Wicked Little Deeds, page 27
The orchard?
No, not quite – the pavilion.
‘This must’ve been under it the whole time,’ I mutter.
Did Sadie make it to this point, I wonder? Is she still here, hidden in that darkness?
Yes.
It might be the drug in my system, but I have the strongest sense that she’s down there. Her bones sunk deep at the bottom, buried by decades of dirt in that silent blackness. How deep is it, I wonder? If something dragged you down into the water, would you drown before you hit the bottom?
‘Are you able to climb out?’ Dominic calls from behind me. His voice sounds odd. Worn out. It snaps me out of my weird daydream.
Shining the light upwards, I find a boarded ceiling maybe six or seven feet above my head. Wood – not stone. I check the phone, but there’s still no signal. Practically growling in frustration, I set it down so I can use my hands.
‘How hard can it be to John Wick my way out of a well?’
Using gaps between the stones in the walls as handholds, I manoeuvre so I’m standing with my feet on the edge of the pipe. From here, I can reach up and touch the wooden ceiling, but only just. If I lose my balance, I’ll plunge into the water in front of me.
My fingertips dig into the rough stone walls as my head swims. It feels like something down there is pulling me forward, willing me to slip. I close my eyes. Think John Wick thoughts.
Something reaches up from the water and wraps around my ankle.
‘It’s not real,’ I whisper. But I can feel it. Hear the water dripping from long-dead bones. Imagine the slime sluicing out of those vacant eye sockets.
I look down.
The dead water is still.
I take a deep, shuddering breath, and look up again, feeling a little steadier. So I reach towards the ceiling, pressing against it with my fingertips. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t move.
‘I think I’m gonna need to borrow your height advantage,’ I call down to Dominic, expecting to see him hauling his rangy frame from the pipe, but there’s no sign of him. ‘Nic?’
Nothing.
It’s a difficult manoeuvre to crouch back down so I can peer back into the pipe, but I finally manage it.
‘Nic!’
He’s lying face down in the dirt lining the water pipe, one hand reaching towards me. For a moment, it sends me back to the day I found Freya, her pale hands resting in her lap, but I blink the image away. Dominic isn’t dead. He can’t be.
‘Nic!’ I grab his wrist and shake him. He doesn’t wake up, but his head rolls to one side. Dominic’s lips are parted slightly, and as I wait, frozen, for him to move, I see a puff of dust blowing up as he exhales.
Not dead, thank God.
Not doing great, though. That crowbar to the head must’ve done more damage than either of us realized.
I bite my lip to keep from crying while I figure out what to do. Beyond Dominic is total darkness, but I know where it leads, and I think I could crawl over him if I have to. But there’s no way I could abandon him here alone in the dark, so I’d have to leave his phone with him.
If I made it back to the pit and somehow got out of the blazing house, would I have a chance to tell someone where Dominic is before Uncle Ty or Carolyn catch me? Or would I be leaving Nic to die down here? Would his parents, his friends, be left wondering where he disappeared to?
Again I think of Sadie, how she must’ve died in this terrible darkness. If she did put a curse on my family, I honestly can’t blame her. But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to wait here for it to catch up with me.
You’re trapped inside a well, probably with a witch’s corpse somewhere close by, and the only way out leads to an inferno. It already caught you, dipshit.
As though to underline that thought, I hear a rumbling whoosh travelling down the water pipe towards us. And I don’t need to see the flames to know what that sound means: the liquor in the cellar just went up. There’s no way I can get out that way now.
Back to Plan A: break through the wooden boards covering the well. But the pavilion floor is gravelly, so who knows if breaking through the wood will be the hardest part – what if there’s concrete above it? And I can barely reach it.
I scramble out of the pipe and reach for it again, just in case I grew in the last five minutes. I did not.
The well is around five feet across, so too wide for me to be able to chimney-climb, though Dominic could probably do it. If he wasn’t unconscious, that is. And not that he’d need to, because he could reach the damn ceiling easily.
