioned, looking confused. “And secondly, where are we?”

“I was trying to contact you all day but your mobile was off. Therefore, I was looking for you on the laptop. I saw you jump, so I called Delta. When I realised that you were so close, we had to come and help,” Jason replied shrugging his shoulders.

“When you say close, how close?”

“Six miles from the shop,” Jason said. Val felt a tug on her sleeve. Looking down she was met by a scared little girl’s face.

“Sorry Lottie. These are my friends. You can trust them. This is Delta.” Delta offered a small wave to the little girl who smiled back. “And this is Jason.”

“What on earth happened to your face?” Delta winced in Val’s direction.

“Long story. I’ll fill you in later,” Val replied.

“OK boss, what now?” Jason asked.

“Well, I’m pleased to see you both, but the story is this: the man who just attacked us was
massive
. He had Lottie as a prisoner and I’m just happy to be out of there. But I don’t think it’s over as I haven’t done my vanishing act yet.” Val looked at Lottie.

“Do you think there is anything else you need to do?” Delta chirped up.

“Excuse me.” Lottie’s timid voice broke their conversation.

Val turned and bent down to Lottie’s height. “It’s OK, we will get you home to your mummy soon,” she said rubbing Lottie’s arm.

“But the man has my mummy in there.” Lottie’s eyes filled up with tears as she pointed to the house. “He took her when we were out shopping and then he came back for me.”

“Right.” Val stood up and grabbed Delta’s arm. “Get her in the car, Delta. Talk to her about fashion or handbags, I don’t care, just do it.” Delta nodded at Val.

“So Lottie, do you know about Jimmy Choo?” Delta asked as she opened the door and helped Lottie into the passenger’s seat.

“Jason, I need to go back in. Her mother is in there and I have to get her out.” Jason looked at Val and smiled.

“You’re truly the most amazing person I have ever met, but I’m coming with you,” he said.

Val started to shake her head in disagreement. “Jason, I don’t have time to argue. It’s not safe.” Val’s words fell on deaf ears; Jason was already heading back across the garden to the house. Val threw her arms in the air in submission and turned to wave at Lottie and Delta who were already looking at a copy of Cosmopolitan.