Vengeful Earth: The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Two, page 16
‘No! Oscar, no! Oscar, Oscar, come back!’ Aimie flung her body at the wall but it had returned to a solid mass of limestone. She hammered her fists on its smooth surface, kicking it with her boots. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks, her throat strangled with emotion as she gulped in air and a sharp slice of pain shot through her chest. ‘Oscar! Oscar!’
Jasmine and Wil joined her and drew her into a hug.
‘He’s gone, Aimie. Quinn and Otto will protect him.’
‘But how will he return? We have the Stone. He’s stranded in Hadrixia!’ Panic sliced through her heart, and she felt as though her whole trembled with fear.
‘Come on, let’s get back to camp and explain what’s happened to Max and Rufus. They might know a way to get him back,’ said Wil, taking hold of Aimie’s elbow, then linking his arm through Jasmine’s and guiding them both up the hill towards the forest.
‘Yes, Wil’s right. Max will know what to do.’
Aimie continued to sob until all her tears were spent. Despite their assurances, she knew it was unlikely Oscar could return to the Outside unless he was in possession of one of the Stones of Hadrixia. She was dreading their impending rendezvous with Max, but she knew that worse than explaining Oscar’s absence to Max would be trying to explain it to his parents.
Chapter Twenty One
Headquarters, Dark Sky Camp
As they approached Dark Sky Camp’s headquarters, Aimie could hear angry voices ringing through the branches of the ancient oaks and Norwegian spruce. The wings of a frightened blackbird flapped from the emaciated limbs of a silver birch to their left and she caught a glimpse of the bushy tail of a red squirrel, disturbed from its slumber, disappear into the leafy canopy overhead.
She was about to step into the clearing that house Max’s cabin, when Wil shot out his forearm to halt their progress and pressed his finger to his lips. ‘It’s two a.m. Don’t you think it’s unusual for there to be so much noise?’
‘Well, we were supposed to be back by midnight. Perhaps they’re organising a search party?’ Aimie suggested, guilt at their late arrival squirming around her veins. She’d forgotten her parents would be waiting to take her home.
‘In here!’
Wil pulled them behind a convenient hawthorn bush so they could listen in on the unfolding drama at the centre of camp.
‘You have not given us an adequate explanation for the absence of our children, Mr Hadricus. I have to confess my deep concern that when we dropped Aimie off on Friday we were told to collect her this evening at midnight. But Aimie insisted it was so she could be here to observe the meteor shower. Now, here we are at this late hour and we are being told our children are still on location? Where is this location and why can’t we be taken straight over there to collect them? Something is going on and I’m not happy.’
Aimie swallowed down on a burst of remorse; her father’s face was the palest she’d ever seen as he spoke to Max. As she watched, her mother reached out to clasp his trembling hand, shuffling her stiletto heels in the dirt – a sure sign of her heightened anxiety. She couldn’t stand being an observer of such raw pain any longer, and shot out from the camouflage of the foliage into the clearing.
‘Mum, Dad, hi!’
She strode confidently into their outstretched arms and buried her head into her mother’s shoulder, savouring the fragrance of her familiar perfume, maintaining a grip on her emotions by her fingertips.
‘Sorry we’re late. We got caught up in a fantastic display of shooting stars. Couldn’t miss such an awesome spectacle, could we? It was amazing!’ she explained loudly so Jasmine and Wil would know to deliver the same explanation.
Jasmine had followed in Aimie’s wake and hugged her mother and her sister, then settled under her father’s protective arm, clearly having taken the decision to simply say nothing for fear of blurting out something she shouldn’t.
Now that she had satisfied herself that her family were okay, that they were no longer worried about her or her safety, she experienced a sudden, almost overwhelming craving to return to Hadrixia to find Oscar and join up with Quinn and Otto, and looking across at Jasmine, she knew she felt the same.
Why hadn’t she stuck with Oscar and transmorphed back as he had done?
‘We need to get back home, Jaz. Don’t forget it’s the regional gymnastics competition tomorrow. I hope you’ve been practicing?’ Jasmine’s mother scrutinised her daughter’s face from which it was clear that, for the first time, the gold medal held no interest.
‘Hey!’ Wil fist-bumped his sisters and threw his arms around his white-faced mother as colour began to seep back into her cheeks at her son’s safe arrival.
‘Wil, darling, we were so worried about the four of you. Couldn’t you have sent a text or phoned Mr Hadricus to let him know where you were and that you’d be late for your pick-up?’
‘No signal up here in the wilds, Mum.’ He wiggled his iPhone which had remained unused for three days, a first for Wil.
‘You look so full of energy. It’s two a.m! And what’s happened to your clothes? Why are you wearing that ragged tunic? Is that blood? And what is that disgusting smell?’ Wil’s mother’s eyes narrowed as she inspected her usually pristine son’s dishevelled appearance – only his blond quiff remained intact.
‘And are you seriously asking us to believe that you have gone a whole three days without access to the internet, Wil?’ his sister demanded, whilst maintaining her close grip on his arm. ‘Who are you, and what have you done with my big brother Wil, the “gaming geek extraordinaire”?’
Wil grinned around at his family, happiness oozing from every pore.
Several moments passed before the three relieved families swung their gaze to the two remaining parents and a twelve-year-old boy who was the double of Oscar, their expressions switching from anxiety to panic, and finally, fear.
‘Where’s Oscar?’ demanded Dr David Jones, his eyes flicking from Wil, to Oscar, then to Jasmine before squinting into the bushes from which they had materialised, before settling on Max. ‘Where’s our son?’
‘Mum, sorry, I’ve got to speak to Max.’
Aimie disentangled herself from her mother’s grasp and moved towards where Max and Rufus stood on the veranda of camp headquarters, trying to signal the urgency of their next conversation with just her eyes. Jasmine and Wil abandoned their astonished parents, too, and when they arrived at the cabin, they explained in as few words as possible why Oscar wasn’t with them.
Aimie almost lost her grip on her emotions when she saw Max’s eyes cloud with distress and his shoulders crumple into his chest before he gathered his senses and strode to where Dr and Mrs Jones and their youngest son, Archie, waited, their faces cast with a tinge of green which had nothing to do with the sparse light.
‘Come this way, if you please.’
Max led them into his lodge as the other three families clutched their child, their concern mingled with grateful relief as they watched Oscar’s family’s terrible journey to find out what had happened to their son.
Before disappearing over the threshold, Max paused.
‘Rufus, find Blodvig. Help these people to their vehicles. Then, both of you take a hike down to the wall. Aimie has the rucksack. You know what has to be done with the contents. This turn of events means we must begin the preparations for the next expedition immediately. As you know, the leader has already been selected.’
Aimie saw Max’s gaze slid towards the cluster of people with Jasmine at its centre, her arms around the waist of both parents, and in that moment, both she and Jasmine knew it was Jasmine’s turn to lead a quest. She watched her friend’s face ignite with excitement, not only at being selected for the next mission, but at being given the opportunity to see Otto again so quickly.
Her lips curled at the corners with delight.
THE END
If you enjoyed reading Oscar’s adventure, then why not join Jasmine in the next Dark Sky Camp quest in Book Three - Toxic Storm? Here’s the link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Daisy-Dyson/e/B096NSN9PC
Daisy Dyson, Vengeful Earth: The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Two