‘FUUUUUUCK!’ I scream up at it.
And it’s only as my voice trails off that I realize it didn’t have that same deadened quality it had before. Like it was … escaping.
I reach down for Dominic’s phone – which seems to have a beast of a battery, praise Satan – and hold the light up closer to the wooden boards for a better look. They seem pretty solid, but there are –
The phone buzzes in my hand, and I almost drop it. But, as the screen lights up, I see a ton of messages and missed calls coming through.
There’s a goddamn signal down here!
It disappears when I bring the phone down nearer head-level, but up in the corner, near those hateful wooden boards, there’s a bar. I don’t know Dominic’s passcode, but I don’t need it to call Emergency.
I’m just trying to do that one-handed while I still cling to the wall, when the phone buzzes again. Mateo’s picture fills the screen. I thumb-swipe to answer, putting him on speaker so I can keep the phone raised.
‘Nic? Nic! Where the hell are you, man?’ His voice comes through a little patchy, but it’s not hard to connect the dots. ‘The fucking house is on fire and I’ve been trying to reach you, but it kept going to voicemail and I thought you were fucking dead –’
‘Mateo!’ I yell as loud as I can, hoping he’ll hear me and shut up. It seems to work.
‘Who’s that?’
‘Ava! I’m with Dominic, but he’s hurt and we’re stuck in an old well!’
There’s a beat of silence, then, ‘You fucking what?’
‘There’s a covered well inside the pavilion … where Freya’s body was found,’ I say, trying to figure out the best way to direct him here quickly. There was footage of the outside of the pavilion on the local news, the place still crawling with cops at the time, but I’m guessing Mateo saw it. ‘We’re inside and can’t get out! My uncle and his wife are trying to kill us – they’re the ones who murdered Freya and Ford and … Can you just come get us, please?’
I wait for him to answer, but there’s just silence.
‘Mateo?’
Then I hear the beep of the call disconnecting.
Shit. Did he get that?
I move the phone around, hoping the signal will dip back in and he’ll call again, but nothing happens. Time to try Emergency.
But then a groan comes from behind me. ‘Nic?’ I spin – or try to – but my foot slips from the edge of the pipe and suddenly I’m falling into inky-black water.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The water is ice cold. It forces all the air out of me as I thrash around, trying to claw my way out of it. My palms sing out in pain as my scars react to the sudden chill.
No!
Dominic’s phone slides from my grip, and I watch in horror as the light spirals down, down, down …
It blinks out, either landing light-down at the bottom, or just too deep to see any longer.
It’s only been a few seconds, but my chest is already beginning to burn for air, and in the pitch-blackness I feel as though I might be sinking down into the depths of the water, just like the phone.
Panic clutches at me. I scrabble to find purchase on the stone walls with ice-pick fingers. In a split second of clarity, I think this must’ve been how Sadie felt. Betrayed by the people she should’ve been able to trust. Facing death in the dark, alone.
Except I’m not alone, really, am I?
My hand finds the edge of the pipe opening. I cling to it and drag myself up out of the water until I’m curled up inside the pipe. I feel for Dominic, find his outstretched hand. He’s cold, but I’m colder.
‘Nic?’ I whisper through chattering teeth.
He groans faintly, then squeezes my hand. I could weep with relief. ‘Please tell me it’s actually dark in here, and I haven’t just had my eyes stolen by a ghost.’
Well, that is one thing I can reassure him about. ‘It’s dark, yeah. I think you passed out. How are you feeling?’
Dominic laughs drily. ‘Like I’ve been hit over the head with a crowbar. But otherwise great.’
I can’t see any humour in this, though. ‘I lost your phone. And we’re still stuck in here.’ I sniff, catching a smell that instantly fills me with dread. ‘And I think the pipe is filling with smoke.’
‘I see.’ There’s no panic in Dominic’s tone, and I can’t decide whether to be reassured by that or to wonder if that crowbar messed with his ability to assess our absolute fuckedness. ‘I take it you couldn’t get the lid off the well?’
