Goylegate - One Gargantuan Scandal! 9

CHAPTER 9
Journeys that lead further a-field.

After a ten minute drive in her new parent’s black truck, Davina’s curiosity got the better of her. She stared out of the window and gazed at the vast forest. Numerous thoughts jostled about her mind. ‘Ghost tell me honestly... This is really embarrassing, but did you see the stones move?’
Ghost fiddled with some dry skin on his lip. How should he answer?
Davina stared out of the window waiting for his answer; the forest ran parallel to the road. That forest contained loads of boulders and ran for miles and miles. Davina frowned, there were too many stones to make sense.
Ghost followed her gaze, sighed then shuffled closer. ‘Why?’ he whispered.
Davina twirled her hair ‘so you did see something?’
Ghost nodded but sensed he was being listened to so gestured towards Davina. The pair stared out of the window for a while as Davina wrote on some paper and passed it to him. ‘What were you trying to tell me before?’ it said.
Ghost sighed and made eye contact with Davina. He leant very close and whispered, ‘you know when you made that call... something very strange happened with the lump of stone behind us.’
‘Like what?’
‘Well it transformed into a weird shape and then...’
‘And then what?’
‘Then when you turned round it disappeared.’
Davina scratched her head, ‘what kind of shape was it?’
Ghost closed his eyes, ‘the one I saw looked like an eagle or something like that. It was half eagle-half something else.’
‘What else?’
‘Look I don’t know... It happened too quickly and I was well... Well I was… You know... Scared.’ Ghost fidgeted. The whole situation was too weird. ‘Davina have you really lost your memory or is it a lie?’
Davina studied Ghost’s harrowed face, ‘why would I lie? It’s the truth; all I remember is waking up at the base of that St. Peter’s church. One night I looked up to the sky not knowing where I was. I remember that beside me there was a shattered stone and that’s it. I went onto the streets to find food. That was my natural instinct. From what I can gather I was on the streets for a few days scavenging, just trying to survive. I was doing pretty well too. That is until I was caught.’
‘You just weren’t fast enough were you?’
‘I could have out run them if I really tried, but I didn’t want to hurt them.’
‘Yeh right! Davina you’re so weird!’
‘Well since you already think I’m weird, I may as well tell you some more, but I don’t want you to think any less of me... You see all the time I was out there I felt like I was constantly being watched. You know how you can feel someone staring at you? Well I had that feeling constantly.’
Ghost glanced at the new parents. Were they listening? They seemed preoccupied with whatever it was that adults thought about. ‘So where did you sleep?’
‘At first I slept in the churchyard because I decided it was the safest place- no body was going to bother the dead were they? But after that I went to the public toilets, it was warmer and well the shadows didn’t crack or move.’
‘What do you mean crack?’
Davina thought back to the time she slept in the churchyard at night. Most nights she noticed mysterious movement behind the trees especially when the moon was bright. A number of times she recognised large, heavy shapes of certain creatures flying while others crawled and prowled.
‘So how do you think you ended up at St. Peters?’ asked Ghost breaking Davina’s thoughts.
Davina shrugged, ‘I have no idea how I got there, or who took me there. It was the strangest thing... I have no memory of my life before. So weird… Then the next thing I know I’m being chased and captured by the people in black. You call them police. They’re the ones who brought me to the kid’s prison.
Ghost breathed on the window and gazed at the condensation. He drew a small question mark in the middle.
Davina subtly smiled . ‘Anyway why are you so dangerous?’
Ghost shrugged, ‘for some reason my family think I’m cursed.’
‘Cursed? Why?’
‘Because whoever I’m with... Well, they always end up in trouble. That’s why I keep to myself.’
‘What sort of trouble?’
Ghost was about to say something when the female parent turned round and studied the two whispering children. ‘Davina and Ghost I need to interrupt you. Since we didn’t have a proper chance to meet... I am Emma and this is Dolan.’
Davina smiled sweetly, she didn’t recognise the names, ‘nice to meet you,’ said Davina gazing at Emma. ‘So who exactly sent you?’
Emma eyed Dolan looking for support, ‘look there’s a lot you have to learn. Wait until we get back to the tower and then all will be revealed.’
Davina’s eyes narrowed, nothing had been mentioned about a tower.
‘What type of tower is it?’ asked Davina, studying Emma’s facial expression.
Emma did her best to remain authentic as she broke into a smile and removed her small, dark glasses. ‘You’ll find the tower interesting when you see it. It isn’t like other towers; things will all start making sense once you see it. You might even recognise it.’
Davina studied both Emma and Dolan; something about them wasn’t completely human. It was as if they didn’t have any emotions and their eyes... Actually their eyes looked like cat’s eyes with slit pupils concealed behind dark, tinted glasses. She didn’t like it, she couldn’t trust the strangers. Who had sent them to find her? How did they have such an exact description? Was she in danger? Davina had a gut reaction, she had to do something.
‘Erm Emma, where did you get my description?’
Emma smiled a mysterious smile, ‘Davina I think we need to discuss this once we’re inside the tower.’
Davina glanced at Ghost, he appeared concerned. Davina felt her uneasy in her solar plexus. Ghost made eye contact; they had to get out of there!
‘Emma I think I’d rather know now. Maybe you need to look at this from my point of view...’
Emma smirked, ‘no actually I don’t Davina. You are in our care now which means you will do what we say and that is it!’
Davina went rigid. She didn’t like it.
Ghost fidgeted. There was silence.
Davina glanced ahead; the truck was coming to a junction and slowing down. To the right of them was marshland and to their left forest. Davina signalled to Ghost what she was thinking with her eyes.
Ghost nodded.
Glancing ahead Davina noticed junction approaching; she glanced towards the forest and then to Ghost. She had an idea.
Ghost nodded.
Davina gestured with her hands what she planned to do. Ghost glanced out of the window, following the direction she was pointing. To his right there was a sign pointing down to the earth, to the tower and to a place called Gargantuan. Ghost frowned; the distance written next to Gargantuan stated it was zero miles away. Ghost tapped Davina and pointed, that was her sign, she knew something was wrong and opened the truck door silently. She swiftly bolted behind the truck immediately followed by Ghost. The pair ran as fast as they could towards some trees. From there they darted through some more thicket until they found a boulder to hide behind. Ghost gestured to a path amongst the trees. He had spotted a cave.
Davina nodded and gestured for the pair to shush. They watched Emma and Dolan’s reactions.
Back at the crossroads Emma turned to talk to the children, the back seat was empty. Emma froze: the door was open. The children were gone.
‘Quick we need them!’ Emma screamed. ‘She’s going to go mad if we don’t bring them to the tower!’
Dolan screeched a u-turn in the truck then carefully retraced the road behind them and pulled in.
‘Urrrk! We need to get her before she works out what and where Gargantuan is,’ said Emma.
Dolan sweated, his shoulders tense. He stared Emma in the eye, ‘we’re in trouble. We should have locked the doors.’ He shook his head, ‘she’s going to be so angry. How on outside earth can we explain?’
From behind a boulder Davina glanced at Ghost in bewilderment. The pair listened intently.
Emma shook her head, ‘I have to say the girl has talent, she must have sensed us. Although she doesn’t know whether she just ran away from the right or wrong people or not. We can use that in our favour.’
Dolan frowned, ‘so do you think her memory loss is true? Clever technique don’t you think?’
Emma nodded and frowned, ‘it can work in our favour too, in some ways it makes it easier for her to be distracted from her mission. Maybe we don’t need to sabotage her after all. Maybe she’ll do that all by herself. Ms Kirk was right.’
Davina shook her head, why was Ms Kirk right?

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