I laughed. ‘You grew up with cavemen, right?’
‘You’ve met my dad and my brothers. I rest my case.’
We walked back through the now much quieter streets. The snow-capped mountains gleamed in the moonlight, the stars flecks of white in the black sky, so distant but acutely bright.
‘Makes me feel very smal ,’ I said, imagining al the miles between us and the nearest of them.
‘I hate to break it to you, Sky, but you are smal .’
I batted him in the stomach and he obligingly let out an ‘oof’ of air, though I doubted I’d done any injury to him. ‘Look, I was having a moment here—
one of those “isn’t the universe mind-blowing?”
things. Have some respect.’
He grinned. ‘It’s a chal enge when you’re wearing a bone suit. Do you realize you’re shining in the moonlight? I’ve never had a date do that before.’
‘And just who have you dated, Mr Benedict? Tina says your family don’t go out with girls from Wrickenridge.’
‘That’s true. You’re the exception. I dated a few—
from Aspen mostly.’ He squeezed my waist. ‘How about you?’
I blushed, wishing I hadn’t started this conversation. ‘My friends back home did set me up with a boy once. It was a disaster. He was so in love with himself, it wasn’t true.’
‘So he wanted you for arm candy?’
‘What?’
‘For image.’
‘I suppose. Only went out twice before I got fed up.
So you see my experience is pretty limited.’
‘Can’t say I’m sorry to hear that. Did you enjoy the party?’
‘The games were sil y but fun.’
‘I hoped you’d mention them. I was particularly intrigued by what happened to that jel y.’ He started nuzzling my neck. ‘Hmm. Yep, you definitely didn’t get it al off.’
‘Zed!’ My protest was only half-hearted—I was enjoying his attentions far too much.
‘Ssh! I’m busy here.’
When ‘clean up’ as he cal ed it was over, we turned into my road. As we did so, two boys dressed as axe murderers ran out of the mist, yel ing at the tops of their voices. Their hands were bloody and they had fake knives through their heads. One carried a blade in his hands.
‘Here’s some more to massacre! Kil the wolf! Kil the skeleton!’ he screamed. ‘Charge!’ He ran straight for me; his bag of candy burst, scattering sweets al over the sidewalk. He didn’t slow, his blood lust very convincing. The knife came plunging towards me even as I tried to duck out of the way. I screamed, half afraid of him.
Zed went crazy. He grabbed the boy’s wrist and twisted so the knife clattered to the ground. He then jumped on top of him, pinning him down, wrenching his arms behind his back.
‘Stop it, Zed!’ I shouted, tugging my mask off. ‘He didn’t mean any harm—it’s a fake.’
The other boy leapt on Zed and fists began to fly, the three of them rol ing around in a mix of pretend blood and squashed sweets. I couldn’t get anywhere near to pul the boys off Zed. My screams and the swearing from the fighters brought the neighbours running.
Mrs Hoffman bustled out of her door. ‘Police! I’l cal the police!’ She disappeared back inside.
‘No, don’t! Stop it, Zed—stop it!’
Worse, my parents came out, recognizing my voice above the rest.
‘Sky, what the hel ’s happening?’ Simon shouted, sprinting towards me.
‘Stop them, Simon, stop them!’
Simon weighed in and caught the smal est of the three by the back of his jeans. The little guy came up swinging just as a cop car turned into our lane. There was a short burst of siren, then revolving lights il uminated the scene. Two other neighbours reached the scuffle before the policeman could get out of his vehicle; they separated Zed from the remaining axeman.
The cop took one look at the mayhem and sighed.
‘Who’s gonna tel me what this is al about?’ He took out his notebook. ‘I know you, Zed Benedict, and these are the Gordano twins, yes? And this little …
er … lady skeleton?’
‘Her name’s Sky, Sky Bright, my daughter,’ Simon said stiffly. ‘She wasn’t fighting.’
‘You’re the English family, right?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I know these boys—they’re good boys,’ he said, looking at the twins. ‘Never had no trouble from them. Who started this?’
The policeman’s gaze turned to Zed and me. He thought he knew who was to blame.
‘He attacked Sky.’ Zed wiped blood from a split lip.
‘Wel , duh! I was just playing, man: it’s Hal-oh-een, remember? Zed went bal istic, Officer Hussein.’ The axeman hugged his ribs.
‘Let’s take this down to the station, boys. I’l get the duty doctor to take a look at you and phone your parents.’
‘Aw, officer!’ groaned the twins.
‘In the car.’
Zed shot me a desperate look. Our secret date was about to get exposed big time.
‘And you, young lady, I think we’l need your side of this too. Perhaps your parents can bring you down. I seem to have my hands ful of psycho kil ers and werewolves.’
‘I’l bring her,’ said Simon in clipped tones.
Great. Date number two ends in the police station.
Officer Hussein would
n’t let us talk to each other
until he’d had a chance to get our own version of events. I didn’t dare risk telepathy, though the temptation was huge. But there was so much angry emotion rippling off Simon that I doubted any message would be able to penetrate the storm cloud.
‘I’m not going to ask what you were doing with him until we get back home,’ Simon fumed, as he gripped the steering wheel, driving me down to the station.
Now there was something to look forward to.
‘But you are in trouble, Sky. You broke our trust.
We asked you to keep away from him for your own safety.’
He was right. Of course, he was right. But it wasn’t as if I’d planned it al . I’d just got carried away by the moment. We thought we’d taken enough precautions to make a simple date in a café a reasonable thing to do.
‘And I did not expect to have to spend my evening ferrying you to the town lockup!’
I hugged my knees, my head buzzing.
‘We’re trying to make a good name for ourselves in Wrickenridge, Sky. Your antics aren’t helping. Mr Rodenheim might send us packing if we reflect badly on his centre.’
I dropped my forehead to my knees. I’d been bad.
Simon looked across at me, alerted by my silence that al was not wel .
‘Oh, bloody hel , darling, don’t do that.’ He pul ed the car over and caressed the top of my head. ‘I’m just scared for you.’
‘Sorry.’
‘You make me feel like a monster. I’m cross, but it’s more at those idiotic boys than at you. I know you didn’t have anything to do with that. Please.’
I looked up at him. He must have seen the tears in my eyes. ‘I just wanted to be with him.’
‘I know, love.’
‘Is that wrong?’
‘Not in the normal course of things, no.’
‘We just went to the café. We kept our masks on almost al the time when we were on the streets.’
Simon heaved a sigh. ‘Oh, to be sixteen again.
Just a coffee and it’s become a police matter.’
‘Zed’s on edge because of what happened in the woods. The axe boy was real y convincing—and I screamed—I couldn’t help myself. Zed thought I was in danger.’
‘So, he over-reacted. I can understand that seeing how it’s my fatal flaw. Let’s go and find out what we can do for him then.’
Zed was sitting in the waiting area but the officer on duty ushered me through without letting us talk. I was taken into Officer Hussein’s office as the Gordano twins were leaving in the custody of their mother. I wished I’d had time to change out of my skeleton suit.