‘It’s too high. I can barely reach it with my fingertips. And now you can’t even see to give it a try.’
‘Describe the space to me.’
I do, explaining as well as I can how he’ll need to perch at the opening of the pipe and use the wall to grip onto. Before he can squeeze past me, there’s an enormous bang from somewhere above us.
‘What the hell was that?’ he hisses. The bang comes again, even louder this time.
But I’m grinning so widely I’m surprised he can’t see it glowing. ‘Hopefully, that’s Mateo come to dig us up.’
‘You spoke to him?’
‘Yeah, but it was a bad signal, and I wasn’t sure he heard enough to figure out where we are. Looks like I was wrong.’
Dominic doesn’t answer.
‘What?’
‘Not to be negative, but it’s also possible your uncle figured out where we might be and doesn’t want to take the chance of us finding a way to escape.’
My smile dims. As far as I know, Uncle Ty has no idea this pipe even exists. But I also thought I knew Uncle Ty would never try to kill me for money, so there’s that.
‘I guess we’ll find out soon enough.’
The banging continues for a few minutes – though it’s hard to gauge time while we’re huddled together in the dark. Dominic does his best to crowd some warmth into me. I’m pretty sure I’m just making us both feel colder, though. And the smoke is definitely getting thicker. I can taste it on every inhalation, and my head is starting to swim.
Bits of wood and dirt rain down with each strike from above. I’m almost sure it’s Mateo. I mean, it has to be. If not, we’re about to come face to face with Uncle Ty and what sounds like a goddamn pickaxe.
‘Nic, when he breaks through that cover, I want you to stay hidden,’ I whisper between strikes.
‘Why would I do that?’
I don’t need to see him to know he’s humouring me.
‘Because if it is Ty, I can tell him you didn’t make it out of the house. And, no offence, but I think he’s more worried about me escaping than you.’
‘Or we could both hide until we know who it is.’
‘Oh. Yeah, I guess that could work.’
The pieces tumbling from above grow larger, until finally a shaft of light shines down into the well. It’s not bright – starlight cutting in through the pavilion windows, I’m guessing – but after the dense blackness of the water pipe it’s like a floodlight.
The smoke surrounding us swirls, thick and hazy. I don’t know much about smoke inhalation or when it becomes life-threatening, but I’m hoping we’ll be out of here before I find out. Dominic and I huddle together inside the water pipe, out of view of whoever might look down.
The banging stops.
I hold my breath. As soon as I do, I have a fierce urge to cough. It burns inside me, like my lungs are actually on fire. I start hacking. I wrap my arms around my face, but there’s no way whoever’s up there hasn’t heard me. I look pleadingly at Dominic, hoping he’ll get the message and go farther into the pipe to hide like I originally suggested, but he’s not looking at me. He’s staring out into the well, jaw set.
The smoke begins to drift up through the hole in the wooden boards. It’s easily large enough for us to climb out through. As the air clears around us, my breathing grows easier, but my heart still races. I expect a face to appear at any moment, and the fact there’s nobody peering down at us only sets me more on edge.
Dominic and I lock eyes.
‘Who’s there?’ I call out, voice raspy from the smoke.
No answer.
‘Mateo?’ Dominic tries, a definite note of doubt in his voice.
When there’s still no response, I shout, ‘TYLER THORN!’
I brace for … well, something. But there’s nothing, just the slow drift of smoke escaping through our makeshift chimney.
I glance at Dominic. He looks perfectly calm, as always, but I know him well enough now to notice the tightness in his jaw and the stiff set of his shoulders. He’s just as freaked out as I am. But there’s only one way out of here.
‘Give me a boost up?’
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Filthy and shivering, I drag myself to my feet. I hear a faint roar coming from outside – the waterfall, yes, but something else, too. It takes me a moment to realize that sound is the manor burning. The smell of smoke and apples poisons the air, though it isn’t nearly as choking now I’m out of that damned pipe. Through the windows, the accusing fingers of the blood-apple trees cut lines in the haze.
