Leah Giarratano - Disharmony

‘Who are you?’ she said. He wasn’t Luke, she instinctively knew that.

The boy said nothing.

Okay, she thought. I must just be tired. This boy doesn’t have anything to do with me. The thought made her desperately sad. She had so wanted something to happen. Maybe he’s lost, she thought. Well, I’m definitely the wrong person to look to for help. She began to walk away.

She heard him following and turned again, preparing to scream at him too. But she couldn’t do it; he stared down at her so innocently.

‘What do you want?’ she said.

He reached a hand around behind his back and she tensed, ready to run. But he pulled a folded notepad from his back pocket, holding it out towards her.

She frowned. Maybe he couldn’t speak and he had something written on there, to help him if he got lost. He certainly didn’t look as though he should be out here alone tonight. Knowing she couldn’t help him, she took the notepad anyway.

‘What have you got here?’ she said, opening it. ‘Are you lost?’

It took her a couple of seconds to register what she was looking at. When she did, she threw the notepad as though it had burned her. She stood there, wild eyed, trying to process what she had seen. The boy ran after his pad, retrieved it and held it to his chest. He faced her, head slightly askance. She felt suddenly weak at the knees.

He’d shown her an ink drawing of a person that was unmistakeably her, standing right here in the shadow of the bridge, holding a phone. And beside her was the boy, wearing a striped T-shirt and no shoes and clutching a notepad.

What the hell?

‘Were you watching me?’ she said. ‘Why did you draw that?’

The boy stood there morosely. The drawing astounded her – there was such incredible detail. She couldn’t have been here for more than five minutes – how had he captured everything so perfectly? Actually, not perfectly, she suddenly realised; there had been other people in his depiction, and a bus pulled over to watch fireworks over the harbour.

Sam shook her head tiredly. She turned to walk away, unable to deal with this strange stalker-artist after everything else that had happened tonight.

And right then a bus rounded the street corner ahead and the harbour exploded in coloured pinwheels and shooting stars of light.

Sam sat down hard on the footpath and stared at the cascading fireworks, at the bus, and at the tourists piling out to snap photos. Beyond the railing a frigid mist rippled over the harbour.

She could not find a word to say.

Luke bumped into the wall on the way to the bathroom and giggled. He frowned. He’d never giggled before.

Suddenly all thoughts were ejected from his mind as he was shoulder-charged from his feet, into the air, through the doorway to his bedroom. He scudded chin-first across the carpet. The door to the room closed.

‘What are you doing ?’ hissed Zac, standing over him.

‘What are you doing, nutjob?’ said Luke, pulling himself into a sitting position. ‘What the hell did you push me like that for?’

He touched his fingertips to his chin and they came away red.

‘Ouch,’ he said.

‘Ouch?’ said Zac, throwing his hands in the air. ‘That’s all you can say? We’ve just broken out of lockup and escaped an assassin; I’ve told you that you are a part of destiny and that you’re being hunted; and I’ve told you that we need to find your twin sister and younger brother as fast as possible. And you’ve just spent the entire day playing computer games and eating!’

‘Well, no wonder I’m tired after all that,’ said Luke, standing. ‘Can’t we relax for a bit?’

He had to admit he couldn’t remember ever feeling this tired, especially when he’d had so much sleep.

‘Um, no,’ said Zac. ‘This is my whole point. We can’t relax. We need to find out more about the Telling. And we need to get out of this house.’

‘You really don’t like Georgia, do you?’ said Luke.

‘I don’t trust her. I don’t trust the cats. And I don’t trust this house.’

‘The cats again.’ Luke rolled his eyes. ‘That’s pretty harsh coming from such an animal lover.’ He moved towards the bathroom. ‘Are you going to follow me in there, too?’ he said.

Zac stood there, fists clenched.

Luke splashed his face with cold water. He poked at the green-yellow puffiness around his left eye, surprised to see it there; he’d become accustomed to a narrow view of the world and had forgotten about the black eye. He sighed. He understood that he should be feeling pretty wrecked, given what they’d just been through, but still, he couldn’t believe how tired he was. He’d planned on catching a nap, as Georgia was doing, but Zac’s sense of urgency was beginning to worry him. Why didn’t he feel that way too? He remembered feeling a pressure to discover who he was, but the drive had left him. He felt as though he was drunk.

He left the bathroom. ‘We’ll leave first thing tomorrow,’ he said to Zac. ‘But I really need to get some rest tonight.’

‘It’s only seven o’clock,’ said Zac.

Luke yawned.

‘I think she could be drugging the food,’ said Zac.

‘You’re paranoid.’ But the suggestion set off a tick in Luke’s mind. ‘Why would she do that?’ he said.

‘Maybe she knows who you are.’

‘How?’

‘How do I know?’

Luke shook his head. ‘It’s impossible,’ he said. ‘Even if she somehow knew who I’m supposed to be, how could she possibly be on the exact train we were on when we broke out of Dwight? I didn’t even know we were going to be on that train.’

‘Well, she’s up to something. Listen, you know how she told us that all her brothers are away at school? Well, I’ve heard something in that room she told us to stay out of.’

‘When?’

‘A couple of times,’ said Zac. ‘I reckon there’s someone in there.’

‘I doubt it. Why haven’t we seen them? They’d have to eat sometime, right?’

‘Well, Georgia’s in her room, asleep, or doing whatever she does in there,’ said Zac. ‘Come and listen for yourself.’

‘Yeah, whatever.’

He followed Zac quietly up the stairs to the third level of the house. The doors to the two rooms they’d raided for clothes were slightly ajar. Georgia’s bedroom doors were shut, as were those of the off-limits room. They tiptoed towards it.

Zac put his ear to the door, motioning to Luke to do the same. Luke tilted his head close, feeling sort of stupid. What if Georgia walked out here right now? She’d told them to keep away from here.

He wrinkled his brow when he thought he heard a sound from inside, like maybe a door being gently closed.

See? Zac’s eyebrows asked him.

Maybe the sound came from outside, he thought. This room must face the street. He reached out and ultra-carefully tried the door handle. Locked. Hmm. Shouldn’t be a problem.

He turned back towards the stairs, motioning Zac to follow.

Back in his room, he went straight to the middle pillow and reached a hand into the pillowslip. He turned to face Zac.

‘You really wanna know what’s in there?’ he said, holding out the torque wrench and rake.

‘Are you crazy?’ hissed Zac. ‘No. I just wanted you to know that this chick isn’t telling us everything, that’s all. Let’s just get out of here.’

‘But aren’t you a teensy bit interested now?’

Suddenly, Luke felt much more alert. The locked door was a puzzle, just like the riddles online. He wanted to know what was behind the door.

He raised his eyebrows, asking without speaking, Coming?