Adam Slater - Hunted

‘Don’t come near me! Don’t come near me! Get away from me!’

Paying absolutely no attention, Melissa ran forwards with outstretched arms, instinctively offering help.

‘No, no, you crazy witch, get away!’

Baz scrambled backwards away from Melissa, but slipped on his own vomit and went sprawling into the pool of blood that was slowly spreading across the pavement. He screeched again and tried to claw himself to his feet against the wall without having to touch Ed’s lifeless body. Melissa reached him and offered her hand; Baz shoved her back into the road. Callum stepped between them.

He glanced swiftly at Ed and felt his own stomach lurch at the sight of the glistening, bloody eye sockets.

How had it happened – in broad daylight, here in Marlock, barely outside the school gates? How? He turned away from Ed’s ruined face and asked Baz in desperation, ‘What happened?’

‘What happened?’ Baz repeated wildly, frantically trying to wipe Ed’s blood off his hands. ‘What do you mean, what happened? You freakin’ murderer! You killed him!’

Baz stopped suddenly, doubled over in the gutter, and vomited again. Callum drew back, shaking. Melissa grabbed his arm.

‘What happened?’ Melissa whispered.

‘Get away from him, you stupid cow! He’s a crazy freak, a killer! He jumped him, he jumped right at his face, and he just dug his nails into Ed’s head and then he . . . he . . . he ATE them! He ATE -’

But Baz couldn’t bring himself to say it. Instead he tried to vomit again, his empty stomach bringing up nothing but bile as he retched and retched. Finally, gasping, he looked up at Callum and screamed hysterically, ‘Just back off, Callum Scott! Just back the hell off!’

By now a crowd was gathering. Callum and Melissa weren’t the only ones who had heard the screaming – first Ed’s terrible death agony, and then Baz’s hysterical accusations. The crowd was mostly kids, but there were some adults too.

‘Get him away from me. He did it – he did it!’ Baz pointed and shrieked, all his fear and revulsion focused on Callum. ‘He went crazy! He ripped Ed’s eyes out – ripped them right out of his head. He killed him!’

Weeping, whispering girls and muttering boys crowded the pavement. There were more screams as new people arrived and saw the sickening horror of the scene for the first time. Everybody had a phone. Every one of them was dialling 999. Two separate crowds were forming now, one around the savaged wreck of the body that had once been Ed Bolton, and the other around Callum. Hands grabbed at him, driving him to his knees and pinning his arms behind his back. Through the fog of shock that seemed to have paralysed him, Callum heard conflicting orders flying.

‘Tie his arms together!’

‘No, you’ll get in trouble, doing that to a kid. Wait for the police!’

‘Who cares? A lad who does a thing like that? Tie him up, safer for us all that way -’

‘Callum didn’t do it!’

Melissa had managed to push her way to the front of the mob. Stunned by the fierceness of the crowd, Callum noticed for the first time that one of the men holding him down was Mr Gower, the deputy head. Melissa noticed at exactly the same time.

‘Mr Gower! Mr Gower! Listen to me!’ she shouted. ‘Callum’s been with me all afternoon, since school got out! I was waiting for him outside and I’ve been with him the whole time since! He didn’t do anything!’

‘You’re in it together!’ Baz screamed at her. ‘You both hated him!’

Melissa ignored Baz completely. She brandished her recently purchased notebook.

‘Mr Gower, you’ve got to listen to me!’

Gower beckoned to another man to come and take his place holding Callum, then got to his feet and drew Melissa aside.

‘I know it’s hard to accept,’ Gower said, ‘but sometimes we don’t understand -’

‘No, listen!’ Melissa cried. ‘We were in the post office. See this?’ She held up the notebook. ‘We just bought it. We were in the queue for fifteen minutes with tons of other kids. Then we were in the shop. We only heard the screaming as we came out! We’ve got dozens of witnesses. Ask any of them! Callum didn’t do it!’

‘Well, we can check,’ said Gower dubiously. ‘But that’s up to the authorities.’

Right on cue, wailing sirens and flashing lights began to pull up around them. It was emergency vehicle overkill – a couple of ambulances, a police van and at least three squad cars. Dazed as he was, Callum couldn’t see through the crowd to count them all. A medical team swooped down on Ed’s lifeless body and a swarm of uniformed police officers began to organise the crowd. Baz was gently coaxed into one of the police cars so he could make a statement. At this point the policemen noticed Callum, nailed to the ground by half a dozen men.

‘This the suspect?’

Melissa was as persistent as a bulldog. Since she’d got no joy from the deputy head, she shifted her focus to the police officers.

‘Callum Scott didn’t do this! I was with him all afternoon. We were in the queue outside the post office! You can ask anyone who was there. And there’s CCTV, too. You can check that. You can check!’

She wasn’t hysterical, she was dogged. But she couldn’t stop the officers hauling Callum to his feet, frisking him against the wall, and snapping handcuffs into place around his wrists. She finally got through to one of the junior officers who was taking notes and looking for witnesses.

‘CCTV in the corner shop. Right, we’ll check that. There’s a camera at the school gate, too.’ The brisk young woman swivelled on her heel and pointed with her pen. ‘Anyone from the school here now? Teachers, I mean.’

‘The deputy head there – the bald guy,’ Melissa gasped gratefully. ‘Mr Gower.’

‘Right-o. I’ll speak to him.’ The officer scribbled his name down. ‘And your name, miss?’

‘Melissa Roper.’

‘Are you one of the victim’s friends?’ the policewoman asked kindly.

‘No!’ Melissa’s answer was forceful. ‘No, I wasn’t. He was a bully. But . . .’ Callum saw her staring woefully at the policewoman with her big, soulful eyes opened wide. ‘But what happened to Ed shouldn’t happen to anyone. And there isn’t a girl or a boy in the school who’d do that.’

A couple of other kids were gathering round Melissa now. Some of them nodded in agreement with her, but then Ed’s mate George shouted, ‘Don’t pay any attention to Melissa, miss, she’s Callum’s girlfriend !’

‘I am not!’ Melissa responded angrily.

The officer gave Melissa a quick, sharp look, but continued scribbling on her notepad. ‘Telephone number?’ she asked.

Callum didn’t hear any more of the conversation. He was being frogmarched to the police van by four black-suited officers in protective vests while another two wrestled the heavy doors open. He was still too numb to struggle or even protest.

Just as they got the doors to the van open, Melissa appeared at his side again. She’d forced her way out through the crowd and past the barrier of police surrounding the emergency vehicles.

‘Callum!’ she cried. ‘They’re not going to take my word against Baz’s, but they’ll check the cameras.’

One of the policemen grabbed Melissa by the shoulders and pulled her back. Callum finally came to his senses.

‘Tell Gran!’ he called out to her.

‘What?’

‘Go and find my gran. Tell her what happened – tell her where they’re taking me!’

Never in his life had Callum been so anxious to have Gran, with her practicality and determination, battling on his side.

‘Anything else? Can I do anything else?’ Melissa cried out desperately.