Dominic’s head appears over the edge of the hole, and I help pull him up.
‘Thank you,’ he says, but I’m too busy looking at the state of the pavilion to respond. The stone bench where I found Freya’s body lies in pieces, the seat cast aside and one of the legs lying near the hole in the well cover. It looks like whoever broke through the concrete (several inch-thick chunks of which litter the floor) and boards used the stone bench leg to do it.
‘Where do you think he went?’ I whisper because it feels necessary to stay quiet, even though my ears are still ringing from all the banging.
‘I have no idea. But we need to get out of here.’ Dominic nods towards the arched pavilion doorway. Outside, through the trees, I see a flickering orange glow. I’m confused for a moment because I shouldn’t be able to see the manor in that direction. Then I realize the orchard is burning, too. All this dead wood – despite the snow, it’s going up like a tinderbox.
I lead the way through the trees, heading away from the manor and the worst of the smoke. Soon the rushing sound of the waterfall grows louder than the fire, but that awful sour smell of burnt apples keeps hitting the back of my throat, making me gag.
Through some wordless communication, Dominic and I stay in physical contact – my fingers gripping his sleeve, his hand on the small of my back.
Then Dominic halts me with a touch on my shoulder, one finger held to his lips. His eyes scan the trees around us, looking for something. Now I hear it, too. Twigs snapping, like someone walking towards us.
A figure steps out right in front of us.
‘Cas!’ Dominic yells, grinning. Casper looks at me, his eyes go wide, and he turns and starts running the other way. He only makes it a few steps, though, before Mateo is blocking his path. Mateo looks over at us, frowning, then he meets my eyes and crosses himself.
‘She’s not Dead-Eyed Sadie,’ Mateo tells Casper gruffly. ‘It’s just Ava Thorn looking like shit.’
I turn to Dominic. ‘What’s he talking about?’
Dominic shrugs. ‘Your face and hair are streaked with some black oily stuff. You look like you just crawled straight out of a Japanese horror movie.’ He doesn’t get a chance to say any more before Mateo smothers him with a hug. Casper is still eyeing me warily from behind them, but he gives Dominic a very bro-ish slap on the shoulder.
I feel a painful twinge watching them – how they obviously have each other’s backs. Because I used to think I had that with Ford, but did we, really? If I’d called him and said someone was trying to kill me, would he have rushed over to try and save me? Would he have smashed through concrete to get me out of danger? I look at the cuts and grazes covering Mateo’s hands, and I know the answer.
‘Where did you go after busting open the well?’ I ask Mateo once he and Dominic have disentangled themselves. He grimaces when he looks at me, but I get the impression it’s because of my general appearance rather than the usual dickish attitude I’d put it down to. He answers as we push our way out of the orchard, the brittle branches clawing at us like they’re desperate for us to stay. But the fire is still spreading. It will swallow the orchard within an hour, I’d guess.
‘I couldn’t see a damn thing with all the smoke pouring out of there, and I was coughing too much to call out,’ Mateo says, and his voice does sound hoarse. ‘I wasn’t sure what to do, so I went to get Cas. He was standing watch in case your uncle and aunt heard all the banging.’
‘Where are they now?’ Dominic asks. ‘And where are the cops?’
At that moment, sirens sound in the distance. ‘Looks like they’re almost here,’ Casper says. ‘And last I saw, Ava’s aunt was watching the house burn from near the bridge.’
‘What about Uncle Ty?’ I press.
Casper shrugs. ‘Haven’t seen him since we arrived, and we did a full circle of the house trying to find you.’
‘I’m glad you didn’t try to go inside,’ Dominic says.
‘We did try,’ Mateo answers. ‘Place is a fucking inferno …’
I zone out of what they’re saying, watching my family’s home for generations burning, eyes hot with tears and smoke.
This was the place I thought I’d always live. Where I last saw my parents laughing. Where Grandpa taught me to play poker.
