Leo burrowed back under the sheets, and shut his eyes, and through the haze of pain and fear he heard Sister Dulce say they must all go to sleep, because it was eleven o’clock at night, which was no time for children to be awake. She went out, closing the door, and the room became silent, apart from the occasional sob from Susannah’s bed. Sophie was next to her; Leo could see her hair spilling over the pillow. Most people could only tell them apart because Sophie’s hair was redder than Susannah’s. If Susannah was hurt, Sophie would be hurting as well. Leo knew this, and he hated it for them.
He lay on his side, watching the stove. If he half-closed his eyes, he could make it seem to move. Or was it moving by itself anyway? Yes, it was. It was waddling forward towards the nearest bed. Leo half sat up, alarmed, and he was just wondering whether to call out to the others, when he heard another sound. This time it was not anyone crying or the stove, it was someone walking around outside this room.
It ought not to have been frightening to hear those footsteps, because people had been walking around ever since Leo got here. But these footsteps were different. They were slow, sort of dragging. Across the room, Sophie sat up and looked towards Leo’s bed.
‘Can you hear that?’ said Leo, as loudly as he dared.
‘Yes.’
‘Who is it?’ Leo did not dare ask if it might be the Angel of Death, the Todesengel so feared by the twins’ mother, but Sophie heard the thought, of course.
He said, ‘Is Susannah all right? What did they do with that needle?’
‘It hurt a lot,’ said Sophie, her voice wobbling. Leo knew she was trying not to cry. ‘They dug it into Susannah’s back, into her bones. They’re going to do it to me tomorrow.’
‘And to me,’ said Leo, remembering this with a shiver.
‘And after they’ve done that,’ said Sophie, her voice trembling even more, ‘they’ll take us to the Ovens. That woman – Sister Dulce – she’s the one.’
‘But where—?’ began Leo, then broke off. ‘Someone’s coming,’ he said. ‘Lie down. Pretend to be asleep.’
Sophie flopped down at once, and Leo turned on his side, watching the door. After a moment, it began to open, not quickly and firmly in the way Sister Dulce and the others had opened it, but slowly and stealthily, as if whoever was there did not want to be seen or heard. Leo’s heart started to race. Very gradually, the door opened wider, and a shadow fell across the floor – it was a black shadow, but the red from the stove ran in and out of it. Leo lay absolutely still, waiting for it to go away, but it did not. It stood in the doorway as if looking round.
Then a low blurred voice said, very quietly, ‘Children, are you here …?’
Leo was shaking uncontrollably, and his head was hurting so much he thought it might explode.
‘Children, are you here …?’ There was a pause. ‘I’ll find you … Wherever you are.’
It’s come for the twins, thought Leo, sick with the horror of it all. This is what they saw – it’s what followed them to England, and watched their house. It’s followed them in here.
The shadowy figure stepped back into the passage, and Leo sank gratefully back into the pillows. It was all right. Whatever had been there had gone away. The twins were safe and everything was all right.
Except that everything was not all right. There was a movement across the room, and to his horror he saw two small figures walking hand in hand to the door. Sophie and Susannah.
They went very quietly across the room, almost like shadows themselves, not looking towards Leo. Sophie’s arm was round Susannah – Leo thought Susannah must be still hurting from the needle pushed into her bones earlier. They went through the door and it closed with a soft little click.
Were they running away as Sophie had said? Surely they would not go out into the snow by themselves? And Leo could not believe they would run away without telling him, either. Sophie had said they would like it if he went with him. Or did they think he would follow them? We’ll always be linked, they had said that night. We’ll always know if one of us is in trouble.
Leo did not know what to do, but what he did know was that the shadow was still out there – he could feel that it was. Which meant the twins would walk straight into it.
His whole body was still burning up and his bones felt as if they were melting with the heat, but he would put up with worse than this to help his beloved twins. He got out of bed and went across to the door.
SIX