‘No! No!’ Neesa screamed, startling even her friends with the increase in volume.
‘All right!’ the guard shouted. He shut the door by kicking it with his foot, but couldn’t lock it because of the heavy tray. He glared at the children and the two boys slumped down and sat on the floor, Mandy continued to lie upon her bed with her eyes wide and Neesa was crooning to her doll under the table. Satisfied that no one would move, the guard marched toward the table.
Which was when Rip and Kay yanked the satin rope that had tied back the bed-curtains from its hiding place under the rug to about ankle height and the big man went down, the tray and the food on it going flying with a colossal crash.
The guard tried to break his fall with his hands, but the explosion of breath from him when he hit the floor and a quick, deep groan of pain as something—wrist, or arm—broke, was followed a moment later by the loud crack of his chin hitting the stones.
The man’s eyes rolled up into his head and he lost consciousness. The two boys traded places, winding the rope around the guard’s legs. Mandy leapt off the bed and pulled the sheet off the table and dropped it over the guard’s head; then she and Neesa gathered the points on either side of him and Mandy tied them in a knot, encasing him in a bag.
‘Let’s go!’ Rip said.
The children gathered up the spilled bread, cheese and fruit in pillowcases and ran from the room. To Rip, it was like leaving warm water for frigid air and his teeth gave an involuntary chatter. He looked at the others uneasily and they looked back, pale and obviously frightened. Mandy glanced back into the room behind them.
‘No!’ Rip said and slammed the door, turning the key he was happy to find still in the lock. ‘We can’t go back. Let’s get out of here.’
Their heads swung left and right and they found they were in the middle of a corridor which looked identical at either end; stone walls, high small windows on one side, tiled floors, huge blackened beams high overhead.
‘This way,’ Neesa said, pointing to the right.
‘Why?’ asked Mandy.
Neesa said, ‘Because that’s the right way.’
Mandy glanced at Rip and ignored Kay, then shrugged, heading off to the right. It might be the wrong choice, but at least it was a choice. Judging from the view from their narrow window they must be at the top of the house. ‘Look for stairs,’ Neesa whispered.
Mandy gave Neesa a look, but didn’t say anything.
Rip felt awkward, because he had been the one to force the idea of escape on the others, but someone had to do it. He didn’t know why the older children were content to let whatever horrible things happened to the children who had gone before continue, but he wasn’t going to endure it. He didn’t know if he could act like a leader, no matter how many times he had played one in his imagination, but someone had to do things. If he hadn’t locked the door they all might have bolted back inside. It wasn’t safe in there, but out here felt really dangerous. It seemed to be getting colder for one thing and he felt as though a lot of people were crowding the hallway, or were about to.
Stairs, Rip thought desperately. Where are the stairs?
Neesa was crying, quietly in a tired and really frightened way. Tears poured down her face and she was struggling not to make much noise, but still gave out a high-pitched moaning that didn’t seem to involve breathing since it was continuous. She clutched Rip’s hand like a hot vice, tugging him along, one way, then another. No one else had an idea where they were going, so they just let her lead.
Rip thought she was too scared to complain. He knew he was. He held her hand as much to reassure himself as to keep her close. Otherwise all he’d have to think about was the invisible something that always seemed just about to pounce on them. Or the biting cold that let him see his own breath even though it wasn’t even close to autumn yet.
They’d been creeping about this huge house for what seemed like hours and they were all exhausted. They’d found stairs, but when they’d gone down two flights they’d had to turn around to avoid someone coming up the stairs. Whoever that was had them running up three flights before they took off down the corridor to the next turning. They’d ducked into a room while footsteps paraded up and down outside the door and something seemed to hover just above their heads. At least it had been rest of a sort or by this time they wouldn’t be able to move. After the footsteps had stopped they’d sneaked out and managed to get down two flights but until now they’d still been trapped on the same floor they’d started on.
And all the rooms were empty and full of dust and unseen watching eyes.