“Just to clarify,” I rasped. “I can go into the confessional and you’ll hurt me until I can’t stand it any more. Or I can make Pete go inside instead, which makes me look like a bitch and means Pete’ll probably do the same to me next time he’s challenged. Or I can take your dare, but I don’t know what it is yet?”
“That’s right.” James nodded. “Fun, isn’t it?”
“But I can double dare you?”
“Only if you can double up and not make the dare impossible.”
“And if I win the dare I get to set the challenge next time?”
“That’s right.”
“And if I refuse the dare altogether?”
James glanced at Tamsin for a second. Her crimson lips curled. “Remember Derek?”
My mouth went dry. “But what if I lose the dare, if I just can’t do it?” That was the only thing I wasn’t clear about.
“Why, nothing,” she answered.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing,” James parroted. “If you genuinely try but still fail the dare, you go back on the wheel and I get to set another challenge next week.
“That’s it?” I wrinkled my nose.
James leaned forward. “So what’ll it be? Truth or dare?”
I met his gaze with a steely one of my own. “Dare.”
Excitement made James literally dance on the spot. “Everyone listening? Here’s the dare for this week. Remember what Hargreaves had to do the other week, and how he failed? Well that dare is still up. Oh, you have to go to the building site where he died, climb the scaffolding and walk across the part that hasn’t got a handrail.”
Gasps rent the air as the shock hit the rest of the V club. Justin literally growled and as I turned he launched past me, fists swinging. His right arm powered through James’ cheek and came out the side of his head without moving a single carefully styled hair.
He landed on his side, spitting and furious.
“You can’t be serious?” Pete rubbed his stubble-specked head.
I met James’ smug gaze and blinked. My breath sat in my chest like an undigested wad. “Are you allowed to set a challenge that isn’t possible?”
“Moderators?” James glanced over at Tamsin and Harley.
Slowly Tamsin nodded, but her face was now white. “W-we already decided it was possible.”
Pete leaped back into the circle. “Come on, there’ll be security now. Maybe even police. If we get caught they’ll look harder at Justin’s death.”
James shook his head. “We have friends in high places, Petrol Pete, remember? The Met won’t be looking into the V club.”
“Fine, but wake up, Justin died. Clearly it isn’t possible.”
Harley’s lips twisted under his acne scars. “I dunno, dude, it should be do-able. Justin was just unlucky.”
“Unlucky?” This time Justin hurled himself at Harley, grabbing for his lapels. In the end he had to settle for screaming into his ear. “You dick, I’m dead. You call that unlucky?”
Tamsin sniffed. “Pete has a point, Justin did prove it impossible.”
I forced myself to breathe past the obstruction in my throat. This dare was beyond crazy. The V club was out of control. But now I had a way to get the challenge on my own terms.
“I’ll do it.” I silenced the objections with a stab of my gloved hand. “But on one condition: if I make it, I get to set a challenge.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s how it works.” James waved airily.
“No, I get to set my challenge straight after. No waiting a week. I get to set a truth or dare right after I do this thing.”
James sucked air in through his teeth. “Haven’t we bent enough rules for you?”
I shrugged. “The moderators said the challenge was impossible, didn’t they? So either you agree to bend that rule for me, or I don’t have to do the dare and you lose your chance to set a challenge.”
I heard Tamsin’s inhalation from where I stood. Pete shook his head and stepped backwards, leaving me to my insanity. Only Justin rolled to his feet.
“Do not do this, Tay.” His earnest face was centimetres from mine. “There has to be another way, I just haven’t thought of it yet. Maybe I can haunt James until he cracks, or hang around these guys until someone talks about what happened.” He looked hopeful, but I shook my head slightly and showed him my hand.
“It could take forever,” I murmured into my gloved palm.
“What was that, Oh?” James jerked forward, but I stepped back.
“Just wondering what your decision was.”If you succeed, you can set your own right after.”
26
MY LAST THOUGHT
I nursed a coffee in the kitchen and tried not to check the time every two minutes. Every bulb was blazing, even the ones under the cupboards, yet it still felt as if the shadows were closing in. Although it was a sunny day there was a quality to the light that suggested approaching night. The air was oppressive and I felt anxious and on edge, as if I was in the eye of a storm and it was about to break.
Justin watched me with solemn eyes. Finally he spoke. “I'm coming with you.”
I tightened my hands around my mug. “I know how hard that will be for you.”
I knew I should tell him to stay behind, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to do the dare alone. And if something went wrong I wanted someone with me. Someone I liked.
I caught my breath. I... liked Justin. I explored the sensation as if I was probing a broken tooth with my tongue.
Sure, he was good-looking, but he'd always been attractive; his attitude had made me immune. Somehow this last fortnight he'd become a friend and that had exposed my heart. I glanced at him then quickly away, afraid that he'd somehow be able to spot the change in me.
He knew about my curse and more than that, he was helping to keep the ghosts away. With Justin I felt safe and perhaps understood for the first time since my mum had died. With deepening depression I found myself wishing that there was a way that he could remain by my side, but when I found his killer he'd move on and leave me alone once more.
I thought of my mum’s promise to me with a snigger. Was this the “love” that I was supposedly guaranteed? An unrequited crush on a dead teenager.
Hysterical laughter bubbled in my chest. At least if I was going to die tonight, I'd have had this feeling. Tainted with darkness as it was, it was better than the nothing that had filled me until now.
I swallowed it back. “I'd better find Dad and say goodbye.”
Justin's fingers edged across the table until they touched my wrist. “Hey.” He smiled gently as I looked up. “We're going to be alright.”
We met the others at the bus stop so we could go together to the site of Justin's death. Before we left I had pulled the glove over my hand with shaking fingers. I'd never seen a Mark so black and I was pretty certain the Darkness was coming for me, maybe even tonight. If I could just stay ahead of it for a few more hours I’d know who Justin’s killer was and could pass the Mark on.
I wasn’t even entertaining the thought that my plan wouldn’t work.
I glanced along the back seat of the bus and my eyes skidded past Tamsin, Harley, Pete, and James: the group that had escorted Justin. One of them had to know what really happened that night.