I hurry from the room, barging past other kids and their parents. A couple of people are still looking out of the window, frowning, but they don’t move.
Outside it’s cold, but the air stinks of iron and sulphur. It’s real. It’s really happening. Somehow one of the creatures has escaped Bavar’s estate. The ground quakes as it turns to me, amber eyes smouldering, and I told Bavar I would fight and I meant it, but it’s only occurring to me now that I have no idea how to really fight one. I don’t have my catapult, and even if I did I know it wouldn’t help at all.
‘C’mon, Angel,’ I tell myself, as the creature’s claws strike at the ground. I rummage through my bag, hoping my fingers are going to somehow come upon a knife, or a flare, anything they’d usually have on TV in this situation. But of course I’m just me, and it’s just my school bag, so I just have books, and paper.
The book!
My fingers find the leather cover and I lift it out, my hands shaking as the creature closes in on me. I open the book and turn to the spell, and I have no idea what it will do, but the raksasa backs up a step as I start to read.
‘Qui est dominum . . .’
‘Angel, no!’
Bavar runs towards us, cloak billowing, hair standing out a mile.
‘What’re you doing?’ he demands. ‘Put that thing away!’
‘No,’ I say, raising the book higher, making my voice low as I start to read out again: ‘Es definitum et sanguinem . . .’
‘You don’t even know what you’re saying; it’ll take more than just words!’
‘It doesn’t matter!’ I fire back.
The monster roars, and Bavar rushes next to me, as Mary appears in the door.
‘Angel, are you coming in here?’
‘Uh, yes . . .’ I look at Bavar and he waves me away.
‘What’s going on out here?’
‘We were just talking, that’s all,’ I manage, as the sky lights up orange and Mary blinks, confused. I take her arm and pull her back into the school, looking desperately behind me as I go. Miss Pick says quite a lot of things about concentration and something about pi, but I’m not really listening, I’m watching Bavar and the monster dance around each other out there, and freaking out a bit because it’s all happening right here, and everyone’s just sitting here having their boring old parents’ evening!
‘. . . So, Angel, what do you say?’ Mary’s voice is insistent.
‘Uh, yes. Absolutely.’
Miss Pick beams.
‘How wonderful. We can begin tomorrow; I’ll see you around eight.’
‘What?’
Mary frowns at me. ‘Miss Pick is offering you a little extra help, Angel – you should be very grateful.’
‘Oh yes, I am. Thank you . . .’
I have to get out of here.
Should I be evacuating the place?
I try to picture myself standing on a table, shouting about monsters and other-worldly dangers; the rest of the room gawking, seeing nothing, hearing nothing. Or, even worse, me standing on a table, them all listening and marching out there straight into the path of the raksasa.
No.
Mary stands, and I hurry to my feet.
‘I have to go,’ I say. ‘I’m really sorry. Bavar needs help.’
She gives me a long look. ‘I’m not going, Angel. I will see every one of your teachers, with or without you.’
‘OK!’
‘And you will be here at eight tomorrow morning for your extra lesson.’
‘OK.’
‘And we’re going to have a long talk about this friendship of yours when I get home. You had better be there.’
‘OK, yes – see you later!’
I run, just praying I’m in time. Because the last I saw, as Mary talked and the kids swirled around me, was Bavar being dragged into the air by one of his ankles.
This is a nightmare.
I’ve managed to get up on top of the raksasa, and it’s darting about the school field like a mad bull, snorting and bucking and batting its wings at me, and I should be in control by now, but we’re so close to the school, and all the people, the raksasa is mad with it, straining to get away and feed. I fling myself towards the ground, landing with a stumble as it rises up and screeches, its eyes on the gold-lit windows. I mutter a few words, feel my blood begin to heat, and then Angel is there again, darting in front of me, drawing the infernal book out of her bag.
‘What are you doing?’
‘The spell!’ she says. ‘We have to try it!’
‘Not now!’
‘Yes, now,’ she says. She turns to me and her eyes are shining. ‘There are people in there, Bavar! Mary is in there. I can’t just let this happen!’
‘I won’t let it happen!’
‘It isn’t only your fight,’ she shouts as the raksasa lurches forward, and I run in to stop it tearing her head off. ‘And you can’t stop it anyway. You’ve tried. Your parents tried. You’re not winning; you need to try another way!’
‘I can do this,’ I grunt, lowering my head as the creature spews hot ash into the air, my arm around its neck. ‘I will do it for as long as I can.’
‘But we’re in the school field, Bavar! It’s already too late; they’re getting stronger. We need to do this!’
Claws dig into my back, and hot, sharp pain rushes through me. I try not to let it show on my face, but she sees – she sees everything. She always has.
‘Bavar!’
‘Let me do this,’ I manage, turning and shoving at the creature, my hands against its chest as its wings crash out around my head. I duck down, bracing myself against its hot body as it strains to get past me. Its claws score into the ground as it screams, making my ears ring, and I don’t know how long I can hold it off. ‘If you want to try the spell, you should do it at the house. Leave me here and go!’
‘I can’t leave you!’ She takes a step towards us, the book like a shield before her.
The raksasa screams louder and tries to take to the air, but I push harder against it, ignoring the web of pain in my back – if it gets into the sky, it’ll be free to strike down again, and I don’t know where it will strike. And I don’t know how much fight I have left in me; already shadows are crowding around the edges of my vision.
‘Go, now!’ I roar, looking back at her as the creature snaps its jaws over my head, a low, guttural growl rumbling in its chest. Angel thrusts her chin out, but I can see in her eyes she knows I’m right.
‘Bavar . . .’
‘You have to let me do this,’ I say, turning to her, still straining to keep the raksasa from getting to her. ‘I let it out. I swore I never would, and it’s happened already.’ I feel sick at the thought. I haven’t even been doing this for a year and already I’ve failed. ‘Let me finish this while you go and start the spell. I’ll be there soon . . .’
‘You promise?’ Her eyes dart up to the monster, then back down to me. ‘Bavar, you have to promise. You can’t lose this one.’